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POSTCARD MEMORIES: An explosive end to a floating palace

Some of those aboard the Otonabee had to jump overboard to save themselves

The Otonabee was the largest and, arguably, the finest of the steamers to ply Lake Simcoe. She was also among the last.

Unlike so many of her kind, she didn’t simply fade from memory as soon as her usefulness was at an end. Otonabee went out with a bang.

In 1912, having spent most of her career carrying passengers to ports around the lake, the Otonabee was purchased by the owners of the Peninsular Hotel, the newly built luxury resort at Big Bay Point. They intended the steamer to complement the hotel; she would spend much of her days ferrying rich patrons to the hotel and her nights hosting moonlit cruises upon the lake.

Only a few years later, she would be a burnt-out hulk lying at the bottom of Lake Simcoe.

In the predawn gloom of Aug. 14, 1916, the Otonabee was moored at the docks of the Peninsular Hotel when a fire started below decks. An engineer serving aboard another moored steamer, the Modello, spied the glow of the fire and raced to alert the Otonabee’s crew. He found Capt. P. McLean Campbell and purser Harold Hughes asleep aboard, and quickly notified them of the danger.

It was already too late to save the vessel. The hold was completely engulfed, and flames were now spreading across the main deck. In fact, the fire was spreading so rapidly that Campbell and Hughes had to dive overboard to save themselves.

Now, the flames leapt from the ship to the adjacent docks and began racing along the wharf. Before anyone could act, the fire had reached a lighthouse at the end of the dock and turned it into an oversized Roman candle. Terror gripped the onlookers: Any moment, the gas tanks powering the lighthouse’s searchlight would ignite and blow up.

When they did, it was devastating.

The lighthouse and wharves were reduced to splinters. Windows as far away as Barrie shattered, sending splinters careening into homes. People began imagining the worst. Canada was at war with Germany. Had German zeppelins somehow found a way to bomb Canada just as they were in Britain?

Barrie, of course, was well beyond the range of any aircraft of the era. When confronted with this technical detail, and once the true story emerged, people calmed down.

As for the ship Otonabee, when the smoke cleared, she lay at the bottom of the lake with only her smoke stack showing above the water’s surface. Beyond salvage, she was left there for the lake to claim.