Doug, Doug & Mike Go Sailing

Doug, Doug & Mike Go Sailing

Well...not quite.

The three of us drove down to Kingston to check out the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes which is dedicated to the history of mariners who plied the Great Lakes in vessels of all varieties.

We also paid a little extra to enjoy a 90 minute guided tour of the S.S. Keewatin which now resides in the dry dock beside the main museum building.

While she is in 'dry dock' she floats with water around her hull.

Keewatin means "Northwest Wind" in Ojibway (Chippewa) and it is also the name of the area rock formation which contains iron ore.

The Keewatin is the largest of the remaining Edwardian era passenger steamers in existence in the world today along with the SS Nomadic and the lake steamer TSS Earnslaw which is currently still operational in New Zealand.

She was built by Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company in Govan, Glasgow, Scotland and launched on July 6th, 1907 and completed in September of that year...five years before the Titanic sailed!

The vessel sailed on her maiden voyage where she docked in the Davie shipyard at Lèvis, Quebec on October 5th, 1907 where she was split in two at a point 1/3 of the distance back from the bow.

Note how the split was made: not in a perfect vertical fashion, rather a staggered approach which offered a stronger bond when reassembled...engineering at the forefront!

She had to be split because the canals below Lake Erie, specifically the Welland Canal, could not handle ships of her length - 336 feet seven inches.  Of course, the bulkheads were sealed shut.

She was reassembled at Buffalo, New York where she resumed her delivery voyage under her own power on December 19, 1907.

She was an elegant passenger liner which once travelled between Port Arthur/Fort William (now Thunder Bay) on Lake Superior and Port McNicoll on Georgian Bay (Lake Huron).

She carried passengers and packaged freight goods between the above-mentioned ports for the Canadian Pacific Railway's Great Lakes steamship service.

Here we find the S.S. Keewatin having arrived Port McNicoll where the Canadian Pacific passenger train is waiting at the station.

Ignore the glare off the glass and enjoy the view!

Canadian Pacific locomotive #1271 holds the honours on this day.  She is 4-6-2 Pacific built in April of 1948.

It is difficult to eliminate the glare of the lighting found near the purser's cabin at the passenger entry to the steamship.

The passenger train entered the station nose first as the end of track would be near where the photographer would be standing.

Since I love building dioramas, I believe this scene above would fit the bill nicely for a year long project!

If I wanted to model this particular angle, I would have to truncate the S.S. Keewatin, model the station in its entirety and perhaps place the steam engine and a portion of a passenger car facing to the front of the diorama.

This view taken the other way showcases the platform where passengers were transferred between marine and rail transport.  

(Photo:  City of Toronto Archives)

This is perhaps an easier angle to create a diorama...but it would be quite wide if I were to model the entire ship and passenger train!

I'd like you to meet my brother, Doug, and my other brother, Doug!

Well, we're brothers in spirit sharing the same passion for anything "transportation"!

We learned that one of the reasons this lovely vessel eventually became 'obsolete' was due to the fact that she was of wooden design and manufacture...made with a wooden cabin interior and superstructure.  

After a disastrous fire on a different, yet similarly built ship in 1949, the regulations changed...becoming far more strict for wooden vessels.

Another reason leading to her obsolescence was the fact that as technology progressed, faster and more reliable transportation means developed...in particular roads and highways to go along with rail travel.

Destined for the scrapyard, the Keewatin was rescued by entrepreneur R.J. Peterson of Saugatuck, Michigan who sailed her to Lake Kalamazoo where he created a maritime museum.

In 2011, she returned home to Port McNicoll where she remained until 2017 where plans were made to move her to Midland, Ontario.  

Funding fell through with these plans as with plans to keep her at Port McNicoll.  

In March of 2023 the vessel was donated to the Marine Museum in Kingston on Lake Ontario.

On April 24, 2023, she departed Port McNicoll for Heddle Shipyards in Hamilton Harbour for retrofitting and repair prior to her move to Kingston.

The ship made her grand appearance at Kingston on October 26, 2023 under tow by tugboats where she was placed in dry dock and received a heritage designation.

This video display in the museum shows her arrival at Kingston.

On May 17, 2024, she was opened for public tours.

And...on Friday, October 18th, Doug, Doug & Mike took advantage of said tour!  

We visited the museum located in the building adjacent to the dry dock and then enjoyed our 90 minute tour of the passenger facilities.  

We will make it a point to return in the future to take a separate tour of the engine room!

In a future blog installment I will share with you some lovely images from inside the Keewatin...

...as we traversed the various decks from bow to stern!

I will also create a short blog entry containing images from inside the museum where we find our two Dougs!  

A great big note of thanks go out to both Doug's for dreaming up the idea of the trip and for carrying it out!

Short video footage of the SS Keewatin and the museum at the harbour in Kingston, Ontario.

So...when we meet again you will get to know our lovely tour guide, a young and knowledgeable lady who came to Canada from her home in Palestine.  

She was well versed in the history and the technical aspects of the Keewatin.

All the best,  Doug, Doug & Mike of the OVGRS

Writing to you from Kingston, Ontario, Canada