S.S. Keewatin - Port McNicoll, Ontario, Canada
Ever wonder what it was like to be on an ocean liner or cruise ship over 100 years ago? In western Ontario, Canada on the shores of Lake Huron, the S.S. Keewatin is safely nestled in Severn Sound at Port McNicoll. She was built in 1907, five years before the Titanic sailed, as a Great Lakes Steamship for the purpose of carrying passengers between Port McNicoll and what is now Thunder Bay on western Lake Superior, a 2 1/2 day journey.
S.S. Keewatin, Port McNicoll, Ontario.
Prior to air travel, ship and rail were the most practical means of long distance transportation. The Keewatin served on the Great Lakes to transport passengers and freight between Port McNicoll and Thunder Bay for the Canadian Pacific Railway transcontinental route. She sailed for just about 60 years until finally being removed from service in 1967.
A picture from 1958 at Port McNicoll, the “Chicago of the North”, when rail and steamship service was prominent.
Keewatin became obsolete for a few reasons. First, progress in technology provided faster and more reliable travel. The Keewatin was made with a wooden cabin interior and superstructure, and after a 1949 fire disaster on a different ship the regulations became far more strict for wooden vessels. Headed for the scrapyard, Keewatin was saved by entrepreneur R.J. Peterson of Saugatuck, Michigan, who sailed her to Lake Kalamazoo and created a maritime museum. In 2011 she was purchased and returned to her home at Port McNicoll.
The Keewatin dining room.
The ship is not a re-creation. It’s more like a lesson in living history, preserved with authenticity rarely experienced. The dining room is filled with her original tables and chairs. The carpets, stained glass, woodwork, artwork and furniture are all original. The ship’s purser had responsibility for the stateroom keys, still hanging on the wall. They even have the original piano in the women’s parlor.
Original dishes
Keewatin kitchen
Keewatin women’s parlor. Women and children only.
Staterooms are staged with authentic dress and materials from her decades of service. Even her original dishes are on display after being found in boxes behind a boarded-up closet. Her engine is kept in working order by volunteer machinists. It is disconnected from the propeller shaft and is turned by an electric motor for demonstration purposes.
A stateroom staged for the 1950’s decade.
A 1955 newspaper announcing the polio vaccine.
The huge connecting rods of the massive steam engine.
Still floating, the Keewatin is really one-of-a-kind. She is the last remaining passenger steamship of the era out of 3,800 ships built between 1900 and 1920 in the United Kingdom. Her sister ships were either sunk or scrapped when they ended their useful life. To have such an impressive vessel preserved with its original engine, boilers, staterooms and accoutrements is truly a historical treasure, and well worth a two-hour drive north of Toronto.
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