Radium Queen (ship)

For other ships with the same name, see Radium Queen.

The Radium Queen, at her northern terminus, Fort Fitzgerald on the upper Slave River.
History
Canada
Name	Radium Queen
Owner	Northern Transportation Company
Operator	Northern Transportation Company
Builder	Manseau Shipyards, Sorel
Laid down	1937
Launched	Waterways, Alberta^[citation needed]
Completed	1937
Commissioned	as Radium Queen
Homeport	Registered: Sorel, Quebec Actual:Registry closed
Identification	IMO number: 5288932
Fate	Decommissioned[1]
General characteristics
Class and type	Cargo/Tug[2]
Tonnage	36 metric tons (35 long tons; 40 short tons)
Length	96 feet (29 m)
Beam	20 feet (6.1 m)
Draught	4 feet (1.2 m)
Depth of hold	108 metric tons (106 long tons; 119 short tons)
Installed power	2x 240 horsepower (180 kW) diesel engines, 9nhp 16-cylinder engine (1937), 500 horsepower (370 kW) engine (1957)[2]
Propulsion	Screw[2]
Crew	10

The Radium Queen and her sister ship the Radium King were built in Sorel, Quebec in 1937, for the Northern Transportation Company, a subsidiary of Eldorado Gold Mines.[3] The Radium Queen was a cargo/tug ship that served on the Slave River. It made runs between Lake Athabaska and Great Slave Lake which is generally navigable. The Radium Queen towed barges from the railhead at Waterways, Alberta to a portage around the rapids. Cargo was unloaded there and transported by land, and loaded on barges on the lower river that were towed by the Radium King, and later by other tugboats, like the Radium Charles, Radium Express and Radium Yellowknife.

It was built at the Manseau Shipyards, then disassembled and shipped by railroad to Waterways.[3] The Radium Queen was shipped first, and reassembled at Waterways, so she could tow the parts to assemble the Radium King downstream to the rapids on the Slave River. The parts to the Radium King were then portaged around the rapids to be assembled on the lower reaches.

In 2005 Atomic Energy of Canada published a study of the toxic legacy of the mining of radioactive ore at Port Radium.[4] According to the report all but one of the surviving vessels of the Radium Line were found to be free of contamination, with the exception of the Radium Gilbert, but whether the Radium Queen had been contaminated could not be determined, as she had been scrapped.[5]

References

1. "Queen Radium". ShipsData. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
2. "Ship details: Radium Queen". Nauticapedia. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
3. "Radium King en route: Eldorado Subsidiary's Ship Leave for West by Train". Montreal Gazette. 1937-04-15. p. 20. Retrieved 2012-05-31. Both ships were built for the Northern Transportation Company, a subsidiary of Eldorado Gold Mines, Limited, and will ply the Mackenzie and Athabaska rivers, 1,600 miles north of Edmonton.
4. "Status Report for the Historic Northern Transportation Route redacted colour" (PDF). Atomic Energy of Canada. December 2005. p. 86. Retrieved 2018-01-13. Ships were used along the NTR to move barges loaded with uranium ore and concentrates (among other materials and supplies). Some vessels also transported cargo on board. Fifteen Radium Series vessels used along the NTR were identified in SENES (1994). Three were determined to have been scrapped, and the disposition of one, the Radium Cruiser, was unknown. Radiological investigations were conducted on the other eleven vessels. Only one, the Radium Gilbert, showed any evidence of contamination.
5. Peter C. Van Wyck (2010). Highway of the Atom. McGill-Queen's Press. p. 36. ISBN 978-0-77358-087-9. Retrieved 2018-01-13. There is material leakage all along the sides of the Highway, as well as on the vessels and barges used to traverse it. The merchant fleet Radium line: the Radium King, the Radium Queen, the Radium Lad, the Radium Express, and of course, the Radium Gilbert ... and so on. The rest of the list: Cruiser, Prince, Gilbert, Charles, Scout, Yellowknife, Franklin, Dew, Prospector, Trader, Miner.