 SSGrahame, atFort McMurray, in 1899 | |
| History | |
|---|---|
| Name | S.S. Grahame |
| Owner | Hudson's Bay Company |
| Builder | John W. Smith |
| Laid down | 1882 |
| Launched | 1883 |
| General characteristics | |
| Length | 135 ft (41 m) |
SSGrahame was a wooden sternwheeledsteamship built inFort Chipewyan, District of Athabasca, by theHudson's Bay Company in 1882–1883 for service on theAthabasca River, lowerPeace River, theClearwater River, and the upperSlave River.[1][2]
Grahame was the first steam powered vessel in the region.[3]
The engines were built in the south, and shipped overland.The ship was 135 feet (41 m) long, and could carry 140–150 tons of cargo.[4]Construction began under the direction of John W. Smith in August 1882, andGrahame was completed in September 1883 and began regular service in the district in the summer of 1884.[5]
The vessel carried an official delegation fromCanada's federal government to negotiateTreaty 8 with theFirst Nations in 1899.[4]
The Hudson's Bay Company launched theGrahame at Fort Chipewyan in 1883 for service on the Athabasca, lower Peace, and upper Slave rivers. This ship could carry 140 tons. According to theEdmonton Bulletin, "The Indians were terribly astonished at their first sight of a steamboat". It ran from Fort McMurray to Smith's Landing, up the Clearwater River to the Methye Portage, and up the Peace River to the Vermilion Chutes.
McKay's father had worked as a deckhand on theGrahame, a Hudson's Bay Co. sternwheeler built in Fort Chipewyan with milled lumber, its furnace and boilers hauled north from Edmonton. Launched in 1883, theGrahame picked up freight and passengers below the rapids on the Athabasca, churning between Fort McMurray, Fort Chip and Fort Smith.
The Hudson's Bay Company sternwheeler steamer, the SS Grahame, made its first trips on the Athabasca and Clearwater Rivers in 1883 marking the arrival of sternwheeler travel to the area. The trip from Athabasca for river to Fort McMurray was an adventurous and extremely dangerous one as scows and later paddle steamers had to traverse the Grand Rapids.
Transportation in the North was further changed by the appearance in 1883 of the steamboatGrahame. Built by the Hudson's Bay Company at Fort Chipewyan, theGrahame was a 135-foot vessel capable of carrying 150 tons of freight. It travelled the Athabasca and Slave rivers between Fort McMurray and Smith's Landing (Fort Fitzgerald).
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