The ''Radium Gilbert'' was a

tugboat A tugboat or tug is a marine vessel that manoeuvres other vessels by pushing or pulling them, with direct contact or a tow line. These boats typically tug ships in circumstances where they cannot or should not move under their own power, suc ...

built for transporting supplies to, and ore from, the

radium Radium is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol Ra and atomic number 88. It is the sixth element in alkaline earth metal, group 2 of the periodic table, also known as the alkaline earth metals. Pure radium is silvery-white, ...

and

uranium Uranium is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Ura ...

mines in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories is a federal Provinces and territories of Canada, territory of Canada. At a land area of approximately and a 2021 census population of 41,070, it is the second-largest and the most populous of Provinces and territorie ...

. Like the other tugs in the

Radium Line Marine Transportation Services (MTS) formerly Northern Transportation Company Limited (NTCL) is a marine transportation company operating primarily in the Mackenzie River watershed of the Northwest Territories and northern Alberta, and the Arcti ...

she was steel-hulled. She was named after Gilbert Labine, the prospector who discovered radioactive ore where

Port Radium Port Radium is a mining area on the eastern shore of Great Bear Lake, Northwest Territories, Canada. It included the settlement of Cameron Bay as well as the Eldorado (also called Port Radium) and Echo Bay mines. The name Port Radium did no ...

was built. She was built in

Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...

, in 1946 disassembled, so she could be shipped by rail to

Waterways, Alberta Waterways is a locality within the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo in northern Alberta, Canada. It is now a neighbourhood within the Fort McMurray urban service area along the west bank of the Clearwater River, south of the river's conflue ...

. Like all vessels assembled in Waterways that operated on the

Mackenzie River The Mackenzie River (French: ; Slavey language, Slavey: ' èh tʃʰò literally ''big river''; Inuvialuktun: ' uːkpɑk literally ''great river'') is a river in the Canadian Canadian boreal forest, boreal forest and tundra. It forms, ...

, and its tributaries, after she was reassembled she first proceeded downstream to

Lake Athabasca Lake Athabasca ( ; French: ''lac Athabasca''; from Woods Cree: , " herethere are plants one after another") is in the north-west corner of Saskatchewan and the north-east corner of Alberta between 58° and 60° N in Canada. The lake is ...

, and down the

Slave River The Slave River is a Canadian river that flows from the confluence of the and Peace River in northeastern Alberta and runs into Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories. The river's name is thought to derive from the name for the Slavey g ...

, to the portage at Fort Smith. Large tractors towed even large cargo overland around large rapids there. The ''Radium Gilbert'' spent her operational life 1946 to 1980 on

Great Bear Lake Great Bear Lake (; ) in the boreal forest of Canada is the largest List of lakes of Canada, lake entirely in Canada (Lake Superior and Lake Huron are larger but straddle the Canada–United States border, Canada–US border), the fourth-larges ...

. She ran aground near Deline, the small community at the outlet for

. Her wreck remained radioactive decades after she was used to ship radioactive ore. She was dismantled, and removed, in 2003, after lying grounded, for decades. By that time the population of Deline understood the toxic legacy of the trade in radioactive ore, and the nearby wreck was a painful reminder. In 2005

Atomic Energy of Canada Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL, Énergie atomique du Canada limitée, EACL) is a Canadian Crown corporation and the largest nuclear science and technology laboratory in Canada. AECL developed the CANDU reactor technology starting in th ...

published a study of the toxic legacy of the mining of radioactive ore at Port Radium. According to the report all the other surviving vessels of the Radium line were found to be free of contamination. But the ''Radium Gilbert'' was significantly contaminated—particularly her showers.

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite news , url = https://www.andra.fr/dvd_radium/pdfs/Status%20Report%20for%20the%20Historic%20Northern%20Transportation%20Route%20redacted%20colour.pdf#page=88 , title = Status Report for the Historic Northern Transportation Route redacted colour , work =

, author = , date = December 2005 , page = 88 , location = , archiveurl = , archivedate = , accessdate = 2018-01-13 , quote = 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. {{cite book , url = https://books.google.com/books?id=vxaIWrR2LUYC&dq=Radium+ellGilbert&pg=PA36 , title = Highway of the Atom , publisher = McGill-Queen's Press , year = 2010 , author = Peter C. Van Wyck , page = 36 , location = , isbn = 978-0-77358-087-9 , archiveurl = , archivedate = , accessdate = 2018-01-13 , quote = 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''. {{cite news , url = https://maisonneuve.org/article/2011/08/12/they-never-told-us-these-things/ , title = They Never Told Us These Things , work = Maisoneuve , author = Julie Salverson , date = 2011-08-12 , page = , location = , archiveurl = , archivedate = , accessdate = 2018-01-12 , quote = {{cite news , url = http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/uranium-ship-finally-leaving-northwest-territories-1.528592 , title = Uranium ship finally leaving Northwest Territories , work =

CBC News CBC News is the division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the news gathering and production of news programs on the corporation's English-language operations, namely CBC Television, CBC Radio, CBC News Network, and CBC ...

, date = 2005-02-18 , page = , location = , archiveurl = , archivedate = , accessdate = 2018-01-12 , quote = For decades, the Radium Gilbert sat along the shore of Great Bear Lake in the Northwest Territories, an unpleasant reminder of what came out of the El Dorado uranium mine. {{cite news , url = https://books.google.com/books?id=koYIAQAAMAAJ&q=%22radium+Gilbert%22 , title = If only we had known: the history of Port Radium as told by the Sahtúot'ine , publisher = Deline Uranium Team , year = 2005 , page = , location = , isbn = 9780973772708 , accessdate = 2017-11-23 , quote = The Radium Gilbert, one of the ore carrying boats stood grounded a few kilometres from Deline for decades. {{cite book , url = https://books.google.com/books?id=iZMkAQAAMAAJ&q=%22radium+Gilbert%22 , title = Volume 64 of Transactions of the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy and of the Mining Society of Nova Scotia, Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy , work =

Transactions of the Canadian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy Transaction or transactional may refer to: Commerce *Financial transaction, an agreement, communication, or movement carried out between a buyer and a seller to exchange an asset for payment *Debits and credits in a Double-entry bookkeeping syst ...

, year = 1961 , accessdate = 2017-11-23 , quote = {{cite book , url = https://books.google.com/books?id=t04ndtMGsIIC&dq=%22radium+Gilbert%22&pg=PA112 , title = Peace, Justice and Freedom: Human Rights Chexallenges for the New Millennium , editor = Gurcharan Singh Bhatia , publisher =

University of Alberta The University of Alberta (also known as U of A or UAlberta, ) is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford, the first premier of Alberta, and Henry Marshall Tory, t ...

, year = 2000 , pages = 111–112 , isbn = 9780888643391 , accessdate = 2017-11-23 , quote = Tugboats of Canada 1946 ships Water transport in the Northwest Territories Gilbert Ships built in Vancouver Ships built in Alberta