Calling Them Back Again -- Old Waterfront Picture: Schooner Days CLXXXII (183)

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TRUST an Owen Sound boy to remember the waterfront he played around fifty years before!

A week ago Saturday "Schooner Days' carried two photographs of fitting-out times in Owen; Sound, and asked who could remember vessels shown and identify them.

Manager J. B. Foote, of the Union Transit Company, Limited, Toronto, promptly responded with an identification so complete and, to those with a liking for the water, so interesting, that it is going to be given in full, along with a few additional comments about the vessels mentioned.

Mr. Foote wrote:

"Referring to the photograph appearing in your issue of March 30 of Owen Sound's waterfront, I incline to believe a check-up would indicate that the last vessel on the extreme left at the bows of the 'Scotia' was the "Calliope,' owned by Fred Douglas and used by him as a trading vessel along the north shore.

"Mr. Douglas' brother, namely, T. W. Douglas, is in the merchant tailoring business in Owen Sound, and could, no doubt, check on my suggestion.

"Astern of the 'Scotia,' I believe, there is the outline of a side-wheeler, probably the old steamer 'Champion' subsequently made over.

The white schooner astern of the 'Garibaldi' is, no doubt, the 'Phoebe Catharine' of the port of registry of St. Catharines. She was owned by Captain John Pearson, a pioneer vessel man of the early days.

"Ahead of the 'Garibaldi' you will note a two-stacked side-wheel steamer. The stacks blend into the lower part of the fore and main masts of the 'Garibaldi.' This side-wheeler was the 'Meteor' owned by Cooke Brothers, sawmill men of Serpent River. The 'Meteor' was sailed by Captain Clark. Subsequently, she was rebuilt into a small passenger steamer and named 'City of Owen Sound.' It is my recollection she was burned at some port on Lake Ontario, perhaps Toronto, between the yeas 1905 and 1910."

Mr. Foote is right about the City of Owen Sound. She was burned in Newcastle, Aug. 9th, 1906, after she had been rechristened the Erindale. Capt. Tim Sullivan had to jump overboard from the upper deck. The stewardess, Mrs. Constantine was burned to death. The Erindale's hulk lay here in Toronto for a long time in behind the east pier of the Eastern Gap.

"In this same picture and immediately ahead of the 'Meteor' is the smokestack of the S.S. 'Bayfield,' of which I will say more in a subsequent paragraph.

"In the right-hand picture the smart little steamer in the foreground is the Dominion Government fisheries protective steamer 'Cruiser. She was in the fisheries protective service out of Owen Sound, and I think also out of Port Stanley for a number of years, under the command of Captain Edwin Dunn. If I mistake not she was bought by Polson of Toronto and made into a yacht."

The late F. B. Polson, whose shipyard was at the foot of Sherbourne street, had two steam yachts, Cruiser I and Cruiser II, and the latter, it is believed, was the ex-fisheries protection steamer—a very sweet little craft.

"Immediately behind the 'Cruiser' the white steamer with the long smokestack is the Dominion Government steamer 'Bayfield.' She was used for many years in the hydrographic service and the charting of Georgian Bay and the North Channel under the command of J. G. Bolton, R.N. The sailing master of this vessel was Captain Murray McGregor of Clinton, Ontario.

"Subsequent to her service for the Government she was bought, rebuilt and renamed Tug 'Harrison.'

"Astern of the 'Bayfield' there would appear to be the steamer 'Cambria.' If my supposition is correct the 'Cambria' was rebuilt as a passenger vessel from the hull of the steamer 'Champion,' previously mentioned. The 'Cambria' operated between Owen Sound and Sault Ste. Marie in the late eighties and early nineties, and for a year or two out of the port of Windsor.

The schooner in the right foreground is, I believe, the 'Annie Foster' which was owned by J. Foster, a lumber merchant of Owen Sound.

A schooner named the Anna Foster, was built by Capt. D. M. Foster at Port Burwell, on Lake Erie, but it is doubtful if this was the Annie Foster of the picture. The Annie Foster of Owen Sound was owned by Mr. Wm. Foster, lumber merchant, of that port, when she was lost, in 1882. She left Barrow Bay with cargo for Hay Island, and was wrecked off Half Moon Island in the Georgian Bay. Mr. Foster also owned the small schooner Regma, which sprang a leak in Lake Huron in June, 1881, after leaving Windsor with a cargo of salt for Owen Sound. She ran for the Cape Hurd passage, but off Tobermory" she went down under the feet of Capt. Tripp of Collingwood, as he cast off the yawl boat's painter,. He was drowned, but the crew, who were already in the yawl, were saved. One of the boys perished later in the same year, in the wreck of the steamer Jane Miller, Nov. 25th, 1881. The upper picture gives another and better portrait of the Annie Foster.

'Astern of her," continues Mr. Foote, "the three-master is most probably the barge 'Marquis' and the three-masted schooner behind her is probably the 'Lady McDonald,' as she spent several winters in Owen Sound."

The Marquis was well known on Lake Ontario, and so was the Lady Macdonald. The latter was built at Port Burwell and often carried coal to the waterworks at the foot of John street. She was lost at Fair Haven in 1893, when Capt. James Ewart, sr., of Cobourg, owned her.

The Marquis was one of the largest schooners built on Lake Ontario. She and the Bentley and the Butler were of about 1,000 tons carrying capacity. They were built at Mill Point (now Deseronto) in 1873, and operated by Capt. W. B. Hall, of Toronto, as tow barges behind the tug W. D. Robb, beached long ago at Victoria Park.

"The little vessel alongside of the 'Marquis' is probably the 'Royale' as you say, as it is my recollection she spent one winter at Owen Sound.

"The steamers in the right background are, no doubt, the C.P.R. upper lake steamships.

"These pictures were evidently taken at different periods, perhaps anywhere from two to five years intervening, and they both look down the harbor to the north."

Vessels possess as much individuality as human beings, and, to the sailor, are as readily distinguished and remembered. Still, it isn't everybody who could sit down before a newspaper reproduction of a couple of photographs of where he had played fifty years before- a reproduction in which only one name appeared plainly, and that one was questioned—and say: "This was Smith's store and Brown's blacksmith shop and Jones' cottage and Robinson's woodshed, and that is Tom Soandso and this is Dick Suchandsuch and there is Harry Whosit" and so on, accounting for every figure in the pictures. Even for a sailor and one whose family had been sailors and who had been in the transportation business all his life, Mr. Foote's feat is remarkable. Partly to show just how much he had to go on, and partly to benefit those who were not able to do as well as he, the two waterfront scenes are repeated in to-day's issue.

The ANNIE FOSTER docked at the old Sutherland storage, which was burned in Owen Sound in 1902. To the right of the picture can be seen one of the old Toronto-Grey and Bruce railway cars. The building at the left, which was the old Miller's storehouse and used by the upper lake steamers, is still standing and is occupied by the Dominion Transportation Company. The house in the centre was the home of W. J. Smith, now living in Owen Sound, and Horace B. Smith, a director of the Canada Steamships Lines. Mr. D. J. Kennedy, Owen Sound, who kindly lent the picture, states that it was taken about 1876. He is not able to identify the men on the schooner's deck, or the daring tar astride the triatic stay.

Fitting Out Time Photos Which Produced Remarkably Complete Identification. (Marked in red) vessels, from left, Schooner Phoebe Catherine, S.S. Cruiser, S.S. Cambria, ex-Champion, S.S. Bayfield, Royal, schooner Lady McDonald, schooner Marquis and schooner Annie Foster.