The Wake of the s.s. Keewatin

Here we have the wake of the s.s. Keewatin in Lake Huron last week, as she was being towed by Fogg Towing’s ST class tug Wendy Anne and escort tug American Girl from Mackinaw City to Port McNicoll, Ontario, Keewatin‘s base port for more than half a century.

Having left Mackinaw City on Tuesday evening at 5:30, passing Blount Small Ship Adventures’ Grande Mariner off Mackinac Island, the last Canadian Pacific steamship, s.s. Keewatin continued on course to her new career in Georgian Bay. On board were Eric Conroy, project manager, with Josh Killham, Al Russell and myself and cameraman Cameron McCleery as passengers, plus four sailors from Fogg Towing Co of Beaver Island, Michigan – Dennis, Ryan, Bob and Jonathan – and pilot Kevin Noseworthy. And here is the evidence – the wake of the s.s. Keewatin off Manitoulin Island.

We entered Georgian Bay on Thursday evening June 21 at about 7:30, greeted by a small flotilla of boats off Tobermory. The s.s. Keewatin literally sailed out of the sunset towards her new life as the centrepiece of a marine park at the developing resort town of Port McNicoll, where we arrived at about 1:30 pm on Saturday, June 23, accompanied by a much larger flotilla! Here are some of the results of that voyage:  Photo essay of the Keewatin‘s voyage from Mackinaw City to Port McNicoll.

For further details on this ship or cruising the Great Lakes in 2012 please contact Kevin Griffin at The Cruise People Ltd in London on 020 7723 2450 or e-mail cruise@cruisepeople.co.uk.

Former Canadian Pacific Passenger Liner s.s. Keewatin Finally Returns to Her Former Home Port of Port McNicoll on Georgian Bay

          THE CRUISE EXAMINER at Cybercruises.com

          by Kevin Griffin

     The Cruise Examiner for 25th June 2012

On Saturday, June 23, at 1:30 pm, the 105-year-old former Canadian Pacific Great Lakes passenger liner s.s. Keewatin arrived back at Port McNicoll, her home port between 1912 and 1965, for the first time since she was towed away to Douglas, Michigan, for use as a floating maritime museum in 1967.

Next week The Cruise Examiner will publish a photo essay taken during the last leg of the voyage from Mackinaw City to Port McNicoll. After  anchoring overnight at an island called the Giant’s Tomb on Thursday and Friday, she sailed into Port McNicoll on a glorious summer Saturday, welcomed by a fleet of hundreds of small craft.
.
Seen here leaving Mackinaw City and leaving the sunset behind on Monday, June 19, she averaged about 5.1 knots on her tow, often sneaking up on her lead tug Wendy Anne, seemingly anxious to get home again! She now lies once more at her former berth. Here are some of the results of that voyage:  Photo essay of the Keewatin‘s voyage from Mackinaw City to Port McNicoll.

.
NEXT WEEK’S STORY                                                      (See previous columns)

Out of the Sunset – Former Canadian Pacific Liner s.s. Keewatin Entered Georgian Bay On Her Way Home At 7:30 pm This Evening

The Wake of the s.s. Keewatin in lake Huron earlier today

Having left Mackinaw City on Tuesday evening at 5:30, passing Blount Small Ship Adventures’ Grande Mariner off Mackinac Island, the last Canadian Pacific steamship, s.s. Keewatin continued on course to her new career in Georgian Bay. On board are Eric Conroy, project manager, with Josh, Al and myself and cameraman Cameron as passengers, plus four sailors from Fogg Towing Co of Beaver Island, Michigan – Dennis, Ryan, Bob and Jonathan – and pilot Kevin.

More to  follow later as I don’t want to take up too much time on the ship’s network right now but here is the evidence – the wake of the s.s. Keewatin off Manitoulin Island today.

We entered Georgian Bay under tow of Fogg Towing’s tug Wendy Anne and escort tug American Lady, at about 7:30 this evening. Greeted by a small flotilla of boats off Tobermory, the s.s. Keewatin literally sailed out of the sunset towards her new life as the centrepiece of a marine park at the developing resort town of Port McNicoll.

Here are some of the results of that voyage:  Photo essay of the Keewatin‘s voyage from Mackinaw City to Port McNicoll.

