THE QUEEN OF ALBERNI was built at vancouver shipyards in NORTH VANCOUVER B.C. in 1976. the QUEEN OF ALBERNI joined with her fellow c-class ferries QUEEN OF COQUITLAM and QUEEN OF COWICHAN were also beening built in 1976 for BC FERRIES. the QUEEN OF ALBERNI was built to carry trucks from TSAWWASSEN south of VANCOUVER to SWARTZ BAY north of VICTORIA B.C. the trip on that route takes 1hr 30 min . in feb 1984 the QUEEN OF ALBERNI was added a top deck for cars and her capasity increased to it is now 1200 passengers and 295 cars. in the 1990s the QUEEN OF ALBERNI was put on the mid island express wich runs from TSAWWASSEN to DUKE POINT in NANAIMO B.C. wich takes 2 hours on that route. the QUEEN OF ALBERNI has had 2 major accdents. one was on aug 9 1979 were she ran aground in active pass in the gulf islands. one horse died in the accdent but no other people onboard were hurt. then on march 12 1992 around 8am the QUEEN OF ALBERNI left TSAWWASSEN for departure bay in NANAIMO in heavy fog collied with the japan regestry bulker SHINWA MARU wich left the ROBERTS BANK coal terminal at the same time. luckly two pepole onboard the QUEEN OF ALBERNI were seriously hurt and no one onboard the SHINWA MARU were hurt. overal the QUEEN OF ALBERNI has had a good safety record and i have been on the QUEEN OF ALBERNI and she is a interesting looking ship and been on the mid island express wich you see the part of the east coast of VANCOUVER ISLAND and the LOWER MAINLAND of BRITISH COLUMBIA
