SS Keno

The SS ''Keno'' is a preserved historic sternwheel paddle steamer and National Historic Site of Canada. The SS ''Keno'' is berthed in a dry dock on the waterfront of the Yukon River in Dawson City, Yukon, Canada.

The vessel was constructed in 1922, in Whitehorse, by the British Yukon Navigation Company, a subsidiary of the White Pass and Yukon Route railway company. For most of its career it transported silver, zinc and lead ore down the Stewart River from mines in the Mayo district to the confluence of the Yukon and Stewart rivers at Stewart City. It was retired from commercial service in 1951 due to the extension and improvement of the Klondike Highway in the years after World War II.

Following its withdrawal from service the SS ''Keno'' was laid up at the BYN Co. shipyard in Whitehorse, before being selected for preservation and donated by the company to the Canadian Government in 1959. On 25 August 1960 the ''Keno'' left Whitehorse to sail downstream to Dawson City. In doing so she became the last of the Yukon's sternwheeler steamers to navigate the Yukon River under her own power. Three days later she arrived in Dawson and was subsequently installed as a tourist attraction and a permanent memorial to the approximately 250 sternwheelers that provided a vital transport service on the Yukon River and its tributaries during the latter half of the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries.

Background

The Yukon River flows for through Yukon and Alaska, and its catchment area covers approximately . The Yukon's name is derived from a Gwich’in name, meaning "Great River", and the waterway has been used by aboriginal groups in the area for many centuries. From the middle of the 19th century it also formed a major transport link for white trappers, traders and mineral prospectors operating in the region, but its shallow, sinuous and fast flowing nature made navigation difficult. As early as 1869 the Alaska Commercial Company began regular sternwheel paddle steamer services as far upstream as Fort Selkirk, exploiting the sternwheeler riverboat design's inherent shallow draught, flexible landing ability and protected paddlewheel to overcome many of the river's challenges. River traffic boomed during the Klondike Gold Rush, and by the end of the 19th century around 60 sternwheelers were in operation on the Yukon.

By 1914 the White Pass and Yukon Route railway company's river navigation subsidiary, the British Yukon Navigation Company (BYN Co.), had built an effective monopoly on riverboat traffic in the upper reaches of the Yukon River. As trading and mining activities in Yukon and Alaska grew, bigger and better sternwheelers were built to cope with the increasing traffic on the main river channel. However, in order to connect to many mining camps and trading posts vessels were required to negotiate the still shallower and more tortuous channels of the Yukon's tributaries. In 1922 BYN Co. built the SS ''Keno'' to provide service to the booming silver mining district around Mayo Landing, in particular the United Keno Hill Mine properties, approximately up the narrow, winding and shallow Stewart River from its confluence with the Yukon River.

Design and construction

In order to be able to navigate Stewart River, BYN Co. construction foreman A.E. Henderson specifically designed SS ''Keno'' for shallow water operation. As built, she was long, with a beam of . For comparison, the second SS ''Klondike'', completed eight years after the ''Keno'' for service on the main river routes, was over 200 ft long and had a beam in excess of 40 ft. Most importantly, in service the ''Keno'' draught was typically only between two and three feet (0.6 to 0.9 m), and with a light load as little as . Her hull was constructed from wood, carvel-built, and her superstructure was arranged in a three deck configuration typical of sternwheelers. The lowermost deck, the main deck at gunwale level, was the freight house. Above this, and approximately the same size, was the saloon deck, carrying much of the vessel's passenger accommodation and facilities. Uppermost was the smaller, punningly titled 'Texas' deck, carrying larger staterooms for the captain, senior crew and first class passengers. Surmounting the Texas was the pilothouse, from which the vessel was commanded. In this configuration, the ''Keno'' gross tonnage was 553.17 tons.

Motive power for the vessel was provided by a single, wood fired, locomotive-style boiler, that fed steam to two high pressure, single-cylinder, double acting steam engines, mounted longitudinally. These in turn drove the rear paddlewheel by cranks mounted at either end of its axle. When fully laden the ''Keno'' could haul loaded aboard, and was capable of pushing a barge laden with a further . In addition to her freight capacity, the SS ''Keno'' was licensed to carry up to 78 passengers, with sleeping accommodation for between 32 and 53 (records vary).

The ''Keno'' was built at the company's shipyard in Whitehorse, Yukon, in the middle of 1922. Very early in her career, in 1923, the position of her paddlewheel was moved rearward by to improve her abilities when backing. Further minor modifications were made to her design in the following decade, before she was comprehensively rebuilt in 1937 in order to increase her cargo capacity. During the course of this rebuild the SS ''Keno'' was lengthened to and her beam increased to . These and other modifications increased the ship's gross tonnage to 613.05 tons.

Operational career

The SS ''Keno'' was completed in time for the 1922 river traffic season (which was short on the Yukon, owing to it being ice-bound for much of the year). Her maiden voyage took place on 15 August 1922, which she made laden with a total of 120 tons of meat; 50 in her own holds and 70 loaded on a barge. However, during the majority of her career the SS ''Keno'' major cargo was silver, lead and zinc ore concentrate, produced by the silver mines around Keno City and Elsa. This was loaded into sacks, each weighing approximately . The ore was transported by cart or sled down the Silver Trail to Mayo Landing on the river, where it was stockpiled through the winter months. Each year, once the ice cleared toward the end of the spring the SS ''Keno'' and her elderly stablemate, the SS ''Canadian'', would transport the ore downriver to Stewart City, at the confluence between the Stewart and Yukon rivers. From here the BYN Co.'s larger vessels then transported the ore up the Yukon River to Whitehorse, where it was transshipped onto the White Pass and Yukon Route railroad for transportation to ocean ports at the coast. Each 125 lb sack was loaded and unloaded by hand at each stage of its river journey, and in 1938 alone the ''Keno'' transported over of ore. On its return to Mayo ''Keno'' carried supplies and food for the mining camps. The journey upriver from Stewart to Mayo included 14 sets of rapids and took three days, while the journey in the opposite direction could be completed in just 12 hours.

The narrow, fast-flowing rivers were strewn with sandbars and shallowly covered rocks. Each year these could change position dramatically during the spring thaw when the river was high with meltwater; throughout the remainder of the season they kept moving, albeit more slowly. These conditions meant that even for a vessel specifically designed for the Yukon navigation was still beset by hazards, and the SS ''Keno'' did not escape mishap. On 8 June 1927 she hit a submerged rock on the Yukon River's Big Bend, south of Whitehorse, and sank. She was raised, repaired and re-entered service. In 1933, while working on the Thirtymile River stretch of the Yukon River, the ''Keno'' was severely damaged when the barge she was pushing partially ran aground on a bend. The barge dug in, and caused the ''Keno'' to swing in the river which brought her stern in contact with the far bank. The consequent impact smashed the ''Keno'' paddlewheel and broke off her rudders. Again she was repaired and re-entered service.

SS ''Keno'' continued to operate in commercial service within the Yukon watershed for almost 30 years. In addition to her work on the Stewart River, her shallow draught and smaller dimensions meant that she was often pressed into service on the main Whitehorse–Dawson route early in the season, when parts of the river were narrowed by ice. In 1942 the ''Keno'' was used to transport US Army men and equipment during construction of the Alaska Highway