Captain Voss and Tilikum

The circumnavigation of the world in a 38 foot long first nation dug-out canoe

Captain Voss

John Claus Voss (1858-1922) purchased a traditional First Nation canoe, modified its hull, added three masts and named it “Tilikum”, meaning “friend” in Chinook jargon.

In 1901 he set off from Victoria, British Columbia with journalist Norman Luxton to sail around the world. Luxton got off in Fiji, having crossed the Pacific and Voss continued the journey with a succession of mates, visiting Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Brazil and finally arriving at Margate, England in 1904.

Tilikum at Canvey Island in 1911

Here, he and Tilikum were feted as celebrities… the boat being exhibited at Earls Court in 1905 and Voss being nominated for election as a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.  In time new owners installed an engine and used the vessel to cruise the east coast until it was finally abandoned on Canvey Island.

There in 1929 she was found in a sorry state  by a naval officer, who drew this to the attention of the authorities in British Columbia, who in turn arranged for its return to Victoria. Once there Tilikum was subject to renovation and was displayed in several locations until it found a permanent resting place at the Maritime Museum of B.C.

The book ‘The Venturesome Voyages of Captain Voss’ by John Claus Voss (1858-1922), photographs by Powell, H. Price first published in 1913 can be read here.

Comments about this page

  • WoW! I had heard this story but didn’t know a picture existed – I think it was by the sea wall next to Mitchells Avenue in Smallgains creek?

    By David Bullock (07/06/2011)
  • The picture is in the book Dave

    By Janet Penn (07/06/2011)
  • Brilliant! Got to join the ‘WoW’ club for this one. It’s the first time I’ve heard of this story and even more interesting we stayed with friends in Victoria B.C. obviously in ignorance of Canvey’s link with that beautiful city. Should have visited the Maritime Museum of B.C. Thanks Mark.

    By Graham Stevens (08/06/2011)
  • I will be releasing (September 2019) the first independent account of Captain John Voss and the Tilikum (Sailing Around the World in a Dugout Canoe). The Tilikum, of course, spent a lot of time at Canvey Island after the voyage and before she was shipped back to British Columbia. The book reveals much new information and brings the history of the vessel up to date today. It includes 100 pictures – many previously unpublished.

    By John MacFarlane (11/08/2019)
  • Many years ago my late father handed me a book with the comment “Here, you will enjoy this and find it interesting!” It was titled ‘The Venturesome Voyages of Captain Voss’. After several moves over 60 odd years, in various parts of the world, the book is no longer with me, and I guess lost for ever. But the title and the tale endure in my memory. Some time in the 1970s I met, in Spain, a Canadian couple from British Columbia, and asked them if they had ever visited the Maritime Museum in Victoria. They had not, asked what was my interest, and were intrigued by my brief recounting of the story of the ‘Tilikum’, and the facts surounding the vessel’s eventual fate and resting place. Some months later, a large buff envelope reached my then address. Within it was a rather surprised letter from the Museum’s curator, plus various copies of old newspaper and magazine articles about Captain Voss, and copies of old photographs and prints of more recent photographs of ‘Tilikum’. There was also news from the curator that after many years of being outdoors on display, at the mercy of the elements, ‘Tilikum’ had been moved indoors where she was receiving the care and treatment that she merited. I also recall that he mentioned in his letter, that he had received a visit from the couple I had met, and had expressed his amazement that whilst almost neighbours of the Museum, they had heard about it, and learned something of ‘Tilikum’ whilst holidaying almost halfway around the globe.
    I opened your website purely as part of an idle investigation. I really do not believe I have ever searched Internet for any information about Voss, indeed, Internet and home computers etc. did not exist when my interest in him, his canoe and their voyages together, was born, and Google was approximately the noise made by the bath water running out. I am reading a novel at the moment that is set on a sailing ship in the 18th Century. In the course of the yarn, the vessel loses its rudder, and the crew make recourse to a drogue in order to bring her head downwind with seas driving under the stern rather than drifting out of control at the mercy of the waves. I am sure that in Voss’s narrative, he mentioned that he devised a drogue anchor to be able to safely sail, singlehanded (as he was much of the time) downwind in open sea through the hours of sleep, or through dangerously heavy seas. I cannot believe that he discovered this trick, and yet, I somehow recall him claiming that it had not previously been used, (except perhaps he mentioned a similar idea used some years earlier, by Joshua Slocum). Apologies if my 80 plus-some-year-old memory is faulty on this, and apologies if someone thinks I am being pedantic, but if the novel is in error by using a drogue some 150 years previous to its invention, then I would like to know. Any comments anyone?

    By Robert P. Edwardes (03/07/2023)
  • Hi Robert,
    If you click on ‘ here’ at the end of the text above the whole e book will appear! You are correct in the appendix (308) Capt Voss claims to have invented this particular type of sea -anchor (drogue) illustrated with well drawn diagrams and various calculations (beyond me). Also drogues, sea – anchors or ‘druggs’ seem to have been used way back in maritime history, however is he just referring to this particular design ?
    I have always been disappointed that when I visited Victoria in 1990 I did not see the Tilicum as I only discovered Mark Thres’s article in 2011! Previously I think it was published on our ‘ sister’ Benfleet Community Archive.
    What also surprises me that in my frequent conversations with my late Dad, who had come to Canvey aged 5yrs in 1920 the story of the Tilicum, being such a long time in Small Gains Creek, never cropped up. Graham.😀

    By Graham Stevens (04/07/2023)
  • Tilikum article was never on the Benfleet site Graham.

    By Janet Penn (04/07/2023)
  • Yes, OK Jan, have to admit as Mark Thres was a Benfleet member it was an ‘.I think guess’ on my part that it originated from there. 😀👍. G.

    By Graham Stevens (04/07/2023)

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