Ripple Rock Bites The Dust

Gofirstclass

Gofirstclass

Well-Known Member
Apr 20, 2010
11,694
Tri Cities, WA
Boat Info
Boatless in WA
Engines
No motor
The material below was copied/pasted from another boating I belong to. I wouldn't have the cojones to do what the miners did in this first video. Both videos are pretty short.


Ripple Rock lies between Campbell River BC and Quadra Island, in Seymour Narrows. Until its demise in 1958 it claimed over 100 lives and numerous ships.
Biggest purposeful non nuclear explosion to date ended its dominance in Seymour Narrows.

Short video of 3 year construction plan leading up to explosion.
https://www.nfb.ca/film/ripple_rock/

Video of CBC television news clip of explosion
https://www.nfb.ca/film/ripple_rock/
 
Very cool. I've spent time in Campbell River (some of the best Salmon fishing in the world) and have watched many a cruise ship traverse this narrow passage in amazement. While I've seen the name Ripple Rock on my charts, I had no idea it was once such an infamous hazard (depths there are around 60ft at datum these days) The Seymour Narrows is the main thoroughfare for all the cruise ships heading to Alaska. The currents there can get pretty hazardous on their own.
 
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Thanks for positing it is a neat thing they did. Now it would never be allowed. Wonder how many dead fish.
We go through this once or twice a year except this year because we could not take the boat from US to Canada. The cruise ships pass through it along with the barges that tugs tow to Alaska. The water is 35 feet deep. You have half an hour on either side of slack tide before the current is too much even for the cruise ships and barges. Even at slack there are whorl pools a foot or so deep and current that can throw our boat around. You can over night in Campbell River on the south side or Browns Bay Marina on north side. The current in front of Campbell River can be 8 to 10 knots some times but smooth water. One time we went against it at 2 to 3 knots ground speed and the boat was doing 10 to 12 knots water speed.
 
There's a scene of the explosives being moved by forklift. Did anyone else notice the driver was smoking a cigarette?
 
Very cool videos. But so many mine safety issues on that video that are not done today. Major injuries were much more common in mining in those days and you can see why. My father was a mine engineer for many years and oversaw blasting underground and mine ops. He left mining and started to work for a major explosives company selling to mines and construction companies and consulting on major blasts. There were a few major hydro dam and river diversion projects that he was very proud of being a part of.
 
Interesting.
 
This brought back some great memories for me. I worked in the South African gold mines for almost a year back in '78. We went about 2 miles underground each day and rode 'cages' like you see in the video where the miners drop down into the shaft. All the technology in the video was quite similar to what they were using with the small trains, pneumatic drills, stuffing the bore holes with explosives and then getting the hell out before the big bang.

I look back now with fond memories and glad I was able to experience it but quite frankly I HATED being down there and took the first opportunity I could to move into a white-collar job :)

Thanks for posting!
 
Bart, you are most welcome. It was interesting to read your history in the mines. I'm just a bit claustrophobic so I wouldn't be able to work down there. My hat's off to those of you who can.
 
At 6'2" I wasn't exactly the ideal miner size o_O

I'm actually pretty claustrophobic myself but when you have to pay the bills you gotta do what you gotta do. I was part of a training mine official program so if I stayed I knew there was an end in sight. At first it was very nerve-wracking crawling around in the stopes where you had 42" of clearance from floor to ceiling and 2 miles of rock above your head. Like anything though you get used to it after awhile and can solely focus on how much it sucked. :D
 
copb8tx said:
At 6'2" I wasn't exactly the ideal miner size o_O

I'm actually pretty claustrophobic myself but when you have to pay the bills you gotta do what you gotta do. I was part of a training mine official program so if I stayed I knew there was an end in sight. At first it was very nerve-wracking crawling around in the stopes where you had 42" of clearance from floor to ceiling and 2 miles of rock above your head. Like anything though you get used to it after awhile and can solely focus on how much it sucked. :D
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Tell us what the temperature and humidity was at that depth underground and how it was dealt with for safety. It will make us all thankful for our careers!
 
Creekwood said:
Tell us what the temperature and humidity was at that depth underground and how it was dealt with for safety. It will make us all thankful for our careers!
Click to expand...

It's been a long time so I don't remember actual temperatures but it was very well ventilated and quite cold by the landings of the cage (elevator) and progressively warmer as you moved towards the mine drilling face. That distance could be substantial as gold mines traverse miles and miles and miles underground and interconnect with each other.

The humidity was high because a great deal of water that is injected into the drill holes for lubrication. Like LOTS of water. It was extremely noisy at the face due to the drilling and those steel buckets you saw in the video scooping the ore. As I recall no one wore any type of ear protection. I have some loss of some hearing today but it could've been a dozen different sources, not the least of which is just getting old.

BTW, those scraping buckets can be quite a bit larger than those shown and are deadly. The operator cannot see all the way from the control station to the head pulley. He'll know he snagged someone when their body shows up at the dump site.

Anyhoo, I'll stop high-jacking this great thread.
 
Cool stuff. Have actually never heard of this before and have been a northern bc resident my entire life. Thanks for sharing.
 
Gofirstclass said:
Bart, you are most welcome. It was interesting to read your history in the mines. I'm just a bit claustrophobic so I wouldn't be able to work down there. My hat's off to those of you who can.
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I am A LOT claustrophobic and almost couldn't watch the clip. My bar bill just to get on an air plane is disturbing. There isn't enough alcohol or enough drugs to get me in a tunnel 2 miles, or 20 feet for that matter, underground.
 
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Impressive effort.
 
VERY cool
 
highslice said:
I am A LOT claustrophobic and almost couldn't watch the clip. My bar bill just to get on an air plane is disturbing. There isn't enough alcohol or enough drugs to get me in a tunnel 2 miles, or 20 feet for that matter, underground.
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That's probably why you have an open deck Sea Ray too! No Sundancer "cave" for you. The good news is you can move straight up to a sedan bridge when you get footitis.
 
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