Drone On.

It is a lovely sunny Michigan Sunday here in Saugatuck and Douglas and we have 12 days until KEEWATIN leaves Lake Kalamazoo after 45 years.  Work is constant here even over the last weekends as there are  still many jobs need doing before we pull away from the grassy shoreline of Tower Marine and head out into Lake Michigan to continue the sage of the mighty Keewatin. Last of the Great Lakes steamers, this Scottish built beauty is the last Edwardian steamer in the world.

Many people have been dropping by to have a last look and take photos of the giant white relic that many in this community grew up with. It is hard to imagine something so stately predates the 1^st world war, the development of the airplane and even the instillation of electric lights in New York and London England. Among the visitors were three boys from Port who were there to check her out so they could be shore crew when she gets home. Lefty and Marvin are volunteers and Josh is the area manager for Skyline.

Today the last of the finishing of the Storm Deck is being done, the promenade deck is being scrubbed and power washed and the welders are busy replacing bolts that hold the ‘rub rails’ to the side of the ship. The cargo deck, which used to hold 30 to 40 cars is completely cleared showing the vast size of what will be community space for events.                                                                                                                             

The last of the contents of the ship has been cataloged, photographed and packed away. The hold where millions of bushels of wheat made their way from the fields of Alberta and Saskatchewan to eastern Canadian and American markets is empty of items stored for the previous owners. The ship has been wired with sensors in every nook and cranny to alert of water, smoke or fire. A new generator with a back up, a massive air compressor and independent pumping systems have been installed. The sea doors that usually remain open bringing light into the cargo deck and being sealed as are the plate covers in the double hull and all water tight doors. There is a quiet emptiness about the ship. Tomorrow the Scottish lady, (who by the way is one of the two people in the picture scrubbing the deck) and I are going to a flag manufacturer near Holland to replace the many colourful signal flags that will grace the new lanyards that have been installed with the new guy wires. The other deck scrubber is a fellow named Bob Arthy whom we met on a cruise in the South China Sea last February. He was so enamoured with the story of Keewatin he flew to Chicago last Thursday and has been working like a trooper to help ready the ship. Bob had never been to North America before! Amazing the hold Keewatin has on people!

This week Captain Mathew Fogg will be here to discuss the plans for the June 2^nd departure. The townsfolk are working on a farewell party and the rest of us…Making Keewatin sparkle for her return home in 33 days.  Keep that Beer cold

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20/41..The Countdown Continues..

Things are really coming together in the preparation for the move. It is 20 days until Keewatin pulls out of Lake Kalamazoo and 41 days until she reaches the dock in Port McNicoll.

The high wire workers were hard at it and certainly causing the passing cars to slow this week as they mounted the scaffolding around the funnel and shinnied up and down the masts replacing all of the guy wires and installing platforms for the wireless radio museum we will have on the ship in Port.

The generators and compressors where ferried to the ship on a motorized barge with a mini crane to be loaded onto the cargo deck and hooked up to the ships systems. As I told you in the last blog all the electrical systems tested out and I now can report so did the mechanical elements. The winches that are used to handle the ships ropes and the windlass machine that drop and pick up the anchor all worked. Testing brought a significant crowd especially the anchor..Someone should have been taking bets.

Next week we get to try the whistle…That should be fun.

Back in Port McNicholl I got an initiation to visit all of the students at the local public school and tell them all about KEEWATIN.

They were a great and attentive audience and I was impressed by the questions they asked and comments they made about KEEWATIN and her importance to the town. It was an uplifting experience and I think we can count on lots of young volunteers from the community as we move on. ( note the ship model on the stage).

Next week we have a crew of three going down to Saugatuck/Douglas to learn about the workings of the ship and where all on the buttons and levers are. KEEWATIN doesn’t come with an owner’s manual so these gentlemen  will be creating one. Two are volunteers and a third is a SKYLINE employee.

The volunteer committee for the homecoming are all organized and now have an actual site plan..Work has begun on the property where the event will be staged. There is still room for helpers on the day of so if you are interested got to SS KEEWATIN .COM and sign up.

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CLOSER EVERY DAY!

