Tom King’s Internet Research

I love the internet! It seems that not a day goes by without me marveling at the vast array of information that is available in cyberspace. Love it or hate it, the internet has had a profound effect on the way that knowledge is gathered and disseminated in today’s culture and it has put huge amounts of data within easy reach of everyday people.

While I was doing internet research for the two previous articles that I wrote for Thousand Islands Life, “Gananoque Boat Line – Photo Memories” and “More Nostalgic Vessels”, I came across many interesting tidbits of information related to the boats I was investigating, ranging from copies of the building plans and construction photos of the American Boat Line’s Venus to the history of the Canadian Fairmile ships that were commissioned during the World War II. I even found home movies on YouTube of the christening and launch of the RCMP Cutknife II and a sister vessel.

The best treasure trove that I discovered, however, came from a rather unlikely source. While surfing the “net” one evening, I stumbled upon the “Historical Collections of the Great Lakes” on the Bowling Green State University website. Bowling Green, located in Ohio, is not exactly a place that springs to mind when you talk of the Great Lakes! However, I quickly discovered that the BGSU Historical Collection website is fantastic – it has searchable databases for Vessels, Ports, and Maritime Personnel and has thousands of documents on file.

My first attempt at finding some useful information in the “Vessels” database involved typing the name “Lynda” in the “Browse By Vessel Name Begins With” field. Lo and behold, up popped an entry for Lynda VII, a Canadian registered, propeller driven vessel, built in 1948. I then clicked on the highlighted “Item 004426” button, and a page of data about the Lynda VII was displayed. It told me that the boat had been built in Rockport Ontario.  It listed her Dimensions and Tonnage, and gave a brief history of her life. Apparently Lynda VII was rebuilt in Gananoque in 1968 and was subsequently renamed Rideau Wanderer in 1977. In the upper right hand corner of the data page was a small thumbnail image of the boat. “Could this possibly lead to the holy grail – a picture of the boat?” I thought to myself. I clicked on the “View Image” button and a full colour photograph of Lynda VII, in all her glory, appeared. (Figure 1)

Figure 1: Gananoque Boat Line's Lynda VII Tour Boat – Photograph used with permission of BGSU

Well, to say that I was excited by this new “find” would be an understatement. I was like a kid in a candy store. I started typing in names of boats that I had been unable to locate information about from any other sources. Surely there would be some information on the elusive Lady Kingston, a tour boat that doesn’t seem to exist anywhere in cyberspace. No luck! I then remembered that one of the readers who left a comment on the second article asked whether there were any photos of a tour boat named Pilgrim V. I typed in the name Pilgrim and a list of four vessels came back. The first two were from the late 1800’s, the third was from 1923, and the last one was from 1958. The 1923 boat was the original Pilgrim tour boat built by the Hutchinson Brothers in Alexandria Bay, and the 1958 boat was the Pilgrim V. Again, the registry, dimensional, and historical information on the craft was clearly displayed on the data sheet. (For the record, the Pilgrim V was renamed Uncle Sam VIII in 1969 and then Miss Clayton IV sometime later.) Once again, there was a photograph included in the database for this boat. (Figure 2)

Buoyed by my success thus far I decided to try and find something a little more challenging. I recalled reading that the Gananoque Boat Line triple-decker tour boats were named after a steamship that was built in Toledo in 1912 and was designed for cruising in the Thousand Islands. Into the database went the name “Thousand Islander” and back came a list of six vessels. The first boat was listed as being built in 1912, so I opened up that file and found that it had indeed been built in Toledo. This had to be the steamship that I was looking for. The rest of the data confirmed that this was the correct boat. The Thousand Islander was originally owned and operated, from 1912 to 1920, by the Thousand Island Steamboat Company out of Cape Vincent, New York. In 1920 she was sold to Canada Steamship Lines of Montreal. In 1928 ownership was transferred to the Georgian Bay Transportation Company of Midland. Disaster struck while she was being towed to her new home port on Georgian Bay. According to the database record the Thousand Islander “foundered November 21, 1928, about twenty-six miles southeast of Thunder Bay Island, Lake Huron, while in tow of propeller “COLLINGWOOD”; no lives lost.” A black and white photograph of the steamship Thousand Islander was included in the database file. (Figure 3)

