Cruising the Georgian Bay in the Grand Manner – Winter 1991
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The Great Lakes… 84% of the continent’s fresh water… a different story in every drop.
By Theodore D. Wakefield
I owe this story to the Manitoulin Expositor which carried a photograph bow only of the Venetia.
A Canadian yacht of that size in Georgian Bay?
Knowing that the Huronia Museum at Midland, Ontario, has an impressive collection of Great Lakes photos, I asked director-curator Jamie Hunter for facts and photos and of any other grand Canadian yachts of that era. In came photos of the Venetia and three others. Those were the days!
On a sunny day in 1921 it looks as if the Siesta is being attacked by powerboats, rowboats and canoes. The photo is by Midland’s J. W. Bald whose huge portrait camera is the center of the visual communication section of the Huronia Museum. The owner of the Siesta was Senator W. H. Bennett. We wonder if the occasion is a regatta or a political rally.
With the Arcadia, the name of Stuart Playfair shows up again. This 188- foot beauty was built in Newport News in 1926 from a design by Cox & Stevens. She was powered by two Winton diesels. I remember two yachts of similar design, out of Toledo. One was the Berclo. Finally, the Venetia. Here she cruises Georgian Bay on August 27, 1928.
Built in Leith, Scotland, designed by Cox & King, she was owned by another Playfair, brotherJam.es, president and general manager of the Great Lakes Transit Corporation of Midland, Ontario. The Venetia is the classic 1903 yacht, with steamboat stern, clipper bow, with gold scrolls and masts. With a length of 226 feet, she tops all luxury yachts in this series.
The VENETIA cruising Georgian Bay on August 27, 1928. Image 91 Inland Seas Winter issue.
The Venetia, too, saw Navy service. The Canadian Evening Tribune of December 3, 1973, tells it best. Alongside, appropriately, obituaries, was this story:
Hull Sinking In River’s Mire Fate Of The Heroic Venetia.
PORT MAITLAND (Staff)
The long, sleek lines of the luxury yacht Venetia would be unrecognizable as her rusting skeleton slowly sinks in the mud of the Grand River.
Today only a fragment of her curving bow and graceful counter stern loom over the murky river waters in her last resting place at the shipyard of S.G. Powell on the Port Maitland Road, County Road 11.
Spanning a lifetime of sixty years, the Venetia served in both world wars. In the first she was deployed as a submarine chaser, sinking two German submarines. In the second, she was used as a training ship by the Royal Canadian Navy.
The Venetia was built at Leith, Scotland in 1903 for a wealthy American, John D. Speckles of San Francisco.
During the First World War she gained the laurels of two stars on her funnel for her sinking of two U-boats. After the war the vessel was returned to Mr. Speckles, who had her until 1928 when she was sold to James Playfair of Midland, Ontario. A year later, in October, the shipping magnate, Captain R. Scott Misener of Port Colborne bought the ship from the Playfair estate.
Captain Misener used the ship as his yacht, hiring it out to various organizations for fund raising purposes.
During the Second World War, the Venetia was turned over to the navy as a training ship. After the war, the vessel returned to Port Colbome where she lay until 1963 when Mr. Powell bought it for scrap.
The expense of operation of the oil-burning ship precluded use for charters.
Looking at the bones today, a person would never guess these were part of the former submarine chaser and luxury yacht, the Venetia.
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