Ferry culture explored in new book

Phillip Vannini has been fascinated with the coastal ferries ever since his first trip to Vancouver Island a dozen years ago.

Since then the ethnographer and Gabriola Island resident has travelled to every small community serviced by ferry on the coast, clocked 250 ferry rides and conducted some 400 interviews with ferry users on their relationship with the system.

Vannini, a Royal Roads University professor, has formalized his interest in ferry travel with a new book called Ferry Tales: Mobility, Place and Time on Canada’s West Coast.

Through his research Vannini discovered that the ferry is a mode of communication that allows the emergence of unique rituals and fosters “a sense of place that’s really distinct.”

“Everyone says that we have a love/hate relationship with the ferries. What I try to do in my book is really explain what the love is and where it comes from and is all about, and where the hate comes from and is all about,” Vannini said, adding media attention usually focuses on the negative without acknowledging the positive part of the equation.

One of the things he found is that similar but different practices exist in relation to ferry travel throughout the islands — rituals that mean everything to locals but that outsiders can easily get wrong.

He gives the example of islanders leaving specific gaps in roadside parking at the Gabriola terminal, which allows people to access driveways or avoid a particularly steep stretch. Woe to the person who inadvertently “fills the gap” by parking there instead of joining the back of the line.

“But on Bowen, that’s totally okay,” he observed.

Ferries play a part in other island rituals, such as Hornby’s wave-off of the tourists, celebrated with a big party at the dock every Labour Day. Ferry captains have been known to join in by doing “donuts” in the water. At Sointula, islanders have had a Halloween tradition of pelting the ferry with eggs, to which the crew responds by hosing down the local kids with freezing cold water — all in good fun.

The idea of “island time” and what that means to various communities is also something Vannini explores. He was interested to see the difference a late arrival time makes to different users: 10 or 15 minutes late on one of the major route ferries tends to outrage travellers, while being hours or even days late on a northern route is met with equanimity.

On the route leaving the protected waters of Prince Rupert, it is the practice for captains to wait until the strait is safe enough to cross, without returning to port. Vannini experienced a 19-hour wait at sea on his first crossing — legend has it the wait has gone as long as three days.

“But no one gets upset because they’re used to it,” he said.

For islanders who might feel the romance of ferry travel has been lost, Vannini promises it is latent and can return. A recurring motif in his research is the ferry as the gateway to home, especially if someone is returning to a small community after an absence.

Ferries seem to play a critical part in maintaining island culture, providing a passage but also a barrier to the world at large that most residents have left behind on purpose.

“The typical islander has four jobs, a very eclectic sense of fashion, a politically and socially progressive outlook, an island car, and generally character-wise has a mix of creativity and community involvement, or has a curmudgeon-like attitude,” Vannini said.

“If there were no ferries, different people would live here.”

Islanders may in fact be sophisticated and cosmopolitan, but they have chosen to interact with the city only when necessary and then go home. They are not interested in being linked to “big box land,” greater traffic or the suburban environment that greater connectivity would bring. As Vannini states in relation to Denman Island, “a fixed link is a threat to island life.”

Ferry Tales is available now as an ebook through sites like Amazon and Chapters. Vannini has also supplied his publishers at Routledge with an extensive list of the bookstores found in the communities he’s visited, where his book should be appearing soon.

His website at http://www.ferryresearch.ca includes fun, interactive maps and other hypermedia options such as interview clips, chapter samples and essays.