Towns and Nature: Port McNicoll, ON: 1907 SS Keewatin and 1951 SS Scott Misner

Keewatin: (Satellite)

While America's west was settled by railroads, Canadian's west was settled by steamships. The working life of this ship was 1907-65. [sskeewatin-herstory]

Street View, May 2018

"SS Keewatin is a passenger liner that once sailed between Port Arthur / Fort William (now Thunder Bay) on Lake Superior and Port McNicoll on Georgian Bay (Lake Huron) 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." [MuseumShips]

It has an elegant interior.

Simon Yiu, Oct 2019

"Port McNicoll was known as the 'Chicago of the North' for some time until trains and ships stopped coming through in 1965 due to the completion of the Trans Canada Highway." [audacy]

"The Keewatin was built in 1907 by the Fairfield Shipbuilding and Engineering Company of Glasglow, Scotland, according to the Marine Museum. It was one of 3,800 similar ships built from 1900 to 1920 and is the same type of ship as the Titanic, built in 1912." [cbc]

Bob Ojala posted four photos with the comment: "I had the pleasure of surveying the Keewatin back in 2008, while still moored in Saugatuck, Michigan. I was amazed at the beautiful interior design, the staircase, the wood-paneled walls, etc. I thought the Keewatin fans would like these pictures."

I presume this is looking down into the engineering space.

Simon Yiu, Oct 2019

Obviously, it has a reciprocating steam engine.

Simon Yiu, Oct 2019

Mike Harlon shared Kyran Clune's post
Keewatin Engine Room.
Fred Addis: The beast for sure. Quadruple expansion. Cylinders are 23.5", 34", 48.5" and 70" in diameter. 3,300 HP produced a cruising speed of 14 knots, max.16 knots. A thing of beauty and wonder!

The SS Keewatin was one of six ships owned by Canadian Pacific to connect its railhead in Port McNicoll with its railhead in Thunder Bay. CP started connecting its two railroad segments with ships in 1883. This ship entered service in 1907. In the 1960s passengers opted for the faster transportation systems of roads and airplanes and this ship suffered the same fate as passenger trains. And it was further handicapped by stricter regulations implemented in 1949 concerning wooden cabins and superstructure on steamships. It was laid up and retired on Nov 28, 1965. In 1967, R J Peterson bought it and saved it from the scrapers. He towed it to Lake Kalamazoo and established a Maritime Museum. In 2012, after spending 10 months digging her out of the lake, the ship returned to Port McNicoll. It was built in the same Edwardian style as the Titanic, and it is the last remaining example of that style. [sskeewatin] Originally, the ship carried a lot of freight as well as passengers. I'm surprised that CP did not switch to ferries that would allow the freight cars to roll-on-roll-off. These ships would require all of the freight to be transloaded at both railheads.

Terri Wood posted five photos with the comment: "With the interest in the SS Keewatin ship coming through the Welland canal, here are a few pictures of the inside that I share from touring the ship in Port McNicholl a few years ago. It's so beautiful. The engine area down was amazing with huge engines and tools."

Wayne Coombes, Sep 2014

Mike Sullivan posted seven photos with the comment: "Some photos of the steering gear, winch mechanics and engine."

Barbara Benson: Lovingly restored by the volunteers in Port McNicoll.

Chuck Relken: Wondering what if any of those components still or could possibly function…

Chris Hagen: Chuck Relken they got the prop to spin I believe with steam in Port. I believe they still function.

ssmaritime has a lot of interior photos and photos of the move from USA back to Canada.

Port McNicoll might loose this ship to Kingston, ON after Port McNicoll volunteers put a lot of time into restoring this ship. [rcinet, sskeewatin-sos]

Because it is the only ship left from the Edwardian period, it was used to film an episode of Murdoch Mysteries. [MurdochMysteriesFandom, MurdochMysteries]

Richard Wicklud posted 25 photos with the comment:

On August 18, 2007, I photo'd the Keewatin on its 100th anniversary at its location in Michigan south of Holland, at Saugatuck, Douglass, Michigan, just inland from Lake Michigan. We should not forget the efforts of Roland Peterson who rescued the classic Keewatin from being scrapped.
This tour will be complete, including a tour of the engine room, where the first picture in this series will show in early Dec., 1965, its engines were finished "forever!"
One has to agree that without this effort, Keewatin would not be the great museum ship it is and can be! It was in this Lake Michigan port, basically, from 1967 to 2012, thanks to the foresight of Mr. Peterson, and those that maintained it and restored it over those decades!
It is great to see inside in recent posts as it is now. May it return to the elegance it had as shown in these pictures taken in 2007, in Kingston, Ontario, that it had on its 100th anniversary that year!
Enjoy the tour!

