Eric Conroy is the project manager tasked with bringing the S.S. Keewatin home - Date unknown Eric Conroy.

15 June 2012

Former Waiter is Steering the Ship's Return Home

Port McNicholl Ontario - An armada of hundreds, possibly thousands, of pleasure craft will escort the S.S. Keewatin back into the Georgian Bay port it sailed from 46 years ago.
 
The 105-year-old passenger liner, operated on Great Lakes cruises by CPR's marine service from Port McNicoll for 60 years, has been sitting as a maritime museum in Saugatuck, Michigan, USA.
 
About 40 of her former crew members over those 60 years will be aboard a yacht escorting "The Kee", as they called her, back to Canada.
 
The Keewatin played a memorable role in thousands of lives during her sailing days and many of those people are excited about her return to Canada and are looking for ways to participate in the welcome home celebrations in Port McNicoll, according to Eric Conroy, the project manager tasked with bringing the steamship home.
 
Conroy served as a teenage waiter in the ship's elaborate dining room in 1963 and 1964 and for many years was vice president of Toronto's annual Santa Claus parade.
 
A 200-member choir will be singing songs, including our national anthem, when Keewatin pulls into Port McNicoll's shipping channel on 23 Jun 2012 about 1:30 p.m. The festivities will be led by HGTV personality and Toronto Star columnist Bryan Baeumler.
 
There will be a variety of other shore-based events in the Georgian Bay community, where developer Gil Blutrich, who is the driving force behind the Keewatin's return, is creating a $1.6 billion vacation community.
 
Captain Matthew Fogg and his 800-horsepower tug Wendy Anne from Beaver Island, Michigan, will tow Keewatin home to Port McNicoll.
 
To make the 965-kilometre trip from Saugatuck at Port McNicoll, the U.S. Coast Guard required significant navigation upgrades on the Keewatin, such as new electrical wiring, a new lighting system, a new radio system, and new guy wires supporting her funnel and mast. Conroy said, however, that many of Keewatin's original mechanical systems, such as the winches to raise and lower the anchors, were in good working order and approved by the coast guard.
 
The hull is wearing a new coat of white paint, plus a new rub rail, the bumper along the side of the hull for rubbing up against a dock wall.
 
Blutrich has also purchased eight historic rail cars that had been sitting on a siding at the Orillia waterfront for more than three decades as a restaurant. They will be used to duplicate the 1920s image of rail cars sitting beside the Keewatin's dock. The boat train arrived from Toronto carrying passengers bound for Thunder Bay (Fort William in those days) and points west.
 
One of the Orillia rail cars, a luxury parlour car, has been donated to the Toronto Railway Historical Association. It was built in 1896 and was the rolling office and residence of George Graham, president of the Dominion Atlantic Railway.
 
Graham was aboard the rail car when two ships collided at the narrows in Halifax Harbour on 6 Dec 1917. The resulting explosion of a hold full of ammunition killed 2,000 people, injured 9,000, and levelled much of Halifax.
 
But Graham and his rolling office/residence survived the blast and played a major role in getting word out to the rest of the world.
 
Keewatin Homecoming
 
When:  Saturday, 23 Jun 2012, doors open at 10:30 a.m., ship to arrive about 1:30 p.m.
 
Where:  Talbot Street near the waterfront in Port McNicoll, Ontario.
 
Parking:  There is no onsite parking. Park at the Doral plant in Midland and when the lot is at capacity, parking will then begin at the Franke Kindred plant across the highway from Doral. Shuttle buses will bring people to the site.
 
Welcome ceremony:  Will begin at 1:30 with a 21-gun salute by the HMS Badger. Bryan Baeumler will be the master of ceremony, welcoming Gil Blutrich of Skyline Developments. Bruce Stanton MP for Simcoe North, Garfield Dunlop Simcoe North MPP, and the mayor of Tay Township Scott Warnock, and the Keewatin's project manager Eric Conway.
 
Entertainment:  Georgian Bay Brass Band, Beausoleil First Nations Drum Group and Dancers, Students from the Studio of Connie Taws, Sunny Side Up Swing Band, Port McNicoll Village Choir, Midland Legion Pipes and Drums, Georgian Bay Saxophone Ensemble, Silvio Camilleri, Penetanguishene Golden Tones, and the Keewatin Kids Klub.
 
There will also be stalls with souvenirs, food, and collectibles, as well as displays from the Huronia Museum and a display of local artwork.
 
Pat Brennan.