Restoration of the SS Master for EXPO 86

By Steve Ley, Master Shipwright

For me it all started on a wet cold Monday morning in mid February. I had a job interview in New Westminster. The man in charge was Jim MacDonald. After the guided tour which consisted of dodging the pools of water hanging in the plastic covers of the ship, and being very careful not to fall through the deck which was made up of temporary scaffold planks and plywood, I was told I could start tomorrow.

After a couple of cold wet weeks of work you couldn't see very much progress. If anything, we were going backwards with a large portion of the ceiling missing from the engine room, and most of the aft deck missing, which gave us a good look at the rotten deck beams and large stern timbers.

With the start of summer, when more demolition was being done, the ceiling in the engine room was replaced, but the deck was still exposed and water tank removed and now the guards and sheer plank was being removed along with the bulwark on the starboard side, most of the hard nail pulling, wood splitting work was done by society volunteers and workers from the government works program.

After the replacement of a large timber on the starboard side, which makes up a large part of the stern the Engineers wanted a small rotten piece of bilge stringer repaired so they could install their hot well and pumps, eight weeks later and eight 4"x 8" x 25" and the ship had a new bilge stringer in the engine room.

The next couple of months were spent fitting supports for the new water tanks and diesel tanks which were a new addition to the ship, also the cutting of lumber for the new deck & covering boards and some hull planking.

After the installation of all the tanks the large 12" x 12" deck beams were fitted and in mid November We laid the first piece of decking, working out from the center of the ship We still had sheer planks and covering boards to fit, just before Christmas We had sheer planks fitted and closely followed by covering boards here again the volunteers did a great job in cleaning out and filling the salt boxes with tons of rock salt.

As the deck on the starboard side was being laid demolition on the port was under way, working through rainstorms and freezing temperatures We managed to bend those huge sheer planks, which were steamed for up to five hours by Our own make shift steam box.

The next problem was material for bulwarks, We looked for old building timbers which Wecould re-saw and re-use, then We found a large field full of old wooden beams that came from the Vancouver Plywood Mill We even found a beam to use as the mainmast of the ship.

As the months went flying by the decks were finished and the guards were fixed on We had steam up on the boiler and the engine turning over, the bulwarks were almost finished and We were starting to put Her jewelry on, with the start of the wheelhouse fixtures and fittings to handrails and fire bucket holders. Gallons of paint were being brushed on and the whole ship seemed to come alive over a period of about two weeks, then one dull mid morning We sailed from the dock at New Westminster and headed for the World Fair EXPO 86 under her own steam.