''Ruth Shorts'' was pioneer Captain

Thomas Shorts Thomas Dolman Shorts was a Canadian sailor, and one of the early captains on the Okanagan Lake. Shorts started the lakeboat service on Okanagan Lake in the Penticton area.Penticton Years To Remember, A. David MacDonald, 1983, British Columbia Herit ...

' first boat on

Okanagan Lake Okanagan Lake ( oka, kɬúsx̌nítkw) is a lake in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia, Canada. The lake is long, between wide, and has a surface area of 348 km2 (135 sq. mi.). Hydrography Okanagan Lake is called a fjord lake as ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tota ...

and starting with her, Shorts was the first boater on the lake, beginning a long history of ships and steam transportation that enabled the development of the

Okanagan The Okanagan ( ), also known as the Okanagan Valley and sometimes as the Okanagan Country, is a region in the Canadian province of British Columbia defined by the basin of Okanagan Lake and the Canadian portion of the Okanagan River. It is pa ...

. In the early 1880s, Shorts thought of beginning a freight business on the lake and had Pringle and Hamill of Lansdowne build a rowboat with a capacity of 2.5 tons. The boat was long and had a small sail. Shorts named the boat ''Ruth Shorts'' after his mother and he began service in 1883. There was no set schedule, but the round trip generally took nine days and Shorts rowed in all weather for three years, averaging a passenger a month. He made about CAD$6000 rowing before venturing into steam with ''Mary Victoria Greenhow'' in 1886, only to lose his earnings.

References

{{reflist History of British Columbia Culture of the Okanagan

See also

References