Dale Baxter: The engines weren't finished forever; they have been started at least once:

https://barrie.ctvnews.ca/mobile/s-s-keewatin-fires-up-its-engine-1.1432404

Richard Wicklund: Dale Baxter That was written by a crewmember on the engine room board, Dec., 1965, and as far as he knew its engine was done at that moment in time.

Dale Baxter: It was probably a safe assumption. Nevertheless, they mothballed the engines as if they were going to be needed.

Patrick Harrison commented on Richard's post
She didn't want to leave, it took a few days to get her unstuck and then they had to take her out stern first and with a small list. The whole thing was being webstreamed and I watched it as much as I could. I'm glad they're taking good care of her but every time I see that empty space she used to occupy in Douglas I let out a sigh

John Vincent posted eight photos with the comment: "Some back alley places inside the Keewatin not often seen by tours."

Danny Thompson shared

1
engineer's tool room and store on the Keewatin

2
crew bunks.
[Some comments indicate the crew count was 52 in 1928. And there where 6 boilers that were hand fired.]

3
Passenger cabin. Bunks on the left of the room.

4
Crew bunks.

5
Corridor to crew bunks .

6
crew galley storage.

7
From engineering tool room looking out onto the quadruple expansion steam engine that powered the Keewatin.

8
Crew galley.

David Craig posted 18 photos with the comment:

A bit of Canadian Great Lakes History today.
S.S. Keewatin began her service in the Canadian Pacific Railroad Great Lakes Steamship fleet in 1907. Built in Glasgow, Scotland on the Clyde, by the same culture and Edwardian tradition as RMS Titanic (built in Belfast Northern Ireland) and five years older than the Titanic herself, Keewatin was designed with comfort, class and beauty in mind as she transported passengers and freight on a two and a half day journey across the Great Lakes from Port McNicoll to Fort William and Port Arthur (now Thunder Bay) Ontario. https://sskeewatin.com/herstory/
The images I took last Friday as it travelled though the Welland Canal on it's way to Hamilton for repairs Later it will go to it's new permanent home in Kingston at the museum of the Great Lakes. https://marmuseum.ca/
The interior images are from 2012 when we toured the ship in Port McNichol.

David Craig shared

Rick Langlais: I wonder if they left all the props in the rooms you see decorating the ship making look like it is still sailing.

Rhonda Watts: Rick Langlais a lot of those artifacts on the boat were donated from family members in the Port McNicoll area....

[The Marine Museum of the Great Lakes has offered to return donated items if a donor wants them back. But if they took a tax deduction, they can't have them back.]

Brian Westhouse: David Craig, the SS Keewatin arrived at Montreal on September 24, 1907 when it discharged a load of cargo, before proceeding to the Davie shipyard at Levis, QC. Sister ship SS Assiniboia arrived at the shipyard in Levis on September 11, where it was split in two. The work of splitting the Assiniboia was accomplished by October 3 after only four working days in the dry dock. The Keewatin was reported to have touched bottom prior going to Levis, but the work of splitting its hull was completed in that month. Both ships were taken to Buffalo where they were put back together, but there was a lot of work done before they reached Owen Sound and the 1907 navigation season would have been over at least for the Keewatin, when it reached Georgian Bay.

Ewen Steele: Brian Westhouse thank you for this.

Brian Westhouse: Ewen Steele The Railway And Marine World magazine published in Toronto during the early 1900's was a very detailed news magazine and I often quote from it when I comment on facebook or for editing Wikipedia, but some facebook users like to quote things I wrote on wikipedia as evidence to disprove something I wrote on facebook.

Matthew Schrank: What are they doing with it?

Dennis DeBruler: Matthew Schrank $2 million of repairs in the Heddle Shipyards in Hamilton, ON; and then it should be open for tours again in the Spring of 2024 in the drydock of the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes. https://www.google.com/.../data=!3m1!1e3!4m6!3m5...