Maritime History of the Great Lakes

Scanner, v. 26, no. 2 (November 1993), p. 11

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9. Ship of the Mo nth - cont'd. We have a copy of The Eagle, Star & British D o m inions Insurance C o m p a n y Limi t e d po li cy number 5095, issued to James Purvis, c o v e r i n g W I N O N A (that p a rt ic ul ar po l i c y being for the period 3rd August, 1930, to 3rd August, 1931). It is stated that WINONA was valued at $ 2 2 , 500 and p r o vided coverage of $ 2 0 , 000 on her hull, m a c h i n e r y and equipment, but onl y for the peril of "Fire". The steame r was w a r r a n t e d to na vigate the waters of Lake Huron, and to be laid up from 31st D e c ember to 31st March. The engine and bo iler were salvaged from the wreck of W I N O N A du r i n g 1932, and were taken to Gore Bay. The engine sat on the w a t e r f r o n t there, in front of the Purvis twine shed, for man y years. It finally was scrapped by Jack Purvis in the ea rly 1950s. The boiler was pl aced in the fishtug C A P T A I N JIM about 1934. C A P T A I N JIM (C . 107139) was built at G o d e r i c h in 1902, 78 . 6 x 17 . 2 x 7 . 2, 51 Gross and 39 Net. She was owned by W i l l i a m J. I. Purvis and James (J. 0 . ) Purvis, of Gore Bay. The bo i l e r is still inside the hull of the tug, w h i c h was a b a n d o n e d at the end of her usefulness, and sank at Quebec Harbour, M i c h i p i c o t e n Island, in 1955 or 1956. D u r i n g the p r e p a r a t i o n of this hist o r y of WINONA, it was d i s c o v e r e d that the D o m i n i o n List of S h i pping (the Canadian government s h i pping register), from 1907 until 1918, showed the owner of W I N O N A to be Mrs. I s a bella D. White, of Midland, Ontario. This is mystif ying, because the Purvis family records c o n firm that James Purvis p u r c h a s e d WINONA in 1906 from The N a v i g a t i o n Comp a n y of Port Stanley, Capt. Ell i s o n ' s firm. As well, as we write these words, we are looking at a p h o t o c o p y of the share transfer from Al e x a n d e r Purvis to James Purvis, da ted April 30th, 1910, from w hich we q u o t e d earlier. We also have the e v i d e n c e of an other government publication, the 1915 D o m i n i o n v es se l i n s p e c t i o n list, w h i c h r eported James Purvis as owner of WINONA. So who was Is ab el la White? A pos si bl e e x p l a n a t i o n m a y lie in the fact that Capt. Wm. White, of Midland, ow ned the st eam tug WINNANNA, w hich was built in 1906-1907 at Midland. She bur n e d at T o b e r m o r y in October of 1909, and then was s a l vaged and re built in 1910 at Owe n Sound as (b) KEENAN. It is possible that the s i m i l a r i t y in the sound of the names WI N O N A and W I N N A N N A m a y have confused some people. In support of this e x p l a n a t i o n of the puzzle, we should note that some r e ports wh ich a p p e a r e d in the public press referred to W I N O N A as h a v i n g been d e s t r o y e d by fire on Oc tober 19, 1909, w h i c h was the date of the b u r n i n g of W I N N A N N A at Tobermory. No refe rence to such a fire aboard Purvis' W I N O N A in 1909 has be en d i s c o v e r e d amongst the family records, and so we must assume that all this si mply was a case of m i s t a k e n marine identity! Meanw hil e, the m e m o r y of the real WINONA, as well known as she was along the North Channel for so many years, is growing ever more dim as the yea rs pass. An d yet, she was for a qu arter of a ce ntury a vital link to the m a i n l a n d for so m an y pe opl e living in remote areas on M a n i t o u l i n and C o c k b u r n Islands. We are pl ea se d to have been able to recall her story in the pages of "Scanner". * * * Ed. N o t e : We s i n c e r e l y appre c i a t e the assis t a n c e of longtime T . M . H . S. member and c o r r e s p o n d e n t G. I. "Buck" Longhurst, of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, in o bt a i n i n g for us m u c h of the i n f o r m a t i o n which went into the p r e p a r a t i o n of this hi st o r y of WINONA. We also wish to extend our grat itude to Mor l e y Purvis for g e n e r o u s l y s u p plying copies of docu ments r e l a t i n g to W I N O N A for use in tracin g her history. In addition, Ye Ed. wi shes to a cknowledge the many hours of w o r k wh ic h T . M . H . S. S e c r e t a r y John H. Bascom put into c o llating the W I N O N A i n f o r m a t i o n and pu tti ng it into a format w hich w ould lend itself to the m a k i n g of a fe atu re article.

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