SS Klondike
N 60° 42.805 W 135° 02.890
8V E 497371 N 6730868
Located on the banks of the Yukon River in Whitehorse, Yukon and restored to her original 1937-40 appearance, the S.S. Klondike pays tribute to an era of riverboat transportation and the inland water transportation system that linked the Yukon to the outside world before the advent of roads.
Waymark Code: WM5W97
Location: Yukon Territory, Canada
Date Posted: 02/19/2009
Views: 34
The British Yukon Navigation Company (BYN Co.) sternwheel fleet plied the upper Yukon River between Whitehorse and Dawson City for the first half of the Twentieth Century. The S.S. Klondike was the largest of the BYN Co. fleet. Built in Whitehorse, in 1929 and of shallow draft, she 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, she 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.
Initially the S.S. Klondike operated between Whitehorse and Stewart Landing. On her downstream run she would carry freight bound for the Mayo Mining District. On her return trip she 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 - Dawson City run where she carried both passengers and freight, though she continued to be regarded primarily as a cargo vessel.
The career of the S.S. Klondike came to an abrupt end in 1936 when the vessel sank on a section of the Yukon River known as the Thirty Mile. BYN Co. immediately built the S.S. Klondike II, a virtual carbon copy of her predecessor, which was launched in the spring of 1937 continued to work the Whitehorse - Dawson City run until 1952 when the Mayo Road was extended to Dawson.
In an attempt to salvage the career of their flagship, BYN Co. refurbished the S.S. Klondike as a cruise ship. Though the trips were popular, the high cost of operation ended her brief sojourn as a cruise ship. In August 1955 the S.S. Klondike II – the last sternwheeler working on the Yukon River – steamed into Whitehorse for the final time.
The S.S. Klondike II was donated to the government of Canada in 1960. In 1966 she was moved from the Whitehorse Shipyards to her present location where, restored to her original appearance, she now sits in permanent retirement overlooking the Yukon River. She was formally designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1967.
Is there a tour: Seasonally - consists of a 20 minute video followed by a 45 minute tour of the boat.
If boat is a garden what was planted in it: Not a garden
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