New Expedition Company in the Costa Rica to Ecuador Range – Other Cruise News: One Ocean Plans Two Northwest Passage Transits This Summer – Keewatin Casts Off For Canada Tomorrow

          THE CRUISE EXAMINER at Cybercruises.com

          by Kevin Griffin

     The Cruise Examiner for 18th June 2012

This week we report on Sea Voyager Expeditions, a new expedition company that will offer departures to Colombia, Panama, Ecuador and Costa Rica. The ship they will be using is the 60-guest Sea Voyager, which once worked for Lindblad. Far from the tropics, in the Canadian Arctic, four ships will be offering transits of the Northwest Passage in 2013, but One Ocean Expeditions is planning to operate two such passages this summer between Kangerlussuaq and Coppermine, in the Canadian Arctic, with the Akademik Ioffe. And today The Cruise Examiner crosses the Atlantic to join the 105-year-old former Canadian Pacific passenger ship Keewatin for the last leg of her voyage back to her old base in Canada.

THIS WEEK’S STORY                                          (See previous columns)

Former Canadian Pacific s.s. Keewatin, Last Surviving Edwardian Liner in the World, Sails on Tuesday For Her Old Home Port in Canada

This photo by “National Post” photographer Darren Calabrese shows the finish on this Clyde-built steamship.

From Kevin Griffin, managing director at The Cruise People in London: I have been posting recently on the subject of the s.s. Keewatin‘s voyage back to Canada and this week, at the invitation of former Keewatin crew member and project manager Eric Conroy, I will actually be joining this historic ship for the final leg of her homeward journey. Eric and I both started our careers as 17-year-old waiters on these ships, he on Keewatin and I on sister ship Assiniboia.

Conroy, who worked two summers on the Keewatin and wrote a book about it called “A Steak in the Drawer” (the title came from ordering an extra steak and putting it in a drawer for later consumption), has been in charge of this project. This involved purchasing the 3,856-ton vessel, the last surviving Canadian Pacific passenger ship and possibly the last surviving Edwardian liner in the world, and bringing her home to Canada. In November, the firm that engaged him, Skyline International Development Inc of Toronto, purchased the 105-year-old Clyde-built ship and after having dredged the harbor at Douglas, Michigan, where she had been used as a museum, at a cost of $1 million to release her, had her towed to Mackinaw City, where she has been waiting.  All of this has been made possible by Skyline International and its founder and president Gil Blutrich, whose vision has brought this about.

Photographer Darren Calabrese rolls up his sleeping bag after spending a night on board in Mackinaw City.

On Monday morning, I cross the Atlantic to join the ship as one of five riding crew, five sailors, a cook and a cameraman, for the final leg of her tow to the Georgian Bay port of Port McNicoll, her base for several decades. In Port McNicoll, the Keewatin will become the centrepiece of a new waterfront park and part of a new resort community being developed by Skyline International, which also owns the King Edward, Cosmopolitan and Pantages Hotels in Toronto and the Deerhurst and Horseshoe resorts in Muskoka and Barrie, Ontario. 

The subject of repatriating this 105-year-old cruise ship to Canada, brings to mind the cruising history of Canadian Pacific, whose Empresses, Duchesses and Princesses operated so many early cruises. Canadian Pacific, one of the early lines to go into cruising, offered a world cruise every year in the 1920s and 1930s, when the St Lawrence River was closed by ice, as well as cruises between Montreal and New York, to Bermuda, to Alaska, to the Mediterranean and to the West Indies, not to mention the Great Lakes. This, and crossing the Atlantic with Canadian Pacific as a four-year-old boy, was what got me into the shipping business and into cruising.

To know more about the this voyage:  Photo essay of the Keewatin‘s voyage from Mackinaw City to Port McNicoll. And for cruising in general please call The Cruise People Ltd in London on 020 7723 2450 or e-mail cruise@cruisepeople.co.uk.

Un-Cruise Adventures Purchases Sea Voyager Expeditions’s 64-guest Sea Voyager for Sea of Cortes and Central America Programs

Note: 05.03.13 – Vessel has now been purchased by Un-Cruise Adventures of Seattle, who will rename her Safari Voyager for their Sea of Cortes and Central America cruise programs.

