Yukon who is who

Henry Maitland Kersey (1860-1941)

Maitland Kersey was born in Hadleigh, Suffolk East Anglia, England to parents Samuel Overbury and Emma Winter Kersey. He was the eldest of four siblings.¹⁾

Kersey left his position as the manager of the White Star Line in New York to put the sternwheelers Canadian and Columbian on the upper Yukon River. He brought them to Dawson via St. Michael's but was too late for the main rush of the Klondike stampede. They were stuck on the river bars so often that smaller boats made better time.²⁾ Kersey was the managing director of the Canadian Development Co. (CDC). He directed the company during a busy time on the northern rivers.³⁾

In 1898, the CDC bought the Teslin & Yukon Transportation Company (T&YT) that was building a sternwheeler at the south end of Teslin Lake. The T&YT was anticipating the construction of a railway from Telegraph Creek, British Columbia. The CDC purchased the boat before it was completed and named it the Anglian, in reference to Kersey’s home in England. The CDC steamer Victoria was built in 1898 in Seattle by John H. Todd and the sternwheeler Australian was built the same year at Bennett Lake. The steamer Tasmanian was built in 1899. The hull was built in Chiswick, United Kingdom and the superstructure was built at Bennet, British Columbia. The CDC also had a gas-powered launch, the Zealandian. Several of these boats were acquired by White Pass & Yukon Route in 1901.⁴⁾

By 1917, Maitland Kersey had succeeded Arthur Piers as manager of the Canadian Pacific’s shipping services.⁵⁾