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Ship of the M o n t h No. 210 T H I S T L E and SHAMROCK 4. Back in the days when Canada was an integ ral part of what then was kn own as the British Empire, and before any th ing r es em bl in g due rec ogn it io n ever was acco rde d our native peoples and C a nad ian s of other than British origins, one of Canad a's most popular p a t r i o t ic songs was one en ti tl ed "The Ma ple Leaf Forever". It was wri t te n before the turn of the century by Ale xa nd er Muir, who rep or te d l y took his i n s p i r a t i on from a huge old maple tree w h i c h still stands in the City of Toronto. The tree today is e nd an ge re d by local d e v e l opment w h i c h e v e n t u a l l y ma y force its removal despite efforts to preserve it, while the song, a l t h o u g h po sse sse d of a pleasant melody, is no longer conside red appropriate, and very seldom is heard. Indeed, m an y Cana di an s ma y not be familiar wit h the words, and so, not be cause we have any fondness for them, but simply because of their relevance to our Ships of the Month, here are the words of the first verse and chorus: In days of yore, from B r i ta in 's shore, Wolfe the dauntless hero came, And pla nt e d firm Br it an n i a ' s flag on Ca na da' s fair domain; Here may it wave, our boast and pride, and join in love together, The Thistle, Shamrock, Rose entwine the Maple Leaf forever. The Maple Leaf, our em b l e m dear, the Maple Leaf forever, God save our Queen (King) and He ave n bless the Maple Leaf forever. And so it went on through a total of four verses. It is easy to see why it no longer is con si d er e d to be accept abl e today. Back in the po li tic al c l i mate which pr ev a i l ed when it was written, however, praise of Canad a's r e l a tions with Great Britain was all the rage in the En gl is h - s p e a k i n g parts of the Dominion, and p a r t i c u l a r l y in Toronto, w hi ch was a great bast ion of The Empire. The refere nc es to the thistle, the sh am roc k and the rose, of course, come from the floral emblems of Scotland, Irel and and England, respectively. It is not surprising, therefore, that when the Toronto Ferry Comp any Limited began to name its new or n e w l y - re bu il t ferry steamers for familiar flowers, two of those chosen to be so "honoured" were Scotlan d's thistle and I r e land's shamrock. Both THIS TLE and SH AM R O C K have been gone from the wat ers of Toronto Bay for almost ni ne ty years now, and so they may be even less familiar to our r e a d ers than the words of "The Maple Leaf Forever"! It has been quite some time since we last featured the hi st o r y of a Toro nto ferry in these pages, and so it seems only fitting that we should now present the stories of T H I S T L E and SHAMROCK (I) for our readers' enjoyment. Our ins pir a t i o n for doing so comes not from A l e xa nd er Muir's song, but rather from the recent d i s c o v e r y of an ex cel len t pho to gr ap h of THISTLE, the first photo ever p o s i t i v e l y id en ti fi ed as a true image of this elusive v e s sel. In fact, she now is known to appear in the dista nce of several other photographs, but alth ou gh we long had sus pe ct ed that it was THIS TLE we were seeing in those views, we never could prove it con cl us iv el y until this "new" photo was d i s co v e r ed amongst the detri tus extracted from an old T o ro nt o a t tic and of fe r e d for sale by an antique dealer who was dispos ing of items from the estate of the former (and un id ent ifi ed, at least to us) owner. THI STL E was an oak-hulled, two-decked, double-en ded , sidewheel ferry steamer which was built in 1882 by George Cleak at the foot of Berkeley Street on the old Tor on to waterfront. She was co n s t r u c t e d for John A. C l e n d e n n i n g and the Toronto & Hu mb er N a v i g a t i o n Company. She was launched into the wa te rs of Toronto Bay on the "cold and d i s a gr eea ble " after noo n of Thursday, Ap ril 6th, 1882. Her ch r is t e ni n g with a bottle of wine was pe rf orm ed by "little Georgie Westman", g r a n d s o n of George Williams, the Esplanade constable, who gave her the name CANADIAN. Enro ll ed at Toronto under official number 83383, CA NA DI AN entered service on Saturday, July 29, 1882, the day after she had s u c c e s s fully run her trials.