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Annual General Conference Assemblée générale annuelle

Edmonton, Alberta

June 6-9, 2012 / 6 au 9 juin 2012

Yukon Sternwheelers and the SS Klondike

Ken Johnson AECOM

Abstract: The construction of the White Pass & Yukon Route (WP&YR) railway in 1900 from Skagway Alaska to Whitehorse, Yukon brought the supply centres of Vancouver and Seattle, 1600 kilometres closer to the Klondike region of the Yukon. The previous river supply route to Dawson was 2400 kilometres long and started at St. Michael, Alaska, at the mouth of the Yukon River on the Bering Sea. With the construction of the railway to the head of navigable water on the Yukon River, the river supply route was reduced to an 800 kilometre trip down the Klondike River from Whitehorse to Dawson City. Sternwheelers became a vital part of Yukon transportation, and the Yukon River sternwheelers were designed to carry heavy cargoes downstream on a light draft and make the return trip upstream with lighter loads. The S.S. Klondike was one of these sternwheelers, originally built in Whitehorse, in 1929 by the British Yukon Navigation Company. With a cargo capacity 50 percent greater than other boats on the river at the time, it was the first sternwheeler on the Yukon River large enough to handle a cargo in excess of 272 tonnes (300 tons) without having to push a barge. Carrying general cargo and a few passengers, the S.S. Klondike would make the downstream run from Whitehorse to Dawson City – a distance of some 740 kilometres (460 mi.) in approximately 36 hours with one or two stops for wood. The upstream journey back to Whitehorse, would take four or five days and six wood-stops. The SS Klondike is now a National Historic Site of Canada.

1. Sternwheelers on the Yukon River

In 1866 the SS Wilder became the first sternwheeler to paddle up the Yukon River. Three years later the Alaska Commercial Company introduced the regular use of sternwheelers on the lower Yukon River within the Territory of Alaska. For the remainder of the 1800's sternwheelers were used to supply the trading posts on the lower Yukon River. Operating from the port of St. Michael, Alaska, near the river's mouth on the Bering Sea, sternwheelers would carry freight and supplies, as well as fur traders and prospectors, during the short May to October navigation season.

The Klondike gold rush created a stampede of 30,000 people that overwhelmed the few sternwheelers on the river at the time. During the summer of 1897, 30 new boats were put into service on the Yukon River, and by the end of the 1897 season 60 sternwheelers were in operation on the Yukon River system. Most of these new boats operated on the lower river, below Dawson City from St. Michael, however sternwheelers were also operating on the upper Yukon river carrying people and supplies from the end of the Chilkoot and White Pass Trails to Whitehorse.

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Figure 1. Routes to the Klondike goldfields

The sternwheelers operating on the upper river travelled between Bennett (at the northern end of the Chilkoot and White Pass trails) and Canyon City, 8 kilometres upstream of Whitehorse. Rapids prevented further sternwheeler travel below Canyon City and a horse drawn tramway, running on wooden rails, was used to carry goods around Miles Canyon and the Whitehorse Rapids to a different sternwheeler downstream of the rapids. Below the rapids from Whitehorse, it was a relatively easy 740 kilometre (460 mile) journey by sternwheeler down the upper Yukon River to Dawson City.

2. Rail and River - A Perfect Combination

On July 6, 1899, the extreme challenge of getting over the coastal passes above Skagway and Dyea was eliminated when the White Pass and Yukon Railway (WP&YR) was completed between Skagway and Bennett. A year later the rail line was completed all the way to Whitehorse bypassing both Bennett and Canyon City, thus eliminating two freight transfer points. It was now possible for goods and passengers to be transported from the port Skagway to Dawson City with only a single transfer point from railway to boat in Whitehorse.

With the completion of the rail line, WP&YR moved quickly to extend its transportation monopoly to the river as well as the rail by establishing the British Yukon Navigation Company (BYNC). Within a short period of time BYNC succeeded in buying out all of the river boat competition establishing a monopoly on the transportation of goods and people in and out of Yukon Territory. This dominance of transportation that would serve the Yukon Territory for the next fifty years. Although the gold rush was short lived, the development of an efficient transportation system established Whitehorse as the supply centre for the Yukon River basin, and Dawson City as one of the down river points it served.

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Figure 2. The rail and river monopoly of the White Pass and Yukon Railway company.

3. After the Gold Rush

While mining continued in the Klondike district, corporate mining interests were acquiring Klondike mining claims and mechanized gold dredges were replacing hand mining operations. Individual hand miners meanwhile fanned out to work other rivers in the upper Yukon basin in search of a new bonanza.

