History | |
---|---|
Canada | |
Name | SS Bigwin |
Owner |
|
Operator | Lake of Bays Marine Museum |
Port of registry | Canada |
Ordered | 1909 |
Builder | Polson Iron Works, Toronto |
Laid down | 1909 |
Launched | 1910 |
Completed | 1910 |
In service |
|
Out of service | 1970-2012 |
Identification | Official number: 126835 |
Fate | Partially sunk 1970-1991, raised 1992 and restored 2002-2013 |
Status | In service as of 2013 |
General characteristics [1] | |
Tonnage | |
Length | 66 ft (20 m) |
Beam | 11 ft 8 in (3.56 m) |
Depth | 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) |
Decks | 1 |
Propulsion |
|
Capacity | 32 |
SS Bigwin is a small steamship ferry that plies the waters of Lake of Bays in Muskoka area of Ontario. [2]
The ship was built by Polson Iron Works of Toronto as a private boat [3] for an American owner James Kuhn in 1910 as a yacht and named for his wife as Ella Mary. [4] It was later sold to several owners (1924, 1945 and 1960) to serve as a ferry boat and renamed Bigwin after Bigwin Inn and Chief John Bigwin. In her last years of service, she shuttled customers to Bigwin Inn until it was abandoned and submerged in a slip next to Bigwin Inn from 1970s to 1991. [5]
After interested parties took notice of the ship, it was finally raised from the waters in 1991, and was stored on land for a few years until restoration began in 2002 and completed in 2013. [6]
Once restored to service, Bigwin provides cruises near Dorset, Ontario during a July and August sailing period (restricted due to navigation laws). [7]
A steamboat is a boat that is propelled primarily by steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels. Steamboats sometimes use the prefix designation SS, S.S. or S/S or PS ; however, these designations are most often used for steamships.
Bracebridge is a town and the seat of the Muskoka District Municipality in Ontario, Canada.
The District Municipality of Muskoka, more generally referred to as the District of Muskoka or Muskoka, is a regional municipality in Central Ontario, Canada. Muskoka extends from Georgian Bay in the west, to the northern tip of Lake Couchiching in the south, to the western border of Algonquin Provincial Park in the east. A two-hour drive north of Toronto, Muskoka spans 6,475 km2 (2,500 sq mi). Muskoka has some 1,600 lakes, making it a popular cottaging destination.
Lake of Bays is a township municipality within the District Municipality of Muskoka, Ontario, Canada. The township, situated 193 kilometres (120 mi) north of Toronto, is named after the Lake of Bays. During the 2016 census, the township had a population of 3,167 and encompassed 677.91 square kilometres (261.74 sq mi) of land.
RMS Segwun is the oldest operating steam driven vessel in North America, built in 1887 as Nipissing to cruise the Muskoka Lakes in the Muskoka, Ontario, Canada, a resort area with many lakes and rivers. Early in the 20th century, Muskoka was poorly served by roads. Vacationers were transported to lodges, or private cottages, via a fleet of steamships. Segwun is the oldest of only three ships in the world still carrying the status of Royal Mail Ship, and the only steamer.
Bala is a compact rural community in the township municipality of Muskoka Lakes, District Municipality of Muskoka in Central Ontario, Canada. It is well-known for the Bala Falls, the source of the Moon River, which flows from Lake Muskoka to the Georgian Bay.
Toronto Harbour or Toronto Bay is a bay on the north shore of Lake Ontario, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is a natural harbour, protected from Lake Ontario waves by the Toronto Islands. Today, the harbour is used primarily for recreational boating, including personal vessels and pleasure boats providing scenic or party cruises. Ferries travel from docks on the mainland to the Islands, and cargo ships deliver aggregates and raw sugar to industries located in the harbour. Historically, the harbour has been used for military vessels, passenger traffic and cargo traffic. Waterfront uses include residential, recreational, cultural, commercial and industrial sites.
Port Carling is an unincorporated community in the Township of Muskoka Lakes in the Canadian province of Ontario. It has been the municipal seat of the township since 1971. It has several hundred year-round residents and is a service centre for thousands of other seasonal residents in the area.
Lake Muskoka is located between Port Carling and Gravenhurst, Ontario, Canada. The lake is surrounded by many cottages. The lake is primarily within the boundary of the Township of Muskoka Lakes, the southeast corner is within the boundary of the Town of Gravenhurst and another small portion around the mouth of the Muskoka River is within the boundary of the Town of Bracebridge. The town of Bala is located on the southwest shores of the lake, where the Moon River starts. Lake Muskoka is connected to Lake Rosseau through the Indian River and lock system at Port Carling. The lake is mainly fed by the Muskoka River, Lake Joseph and Lake Rosseau.
Bigwin Island is an island in the municipality of Lake of Bays, District Municipality of Muskoka in Central Ontario, Canada. It the largest island on Lake of Bays.
The Huntsville and Lake of Bays Transportation Company was a company chartered in 1895 to operate steamboats on the Lake of Bays, and a series of lakes connecting to Huntsville in the northern section of the Muskoka Lakes District of Ontario, Canada. The wholly owned Huntsville and Lake of Bays Railway ran a short line narrow gauge railway to connect steamboats operating on Lake of Bays and Peninsula Lake outside Huntsville, Ontario. Covering a vertical distance of 175 feet (53 m) along the hilly 1.125-mile (1.811 km) route, it was known as the "smallest commercially operated railway in the world".
Port McNicoll is a community in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is located in the Simcoe County township of Tay.
Dorset is a small community located on the boundary between the Algonquin Highlands Township in Haliburton County, Ontario and Lake of Bays Municipality in Muskoka District, Canada. Dorset was originally called Cedar Narrows. In 1859 Francis Harvey became the first European settler here. Zachariah Cole mapped out the area for the government around 1860. The community name was chosen by some of the settlers that came from Dorset, England.
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.
The Polson Iron Works was an Ontario-based firm which built large steam engines, as well as ships, barges and dredges.
M/V Kwasind is a passenger ferry built in 1912 for the Royal Canadian Yacht Club, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. She is 71 feet (22 m) long. She was built by the Polson Iron Works and cost CA$13,000. Her name was taken from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem about Hiawatha, as the yacht club's previous ferry is Hiawatha.
Trillium is a side wheeler ferry operated by the City of Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Now 113 years old, she is one of several Toronto Island ferries operating between the Jack Layton Ferry Terminal at Bay Street and Queens Quay and three landing points on the Toronto Islands. She is the last sidewheel-propelled vessel on the Great Lakes.