Pert (sidewheeler)

{{Infobox ship image

|Ship image=Pert (steamboat) at Canal Flats 1894.JPG

|Ship caption=Pert

}}

{{Infobox ship career

|Hide header=

|Ship name=Pert

|Ship owner=Upper Columbia Navigation & Tramway Co.McCurdy, H.W., ed., H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest, at 191, Superior Publishing, Seattle, WA 1966 {{ISBN|0-87564-220-9}}

|Ship operator=

|Ship registry={{Flag|Canada|1868}}

|Ship route=Inland British Columbia on the Columbia River in the Columbia Valley

|Ship ordered=

|Ship builder=Fred Wells

|Ship original cost=

|Ship yard number=

|Ship way number=

|Ship laid down=

|Ship launched=

|Ship built= 1887 (unpowered); engines added 1890

|Ship christened=

|Ship acquired=

|Ship maiden voyage=

|Ship in service=

|Ship out of service=Abandoned 1905

|Ship identification=CAN #107826Affleck, Edward L., A Century of Paddlewheelers in the Pacific Northwest, the Yukon, and Alaska, at 57, Alexander Nicholls Press, Vancouver, BC 2000 {{ISBN|0-920034-08-X}}

|Ship fate=Abandoned 1905

|Ship notes=

}}

{{Infobox ship characteristics

|Hide header=

|Header caption=

|Ship type=inland passenger/freighter

|Ship tonnage=6.5 gross tons; 4 registered tons

|Ship displacement=

|Ship length={{convert|50|ft|m|0|lk=on|abbr=on}}

|Ship beam={{convert|10|ft|m|0|lk=on|abbr=on}}

|Ship height=

|Ship draught=

|Ship draft=

|Ship depth={{convert|2.6|ft|m|0|lk=on|abbr=on}} depth of hold

|Ship decks=

|Ship deck clearance=

|Ship ramps=

|Ship ice class=

|Ship sail plan

|Ship power=unpowered bateau 1887–1890; converted to sidewheel and first steam engine installed 1890, details unknown; second engine installed 1900: high-pressure single-cylinder vertically mounted 5-inch bore by 6-inch stroke, 6.44 nominal horsepower, built by Albion Iron Works.

|Ship propulsion=sidewheels

|Ship speed=

|Ship capacity=

|Ship crew=

|Ship notes=

}}

Pert was a sidewheel steamboat that operated in British Columbia on the Columbia River from 1887 to 1905, often transporting large loads of timber. Pert was also known as Alert and City of Windermere at times.

Design and construction

Pert was built at Golden, British Columbia, by Fred Wells, who named the vessel Alert. The vessel seems to have been originally built as a bateau, that is, an unpowered river vessel propelled by oars or by poling along the river. An engine and sidewheels were installed in 1890.

Operations

File:Portage tramway at Canal Flats BCA B-03720.JPG

In 1891, Capt. Frank P. Armstrong started operating Pert as part of his steamboat line, the Upper Columbia Navigation & Tramway Co. (UCN&T) to operate on the headwaters of the Columbia River above Golden, an area which is known as the Columbia Valley. From 1892 to 1898, Armstrong ran Pert on Columbia Lake.

=Use on Columbia Lake=

The river flowing out of Columbia Lake was often too shallow for a steamboat, and so UCN&T built a mule or horse-drawn tramway extending to the northern end of Columbia Lake. Cargoes bound south to the valley of the upper Kootenay River would be loaded on the tramway, and pulled to the wharf on the lake, then loaded on Pert. The steamboat would then paddle south across the lake to the portage at Canal Flats. The cargo would then be unloaded and portaged over to the Kootenay River. When Pert was running on the river, a canal and lock connected Columbia Lake with the Kootenay River. The canal was not much used; only three steamboat transits were ever made.

=Sale=

In 1898 Armstrong sold Pert to Capt. Alex Blakely, who rebuilt the vessel into a propeller-driven towboat with a new name, City of Windermere. In 1903, Blakely sold it to Capt. E.N. Russell, who changed the vessel's name back to Pert and ran her on Windermere Lake and the upper Columbia River from 1903 to 1905.

Abandonment

Pert was abandoned in 1905 on Windermere Lake.