Description of Historic Place

The James D. McCormack shipwreck, consists of the remains of a wooden sternwheel steamship that, in 1939, was beached on the bank of the Fraser River, British Columbia. The remains of the vessel lie on an intertidal sloping gravel bank on the Fraser River approximately half a kilometer west of the Port Mann Bridge. A substantial portion of the vessel's hull remains on site oriented on a 73 degree bearing stern to bow. The site measures 34 meters long by 8 meters wide. It has a spoon shaped bow and a shallow flat bottomed hull strengthened with 5 keelsons.

British Columbia's Heritage Conservation Act automatically protects all heritage wrecks, including the remains of all wrecked vessels and aircraft once two or more years have passed since the date of loss. It is illegal to damage, alter or remove a heritage object from a heritage wreck except under a permit issued by the Archaeology Branch.

Heritage Value

The James D. McCormack has historic and educational value derived from the fact that it is an extant example of a wooden Western Rivers type sternwheeler. The wooden sternwheeler was an almost ubiquitous feature of pioneer life along the inland waterways of Western Canada. Its proficiency in shallow water, its simplicity, and its inexpensive construction in a land of plentiful timber, saw vessels of this type used well into the 20th Century.

The James D. McCormack was built in 1921 at Fraser Mills in New Westminster for the Canadian Western Lumber Company Ltd. Built of Douglas fir, it measured 110.5 feet long, 24.4 feet wide and 6.3 feet deep. The vessel had a central king-post with four hog-rods running fore and aft, and outboard on both sides were sets of auxiliary hog-posts. The hog-post and hog rod system was a prominent feature on nearly all wooden sternwheelers and was designed to provide rigidity to the shallow, lightly built, and inherently flexible sternwheeler hulls.

The McCormack primarily served as a tug towing flat booms on the Fraser River. In other instances it is recorded as pushing log booms into the "pocket" (the basin where log booms were broken up before individual logs are jack laddered into the saw mill). It foundered in 1939 while operating as a barge on the bank of the Fraser River.

The James D. McCormack may have been the last privately built steam powered sternwheeler to operate on the Fraser River. It also may be the only extant Canadian example of a stern wheeler tug.

Character-Defining Elements

The character-defining elements of the James D. McCormack and its wreckage include its:

- intactness of the ship's hull from keel to deck, and from bow to stern;
- remains of its Douglas Fir hull, mostly filled with sand, enabling Alder trees, Black Berries, grass and other plants to grow on it;
- flared spoon shaped bow which enabled the ship to operate in shallow water;
- multiple keelsons, iron straps and one pipe protrude from the overgrowth and sand inside the hull;
- riverside (starboard) planking which is largely intact but eroded; and
- the aft end completely covered by sand.