The Merry Chase was built by Nakade Boat Works, Steveston, B.C. in 1929 for Ryotara Kita as a table seiner. Her hull is 2-1/2-inch fir carvel planked on 2-1/2-inch x 4-inch oak frames and powered by a 3-cylinder Washington Estep 90 HP Diesel. In 1942 she was seized by the Canadian Government and transferred to the Canadian Navy Fishermen’s Reserve (aka Gumboot Navy) and used as a patrol vessel until the end of World War II. She returned to the fishing industry and participated in the herring, salmon and bottom fisheries. In 1972 she was repowered with a 240 HP Caterpillar engine and converted to drum seining along with her current remodeled wheelhouse. The Merry Chase retired from fishing in 2005 and lay inactive at Steveston until 2007 when she was purchased by Bob and Kathy Jordan as a retirement project and completely refurbished to her original table seining configuration. Her layout consists of the original fish hold, galley and crew quarters and is used by the Jordan family for cruising the B.C. Coast and Alaska. In 2019 the Merry Chase started a new career and appeared in 3 movie episodes as a Japanese owned 1941 table seiner filmed at Steveston only doors away from her original birthplace. Ten years from now, the Merry Chase will be 100 years old, still retaining her original name.
