Profile and Deck Plan Drawings

Construction

Carvel 1 7/8" fir inner planking with a layer of tar and felt and then a 7/8" layer of ironbark with tar, felt, and copper-clad ice-sheathing all on 3"-x-3" sawn oak frames with 12" centers; fastening: nails, copper rivets, and bolts. Deck is 1¾" laid fir, seams re-caulked and repayed with Deckoe in 2001. Edson wheel and worm-gear-type steering to keel-hung rudder. Hull color is white and green, natural boottop, copper bottom, and tan deck. Vessel reported to be in excellent condition, having been wooded and refinished over the last few years.

Engine

Detroit 150-hp 3-cyl. diesel installed 1968, rebuilt 1992. Keel cooled in circulating fresh water. Morse engine controls. 24"-x-22" bronze propeller on 2¼" bronze shaft. Cruising speed 5 kn., max. speed approx. 10 kn. Fuel consumption: 1 g.p.h.

Tanks

Two 160-gal. steel fuel tanks; total of 140 gal. water in two galvanized steel tanks and two 20-gal. plastic tanks. 350-gal. steel holding.

Electrical

12V/110V system including 12V starting system. Engine-driven alternator. Two 12V batteries. Fused 110V panel and 12V circuit-breaker panel. Single-cyl. Petter 3.5-kW diesel generator. 110V shore power with battery charger.

Accommodations

Four staterooms featuring a total of 5 single berths and 4 double berths. Heardroom: Approx. 6' throughout. Two heads, one with bathtub (presently disconnected). Stainless-steel galley sink with foot pump. Dickenson diesel/oil cook stove (approx. 5 years old) with oven. Microwave oven. 110V refrigerator. Dickenson oil-fired cabin heater, as well as a wood-fired cabin heater. Three folding dining tables. Interior finish is varnished with white painted bulkheads. Cabin sole is varnished wood. Ventilation is supplied by 3 hatches, 9 opening ports, and 10 ventilators.

Sails & Rigging

Full rigged ship with quadruple headsail, galvanized standing rigging and turnbuckles, spliced terminals, synthetic halyards and sheets, solid painted keel-stepped Douglas fir spars. Sail Area: 3,000 sq. ft. Sail Inventory: 11 Vivitex cotton squaresails and 3 jibs, main staysail, main top staysail, mizzen top staysail.

Ground Tackle

5 anchors ranging in size from 25 to 150 lb., 2 bow rollers, 300' of ½" galvanized chain, 125' of 5/8" anchor rode, 300 of 3/8" anchor rode, manual 2-speed windlass with 2 gypsies, and 110V AC electric 2-speed capstan.

Equipment

Edson-type manual bilge pump, 1½" portable gasoline-powered fire pump with hose, 4 fire extinguishers, bell, horn, flares, life preservers, 4 safety harnesses, second steering station on deck (currently disconnected), 3 life rings, 2 strobes, 12V searchlight, 2 boathooks, boarding ladder, high bulwarks in lieu of lifelines, 3 dinghies (1 with sailing rig, all on davits), dishes, cooking utensils, glassware, flatware, 3 tables, tools.

Electronics & Navigation

6" Shatz barometer and matching chronometer; 11" compass on deck, 6" compass in wheelhouse, 9" telltale compass in cabin, and 8" compass at chart table; Horizon Standard VHF radiotelephone and Gemtronics VHF radiotelephone; Hull single-sideband radiotelephone; Raytheon radio direction-finder; Furuno 1721 radar; sextant; self-steering gear; Furuno recording depth-sounder and Morrow flasher-type depth-sounder; Maximum 6" masthead wind indicator; rudder-angle indicator; speed indicator with log; weatherfax machine; cell phone; worldwide charts.

Comments

NORTH STAR OF HERSCHEL ISLAND is the last of the Western-sailing Arctic cargo ships originally called Arctic schooners. She is a square-rigged ship -- which means she crosses squaresails on each of her three masts -- the only one in Canada. She can be handled from on deck -- even single handed.

Built for two Inuit fox-trappers in 1935 at San Francisco's Geo. W. Kneass Shipyard, NORTH STAR OF HERSCHEL ISLAND was then shipped to the Arctic aboard the 600-ton trading ship PATTERSON. She was used from 1936 to 1961 for transport of the winter's catch of fur to market in early August and transportation of supplies from Aklavik and Turktoyatuk to Sachs Harbor on Bank Island in late August or early September, when ice conditions permitted sea navigation. Except following the three winters when she was frozen in the ice, each fall was NORTH STAR was hauled onto the beach and launched the following spring by manpower.

NORTH STAR was left on the beach in 1961, when cargo flights took over the transportation, and remained on the beach until 1968. She was purchased by her second owner in 1967 and refit for navigation in the Beaufort Sea. From 1968 until 1973, she was used for scientific investigations in the Arctic Ocean. NORTH STAR arrived in British Columbia in 1975, and subsequent voyages included surveying the British Columbia/Alaska boundary, ecological expeditions, and sail training.

NORTH STAR now serves as the home for her third owner.