On the first of each month, Ian Coristine sends to all TI Life subscribers, a link to his website to pick up one of Ian’s famous photographs to use as a Wallpaper image. This month's photograph was his all-time favorite. As he explains on his site “For this month I’ll share with you a scene I was thrilled to capture, likely the most historically relevant image I’ll ever shoot on the River. As always, I’ll look forward to the stories you might share about it .”
One of Ian’s answers was sent by Paul Riley, now living in Vancouver, British Columbia. Ian sent it along to TI Life saying, “Paul, What you're telling me in these notes would make an outstanding story for TI Life. That format would also allow you to share photos, where mine won't.”
Ti Life is pleased to share Paul’s memories… Enjoy: River Memories.
Re: April's Wallpaper,
Some things in the photo don't line up the way my memory says they should, but then perspective, and memory are fickle things, so I'm going to say that is the "Fair Jeanne" heading towards the entrance to the" Lost Channel."
You are looking over the bottom of Benson's Rift, and the first gap there is between Rabbit Island and Trois Isle., where the old Benson Boat House used to be. The second gap, just behind and to the right and only partly showing, is what we called "Hell's Gate" swinging around the top of "Constance Island" and heading into the "Lost Channel. The little Island almost centre stage and making up the left side of "Hell's Gate" has a dock there now, you can see the beginnings of the dock under the trees on the right hand side of it. The “Fair Jeanne” will proceed down river behind that Island and between Constance and Duck Island then Constance and Georgina.
If I'm wrong, the “Fair Jeanne” may never be seen again, or worse , she may be the St. Lawrence ll, which would increase the mystery factor.
You have managed to hide almost all signs of civilization. Its interesting how memory works, it’s the currents, a little metal post off in the distance on Georgina , the beginnings of that dock at Hells Gate, stuff like that, triggers it. If I'm wrong then it's amazing how the mind can arrange things to support its conclusion.
Whether right or wrong, I captained the old Snider 1000 Islands tour boats through this area from 1978 to 1980, then bought the Miss Brockville lV and ran her as the "Island Heritage " from 1980 to 1998. In the early days we ran three boats from the old Mount Airy Hotel in Ivy Lea. the Miss Brockville lV at forty feet, the Miss Brockville Vlll, at 52 feet, and the Miss Brockville Vll at 65 feet. The Sniders, Charlie and Everett, had sold the boats to John Taylor in 1977 or 1978. All the boats were great old Canadian tour boats, the Brockville lV the oldest, originally a "Kiddo" built by the George Cranker in Ivy Lea in 1929. The pride of the fleet though had to be the Brockville Vll, built in 1952, at 65 feet with a fifteen foot beam, with twin Cat D 333's, she held 130 people, and we took her everywhere, including Smuggler's Cove by Virgin Island and down Benson's rift swinging around the foot of Trois Isle and up through "Hell's Gate" and into the Lost Channel". I believe we were the last of the Canadian Tour Boats to regularly run this route. Mike and Gene Snider , of The Paul Boatline out of "A" Bay, no relation to the Canadian Sniders, occasionally ran the Paul, Paul lll and Spray Vl over to the Canadian Islands and would head down Benson's Rift and then continue on out to the Canadian Channel, but that was about it. That was back in the days when the American boat lines billed their tours across the border as "The Canadian Wilderness Tours"!
Running boats that size through these channels was an adventure. Throughout the summers of 1978 to 1980 there were a bunch of young kids, teenagers, spending their summers on Duck Island. They had a great time harassing the tour boats, water skiing up Benson's Rift just before we'd head down, going close by us and spraying our passengers. One time a skier actually came alongside and got onto the boat and then dove off. Not very funny at the time, and quite dangerous, but thanks guys, makes for great memories! I used to think they should have lived on Brat Island, which is close by!
We used to continue on down the side of Hill Island and come out onto the Canadian Channel between Nine Pine and Reveille Island. Just at the turn there, there was a house on Hill Island. I believe it once belonged to the Wiser family, of whiskey fame. Well, there was a bedroom window that opened out onto the boat house roof, and their kids would wait for us to come along , then scramble out onto the roof and wait for me to get on the loud speaker - “One, Two, Three, - jump!” , and off they'd go into the river. This became a daily ritual pretty well, and lasted for several summers.
So many memories, the Labor Day "Punch" served up at Boldt Castle when the concession was contracted out to the same fellow every year, can't remember his name. Well that punch was liberally spiked and if you did a few runs to the Castle you were feeling pretty good by the last one, and the tales told, Charlie Snider carrying a flask in his back pocket, which he would have needed coming up to "A" Bay in the summer of 1956 when hurricane Hazel hit and blew the windows right out of the boat!, or Everett running aground at the foot of Mary Island in the Brockville Vll while bringing her over to the yacht house for winter storage, we used to keep the boats there, and Everett running in a panic all the way from the foot of Mary to the Boldt Yacht House to get help from Charlie.
I remember Peter Johnson holding the wheel of the "Ida M" in his hands and shrugging while the" IDA M " lazily spun in circles off of Senator Island. The wheel was no longer connected to the boat!
The Snider Tour boats were wonderful one off creations. The Miss Brockville lV , if one looked closely, had lines that weren't exactly true on either side, a little more tumblehome on the port side at the stern than on the starboard.