As a kid, one of my favourite family summer outings was a trip “down river”. We would head out from Gananoque mid-morning and follow the Canadian Channel as far east as Rockport. We would then either stop at the Boathouse restaurant for lunch, or for a special treat, cross the river to The Edgewood Resort in Alexandria Bay. The trip would always involve a cruise past Boldt Castle and a run up the American side under the Thousand Islands Bridge. It was always exciting if we saw a big freighter either going up or down the river in the main channel. The day would usually end with a stop at Leek Island (Lake Fleet) for a swim. One of the memories that I have from these trips was of all the “skinny” little tour boats from Alexandria Bay that darted back and forth across the channel, heading over to see the castle. I remember names like Spray and many iterations of Uncle Sam and I can still picture how they sliced through the water with their sharp bows and narrow beams.

I decided that I would see if any of these little tour boats were in the Bowling Green State University database. The first name that I entered was Spray. Only one entry came back; the Spray V and it had no picture on file. The next name that I entered was Uncle Sam and four vessels were listed for that name. Two of the boats were from the 1800’s and another was from 1926. This one turned out to be the original “skinny” Uncle Sam tour boat that was owned by several different companies in Alexandria Bay during its life. The database also contained a black and white photograph of the Uncle Sam. (Figure 4)

In an attempt to find as many pictures of old tour boats as possible I also did a “Google” image search for “1000 Island Tour Boats” as part of the background research for this article. I found that there were several vintage postcards with tour boats on them listed in different on-line auctions. I broke down, and for the princely sum of $1.75, I bought one that had a picture of the original Uncle Sam tour boat on it. (Figure 5)

Figure 5: A vintage postcard with a picture of the original Uncle Sam tour boat - Image courtesy of the T.R. King Collection

When I did the database search for the name “Thousand Islander” there was also a listing for a boat built in 1926. Further investigation revealed that this boat had been built by John D. Hunt in Alexandria Bay and was originally owned by Combined Thousand Island Boat Tours company. This tour boat was purchased by Uncle Sam Boat Tours Inc. in 1952 and she was renamed Uncle Sam III. According to the records, this boat was listed as “abandoned” in March 1979. There was, once again, a beautiful black and white photograph of this boat in the database file. (Figure 6)

Figure 6: The Thousand Islander, built in 1926, was later renamed Uncle Sam III - Photograph used with permission of BGSU.

The final vessel that is included in this article is a mystery to me and I would love to learn more about her. I found the pictures of this boat when I was going through my father’s 35 mm. slide collection. I recall seeing it docked in the Gananoque River at the old Ontario Steel Products complex, just below the Confederation Pond and King Street Bridge. I believe part of the facility was being used by a boat building company (Algan Shipyards?) at the time and the vessel was in for an overhaul and refit. If my memory serves me correctly, the boat was “torpedoed” by a log coming through the nearby dam during the spring run-off in 1975 and she sunk at the dock (Figure 7).

Figure 7: Sunken vessel in the Gananoque River - circa April 1975 – Photo Credit: Jim King

After having many of the portholes boarded over, and the hole in the hull patched, the boat was eventually pumped out and raised back to the surface (Figure 8). The date stamp on the original 35 mm. slide for the refloated vessel was July 1975. I was unable to see any identification markings or names on the boat from the pictures that I had to examine, so I don’t have any information to use to search for more details about this grand old lady.

If any of the readers can shed some light on the history of this craft, it would be greatly appreciated.

By Tom King, Milton, ON.

This is Tom King’s third article for TI Life, all relating to the many tourboats that helped bring millions of tourists to the region over the last century and a half.  Until now, the history of these proud ships has almost been forgotten.  However, Tom and the many TI Life subscribers who have provided answers to Tom's questions as well as valuable comments/ have made this history come alive.

Tom King  and his wife Marion, have lived in Milton, Ontario for the past twenty-five years, where they both worked and raised their family of three children; Kris, Mike and Becca. Tom still has a strong attachment to the Thousand Islands, having grown up in Gananoque and being a “river rat” from a very early age. The family tries to return to the islands every summer and for the past few years have been renting a cottage on Sampson (a.k.a. Heritage) Island, just out from Gananoque.

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