It's back to the drawing board in the curious case of the hulk in Deas Slough.
White Rock's George Duddy, a former civil engineer who has been spending his retirement years researching the history of an old war ship, recently thought he positively identified a sunken ship, which, during low tide, can be seen from the shore in Deas Slough.
He was on the case of the Arctic adventures of the Audrey B, which came to her demise in the Fraser River. He thought he had found her in Deas Slough but subsequently identified that vessel as the La Belle, a USS APc-15 that was repurposed after the Second World War and served as a tugboat.
Duddy said last week he has had to go back to the drawing board after getting new information about the old La Belle.
"A retired tugboat skipper who is familiar with the lower Fraser River informed me the La Belle/Black Trader had been seen over the years in at least three separate locations," he said in an email.
"The last location was at the Shelter Island Marina in Richmond. She had been used as a live-aboard vessel and her cabin and wheelhouse were still intact and being used for accommodations."
Also, he recently came across photos of the Black Trader in the Richmond Archives that shows a location near the Arthur Laing Bridge.
Duddy said when he discovered the Deas Slough hulk was not the Audrey B, he felt he owed it to Delta to try and identify it and, despite the recent setback, he continues on that quest.