New expedition cruise company Sea Voyager Expeditions Ltd of Nassau, has announced that it will operate to a new cruising area – with ten different itineraries through Colombia, Panama, Ecuador and Costa Rica. Guests will travel on the 1,195-ton expedition-style Sea Voyager, a ship that is perfect for exploring and has been completely renovated inside and out in the past year.  To avoid confusion, this is not the ship of the same name that is operated by  International Shipping Partners and was used in relief work in Haiti, but the one that was built by Chesapeake Shipbuilding in 1982 and operated originally for American Cruise Lines and later for Lindblad Expeditions.

For further details please contact The Cruise People Ltd in London on 020 7723 2450 or e-mail cruise@cruisepeople.co.uk.

Cunard’s Three Queens Celebrate Diamond Jubilee – Other Cruise News: Carnival Corp Revives the Dominican Republic’s North Shore – Classic International Loses Founder / Charters Athena to Ambiente

          THE CRUISE EXAMINER at Cybercruises.com

          by Kevin Griffin

     The Cruise Examiner for 11th June 2012

.
All three of Cunard’s Queens, Queen Mary 2, Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria, visited Southampton together last Tuesday to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, in possibly the biggest such event outside London. On the same day, the line announced that it is looking for more first-timers and wants more UK agents to work with it. In four weeks time, it will be the turn of P&O Cruises, which will bring all seven of its ships to Southampton on Tuesday 3rd July to celebrate its 175th Anniversary. Elsewhere, Carnival Corp & PLC has announced a plan to revive cruising to the north shore of the Dominican Republic. Meanwhile from Lisbon comes news of the death of Classic International Cruises founder George Potamianos. The line has also announced the charter of Athena to Germany’s Ambiente Kreuzfahrten for a late summer season of five cruises in 2013.

THIS WEEK’S STORY                                          (See previous columns)

Homebound Voyage of Former Canadian Pacific Steamship Keewatin From Mackinaw City Finishes at Port McNicoll Next Week: Scene at Mackinaw With Tug Wendy Anne by Richard Weiss

A personal note from Kevin Griffin, managing director of The Cruise People Ltd in London, England:

I have a particular interest in the s.s. Keewatin as I was privileged at the age of 17 to land my first real job - as a waiter – on board her sister ship s.s. Assiniboia. This was during their last summer of passenger service and just before I entered university. The Keewatin and Assiniboia were built on the Clyde in 1907 and operated Canadian Pacific’s Great Lakes Steamship Service, sailing weekly from Port McNicoll, on Georgian Bay, to Sault Ste Marie and on to the Canadian Lakehead at Port Arthur and Fort William (which combined into Thunder Bay in 1970).

The pay was $173.58 per month but that was upped almost immediately to $240 once I was on board. Meals and berth were included and tips were an added bonus. Clothing requirements were “black shoes, white shirts, black bow tie, navy blue trousers and old clothing for work in port. Jackets are supplied and the navy trousers can be purchased at Del Hasting’s Men’s Wear in Midland.” The jackets were blue serge with brass buttons and were quite warm on a hot summer’s day at lunchtime!

The Keewatin sailed on Wednesdays and the Assiniboia on Saturdays and the two ships met at Sault Ste Marie every Sunday. The cost of such an “Inland Sea” cruise in those days was $90 per person in an inside cabin or $100 in an outside, and the fare included passage Port McNicoll-Fort William and return, berth and meals aboard ship and hotel room and meals in Fort William while the ship handled cargo. These cruises, which  were offered twice weekly, thus consisted of five nights, one of which was spent ashore.

When the boat train from Toronto came alongside at Port McNicoll at 3 pm, passengers boarded the ship, followed by the waiters carrying their luggage (and freshly laundered sheets, towels and uniforms from the Royal York Hotel laundry in Toronto) and she sailed promptly at 3:15 – just fifteen minutes later! At the Lakehead there were rail connections to and from the Pacific via Canadian Pacific’s famous Trans-Continental express “The Canadian.”

The next season, with the passenger service gone (although the Assiniboia still carried cargo for a while), I was given a ticket on “The Canadian” and assigned to Canadian Pacific’s British Columbia Coast Steamship Service, where I joined Princess Patricia, cruising from Vancouver to Alaska. She was built in the same shipyard as Assiniboia and Keewatin and gave her name to Princess Cruises when she was chartered to Stan McDonald of Seattle for two winters cruising from Los Angeles to Mexico. We had to remove all the Mexican decorations in preparation for her next Alaska season. One difference on the West Coast was that the waiters wore cooler white jackets for lunch.

