Around the World in a Dugout Canoe: A Virtual Presentation

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On October 13 at 2:00 pm author John MacFarlane will give a virtual presentation about how Captain Voss’s voyage on the Tilikum changed recreational yachting forever.

A book that is said to be penned by Captain John Voss, The Venturesome Voyages of Captain Voss, has been in print continuously for 110 years. But the details of the voyage have been obscured by editors who got facts wrong and left out some of the most interesting parts of the story. Norman Luxton was Voss’s partner on the voyage. After Luxton’s death, his family published a book called Luxton’s Pacific Crossing. This book presents an unfavourable picture of Voss, and many of the details fail to correlate with Voss’s account.

John MacFarlane discovered some of these inconsistencies when he was asked to write a four-page article about Voss for a book. In his research for the article, he discovered contradictions in the two main accounts of the voyage. And he realized that the story was larger and more interesting than a four-page article could accommodate. So MacFarlane did what any writer would do: he turned the article into a book co-authored with Lynn Salmon. Through careful international research MacFarlane and Salmon have straightened out the facts and addressed the lingering rumors of murder on the voyage.

John MacFarlane is the author of 14 books on maritime and naval history as well as heritage and protected areas. He is the curator of The Nauticapedia and is Curator Emeritus of the Maritime Museum of British Columbia. MacFarlane is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (London) and was awarded the Sovereign’s Medal for Volunteers in 2018.

Around the World in a Dugout Canoe the Untold Story of Captain John Voss and the Tilikum was on the B.C. Best Seller List for 25 weeks.

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• Vancouver Maritime Museum News & Events vanmaritime.com

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Vancouver Maritime Museum

The Vancouver Maritime Museum is fortunate to be located on the traditional territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations in Vancouver British Columbia, Canada.

Located in Vanier Park in Kitsalano, west of False Creek on the waterfront, the Vancouver Maritime Museum is open to the public seven days a week. The museum is home to numerous permanent and rotating exhibitions that explore maritime and Arctic heritage including:

*The St. Roch, an historic Arctic exploration vessel used by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

*Extensive galleries of model ships

*Children’s Maritime Discovery Centre

*A full-sized reproduction of the fo’c’sle of Captain Vancouver’s ship Discovery

*An extensive collection of maritime art

*A workshop where visitors can watch craftsmen build ship models

*A large library and archives

*The Chung collection of material relating to Canadian Pacific Steamships

*Original hand-drawn charts from Captain Cook’s exploration of the Pacific.

Outdoor displays include the NASA undersea research vessel Ben Franklin and the boiler of the Beaver, the first steamship in the Pacific Northwest and Heritage Harbour.

Since 1959, the Vancouver Maritime Museum has worked to preserve and share the maritime history of the Pacific Northwest and Arctic.

The museum opened in 1959 as a provincial centennial project. In 1972, the Vancouver Museums and Planetarium Association (VMPA) assumed management of the Vancouver Maritime Museum on behalf of the City of Vancouver. In 1974, a separate Vancouver Maritime Museum Society was formed. In 1987, the VMPA split into three institutions, with the society board assuming management on behalf of the city. Our staff and board of trustees work to improve the museum, create a bright future and strengthen the connection of our maritime history to the world today.

The Vancouver Maritime Museum Society is a registered non-profit.

The museum is affiliated with CMA, CHIN, and Virtual Museum of Canada.