SS Bonnington

"Bonnington" was a sternwheel steamboat that ran on the Arrow Lakes in British Columbia from 1911 to 1931. "Bonnington" and two sisterships were the largest sternwheelers ever built in British Columbia. "Bonnington" was partially dismantled in the 1950s, and later sank, making the vessel the largest freshwater wreck site in British Columbia.

Design and Construction

Need for construction

Steam navigation on the inland lakes of British Columbia was dominated by the River and Lake Service of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Since the early 1890s the River and Lake Service had maintained steamboat service on Okanagan, Arrow and Kootenay lakes. By 1910, with the important exceptions of the composite-hulled "Moyie" on Kootenay Lake and "Minto" on the Arrow Lakes, the wooden-hulled steamers of the River and Lake Service were starting to wear out and would need replacement. This time however the hulls of the replacements would be made of steel, although the cabins would be built of wood. It was also planned to greatly increase the passenger capacity of the vessels. The goal was to develop the entire Kootenay and Arrow Lakes area into a major tourist destination, as the C.P.R. had done with BanffDowns, Art, "Paddlewheels on the Frontier -- The Story of British Columbia and Yukon River Sternwheel Steamers", at 13-14, 129-130, Superior Publishing, Seattle, WA 1972]

imilar vessels built at same time

"Bonnington" was a near twin of the steamers "Naskookin" and "Sicamous" built shortly afterwards on Kootenay and Okanagan lakes respectively. Unusually for a sternwheeler, "Bonnington" was equipped with compound steam engines, which were manufactured by Polson Iron Works of Toronto, Ontario. The vessel's steel hull was also manufactured by Polson Iron Works and was then shipped in pieces to Nakusp where it was assembled at the Bulger shipyard and the upper works, built of wood, were constructed.

Design innovations

While there were many variations, a typical steamer of the inland lakes, and in fact of most of British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest, had three decks.
* The main deck, sometimes called the freight or weather deck, carried the boiler, and the engines for the vessel, as well as crew quarters, the kitchen, and space for freight.
* The saloon or passenger deck, typically had a large common area overlooking the bow. Down the middle of the cabin would be the saloon, which was not a bar but a large dining room. Passenger cabins flanked the saloon all the way to the stern, where there would generally be another large common area. Typically one common area would be called the "ladies saloon" while the other would be the smoking saloon, which by customs of the time meant men only.
* The texas or hurricane deck, was the topmost deck on the typical steamer. The ship's lifeboats would be placed on this deck. On this deck sometimes a third set of cabins would be placed, called the "texas". Generally the texas was reserved for cabins of the ship's officers, but sometimes, as in the case of "Minto" the texas would include passenger cabins.
* The pilot house, where the ship's wheel was located, was usually placed either in front of or on top of the texas. The advantage of having the pilot house on top of the texas was improved visibility, while the disadvantage was increased windage.

"Bonnington" would break the three-deck pattern and, with "Nasookin" and "Sicamous" become the only sternwheel steamer with four decks to run in the Pacific Northwest. These three vessels were built with deck called the "gallery" deck above the saloon and below the texas deck. This was called the "gallery" deck because the cabins on it opened onto a walk or gallery that overlooked the dining room on the saloon deck below. This created high ceiling in the dining room and was a dramatic architectural effect.

The locomotive-type boiler installed in "Bonnington" was convert|9.0|ft|0|m|lk=on|abbr=on in diameter and convert|28.3|ft|0|m|lk=on|abbr=on long. This was probably the largest boiler of this type ever to have been built in Canada up to that time. The capacity of boilers to generate steam was measured by the grate area, meaning the size of the fire-box or fuel burning part of the boiler, and the heating surface, which is the total area heated by the fire available to generate steam. In the case of "Bonnington" the grate area of the boiler was over 70 square feet and the heating surface was 2,750 feet. The boiler consumed up to 3,800 pounds of fuel in an hour, which over the approximately 130 miles from Arrowhead to Robson meant a fuel consumption of approximately 15 tons of coal. As with the boiler, the engines for Bonnington were also the largest ever built for a sternwheeler in Canada. [http://www.livinglandscapes.bc.ca/cbasin/underwater/bonnington.htm Parent, Milton, Bouliane, Lou and Wendy, "Shipwrecks and Underwater Archaeology -- Bonnington", Royal British Columbia Museum] (accessed 2008-04-14)]

The components of the hull were shipped out from Ontario in 19 freight cars. The hull itself was divided into 20 watertight compartments, and to allow as shallow a draft as possible, the bottom of the hull was almost perfectly flat. The compound steam engines were highly efficient and had been employed in many ships, but they had never been used before on a sternwheeler. "Bonnington"'s sternwheel was convert|25.0|ft|0|m|lk=on|abbr=on in diameter and had 20 buckets, which was the steamboat word for paddles.

There were 62 staterooms on the steamer, all with electric light and steam heat. The dining room was convert|71.0|ft|0|m|lk=on|abbr=on long and seated 60 people. In addition to the ladies cabin and the smoking room, "Bonnington" had two observation rooms on the gallery deck, one forward and one aft. There was another lounge and officers and passenger cabins on the texas deck. Overall "Bonnington" was regarded as a luxurious vessel and the apex of the steamboat era of travel in British Columbia.

