An excerpt from the series 'Canada Over The Edge' detailing the efforts and planning required to destroy the infamous 'Ripple Rock' near Campbell River, BC.
My dad was working the tow boats in the street of Georgia for I believe Island Tug and Barge bringing up explosives. He got the job because he had experience handling explosives when he worked in Northern British Columbia in the early fifties in the mining industry. And then before that when he worked on tankers in the Far East in the Second World War. I see they have one of the Seaspan boats on there at the Pacer. My dad's favorite boat was the Commodore, and he worked for C-SPAN from the start when they merged from the Island Tug and Barge Division and two other companies up until 1981 when he died. I still have his Mustang Florida jacket that he was given that year and it still has the Seaspan logo on it. Ironically, my dad spent most of his working life on the towboats and the ships but never learned to swim.
This is a National Historic Event in Canada. I remember watching the "Ripple Rock" explosion on April 5, 1958 at 9:30 am PST. The Ripple Rock explosion was one of the first live coast-to-coast television coverages of an event in Canada and I was watching it on TV in Edmonton, Alberta at 10:30 am MST. There was some speculation the 13 hundred tons of high explosives might trigger an earthquake and tidal wave when it was set off.
I WAS 9YR OLD AND MOM, my sister Barbara, brother Stephen and I had gone to Campbell River to friends Sheila and Knut Grove to see this. AS IT WAS, WE KIDS HAD TO GO PLAY IN THE PARK while the Adults went to be closer to the Rock to witness the event.
