SS Keenora
{{Short description|Canadian steamboat}}
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{{Infobox ship image |Ship image=Keenora Museum.jpg |Ship caption=Keenora at Marine Museum of Manitoba }} {{Infobox Ship Career |Hide header= |Ship country=Canada |Ship flag={{shipboxflag|Canada|1868}} |Ship name=Keenora |Ship namesake= |Ship owner= |Ship operator= |Ship registry= |Ship route= |Ship ordered= |Ship awarded= |Ship builder= |Ship original cost= |Ship yard number= |Ship way number= |Ship laid down=1896 |Ship launched=1897 |Ship sponsor= |Ship christened= |Ship completed= |Ship acquired= |Ship commissioned= |Ship recommissioned= |Ship decommissioned= |Ship maiden voyage= |Ship in service=*1897–1917
|Ship out of service=1966 |Ship renamed= |Ship reclassified= |Ship refit= |Ship struck= |Ship reinstated= |Ship homeport= |Ship identification= |Ship motto= |Ship nickname= |Ship honours= |Ship honors= |Ship captured= |Ship status= Museum ship since 1973 |Ship fate= |Ship notes= |Ship badge= }} {{Infobox ship characteristics |Hide header= |Header caption= |Ship class= |Ship type= |Ship tonnage= |Ship displacement= |Ship tons burthen= |Ship length={{cvt|158|ft|m}} |Ship beam= |Ship height= |Ship draught= |Ship draft= |Ship depth= |Ship hold depth= |Ship decks= |Ship deck clearance= |Ship ramps= |Ship ice class= |Ship power= |Ship propulsion= |Ship sail plan= |Ship speed={{convert|15|kn}} |Ship range= |Ship endurance= |Ship test depth= |Ship boats= |Ship capacity= |Ship troops= |Ship complement= |Ship crew= |Ship time to activate= |Ship sensors= |Ship EW= |Ship armament= |Ship armour= |Ship armor= |Ship aircraft= |Ship aircraft facilities= |Ship notes= }} |
File:Indian pilot on Steamship Keenora, Lake of the Woods.jpg
SS Keenora is a steamboat on Lake Winnipeg. The vessel began operations on Lake of the Woods in Ontario, where from she was transported to Winnipeg, Manitoba and rebuilt. Retired in the 1960s, Keenora is the centrepiece of collection at the Marine Museum of Manitoba in Selkirk, Manitoba.
History
File:Steamship "Keenora" at port (I0029868).tiff, photograph taken between 1900–1909.]]
The steamboat Keenora was built in 1897 for passenger and cargo traffic along the Ontario's Lake of the Woods, where she ran successfully for over a decade, serving isolated communities on the lake as distant as Rainy River. When the Ontario and Rainy River Railway was built in 1901 traffic volumes began to decline, following the takeover of this railway by Canadian Northern Railway in 1915, the vessel was sold to a consortium of Winnipeg lawyers. Keenora was dismantled and transported in sections to Winnipeg on railroad flatcars in 1917.
Once reassembled in Winnipeg, she received an additional {{convert|30|ft|m|adj=on}} extension to her hull, increasing her overall length to {{convert|158|ft|m}}. For a season the ship served as a floating dance hall in downtown Winnipeg, but was later assigned to cargo and passenger traffic on Lake Winnipeg and the Red River. A total of 65 passenger cabins were constructed, and a new machinery was installed. The machinery guaranteed a speed of {{convert|15|kn}}.
The regular route started from Winnipeg, with a turnaround point located at the northern end of Lake Winnipeg, at Warren Landing on the Big Mossy Point. From Warren Landing the passengers and cargo were transferred to a smaller steamboat, which covered the last {{convert|30|km|mi}} to Norway House. Keenora was too large to enter the shallow Nelson River.
Keenora{{'}}s career ended in the 1960s when she could not meet the new maritime regulations. At first the ship was destined to be scrapped, but was salvaged to be the cornerstone of Marine Museum of Manitoba's collections.
Further reading
- Russell, Frances: Mistehay Sakahegan: The Great Lake, {{ISBN|1-896150-10-1}} (Heartland Associates Publishing and Communications)
External links
{{commons category|Keenora (ship, 1897)}}
- [http://www.marinemuseum.ca/ Marine Museum of Manitoba (Selkirk) Inc.]
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{{Oldest surviving ships (pre-1919)}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Keenora}}
Category:Water transport in Manitoba
Category:Museum ships in Canada
Category:Museum ships in Manitoba
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