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Ship of the Month No. 204 KA M LOOPS - LOST AN D F OUND by Ronald F. Beaupre With A d d i t i o n s by the Edito r Amongst the most ha ndsome of the ste e l - h u l l e d ca na llers built during the 1920s were the package f reighters c o n s t r u c t e d for Canada S t eamship Lines Ltd., of Montreal. Most of this large group of t e a k - p i l o t h o u s e d steamers were built at C a n a d i a n yards, but the first two of them came from a shipy ar d in the United Kingdom, and one of these, KAMLOOPS, was d e s tined to last only a few years and to peri sh und er tragic cir cu ms ta nc es . It is as a c onsequence of having met two perso ns who lost close re latives in the d i s a p p e a r a n c e of K A M L OOPS during the late autumn of 1927, and havi ng been asked by one of them to provide details of the disaster, that the wr i t e r has been dra wn to studying the m y s t e r y surrou n d i n g the loss of this ship. During the third decade of the Twe n t i e t h Century, the package freight trade on the Canad i a n side of the Great Lakes was i n creasing in volum e as the e c o nomy entered a period oft en calle d "The Roar i n g Twent ie s" . In N o v e m b e r of 1923, Canada Ste a m s h i p Lines Ltd. forme d a subsi d i a r y comp a n y which was i n c o r p o r a t e d as Steamships Limited, of Montreal, and the new co mpany had the same officers as did its parent. The mana g e r of this new firm was Mr. H. Black, and the subsidiary's purpo se was to own ne w ve ssels to be co n s t r u c t e d for C . S . L . 's pack ag e freight business, as well as for other trades. In fact, Steamships Limi t e d wou ld own three s t e e l - h u l l e d canallers; two of them were package freighters, and the third was C . S . L . 's first self- un lo ad er , the unique COLLIER NO. 1 (28), (b) COLLIER. All three were c o n s t r u c t e d overseas during 1924. The two package frei gh te rs were orde re d from the Furn es s S h i p b u i l d i n g C o m pany Ltd., of H a v e r t o n H i l l -on-Tees, England. These were the sh ip yard's Hulls 68 and 69. It was r e p o r t e d that the first of the steamers was to be named WINNIPEG, but this name proved to be un a v a i l a b l e as it was a l r e a d y in use on another C a n adian vessel. (The name W I N NIPEG fi nally was use d on another new C . S . L. cana ll er built in 1 9 2 6 . ) Ac co rd ingly, as the first of the new pack age f reighters was laun ch ed into the Tees on Tuesday, May 20, 1924, Agnes Black, d a u ghter of the fleet's manager, c h r i s t e n e d the ship KAMLOOPS, in h onour of a city locat ed betw e e n the Coas ta l and R o c k y M o u n t a i n Ran ge s in southern Brit i s h Columbia. Her si st ership, chris t e n e d LET HB RI DG E, slid down the ways on Saturday, June 14th, 1924. The fol l o w i n g d e s c r i p t i o n is drawn from Ll oyd's R e g ister of Shipping, 1925 1926 issue, and also from " C anadian R a i l w a y and Mar in e World" of July, 1924. The K A M LOOPS was 2 5 0 . 0 feet in length, 4 2 . 9 feet in the beam, and had a depth of 2 4 . 3 feet; her tonnage was 2402 Gross and 1748 Net. Her moul d e d depth was 26 feet, 6 inches, w ith 12 feet, 8 inches of f r e eboard am id ships whe n lo aded to a de pth of 14 feet, 1 . 25 inches. The s t e e l - h u l l e d sister s h i p s had two decks w ith web frames, and hulls that were c o n s t r u c t e d wit h l o n g i t u d i n a l framing. They were e q u i p p e d wit h a c e l l u lar double bo t t o m "all fore and aft", w ith the fo repeak tank cap ab le of c a r rying 112 tons of wat er ballast, and the after peak 12 tons. There were four w a t e r t i g h t bulkheads. Each ship was fit te d wit h a triple e x p a n s i o n steam eng in e wit h cy l i n d e r s of 18, 30 and 50 inches d i a meter and a stroke of 36 inches. Steam, at a w o r k i n g pressure of 185 p . s . i., was p r o v i d e d by two coal-fired, sc otch boil e r s wit h six furnaces. The boil er s wer e 13 feet, 3 inches in d i a m e t e r by 10 feet, 10 inches in length. The en gines and boil er s were built by Ri ch ar dsons, W e s t garth and Company, of Hartle p o o l , England, and the m a c h i n e r y p r o d u c e d 185 ind i c a t e d horsepo we r. These two ver y handsome st eamers had a full topg al la nt (raised) forec a s t l e lit by several ports along each side. The for wa rd sect i o n of the hul l had so much sheer that the "straight stem a c t u a l l y was can te d bac k even w hen the