Posted Apr 21, 2007, 5:28 PM
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Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: White Rock, BC (Metro Vancouver)
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Shipyard to modify propeller symbols on new B.C. ferry
Judith Lavoie, Times Colonist
Published: Saturday, April 21, 2007
The media pictures of B.C. Ferries' new Super-C-class vessel, the Coastal Renaissance, certainly turned heads.
But not in the way B.C. Ferries was hoping.
So the international propeller symbols painted at both ends of the ship will be replaced with a softer, rounder version in hopes no one mistakes them for swastikas.
B.C. Ferries is asking that they be modified because some people think they look like swastikas.
"The last thing we want to do is alienate anyone, so we have asked the shipyard to make modifications," B.C. Ferries spokesman Mark Stefanson said yesterday.
B.C. Ferries received about 10 calls from people who thought the symbols looked like swastikas, he said.
"We didn't see it that way.
"To us, it's an international prop symbol, but, if people are concerned about it, obviously we are concerned about it, so we will make sure it's changed before she leaves Germany."
Maritime rules demand that ships have symbols showing the location of propellers, but those used on other B.C. Ferries vessels are more rounded and have three blades, he said.
Stefanson said he has no idea whether the fact the new ferries are being built in Germany played a role in the swastika perception.
"I couldn't even speculate about that," he said.
The Flensburger Schiffbau-Gesellschaft shipyard, where the ferries are being built, constructed U-boats during the Second World War.
Stefanson said there will be no problem replacing the symbols.
"The [shipyard] is excellent in terms of response to our needs."
The new ferry will leave Germany for Canada in late October and is expected to be on the Horseshoe Bay-Departure Bay run before Christmas.
Two other new ferries from the same shipyard will arrive in B.C. next year.
© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2007
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