Having sailed as a four-year-old from Liverpool to Montreal in Canadian Pacific’s second Empress of Canada, and later worked for the company in Montreal, I had not only immigrated to Canada with them, but had also managed to collect three employee numbers – in Port McNicoll, Vancouver and Montreal! Meanwhile I crossed the Atlantic again on the third Empress of Canada in 1970. As the Mardi Gras two years later, she became the start of Carnival Cruise Lines and right up until today’s Carnival Breeze, every Carnival ship has had an “Empress Deck.”

Now, I am privileged once again by being one of only a few to be invited to join the final leg of  the tow of Canadian Pacific’s last surviving passenger ship, s.s. Keewatin, from Mackinaw City back to her home port of Port McNicoll. There she is due to arrive at about 1:30 pm on June 23, a hundred years to the day after her first passenger departure from the then-new port, which opened in 1912. Under the auspices of Skyline International Development Inc of Toronto, the Keewatin is to become the centrepiece of a new waterfront park in the newly-revived resort community of Port McNicoll.

Here now are some of the results of that voyage:  Photo essay of the Keewatin‘s voyage from Mackinaw City to Port McNicoll.

For details of present-day Great Lakes cruising please feel free to contact The Cruise People Ltd on 020 7723 2450 or e-mail cruise@cruisepeople.co.uk. We are still very much involved with the Great Lakes, as general passenger agent for the Polish Steamship Company’s cargo-passenger service between Europe and the Great Lakes.

Great Video Shots of the Former Canadian Pacific Steamship Keewatin Being Towed Out of Saugatuck-Douglas, Michigan, Last Week

From the lens of Roger Lelievre, publisher of the Great Lakes shipping guide “Know Your Ships,” this video positively brings the 105-year-old s.s. Keewatin alive again.

For details of present-day Great Lakes cruising please feel free to contact The Cruise People Ltd on 020 7723 2450 or e-mail cruise@cruisepeople.co.uk. We are still very much involved with the Great Lakes, as European representative for the Great Lakes Cruising Coalition and also as general passenger agent for the Polish Steamship Company’s cargo-passenger service between Europe and the Great Lakes.

Voyage Through The Marquesas Islands With Expert Anthropologists, Archeologists and Art Historians On Board Aranui 3

Guest Lecturers On Board Aranui 3 Offer Insightful Glimpses Into The World’s Most Remote Culture

The culture responsible for inspiring the greatest works of profound artists and novelists such as Paul Gauguin and Herman Melville would be more popular were it not so isolated in a remote corner of French Polynesia. But then the secluded nature of the Marquesas Islands is part of its draw for anthropologists, archeologists, historians and anyone looking for an off-the-beaten-path vacation that is anything but typical. Guest lecturers sailing on the Aranui 3 represent a wide range of experts, helping passengers immerse themselves in the world’s most unique culture.

“Almost everyone has read Moby Dick and Treasure Island, but few are aware that Herman Melville and Robert Louis Stevenson were influenced by their experiences sailing through the Marquesas Islands,” says Jules Wong, marketing director for the Aranui 3. “Marquesan history is actually quite remarkable and studied by academics worldwide due to its distinct traditions and isolation from other Polynesian cultures. As a result, experts from variety of fields and disciplines are constantly requesting passage aboard the Aranui 3, most of whom are happy to lecture for our guests,” noted Wong. The following guest lecturers are scheduled to participate in upcoming voyage:

August 11 – August 24: Dr Jennifer Kahn, Associate Anthropologist, Bishop Museum

Dr Kahn received her PhD from the University of California, Berkeley, for her archaeological research on prehistoric household and community organization in the Society Islands (East Polynesia). Over the last eighteen years, she has conducted archaeological field research in Polynesia (Hawa’i, Marquesas, Society Islands) and Melanesia (New Caledonia). Her research interests include studies of the political economy and lithic technology, household archaeology and monumental architecture.

