A. J. Goddard
 |
|
| History | |
|---|---|
 
|
|
| Owner: | Albert J. Goddard (USA) |
| Route: | Upper Yukon River (Canada) |
| In service: | 1898–1901 |
| Fate: | Sank, 22 October 1901 |
| General characteristics | |
| Length: | 50 ft (15 m) |
| Propulsion: | Steam powered sternwheeler |
| Crew: | 5 |
A. J. Goddard was a Klondike Gold Rush era sternwheeler owned by Seattle businessman Albert J. Goddard and built for transport of men and supplies on the Upper Yukon River in Canada. She was assembled from pieces which were manufactured in San Francisco, shipped up to Skagway, Alaska, hauled over the Coast Mountains, and finally assembled at Lake Bennett. She made one trip to Dawson during the gold rush, was sold and sank in a storm on Lake Laberge in 1901. Her wreck was discovered in 2008 by Doug Davidge and was designated as a Yukon Historic Site.
Albert J. Goddard, who owned and gave name to steamboat A. J. Goddard, was a Seattle businessman who owned a foundry and had expertise in fabrication and steam engineering. When the Klondike Gold Rush started he saw an opportunity to make a profit by transporting prospectors. He intended to supply them with a river boat on upper Yukon and bought parts for two small prefabricated steamboats from San Francisco which were transported north in pieces to Lake Bennett where they were reassembled by new company The Upper Yukon Company. They used the White Pass Trail or a combination of this and the parallel Chilkoot Trail and they arrived at Bennett Lake by March 1898. Thousands of men and women were camped at the lake, waiting for the ice to go out, building boats and rafts. Over the course of weeks the company assembled two 16-metre steel sternwheelers on the shores of the lake. The A.J. Goddard was completed first, followed by the F.H. Kilbourne.
On May 28, 1898, the ice went out on Bennett Lake. Thousands of boats took to the water within 48 hours and headed for the Dawson City. The A.J. Goddard appears to have departed Bennett on June 2, 1898, reaching Tagish Lake the next day just to return and wait for the river to get free of ice. On June 16, 1898, it departed Lake Bennett and headed for Dawson. It proceeded under its own power through the difficult stretch of Miles Canyon, only the third sternwheeler to accomplish this. It arrived in Dawson City on June 21 with ten passengers and a crew of eight as the first sternwheeler to do so in 1898. Later, it was one of the first sternwheelers to make the return trip upstream from Dawson to Whitehorse Rapids. Albert Goddard’s wife Clara accompanied him on the voyage, and was later honoured as the first female riverboat pilot on the Upper Yukon River.
...
Wikipedia