Inlander
{{short description|Ship}}
{{For|the people|Inlanders (disambiguation){{!}}Inlander (disambiguation)}}
{{Other uses|The Inlander (disambiguation){{!}}The Inlander}}
| {{Infobox Ship Begin |display title=ital}}
{{Infobox Ship Image |Ship image=Inlander at Kitselas Canyon.gif |Ship caption=Inlander on the Skeena River }} {{Infobox ship career |Hide header= |Ship country=Canada |Ship flag={{shipboxflag|Canada|1868}} |Ship name=Inlander |Ship ordered= |Ship builder=Spratt shipyards at Victoria, British Columbia |Ship laid down=1909 in Victoria |Ship launched=spring of 1910 for the Skeena River |Ship acquired= |Ship commissioned= |Ship decommissioned= |Ship in service=1910–1912 |Ship out of service= |Ship renamed= |Ship struck= |Ship reinstated= |Ship honours= |Ship captured= |Ship fate= Abandoned at Port Essington, British Columbia |Ship notes=Captain Joseph Bucey 1910-11 Captain John Bonser 1911-12 }} {{Infobox Ship Characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption= |Ship class= |Ship length={{convert|135|ft|m|1|abbr=on}} |Ship beam={{convert|28|ft|m|1|abbr=on}} |Ship speed=12 knots |Ship draft={{cvt|17|in|m}} empty {{cvt|30|in|m}} loaded |Ship hold depth= |Ship propulsion= |Ship complement= |Ship armament= |Ship notes= }} |
Inlander was a sternwheeler that worked on the Skeena River in British Columbia, Canada, from 1910 until 1912. She was owned by the Prince Rupert and Skeena River Navigation Company which was a syndicate of Skeena River businessmen who planned to use the Inlander as a passenger and freight steamer during the busy years of Grand Trunk Pacific Railway construction.{{cite book|last=Bennett|first=Norma|title=Pioneer Legacy: Chronicles of the Lower Skeena River|year=1997|publisher=Dr. REM Lee Hospital Foundation
|isbn=0-9683026-0-2|pages=231, 232}}
Her route took her from Port Essington to Hazelton, over {{cvt|180|mi|order=flip}} of one of the most treacherous rivers that was ever used for steam navigation.{{cite book |last=Downs |first=Art |title=Paddlewheels on the Frontier Volume 1|year=1971|publisher=Foremost Publishing|isbn=0-88826-033-4|page=61}}
Captains and crew
The Inlander{{'}}s first captain was Joseph Bucey, who had been the pilot of the sternwheeler {{ship||Hazelton|sternwheeler|2}}. Some of the other officers were Robert Ryder, who was the chief engineer and Jerry Cunningham, the ship's mate. Wiggs O'Neill was the purser. O'Neill became the foremost historian on the Skeena River sternwheelers and in his later years wrote Steamboat Days on the Skeena River and Whitewater Men of the Skeena. Wiggs Creek near Smithers is named in his honour.{{BCGNIS|39099|Wiggs Creek}}
Captain Bucey left the Inlander in 1911 and appeared the following year as the captain of the {{ship||BC Express|sternwheeler|2}} on the Fraser River.
For the rest of the 1911 season and through to her final voyage in the fall of 1912, the Inlander was piloted by Captain John Bonser. It was fitting that Bonser piloted the last sternwheeler on the Skeena River, as he had pioneered it twenty years earlier in 1892 for the Hudson's Bay Company in the Caledonia, naming many of the rapids and canyons along the route. The Inlander was the last of many notable riverboats under Bonser's command, among them, the Nechacco and the Northwest.{{cite web| last =Roger Knowles Thompson| title =Steamboating Uphill| url =http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~jtenlen/ORBios/bonser.txt| access-date = 2007-07-08}}
Final voyage
File:Sternwheeler Inlander.jpg 1911]]
By 1912, the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway had reached Hazelton from Prince Rupert and sternwheelers were no longer required on the Skeena River. One by one they departed until the Inlander was the last one left. Some like the {{ship||Operator|sternwheeler|2}}, {{ship||Conveyor|sternwheeler|2}} and {{ship||Skeena|sternwheeler|2}} went on to work on the Fraser River, while others like the Hazelton were dismantled. The Inlander left Hazelton for the final time at noon on September 10, 1912. Captain Bonser blew the Inlander{{'s}} whistle as a final farewell to the crowd that had gathered on the shore. When she reached Port Essington, the Inlander was pulled up onto her slipway and simply left to rot. Like the Inlander, Captain Bonser had also made his final voyage. He died the following year on December 26, 1913.
Historical artifacts
The Inlander{{'s}} paddlewheel shaft (or axle) was recovered years after she had perished in Port Essington. The shaft is now on public display in Halezeton.
A large scale replica model of the Inlander was built by Lyle Krum (Terrace, British Columbia). It is on display at a museum near Terrace.{{cite book |last=Downs |first=Art |title=Paddlewheels on the Frontier Volume 1|year=1971|publisher=Foremost Publishing|isbn=0-88826-033-4|pages=72}}{{Rp|72}}
See also
Notes
{{Reflist}}
References and further reading
- {{cite book
|last=Bennett
|first=Norma
|title=Pioneer Legacy: Chronicles of the Lower Skeena River
|year=1997
|publisher=Dr. REM Lee Hospital Foundation
|isbn=0-9683026-0-2}}
- {{cite book
|last=Downs
|first=Art
|title=Paddlewheels on the Frontier Volume 1
|year=1971
|publisher=Foremost Publishing
|isbn=0-88826-033-4}}
External links
- {{cite web
| last =Roger Knowles Thompson
| title =Steamboating Uphill
| url =http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~jtenlen/ORBios/bonser.txt
| access-date = 2007-07-09}}
- {{BCGNIS|39099|Wiggs Creek}}
{{Skeena River steamboats}}{{Steamboats British Columbia}}