Alpha (sternwheeler)

Alpha was a wooden steamship that operated on the rivers of Manitoba, Canada.[1] She was launched on July 5, 1873.[1][2] Her builder and first owner was J.W. "flatboat" McLane.[3] 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.

The sternwheeler Alpha in 1878
History
Name: Alpha
Launched: July 5, 1873
Fate: Ran aground April 1885
General characteristics
Draft: 1 ft (0.30 m)

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 one foot (0.30 m).[1]

Her accommodation was very cramped.[4]

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.[1][2]

Her grounding was due to human error.[3] 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 isythmus that he knew was dry land, during low water.

The wreck was left high and dry, when the flood passed.[3] 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.[3] Her rudder is now housed in a maritime museum in Selkirk, Manitoba.[1][2]

References
  1. "The S.S. Alpha and the River Routes". Virtual Manitoba. Retrieved 2017-01-15.
  2. "Historic Sites of Manitoba: SS Alpha Shipwreck (RM of Victoria)". Government of Manitoba. 2016-12-31. Retrieved 2017-01-15.
  3. Ted Barris (26 September 2015). Fire Canoe: Prairie Steamboat Days Revisited. Dundurn Press 2015. ISBN 9781459732100. Retrieved 2020-08-22.
  4. Martha McCarthy (1987). "Steamboats on the Rivers and Lakes of Manitoba 1859-96" (PDF). Manitoba Archives. p. 36. Retrieved 2020-11-30. Aboard the Alpha, 15 men slept in a little cabin only 3.6m (12 ft.) square.


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