Busy Bees are swarming all over Keewatin this week. Yesterday the company replacing the stays, or guy wires started to put up their scaffolding.  The smoke stack is 45 feet high from the Storm Deck and the masts are 60 feet. Those wires have never been changed in the 45 years the ship has been in Lake Kalamazoo and god knows when Canadian Pacific Railway Steamship changed them. They are 3/4 inch twisted steel cables and are anchored into the steel frame of the storm deck.

Also yesterday the portable generator, the biggest and the first of two arrived along with two fuel containers. Later today a compressor will also be added. These machines will make the electrical system on the ship work as well as winches and the windless machines that raise the anchors. The  whistle will also blow.

The Storm Deck repairs should be done tomorrow and the railings and life boat winches reattached.

Once that is done the crew begins to repair the “rub rail” which is a bumper system along the sides of the ship. We will need those for docking not only in Port McNicoll but up at Mackinaw City under the bridge. Our friend Kevin from London England sent me a picture of the dock. Apparently this is a really happening place.

No other news to repost but I will be putting up information and pictures as anything happens to keep everyone informed..It is now 21 days until it sails from Lake Kalamazoo and 44 days until Keewatin reaches Port McNicoll and home.

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48 days to go…..Yes dear readers it is only 48 days until Keewatin comes home. In fact it is only 26 days until she begins her trip leaving Douglas/ Saugatuck and the picturesque (but shallow) Lake Kalamazoo for the slow pull up Lake Michigan.

The tug Boat Wendy-Anne will be manoeuvring off the west coast of Michigan all the way to the Mackinaw Bridge which is where Keewatin will rest at the now unused Mackinaw Ferry docks underneath the giant structure called “Big Mac” by the locals. The original plan to stop at De Tour was scrapped when the owners demanded a security requirement for the stay. Since the Mackinaw Ferry Dock is owned by the State of Michigan they have no such requirements.

The “Friends of Keewatin are busy and they have formed committees to handle all aspects of the 23rd. Working closely with Tay Township, the OPP, the Coast Guard and a number of local service groups the day should be a very well organized one with food and great entertainment leading to the welcome home of the Kee. The Dock, Radio 104.1 FM are going to be our voice that day so tune in and hear all the details about parking, road closures and what is happening.

Keewatin is going through a number of improvements before she leaves. The entire top deck ( called the Storm Deck) is being replaced, all the handrails refurbished and replaced using all new hardware. The guy wires to the smoke stack and masts are also being replaced and she is getting a new paint job! The final dredging was completed Friday and the work to finish ballasting the bow to trim her at 10 feet begins in earnest next Monday. We have even found someone to repair the badly rusted life boats. The plan here is we will have them done over the next year and ship them back finished. We will offer the opportunity for individuals or corporations that want naming rights for each lifeboat to pay the $5,000 each we will need to return them restored. These will make a great gift for your next anniversary!

All of Keewatin’s possessions are almost completed being catalogued and boxed. Large furniture is secured and this week the portable generators and compressor are being installed. Yes, the whistle will blow..They have replaced over 100 light bulbs and all electrical systems are go. The original bilge pumps have all checked out but just for safety they are installing a backup system of pumps.

The target is actually to leave on Saturday June 2nd, but the entire process is weather sensitive as the dredged channel is only 50 feet wide and Keewatin is 48 feet wide. That means a wind of any kind would hold up the process.

Stay tuned for details as they become available, including a complete run down of the days events as they are approved and published.

Ho Ho Ho and a bottle of rum ( for after)!

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This is a special addition to the Drone-on.com series on getting KEEWATIN home. I have been a Keewatin fan since I was a teenager, and since I took on the job of bringing the great ship home I have met many others. I’d like to share a few of them with you.

There is a fellow who lives on the Welland Canal who has built his house facing the locks to look like the front of Keewatin and he salutes each freighter as it goes through. A woman in Orillia had such a memorable family experience on the ship as a young girl she and her three sisters are planning to make a day of Keewatin’s arrival. I have received a letter from an ex crew member from 1963/64 who was a stewardess and lives in Australia who sent a poem about her experience. On the average I get 10 messages a day between the blog the website and direct emails with stories, poems, pictures and salutes. And look at the volunteer committee that has come forward to manage Keewatin’s arrival and the 200 strong choir. The support for  keewatin and her RETURN is AMAZING.                                                                                                                                                                                       

But I have two SPECIFIC ones  I’d like to share.

