Charles William Bloomquist (1867 – 1918)
Charles Bloomquist came to America from Stockholm, Sweden in 1883. He was employed by the government on the vessels Quadra and Sir James Douglas. He came north in 1898 and was employed by White Pass & Yukon Route.1)
When the sternwheeler Bonanza King struck a rock in Rink Rapids on 29 May 1907 and sunk, it had 100 tons of coal on board and the barge had 200 tons of commercial coal for Dawson. Capt. McMaster got the Whitehorse halfway through [the ice on] Lake Laberge and the crew under Captain Bloomquist took canoes from there. They arrived at the wreck on June 1. When the Whitehorse returned, Capt. McMaster advised that it was possible to get a boat through and the Victorian was commissioned and loaded with a wrecking outfit.2)
Captain Bloomquist was the master of the sternwheeler Dawson. In 1918, he was ending twenty years of service with the Yukon River steamers. He lived in Skagway and was a member of the Dawson Lodge of the Yukon Order of Pioneers. His wife, Catherine, lived in Shawinigan Lake. Captain Bloomquist bought a ticket to Victoria, British Columbia in 1918 and drowned when the Princess Sophia sank in the Lynn Canal.3)