Name Radium Express Completed 1939 Tons burthen 60 tons Launched 1939 Weight 89.4 tons Draft 60 cm | Laid down 1939 Commissioned as Radium Express Construction started 1939 Length 22 m Displacement 79,830 kg | |
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Operator Northern Transportation Company | ||
The Radium Express is a tugboat operated by the Northern Transportation Company. The vessel was built in Owen Sound, Ontario, disassembled, and then shipped by rail to Waterways, Alberta, which was then the terminus of the North American railway grid.
Like the other vessels in the "Radium Line", she was reassembled in Waterways, on the Clearwater River, a tributary of the Mackenzie, and then proceeded up the Slave River to Fort Smith, and portaged to the upper river, where she could navigate most of the remainder of the extensive Mackenzie River system.
In 1938 the Saskatoon Star-Phoenix reported the vessel was designed to travel at up to 20 knots, faster than the Radium Line's larger vessels, so it could take over tows in regions of particularly rapid current. The Canadian Transportation Agency reported her speed as 9 knots in 2011.
On November 16, 1945, the Radium Express and the Radium King were caught by freeze up in Yellowknife.