The ''Wrigley'' was a wooden

steamship A steamship, often referred to as a steamer, is a type of steam-powered vessel, typically ocean-faring and seaworthy, that is propelled by one or more steam engines that typically move (turn) propellers or paddlewheels. The first steamships ...

operated by the Hudson's Bay Company on the Mackenzie River, and its tributaries, including the Peel River, Great Slave Lake, and the lower reaches of the Slave River. She was built on the Slave River, downstream of the very large rapids between Fort Smith and Fitzgerald, Alberta, in 1885. Her steam engine and other components would have had to have been shipped from central Canada, and hauled over the portage. Her hull was built from

Spruce A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' (), a genus of about 35 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal (taiga) regions of the Earth. ''Picea'' is the sole genus in the subfami ...

, harvested locally. She was screw-propelled, and drew approximately 5 to 6 feet, ''"when fully laden"''. She was either long or long, wide and displaced 60 tons. According to documents from the

Senate of Canada The Senate of Canada (french: region=CA, Sénat du Canada) is the upper house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Crown and the House of Commons, they comprise the bicameral legislature of Canada. The Senate is modelled after the B ...

she was one of just three steamships on the Mackenzie River system, and the only one downstream of the Fort Smith-Fort Resolution rapids. In August 1889 the ''Wrigley'' surveyed shallows ''"50 miles downstream from Fort Good Hope"'' and found the deepest passage she could find was ''"one

fathom A fathom is a unit of length in the imperial and the U.S. customary systems equal to , used especially for measuring the depth of water. The fathom is neither an International Standard (SI) unit, nor an internationally-accepted non-SI unit. Hi ...

"''. Vilhjalmur Stefansson, author of ''My Life With the Eskimo'' described a voyage on the ''Wrigley''. He wrote that she coped with frequently running aground on the river's shifting sandbars she carried her heaviest cargo, like lead shot, right in her bow. Then, when she ran aground, she could be set free by moving that heavy cargo to her stern. He wrote she only had room for six passengers.

References

External links

* {{commonscat-inline, Wrigley (ship, 1885) Hudson's Bay Company ships Water transport in the Northwest Territories, Wrigley