Ice Breaking

The Kootenaian, January 5, 1899

In 1893 ice was formed on January 29. The SS Nelson broke her way through to the Nelson wharf and with some difficulty got turned around and went back on her track.

The SS City of Ainsworth got as far as Bogustown and also turned and followed the Nelson up the lake. The thermometer stood 24 below (-31 degree Celsius) at Nelson on the following morning and remained very low for three days. In 36 hours five inches (12.7 cm) at the end of the Nelson wharf and as much as sixteen inches (40.64 cm) was found in places during February. For two months no steamer got within twelve miles of Nelson, and a bridge at Five Mile Point was cleared out by citizens of Nelson with saws and dynamite about the 10th of April.

Audio Transcript

They would actually have the barge in front of the boat, at the bow of the boat. When you run the boat ahead, the barge goes up on the ice and then you have to back up and clear that ice out from under and then you take another run at it. But with the sternwheeler, the rudders are ahead of the paddlewheel, and there are four big rudders. I would say they were four feet high and six, seven feet long and they all worked in unison, all together. When you put the washer and the wheel going backwards, you are throwing the wash in on the rudders, and if they are off-centre at all it will go all over.

So from then on they would block the wheel completely so you didn't steer with the wheel. And they had a capstan on the bow of the boat and a capstan on the barge and they hooked up one - from this capstan it would go around a cabel to another cabel and this one it went the other way. And one was solid and one was loose. The Captain would blow the whistle once to go left, and twice to go right and in that case the barge capstan was operated with one man with peavey handles, that they stuck in the holes and three guys walk around and turn this. The one on the boat of coarse was steam, and they would have the Mate usually stood there, half asleep, and if he heard the whistle and if he had to he would turn on the steam valve. And that worked well because you could see the barge, where you wanted to be, without turning the sternwheeler. But it was a long a process, and it was especially bad if there was snow on top of the ice. And I have seen that much snow on top. It would stick under the barge, so then you would have to really back up a long way to get that wash effect and it was interesting.