‘McBarge’ that housed floating McDonald’s during Expo 86 capsizes

An empty vessel that was once used as a floating McDonald’s started sinking Wednesday.

Decades after it housed a floating McDonald’s restaurant during Expo 86, the famous “McBarge” has capsized in B.C.’s Fraser River.

The vessel could be seen partially submerged near the community of Maple Ridge on Wednesday.

It’s unclear when or why the vessel – now called the Seaborne II – began taking on water.

Asked about potential environmental concerns, the B.C. government noted the Canadian Coast Guard assessed the Seaborne II in 2023 and removed it from a national inventory of wrecked, abandoned or hazardous vessels.

The Seaborne II was “deemed to have no pollutants on board” at that time, the Ministry of Environment and Parks told CTV News in a statement.

The province will be monitoring the status of the capsized vessel, officials added, but Transport Canada is leading the response to the incident. CTV News has reached out to the federal regulator for more information.

During the 1986 World Exposition, the floating restaurant, which was then officially named the Friendship 500, served up fast food from Vancouver’s False Creek.

While McDonald’s initially planned to keep the “McBarge” open for years after the event, those plans were quickly abandoned, and the vessel sat empty for decades until being towed to Maple Ridge for restoration and redevelopment in 2015.

With files from The Canadian Press