Conceived by Dr. Kenneth McKenzie, President of the Lake Winnipeg Navigation Company of Winnipeg, this 176-feet long, 1,500-ton ship was built at Selkirk between 1967 and 1969 at a cost of about $1.5 million. Intended primarily for recreational excursions, the ship accommodated 130 passengers. It was supposed to be the largest ship ever built between the Great Lakes and the Pacific coast. Launched in June 1969, the first Captain of the MS Lord Selkirk II was Kenneth Lorne “Ken” Lyons.
The company operated the ship until financial difficulties led to receivership in February 1971 and its takeover in 1972 by Venture Tours, an agency of the Manitoba government. Ownership was transferred in 1978 to Sub-Arctic Expeditions, a 14-member partnership led by President Haraldur Stefan “Harold” Einarsson. The ship was used primarily for excursions on the Red River. After the firm went into receivership in 1983, a controlling interest in the vessel was purchased by Winnipeg businessman William Clifford “Bill” Harris and automobile dealer Jim Gauthier.
In 1990, the ship was mothballed in the Selkirk Slough (a dead-end branch of the Red River that has been long used for winter storage of all sorts of watercraft) where it was subject to numerous acts of vandalism. Sold for scrap in 2010, an arson fire in 2012 destroyed what was left. The ship was dismantled in 2015 and its metal was recycled.
See also:
Remembering the Riverboats by Adrian Ames
Manitoba History, Number 49, June 2005Memorable Manitobans: Kenneth Donald McKenzie (1930-1990)
Memorable Manitobans: William Clifford “Bill” Harris (1921-2006)
“New group to run ship,” Winnipeg Free Press, 10 December 1971, page 1.
“New ownership for Lord Selkirk,” Winnipeg Free Press, 14 June 1983, page 45.
This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.
Page revised: 7 November 2026