In February when the Scottish lady and I were on a cruise in the South China Sea a fellow came up to me one day and asked if I was the guy bringing Keewatin back to Canada. In discussion I had told an English traveller about what I did and he brought it up in the gym in discussions with fellow work out types. As it turned out this man, a well established senor partner with a large Toronto law firm had to tell me about his Keewatin connection. His mother and father met on Keewatin! His dad was a travelling minister and his mother’s father was the Mayor of Fort William. As a boy he and his sister would use Keewatin to travel to visit their Grandfather! The second one I’d like you to see came today and I’d like to share the email and the pictures that came with it.

When you think of the hundreds of individuals that worked on the Keewatin and Assiniboia over 60 years, all the employees at both the Lake Head and Port McNicoll, the tens of thousands of passengers, their families and friends that are all out there, you see we have a universe of people with stories connections and photos..

KEEP THEM COMMING!

Hi Eric,
Just for your interest….
The Keewatin has been making its way around Eastern Ontario for about six years now. I’m a member of a model train club, and when we decided to build a modular layout to display at train shows, my contribution (having a soft spot for the Keewatin) was to do a 2′x4′ Port McNicoll scene. The scale is HO (1:87), but because of space limitations the background, including the Keewatin, is not to scale. It is certainly nowhere near the masterpiece you have received, but to me it represents what I wanted it to. We have attended shows in Ottawa, Kemptville, Brockville and Morrisburg, along with other smaller communities.
Anyway, attached are a few pictures.

Now that the hockey season is over for the Senators, instead of saying “Go Sens Go” I can say “Go Eric Go”.

All the best with the project!

Tom

What a great day today is. Not that all days aren’t but today something special happened.

Part of what I do with KEEWATIN is give public talks. To do that I have a lap top and a lap top projector and I put together presentations for school visits, Rotary Clubs, Corporations, TV interviews and even Government officials. I sell KEEWATIN not only for what she is as a National treasure, but what she can be in the role of community builder and a maker of opportunity.

No power point can have the impact of the ship herself, but she is still in Michigan and I have lots of interviews to give between now and when she comes home June 23. Most people have never seen a Clyde built steamship, let alone Keewatin, the last one on earth.

Fred Kay is a fellow I have known for 29 years. Fred is a sculptor and float maker at the Santa Claus Parade. When I took on the job of speaking out and promoting the return of Keewatin, Fred suggested that he might like to make a model of her for me that I could take with me on my talks. Starting after Christmas in his spare time he worked from an old set of plans I had.

Well, today I got it and it is a beauty. And not only a model, but it came with a case to carry it. The whole thing weighs less than 10 pounds.

The ship is mounted on a finished base with a handle and slides on tracks into the box, also custom built. The box is beautifully finished with brass handles and closures. The box keeps the ship from moving at all so it can go by car, plane or train.

The ship is built mainly of Styrofoam with parts either handmade or purchased from a hobby store source. Fred kept right to the plans and Keewatin the model shows all of the windows, doors and marine hardware that is on Keewatin.

Fred builds those magnificent floats you see each year on TV for the Toronto parade. He is indeed a great craftsman and certainly a friend of Keewatin…and Capt. Rick!

THANK YOU FRED

Good day faithful followers..It has been another positive week in getting Keewatin ready to sail. The current target date is Saturday June 2 2012 for embarkation from Douglas Saugatuck. The remaining dredging is being completed in the next week and work on the ship to make her safe is moving right along.

We have to close all of the steel doors that cover the entrance portals along each side that currently have glass store fronts installed. The glass doors come out to be reinstalled at Port McNicholl.

A big job is balancing the ship so it has an even draft of 10 feet. The massive engine in the stern must have a counterweight in the bow so we are using “bladders” originally designed to export Vodka. These 5,000 gallon bags are being placed in the bow hold and above in the bow section of the cargo deck until the ship rises in the stern by 2.5 feet going down in the bow about 3 feet. the pictures show before and after shots of the depth numbers on the bow and the water/mud marks on the rudder..Mother nature’s gauge!              

