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13. Sam at Fifty - cont'd. ries every day himself (no private launch for him), knew all the crews, and regularly complained about the inadequacies of the ferry service! Captain John Leonard recalls the day of the McBRIDE's christening, and he thinks it was held on April 30. (We have been unable to confirm the actual date. ) John remembers that he was going to Jarvis Collegiate at the time, and was playing baseball in the yard as part of a phys. ed. class. Around three o'clock, he heard all of the ships in the harbour blow their whistles, three long and two short in the traditional long salute. The BLUEBELL and TRILLIUM blew first, and then the T. J. CLARK, which blew the old chime whistle which she had inherited from LUELLA and JOHN HANLAN. The McBRIDE answered each salute with her loud but rather unimpressive horn, and all the whistles could be heard clearly in the Jarvis Collegiate schoolyard. John Leonard managed to escape gym class. The batter in the game hit a ho mer and the ball went over the fence into a neighbour's back yard. John cha sed the ball, kept on going, jumped on his bicycle, and rode down to the ferry docks in record time. (At that time, the docks were located between Bay and York Streets, west of their present location. ) John sneaked in by way of the freight gate and arrived in time to see the McBRIDE coming in to the dock, and Mrs. Shaw with a big bunch of roses in her hand. The next morning, John rose at 5:00 a.m., sneaked out of the family's win ter home in Rosedale, and bicycled down to the ferry docks. He arrived in time for the first trip of the day and had to wait for the ticket office to open, so he was the first passenger. It was a rainy, miserable day, but SAM McBRIDE set out on her first revenue run at 6: 00 o ' c l o c k , bound for Centre Island. John Leonard rode that trip in the pilothouse with Captain Joe Grace, the McBRIDE's first master. Unlike the big sidewheelers, the Mc BRIDE did not carry a wheelsman, so it was up to Capt. Joe to steer the boat, avoid other traffic on the bay, and answer all the salutes that were blown. John took over the horn-blowing so that the "Old Man" could attend to his duties. Capt. Joe complained about the magnetic compass being out of adjustment, no doubt as a result of all the turning around on trials, the vibration, etc., which the crews on the steamers had never experienced. The mate on that trip was Fred Backman, and John Osborne was the engineer. (Lest anyone think that John Leonard cut classes at Jarvis with impunity, let it be known that, after making several early morning trips on the Mc BRIDE that day, he rode home for breakfast and was roundly scolded by his mother. On his next arrival at school, he drew a detention and was forced to write five hundred lines as penance for his hooky-playing. ) SAM McBRIDE originally was licensed to carry 800 passengers, but this was increased to 1,000 in 1941 . The McBRIDE immediately became the main boat on the Centre Island route and has served as such ever since. She was join ed in 1951 by a near-sister, THOMAS RENNIE, whose commissioning eventually permitted the withdrawal from service, a few years later, of the sidewheel ers BLUEBELL and TRILLIUM. T.M. H. S. member Jim Roach, who spent many summers on Ward's Island, was clo sely connected with the ferry service for many seasons, wheeling on the boats, sweeping, handling lines, oiling, etc., although he only actually was hired on during the summers of 1943 (on TRILLIUM) and 1944 (on the Mc BRIDE). Jim recalls that the McBRIDE's original Fairbanks Morse machinery was very slow in stopping. The boat took a full minute to come to a full stop when running, and this could create awkward moments if another boat cut across her path, as it would be a full minute before she could begin to reverse. The McBRIDE's steering took a fair amount of wheel, but she could be brought back on course or amidships without any problems. In this respect, she was very different from the RENNIE, which one often had to bring to a full stop to keep her from straying off course. Ye Ed. concurs with Jim's comments in this respect for, in years past, the Ed. often tended the wheel when crossing in the company of some of the veteran ferry skippers. Jim specifically recalls one Saturday in July of 1943 , when he took Alec