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Over the past several decades, several entrepreneurs have tried to reinstate some form of passenger ship service across Lake Ontario from the Port of Toronto. Two of the most recent attempts involved Russian-built hydrofoils to and from Queenston on the Niagara River and an Australian-built catamaran that operated between Toronto and Rochester.

The latter vessel, known as either the “Cat,” the “Breeze,” or officially as The Spirit of Ontario, made a number of runs during 2004 and 2005 before being removed from service and, after lengthy legal hassles, offered up for sale. Eventually, the renamed Tangier Jet II began a new career in the Strait of Gibraltar, ferrying passengers between Tarifa, Spain, and Tangier, Morocco.

As hard as people tried to make a success of their cross-lake passenger service, none was able to match the achievements of the Lake Ontario steamers of the early to mid-twentieth century. Most impressive were the Niagara boats with stirring names such as Chippewa, Corona, and Cayuga. Over the years this trio carried millions of travellers between Toronto and the Niagara River ports of Niagara-on-the-Lake, Queenston, and Lewiston, New York. But of all the Lake Ontario passenger ships, the one that many readers of my column will remember, and the one that remained in service the longest, was SS Cayuga.

Components of the almost 122-metre-long vessel with a carrying capacity of more than two thousand passengers were fabricated in the old Bertram Engine Works factory at the northeast corner of Bathurst and Front streets in Toronto (the building is still there). The actual assembly of the ship took place in the harbour just across the railway tracks to the southeast of the old West Gap.

In this 1954 photograph, Toronto’s popular Lake Ontario cruise boat SS Cayuga is outbound through the East Gap on her way to ports on the Niagara River. At the time the ship was being operated by the newly formed Cayuga Steamship Company. After being given what would turn out to be an all-too-brief reprieve from the wrecker’s cutting torch, Cayuga’s new owners offered cross-lake cruises for as low as $3.90 return.

The ship was christened on March 3, 1906, by Mary Osler, daughter of Edmund (later Sir Edmund) Osler, one of the directors of the new ship’s owners, the Northern Navigation Company. Interestingly, Mary’s niece, Phyllis Osler, would do the same honours four years later at the launch of the new island ferry, Trillium, owned by Edmond Osler’s Toronto Ferry Company.

A little over a year passed before the SS Cayuga, perfectly fitted out and fresh from successful sea trials, began the Toronto–Niagara-on-the-Lake–Queenston–Lewiston, New York service. The date was June 7, and over the next half-century she carried passengers to and from Niagara, for a few years transporting recently enlisted young soldiers to the newly established military camp that had been hurriedly set up at Niagara-on-the-Lake following the outbreak of the First World War.

The amazingly popular ship operated on the route until 1952, when its owner, Canada Steamship Lines, decided to get out of the passenger business and devote all its efforts to moving freight. After being laid up for a couple of seasons, a group of enthusiasts purchased the vessel for its scrap value ($17,000), and in 1954 Cayuga was back in service under a new flag — that of the Cayuga Steamship Company. With the highways to Niagara becoming increasingly congested, it was hoped that both Canadian and American tourists would find travelling to and from Toronto by boat was the better way.

Now, if only Cayuga could get a liquor licence …

But without that elusive licence, nostalgia and a crowded Queen Elizabeth Highway just weren’t enough to guarantee the ship a prosperous new life. On Labour Day 1957, SS Cayuga made her final trip. The company was bankrupt and the future of the once-proud ship again seemed bleak.

Eventually the ship was purchased by a wrecking company, and plans were formulated that would see it return to service as either a floating hotel adjacent to the CNE or as a new waterfront restaurant similar to Captain John’s Jadran. But it all came to nothing, and in 1960–61, after rusting away in Toronto Harbour, Cayuga’s days came to an end when it was unceremoniously scrapped.

Thousands of artifacts from Cayuga were saved and became part of the collection at the late, lamented Marine Museum of Upper Canada that was located in the historic Stanley Barracks on the CNE grounds. The collection was moved to a new location on Queen’s Quay called The Pier, where visitors could relive the “good old days.” But sadly this museum was also closed and today all those memories are stored out of sight in a city warehouse.

February 28, 2010