Gwendoline (sternwheeler)
_on_Columbia_River,_BC_ca_1896.JPG)
Gwendoline on the Columbia River ca 1894
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| History | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Gwendoline (CAN #100805) |
| Owner: | Upper Columbia Navigation & Tramway Co. |
| Route: | Kootenay River in Montana and British Columbia; Columbia River in the Columbia Valley of British Columbia |
| Builder: | Frank P. Armstrong |
| Launched: | 1893, at Wasa, BC |
| Fate: | Fell off flat car into canyon during rail transport in June 1889 and destroyed |
| Notes: | Wrecked in Jennings Canyon in May 1897 collision with Ruth but returned to service. |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | inland passenger/freighter |
| Tonnage: | 91 gross tons; 57 registered tons |
| Length: | initial:63.5 ft (19 m); as rebuilt:98 ft (30 m) |
| Beam: | 19 ft (6 m) |
| Depth: | 3.2 ft (1 m) depth of hold |
| Installed power: | twin steam engines, horizontally mounted, 8" bore by 36" stroke, 4.3 nominal horsepower, manufactured by R. McCrae, of Tilsonburgh, Ont. |
| Propulsion: | sternwheel |
Gwendoline was a sternwheel steamer that operated on the Kootenay River in British Columbia and northwestern Montana from 1893 to 1899. The vessel was also operated briefly on the Columbia River in the Columbia Valley.
Gwendoline was built in 1893 at Wasa, BC on the Kootenay River for the Upper Columbia Navigation & Tramway Co. of which Capt. Frank P. Armstrong (1859-1923) was a principal.
Some time in 1893 or 1894 Armstrong took Gwendoline north to Columbia Lake and the Columbia River through the Baillie-Grohman canal at Canal Flats, BC. In 1894 Armstrong returned the vessel south back to the Kootenay River.Gwendoline thus became one of only two steamboats (the other was North Star) to use the canal. Because North Star, being longer than the canal's one lock, had actually destroyed the lock in order to make her transit, Gwendoline was only steamboat to use the canal twice, and the only one to use it in a conventional way.
In 1896 Gwendoline was operated on the route from Canal Flats to Fort Steele, BC. During this time the vessel was lengthened from 63.5 ft (19 m) to 98 ft (30 m).
Gwendoline was wrecked in Jennings Canyon in May 1897 in a collision with Ruth, another sternwheeler of the Upper Columbia Navigation & Tramway Co. Both vessels were bound downriver. Ruth under Capt. L.B. Sanborn first entered the canyon, with 16 passengers and 80 tons of ore on board. Halfway through the canyon, a log caught in Ruth's sternwheel, which threw the vessel out of control and caused to swing broadside blocking the channel. Gwendoline under Captain Armstrong then came down the river less than an hour later, and smashed into Ruth. Fortunately no one was killed.
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