Team wants 'heritage wreck' status for 14 individual ships at Royston breakwater

Spencer Anderson -

A local maritime historian and two non-profit archaeological groups are working to attain 'heritage wreck' status for 14 scuttled ships at the Royston hulk breakwater.

Yesterday morning, Rick James and eight other volunteers from the non-profits Underwater Archaeological Society of B.C. and the Institute of Nautical Archaeology wrapped up a three-day review of the sunken vessels.

Among the ships are three Cape Horn windjammers: the three-mast Melanope and Riversdale and the four mast Barque Comet. There are also six Royal Canadian Navy warships, plus Pacific lumber schooners and steam tugs.

The Comox Logging and Railway Company scuttled the boats between the late '30s and early '60s to form a breakwater. Some of the remains can still be seen at low tide.

The site as a whole has been given the heritage status of 'Royston Heritage Wrecks' by the B.C. government.

But James - the author of a tome on the site called 'Ghost Ships of Royston' - and his colleagues want each ship to be given its own heritage status and corresponding 'Borden number', an archaeological code system used throughout Canada.

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