Early in the history of Penetanguishene, there arose a need for a ship.
The only way to get to Penetanguishene was to go along the new communication road the British had carved through the woods, or take the Nine Mile Portage. Both of those routes expended a lot of energy and it was anything but comfortable.
The Penetang Road was still dotted with stumps and mud and the Portage was a lot of walking, it being barely passable on horseback.
Shipbuilding in Penetanguishene had been going on since the War of 1812.
Five large ships and 15 smaller ships were built in Penetanguishene for the British Navy. But they had never before built a steam-powered sidewheeler.
Shipbuilding had not occurred since the war, but in 1834 a ship was commissioned and launched for fur traders Andrew Mitchell and Alfred Thompson. They ordered a paddle-wheel steamship.
A paddlewheeler would be a fairly new technology on Lake Huron and Georgian Bay. They had been plying the waters of Lake Simcoe for a few years and the advantage of going to Orillia was apparent.
It wouldn’t be the quickest of methods, and it would be limited to seasonal, but if any large pocket investors would come to Penetanguishene, a need arose for its conveyance.
The bay had housed villages from before the days of the Wendat. It had long been considered a good location for a military base and had existed as such since just after the War of 1812.
That military base had grown into a town, with an entourage of people to fish, farm and hunt for the military personnel.
The town had existed as a military base and a community of farmers and tradesmen to supply the base, but the war was in the ever-distant past and the military influence was more in the retired soldiers than in a battle-ready base.
Therefore new blood, or specifically money, would need to be infused. So a steamship it was! And the Penetanguishene was built.
For this new ship in new waters, they would need a fearless man to captain her. The man they would find was the jovial War of 1812 veteran Andrew Borland.
Borland was known to the fur traders, having made quite a fortune in the partnership of Roe and Borland. He was also familiar with the Nine Mile Portage, and Coldwater having posts along both of these locations.
He also had a familiarity with the native people trading into Coldwater and Penetanguishene and marrying a Chippewa woman named Mary.
The ship would leave Penetanguishene in the morning, stopping briefly at the military establishments before continuing on to Coldwater. There the travellers coming to Penetanguishene would meet the steamer after having travelled to Coldwater from Orillia, crossing Lake Simcoe on a similar steamship.
Far from an ordinary ferry, the Penetanguishene would also venture to far-off places like Sault Ste. Marie and St. Joseph Island.
At least on one of these voyages, families who, having been granted land in Penetang, found they preferred to return to settle the area of St Joseph Island.
These trips were added to her usual ferry duty to bring settlers to Sault Ste. Marie, and St. Joseph island. Some who came the other way only just recently, would return to familiar ground.
The long voyages in a steamship were not all safe travels.
In fact in 1835, while on a return trip from St. Joseph Island the Penetanguishene sank. I do not have the details of the salvage, but it would seem she was refloated easily and returned to service. It must have been in shallow water, as the captain and crew all survived.
By the time the steamship was finished in 1834, the villagers had been settling into life in Penetang.
As noted, Mr. Jeffrey and Mr. Mitchell had just finished nicely appointed homes and the first appearances of hotels and visitor accommodations would spring up so they would be in need of tourists.
These tourists would need easy travel into town, and would pay the owners of the ship for conveyance. Andrew Mitchell and Alfred Thompson would prove to be shrewd businessmen with an eye to the future.
The military was no longer in need of the defensive position Penetanguishene provided on the Great Lakes, as hostilities turned elsewhere. So this was an important step in the evolution of the town of Penetanguishene.
Unbeknownst to them, the war was not to return, and as the United States turned to internal conflict the British would lose interest in the barracks at Penetanguishene.
Instead, Penetanguishene would become a place where retiring personnel could be given land grants, thereby settling some debts to veteran soldiers. Penetanguishene was made a place where a pensioned soldier could receive their pension (no checks were sent) and settle on a lot.
However as the Penetanguishene Road was settled and eventually improved upon, the need for a Sidewheeler into Coldwater waned.
As well, her captain Andrew Borland, who was a sergeant under Peter Robinson in the War of 1812, was recalled to active service in the 1837 Rebellion and so the Penetanguishene was retired.
Unloved by some, however, as it was stated she was a “wretched little boat, dirty and ill-contrived,” the boat worked for Penetanguishene at the time.
It would learn from its first attempt at a sidewheeler and would go on to build other more successful ships.
Further, the Penetanguishene would make her way to the Thames River, a better environment for a sidewheeler vessel.
In 1840, a new vessel would be brought to the town in its place, the Gore (seen in accompanying photo).
But this would not end the days of steamships on the Great Lakes, many ships would leave Penetanguishene over the years and ply the Great Lakes.
Eventually the steam would power “screws” (propellers to us ordinary folk) and would grow to carry many more passengers than the 15 or so the Penetanguishene could handle in those early days.
Local historian Art Duval explores the region's rich history through his website Pipesmoke of the Past.
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