R.P. Rithet (sternwheeler) - Changing Travel Patterns

Changing Travel Patterns

In the late 1890s, changing travel patterns decreased the importance of the Strait of Georgia run from Victoria to New Westminster. Steamers on this route had picked up cargo and passengers in the Gulf Islands along the route, but regular steamers assigned to the Gulf Island routes took away this business. The cannery business used to require that salmon be canned and crated at the Fraser River then transshipped to Victoria to be loaded on ocean-going vessels. By the late 1890s ocean going vessels were going directly to the canneries on the Fraser River, eliminating the need for steamers to carry the packed salmon to Victoria. Also, when the transcontinental Canadian Pacific Railway was completed with its terminus at Vancouver, BC, steamship traffic shifted over to Vancouver as the preferred point to disembark passengers and unload inland bound cargo. Rithet stayed on the route until 1907, although by 1901 Rithet was only crossing the strait in the summer.