THE POLSON IRON WORKS OF OWEN SOUND - THE MANITOBA & THE ONTARIO
By Bruce Rudolph
The building of the Manitoba marks a significant achievement in Canadian history. She would be built by the first Canadian shipyard equipped for steel shipbuilding. From an industrial archaeology point of view, the Manitoba was the starting point of steel shipbuilding in Canada.
FreshWater, a Journal of Great Lakes Marine History, published by the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes at Kingston, Ontario. Volume 10, No. 1, 1995.
Reproduced here in PDF format with the permission of Bruce Rudolph. Click on the links to download the indicated pages:
Pages Cover to 8, (9.34 MB), Pages 9 to 16 (8.7 MB), Pages 17 to 24 (6.48 MB)
SENATOR W. E. SANFORD AND HIS YACHT NAIAD
By Bruce Rudolph
Polson Ironworks & W.E. Sanford. "...just weeks before [the launch of the Ontario, Canada's first steel rail car ferry], a court order arrived forcing the Polsons into the hands of a liquidator. To save themselves from bankruptcy new capital had to be raised, investors had to be found. Men not only with capital but with business and political connections. One of these men was Senator William Eli Sanford."
Reproduced here in PDF format with the permission of Bruce Rudolph. Click on the links to download the indicated pages:
Pages 2-3-4, (2.9 MB), Pages 5-6-7 (2.5 MB) Pages 8-9-10 (3 MB) Pages 11-12-13-14 (2.9 MB)
A TUG OF WAR OVER BATCHAWANA
By Paul Wilson, The Hamilton Spectator, January 18, 2008
The sheriff is auctioning off the little rusty boat that doesn't measure up in a post-9/11 world. "... the sheriff has also seized a tugboat. It's called the Batchawana, built in 1912, and he will "offer it for sale by public auction at the John Sopinka Court House 45 Main Street East, Suite 126, Hamilton on Jan. 23, 2008 at 11 a.m." The tug is owned by one Arthur Gray. He is a legend in diving circles. He is 84 and has been in the business since 1952."
Read the whole article (web page), copied here by permission of the Hamilton Spectator.
SHIP OF THE MONTH No. 25 SEGUIN
By Jay Bascom, November 1972, The Scanner, Toronto Marine Historical Society
In the late 1880's, Polson Iron Works Ltd. of Toronto established a branch shipyard at the Georgian Bay port of Owen Sound, Ontario. The first vessel built at the new yard was the famous passenger and package freight steamer MANITOBA launched in 1889 for the Canadian Pacific Railway as a replacement for the unfortunate ALGOMA. In fact, the engines of ALGOMA were salvaged from the wreck on Isle Royale and fitted in MANITOBA where they served until..."
Read the whole article (web page), linked here by permission Jay Bascom.