A piece of 色色啦鈥檚 history was towed away by tugboat to Hamilton on Tuesday, after a century spent ferrying millions of people, including, it is said, baseball legend Babe Ruth, to and from the islands.
The long-term future of the Trillium is under review, according to the city, and it has been temporarily relocated to a shipyard while construction takes place at the Jack Layton Ferry Terminal to prepare for new electric ferries.
The life jackets remain on board. The ship鈥檚 bell, signage and small museum pieces have been moved to a secure location.
鈥淭he long-term future of the vessel is still under review,” according to a statement from the media department, in response to questions from the Star. “City staff are currently analyzing options, and we are committed to keeping the public informed as decisions are made.”
The public wasn鈥檛 informed in advance that the vessel would be moved on Sept. 9.
It’s not clear what exactly the options are.
鈥淚t鈥檚 really tough to read between the lines of their statement,”聽said Chris Bateman, of Heritage 色色啦.
The Trillium was launched with little fanfare in June 1910, earning one paragraph in the 色色啦 Star, on an inside page filled with ads for silver tea sets, talcum powder and dentifrice.
The last time the Trillium was towed away, in 1957, when passenger traffic to the islands hit a lull, it was decommissioned and left to rot in a 色色啦 island lagoon. It was picked clean for parts and it sank聽鈥 by the 1970s canoeists could paddle through it. A group of concerned citizens drove a campaign to get it restored.
The Trillium was repaired, its coal-fired boiler replaced with a diesel-powered one, for $1 million. It returned to service in 1976.
Its sister, the Bluebell, became a garbage scow and later sank as part of the Leslie Spit, where it lies today, said Bateman.
Both the Trillium and the Bluebell were manufactured in 色色啦.
Until it stopped operating in August 2023, the Trillium was the last side-paddle ferry still plying the Great Lakes.
Tall, white and blue, on its last trips, it moved cautiously聽鈥 even regally聽鈥 through the water. Passengers marvelled at the brass machinery that drove the paddles, loud and effortful, distinctly like the age of the Industrial Revolution that spawned the steam engine that originally powered the Trillium, and so unlike this whisper-quiet age of technology, where all is muted and effort concealed.
In her dotage, the Trillium could not be rushed. 聽
In operation it had an energy beyond the liquid fuel that powered it. The paddlewheels in motion spun back time to the mustachioed men and corseted women passengers of the 1910s, escaping the oppressive heat of the city before residential air conditioning; poorer families with packets of children riding on free tickets from philanthropists; and professional baseball players in flannel pullover jerseys heading to Hanlan鈥檚 Point Stadium. Babe Ruth played there.
鈥淓verybody loved it,鈥 said retired Capt. Brian Smith, who was a first mate on the vessel. There are photos in his family of his great-grandparents on the Trillium.
He said when the Trillium was put back into service in the 1970s, people would get out of line for the other ferries and line up for the Trillium.
The crew loved working on it, too.
鈥淚t was such an ungainly vessel because it was like a bowl, there was no keel,” said Smith. “The way you had to manoeuvre it, the way you had to drive it聽鈥 it was different, and it was a real challenge. And I loved it.
鈥淲e used to scrape it and paint it every year, every spring, and lovingly, compared to the other ones. The guys really, really took care of it.
鈥淏ut the brass, oh Lord, I never polished so much brass in my whole life. Everything was brass. And it was a lot of work, but it was worth it, because it was such a lovely old boat.鈥
If the boat can鈥檛 be repaired, Smith would like to see it become a maritime museum, at the foot of Yonge Street.
Ideally, though, it can be brought back to serve its original purpose, if only occasionally.
鈥淚t鈥檚 always preferable to keep something like that in use, doing its purpose, the thing it鈥檚 designed to do, rather than making it a museum piece,鈥 said Bateman.
The new ferries, being fabricated in Romania, will operate on electricity, quietly.
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