Mariners

Mariners. . , Paddling to the Depot , Bark peeled from a birch tree felled in spring. Cedar branches, tamarack roots, spruce pitch, and charcoal. From those materials, the first mariners of Lake Superior , the ancestors of the present-day First Nations of this region , invented a watercraft to brave the lake's storms and waves. When the Europeans arrived, they adopted the design for the "Canot de Maître." The eight-man freight canoe was the heart of the fur trade in the 1700s. Arriving with trade items and leaving with 90 kilos each of animal pelts, the voyageurs paddled between Montreal and here, a place known then simply as the Depot. , Fishing for the Deer of the Lakes , They were called "deer of the lakes." In the early days of First Nations-European contact, a net cast in Lake Superior could bring up hundreds of whitefish, each weighing as much as nine kilos. However, by the 1890s, fish wholesalers like Alfred Booth had already begun to exhaust the plentiful supply. The Chicago merchant had fish-packing plants in several ports, including here. He employed 15 men to head out from this port on two tugs and three sailboats in search of whitefish, but also contracted with many independent Port Arthur fishermen. Booth's monopoly went unchallenged until marketing cooperatives came along in the 1920s. The lake's whitefish stocks have slowly rebounded with management, but the average fish today weighs a quarter of what it once did. , Perils of the Inland Sea , In 1929, the skipper of a Great Lakes freighter told a reporter the tale of a sea captain who loaded up a freighter at Port Arthur in a storm. The captain was advised to wait in port until the weather blew over. Unfamiliar with Lake Superior, the sea captain dismissed it as a millpond, steamed away , and was never seen again. This inland sea has more than 500 shipwrecks. One of them is the Monarch. It left Port Arthur on December 6, 1906, and ran into the rocks of Isle Royale in a snowstorm. All but one of the passengers and crew made it to shore. The survivors were shipwrecked for three nights and two days, until a pair of tugboats from Port Arthur came to the rescue. , , , , , , . , Working watercraft , Many vessels worked the harbour and the shoreline of this area. Here are a few of the best-known and the accomplishments of their mariners.

Chicora , Sidewheeler paddleboat, 1860s and '70s. Delivered post for the Lake Superior Royal Mail Line and ferried passengers, including the troops of the Red River Expedition. , James Whalen , Tugboat, 1905-65. Towed steamers in the port through ice up to 50 centimetres thick., Butcher's Boy and Butcher's Maid , Supply boats, 1880s. Brought meat and other fresh food to construction crews on the Canadian Pacific Railway., Primrose , Dredger, 1940s. Dredged Port Arthur’s harbor in preparation for the ore dock.

, , , , , , . , Royal Delivery , In the summer of 1959, the Royal Yacht Britannia, along with a large naval escort, set anchor in Port Arthur. Queen Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh were ferried from there to this waterfront in a royal barge. The royal couple had just sailed 3,200 kilometres, after officiating over the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway, which linked Lake Superior with the Atlantic.