Arrow Lakes service

"Bonnington" ran on the Arrow Lakes route from Arrowhead to Robson West during the summer seasons from 1911 to 1931. The summer season was the busiest time for tourism and other traffic, and ran from approximately May 15 to September 30 of each year. While "Bonnington" was big, she was not particularly fast, and the C.P.R.'s older all-wooden sternwheeler "Rossland" could easily outrun her. The size of "Bonnington" was not always an operating advantage, as her huge superstructure made her difficult to handle in a crosswind. Also, while her steel hull gave her ice resistance that wooden-hulled vessels lacked, the winter was also a time of low water in the Narrows that separated the upper and lower Arrow Lakes. While "Bonnington" had a shallow draft for a vessel her size, only convert|3.5|ft|0|m|lk=on|abbr=on deep, that was still too much to negotiate narrows at low water, so "Bonnington" could not traverse the length of the lakes during the winter months of low water.

Decline of steamboat business

The years of the Great War were hard on the steamboats, as the young men that would otherwise man them or work at businesses in the area volunteered for military service, and travel and tourism fell off in general. "Bonnington" and other steamers did carry troops recruited locally to military training, but this work could not make up for the general decline in business. "Bonnington" was to be the last sternwheeler built on the Arrow Lakes. As railroads and roads entered the area, and people moved to the cities, business went into decline, so that by 1930, there were only three vessels running passenger service on the Arrow Lakes, the "Bonnington", the "Minto" and the all-purpose propeller steamboat "Columbia".

Withdrawn from Canadian Pacific Railway service

"Bonnington" with her large crew and high expenses, could not survive the Great Depression, which caused tourist traffic to fall off considerably. "Bonnington" withdrawn from service after the season of 1931, and laid up at Nakusp, where the vessel remained for a long time and slowly deteriorated.

Later years

"Bonnington" was able to serve as a spare parts source for the other vessels of her class, her boiler and smokestack being later installed in the sistership "Nasookin", then being run as a ferry on Kootenay Lake. To facilitate this, on July 31, 1942, "Bonnington" was sold to "Nasookin"'s new owner, the British Columbia Department of Public Works, for $15,306. On June 10, 1944, "Bonnington" was sold to Frank W. Sutherland, of Arrowhead. This proved unfortunate for history, as in Sutherland's own words:There were rumors that the vessel would be towed to Robson and converted to an entertainment hall, but this did not occur. On February 26, 1952 "Bonnington" was sold to James Millar of Beaton (not far from Arrowhead). Some use was made of "Bonnington" as a ferry in the 1950s following the installation of diesel engines.

Wreck site of the "Bonnington"

Over the course of a number of years, "Bonnington" was partially dismantled at Beaton, and in 1960 the hull filled with water and sank near the shore. [The "H.W. McCurdy Marine History" states at page 379 that Bonnington was dismantled in 1926. This is certainly incorrect, as the vessel remained in regular C.P.R. service until 1931.] In the 1990s, the wreck was located and explored by members of the Underwater Archaeology Society of British Columbia and found to be remarkably intact. "Bonnington" is the largest freshwater shipwreck site in British Columbia. In the words of historians Parent, Bouliane, and Bouliane:

urviving vessel of class

Of the three large sternwheelers built by the C.P.R, "Bonnington", "Nasookin", and "Sicamous", one vessel does survive, "Sicamous" which is preserved as a museum ship at Penticton, British Columbia. Unfortunately the enormous cabin structure of "Sicamous" was cut down somewhat in her later years of operation, but even so the great size of this class of inland vessels is still apparent to anyone who visits "Sicamous" today.

Notes

Further reading

* Faber, Jim, "Steamer's Wake -- Voyaging down the old marine highways of Puget Sound, British Columbia, and the Columbia River", Enetai Press, Seattle, WA 1985 ISBN 0-9615811-0-7
* Mills, Randall V., "Sternwheelers up Columbia -- A Century of Steamboating in the Oregon Country", at 89, University of Nebraska, Lincoln NE (1977 reprint of 1947 ed.) ISBN 0-8032-5874-7
* Timmen, Fritz, "Blow for the Landing -- A Hundred Years of Steam Navigation on the Waters of the West", Caxton Printers, Caldwell, Idaho ISBN 0-87004-221-1

External links

Photographs of "Bonnington" from the Provincial Archives of British Columbia

* [http://www.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/sn-199C0C1/cgi-bin/text2html/.visual/img_txt/dir_115/c_06318.txt "Bonnington" just before launching, April 24, 1911]
* [http://www.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/sn-199C0C1/cgi-bin/text2html/.visual/img_txt/dir_100/a_00667.txt Dining saloon of "Bonnington"]
* [http://www.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca/sn-199C0C1/cgi-bin/text2html/.visual/img_txt/dir_102/b_00040.txt "Bonnington" being dismantled at Beaton, BC]

Websites

* [http://www.sssicamous.com/ SS "Sicamous" Restoration Society]