 In the five weeks to go Keewatin’s top deck will be completed, the guy wires to the mast and funnel replaced, all the contents will be packed inventoried and secured. The tug boat people will install generators, running lights, emergency pumps and water sensors. Keewatin will get a new paint job. The route will take her from her dock to the mouth of the Kalamazoo river towed by the dredging firm.  There her ballast will be emptied and she will be picked up by Capt. Mathew Fogg’s  incredible tug boat “Wendy Anne” She is 71 feet long, 20 feet wide and an 8 1/2 foot draft.

 She is powered by an 800hp Caterpillar engine and a top speed of 12 knots.

As we reported in the last blog, the plan is to take KEEWATIN to a dock on the St. Mary’s river near the Soo called DETOUR. The entourage will hold there for a week then make our way down through the top of Lake Huron into Georgian Bay and arrive off Hogg’s Bay and Port McNicoll around 12:30pm to meet Canada Customs.

.st-james-marine-route-2

Remember, the only thing in “THE BAG” is the ballast water so your prayers and good wishes to finish this project are appreciated!

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ANYONE INTERESTED IN A COMMEMORATIVE KEEWATIN JACKET AT $100.00 TAX IN SEND FOR INFORMATION TO

ericconroy@sskeewatin.com

The worst part of any move is in the packing up and preparation for the day! No different with the KEEWATIN. She has sat for 45 years in Lake Kalamazoo where she entered as an empty ship in 1967.

Over the years her giant holds that carried 3800 tons of grain on a downward trip from Fort William to Port McNicoll became places to store, well…stuff. There are hundreds of old life jackets, all of the life boat oars from the South and North American passenger ships. There are mint cigarette machines from the 50′s, a large assortment of lanterns, rope ladders, the rudder from a sail boat, deck chairs, several old chesterfields , disused kitchen chairs, numerous toilets, and boxes of metal “parts”. There are ladders, stored lumber, pails and mops in large quantity. That is just the stuff I could see in the few well lit areas…And it all has to come out!

On the top deck, known as the storm deck, workers are busy rebuilding the edges where the steel and decking have suffered the results of sitting water. Rust and dry rot. All railings and fasteners for the guy wires that hold the funnel and masts are being removed, renovated and will be installed in solid refinished decking.

All of the artifacts are being catalogued and photographed and stored in boxes. A number of items not coming to Canada are being removed like a life boat from an old tug boat and an old steam engine.

We have decided not to use the ballast tanks in the ship. After so many years of not being used they are bone dry and in excellent condition so we’d like to leave then that way. We are using “bladders”. These heavy plastic bags are actually made in Holland Michigan, near where Keewatin sits. They are designed to export VODKA in bulk and each bag can hold 5,000 gallons. At this point we need 8 to provide enough weight to pull the bow down in the water. It currently sits in the water at 7.5 feet and we need it to be at 10 feet so that the stern, where the heavy engine is located will be forced up. It currently is at 12 feet and we need it at 10 so the ship will fit through the channel we have dredged to get out into deeper water.

All of these preparations are being coordinated so that the ship can leave Saugatuck Douglas harbour around June 2nd and start her trek home.

Even there we have a few changes. Instead of coming all of the way in one trip, we have broken it into two. First we will take Keewatin through Lake Michigan up under the Mackinaw Bridge to a small port called DETOUR on the Ontario/Michigan border near Sault St. Marie. She will rest there until a few days before she is expected to be in Port McNicoll on June 23rd. The reason for this is twofold. Lake Michigan is the most challenging part of the trip. There are no islands from where we enter the lake to the top where we cross into Lake Huron. With notorious westerly winds with no wind break we want lots of time to massage Keewatin up and through. This also gives the Tug Captain a chance to get a feel for the best speed he can make. That experience will allow him to plan the second leg of the trip so that he will arrive in Port exactly at 3pm on the 23rd of June.

So far everything is going well and a very talented team is working on all aspects of this move so that it will be smooth, safe and timely.

Stay tuned!

