11 January 2011

The Story of Government Wharf and
the Coast Steamships

Prince Rupert British Columbia - From time to time I use this column to tell the stories behind some of the things that our visitors see and experience here.
 
The following is adapted from my copy from one of the Government Wharf heritage signs installed during our heritage sign pilot program a couple of years ago.
 
After considerable jockeying between the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway and the government of British Columbia, this part of the Prince Rupert waterfront was under government control in 1908. Despite promises of quick progress on a larger dock, construction dragged on until premier Richard McBride finally opened Government Wharf on 16 Jul 1912. A bridge and ramp once led to the dock from the street above.
 
Government Wharf was best known as the Prince Rupert home of the "Princess" ships of the B.C. Coast Service of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and of the beloved Union Steamships, in 1906 the Union Steamship Camosun had been the first passenger vessel to visit Prince Rupert. The third major line serving Prince Rupert, the Grand Trunk Pacific Coast Steamship Company (later Canadian National), began service in 1910 with the three-funneled Prince Rupert and Prince George, and operated from the Grand Trunk Pacific Wharf just south of here.
 
These competing lines also served Alaska, in the case of Union Steamships, as far back as the Klondike Gold Rush. From a profitable passenger and freight service this evolved in the early part of the 20th century into "cruises" that would be recognizable today. A typical example was the Chicoltin, first sailing in May 1947 on 10-day cruises to Skagway via the Gardner Canal with port calls in Prince Rupert, Ketchikan, and Juneau. Passengers paid up to $375 and were treated to nightly motion pictures, while a cruise director and hostess oversaw recreation programs such as an excursion on the White Pass & Yukon Route railway.
 
The last Canadian National ship on Alaskan service was the Prince George II, retired in 1974, while the venerable BC Coast Service ship Princess Patricia held out until 1981. Yet of all the companies, the best loved on the northern coast was the Union Steamship Company. In the early days the smaller Union vessels served the many tiny coastal communities and canneries, looming from fog-shrouded waters with uncanny reliability. With deep emotion the residents of Prince Rupert gathered on docks and bluffs in January 1958 to witness the final departure of the Chilcotin, last of the Union ships.
 
A year later Northland Navigation took over the Union routes. They won the trade by convincing the federal government that they could operate without a subsidy, Union having received about $5 million over the 45 years of operation, but by 1976 Northland was receiving $3.5 million annually. A tug-and-barge company convinced the federal government that they could operate these routes without subsidy, and in what became known as the "Northland Fiasco" the federal government abruptly washed their hands of the BC coastal service. This effectively ended the days of Government Wharf being used by the storied coastal steamers. In 1977 J.S. McMillan Fisheries took over the entire Government Wharf.
 
With the beginning of the 2004 season a new Northland Cruise Terminal, on the site of the old Government Warehouse, continued a hundred-year tradition of hosting the ships of the Alaska cruise industry.