Mount Royal (sternwheeler)

Mount Royal was a sternwheeler that worked on the Skeena River and Stikine Rivers in British Columbia, Canada, from 1902 until 1907. She was named after Lord Strathcona who was also known as Donald Smith, 1st Baron Strathcona and Mount Royal.[1]

Mount Royal was owned by the Hudson's Bay Company which also owned Caledonia and Strathcona. These sternwheelers were used to serve the communities along the river before and during the construction of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. During her six seasons of service, Mount Royal was piloted by Captain SB Johnson.[1]

Mount Royal was built to run against Hazelton a privately owned sternwheeler that worked as a passenger and freight steamer for Robert Cunningham.[2]

Construction and launch

The wreck of Mount Royal

In 1907, Captain Johnson was still in charge of Mount Royal. On the afternoon of July 6, he was returning from Hazelton and was steaming through the Kitselas Canyon, when disaster struck. A strong wind pushed her into a large rock formation named Ringbolt Island, wedging her crosswise against the current. Luckily, she held while the passengers and crew scrambled to safety on the shore. Johnson assessed the situation and decided that Mount Royal could be saved and with ten crewmen, he returned aboard. He had decided that the best way to deal with this problem was to use the capstan to winch the sternwheeler back over Ringbolt Island. This proved to be a disastrous decision. The king post broke and rammed through the bottom of Mount Royal and she buckled as the current washed over her, then she rolled upside down and broke into pieces. Although Johnson survived, six of the crewmen drowned, including the first officer. One of the four survivors was rescued by George Little, who would later become the founder of the town of Terrace. George and a companion spotted the wrecked hull as the wreckage floated past the community of Kitselas. Curious, they paddled out to it and saw a hand waving at them from a hole in hull. The survivor was Mount Royal 's chief engineer, Ben Maddigan, who was trapped in the bilge and filthy, but unhurt. After George Little chopped him out, Little commented that there must have been some air down there. The exhausted engineer replied, "I don’t know about air, but there was one hell of a lot of water!" [2]

There was a strongbox aboard Mount Royal when she sank, and the strongbox contained an undisclosed amount of money. The strongbox was never recovered. An estimate of the amount in the strongbox is about $700. The box contained both paper and coin. It has also been stated that there was a large shipment of gold-dust from either the Omineca Country or Lorne Creek on board. The gold dust theory may be a fabrication. Many ill-equipped attempts have been made to recover the strongbox, but all have failed.[4]

country	Canada
flag	Canadian Red Ensign 1868-1921.svg
builder	Alexander Watson
laid down	1901 in Victoria, British Columbia
launched	first attempt April 9, 1902 successfully launched several days later
in service	1902-1907
fate	Wrecked in Kitselas Canyon, six lives lost
notes	Captain SB Johnson

Mount Royal (sternwheeler)

Construction and launch

Sternwheeler race on the Skeena

The wreck of Mount Royal

See also

References