User:Geo Swan/Poplar Island Shipyard

During World War One, the Poplar Island Shipyard was opened, as a wartime expedient. Poplar Island, off New Westminster, BC, had been used as a quarantine site native people, during a smallpox epidemic, in the late 1800s. It had been abandoned, for decades, because of the many deaths there. However, when the shipyard was authorized, in 1916, land was cleared, and it was open for business in thirty days. As many as 600 builders worked at the shipyard.

Four wooden-hulled freighters, of approximately 3,000 tonnes were known to have been built there, the War Kitimat, War Comox, War Ewen and War Edensaw, all named after coastal rivers of British Columbia. Some accounts assert that, in addition, the shipyard constructed warships, for France, an ally.

A wooden bridge was constructed to the Island.

The shipyard was closed when peace struck. The bridge collapsed in the 1930s. The Island returned to forest, and is now part of a nature preserve.