This book celebrates the performance and dedication of the people and equipment that have long protected the Canadian waterfront. Read about events and disasters that shaped the downtown Vancouver waterfront and False Creed, such as the Pier D fire, the Second Narrows Bridge collapse, the Greenhill Park explosion, and the fire at the Alberta Wheat Pool. Filled with fascinating stories and historical pictures, this is a most interesting read.

Captain William A. Hagelund is uniquely positioned to write a history of HBC's SS Beaver, the ship that did more than any other to explore and open the rugged BC coast. Over more than half a century the tiny, rugged ship was a familiar sight as she chugged up the BC waters, charting, trading, helping administer justice, carrying freight and generally serving as a lifeline and contact between the many isolated coastal communities and the outside world. In 1986, her exact replica, SS Beaver, was launched with Captain Hagelund as master. From then until he retired in 1995, Captain Hagelund, who first went to sea in 1940, and the new Beaver retraced many of the original's coastal voyages.