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7. ADA ALICE - Cont'd. the old (passenger steamer) MUSKOKA (replaced after her last operation in 1907 by the new CHEROKEE). " We are fortunate not only to have a photograph of ADA ALICE taken by the fa­ mous photographer J. Boyd at Bala, Lake Muskoka, on June 30, 1917, as she loaded a barge with tanbark. The photo shows her with a small pilothouse and texas on the upper deck, forward of the smokestack. Another photo, from the collection of the late Ivan Brookes, and supplied through the courtesy of Capt. Gerry Ouderkirk, shows the abandoned ADA ALICE sunk alongside the stripped-out hulk of MUSKOKA at Gravenhurst. The engine-damaged and laid up NIPISSING, (b) SEGWUN, can be seen in the background. Tatley gives an interesting account of an occurrence which befell ADA ALICE when under the ownership of Captain Fraser. The date of the event is given as 1915, but we tend to question this in view of Tatley's own (previously quoted) comment that the Navigation Company owned her by March 18, 1915. In any event, we quote Tatley as follows: "Fraser's next steamer was the ADA ALICE, until lately the Davies Company floating marketeria. He had barely taken charge of her when she almost met the same fate as the old tug LAKE JOSEPH. In May of 1915, near the mouth of the Indian River, she was taking a scow alongside, loaded with frames for a new extension to the (summer) Elgin House (hotel at Port Sandfield) plus some cordwood for fuel, when sparks from the stack set the load on fire. Within seconds, the scow was ablaze from one end to the other, and the steamer too, on the side next to the scow. The captain rang for 'stop en­ gines' and swung around so that the wind would carry the flames the other way; then he and his three crew members began battling the blaze. The tug was soon out of danger, but nothing, it seemed, could save the scow. After a desperate fifteen-minute fight, however, a man in a motorboat came alongside to lend a hand, and with his timely assistance, the fire was soon out. The motorboat owner the left before anyone had a chance to thank him. " Thus we have some insight into what became of ADA ALICE after she left To­ ronto Bay for service on the Muskoka Lakes. We know not what happened to her after she was abandoned and allowed to sink alongside the hulk of the old MUSKOKA. As with most of the old wooden-hulled Muskoka steamships abandoned along the Gravenhurst waterfront over the years, however, we suspect that her bones eventually were towed out into Muskoka Bay and scuttled. Parts of her may remain there to this day. * * * * * ECHO SOUNDINGS Member A l Jackson, of Amherstburg, Ontario, has acquainted us with an inte­ resting work which our members may find valuable. The Marsh Collection So­ ciety is a non-profit organization based on the historical collection of John and Helen Marsh, who for over half a century owned and operated the "Amherstburg Echo" newspaper. The Society collects, preserves and encourages research into the heritage of Amherstburg and the lower Detroit River dis­ trict. Echo Soundings is intended to be a quarterly publication of the Society, re­ producing excerpts of marine news from the "Amherstburg Echo". Volume One, Number One, a softcover with tooth binding, features marine news items from 1874 and 1875, and with an index runs to 96 pages. It sells for Can. $10. 00 plus $2. 50 postage. Interested parties should contact the Marsh Collection Society, 235A Dalhousie Street, Amherstburg, Ontario N9V 1W6. Phone (519) 736-9191 or fax (519) 736-7166. * * * * *