Helen Dawe Collection -- Index

Series 6
   Aerial Photographs (6.1)
    Bog, Marsh Sechelt (6.2)
    General, Panoramic views (6.3)
    General, Panoramic views (6.4)
    Identified buildings (6.5)
    First Nations of Sechelt (6.6)
    Individual people/groups (6.7)
    May Days, picnics, etc. (6.8)
    Resource Industries (6.9)
    Schools (6.10)
    Ships (6.11)
    Transportation (6.12)
    Whitaker family (6.13)
    Cook, Dawe, Steele, Whittaker familes (6.14)

Series 2
   General A-Z -- The Crucils

Series 10
   Union Steamship and All Red Line Companies

Series 11
   Captain Sam and Ada Dawe

Series 13
   The Sechelt Inn

Series 20
   Souvenir brochures, postcards

Series 24
   Merry Island lighthouse

Series 11-- Captain Sam and Ada Dawe, 1888-1986, Page 2

Captain Sam Dawe was born in Bay Roberts, Newfoundland in 1888, moved with his family to New Westminster in 1892 and to Vancouver in 1895. He started work at age fourteen on a Skeena and Fraser Rivers cannery tug and spent most of his working life at sea. He worked up and down the B.C. coast on tugs, fishing boats and passenger and freight vessels. He also sailed deep-sea on a number of well-known sailing vessels and ocean liners such as the Empress of Asia. He was in the Canadian Merchant Marine coastwise service and in World War II he piloted a number of American ships up to Prince Rupert and Icy Straits. In 1957 and 1959 he served as master of the destroyer escorts HMCS Skeena and Kootenay and on his retirement from the B.C. Pilots he moved permanently to Sechelt with wife Ada. There he served on Sechelt's first elected council from 1956 until 1964 and continued to be involved in many endeavours in the village until his death in 1971. Ada Dawe (nee Cook) and her mother and father, Sarah and Thomas John Cook, were the first pioneer family to settle permanently in Sechelt. They arrived in 1894 to live in the first of their four homes on Trail Bay. Ada later worked in Vancouver and married Captain Sam Dawe in 1913. They had two daughters, Helen and Doris (Billie), who, with Ada, spent many holidays during their childhood years with their grandfather in Sechelt and both of whom eventually lived permanently in Sechelt. After Ada and Sam retired to Sechelt she became involved in numerous activities including all three centennial celebrations, the Sechelt Recreation Commission, St. Hilda's Church, Senior Citizens Housing, St. Mary's Hospital Auxiliary, May Day and Library committees. In 1967 she was awarded the Centennial Medal "in recognition" of valuable service to the nation" and in 1977 the Sechelt and District Chamber of Commerce named her the good citizen of the year. She died in 1986 in her ninety-third year after a long life of dedication to the well-being of Sechelt's residents.

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11.4 1915 -- The tug Commodore on which Sam Dawe served, at Ketchikan, Alaska. Photographer unknown

11.5 1963 -- Sam and Ada Dawe at their Golden Wedding celebrations. Photographer unknown

11.6 date unknown -- Ada Dawe (left) and Mrs. Ellen Paul, widow of Chief Dan Paul. Photographer unknown

11.7 1967 -- Premier W.A.C. Bennett presents a plaque at the opening of the Sechelt Public Library. Ada Dawe to his left. Photographer unknown

11.8 1967 -- (l-r) Cecile August, Ada Dawe and Mrs. Carrie Joe with their Centennial Medals. Photographer unknown.

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