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BALTIC SHIPS THAT BALTIC (Can, 92310) Sidewheel NEVER DIE steamer built as FRANCES SMITH # 134 during the winter of 1866-67 by Melanchton Simpson at his yard at Owen Sound, Ont. She measured 627 tons and was 190 feet long. Originally she had two smoke stacks. All of the timber and planking that went into her was hand sawed and her cabins were as elegant as those of any other ship of her day. She was built for Capt. W. H. Smith to replace his small steamer CLIFTON on the Collingwood-Owen Sound run and was named for the captain's wife. Early in her career the FRANCES SMITH spent the winter of 1868-69 ona reef near Byng Inlet which became known as Frances Smith Shoal. However, she was pulled off the next spring and resumed her normal run. After Capt. Smith's death in 1872, she was commanded by Capt. Lute Robertson, a well- known Georgian Bay mariner. She plied the Collingwood-Owen Sound run until 1874 when she was put into the Lake Superior trade, running between Georgian Bay ports and Prince Arthur's Landing (Port Ar- thur) and Duluth. For three years she ran independently on this route and was then put into the Lake Superior Transportation Comp- anyts line, along with the sidewheelers CUM- NOTE: of 1917. Photo from William A. McDonald BERLAND and CHICORA. Later, the FRANCES SMITH was operated in company with the steamers CITY OF OWEN SOUND and CITY OF WINNIPEG, and still later with the CAMPANIA. In 1879 she was rebuilt at Owen Sound drydock. In 1888 she was purchased by the Great Northern Transit Company and received an ex- tensive, $36,000 rebuild at the Collingwood Shipyard. She came out in the spring of 1889 as the BALTIC and was placed in service on the Collingwood, Sault Ste. Marie and Mackinac route, along with the ATLANTIC and PACIFIC. She was on this run until 1893 when she was transferred to the Georgian Bay to Chicago route to provide service to the World's Fair. At the close of the 1893 sea- son, she tied up at the Huronland Street dock at Collingwood and did not operate for the next three seasons. At 2:30 a.m. on Sept. 5, 1896, she mys- teriously caught fire and burned to the wat- er's edge. Later the BALTIC's machinery was removed and the burned-out hull was allowed to drift onto an unused section of the beach. For a number of years her rotting timbers remained a visible reminder of the "Golden Age" of steamboating on Georgian Bay. Dave Glick In last month's story on the HAMILDOC, she was purchased by Paterson in 1947 instead Please pardon the typographical error. a