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Well, well. All things come to those that wait..well sort of. The Department of Environmental Quality issued a dredging permit to RJ Peterson today. This brings to a close a long and complicated bureaucratic paper trail that was becoming a worry for all of us wanting to extract the SS KEEWATIN from Lake Kalamazoo. However, now it is a reality, the ship will be leaving by mid June as planned and making its way to Port McNicoll in Ontario Canada.

Not that all of our challenges are over. In fact they are just beginning as we work with the Tug Boat operator, the US Coast Guard, The Canadian Border Security, Transport Canada, Canada Customs, the insurance company, various trades and service people, the ship surveyor and of course Mother Nature. That is a long 600 miles of water to reach Port..and there will be little relaxing until that great         ( and hopefully) sunny day June 23rd at 3 pm!

In other news I suggest you go to the new website. It has a lot of bells and whistles and smoke..It also is getting a lot of people adding their own pictures, videos, comments and stories. There are also a lot of new pictures that have never seen the light of day and I have a few here that I will be putting up just as soon as I get the time..www.sskeewatin.com

Finally, any supporter that wants one of the official “Bringin’ Her on Home ” Keewatin Jackets now is your time..The maker, a company called Wolffe of Canada is offering them in any size from small to triple extra large for $100.00 tax in ( shipping extra). These are fully embroidered with the flag history of KEEWATIN and will not be offered as a souvenir to the public. They were actually designed to commemorate the signing of the deal with Tower Marine and Skyline. Simply reply sending your email to this blog or email me at

ericconroy@sskeewatin.com.

Next week I am back in Saugatuck and will send a photo story of the progress so far and some info on the company we chose to do the tow and some of the stellar individuals we have working on the team to be  “Bringin’ Her on Home”

Time is certainly moving quickly. It is just 90 days until KEEWATIN is scheduled to come back into Port McNicoll to start another chapter in her amazing life. I haven’t got any exciting news like using the buldozer to push the old girl into deeper water but the latest being that work is still going on to get Keewatin ready for her trip. Plans are being finalized for the final dredging of the other half of Lake Kalamazoo with the newest wrinkle being a concern for fish migration in the river that could delay the dredging work start until June 1st. But RJ and the team in Douglas/Saugatuck seem to have that in hand with contingencies that will still keep the time table. Cooperation in Michigan has been great. Here in Canada we are about to launch the new website. It is currently at

www.sskeewatin.net          Paste in your browser or click directly from the cover page of DRONE-ON  email

Please go there and check it out. Before it goes to .com and all of the other outlets we want to make sure it is perfect. Please send me your comments, either through the blog or right from the website if you would like to suggest changes or think we have missed something.Make sure you click on the CPR flag….Big stuff!

The other big news is KEEWATIN also has a poster campaign inspired from some of the original ticket folder art used by Canadian Pacific in the 20′s, 30′s and 40′s. The reproductions are in oil on canvass and we expect to use them as posters and post cards as fund raisers for the ship.  ( Click on the pictures to see the posters full size) SKYLINE is having these turned into banners for the lamp poles in Port McNicoll..Now there is a story that goes with them.  It was claimed the art was actually done by members of the Group of Seven in the 20’s and 30’s through a commercial studio that brokered their work.  I’d love to prove or disprove that! It is true that Canadian Pacific used one of Canada’s leading graphic art companies, Sampson-Matthews Ltd, which was co-founded by Ernest Sampson, a pioneer of silkscreen printing in Canada, and Charles Matthews. In the tradition of Grip Limited, as well as Rous and Mann publishers, Sampson-Matthews attracted the very best of Canadian art talent. Franklin Carmichael, Alfred J. Casson joined the firm in 1926. Their duties included silkscreen design, typography planning and production supervision. Following the death of Sampson, and Carmichael’s departure to teach at the Ontario College of Art, Casson became the art director and vice-president of the company.  Anyone have an opinion on this? There are six in the collection and they can be all seen in the STORE section of the new website.

Plans should be formalized within the next few weeks on the details of the return date June 23rd. We have several hundred volunteers but we can always use more. An announcement will be made at that time as to the program, timing and events.

Exciting times. I hope you are all enjoying this as much as the Scottish lady and I!