This is a shallow wreck off May Island in Discovery Pass. There are a few stories around it. There isn't really any information online about the details of this wreck. I was told it was sunk by Campbell River diver Mike Richmond in the 1980's as an artificial reef. Or it sank somewhere else, was raised and accidentally sunk here. The captain of the Oceanfix dive boat showed me a picture on his phone of an aerial photo of the wreck still partially above water in the 1980's. It is supposed to have been a double-ended car ferry that ran between Vancouver and North Vancouver before the bridges were built. There was a small fleet of these ferries. I tried to guess which one it was by looking on Nauticapedia. They were all about the same size (130-145' long), but Nauticapedia says most of them were made out of wood except for North Vancouver Ferry #3 which was made out of steel like the wreck. It was built in 1910 and was 145' long. Eventually it was converted to a barge (which explains the lack of superstructure on the wreck) and renamed NBF (Nelson Brothers Fisheries) #3(1). It's registry was closed in 1984, which coincides with this wreck sinking in the 1980's. Anyway, that's the best I could do in finding a possible identity for this wreck. I came here on an Oceanfix dive charter on March 9, 2026.
The boat tied up to a mooring near one tip of May Island. We descended down the line and swam along the boulder-covered base of the island towards the wreck.
North Vancouver Ferry #3 from Nauticapedia
We soon reached the wreck. Since this was a double-ended ferry, there is no front or back. There is a propeller and rudder on both ends. This is a very shallow wreck. My maximum depth was 39'. I swam around the hull a few times. There is supposed to be a log-tending boom boat sunk a bit deeper out from this wreck, but the current was a bit strong so I didn't swim out to try and find it.
I swam up to the top of the wreck to where the deck used to be. It was only 7' deep. I dropped down between the steel beams that used to support the deck and swam around the big open area inside.
While some divers might get bored after swimming around the wreck a couple of times (and still have half their air left), this was probably my favourite dive of this trip. On a clear and bright day like today, someone like me who experiences their dives through a wide-angle lens would never get bored.
