SS Keewatin
The SS Keewatin is a passenger liner that once sailed between Port Arthur / Fort William and Port McNicoll in Ontario, Canada. She carried passengers between these ports for the Canadian Pacific Railway's Great Lakes Steamship Service. The Keewatin also carried packaged freight goods for the railway at these ports.[1]
Built by Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company in Scotland as Hull No. 453, the Keewatin was launched 6 July 1907 and entered service in the following year. She ran continuously for almost 60 seasons, being retired in 1966. Soon after, she was acquired for historic preservation and was later listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Her sister ship, the Assiniboia, was also set to be preserved as an attraction, but burned in 1971 and was scrapped.
In the last twenty years of her working life, like many passenger ships of that era on the Great Lakes, the Keewatin and sister ship SS Assiniboia operated under stringent regulations imposed for wooden cabin steamships following the SS Noronic disaster in 1949. Doomed by their wooden cabins and superstructure, these overnight cruisers lasted through the decline of the passenger trade on the lakes in the post-war years. As passengers opted for more reliable and faster modes of travel, the Keewatin and her sister ship were withdrawn from the passenger trade in 1965, continuing in freight only service until September of 1967. Along with the South American and the Milwaukee Clipper, the Keewatin was among the last of the turn-of-the-century style overnight passenger ships of the Great Lakes. The Keewatin was eventually moved to Douglas, Michigan in 1967 where she was a museum ship across the river from the summer retreat Saugatuck, Michigan.
The ship had also become a floating set for a number of maritime-related documentaries and television docudramas, including subjects involving the torpedoed ocean liner Lusitania, the burned-out Bahamas cruise ship Yarmouth Castle, Canadian Pacific's Empress of Ireland as well as the Titanic.
In August of 2011 it was announced that the vessel has been sold and is scheduled in June 2012 to be moved back to her home port of Port McNicoll, Ontario, CANADA, for restoration and permanent display as a maritime museum and event facility. This is possible because of the cooperation of the local and State officials in obtaining permissions and permits to dredge the harbor where Keewatin sat for 45 years to allow the ship to be moved. A not for profit foundation, the Diane and RJ Peterson Great Lakes Foundation and Keewatin Museum has been formed to operate the ship and restore her. SKYLINE Developments a publicly held corporation that are rebuilding the 12,000 acre Port McNicoll site are funding this project.
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[edit] Amenities
KEEWATIN is said to be the last true Edwardian Era Steamer left in the world. She is in a class with Titanic, the Lusitania and the Olympic, among many other similar vessles long since retired and scrapped or lost to war, and the ship has thus become a time capsule of those days in tandum with few other lucky ships to survive, such as the Nomadic. She is also noted as a witness to the evolution of the Great Lakes as a strong maritime center, and her long service record is attributed to her popularity and solid engineering.
The Keewatin was moved from Kalamazoo Lake on Thursday, May 31st, and docked a couple miles down river just inside the pier for continued maintenance before entering Lake Michigan. It is scheduled to depart Saugatuck for the big lake on Monday, June 4th, to continue its journey northward to Mackinaw City. There it will have a temporary layover before the final leg of the trip to Port McNicoll.
[edit] Route
The Keewatin was originally designed to complete the link in the Canadian Pacific Railway's continental route.She and her sister ship Assiniaboia joined three others, the Manitoba, the Athabaska, and the Alberta ( the latter two also built in Scotland) She served this purpose by linking the Railroad's Owen Sound depot to Fort William Port Arthur on Lake Superior. In 1912 Port McNicoll was established as the new "super port" and rail terminus and the ships moved there. The ships took 21⁄2 days to make the trip each way, including half a day traversing the Soo.[1]Port McNicoll was known as the CHICAGO of the NORTH until the trains and ships were discontinued in 1965 when the town vitually died when all of the rail and ship jobs left.
June 23 2012 will be a major celebration marking the return of Keewatin and the rebirth of a new planned community surrounding her. The date is significant as it was 45 years ago Keewatin left and 100 years ago she began working from the same dock. The town is staging a major welcome home event and even has a two hundred voice choir to be part of the ceremonies.
[edit] Specifications
| Length | 350 feet | Engine | 3,300 hp coal-fired boiler | |
| Speed | 14 knots | Consumption | 20 tons of coal a day | |
| Crew | 86 | Displacement | 3,856 tons | |
| Passengers | 288 |
[edit] Museum Ship
After languishing for a few years, the SS Keewatin was bought by West Michigan entrepreneur Roland J Peterson Sr.[2] The ship has been known as Keewatin Maritime Museum, and was permanently docked in Douglas, Michigan. Until May 30th it can be seen in Kalamzoo Lake, but no longer gives tours at it awaits a voyage back to Canada where her career began.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c S.S. Keewatin - last of the Great Lakes steamships; Frederick Karst; The Times, Saturday, 16 August 2008; pg c5
- ^ http://www.thetimmelcollection.com/saugatuc.htm
The SS KEEWATIN has been a floating Museum in Saugatck / Douglas Michigan since 1967. In August of 2011 Keewatin was sold by the Peterson Steamship Company to SKYLINE Investments in Toronto Canada to be moved back to her original port of Port McNicoll Ontario. She will be owned and operated by a not for profit foundation called "The Diane and RJ Peterson Great Lakes Foundation and Keewatin Museum" Her arrival date back in Canada is set at Saturday June 23 2012 and she will be open for tours in April of 2013 after restoration.
