MV Mallard

Last updated
MV Mallard
History
Canada
Name
  • Mallard (1910–1910)
  • Kaleden (1910–)
Owner
  • C. Noel Higgin (1910–1910)
  • James Ritchie (1910–)
  • South Okanagan Transportation Company
  • Mr. McCallum
  • Matt Wilson
In service1908
FateSank
General characteristics
TypeFerry
Length30 ft (9.1 m)
Capacity12 passengers

MV Mallard, later Kaleden, was a ferry that linked the communities of Summerland and Naramata on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada from 1908 to 1910, and later served Skaha Lake and Kaleden, British Columbia, under the name Kaleden. [1]

Contents

Construction

In late 1907, the provincial government granted a subsidy for a regular ferry to link Summerland and Naramata in response to a request from pioneer John Moore Robinson; at the time, the newly established town of Naramata had no transportation aside from the occasional Canadian Pacific Railway ships and a personal boat owned by Robinson. The contract was awarded to C. Noel Higgin, who had Avis Boat Works build the 30-foot (9.1 m), gasoline cabin launch, Mallard. [2] She could carry 12 passengers and light freight, while a scow carried heavy freight, livestock, and vehicles. Mallard became the run's first ferry starting in March 1908.

Service

Mallard made two trips daily under the command of Captain Charles Hatfield from Nova Scotia. Her main competitor was Robinson's Maude-Moore, but the two boats were evenly matched in speed. [2] In 1908, Higgin, Robinson, and Ned Bentley formed the Okanagan Lake Boat Company and Maude-Moore became the official ferry. Mallard and her scows were deemed to be too small for further service, so she was sold James Ritchie, the promoter of the newly established community of Kaleden, British Columbia, in 1910. Ritchie renamed her Kaleden after his town and used her on Skaha Lake to serve Kaleden, including towing scows of woodstave pipe and cement. [3] Kaleden was the first boat that especially served the new town and she played an instrumental role in shaping its development.

Later years

Kaleden was eventually sold to the newly formed South Okanagan Transportation Company, which replaced her with the new MV Cygnet after two years. [1] Kaleden was sold to a Mr. McCallum in Summerland, who bought her for the engine. However, he found that it was too securely embedded in concrete to remove, so he sold her to Matt Wilson of Paradise Ranch. [4] He used her until she sank off the Canadian National Railway wharf in Summerland, where she still lies. [5]

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<i>Canadian National Tug no. 6</i>

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MV Aricia was a ferry that operated on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada. She was built in 1912 by J. Y. Campbell and was also known as the Kelowna-Westbank ferry, because she served the communities of Kelowna and Westbank, British Columbia.

SS Clovelly was a steam ferry that operated on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada. She was commissioned by Captain L. A. Hayman and built by DeFoe in Vancouver, British Columbia in the fall of 1907. She was named after Clovelly, a small village on the Bristol Channel in England. She was launched by Captain J. B. Weeks and began a service of two trips a week hauling lumber, feed, and fruit between the communities of Westbank, Bear Creek, and Kelowna. She was the fourth ferry on the lake. Shortly after her launch, it was discovered that her vertical boiler leaked, so a water tube boiler was built by A. Brunette of the Leckie Hardware Company of Kelowna. She was inspected and passed by J. H. Thompson, Dominion Government Steamboat Inspector for the Province. In 1911, Clovelly was sold to E. Hankinson. Complaints about poor service reached the government and Hankinson lost the charter. Clovelly went to J. Y. Campbell, who operated her from 1912 to 1916 and also built MV Aricia in 1912.

MV Grace Darling was a ferry that operated on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada. She was an early internal combustion-driven boat run by the Canadian Pacific Railway company in 1919 and was used to move building stone from the granite quarry on the lake shore south of Vernon, British Columbia. Grace Darling was Vernon Granite's first power boat and was purchased from Mrs. Oswald Pease from Ewing's Landing in 1919. She was one of the first internal combustion engine-powered boats on the lake and greatly facilitated the transport of stone barges from the quarry. Grace Darling was replaced by SS Tum Tum and a second MV Grace Darling after retirement.

MV Grace Darling was a boat that operated on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada. She was the last boat used for the granite quarry in Vernon, British Columbia, after an earlier boat also named MV Grace Darling, as well as SS Tum Tum. Grace Darling was a custom-built Turner boat ordered from Vancouver, British Columbia in 1923. She was 20 feet (6.1 m) in length and was small, but durable, outlasting the quarry operation by four years. She was powered by a single-cylinder Easthope engine built for towing. The Canadian Pacific Railway company delivered her to Okanagan Landing by flat car and she was named after the earlier Grace Darling, which had then been retired. The new Grace Darling became known as a first-rate rough-water vessel and lasted for over 40 years, until she broke up on the rocks at Inkster's Bay during a storm in the late 1960s.

MV Lloyd-Jones was a steel ferry that operated on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada. She carried cars and freight between the communities of Kelowna and West Kelowna with two other boats, MV Lequime and MV Pendozi. However, they struggled to carry the load, especially after the opening of the Okanagan Lake Bridge in 1958. Lloyd-Jones was launched in July 1950. She had a capacity of 35 cars and was the last of a large fleet of ferries on Okanagan Lake.

MV Kelowna-Westbank was a diesel-powered ferry that operated on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada beginning in 1927. Although private ferry service had long been established on the lake, Kelowna-Westbank became the first provincial government-operated ferry upon her launch on February 21, 1927.

