Northern Ships and Shipping

Dateline: January 10, 2026.

    The information on the Gov. Pingree / Bonanza King that follows is simply a cut-and-paste from my database, compiled from a wide variety of sources.

• U.S. Reg. #86414, registered at Seattle; C.S. Reg. #107851

• wooden sternwheeler; 140.3 feet long, 31.3 foot beam, 5.8 foot hold; gross tonnage was 466.03, registered as 260.48 tons. Two decks, carvel build, square stern. Licenced for 20 first-class passengers, 40 second-class; accommodation for 21.

• powered by a pair of horizontal high-pressure non-condensing engines, with 2 steel boilers, all built by Washington Iron Works. The engine cylinders had 16 inch diameter and 72 inch stroke, producing 17 NHP.

• 1898, hull built in Seattle by the San Francisco Bridge Company; towed north by the Brixham in May 1898 (Affleck). Finished at Dutch Harbour as the Gov. Pingree - named for Hazen S. Pingree, mayor of Detroit 1889-1897, and governor of Michigan 1897-1901. Sister ship of the Philip B. Low.

• operated by the Boston Alaska Transportation Company. The crews were taken on in Seattle on 18-month contracts, with free transportation back to Seattle at the end of the 1899 season (KN,May 17, 1899).

• n.d., tokens used on board, possibly to operate a music machine. Graphic below from Hill and Simpson, "Yukon Numismatica".
  

• September 24, 1898, first arrived at Dawson, with 91 tons of freight (KN,Oct.15). The company by then was in financial trouble, the Philip B. Low having already been seized by the government for non-payment of wages. September 29, 1898: "The steamers Pingaree and Plow, with two barges, arrived at Dawson City yesterday with mounted police and Yukon force supplies. Immediately on their arrival Captain Pierce, in charge of the supplies, laid information against certain members of the crew and passengers for looting. One of the men was arrested, and the others are under police surveillance. The captain relates an astonishing tale of mismanagement and lawlessness in the American Yukon Territory. His experience of the trip reads like a chapter in one of Robert Louis Stevenson's novels, and is hardly credible. Frauds, mutiny, fire, shipwreck, starvation and threatened murder are all reported. The boats will proceed to Selkirk in a few days." (The Windsor Star, October 20th, 1898)

• 1898, the Bonanza King and Eldorado were bought for $90,000 (also reported as $40,000 - KN,May 17,1899) by successful Bonanza Creek bench miner Nels Petersen; he operated the boats under the name "The Yukon Flyer Line". It was probably at this time that the boat was renamed Bonanza King, and transferred to Canadian registry. The nameboards on the boat were not changed for some time after the official change, causing some confusion for historians. Petersen lost money on the venture, but went to Nome and hit it rich again (MacBride; Berton).

• ca. September 1898, to evade the law which closed the saloons from midnight Saturday until 2AM Monday, 368 people, "largely gamblers, dance hall girls and theatrical men" boarded the Bonanza King for a trip into U.S. waters; another 100 were on the TYRRELL. One of the boats ran out of fuel, and another had engine trouble, but the party was a huge success (Berton).

• 1898-1899, wintered in a slough 101 miles above Dawson; arrived at Dawson on May 23, in thick ice (KN,May 24).

• May 1899, registered owner was Dawson lawyer Phillip Sheridan.

• May 27, 1899, ad in The Klondike Nugget.
  

• 1899 season crew: Captain James Lee; Pilot, Captain W.Sydney France; purser, W. W. Watson.

• Sunday, May 28, 1899, chartered by Sparks, Chisholm and Edwards for an excursion to Fortymile; "the carrying capacity of the steamer is 400 passengers but in order to insure the comfort of their patrons, the gentlemen who have chartered the boat will limit the number to 300. A full string orchestra and brass band will be carried and the excursionists will be regaled with fine music to their hearts' content. ... In order that nothing may occur to mar the enjoyment of anyone it has been decided that no liquors shall be sold or taken aboard by passengers." The fare for the 12-hour excursion is $5. (KN,May 27).

• June 12, 1899, assisted at the wreck of the James Domville on the Thirty Mile River; she took off the 28 passengers, 70 tons of freight and 500 sheep. At Lake Lebarge she then took on 4,500 pounds of fish and at Fort Selkirk picked up a barge with 85,000 feet of lumber for Dawson (KN,June 17).

