S.S. Mumford
S. S. Mumford was built by the Collins Overland Telegraph Company to move supplies up the Skeena to Hazelton for construction of the telegraph line to Siberia.
| Name, Reg | Tonnage | Len x Wid x Draft | NHP | Engines | Passengers | Info |
| Mumford, 17706 | 69.24 | 110 x 19 x 4.8 | 60 IHP Engine | u/k | u/k |
Capt. Tom Coffin ran her 100 miles up Skeena River with great difficulty, with a cargo of telegraph wire and supplies for the construction of the line. They could travel no further and had to move the supplies by canoe to Hazelton. They made several attempts to get past a riffle near Kitsumkalum, but were unsuccessful. She was simply under-powered for the Skeena River. Read this posting based on the diary of John F. Morison about the trip up the Skeena with the Mumford.
Mumford made only one trip up the Skeena as far as the Kitsumkalum area.
Captains:
George Coffin
She also ran up the Stikine River to Telegraph Creek, moving supplies. In 1868, she was taken to San Francisco under tow by the California and sold.
Sources:
Armstrong, Cliff Sternwheelers on the Skeena , 2001
Bennett, Norma V Pioneer Legacy: Chronicles of the Lower Skeena River, 2001
Macdonald, Joseph F. Macdonald’s Steamboats & Steamships of the Pacific Northwest.
O’Neill, Wiggs Steamboat Days on the Skeena River, 1963
Wright, E. W. Lewis & Drydens Marine History of the Pacific Northwest, 1967.
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