Members of the Tatoosh family joined some long-time maritime history buffs to unravel the history of the little boom boat that bears their name.
On Nov. 26, the Port Alberni Maritime Heritage Society hosted a Maritime Heritage Night at the Hutcheson Gallery to introduce their latest display, the Tatoosh II, which, according to the family of a past owner, was named for the late Hupacasath musician and cultural teacher Edward “Tat” Tatoosh.
Prior to the opening, Hupacasath elected Chief Councillor Steven Tatoosh said he was eager to hear from the presenters, to fill in some of the gaps in his family knowledge. It now appears there were as many as eight vessels bearing that Tatoosh name.
“I believe the Tatoosh I was named after my great-grandfather, William Tatoosh,” he said.
William Tatoosh was born in 1896, and became a tugboat pilot (and possibly a boom boat operator) in the early 20th century. He was followed into the trade by a number of sons and grandsons.
Heritage Society member Paul McDougall recounted how he first spotted the Tatoosh, rusting and seemingly abandoned in a corner of the Port Alberni City Works yard. Because the vessel was owned by the city, the society was able to obtain it for restoration and display at the Maritime Heritage Centre at Harbour Quay Pier.
See related story here: http://www.hashilthsa.com/news/2015-11-16/boom-boat-named-hupacasath-tea...
“Now she sits proudly as a Tatoosh,” McDougall said. “They say you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. She was never going to be a silk purse, but she’s pretty cute now. The speakers can give you some of the history of the old working girl. And maybe we can find out how she actually wound up in the Works Yard.”
Prior to the presentations, Hupacasath member Julianne Hamilton, who runs the Maritime Heritage Centre, led the Hupacasath Cultural Dancers in two songs to welcome the guests. Tom Tatoosh introduced the opening song, which he learned from the man for whom the boat was named.
“My uncle Tat had a lot to do with our language and our culture and our singing back home. A lot of our family members were young at heart and new to singing and expressing ourselves,” he said.
Called the Southwest Wind Song, it originated through family members down the Inlet, he explained.
“We learned it at our uncle’s house. It’s where we learned to express ourselves as kids. He said it was a kid’s song, through which the young ones could learn to dance, and the drummers could learn how to sing.”
Working in a tight circle inside the packed gallery, the dance troupe followed the Southwest Wind Song with the more familiar Hupacasath Song.
K. G. “Soup” Campbell led off a series of four born storytellers in recounting the history of Tatoosh II, which, according to its former operators, could be a cranky little boat.
“I rented the Tatoosh from (then-owner) Chuck Green in the summer of 1981,” Campbell began. “I had a 95-foot barge, and if you can imagine towing a barge that big with that little boat. The Tatoosh has a 271 Jimmy diesel, which has about 60 horsepower…”
Campbell recalled several operations he completed down-Inlet before lashing down the Tatoosh II and a Caterpillar tractor onto the barge and hauling it up to Kyuquot Sound to dismantle the Coast Guard Station.
“We had a two-storey building on the barge that we were taking over to the village of Kyuquot. We were going to drag it up onto the beach.
“We got around the point of Sterling Island, heading into the harbour when we got hit with one of those rogue waves, like the one that hit the [Leviathan II]. The barge heeled over, and the only thing we didn’t lose was the Cat and the Tatoosh, because they were tied down to the barge…”
Geo Monrufet drove tugs and boom boats, including Tatoosh II, before taking the helm of the Lady Rose. Monrufet now concedes he was happy to move up to a larger vessel.
“I’d like to sing the praises of the boom boat men who ran them,” he said. “What they do takes a great deal of skill and a good temperament.”
Monrufet said he discovered that besides having the right mechanical skills, the many First Nations small-boat operators he worked with over the years also had the patience and judgment required to tow large floating objects with a tiny boat on rough water in high winds.
“I did not have the right temperament,” he admitted, in recounting an incident that ended with the frustrated pilot screaming and punching out a front window.
Gordon Blake, who is a former co-owner of Alberni Engineering and Shipyard, said it is fortunate the city did not go forward with its original plan to donate the Tatoosh II to the Industrial Heritage Society, of which he is a member.
“The original plan was to take the boat out to McLean Mill and half-bury the hull and make a play-boat out of it,” he said. “It’s a good thing we never got our hands on it.”
Doug Green’s uncle Chuck Green was one of the owners of Tatoosh II, as well as another Madill boat known as Joe Boy.
“Joe Boy was launched when I was 13 years old in December 1955. My grandma smacked a bottle of champagne on it, and it was the Christmas holidays. That’s why I can remember it,” he recalled. “I don’t know if the Tatoosh was older or newer.”
But by the time Green borrowed it from his uncle, however, the Tatoosh II was in rough shape.
“When I first headed out, going down to Kildonan, the fuel line broke, and I didn’t have any tools,” he said. “On the way back, the steering went kaput…”
Following the presentations, Tom Tatoosh thanked the society members for preserving a piece of his family’s maritime heritage.
“I am one of the eldest Tatooshes that are still here – my dad is gone. So I am very humbled to have a boat in your yard that carries our name – however that name originated.”
The Tatoosh name means “First Son of Thunderbird,” and is a source of pride for the family, he explained. Unlike most Nuu-chah-nulth family names, ‘Tatoosh’ survived the process of registering with the Canadian government.
“It is fairly easy to pronounce and to spell with English letters, although it is actually ‘Too-tooch,’” he said. “Now, when you go down the Island, and you see the Bills and the Joes and the Bobs, you don’t see many names that reflect our culture. But I applaud ‘Tatoosh,’ because that is what Canada puts on our birth certificates.
