The Marion was a 61 ft. passenger/freight vessel built near Golden in 1888. Built for the Upper Columbia River service, this vessel was transferred in 1897 to service Kootenay Lake. Photo: The Nauticapedia

An excerpt from the summer issue of British Columbia History

By Robert G. Allan

When thinking of shipbuilding in BC, you’d probably picture coastal cities and towns where, indeed, most BC ships have been built. The last place you’d imagine is the rugged Interior. However, look at the extensive array of lakes and rivers that subdivide this province and the major north-south transportation routes they represent—there must have been local vessel construction to serve these important travel and trading routes.

Ship construction in the Interior has seen cycles of activity over time, beginning with the gold rushes in the Yukon and in BC in the late nineteenth century, and then again when the oil exploration boom and potential pipeline construction in the 1960s and 1970s in the Northwest Territories resulted in vessels being built for operation in the northern rivers of BC and Alberta as well as in the Mackenzie River system.

Limiting this discussion to “commercial” vessels (as distinct from the numerous successful small pleasure-craft builders located in the Interior of BC), a review of shipbuilding activity in the BC Interior shows the following numbers and types of vessels recorded over the past 165 years.

The Lytton was a 131 ft. passenger/freight vessel built in 1890 for the Columbia and Kootenay Steam Navigation Company, in Nelson. In 1890, it was in service between Revelstoke and Little Dalles, WA. From 1897 to 1904 it was owned by the Canadian Pacific Railway. Photo: Royal BC Museum and Archives

Passenger and freight vessels

Clearly the Klondike gold rush of the 1890s resulted in the most significant number of vessels built per decade, mostly on the shores of Bennett Lake. These vessels were described as “passenger/freight vessels” or “freighters,” and they ranged in length from about 30 to 160 feet (9 to 48 metres). Many vessels were also built in this period for other routes as the population in the Interior expanded. The busiest routes were on Okanagan Lake, the Columbia River, the Arrow Lakes, and the upper and lower Fraser River.

Images of vessels typical of this era clearly illustrate that many (but certainly not all!) were quite sophisticated vessels.

The Clifford Sifton was built in 1898 on Bennett Lake for the Dominion Steamboat Line. In 1900 the vessel was taken through the Whitehorse Rapids. In 1904, it was wrecked in an ice jam near Klondike City. Photo: The Nauticapedia

Steel barges and workboats

Freight-carrying vessels, mostly sternwheelers, dominated those early years; however, as steel construction became more widespread after the 1950s, many barges and smaller workboats were built in BC for local and northern projects. Interior fabricators were able to offer lower prices than conventional coastal shipyards, especially for simple vessels where “shipwright” skills were unnecessary. Barges generally only require good panel-welding capability, and no compound curvature or other “ship complexities” are involved. Many barges and a few simple tugboats were built by and for Streeper Brothers Marine Transport, who operated a shallow-draft barging service out of Dawson Creek and Fort Nelson into the Athabasca and Mackenzie River systems.

The images show larger working vessels that were built in the Interior during this busy period. Later, in the 1990s, a number of large logging truck ferries were built for trips across Babine and Williston Lakes.

The Argenta was a 92 ft. vessel built in 1900 at Mirror Lake, south of Kaslo. From 1900 to 1910, it was in service on Kootenay Lake. The vessel was broken up in 1910 and machinery and fittings sold. Photo: The Nauticapedia 

Coastal vessels with roots in Salmon Arm

One interesting aspect of the Interior shipbuilding story is the construction of at least six west coast trollers in Salmon Arm between 1964 and 1969 by Ernest Wahl of the famed Wahl family, who built many dozens of highly regarded west coast fishboats from their yard in Prince Rupert. According to Ryan Wahl, “Indeed Ernest had a shop in Salmon Arm on the Shuswap. The boats were built and transported in sections and assembled at the coastal location, including Steveston, I believe.” [1]

The reason for this apparent anomaly is documented in Legacy in Wood, written by Ryan Wahl about the family's boat-building enterprise. The Wahl’s boat-building shop in Prince Rupert burned down in 1966 and to continue the business, Ernest Wahl purchased an old building in Salmon Arm: “It was a two-storey high chicken coup (sic). Like a place for raising chickens. And then he just ripped the top floor right out of it. It was probably 50 or 60 feet long and 20 feet wide.” [2] Boats were built there in sections, then trucked down to the Lower Mainland for final assembly and outfitting.

The Slocan was built in Rosebery in 1897. It was owned by the Canadian Pacific Railway. It was rebuilt in 1905 and operated until 1928. Photo: The Nauticapedia 

Not built in the Interior

In addition to these “local” builds, many vessels which served in the Interior were built on the West Coast (or on the Great Lakes) and transported by truck or rail, usually in sections, then reassembled on the shores of the BC lake or river in their service areas. Despite the historic significance of some of these vessels, for the purposes of this article they don’t qualify as built in the Interior! This applies in particular to a number of ferries with long service histories in the Interior.

The Arctic Eagle (now RDV/Gator) was a pusher tug built in 1975 in Fort Nelson. Photo: The Nauticapedia 

Sandy Point, a west coast troller built by Ernest Wahl in Salmon Arm in 1967. Photo taken in Nanaimo, 2020. Captain Ernest Greenaway (1929-2017) restored the Sandy Point in the 1990s and owned it until 2017. Photo: Shelley Greenaway

Preserved for history

Inland vessels currently preserved for public display were all built elsewhere and shipped to BC for assembly and operation. Though, thankfully, these vessels have been saved as a testament to the inland vessel operations in BC, unfortunately the builders have not been similarly acknowledged. However, even these vessels’ longterm survival is by no means assured.

