The Steamers ๐๐ฐ๐ณ๐ต๐ฉ and ๐๐ฐ๐ถ๐ต๐ฉ ๐๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ช๐ค๐ข๐ฏ โ Summer 1994
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The Great Lakes… 84% of the continent’s fresh water… a different story in every drop.
Author: Harry T. Crump
From 1922 to 1961 the Chicago, Duluth and Georgian Bay Transit Company had two passenger cruise ships running into Parry Sound on weekly schedules. They were the S. S. 𝘕𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘩 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯 and the S. S. 𝘚𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘩 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯. They were big white ships both looking alike and about 321 feet long. Their summer schedule was seven day cruises between Duluth and Buffalo, with stops at Cleveland, Detroit, Mackinac Island and Parry Sound; then back to Duluth.
They looked very majestic coming through the narrows at Killbear Point with the sun shining on their white hulls; then across the Big Sound, through the narrows at Bob’s Island and docking at the town wharf. One arriving in the morning, the other in the afternoon. They ran on a weekly schedule, arrived at Parry Sound on Wednesdays. One leaving the wharf around noon would meet the incoming one in the Sound just off the present salt dock.
There was usually a big crowd at the town wharf to see them dock. The mate would throw a heaving line attached to the mooring lines out to someone standing on the wharf who would pull it along to the nearest bollard.
On one occasion I remember it was blowing hard from the west and the ship was coming in slowly and drifting sideways at the same time. The mate threw the heaving line to the wharf and a person on the wharf caught the heaving line and pulled it (with the heavy mooring line attached to it) and was moving it along the wharf to the nearest bollard when the mate on the ship started to swear at him for not moving faster. The person on the dock, mad for being sworn at, threw the mooring line back into the water and walked. The ship became caught in the wind and had to back into deeper water, turn around and make another attempt.
Usually ships have a landing boom and they can put a seaman on the wharf to take the lines. But on this occasion, being as it was blowing hard, they probably did not want to take a chance as it might have been dangerous for the seaman.
The usual procedure in docking a ship is to get the bow line made fast to the wharf using the propellers and rudder to bring the stern alongside the wharf. Then the stern line made the ship fast to the wharf. Also they put out what is called a breast line. One running from the stern towards the bow and the other running from the bow to the stern. These two lines keep the ship from surging back and forth and also keep it from moving away from the wharf.
When the ship was docked the passengers usually crowded on the upper deck on the wharf side of the ship and threw money to the kids on the wharf below. You can imagine the scrambles that went on with each lad trying to get as much money as he could. At times they piled on top of each other. I remember one lad that took a water pail down to the boat figuring he could catch more money that way. The trouble was — when the money hit the bottom of the pail, it would bounce right out again! Native Americans from Parry Island used to come over on boat days and set up tables to sell their birch bark boxes trimmed with porcupine quills, small birch bark canoes, and deer hide moccasins.
Some of the passengers would stay over for the week and catch the outbound boat the next week. They would stay at the 150-room Belvedere that was located where the Belvedere Heights Seniors’ Home now stands. Smiley’s Guide of 1927 mentions the hotel rates of $5.00 a day and $15.00 a week — much different from today’s prices.
More than hotel prices have changed since the 1920s. A woman passenger dressed in scanty shorts (considered quite scandalous in Parry Sound in the twenties), departed the ship for a day of shopping in town. When the police chief saw her she was arrested, escorted to the police station, and held until one of her friends brought her “decent clothes.” Around 1922, the transit company bought the Killbear Point area to build a hotel, but that did not come to pass. After the North and South American stopped coming to Parry Sound, Killbear Point was sold to a fellow who was going to run cattle on the Point; this idea also fell through. It was then taken over by the Ontario Government to be used as a trailer park as it is today.
In the spring of 1962, both ships were sold to Canadian Holiday Lines of Erie, Pennsylvania, and placed on a new run— Chicago to Mackinac
Island, down Lake Huron to Detroit, then northbound again through the Soo locks to Port Arthur (now Thunder Bay), and back to Chicago. In 1963, they ran from Erie, Pennsylvania, to Port Bumvell, Ontario, and back; laying over at Erie each night as a floating hotel and restaurant . Later they were sold to different companies. The 𝘚𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘩 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯 operated out of Montreal at Expo. The 𝘚𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘩 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯 that year carried 10,000 passengers and this was the most financially successful year in her lifetime.
The 𝘕𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘩 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯 was built around 1914 and was sold for scrap in 1967. On September 3, 1967, she left Erie towed by tugs. After stopping at Montreal for a few days, she was towed out into the Atlantic Ocean. At 4:OO a.m. on the morning of September 13, 1967, the 𝘕𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘩 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯 sank for some reason at the end of the tow line about 70 miles off Nantucket Island. So ended one of the most popular boats the Lakes have ever seen.
The 𝘚𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘩 𝘈𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘯 was built in Ecorse, Michigan, and launched February 21,1914. Her last sailing season was 1967. She was laid up at Camden, New Jersey, and was sold in August 1979 to be used as a floating luxury hotel and restaurant to be berthed at Mackinac Island. This
venture fell through.
In 1985 she was seized for unpaid docking fees. She was sold again in 1988 and a final attempt to restore her as a floating hotel berthed at Detroit did not materialize. Her cabins and upper decks were built of wood and would not pass the modern marine safety rules. In the summer of 1992 she was still in the Baltimore Shipyard waiting to be scrapped.
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