ERIC ON THE LOOSE IN VICTORIA

Wow, so here we are in Nanaimo and what a city. But first I should talk about what we did in Victoria... or rather what I did in Victoria.

Rachel has heard nothing out of my mouth that isn't about wooden boats for the last two months so when I heard that the Victoria floating boat show was taking place while we were there, I spared her and went on my own. It was unfortunately mostly million-dollar fiberglass yachts built for rich wieners. It only had two wooden boats.

Kamarak was a 40' or so ocean sailing yacht and could have been yours for only $600,000. The other was Glorious, a 32' offshore cutter. Built of teak this thing caught my eye and I was ready to go and get a job so I could afford the $139,00 to make her mine. I stood on the dock for a long time just staring at the curves and beautiful wooden hull. I spent the rest of the show getting mean looks from brokers that knew by looking at me that I was not REALLY interested in their million dollar hunks of un-boat like floating mansions.

The next day I went to the much-anticipated Titanic exhibit at the Royal B.C. Museum. I got there at about 12:30 pm on Sunday and the line was already backed up with eager travelers. I chose to go to a seminar that I had discovered that was running at 1:00 pm about shipbuilding in the early 20th century. For an hour two elderly shipbuilders talked about the good old days when they used rivets to join metal together. Over 3 million were used on the Titanic I soon learned. Also at this seminar I learned that the Titanic was not exactly "ripped" open by an iceberg but instead that when the ship slammed into the iceberg doing 20 or more knots the steel hull having been so cold from the water basically shattered, and the rivets holding the hull plating together, sprung loose opening the ship up to begin its first and final journey, to the bottom of the ocean.

After the seminar I went to the exhibit where upon entering I was given a ticket that read "White Star Line Boarding Pass, permission granted to come aboard White Star Lines R.M.S. Titanic." The back of the ticket described my new identity for the next couple of hours. My name was Johannes Joseph Van de Velde. I was 36 years old from Belgium traveling in humble 3rd class to start a new life as a farmer in the United States of America. As I took my dear sweet time (because Rachel again opted out of the exhibit as I usually sit and read EVERTHING at museums and it drives her nuts) people dressed up as crew were walking around asking people for there boarding passes. I approached one of these stewards and asked him where to sleep as on my ticket beside cabin # it read unknown. He looked at me and said: "Oh you are the lowest class guest on the Titanic, we don't care where you sleep but you might want to pick a bunk. Just make sure its in a third class area. You are not allowed on the upper decks."

A room like that of which my new persona would have occupied would have cost the equivalent of $640.00 in todays money where as the most posh suite on the ship was $78,000 for one trans Atlantic crossing. I looked at everything which included, dishes, crew uniforms, money from many different countries, hardware and even personal effects such as glasses, pens and pencils.

The most exciting artifact for me must have been the door which stood over six feet tall and four feet wide. It was once the entrance from the outside into the first deck. I stood and thought about all the people that must have brushed against the door unknowingly or grabbed the handle to help them up the last step as the left land for a final time. What a sight!? At the end of the exhibit was a list of all the passengers divided first by class then by survivors and perished. I looked for my name through the thousands of people and finally caught Van de Velde, Johannes Joseph PERISHED. It was sad. My father shares the same first name with the ill-fated fellow and it just made it even more personal. As I stood up a pot bellied middle aged man yelled to his wife after finding his name on the list, "Yup, my guy bit the dust!" I couldn't believe he was being so casual about it.

We left Victoria a day later and headed to Cowichan Lake where it proceeded to rain buckets for two days straight and finally after seeking shelter under a group camping hut we made the decision to go to Nanaimo and stay at a hostel to once again wait out the terrible weather.