One such river was the Stewart, which flows into the Yukon River 112 km upstream of Dawson City. It was known as the “grubstake river”, where one could reliably make enough to finance further exploration. In 1914 a hard rock silver find on a tributary of the Stewart River started a staking rush, and in 1918 a second, even richer, ore body was discovered on nearby Keno Hill which attracted the attention of corporate mining interests. By 1923 the value of silver coming out of the Mayo District had bypassed the value of gold coming out of the Klondike and the settlement of Mayo, at the head of navigation on the Stewart River, replaced Dawson City as the supply centre for the new silver mining district.

For BYNC, Mayo District silver was a boon because unlike placer gold, which was processed where is was mined, Mayo District silver was found as a component of galena, a silver lead mineral, that needed to be shipped out as ore in order to be further processed. Sternwheelers that had previously returned to Whitehorse empty now had a payload, with sacks of silver lead ore for the return trip.

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The transportation opportunity did not come without challenges because the Stewart River is shallower than the Yukon, limiting the use of Yukon River sternwheelers to the brief period of the spring flood. In 1922 BYNC built the S.S. Keno for use on the Stewart River, which was smaller than the Yukon River sternwheelers, and therefore could continuously transport supplies to Mayo and carry ore back down to Stewart Landing at the confluence of the Stewart and Yukon Rivers. At Stewart Landing the ore would be transferred onto the Yukon River sternwheelers that would stop there on their return trip from Dawson to Whitehorse.

The Yukon sternwheelers working the main river in the 1920's did not exceed 52 meters (170 feet) in length or 10.5 meters (35 feet) in width. They could carry about 200 tonnes of cargo on a shallow draft of 1.2 meters (4 feet), however, in order to economically move ore they needed to push barges to carry the ore. This meant that the upstream run took half again as much time and fuel. The solution to moving ore upstream to Whitehorse more efficiently was to build the ore carrying S.S. Klondike.

Figure 3. Hull of sternwheeler under construction

4. The Original Ship - SS Klondike I

The SS Klondike was in fact it was the name of two sternwheelers, and both boats ran freight between Whitehorse and Dawson City along the Yukon River from 1929 to 1936, and 1937 to 1950, respectively.

The S.S. Klondike I was built in Whitehorse, in 1929 by the BYNC. The paddle wheeler had a shallow draft, and it was specifically designed and constructed to eliminate the need to push a barge when carrying the heavy ore sacks coming out of the Mayo silver mining district upriver to Whitehorse. With a cargo capacity 50 percent greater than other boats on the river at the time, it was the first sternwheeler on the Yukon River large enough to handle a cargo in excess of 272 tonnes (300 tons) without having to push a barge.

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The boat had a length of 64 m (210 feet) and a width of 12.5 m (42 feet), with a hull depth of 1.5 m (6 feet) and a loaded draught of 1 m (3.3 feet). The gross tonnage was 1226 tonnes (1362 t) and the cargo capacity was 270 tonnes (approx 300 t). The boat operated with a crew of 23 in 1940 and carried seventy-five 1st & 2nd Class passengers.

Figure 4. Construction at Whitehorse Shipyards showing the installation of futtocks (ribs)

The construction of the SS Klondike was a major undertaking for the Whitehorse Shipyards given its size, and the fact that all of the construction materials were brought in from the outside. The construction of the sternwheeler shipyard involved a well staged construction project. The initial stage was the laying out of the keelsons (multiple keel sections) and the box cribbing support system. Futtocks (ribs) were constructed adjacent to the main construction and sequentially installed at 400 mm (16 inches) on centre. The futtocks were generally built from sections of wood including the "knees" or curved transitions from the bottom to the straight sides; the majority of the knees were laminated sections of wood that were bolted together. However "grown" knees were used where the transition occurred from the straight sides to the beginning of the rounding of the hull.

The planking for the boat building was equivalent to a grade #1 douglas fir (construction grade), which means that material had to mainly clear with up to 15% knots permitted in a uniform distribution. Any knots would be very tight, and no more than 19mm in diameter, and with a frequency of no more than one knot per meter of length. The lumber milling had to be "off the heart center" with no sapwood, and no less than 12 growth rings per 25 mm (inch) of thickness. To cut the planking a shipyard bandsaw was used (42" dia. wheel) for the cutting of the rolling bevels required for the hull planking.

The engines of the SS Klondike were 2 compound jet-condenser type producing 390 kilowatts (525 horsepower), and the boiler was a locomotive type (fire tube) manufactured in 1901 with a working pressure of 1270 kpa (184 psi).

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Figure 5. Steam engine power supply

Initially the S.S. Klondike I operated between Whitehorse and Stewart Landing about 550 kilometers downriver. On the downstream run it would carry freight bound for the Mayo Mining District to the east of Stewart Landing. On the return trip it would carry silver-lead ore from the Mayo District that had been brought down the Stewart River aboard smaller sternwheelers such as the S.S. Keno. In Whitehorse the ore would be transferred to the WP&YR for shipment by rail to Skagway, Alaska.