• 1900, on the Whitehorse-Dawson run. For most of the season, medical inspections were required as boats arrived at Dawson. The Bonanza King arrived on July 12, 22, August 5 and 16; after August 24, the inspections were done at Log Cabin (GOV 1684,f.71).

• August 27, 1900, sunk in the Thirty Mile River; raised and repaired.

• 1900 season, the purser was Frank H. Hall; over the winter, Hall went to the East Coast and bought a load of fresh oysters, which he then took to Dawson. It took him 16 days to get to Dawson from Whitehorse; he arrived on December 31, 1900 (Knutson).

• April 14, 1901, sold at Sheriff's auction for $7,500, to M.McDougal of the Victoria Market. The Eldorado was also up for bid, but only $3,500 was offered on a reserve of $7,500 (KN,Apr.14)

• 1902, laid up in July and August for lack of cargo. She "has not proved a success, she lacks carrying capacity, and power, and is too deep draught." (COR722).

• 1903, launched, but laid up for entire season.

• December 15, 1903, the WP&YR applied to the Customs office in Whitehorse for a refund of the $45.28 paid for the boat's annual Inspection Certificate; in late April, the fee had been eliminated (GOV 1678,f.11-1).

• 1904, the entire machinery from the Sybil was installed in Bonanza King, at a cost of $10,759.95. With the new machinery she is, as a tow boat, "unsurpassed in economy in our entire fleet". The hull of the Sybil was then converted to a barge for use by the Bonanza King, but has not worked out well due to narrow, low design. Bonanza King's old boiler was installed in the Whitehorse Shops, "with a gratifying reduction in fuel consumption." (COR722)

• 1905, Canadian, Casca, Columbian and Victorian converted to burn coal from the Tantalus mine: Bonanza King is already on coal.

• 1906, pilot is John Murray, father of Phil Murray, deckboy killed in the Columbian explosion on September 25.

• May 29, 1907, while heading downstream with 100 tons of cargo and a barge with 200 tons of coal, struck a rock in Rink Rapids and sunk. Lake Lebarge was not yet open, so CANADIAN got a wrecking crew under Captain Bloomquist halfway down the lake, then they went the rest of the way to the wreck by canoe. From June 2-6, a crew transferred the cargo to the VICTORIAN, siphoned the flooded compartment, and raised her by placing straps under the hull, with barges on each side; when a temporary patch would not work, she was taken to Dawson suspended between the barges. She was repaired, and went back into service July 10. The total cost of the wreck and repairs was $9,943.30 (COR722).

• 1909 season crew: Master, Charles Bloomquist; pilot, Harry C. Baughman; mate, Edward Gray; second mate, McCormick; Chief Engineer, Frank Mavis; second engineer, Hutchinson; purser, Bicknell (was to have been Theodore M.Watson); steward, Dodd.

• mid-June 1910, sent to the head of Lake Lebarge to sluice out a channel in the low water, using her wheel (COR722).

• July 2 1910, and again on the next trip, hit the cliffs while going down through Five Fingers. She was carrying livestock the first trip, and damage was only $48.20; on the next trip, "she had all dead freight and damage was considerably greater."

• July 29, 1910, sunk at Five Fingers; raised and repaired.[?]

• 1910 was the last season she was used; sidetracked at Whitehorse.

• 1926, her boiler was put into the White Horse, improving both her cargo capacity and fuel consumption (COR723).

• winter 1928, on the ways at Whitehorse.

• ended life as a lumber storage shed at Whitehorse.

Ad in The Klondike Nugget, August 30, 1899

The Bonanza King at Dawson, ca. 1899
Yukon Archives: Jacobsen collection, 86/91, #7

"Flyer Line Steamer Bonanza King leaving Dawson for White Horse Rapids, Friday, September 22
on her last trip for this season..." - 1899.
BC Archives #C-04990

Gov. Pingree/ Bonanza King at Dawson, ca. 1900
Yukon Archives #833

The Gov. Pingree in the Thirty Mile, 1900
The name had been changed to Bonanza King by this time, but the old nameplates are still in place.
Photo by E. A. Hegg (Yukon Archives #2688)

The Bonanza King leaving Whitehorse, pushing a gold dredge. Date not known.
BC Archives #A-06336

The Bonanza King behind a hull, date not known.

The Bonanza King and Yukon Rose, date not known.

The Bonanza King as a storage shed, ca. 1943
Yukon Archives: Dept. of National Defence collection, PHO 419, 91/37, #PL21193)