The Esperanza

Owned by Messrs. Forman & Campbell, the steamer Esperanza (Spanish for "Hope") made regular weekly trips to Gabriola and DeCourcey Islands. She is first mentioned in the Nanaimo Free Press in 1892, as making a double round trip to the Islands every Friday, leaving Nanaimo early in the morning, returning to that city before noon, then leaving again for Gabriola late in the afternoon.

Funerals on Gabriola were often scheduled for Fridays, in order that the minister and mourners could come from Nanaimo for the ceremony.

On January 6, 1893, the Nanaimo Free Press announced that

"...Foreman & Campbell have taken their steamer the Esperanza off the Nanaimo, Gabriola Island route. This will be a great loss to the Island farmers, who have now no means of communicating with the city, except by sail or row-boats. The steamer has been taken off because it did not pay to run her, in fact the proprietors have been making this trip at a loss for some time past."
(Successors of the Esperanza, including the present ferry, the MV Quinsam, have maintained her proud tradition by also running at a loss.)

The steamer continued to visit Gabriola when chartered (for funerals or inspection of the lighthouse) as late as 1894.

In this photograph, the Esperanza appears to be in False Narrows, probably near the dock located there in the 1890's.