Steamboats of The Skeena River - Sternwheeler Race On The Skeena

Sternwheeler Race On The Skeena

When the HBC's Mount Royal arrived at the Skeena, rivalry flared between her and the Robert Cunningham’s Hazelton almost immediately, with each captain trying to beat the other's times to Hazelton and back. The standing order from both companies was "beat the other boat." Inevitably, this led to a side by side race, an old but dangerous tradition among sternwheelers. In the spring of 1904, both boats wanted to be the first one of the season to arrive in Hazelton. Captain Bonser started out in the Hazelton first, and while he was wooding-up 105 miles (169 km) upstream, he saw the Mount Royal with Johnson at the helm coming up from behind. Wooding-up was immediately ceased, and the Hazelton pulled into the stream as the Mount Royal approached, and they raced bow to bow. Slowly the Mount Royal gained on the Hazelton. Captain Bonser was having none of it, and he rammed the Mount Royal several times. Johnson lost control and the current carried her back downstream, bow first. Bonser wagged the Hazelton’s stern at the Mount Royal, tooted the whistle and continued triumphantly upstream. Furious, Johnson left the pilothouse unattended to retrieve a rifle and shot at the departing Hazelton. Afterwards, Johnson laid charges on Bonser claiming he deliberately rammed the Mount Royal. Bonser claimed in his defence that it was an accident.

The Federal Department of Marine investigated and decided that both captains were at fault, Bonser for ramming the Mount Royal, and Johnson for leaving the helm. The men were reprimanded and the case was closed.

The HBC and Robert Cunningham came to a mutual decision that the rivalry was not profitable and an agreement was reached to end it. The HBC paid Robert Cunningham $2,500 to tie up his vessel, and they hauled his freight for free. Later, the HBC bought the Hazelton. These new arrangements between the HBC and Robert Cunningham left Captain Bonser without a vessel until 1906 when he took command of the Pheasant, a small sternwheeler that was the butt of many jokes and nicknamed the "Chicken" because it had to scratch so hard to get upstream. She was wrecked that autumn in the Redrock Canyon, the first loss of Bonser’s long career, although not his last. Bonser’s next boat was the Northwest, which was owned by the Northern British Columbia Transportation Company, who also had a hotel and store at Telkwa. Her main purpose was to deliver liquor from the coast to hotels along the Skeena.