Pieces of James Whalen tug donated to Thunder Bay transportation museum

Kris Ketonen · CBC News

· Posted: Jun 17, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 7 hours ago

The historic James Whalen tugboat volition unrecorded connected aft all.

Earlier this year, Thunder Bay metropolis assembly voted to wholly scrap the vas astatine a outgo of astir $600,000.

And portion the vas has present been dismantled, immoderate cardinal pieces person been saved and donated to the Transportation Museum of Thunder Bay.

"We person the wheelhouse with the captains quarters down it," said Wally Peterson, seat of the museum. "We person the stack, we person the skylight from the motor room, the anchor windlass and the stern instrumentality tail."

The vas was built successful Toronto successful 1905, and was a fixture connected the Great Lakes for decades, adjacent playing a relation successful the operation of the St. Lawrence Seaway.

The Whalen was brought to Thunder Bay successful the 1990s after it was retired from service and past moored astatine Kam River Heritage Park. About 3 years ago, however, it was recovered submerged successful the river, and was moved to a adust dock connected backstage land.

Museum's request to sphere tugboat turned down by city

Peterson said the depository did marque a ceremonial petition to the metropolis to sphere the Whalen, but was turned down. Instead, the museum worked with Port Colborne-based Marine Recycling Corporation, the institution hired to scrap the vessel, to get the pieces donated.

"We're going to yet bring them down, hopefully successful July, to the tract astatine Pool 6," Peterson said. "We'll enactment them connected show connected the crushed and acceptable it up, and past reconstruct the wheelhouse."

"Most of the items don't request excessively overmuch restoration but for the wheelhouse, and she's wholly stripped down to bare metal, truthful we volition beryllium welding up the holes successful the level and the roof, and past afloat restoring it arsenic champion we can," helium said.

Peterson said the Whalen is an "important piece" for the museum, which besides owns and displays the Alexander Henry, a erstwhile Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker.

"The Whalen was, of course, the main crystal breaker for the larboard from 1905 till the Alexander Henry came connected site," Peterson said. "So it's each portion of the main past of the port."

Korey Dame, marine superintendent with Marine Recycling Corporation, said scrapping the Whalen took astir 3 weeks.

"The archetypal week we were up here, we were conscionable cleaning the vas out," helium said. "We were moving each wood and garbage and getting it down to bare metal."

"Once it's a cleanable ship, we occurrence up our torches."

The vessel was past chopped into pieces and lifted onto trucks and taken to a adjacent scrapyard, Dame said.

Dame said the Whalen was a simpler occupation than the institution usually deals with, and not lone due to the fact that it was mostly cleaned retired erstwhile the scrapping started.

"Back location we usually woody with very, precise ample vessels, the large lakers you spot going done present that are 700 feet agelong by 50 feet wide by 50 feet tall," helium said. "So this is conscionable a small dinky artifact for us."

"It's the aforesaid process backmost home," helium said. "We person bigger cranes and bigger instrumentality that we use, but it's fundamentally the nonstop same. It's conscionable connected a smaller standard here, that's all."