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But alas! the ship is being auctioned on Thursday
WSN Network 

Just when the Canadian parliament took the decision to apologise for Kamagata Maru tragedy comes the sad news: The Sea Lion VI, B.C.’s oldest tugboat, is up for auction on Thursday. The infamous Canadian tugboat that had a hand in turning away 376 Sikh gadri babas in 1914 is up for auction again after a Surrey-based foundation’s plans to turn it into a museum piece fell through. The Sea Lion VI, B.C.’s oldest tug at 105 years old, will hit the auction block in Surrey.  What makes the boat unique is the role it played in turning back the Komagata Maru, the steamship that carried a group of Indians who wanted to immigrate here. When the tugboat was auctioned off in 2006, a Surrey historical society, the Komagata Maru Heritage Foundation, bought it for more than $750,000. It has been sitting at the Vancouver Maritime Museum every since. 

Harbhajan S. Gill, president of the foundation, was counting on it staying there until his group could build their own museum. They’re still years away from having a building to commemorate the Kamagata Maru incident and the Maritime Museum is slated to close next year, to be replaced in North Vancouver by a National Maritime Centre. Without a place to keep the tugboat, and with a monthly cost of $5,000 to insure and moor it, Gill had to make the difficult decision to let it go. 

“Hopefully somebody puts it to good use for a few years and then we’ll be able to get it back,” said Gill, who thinks somebody will buy it for use during the 2010 Olympics. 

The announcement of the auction to sell the Sea Lion comes the same week the federal government is vowing to formally apologize for the 1914 incident and for the government’s exclusionary immigration policies of the time. Rex Kary sold the boat to Gill’s foundation in 2006, and he’s officially the owner again, though both parties will get some money back once the boat’s sold. Kary bought it in 2000 after it was beached. He poured money into refurbishing it and had planned to turn it into part of an eco-tourism project. The auction is May 22, starting at 8 a.m., at 12021 Musqueam Dr. For more information, visit www.rbauction.com.

21 May, 2008
 

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