HISTORY

The AJ Goddard’s fascinating story begins during the Klondike Gold Rush that started in 1896. When gold was discovered in Canada’s Yukon River valley, it triggered a frenzied stampede of prospectors who dreamed of making a quick fortune.

More than 100,000 gold seekers from around the world attempted the journey north, but many soon discovered the extreme difficulty of reaching these harsh lands. The most common travel route had miners going by rail to the Alaskan towns of Skagway and Dyea, then traveling by foot through the mountain passes to Lake Bennett at the headwaters of the Yukon River. The miners then built a raft or boat to travel more than 500 miles downstream to Dawson City and the gold fields.

While many dreamt that mining gold would be their path to fortune, engineer Albert Goddard saw a different way to cash in on the gold rush. He planned to make his money transporting miners and freight along the Yukon River. In 1897, he commissioned the construction of a flat-bottom sternwheeler in San Francisco. Goddard brought the boat to Alaska and with the help of his wife Clara, dismantled and carried the boat through the narrow mountain passes and reassembled it on the shore of Lake Bennett.

The boat was christened the AJ Goddard after its captain and left Lake Bennett on May 29, 1898. From there, it ran Miles Canyon and the notorious Whitehorse rapids and arrived in Dawson on June 21. This feat successfully established the first steamboat link to the gold fields for miners traveling from the Pacific coast. And it gave the Goddards and their ship an important place in history.

For the next three years, the Goddard transported miners and freight back and forth to Dawson City. The craft had a small repair shop, forge and kitchen, making it a self-sufficient shop for the Yukon prospectors. The Goddard operated on the river until October 1901, when she was wrecked in an icy storm on Lake Laberge. Only two members of the five-man crew survived.

The Goddard’s location remained a mystery until 2008, when an international team from the Institute of Nautical Archaeology, the Yukon Transportation Museum, and the Yukon government discovered the wreck during a sonar survey looking for gold rush wrecks. It wasn’t until one year later, however, that this team would have an opportunity to dive and investigate the wreck.

When team members conducted their first dives on the wreck in June 2009, they were amazed to discover that the shipwreck was literally an untouched time capsule. Boots and a jacket of one of the crew still lay on the deck, likely ditched there in haste before the crewman attempted to swim to shore. Other artifacts associated with the small repair shop, forge, and kitchen also lay undisturbed.

Because the wreck is so well preserved, news and photos of its discovery spread quickly. The wreck was soon considered a national treasure of the Yukon and researchers began making plans to further study and document this important piece of history.