S.S. OMINECA

Built:  1909 in Victoria by Alex Watson Jr.
Registration #:  126248

Hull length:  137.5 feet (exclusive of sternwheel)
Hull width:  31.4 feet 
Hull depth:   5.1 feet                                                                             
Gross weight:   583.2 tons  
Registered weight:  379.64 tons

Engines:    From the CALEDONIA #107145; 1891 Albion Iron Works, two horizontal high pressure cylinders 16" wide x 72" long, rated at 17 NHP

OMINECA on Skeena River
Image Courtesy of BC Archives - Detail of Call #B-07496

With the engines from the original CALEDONIA, the OMINECA was built for Foley, Welch & Stewart under the guidance of Captain Johnson, and was the most powerful vessel on the Skeena.  She, along with the DISTRIBUTOR, CONVEYOR and the OPERATOR, hauled thousands of tons of materials for the railway construction in the Skeena Valley.  

The track from Prince Rupert to Hazelton was 186 miles long, with almost 60 miles through solid rock.  In order to blast through the rock and lay the track through the Kitselas Canyon area, over 12 million pounds of explosives were freighted upriver.

Once the railway was completed, the OMINECA headed north to Alaska to help build another railway.

OMINECA and HAZELTON at Hazelton
Image Courtesy of BC Archives - Detail of Call #D-01854

This digital collection was produced under contract to the
   SchoolNet Digital Collections program, Industry Canada. Revised:  02/15/99