The S.S. Klondike was a God-send for people who left to find Gold in the Yukon. Prospectors, desperate to shave a few days off their travels, used rickety wood boats to cross the White Horse rapids and reach the Klondike region. As a result, many of these daredevils (read: idiots) found their way to the bottom of a watery grave, and Sir Samuel Benfield Steele (the famous Sam Steele) himself commented that he couldn’t believe that more of them had not been killed. The government cracked down on this practice, only allowing registered vessels to travel up and down the Klondike River. These vessels were, more often than not, sternwheelers.
The S.S. Klondike was commissioned in 1929, long after the Gold Rush had subsided. The original 300-ton SS Klondike was the property of the British Yukon Navigation Company, and could carry 50% more than any other vessel on the Yukon River at the time. However, she was not long for this world. In 1936, pilot error meant she struck a reef and sank. A copy of the ship was launched in 1937, and operated in various forms until 1955.
The S.S. Klondike served, like most of its older Sternwheelers, to move people and supplies from Whitehorse to Dawson City and back. While Whitehorse to Dawson was a relatively short ride (36 hours), the ride back took much longer because the ship would have to move against the current. Sometimes it could take as much as 5 days for the trip back from Dawson to Whitehorse. (Compare this to today’s ‘agonizing’ 7 hour drive).