A LENS ON VANCOUVER'S PAST

S.S. AMSTELLAAN [at Lapointe Pier]
March 5, 1958
CVA 447-3116
 

Wheat would be fed into a ship’s holds like the Dutch-flagged AMSTELLAAN by the overhead system of conveyer belts and spouts at one of Vancouver’s grain terminals.

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The Crow Rate set low freight rates for shipping grain by train in Canada while the Panama Canal shortened the sailing distance to Europe by over 8,000 miles.

Both were factors that positioned the Port of Vancouver to become Canada’s largest exporter of wheat with over 2.6 million bushels destined for the Netherlands just after Bevrijdingsdag to feed Dutch flour mills.