Canada Steamship Lines (CSL) is a shipping company with headquarters in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The business has been operating for well over a century and a half.
SS Noronic was a Canadian passenger ship that was destroyed by fire in Toronto Harbour in September 1949 with the loss of at least 118 lives.
USS Refuge (AH-11), was a hospital ship of the United States Navy during World War II. The ship was built in 1921 by the New York Shipbuilding Corp., of Camden, New Jersey, as SS Blue Hen State, but was renamed President Garfield in 1923 and then SS President Madison in 1940 for service with American President Lines. Acquired by the Navy from the War Shipping Administration on 11 April 1942 the ship was commissioned as the transport USS Kenmore until conversion to a hospital ship.
James Playfair was noted for his entrepreneurship in the Great Lakes shipping, lumbering, grain handling, and industrial manufacturing businesses. He was a central figure in the establishment of Midland, Ontario, Canada. The son of John Speirs Playfair and Georgina Hall of Montreal, in 1889 Playfair married Sarah Charlotte Ogilvie (1858-1945), youngest daughter of Senator A.W. Ogilvie of Montreal, former president of Ogilvie Flour Mills.
The history of commercial passenger shipping on the Great Lakes is long but uneven. It reached its zenith between the mid-19th century and the 1950s. As early as 1844, palace steamers carried passengers and cargo around the Great Lakes. By 1900, fleets of relatively luxurious passenger steamers plied the waters of the lower lakes, especially the major industrial centres of Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo, and Toronto.
America was a packet boat transporting passengers, mail, and packages between settlements along the North Shore of Lake Superior, an inland sea in central North America. Built in 1898, America sank in Washington Harbor off the shore of Isle Royale in 1928, where the hull still remains. The wreck was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
The Cumberland was a wooden-hulled side paddlewheeler built in 1871; it was wrecked off the shore of Isle Royale in Lake Superior in 1877 and the remains are still on the lake bottom. The wreck was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
SS Midland City was originally a Canadian side-wheel steamboat that provided passenger and cargo transportation on the Great Lakes from 1871 until 1955. Originally named Maud, then America, she underwent several extensive refits over her 84-year service, and saw several owners. The ship was intentionally run aground and burnt to the waterline in 1955 near the mouth of the Wye River in Midland Bay. The wreck is intact and visible above the water to this day, where it acts as a breakwater for the Wye Heritage Marina and local attraction.
Atlantic Superior was a self-unloading bulk carrier owned and operated by Canada Steamship Lines (CSL). The ship was constructed in 1981, launching in 1982 and was the first self-unloading vessel designed, for ocean service, built for CSL. In 1997 the vessel was operated on behalf of National Gypsum Company as M.H. Baker III. In 2003, the ship returned to her former name Atlantic Superior. She was sold for scrap and broken up at Xinhui by Jiangmen Zhong Xin Shipbreaking in 2015.
SS Brulin was a lake freighter that worked the North American Great Lakes routes from 1924 to 1960. She was renamed Outarde in 1939, and James J. Buckler in 1960, shortly before she ran aground and sank during salvage operations. Brulin was built by Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company, Hebburn-on-Tyne and launched on 31 July 1924, for the Montreal Forwarding Company. She was built to the maximum dimensions of the canal locks that preceded the St Lawrence Seaway.
CSL Tadoussac is a lake freighter currently operated by Canada Steamship Lines (CSL) on the Great Lakes. She was launched in 1969. Initially named Tadoussac, following her refit in 2001, she was renamed CSL Tadoussac She was the last freighter built for CSL in the traditional two superstructure design, which puts her bridge up in the ship's bow. The vessel primarily transports iron ore and coal.
Tundra is a bulk carrier. She was launched in 2009. The maritime site boatnerd reports she is operated by Navarone SA of Limassol, Cyprus, and leased to Canfornav Incorporated of Montreal, the Canadian Forest Navigation Group. Marine Link however reports that she is owned by Canfornav.
SS Oakland was a small general cargo/passenger ship commissioned in 1890, Dumbarton, Scotland, for New South Wales, Australia, timber merchant William T Yeager. It sank off Cabbage Tree Island, New South Wales, in 1903, with the loss of 11 lives.
The SS Sylvania was a 572-foot (174 m) Great Lakes freighter that had a long 79-year career on the Great Lakes. Sylvania was built by the West Bay City Shipbuilding Company of West Bay City, Michigan as hull #613. She was built for the Duluth Steamship Company of Duluth, Minnesota.
Howard L. Shaw was a 451-foot (137 m) long propeller driven freighter that operated on the Great Lakes of North America from her launching in 1900 to her retirement 1969. She is currently serving as a breakwater in Ontario Place on Lake Ontario.
Hamonic was a passenger vessel designed for service on the Great Lakes. She was launched in 1909, and served until she burned, in a catastrophic fire, at Sarnia, Ontario, on July 17, 1945. However, unlike the catastrophic fire that struck her sister ship, Noronic, in 1949, where 119 passengers died, all of Hamonic's passengers and crew survived.
