British Colombia has had a continuous Chinese presence since 1788, with fur trade expeditions led by Captain John Meares. Then again 70 years later when, in 1858, permanent Chinese settlements would be established in the province, as the Fraser River gold rush commenced. Chinese immigration to Canada thus began to flourish as communities formed and developed throughout the post-confederation era.
In the years between 1881 to 1884, over seventeen thousand Chinese settled in Canada with the intention of building, and later maintaining, the Canadian Pacific Railway. Many coming with several years of previous railway experience under their belts, after having built and worked on the Transcontinental Railroad in the American Pacific coast. With British Colombia being especially attractive as stories spread among the Chinese diaspora of the prosperous province and rail opportunities promising steady flows of income. With this seven thousand, of the seventeen, thus chose British Colombia as their home.
However, the CPR thought the Chinese laborers to be disposable, leading to the rapid turnover of workers. This, along with the completion of the railway in 1885, meant mass amounts of Chinese immigrants were left scrambling for employment. Chinese owned businesses and vendors began to pop up in Chinatowns across the province. Employment in larger cities was found in a variety of industries, with Chinese immigrants dedicatedly working in service, business, and education. Small towns with dramatically fewer employment options were relatively excluded in the rise of Chinese immigration, as hostility drove Chinese workers away. In 1885, the Canadian government enacted a Chinese head tax, restricting immigration, and additionally, denying success to established Chinese-Canadians, as their labour was no longer needed for constructing the Railway.
However, much changed with the introduction of CPR paddle-wheelers in Canadian lakes. With an almost symbiotic relationship beginning between the Chinese workers and the British Colombia Coast Steamships, as the CPR heavily relied on the Chinese cooks to provide meals for both guests and staff, in substandard conditions. “White galley crews are prone to intemperance whereas Chinese crews are thoroughly reliable. This combination of reliability and exploitability made for a winning proposition in the eyes of management.” With Chinese crews tolerating such treatment in order to remain steadily employed with workers benefits, something incredibly rare for the period. A company like the CPR was permitted to employ Chinese in this way as it did not encourage immigration any further, while still allowing for the "convenience" of Chinese labour. This decision was also financially wise for the company as, according to a report by Eastern Washington University, "sixty-four Chinese employees across a fleet would require one hundred and nineteen whites to replace them because white crews would refuse to work the same length of shift or cross-train on multiple positions in the galley." Also, "A crew of seven Chinese Canadians earned $394.35 while a White crew of the same size would get $399.07." however this parity of pay is deceptive as "Nearly a decade of [labour] organizing had not relieved the cooks of the burden of providing and keeping up their own uniforms or kitchen tools, costing the employees at least $5,990.00 annually for the tools alone." Something the company was incredibly aware that white cooks would never tolerate. Meaning, the extra cost to exclusively employ white cooks would be, at least, $69,119 annually.
Relatively good pay for cooks left them in cramped galley’s that were in many cases placed in close proximity to the boiler, making for extremely high temperatures. “The permanence of Chinese crewmen in the galley, and their tendency not to complain about their accommodations, was literally built into the design of the vessels. Ship quarters for Asian seamen were routinely more restricted than their white counterparts, and BCCS no different.” Manager of the Canadian Pacific Railway Coastal Service, C. D Neroutsos continued, “The galleys in our vessels are considerably cramped compared with kitchen accommodation in hotels and restaurants.” and white crews, unaccustomed to such confined spaces “would be considerably dissatisfied with ships’ galleys and would experience a great deal of difficulty in turning out proper meals.” This meant that a galley continued to be built with such meager conditions as companies continually employed Chinese aboard their vessels, this being especially applicable to smaller paddle-wheelers and tugs, like the SS Sicamous and SS Naramata.
The crew aboard our very own vessels were no different than that of the bigger CPR ships, with all our galley cooks immigrating from South China’s Pearl River Delta of Guangdong, and Guangzhou provinces. Very little would have been documented about the teams working in our galleys, leaving us with sparse information about these men. Cooks would have been physically segregated from the rest of the ships operations, with Chinese crew members residing strictly between the cooks quarters and galley. Yet, we can only presume that this division would have brought for close companionship between cooks as culture was shared and maintained amongst themselves. Over the years, the SS Sicamous would have maintained a crew of about five cooks with one of whom, Le Dye, proudly worked with the Canadian Pacific Railway for thirty five consecutive years.
The stability of employment for cooks, like Le Dye, was particularly major for thriving local Chinatowns, which used communal investments of capital to create such enclaves. Local contributions meant Chinese populations could enjoy a range of services, just like any other Canadian population. If given time off, rather than returning to Penticton, one would generally choose the prosperous Chinese community of Kelowna. And while Penticton’s Chinatown had a peak population of about 60, Kelowna was a different story as fifteen percent of the city’s population was Chinese in the mid-1910s; later standing strong at 500 people in 1930. The first blocks of Kelowna’s now waterfront park would have been an urban area consisting of several businesses such as Jung Hung shoe repair and Wung Kim laundry. Along the bustling street, you could find cooks from the SS Sicamous gathered around crowded mahjong boards, ready to bet away ones pay check, or, perhaps at the Kuomintang "Nationalist Party" clubhouse, keeping up with homeland politics.
However, by the time the Sicamous went out of service in 1936, Chinatowns of the Okanagan were beginning a steady decline as employment rates plunged throughout our Chinese communities. Many would have migrated to Vancouver or Victoria in search of jobs, with very few ever returning back to their wives and kin in China. Eventually, when the SS Naramata was retired in 1967, all Chinese cooks would have already been dispersed, and replaced by female cooks.
Looking back, we are forever indebt to and thankful for the Chinese staff aboard our vessels, who worked tirelessly to provide, what would have been some of the best food in the Okanagan valley.
References
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