Crab Dock
The Crab Dock
The Crab Dock got its start in 1948 when Pierre Malon and Bill White went into business together to start up a crab cannery. The pair had met while they worked on Stubbs Island.
The partners ran the crab boat, Stubbs Island, and canned the crab they caught. In time, clams and salmon were also canned at their business, Tofino Packing.
The Stubbs Island usually moored at this dock, in sight of the red cannery building that still exists in the same location, sitting on pilings at the water's edge. Tofino Packing came to an end in 1964, although Bill White continued to crab on Stubbs Island for years after.
Look to your left from the dock and you’ll see tiny Strawberry Island with an old ship permanently perched on its shore. Strawberry Island has changed hands several times. At one time it was owned by Robert Guppy, who let the island go when the taxes doubled, jumping from $2 to $4. In the mid-1960s it was purchased by Jo Brydges after she left Stubbs Island. She didn’t live there, but did garden and is responsible for the rhododendrons still on the island. In 1981, Brydges sold the island to the Palm family. They then moved the boat they had been living on—previously North Vancouver Ferry #1—permanently onshore. From 1900 to 1926 the ferry ran across Burrard Inlet along the current route of the Sea Bus between Vancouver and North Vancouver.
