Floating Households
Amur: A Freighter Floating Household
Built in 1890 in Sunderland, England for North Sea and Baltic trade, the Amur was brought to the North Pacific in 1898 during the Klondike gold rush and later incorporated into Canadian Pacific Railway Steamship Services.
Coastal freighter Amur, c. 1911
Image courtesy of City of Victoria Archives, M00797
A mid-sized freighter of 907 gross tons and approximately 200 feet (61 m) in length, the Amur had a steel hull and a coal-fired triple-expansion steam engine. By 1911, she operated on the Victoria–Skagway route, linking the provincial capital to northern mainland ports and Haida Gwaii (then known as the Queen Charlotte Islands). Although one of the older vessels in the CPR coastal fleet, she was valued for her mechanical reliability and her ability to handle heavy weather along the exposed northern coast. At the time of the census, she was engaged in carrying canned salmon from northern canneries to Vancouver, where it would be transhipped to markets in the United Kingdom.
Her commander, Capt. Leonard Locke, was born in Nova Scotia and had worked in the coasting trade in Antwerp before coming to British Columbia. Prior to this appointment, he was captain of the Tees, another CPR coastal freighter. Samuel Parker, the Amur’s first officer, was also from Nova Scotia.
With a few exceptions, the remaining officers and crew were born in Great Britain, many arriving in Canada between 1901 and 1907, a period when the federal government was actively recruiting British immigrants. In the galley, the two cooks and mess boy, carrying out duties often reserved for workers from China, had immigrated in 1904.
When the Amur was enumerated in 1911, Capt. Locke was fifty-six years old and the first officer forty-four. The crew as a whole was considerably younger. The chief officer was twenty-seven, the chief engineer twenty-eight, and the ship’s stokers averaged twenty-five years of age, while the seamen averaged twenty-nine. Older members of the crew were more often found in the catering department, headed by a 39-year-old steward supervising four waiters.
As might be expected, most of the crew were unmarried. Married men were concentrated among the senior ranks, including the purser, a couple of deck officers, and the captain. These men likely enjoyed greater job stability and maintained households ashore. Capt. Locke, for example, had recently established a home for his family on Cook Street in Victoria.
The hierarchy of this floating household was clearly reflected in the census. The master was listed first and the mess boy last, while wages reinforced these distinctions. Capt. Locke earned $1,900 annually, followed by the chief engineer ($1,620), chief officer ($1,200), second engineer ($1,140), and first officer ($960). The steward earned $800 and the purser earned $620. On the lower deck, firemen earned $660, the winchman earned $600 and seamen earned $540. In the galley, the chief cook earned $720, while the second cook earned $480. The waiters and the mess boy received $360. These wages were based on an 84-hour work week and year-round employment.
Compared to shore-based occupations, pay was modest—schoolteachers could earn up to $1,200, and skilled tradesmen between $800 and $1,000—but crew members received board and lodging as part of their employment, and enjoyed steady, year-round work in the coastal trade.
The Amur accommodated about two dozen passengers in small staterooms. These passengers were often managers and employees of resource industries along the northern coast. Occasionally, more prominent figures travelled aboard. In August 1909, Premier Richard McBride and Provincial Secretary Henry Esson Young joined a two-week excursion to Prince Rupert and Haida Gwaii, travelling “in comfort,” according to a Victoria newspaper, thanks to “the courtesy of Capt. Locke and his officers.”
The CPR sold the Amur in December 1911 as part of a transition to newer vessels on the northern route. Her replacement, the Princess Sophia, entered service the following year under the command of Capt. Locke.
A dependable vessel, the Amur carried freight, passengers, and a crew organized by rank and responsibility along the northern coast of British Columbia - one of many floating households that sustained Victoria's maritime economy.