Northern Ships and Shipping

Roster of Yukon/Alaska Sternwheelers

    This ship is the first British Yukon Navigation Company (BYN) sternwheeler by that name. She sunk below Hootalinqua on June 12, 1936, when the captain misjudged a corner and hit the bank.

    The information on the Klondike that follows is simply a cut-and-paste from my database, compiled from a wide variety of sources, primarily the White Pass & Yukon Route corporate records (COR 722) at the Yukon Archives and newspapers including the Whitehorse Star (Star). If you have any other information about this boat, please drop me a line.

• Canadian Shipping Registry #116627.

• wooden sternwheeler; 210.25 feet long, with 42.1 foot beam and 6.35 foot hold. Gross tonnage 1,284.7, registered at 1,040.85 tons; licenced for 50 passengers. Design is transom stern, carvel build and stem head, with 6 bulkheads. Maximum freight hold height is 6.35 feet.

• the engine room is 29.5 feet long, housing 2 horizontal tandem, compound-condensing steam engines built in 1929 by Gillett & Eaton of Lake City, Minnesota. The engines have 2 cylinders, with 17 inch diameter on the high pressure side and 28 diameter on the low pressure side, 72 inch stroke, developing 70.15 NHP, 525 BHP at 16 RPM. The steel boiler was a locomotive type, with 242 tubes, built in 1898 by Polson, and rated to 184 lbs. pressure. Minter reports the boiler date as 1901, and states that it came from the Yukoner. Mills states that the boat was not new construction, but an unknown boat rebuilt - the date of the boiler tends to reinforce that.

• 1928-1929, built at Whitehorse by the British Yukon Navigation Company; designed specifically to carry 300 tons of ore from Mayo.

• launched July 5, 1929; on July 7th she received her Certificate of Inspection (see image blow).

• July 17, 1929: following a trial trip, she was put into regular service between Whitehorse and Stewart City. Prior to her launch, the best trip from Stewart to Whitehorse with the Aksala was 5 days, 7 hrs, 5 min., with 300 tons of ore, burning 133 cords of wood. The Klondike could do it with 325 tons in 4 days, 1 hr., burning 82 1/2 cords (COR723).

• it has a Foster-Wheeler economizer installed in the stack; it uses the waste heat from the stack to pre-heat the feed water before it goes into the boiler, "the direct result being increased economy in fuel consumption and easier steaming conditions." (COR723).

• in 1929, the 4-day-trip to Dawson cost $35. for first-class accommodation, $25. for second-class. The trip back to Whitehorse, taking up to 4 days, cost $55. and $40.

• operated on the upper river run; was a very fast, efficient boat.

• 1930, a flax seed filtrator was installed; by treating the feed water with an emulsion made by boiling the flax seed, the scale is removed from the boiler, and does not form again (COR723).

• from the fall of 1930 until August 14, 1933, she was on the ways at Whitehorse due to decreased ore hauls from the Stewart. In 1933, she was brought out to replace the Casca, which had a broken wheel shaft (COR723).

• 1934, 4 rooms were added to the Texas deck due to increased tourist traffic; the work was accomplished in one day.

• 1935 crew:
      - Deck Dept.: C. M. Coghlan, D. McKay, M. Macaulay, J. Wakefield, G. R. Bidlake, H. G. Brown, A. I. Halkett, F.C. Herron, W. Israel, A. M. A. Keay, H. Bates, S. Keay and J. Hamilton.
      - Engine Dept: J. S. Scotland, F. L. Young, C. T. Townsend, A. Rushworth and D. McLean.
      - Stewards: W. McGregor, J. P. Greenwood, H. Dean, J. M. Davidson, G. McKay, W. Riding, and L. Salmon.

• June 12, 1936, sank below Hootalinqua when Captain C. M. Coghlan misjudged a corner and hit the bank. Only the engine was salvaged. Read three newspaper articles about the wreck here.

Klondike at Whitehorse shipyards, probably just after she was launched in 1929
(Yukon Archives #4026)

The first Inspection Certificate for the Klondike, 1929
(Yukon Archives: GOV 1684, f.77)
Click to greatly enlarge it in a new window.

Salvage work on the wreck of the Klondike, 1936. Photo by F. L. Young, an engineer on the Klondike.
Parks Canada collection.