The inland vessels which are currently preserved for historical purposes include the following:

SS Moyie

The Moyie is a sternwheeler built in 1898 for the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) that operated on Kootenay Lake from 1898 until 1957. Designated as a national historic site in Canada and on the BC Register of Historic Places, the Moyie is dry-berthed in Kaslo.

The SS Moyie had a lengthy career on Kootenay Lake, but has now been a museum longer than it was in service. Photo: Greg Nesteroff  

The Moyie is the world’s oldest intact passenger sternwheeler, with registered dimensions of 161.7 ft. x 30.1 ft. x 5.1 ft. The hull was built by Bertram Iron Works of Toronto.

The upper works were built in BC by the CPR under the direction of J. Bulger at a build cost of $41,275. The SS Moyie is in the custody of the Kootenay Lake Historical Society. Given the vessel’s status as a National Historic Site, its long-term preservation is somewhat assured, but maintaining an old wooden vessel fully exposed to the elements is a significant challenge.

SS Naramata

The Naramata is a steel-hulled, steam-powered tugboat commissioned by the CPR and prefabricated in 1913 in Port Arthur (now part of Thunder Bay), Ontario, at a cost of $40,000. Assembled at the Okanagan Landing shipyard, the Naramata served the farmers and communities of Okanagan Lake towing barge-loads of fruit and other local produce to local markets and distribution centres, until being retired in 1967. It was subsequently dry-berthed in a sand berm in Penticton but has experienced hull deterioration. The tug was recognized in 1975 as a designated provincial heritage site.

Today the vessel’s caretaker, the SS Sicamous Marine Heritage Society, is focused on the preservation of the Naramata by raising the entire vessel out of the wet sand so the hull can be repaired and properly coated for long-term protection from the elements. Currently that work is not funded or assured.

The Naramata. Photo: Greg Nesteroff

SS Sicamous

SS Sicamous is a steam-powered sternwheeler built for the CPR in 1914 and used to transport passengers and cargo to communities along Okanagan Lake. The ship continued in that service until 1936.

Measuring 228 ft. x 40.0 ft. x 8.0 ft., the Sicamous was built at Western Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Company shipyard in Port Arthur, transported by rail in sections, and reassembled at the Okanagan Landing shipyard. Today it is dry-berthed in Penticton and is functioning as a museum cared for by the SS Sicamous Marine Heritage Society. It is regrettably NOT recognized as a national historic site in Canada, so its longterm preservation rests on the goodwill of the City of Penticton and the patrons and supporters of the vessel.

The SS Sicamous was one of the three largest sternwheelers to ply inland waters. Photo: Greg Nesteroff

Merriwake

An historic vessel on a smaller scale is the coastal gillnetter Merriwake. The connection to the Interior is its historic association with the internment of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War, and the fact that it is now kept in the Kootenays as a tribute to its builders and original owners, from whom the boat was seized.

The following extract from the “Statement of Significance” by the Slocan Valley Historical Society well describes Merriwake’s story:

The Merriwake is a 9.4 metre single-screw Japanese Canadian gillnetter fishing boat of wooden construction. The heritage value of the Merriwake resides in its nationally important historical associations and in the physical properties of the vessel itself. It is valuable for being a rare surviving example of one of 1,137 coastal fishing boats owned and operated by Japanese Canadians that were confiscated by the federal government during World War II. It is also valuable for demonstrating the skilled craftsmanship within the large pre-war Japanese Canadian boat building industry. The boat was built on the BC North Coast in 1929 and was

known as S.C. 73 and Sucia 2 before taking the name Merriwake. It was most likely built in Cow Bay in Prince Rupert, a centre of Japanese Canadian boatbuilding.… The construction of the boat has been attributed to the Matsumoto Family, one of the main fishing boat builders in 1920s and 1930s Prince Rupert. During Internment in the Slocan Valley during the Second World War the Matsumoto family used their carpentry skills to build many of the shacks that housed their fellow Japanese Canadians. [3]

After a life on the coast, Merriwake is currently owned by the Slocan Valley Historical Society.

The Merriwake prior to its restoration. Photo: Slocan Valley Historical Society

Register of historic vessels needed

This brief look into the once significant role that shipbuilding has played in the development of the interior of BC, and the lack of remaining evidence of that work highlights the absence of a central, focused department within the provincial or federal governments to preserve or even to document and celebrate the maritime history of this province. At present only the amazing database that is The Nauticapedia identifies the vessels that have helped to build this province. It is hoped that the creation of a formal register of historic vessels of BC and western Canada will go a long way to remedying that unfortunate situation.

Where are they now?

Given the extensive list of vessels built in the Interior, it is worth questioning what has become of them. The notes about many of the gold-rush era boats indicate quite clearly that the lives of these boats were typically short as they were lucky to survive the rugged and demanding river and lake service for even 20 years. After that, if the vessel was not wrecked, many became “barges” for miscellaneous cargoes, but frequently the records indicate the vessel was dismantled and the machinery reused. It is not apparent that any Interior-built vessels from before 1950 still exist.

Notes

[1] Ryan Wahl, personal communication with author, March 2025.

[2] Wahl, personal communication with author, March 2025.

[3] “Statement of Significance,” Slocan Valley Historical Society, 2020.

Robert G. Allan is an award-winning, third-generation naval architect, following his father and his grandfather, who began working as an independent consulting naval architect in BC in 1928. Robert is executive chairman of Robert Allan Ltd., the most senior company in its field in Canada, and well-regarded internationally. A graduate of the University of Glasgow, Robert is a Registered Professional Engineer (retired) in BC, a Fellow of both the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers and the Royal Institution of Naval Architects. He is a recognized authority on escort tugboat design and has authored numerous papers and several textbook chapters on the subject of tugboat and workboat design.