MV Rattlesnake

Last updated
MV Rattlesnake
History
Canada
Name
  • Orillia
  • Rattlesnake
OwnerJ. M. Robinson
OperatorOkanagan Lake Boat Company
Port of registryNew Westminster 111610
RouteSummerland-Naramata
Launched1907
In service1907
General characteristics
Type Ferry
Tonnage12.4 gross, 8.56 registered
Length36 ft (11 m)
Beam8 ft 2 in (2.49 m)

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 and became 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. [1] Rattlesnake was first used as Robinson's private launch before she began ferry service. [2] She was a short, squat, and slow tug that rode low in the water, but she was also powerful: she tugged cement pipe from factories, as well as hay and logs. [3] In 1911, the Okanagan Lake Boat Company was sold to Peter Roe, who replaced Maude-Moore and Rattlesnake with two gas boats. [4]

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Canadian National Tug no. 5, or CN Tug no. 5, was a tugboat owned and operated by the Canadian National Railway (CNR) company on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada. She was launched on May 8, 1930 and was a steel tug that pushed railway barges to the Okanagan Landing shipyard and railway connection to transport fruit. By the 1950s and 1960s, CNR had three tugs: MV Pentowna, CN Tug no. 6, and CN Tug no. 5. Only one tug operated at a time, though two would be used in busy times, and each tug only pushed one barge. CNR's competitor on the lake, the Canadian Pacific Railway company, ran three tugs at a time, as well as many sternwheelers over the years, and each tug pushed two barges. Although the date of CN Tug no. 5's retirement is unknown, CNR terminated barge service on the lake in 1973, retiring its last ship, CN Tug no. 6, due to the highways and other modes of transportation that had emerged by that time.

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MV Skookum was a ferry that linked the communities of Naramata and Summerland on Okanagan Lake in British Columbia, Canada.

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 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.

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.

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MV Skookum, also known as Tut Tut, 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.

References

  1. Hatfield, Harley R. (1992). "Commercial Boats of the Okanagan". Okanagan history. Fifty-sixth report of the Okanagan Historical Society. pp. 20–33. Retrieved 2 Aug 2015.
  2. "Naramata in Retrospect". The twenty-ninth report of the Okanagan Historical Society. 1965. p. 184. Retrieved 14 Aug 2015.
  3. Higgin, C. Noel (1951). "The Summerland-Naramata Ferry". The fifteenth report of the Okanagan Historical Society. pp. 90–94. Retrieved 14 August 2015.
  4. Goett, R. Lakeboats of the Okanagan (PDF). Retrieved 2 October 2014 via Lake Country Museum.