Radium Dew
The Radium Dew was a tugboat operated by the Northern Transportation Company (NTCL), which was popularly known as the "Radium Line", because the first fifteen vessels it ordered all included "Radium" in their names.[1][2] She was built by Allied Shipbuilding Company of Vancouver.[3] The primary service the line provided was serving the Eldorado Radium and Uranium mine at Port Radium, on remote Great Bear Lake.
The route required to ship supplies to the mine, and to ship ore south, was complicated.[2] The ore was packed into 100 pound sacks, which were then loaded onto bar.ges. Larger vessels pulled those barges from Port Radium, at the head of the lake, over two hundred miles to Fort Franklin (now Deline, where the Bear River drains the lake. Navigation on the 90 mile Bear River was split into two reaches, separated by a 7 mile portage around the St Charles rapids. Barges were then pulled up the Mackenzie River, to its source, Great Slave Lake, then across Great Slave Lake, to the Slave River. The Slave River also requires a long portage around a series of impassible rapids. Ore laden barges were them pulled across Lake Athabasca to the Athabasca River, and up the Athabasca River to a railhead at Waterways, Alberta.
References
- ↑ Peter van Wyck (2010). Highway of the Atom. McGill-Queen's Press. ISBN 9780773581401. http://books.google.ca/books?id=g40M-x-__uQC&pg=PT47&dq=%22Radium+Prospector%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=oWm8UPaQHIakyQG2mYDgDw&ved=0CDgQ6AEwAA. Retrieved 2012-12-03. "By 1936 Eldorado had purchased Northern Transportation, and successive boats were commissioned to service sections of the Highway: the Radium King (1937), the Radium Queen (1937), the Radium Lad (1937), the Radium Gilbert (1946), Radium Charles (1947), Radium Yellowknife (1948), Radium Franklin (1951), Radium Dew (1955), Radium Miner (1956), Radium Prospector (1956), and Radium Trader (1956)."
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 B.T.R. (1948-09-09). "Down the ways at Waterways". Saskatoon Star Phoenix (Waterways, Alberta): p. 13. https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=uZRjAAAAIBAJ&sjid=UnoNAAAAIBAJ&pg=1515,786523&dq=radium-yellowknife&hl=en. Retrieved 2020-12-23. "Up the Great Bear River from Fort Norman, the ships are the Radium Cruiser, 136 h.p., and the George Askew, 135 h.p. Beyond the St. Charles Rapids, in the upper stretch of the Great Bear River, the Radium Prince, 240 h.p., and the Radium Lad, 120 h.p., operate."
- ↑ "Dave Benedet's Great Lakes Marine Archives". October 2012. p. 102. https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/5584052/to-download-list-model-ship-builder. Retrieved 2020-12-24.
