S.S. Omineca
The S.S. Omineca was designed and built in 1909 at Victoria BC by Alexander Watson, Jr. for the railroad contractors, Foley, Welch and Stewart. She was one of 5 vessels that Foley, Welch and Stewart operated to support the construction of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. She was built with the engines from the Caledonia C-107145. She ran the Skeena from 1909 until the end of railway construction in 1912. She was taken to Howe Sound for construction of the PGE Railway. She came back to Prince Rupert in 1914 and was put on the ways at Dodge Cove. In 1916 she was sold to the Alaska Railway Commission for the building of the Alaska railway. After railway construction she was beached and stripped of her operating gear. Her engines went into a smaller vessel to be used on the lower Yukon River. She was under command of Capt. Shannon.
| Name, Reg | Tonnage | Len x Wid x Draft | NHP | Engines | Passengers | Info |
| Omineca, C-126248 | 583.2 | 137.5×31.4×5.1 | 17 | 16×72 | 150 | u/k |
Officers:
Captain W. H. Alexander
Captain John Shannon
Ships Registry for the Omineca courtesy Library and Archives Canada:
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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