Jamie and Jacque Spence, both licensed 100-ton masters, still direct the Christian medical mission they founded in 1981. Son Sterling was born in 1989.

Canvasback Missions, Inc. is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization founded in 1981 to serve remote Pacific islands with needed health care and health education.

In the mid 1970's, mission founders Jamie and Jacque Spence gave up professional careers and sailed the Pacific for seven years. Looking to the islands as their personal playground, instead they discovered a great deal of misery and suffering. On tiny, isolated islands they found people who knew well the pain of disease yet were without knowledge of prevention or hope of treatment.

Returning to the United States, in 1981, Jamie and Jacque began construction of the 71-foot, aluminum-hulled Canvasback, one of the world's largest sailing catamarans. With help from businesses who donated supplies and equipment, plus more than 200 skilled volunteers, the vessel was launched on June 16, 1986.

The "good old days" of the 71-ft. catamaran Canvasback

The Canvasback catamaran was uniquely designed to deliver free medical, dental and eye care to remote islands accessible only by sea. Canvasback Missions worked diligently for five years in the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) to make their outer island dispensary system self-sufficient.  She was staffed by volunteer physicians, dentists and seamen who brought healing and hope to the people of Micronesia.

In 1993, Canvasback opened an even more comprehensive work in the islands of Chuuk (formerly Truk) State. This included providing medical, dental and specialty programs in the island nations of Kosrae, Pohnpei, and Yap, in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM).

In 1998, after 14 years of island service, Canvasback's expanding  programs had outgrown the catamaran. It was then that, in a history-making act, Congress donated the 133-ft. U.S. Coast Guard cutter White Holly to Canvasback Missions. A year later the mission gained physical possession of the ship and began preparations to turn her into a medical vessel.  The White Holly was initially seen as a direct answer to prayer for a larger ship, and volunteers rallied to sail her from Baltimore through the Panama Canal to California. Meanwhile, Canvasback continued to expand it's specialty team programs among the islands of the FSM.

However, in time it became clear that, though much larger than the catamaran, the White Holly was still deficient in space and configuration required for the new programs. The sale of the White Holly to another nonprofit organization provided the funds needed to continue building solid programs of services for the FSM and the RMI. These services include providing much-needed health care for the island people, continuing education for island health care workers, and supplies and equipment for island hospitals. 

In fact, between 2000 and 2004, Canvasback Missions provided more than $4.1 million worth of services to the FSM when calculated at low Medicare rates. Historically, the mission has been able to provide more than $4 worth of service for every $1 in donations received, making the mission an excellent vehicle for multiplying charitable dollars.