The Good Company: An Affectionate History of the Union Steamships

Contributor to newspapers and magazines in Canada, Britain and United States on travel- and transportation themes.

Author: Empress of Britain: Canadian Pacific's greatest ship (Erin: Boston Mills, 1992).

Reviewer for CBRA since 1993.

Early in 1959, the final sailing of the Union Steamship Company of
British Columbia ended 70 years of service to the towns, villages,
lumber camps, and canneries of the West Coast. For crews and passengers,
the 50-odd ships that flew the company’s flag possessed qualities and
quirks that could delight or infuriate. And if the ships had their
idiosyncrasies, so, too, did many of their officers and crew.

This book combines a brief history of the company with a string of
colorful anecdotes of captains who never mastered the art of docking,
officers whose judgment was blunted by alcohol, and uncooperative crews.
The author also tells of captains whose sea sense, skill, and ingenuity
in emergencies gave the company an enviable record of passenger safety.
Photographs depict ships aground on rocks, tilted at alarming angles;
somehow most of the vessels survived.

Tom Henry writes with an easy style, but readers may be attracted as
much by the well-reproduced photographs that constitute about 50 percent
of the text. The Good Company is recommended for its nostalgic
reminiscences and engaging photographs of the ships and crews that
served the British Columbia coast for seven decades.