Yukon who is who

Ralph Newcomb

Ralph Newcomb’s father, Orrin J. Newcomb, and his brother, Bertram Newcomb, came north in 1898 and Ralph followed a year later. Ralph became the purser on the steamer Hannah in 1901 for the Alaska Commercial Company. His father was the captain and his brother was the pilot. Ralph became a pilot in 1902.¹⁾ Ralph Newcomb and Julius Stankus were listed by the Northern Navigation Co. as local pilots over the Yukon flats in Alaska during the 1903 season.²⁾ The Hannah needed 4 ½ feet of water and sometimes the boat could not run as the flats were too shallow. Newcomb learned his way by making the trip several times – there were no charts but what the pilots made for themselves.³⁾

In 1904, Newcomb became a full pilot on the steamer Susie between St. Michael and Dawson. He was a pilot for many years before he became a captain– there were many experienced men on the river. In 1921, he became a master for the American Yukon Navigation Co, hauling freight on the steamer Tanana between Fairbanks and Tanana on the Tanana River. The completion of the Alaska Railway took business away from the boats and then a bridge across the Tanana River at Nenana meant the big boats could not get through to Fairbanks. Newcomb returned to being a pilot on the steamer Yukon until Captain John S. McCann retired, and then Newcomb became the master of the boat.⁴⁾

Arthur E. Knutson worked with Captain Ralph Newcomb when he was the Pilot and Master of the steamer Yukon for the American Yukon Navigation Co. In 1935, the Yukon was beached on the bank of Lake Laberge, and shipwrights were brought in by the steamer Whitehorse to make the repairs. A large canvas sheet about 30’ x 40’ had been hung from the upper deck and wrapped under the boat to help keep the water out, but the boat sank and had to be hauled up on the shore. Ralph Newcomb was the captain during this episode. Harold Colley and Burdette Milton walked the full length of the lake and back to summon help.⁵⁾

During the Second World War, Ralph Newcomb was sent to the lower Yukon to haul military supplies between Nenana and Galena as the railway was overloaded by the demands of the war. Newcomb retired in 1947 after the Yukon was pulled out of the water. He was then hired by Black Navigation Co. to pilot small diesel boats on the Tanana River. Later he worked for the British Yukon Navigation Co. tugging barges from Mayo to Whitehorse. He knew the river from working it in 1922. He also served on the steamer Aksala. His last seasons were 1951 and 1952 with the Black company, hauling freight on the Tanana River.⁶⁾