Edward Crawford Swank was born September 13, 1980 in Omaha, Nebraska. His prolific career on the sea began in 1907 as a deckhand for the Canadian Pacific Coast Service fleet. On July 27,1916 Swank received his certificate of naturalization, becoming a British Subject. That same year he joined the Royal Canadian Navy and served on the HMCS Malaspina and on other ships in the Atlantic. After serving for two years and earning certification as "Mate" in the Royal Naval Canadian Volunteer Reserve, he returned to the CPR, transferring to their Ocean Service fleet.

In 1919 he left service to write his Master's papers which he received on August 5, 1919 with certification as "Master of a Passenger Steamer". Swank's first job as a ship's Master was with Thompson Howe Sound Navigation which was late taken over by the Union Steamships Company. In 1922 he joined the Grand Trunk Pacific Line (now called Canadian National Steamships). In 1942 he joined the B.C. Steamship Line (now known as Northland Navigation), running to Alaska for the United States Army. In 1945 he joined the Frank Waterhouse Company which was later absorbed by Union Steamships Ltd. Swank sailed on all of the Union Steamship freighters and was Master of their flagship Cassiar before his retirement on December 6, 1957.

Edward Swank was married to Elizabeth May (maiden name unknown) and until his death, they resided at 2903 Kathleen Street, in Burnaby, British Columbia.

Swank’s maritime career includes the following appointments:

The fonds consists of textual and graphic records created and received by Edward Swank during his private life and as a prominent member of British Columbia's maritime community. Included are photographs, negatives, personal correspondence, certificates, identification cards, service reference letters, letters of appointment, certificates of discharge, notebooks, crew lists, copies of logbook entries, accounts and wages forms, doctor's letters for various seamen, and ship repair lists.

The original order of the records is unknown as they were salvaged from disorganized and scattered piles all over the floor of the Swank house. In order to facilitate their prompt removal, they were arbitrarily boxed and brought to Vancouver Maritime Museum. A number of years later, David Stone, a museum volunteer, re-boxed and organized the records, stabilized fragile documents, and filled out an "Archive Record Note" for each record.

In October 2002 the formal arrangement and description of the Swank records was completed by an archivist, Lisa Beitel. Based on the known history of the records the decision was made to organize the records chronologically into two series. The original box list has been retained and is available at the end of the finding aid.