The Skeena

sternwheeler A paddle steamer is a steamship or steamboat powered by a steam engine that drives paddle wheels to propel the craft through the water. In antiquity, paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses were w ...

was one of five sternwheelers built for the use on the

Skeena River The Skeena River is the second-longest river entirely within British Columbia, Canada (after the Fraser River). Since ancient times, the Skeena has been an important transportation artery, particularly for the Tsimshian and the Gitxsan—whose n ...

Foley, Welch and Stewart Foley, Welch and Stewart was an early 20th-century American-Canadian railroad contracting company. It was owned and operated by Patrick Welch and J.W. Stewart of Spokane, Washington and T. Foley of Saint Paul, Minnesota. The company was created ...

for construction work on the

Grand Trunk Pacific Railway The Grand Trunk Pacific Railway was a historic Canadian transcontinental railway running from Fort William, Ontario (now Thunder Bay) to Prince Rupert, British Columbia, a Pacific coast port. East of Winnipeg the line continued as the National Tra ...

from 1909 until 1911. She was built at Robertson's yard in Coal Harbour, Vancouver, in 1908. The other four were the ''

Conveyor A conveyor system is a common piece of mechanical handling equipment that moves materials from one location to another. Conveyors are especially useful in applications involving the transport of heavy or bulky materials. Conveyor systems allow ...

'', the '' Operator'', the ''

Distributor A distributor is an enclosed rotating switch used in spark-ignition internal combustion engines that have mechanically timed ignition. The distributor's main function is to route high voltage current from the ignition coil to the spark plugs ...

'' and the '' Omineca''. Three of these, the ''Conveyor'', the ''Operator'' and the ''Distributor'' were built at

Victoria, British Columbia Victoria is the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Greater Victoria area has a population of 397,237. Th ...

in 1908 by Alexander Watson Jr.

Skeena River

The ''Skeena'' began her work on the Skeena River in 1909 under the command of Captain Magar. She and the other four Foley, Welch and Stewart sternwheelers had their work cut out for them. The construction of the railway from

Prince Rupert Prince Rupert of the Rhine, Duke of Cumberland, (17 December 1619 (O.S.) / 27 December (N.S.) – 29 November 1682 (O.S.)) was an English army officer, admiral, scientist and colonial governor. He first came to prominence as a Royalist cavalr ...

to Hazelton was one of the most difficult sections of track that would ever be laid in North America. This 186 mile stretch would take nearly four years to build and would employ thousands of workers. The ''Skeena'' was unique in that she was used primarily for delivering food supplies to the work camps along the river. In fact, she carried so much of meatpacker

Pat Burns Patrick John Joseph Burns (April 4, 1952 – November 19, 2010) was a National Hockey League head coach. Over 14 seasons between 1988 and 2004, he coached in 1,019 games with the Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs, Boston Bruins, and New Jer ...

products that she was often mistakenly called his boat.

Fraser River

In 1914, Captain

Charles Seymour Charles Seymour (January 1, 1885 – August 11, 1963) was an American academic, historian and the 15th President of Yale University from 1937 to 1951. As an academic administrator, he was instrumental in establishing Yale's residential colleg ...

purchased the ''Skeena'' and took her down to the

Fraser River The Fraser River is the longest river within British Columbia, Canada, rising at Fraser Pass near Blackrock Mountain in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for , into the Strait of Georgia just south of the City of Vancouver. The river's annual d ...

. For eleven years the devotion of her skipper-owner kept her plying the river past

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

Coquitlam Coquitlam ( ) is a city in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, Canada. Mainly suburban, Coquitlam is the List of cities in British Columbia, sixth-largest city in the province, with a population of 148,625 in 2021, and one of the 21 municipa ...

, Maple Ridge,

Langley Langley may refer to: People * Langley (surname), a common English surname, including a list of notable people with the name * Dawn Langley Simmons (1922–2000), English author and biographer * Elizabeth Langley (born 1933), Canadian perfor ...

and

Mission Mission (from Latin ''missio'' "the act of sending out") may refer to: Organised activities Religion *Christian mission, an organized effort to spread Christianity *Mission (LDS Church), an administrative area of The Church of Jesus Christ of ...

. But when Captain Seymour died in 1925 she lost her only advocate and was sold and converted to a floating

barge Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels ...

for an oil company. Her departure ended the historic era of sternwheelers on the lower Fraser River.

References

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Notes

{{Steamboats British Columbia Paddle steamers of British Columbia 1909 ships Steamboats of the Skeena River

Skeena River

Fraser River

See also

References

Notes