Sunken boat removed from wharf after 30 months

Published on December 14th, 2008

Published on January 31st, 2010

It took two and a half years, but the sunken ‘Ronald M’ has finally been floated from its muddy spot alongside Digby’s wharf.

Saturday night about midnight, the 65-foot lobster boat broke free of the bottom’s embrace, helped by divers who patched the hull and pumped air into it to replace the water.

By morning, the boat was leaning against pilings at Tidal Boatworks and was destined to meet its end Monday when an excavator was to break it up and send it in pieces to a landfill. Items like the propeller shaft first needed to be removed, said Reg Hazelton, chair of the Digby Harbour Port Association.

The vessel finally slipped under the surface June 1, 2006. Rainwater had gradually filled the hull and it’s fate was apparent to all who watched, but ownership of the boat was long in doubt and no one claimed responsibility.

The ‘Ronald M’ had been derelict at the wharf for months previously, its engine and almost anything of value removed. Fishermen used it as a garbage dump, leaving old oilcans on its deck, although Hazelton’s son Vance and two men from O’Neill’s Fisheries removed the used oil before it fouled the harbour.

The wharf was owned at that point by Maritime Harbours Society, and the ‘Ronald M’ remained on the bottom, its presence marked by a floating buoy—for 30 months while ownership of the wharf gradually changed to local hands.

Hazelton was perceptive at the time the boat sank, predicting it would remain there for some time because the wharf owner would be unwilling to pay the cost of floating it and hauling it away. “If you’re waiting to watch it get hauled up, I think you’re safe going home for lunch. I think you’d be safe having supper and breakfast, too,” said Hazelton.

Transport Canada also said it wasn’t involved because the vessel was resting on the wharf’s ‘footprint’, on a privately owned harbour bed.

At the time, Hazelton said he had no idea when or if anything would be done because anyone concerned about it wasn’t in a position to do anything about it.

The wharf finally was transferred into local hands about a year ago and money became available this fall to cover the expense of removing and breaking up the ‘Ronald M.’

After two and a half years, the boat—which surprised Hazelton and the divers with its still robust condition—has finally been removed from the wharf.