The boat had been rebuilt in 1959, resurrected really, from the remains of an old "Kiddo". She was lengthened by ten feet, and widened with four new planks rising above the original gunnels. This would have been done in Brockville, where, I heard, the Sniders had a boat building shed right down in Tunnel Bay, with a marine rail ramp to haul the boats in and out.
In 1993 , Alex Mitchell and I went at her and brought the hull down to bare wood, and there was the original boat, the old hull being B.C. red cedar, the new white cedar from the east. The shadow of the original boat was revealed, a ghostlike appearance from the past. It sent shivers down your spine to see it, and was quite exciting really.
The hardware on board was scavenged from anywhere - other boats, vehicles and so on. One day a passenger was checking out the engine room vents, nice louvered bronze like pieces, and said to me, " you know, those are from a ‘Greavette’ a classic boat from Gravenhurst, Ontario.” The wheel on the other hand came from a 1920's Dodge truck.The centre insert, where the horn would have been, was a beautiful old art deco-like Dodge Ram. The Snider's ran a moving company in Brockville, as well as their tour boats, and its my guess the wheel on Miss Brockville lV steered a Snider Moving Van around the city streets of Brockville for many years before guiding folks around the Thousand Islands.
The Miss Brockville lV was a trouble free boat. A straight inboard, no "V" drive like the two bigger boats, and with mechanical steering, from that Dodge steering gear, connected to a rod that went thirty odd feet back to the rudder arm, she was pretty well fool proof, unlike the hydraulic systems on the bigger boats, which on occasion left one with no steering.
The Brockville lV was Everett's Boat and much like Everett himself from what I heard of him, I only met him once or twice, quiet and dependable.
The Miss Brockville Vll and Vll both had open bows with seats for the more adventurous passengers. You had to go down a couple of steps and through a small hatch in the forward bulkhead, right by where the Captain sat, then up a couple of steps and out to the bow. The Captain could close the hatch.
You may be able to imagine the great fun ensuing when the passengers outside were getting soaked from the spray on rough and windy days, a highlight for everyone on board!
And the jokes we inherited, passed on down for Lord knows how many years! When passing across the foot of Mary Island towards Zavikon, "If you look over the side you can see the international border on the bottom of the river. The coast guard paints it on the ice in the wintertime, it’s a special red lead paint, and when the ice melts in the spring it sinks to the bottom." Invariably someone would perk up , " Oh yeah, I see it" , and we'd wind up, "Oh, about that border, they say the fishing's great here, and they are right, we catch a boatload of suckers every time we tell that!" -or- about Sunken Rock Light House," the coast guard rents it out to newly wed couples in the summer so the new bride can get some light house keeping experience!" - or about the little island with the tiny house by Boldt Castle called "Just Big Enough" - " George built that for his mother in law, he'd take her over in the spring and pick her up in the fall!"
Good grief they were bad jokes, but they must have had something, cause they always got a laugh and were probably told for 70 years or so, and probably still are.
Something to be said for a live commentary.
Those times somehow seemed more innocent, certainly the river and the border were much more open, virtually non existent really. When I started working the boats they came equipped with a long pole with a clothes peg on the end. It took a while before I found out what they were used for. They were used for reporting back into Canada Customs. We had to fill out customs reports, in triplicate , Form "9ITN" I recall, but instead of coming in to dock, the customs officer would come out to the end of the dock and out would come the pole with the 9ITN's held by the clothes peg and the officer would grab them as the boat cruised by. There we go, the bureaucrats were placated and we could get on with our day.
Different mindset back then, somehow I don't think we'd get very far with that proposal today.
I worked with these wonderful old boats for 20 years, 1978 to 1998. Most of those years as owner operator of Heritage Boat Tours, with the Island Heritage, and later the lovely little Quebec import, the Alouette. During that time I figure we carried hundreds of thousands of people. Many requests over the years, "Can we get a picture with the Captain? "I'm sure we are in many photo albums around the world, stuffed away in storage lockers and on book shelves, brought out once in a while for a trip down memory lane to that Paradise called the Thousand Islands.
What happened to the boats? Those poor old girls are completely dependant on fate and the whims of human enterprise. I've heard the Miss Brockville Vlll ended up on the St. Lawrence near Montreal and has been all fixed up and is doing well. I last saw the Miss Brockville lV, now Island Heritage, down in Prescott for winter storage, looking very much the worse for wear. Tourism suffered a lot in the Islands what with 911 and the tightening of security, and a wooden boat is an expensive proposition, they are very much high maintenance ladies.
Sad to say the pride of the fleet, the Brockville Vll was hustled across the border many years ago to evade something or other and has ended up lying in Bonnie Castle Yacht Basin with a broken back. Those big Cat D 333's weren't given enough support when she was blocked up and that I'm afraid did her in. She will never see the water again, barring some obsessed, very wealthy wooden boat lover deciding to resurrect her.
You never know!
By Paul Reilly
Paul Reilly grew up in Montreal and discovered the Thousand Islands in 1976 while, as he says, “driving the Parkway to Queen's University”. A graduate of Concordia University in Montreal, majoring in Philosophy and Theology, Paul goes on to say, “he of course, found his spiritual centre not in graduate school but in the 1000 Islands and spent the next twenty odd years living and working on the River”. He now lives with his wife Elizabeth in North Vancouver, B.C., but comes back to the Islands every couple of years to once again "rat around" the mighty St. Lawrence.