Queen of the North log books on eBay?

General Forums Prince Rupert Forum
1

Strange little story making the news tonight on BCTV and with Canadian Press that log books from the Queen of the North have ended up for sale on eBay.

While they don’t specify that they are the books that went down with the ship, the revelation last week that they have disappeared has of course stoked the fires of speculation.

Found this on eBay tonight  as the listed item

search.ebay.com/search/search.dl … m=R2&fvi=1

And here’s the story from Canadian Press. This case just gets stranger and stranger…

Logbooks, photos said to be from sunken B.C. ferry go up for sale on EBay
November 22, 2006 - 2:19

VANCOUVER (CP) - Logbooks said to be from a ferry that sank near Prince Rupert, B.C. earlier this year were briefly up for sale on an online auction site Tuesday.

A seller on EBay named Blissmeister listed a lot of pictures and logbooks from the Queen of the North. The logbooks detailing the ship’s activity the night it sank have been reported as missing. The description of the items up for sale didn’t specify whether they were the documents in question. The listing was taken down late Tuesday night, but not before attracting a high bid of $57.30.

The ferry went off course and crashed into Gil Island in March.

Ninety-nine people escaped and two are missing and presumed drowned.
“I feel as though I have hung on to these items long enough and would rather have a more serious collector have them,” the seller said in a description of the items before they were removed.

“I do not own the copyright to any of this stuff and am auctioning it off for collectible purposes only.”

The seller was also offering a set of pictures of the ferry. Logbooks are considered legal documents that are supposed to remain in the hands of the ship’s owners.
 

2

You’re quoted material is a little outdated. There is a more up-to-date story here:

570news.com/news/national/ar … nt=n11229A

[quote]Logbooks up for sale on EBay not from sunken B.C. ferry, seller says

November 22, 2006 - 3:49

VANCOUVER (CP) - A would-be EBay auctioneer says logbooks he listed for sale Tuesday weren’t from a ferry that sunk near Prince Rupert, B.C. earlier this year.

In the listing, which was removed only hours after it was posted, a man called Blissmeister was offering “exclusive Queen of the North pictures, logbooks etc.” It was the latest twist in the ongoing saga over what exactly happened when the ferry sank in March. BC Ferries had confirmed that the logbooks chronicling that voyage were believed to have gone down with the ship. Until the listing surfaced on EBay.

But Blissmeister said in an e-mail to The Canadian Press that he wasn’t trying to peddle missing documents.

“The log books which were in my listing were not the books the media has reported as me having,” he said. “I purchased these nautical designed logbooks locally just the other day to go along with the theme of my listing.”

The seller said the online auction site had removed his listing and he was waiting to find out why.

The listing had attracted a high bid of $57.30 and a significant amount of interest from the media throughout the province before it was removed.

The ferry went off course and crashed into Gil Island in March.

Ninety-nine people escaped and two are missing and presumed drowned.

Recent weeks have seen allegations that crew members turned off a key piece of navigational equipment and accusations of dereliction of duty from a former captain of the ship.

BC Ferries hasn’t responded to affidavits filed in court in connection with the crew’s actions that night, but have said they believe the missing logbooks were innocently left on board. [/quote]

3

Well actually, at the time of my posting that was the current information, as reported by BCTV news on their late night news on Tuesday.

As with any news, the story can change as more facts are made public.

And as I said there was no indication in the story that the books in question were the ones from the last voyage.

Thanks for providing the update though, be interesting to see why eBay pulled the fellows material off the service.

Though you have to admit trying to peddle ships logs in the midst of a controversial number of disappearing logs would certainly attract a bit of attention…

4

[quote=“ThePodunkian”]
Thanks for providing the update though, be interesting to see why eBay pulled the fellows material off the service.[/quote]

I have to agree in that it will be extremely interesting to see the reason why eBay pulled the listing.  The normal procedure when pulling an auction is to end the auction, return the listing fees to the seller and then provide a reason for the pullage.  Apparently even ebay aren’t saying anything either.  I’ll definitely let you know if and when I get ahold of such information though.

5

blissmeister.com/queen-of-the-north.html

Blissmeister is also the person who “broke” the story of the Cook’s jewler’s eBay auction stuff.

6

Well that’s kind of ironic, one day he’s breaking the news, next day he is the news.

Does this mean his cycle is now complete?

If nothing else he’s on a first name basis with the RCMP around town.

7

That guy claims he has “Exclusive Queen of the North pictures”

In fact, he actually ripped off copyright photos from this photographer’s web site.

pbase.com/kstapleton/q_of_north

8

Just because he said they were exclusive… didn’t mean they were exclusive to only him. 

Blissmeister is a local celebrity… yet few people really know who he is… and I’m sure he’d like to keep it that way :smiley:

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3 or 4 minutes with ‘whois’ and a reverse directory will give you his identity, including his address and phone number.  But I’m all for anonymity, of course.  So I’m not going to tell you who he is!

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Irony:  Blissmeister has a webpage that discusses how to prevent people from “stealing” your photos:

blissmeister.com/norightclick.html

Not that it works.  The anti-right-click scripts are soooo 1996.

11

Yep, using whois I quickly found his address and phone number.  That’s as far as I took it.  I also agree with Internet anonymity.