Alpha (sternwheeler)
| {{Infobox ship begin
|infobox caption= |display title= }} {{Infobox ship image |Ship image=Sternwheeler Alpha, moored.jpg |Ship image size= |Ship caption=The sternwheeler Alpha in 1878 }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship name=Alpha |Ship owner= |Ship operator= |Ship registry= |Ship route= |Ship ordered= |Ship builder= |Ship original cost= |Ship yard number= |Ship way number= |Ship laid down= |Ship launched= July 5, 1873 |Ship completed= |Ship christened= |Ship acquired= |Ship maiden voyage= |Ship in service= |Ship out of service= |Ship identification= |Ship fate=Ran aground April 1885 |Ship notes= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption= |Ship class= |Ship type= |Ship tonnage= |Ship displacement= |Ship length= |Ship beam= |Ship height= |Ship draught= |Ship draft= {{convert|1|ft|m|abbr=on}} |Ship depth= |Ship decks= |Ship deck clearance= |Ship ramps= |Ship ice class= |Ship sail plan= |Ship power= |Ship propulsion= |Ship speed= |Ship capacity= |Ship crew= |Ship notes= }} |
Alpha was a wooden steamship that operated on the rivers of Manitoba, Canada.
She was launched on July 5, 1873. Her builder and first owner was J.W. "flatboat" McLane. His ownership was complicated by his British citizenship, since the Alpha would routinely have to cross the US-Canadian boundary while traveling from Grand Forks, Minnesota to Fort Garry, Manitoba. So, she was sold to the Kittison Line.
She had a reputation as being one of the fastest vessels in Manitoba, and one capable of proceeding during periods of shallow water, as her draft was just {{convert|1|ft|spell=in}}.
Her accommodation was very cramped.
Running aground did not always end the career of prairie steamboats, but it did end the career of Alpha, when she ran aground on the Assiniboine River in April 1885.
Her grounding was due to human error. Her captain took a risk, during flood time. He risked taking a short-cut, by deviating from the river's channel and proceeding across an isthmus that he knew was dry land, during low water.
The wreck was left high and dry, when the flood passed. Locals cannibalized some of the ship's fitting and sound lumber. Silt from subsequent floods buried the wreck site, so the exact site was lost.
The wreck was re-exposed, in 1958, when that year's flood cut a new channel through the wreck-site. Her rudder is now housed in a maritime museum in Selkirk, Manitoba.
References
{{Reflist|refs=
{{cite news
| url = https://www.gov.mb.ca/chc/hrb/internal_reports/pdfs/Steamboats_Rivers_Lakes_Manitoba.pdf
| title = Steamboats on the Rivers and Lakes of Manitoba 1859-96
| work = Manitoba Archives
| author = Martha McCarthy
| date = 1987
| page = 36
| archiveurl =
| archivedate =
| accessdate = 2020-11-30
| quote = Aboard the Alpha, 15 men slept in a little cabin only 3.6m (12 ft.) square.
}}
{{cite book
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=vrDYBgAAQBAJ&dq=%22Northland+Sun%22&pg=PT153
| title = Fire Canoe: Prairie Steamboat Days Revisited
| author = Ted Barris
| author-link = Ted Barris
| date = 26 September 2015
| publisher = Dundurn Press 2015
| isbn = 9781459732100
| archiveurl =
| archivedate =
| accessdate = 2020-08-22
| quote =
}}
{{cite news
| url = http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/sites/alpha.shtml
| title = Historic Sites of Manitoba: SS Alpha Shipwreck (RM of Victoria)
| publisher = Government of Manitoba
| author =
| date = 2016-12-31
| page =
| location =
| accessdate = 2017-01-15
| quote =
}}
{{cite news
| url = http://www.virtualmanitoba.com/FalseStarts/4alpha.htm
| title = The S.S. Alpha and the River Routes
| publisher = Virtual Manitoba
| author =
| date =
| page =
| location =
| accessdate = 2017-01-15
| quote =
}}
}}
Category:Water transport in Manitoba
Category:Ships built in Manitoba
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