1913 Noronic 1949
Steel overnight passenger and package freight vessel
Built at Port Arthur ON by Western Dry Dock & Shipbuilding Co., Hull 6
Launched June 2, 1913
385’ LOA, 362’ LBP, 52’ beam, 28’9” depth
5 decks, coal-fired boilers, triple expansion engine, 4500 IHP
Enrolled at Port Arthur ON
362.0 x 52.0 x 24.8, 6905 GT, 3935 NT Can 134014 to:
Western Dry Dock & Shipbuilding Co., Port Arthur ON (home port Port Arthur ON)
Reenrolled to Northern Navigation Co., Collingwood ON
Entered service 1913
Fleet had been sold early 1913 to Richelieu & Ontario Navigation Co., Montreal QC Richelieu & Ontario fleet merged late 1913 into Canada Steamship Lines, Montreal QC. (Vessels remained under the ownership of Northern Navigation Co. until 1922 and were operated as Northern Navigation Division while in the Canada Steamship Lines fleet.)
Burned Sept 17, 1949 at her dock at the Canadian National Exposition, Toronto ON 139 lives lost. Hull scrapped at Hamilton ON
See history in Detroit Marine Historian Nov 1952 (#39)
Also in Great Lakes Ships We Remember p. 306
1319
David Valoure Alexander on February 4, 2019 at 3:22 pm said:
My grandfather worked aboard the Alexander Leslie and the Noronic as marine cook around the year 1920. His name was Arthur Harding Alexander. He became a teacher and later a principal in south-western Ontario, but it is my understanding that he also worked as cook during some of the summer holidays, as teachers in those early days were not paid during this time of the year. Is there a crew manifest for the ship that would confirm this? I would appreciate any info -or leads- that would shed light on his service on the Alexander Leslie and/or the Noronic. Thanks in advance.
You could post your question in the Information Search section of boatnerd.com. Many of the people following this section have all kinds of material in their personal archives.
The construction and operation of the NORONIC was first proposed in 1910, by Grand Trunk Railway president Charles M. Hays. An operating agreement between the GTR and the Northern Navigation Company, called for the construction of a new steamer of the HAMONIC type. The design of the ship was to be approved by the railway’s engineering department and the proposed ship was to be made ready for the opening of the 1913 navigation season.
In 1911, when James Playfair made his bid to take over the Northern Nav. Co., that transaction was subject to approval by GTR president Charles Hays, in accordance with his 1910 agreement with the navigation company. After Playfair gained control of the Northern Navigation Co. in 1911, he exchanged his shares of it and other Great Lakes shipping companies under his control, for equal shares in the Richelieu and Ontario Navigation Co. based in Montreal. The Northern Navigation Co. carried on as an operating division of the R&O company. Mr. Playfair became vice president and later managing director of the company.
GTR president Charles Hays died on April 15, 1912, as a passenger on the RMS TITANIC, contributing to a delay to the start of construction of the Northern Navigation Company’s new steamer.
The R&O company was also expanding, by acquiring smaller navigation companies on the St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario.
On June 1, 1913, Richelieu & Ontario company directors and invited guests boarded the Str. HAMONIC at Sarnia, bound to the Canadian Lakehead, to witness Lady Playfair christen the NORONIC. About an hour after clearing the locks at Sault Ste. Marie, Mr Playfair was advised by wireless telegraph, that his father John S. Playfair had passed away in Toronto, during the night. The responsibility of launching the Noronic was passed to the wife of another R&O company director.
The Playfairs were transferred to an R&O freighter in mid-lake and taken back to Sault. Ste. Marie, where a train was made up and ready to take them back to Toronto.
A special meeting of the shareholders of Richelieu And Ontario Navigation Co. was held in the company’s office in Montreal, on June 19, 1913 to ratify an agreement of sale of the company’s assets to a new company formed for that purpose. The new company was to be called Canada Transportation Lines Limited.
Later that same year the name of the company was changed to Canada Steamship Lines.