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Ship of the M o n t h - cont'd. 8. up berth in the Yonge Street slip, pr epa rin g to move alongs ide the Ferry Compan y' s terminal to begin her work for the day. In so doing, however, she coll id ed with the passenger steamer WHITE STAR, w h i c h was pas si ng by. WH ITE STAR was able to m a i nt ai n her re g u la rl y sc hed ule d trips, but the impact to one of T H I S T L E ' s sharp ends caused damage to her stem and also to her r u d der. She was taken over to H a n l a n ' s Point, where the Ferry Com pa ny did most of the wi nt er and other regular ma in te nan ce work on its boats, and there she was repaired. While THISTLE was out of service, the s i ng le -e nd er ISLAND QUEEN (see issues of May, M i d - S u m m e r and No ve mbe r of 1987) took over her regular runs to Island Park. THISTLE c o n t i n u e d her usual Island Park service for a few more years, but during the summer of 1906, the Toronto Ferry Com pan y co mm is s i o n e d the first of two new 150-foot "su perferries" that wo uld be the ma i n s t a y s of the island ferry service for almost half a century, as well as being the largest boats ever oper at ed as Island ferries. The new steamer was BLUE BELL (offici all y two words but always fa mi l i a r l y spelled as one - "BLUEBELL", even as painted on the ship herself), which was built by the Poison Iron Works at Toronto. Her ap pe a r a n c e on the H a n l a n ' s Point route pe rm itt ed the transfer of one of the 1890 pair (MAYFLOWER or PRIMROSE) to the Island Park route, and the most expen da bl e of the d o u b l e - e n d e r s then doing the Island Park run could be retired. (The numerous small s i ng le- end ers still were requi red for the Ward's Island route, service up into Li ght hou se Pond for the Lakeside Home for Little C h i l d r e n at Gi b r a l t a r Point, and for service on all routes during off-peak travel times, p a r t i c u l a r l y in the spring and f a l l . ) Perhaps her hull was less strong than that of the other w o o d e n - h u l l e d double-ender, the SH AMROCK (I) (of wh ich we have spoken until now as SADIE), and cer t a i n l y her engine was not as good, but for wh at eve r reasons, THIS TLE was the e x p e n d a b l e boat, and she was taken out of service wh en BLUE BEL L appeared. TH IS T L E was taken over to H a nl an' s Point, and she was laid away to rest a l on gs id e "John Hanlan's old dock". This was in an area totally u n f a m i liar to today's historians and even most Island residents. It was located in a wa te r c o u r s e w h i c h split the old Hanla n's Point area in two, run ni ng in a no r t h - s o u t h direction. It di vi d e d the amusement park area from the West Island sandbar. Comm on ly ca lled "Hanlan's Lagoon" or the "Regatta Course L a goon" (after a regatta course laid down through it despite its shal low depth and the ch ok i n g growth of ma r i n e slime of the period), it was the site of the famous "Diving Horse" a t t r a ct io n pe rp et ra te d on the human and equine popu la t i o n s by showman J. W. Gorman. There, the st ri pp ed -o ut TH IS T L E was to rot away in peace. year later, however, the To ro n t o Ferry Com pa ny wo uld wi sh were operable. Just that one she scant still We now turn our atte nt io n to the steamer to wh ich we have re fe rre d alr ead y as either SADIE or SHAMROCK. A l t h o u g h she latt erl y was a sha rp- no se d doubleender like THISTLE, she had a rather different history, and she was a much older boat. In fact, she ran for only one year short of half a century, whereas T H I S T L E ' s career lasted for only 24 years. Ma ny historians, however, have not made the co nnection between the latter years of SA D I E / S H A M R O C K and her ear li er activities. In reality, this steamer could trace her beginn ing s back to 1858, when she was built as the ST. JEAN BA PT I S TE at Portneuf, Quebec, on the no rth shore of the lower St. Lawrence River, well below Quebec City and even the S a guenay River mouth, and almost as far out as Baie Comeau. She was 99 feet in length, wi t h a beam of hull of 23 feet and a depth of 7 feet, and her Gross tonnage was 208. We know v er y little else about the steamer in tier St. Lawrence days, except that she was an oak-hulled, single-ended, b e a m - e n g i n e d sidewheeler, and that by 1873 she was running as a ferry bet we en Prescott and O g d e n s b u r g on the upper river.