MV Skookum, not to be confused with the 1906 ferry MV Skookum, was a ferry that linked the communities of Naramata and Summerland on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada.

MV Rattlesnake was a ferry launched in 1907 to operate between the communities of Summerland and Naramata on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada. Rattlesnake was originally called Orillia before she was bought and renamed by pioneer John Moore Robinson, owner of the Okanagan Lake Boat Company. She was launched in 1907, becoming the Company's second boat after the tug Maude-Moore, though she was the third Summerland-Naramata ferry after Maude-Moore and the smaller Mallard. Rattlesnake was first used as Robinson's private launch before beginning ferry service. She was a short, squat, slow and ugly tug that rode low in the water, but she was also powerful and she tugged cement pipe from factories, as well as hay and logs. In 1911, the Okanagan Lake Boat Company was sold to Peter Roe, who replaced Maude-Moore and Rattlesnake with two gas boats.

MV Trepanier was a ferry that operated between the communities of Naramata and Summerland on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada. Trepanier was added to the Okanagan Lake Boat Company's fleet in 1912. The company's owner, Peter Roe, operated her and the earlier MV Skookum with his brothers, Fred and Gerald. Trepanier was purchased by Captain J. A. Noyes and his brother, I. R. Noyes, and used for pleasure trips until November 1913, when the larger MV Skookum, built in 1912 and not to be confused with the Skookum mentioned earlier, collided with the Canadian Pacific Railway company-operated SS Castlegar and sank. Although Trepanier was smaller than Skookum, she was used as a replacement and began regular ferry service soon after the crash.

SS Maude-Moore was a wood-burning screw steamer that provided a ferry service between the communities of Summerland, Naramata, and Penticton on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada.

MV Cygnet was a 40 feet (12 m) by 10 feet (3.0 m) motor launch that provided ferry and freight service on Skaha Lake in British Columbia, Canada. She was built by Summerland Boat Works in 1911 for the South Okanagan Transportation Company, owned by James Fraser Campbell and A. S. Hatfield, to replace the tug Kaleden. Cygnet had a Fairbanks marine engine that was started by turning the flywheel with a steel bar that fitted into sockets in the wheel. In the early 1920s, she was moved to Okanagan Lake to carry fruit to Kelowna, British Columbia for a summer before she was sold in Kelowna.

Lily of the Valley was a houseboat owned by pioneer John Moore Robinson, who founded the community of Naramata, British Columbia. He and his family traveled across Okanagan Lake to the newly laid out town site in Lily of the Valley on April 22, 1907 and Naramata was officially founded. She was moored at the wharf on the west shore of the lake and later hosted festivities such as regatta activities by the Athletic and Aquatic Association, holding 800 people at one point in 1909.

SS Mary Victoria Greenhow (MVG) was the first steamboat on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada. She was built by Captain Thomas Shorts and Thomas Greenhow and although she was not perfect, she was the harbinger of a long and significant line of steamships in the Okanagan.

MV <i>Pendozi</i>

MV Pendozi was a ferry that operated on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada. The provincial government commissioned her in 1939 and she was the first steel ferry built for the run connecting the communities of Kelowna and Westbank. She was 147 feet (45 m) by 42 feet (13 m) and weighed 237.5 tons. She was powered by two 150 horsepower Vivian engines and had two life boats and two life rafts, as well as four propellers, two at each end of the ship. Pendozi could carry 30 cars. Kelowna residents suggested her name after Rev. Father Charles Marie Pandosy, O.M.I., who established Okanagan Mission, British Columbia in 1859. A street in Kelowna was also named Pendozi after him and the misspelling was never changed and even applied to the new ship because it reflected the proper pronunciation of his name. In the line of Kelowna-Westbank ferries, Pendozi came after MV Kelowna-Westbank and was later joined by MV Lloyd-Jones and MV Lequime. When the Okanagan Lake Bridge opened in 1958, the three struggled to carry the load and were eventually retired. Pendozi was returned to rest in Westbank in 1965, and is now the clubhouse for the Westbank Yacht Club.

MV Skookum, also known as Tut Tut and not to be confused with MV Skookum (1912), was a ferry that operated on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada starting on April 2, 1906. She was the first official, government-subsidized ferry on the lake to connect the communities of Kelowna and Westbank.

SS Wanderer was the second, unofficial ferry to serve Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada.

References

  1. 1 2 Hatfield, Harley R. (1992). "Commercial Boats of the Okanagan". Okanagan history. Fifty-sixth report of the Okanagan Historical Society. pp. 20–33. Retrieved 18 Aug 2015.
  2. 1 2 Goett, R. Lakeboats of the Okanagan (PDF). Retrieved 18 Aug 2015 via Lake Country Museum.
  3. Higgin, C. Noel (1951). "The Summerland-Naramata Ferry". The fifteenth report of the Okanagan Historical Society. pp. 90–94. Retrieved 18 Aug 2015.
  4. "The Birth of Kaleden". Forty-fourth annual report of the Okanagan Historical Society. 1980. pp. 135–155. Retrieved 18 Aug 2015.
  5. Andrew, W. F. (1955). "Peachland, Summerland and Naramata". The nineteenth report of the Okanagan Historical Society. pp. 62–72. Retrieved 18 Aug 2015.