Hiva Oa seduced artist Paul Gauguin with its undisturbed natural beauty (photo: Alain Marcouli)

While the ship serves dual purposes as a passenger cruise and cargo freighter, it is designed for passenger comfort with two bar/lounges, a swimming pool, gym and several additional amenities. Fares for the 14-day sailing range from €2,242 – €5,312 per person, based on double occupancy, including port tax, cruise tax and tourism tax, as well as a €68 fuel surcharge. The cruise includes three meals daily with complimentary wine, guided excursions as outlined in the itinerary, picnic and meals on shore. Optional excursions such as scuba diving, horseback riding, fishing and helicopter tours are additional.

Aranui 3

The Aranui 3 is a mixed passenger-cargo ship operating between Tahiti and the Marquesas, offering comfortable, air-conditioned accommodations for about two hundred passengers. The ship features 63 tastefully designed standard cabins, nine deluxe staterooms and 14 well-appointed private balcony suites. Featuring a crew primarily composed of inhabitants of French Polynesia and the Marquesas Islands, the Aranui 3 combines world-class hospitality with top notch amenities and fascinating scenery for an unforgettable sailing experience.

The cruise departs from Papéeté, Tahiti, visiting the seldomly explored lush, tropical islands of Tahuata, Nuku Hiva, Ua Pou, Hiva Oa, Ua Huka and Fatu Hiva, as well as Fakarava and Rangiroa in the Tuamotu Islands, before returning to Papéeté. Shore experiences include hikes past majestic waterfalls and translucent lagoons, jungle ruins and sacred ritual sites, and encounters with local artisans.

For more information or to book the Aranui 3 “freighter to paradise,” please call Miri Lopusna at The Cruise People Ltd in London or e-mail cruise@cruisepeople.co.uk.

Canadian Pacific’s Last Surviving Passenger Steamship S.S. Keewatin Passes Under The Mackinac Bridge at 10:35 am on June 4, 2012

The former Canadian Pacific Great Lakes steamship Keewatin is seen here at about 10:35 local time this morning passing under the Mackinac Bridge from Lake Michigan into Lake Huron. The 105-year-old Clyde-built steamship will lay over at Mackinaw City for a few days before completing the final leg of her return voyage to her former home port of Port McNicoll, Ontario, where she is due at 2 pm on June 23. This will be one hundred years to the day from when she departed on her first Canadian Pacific passenger sailing from the same port bound for Sault Ste Marie, Port Arthur and Fort William. The Keewatin will become the centrepiece of a waterfront park in her old home port on Georgian Bay. Here now are some of the results of that voyage:  Photo essay of the Keewatin‘s voyage from Mackinaw City to Port McNicoll.

For anyone wanting to cruise the Great Lakes in 2012 please contact The Cruise People Ltd in London on 020 7723 2450 for further details of cruises offered by Travel Dynamics International in the 138-passenger m.v. Yorktown, or e-mail cruise@cruisepeople.co.uk.

The Cruise Examiner Tries Out Croisières de France’s Horizon – Other Cruise News: s.s. Keewatin Finally Leaves Douglas, Michigan

          THE CRUISE EXAMINER at Cybercruises.com

          by Kevin Griffin

     The Cruise Examiner for 4th June 2012

This Sunday in Marseilles, together with twenty-four members of the Ocean Liner Society, The Cruise Examiner completed a 7-night Western Mediterranean cruise on board Croisières de France’s new 46,811-ton Horizon. with calls at Santa Margherita (for Portofino), Civitavecchia (for Rome), Salerno (for the Amalfi coast), Trapani and Valletta. He filed his report from on board ship on the way back to Marseilles. Next year’s Ocean Liner Society cruise will be a 4-night voyage departing Hamburg on May 27, 2013,  for Kiel via Sylt and Heligoland, on Plantours + Partner’s m.s. Hamburg, until recently operating as Hapag-Lloyd Cruises’ Columbus.

.
Meanwhile, last week, after forty-five years as a maritime museum at Douglas, Michigan, the former Canadian Pacific Great Lakes steamship Keewatin finally left Douglas, after a false start on a sandbar, on the first leg of a trip under tow to her previous home port in Canada. She will lay over at Mackinaw City, Michigan, before departing on her final leg to Port McNicoll, Ontario, where she is due at 2 pm on June 23, a hundred years to the day after her first passenger departure from that port.

THIS WEEK’S STORY                                          (See previous columns)