The effects of the depression soon saw the S.S. Klondike moved to the Whitehorse to Dawson City run where it carried both passengers and freight, though it continued to be regarded primarily as a cargo vessel. Carrying general cargo and a few passengers, the S.S. Klondike I would make the downstream run from Whitehorse to Dawson City – a distance of some 740 kilometres (460 mi.) in approximately 36 hours with one or two stops for wood. The upstream journey back to Whitehorse, including a stop at Stewart Landing to take on ore, would take four or five days and six wood-stops.

The Klondike I ran aground in 1936 in the area known as Thirty Mile, and the wood hull of the boat was totally wrecked. The accident occurred when the riverboat was coming around a bend in the river on its way north. This bend had a rock bluff on the west side, and navigating around this sharp point required considerable skill and consideration of a tricky current. The pilot failed to make allowances for the current and the Klondike slid and crashed into the rock bluff tearing out the whole side. After hitting the bluff, the boat hit a rock that tore the steering loose; the Klondike then started to drift without steering down the river, with the crew attempting to get a line to shore, however the current was too strong. The Klondike drifted on the Yukon River before it came to rest on a sandbar.

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Figure 6. SS Klondike I wreck at Thirty Mile in 1936.

5. The Replacement - SS Klondike II

Immediately after the wreck of the SS Klondike I the BYNC completed a salvage operation and the top most decks and the mechanical systems were used to build the Klondike II the following year. The total cost of the reconstruction was $105,000. The S.S. Klondike II was a virtual carbon copy of the predecessor built in the Whitehorse shipyards and launched in May, 1937.

Figure 7. Spring launching of the SS Klondike at the Whitehorse Shipyards

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The outbreak of World War 2 resulted in a decline in silver prices and consequently the early 1940's were lean years for the Klondike as the freight handling capacity was not required. One entire season was spent on the dry dock of the of the Whitehorse Shipyard. Another was spent working on the lower river in support of the war effort, transporting freight and personal for the building of the Alaska Highway. Increased silver-lead ore production in the late 1940's put the Klondike back into regular service, but the opening of an all weather road between Whitehorse and Mayo in 1950 saw the career as an ore hauler come to an end. It continued on the Whitehorse to Dawson run until 1952 when the Mayo Road was extended to Dawson, signaling an end to the era of riverboat transportation on the Yukon River.

In an attempt to salvage the career of their flagship, BYNC refurbished the S.S. Klondike as a cruise ship. Though the trips were popular, the high cost of operation ended the brief sojourn as a passenger ship. In August 1955 the S.S. Klondike II, the last sternwheeler working on the Yukon River, steamed into Whitehorse for the final time and it was beached in the Whitehorse shipyards.

Figure 8. Dining room for first class passengers on SS Klondike II

6. S.S. Klondike Legacy as a National Historic Site

In 1960 the S.S. Klondike II was donated to the government of Canada by WP&YR. In 1966 it was moved from the Whitehorse Shipyards on the north side of Whitehorse to the present location where it has undergone several stages of restoration. The intent of the restoration is to maintain the integrity of the structural framing, mechanical systems, original materials, historic fabric, and the interior and exterior functional organization of the boat. Also significant to the S.S. Klondike is its proximity and visual access to the Yukon River for the purposes of historical interpretation.

A major stabilization project was completed from 1974 to 1979 to repair or replace structural hull components which are badly deteriorated. A second major restoration occurred from 2000 to 2004 with the intent re-canvassing of the vessel; upgrading of the sprinkler system (fire suppression system); arresting of dry rot within the hull and the superstructure, including the replacement of rotting timbers, conserving original wood when possible, and repainting of the vessel.

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Figure 9. Reconstruction of hull of SS Klondike II

Another notable part of the 2000 to 2004 restoration work the reconditioning of an old shipyard bandsaw (42" dia. wheel) from the Parks Canada industrial artifact collection in Dawson City. With this saw back in service, cutting of the rolling bevels required for the hull planking was made that much easier and greatly increased the productivity of the shipwright crew.

The SS Klondike now sits in permanent retirement overlooking the Yukon River. It was formally designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1967.

Figure 10. SS Klondike National Historic Site in Whitehorse.

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References

Habiluk, Pat. Project Manager for 2000 to 2004 SS Klondike Restoration Project. Personal Communications. 2011 and 2012.

Parks Canada. SS Klondike Hull Stabilization. 2003.

Parks Canada. S.S. Klondike National Historic Site of Canada: Management Plan. http://www.pc.gc.ca/lhn-nhs/yt/ssklondike/plan