In 1838, the Hudson Bay
Company's Beaver was the first steamboat to travel up the Fraser
River to Langley, but regular river transportation didn't happen until gold was
discovered in Yale, British Columbia in 1858. With the gold rush on, and the Fraser
River the only available highway, steam-powered riverboats were suddenly in demand.
Surprise, a sidewheeler from
California, was the first paddlewheeler to serve British Columbia's gold rush.
She entered the Fraser River on June 5, 1858 and reached Fort Hope the next day.
Umatilla was the first sternwheeler
on the Lower Fraser River, and was the first steamboat to reach Yale in July of
1858.
Eventually, the railroad replaced the paddlewheelers, and the last riverboat to
carry passengers on the Lower Fraser River was Skeena in 1925.
Sternwheelers vs. Sidewheelers
Sternwheelers were the perfect riverboat for the Fraser River. Their shallow hull
allowed them to cross the river's ever-shifting bars, and the use of lightweight
planks made it easier for the boat to float in shallow water, and to manoeuvre
through the river's unpredictable water levels.
Unlike a sidewheeler, a sternwheeler could push her nose onto the riverbank while
keeping the paddle slowly turning in deeper water in the middle of the river.
This flexibility made sternwheelers invaluable in the rugged Fraser Canyon during
the gold rush of the 1850's and 1860's. After the gold rush, the riverboats continued
to work, serving the needs of the farmers and other settlers throughout the Fraser
Valley. Because the sternwheelers didn't need a wharf, they could stop at any
farm alongside the river.
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Debris - Dangerous to Riverboats
Drifting lumber, snags, and deadheads could
damage paddlewheels or even sink unsuspecting vessels. And every spring, the freshet
carried silt, sediment, and other debris down the river, damaging docks and bridges,
and dangerously interfering with navigation
The riverside communities needed the waterways to be kept clear, and in 1883,
the Canadian Federal Government ordered that a special riverboat be designed and
built to maintain the Lower Fraser River. The first Samson was created.
Samson - a Snagpuller
Between 1884 and 1980, five steam-powered sternwheelers
bore the name "Samson" and performed the role of snagpuller on British
Columbia's Fraser River. Each Samson had a distinctive A-frame
at the bow of the main deck. This was for the winch,
used to snag and bring aboard debris and other material floating in the river.
Samson's main job as snagpuller was to keep the waterways safe by
removing snags, or logs and deadheads. These could sink a vessel or destroy a
fisherman's nets. And there's a lot of other work to do on a river; in addition
to removing the debris, Samson was also called on to:
- repair docks
- change batteries in lighted buoys
- paint navigation aids, or
- retrieve buoys accidentally knocked off station
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The End of an Era
When Samson V retired in 1980, it was the last steam-powered paddlewheeler
operating in Canada, one of a handful left in the world. It marked the end of
an era of steam on the Fraser River that began in 1838 with the first voyage of
the Hudson's Bay steamer Beaver up to Fort Langley. For the rest
of the nineteenth century and well into the twentieth, steamships of one sort
or another were the principal means of moving people and goods along the river.
The Federal Government sold Samson V to the City of New Westminster
for $1.00, and in October 1983, the Samson V Maritime Museum officially opened
on the waterfront at Westminster Quay, New Westminster, British Columbia.
