Orion (1904 ship)

Robert Lloyd Webb, author of a book on commercial whaling in the Pacific Northwest, wrote that she was the first steam-powered chaser boat in British Columbia.

He recorded that Orion had to ship her whale catching gear in a commercial freighter, because every available space had to be loaded with coal for her long and difficult voyage from Norway, around Cape Horn, to British Columbia.

[1] Her owners wanted to take advantage of the Norwegian whalers' experience, and invited them to stay in Canada.

[2] The Port of Vancouver's 1933 annual report stated that Orion had responded to 75 alarms.

[3] Lea Edgar, a historian at the Vancouver Maritime Museum, wrote in the BC Shipping News, that Orion was "dubious in its effectiveness", and that she was retired, in 1937, and sold for scrap in 1941.

Orion was converted to serve as a fireboat in 1930.
Fireboat Orion Battling a fire at a Vancouver grain elevator in 1932