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GREAT LAKE MEMORIES Last month, we noted that 2007 is the centenary of the launch of the former C. P. R. steamer KEEWATIN, now preserved as a museum. But 2007 also marks the centenary of the entry into -service of the famous Lake Ontario passenger steamer CAYUGA, and we would be re­ miss if we did not recognize the occasion. CAYUGA was designed by Arendt Angstrom, and the contract for her construc­ tion was let by the Niagara Navigation Company Limited in 1905 to the Canadian Shipbuilding Company Ltd., Toronto. She was to be rea­ dy for service between To­ ronto and the Niagara River in the summer of 1906, but her completion was delayed. She ran trials on Lake On­ tario on August 15, 1906, and performed very satis­ factorily, but her interior work was not done in time for her to carry passengers that season. She did run some trial trips to the Niagara River in the autumn of 1906. The print at left is made from a postcard on the lo­ wer face of which appears "Welcome On Board S. S. CA­ YUGA October 1906", probab­ ly made for a special pre­ sentation of the ship. Note that in the photo she is fully dressed and even is flying her christening bur­ gee from the fore and the company houseflag at the main. Also notable is the fact that she shows her name in large letters on the main deck bulwark amidships. She carried it there for only a very short period of time. CAYUGA made her maiden scheduled crossing to Niagara on Monday, June 10, 1907, under the command of Commodore John McGiffin, Niagara Navigation's senior captain. He likewise had been on the bridge of CHIPPEWA when she made her inaugural run in the spring of 1894, and he also had served in CHICORA, CIBOLA and CORONA. CAYUGA ran successfully for Niagara Navigation until 1913 and then for Canada Steamship Lines through 1951. Idle in 1952 and 1953, reactivated by the Cayuga Steamship Company Li­ mited in 1954, she made her last lake crossing on Labour Day in 1957. President of Cayuga Steamship Company was D. Roland Michener, Q. C. (later to serve as Governor General of Canada), while the managing director was our longtime T. M. H. S. member Alan Howard. CAYUGA was scrapped at Toronto in 1961-1962, but on the centenary of her entry into service we remember the prettiest passenger steamer ever to operate on Lake Ontario, and arguably the most handsome dayboat ever to run on the Great Lakes.