Shell Oil Tankers, Tankcars and Tanks

Sometimes, when looking for photos of Kingston's waterfront trackage in its heyday, the bushes have to be beaten vigorously! While doing some related reading recently, I came across two examples. Notice the two tanks, possibly some piping, and two tank cars spotted at the waterfront in the above photo, from Forgotten Leaves of Local History Kingston by H.C. Burleigh (top photo). And, in a book on Kingston-area shipwrecks Treacherous Waters! Kingston's Shipwrecks by Cris Kohl, another gem. Ostensibly showing a hulk being raised from the bottom, we can again see tank cars, the labelled Shell tanks, and much more!

Shell began carrying fuel products on the lakes in 1932 as Dominion Tankers Ltd., reorganized as Shell Canadian Tankers Ltd. in 1942 then reverting to Shell Canada Ltd. in 1964. Vessels had black hulls and buff to cream superstructure with red stacks bearing the Shell logo. A 1963 insurance map view shows the Shell installation:

On July 2, 1962 the tanker Eastern Shell went aground off the Kingston Shipyards due to confusion between an extra buoy and the ship's charts. On its first visit to Kingston harbour at the time, the harbour was known to have a tricky approach for the uninitiated. The Wolfe Islander's Captain Richard Fawcett assisted by giving the tanker 'a little pull'. And a letter from a none-too-pleased Shell Oil regarding the bottom of Kingston harbour. Notice the frequency of ship arrivals mentioned in this 1964 letter, as well as the skulduggery alluded to. Also that the dock is shared with Imperial Oil and Rosen Oil:

The Inner Harbour was dredged in 1965. The J.P. Porter company removed 125,000 cubic yards of silt from the area between the causeway and the Naval Reserve dock, to a depth of 18 feet.  The weekend of the Kingston Tercentenary celebrations, a Whig photographer snapped Shell Oil's Fuel Marketer slipping underneath the LaSalle Causeway lift bridge on June 29, 1973. Bedecked with signal flags to celebrate the Royal Visit, it departs the Inner Harbour after discharging its load riding high in the water. Built by Marine Industries in Sorel, QC in 1944, Fuel Marketer was added to the Shell tanker fleet in 1963, renamed from White Rose in 1970 operated by Shell subsidiary Canadian Fuel Marketers Ltd., and was still in service in 1975. Tanker 'Eastern Shell' also visited Kingston in 1964.

Good Leather, Well-Tanned

This was an expression I heard my father-in-law use. Today I found myself at the Queen's University Archives, looking through only one of tens of boxes from the A. Davis and Son  Archives. 

The listing for this box caught my eye because it contained a CN Siding Agreement. And then some. CN and CP siding agreements, then CP siding discontinuance when the business was being sold. And plans. And correspondence. And legal agreements with both railways.

The Davis Archives contain a wealth of documents, including hand-written notes by its owner and his family, especially interesting when dealing with the sale and transfer of the business.

I would think that this level of detail in archival material is hard to find, but a Kingston business is small enough in scope to allow it to be preserved. But someone had to be interested in preserving it to save it from a simple filing cabinet. In a family cottage. Here's more on how it happened.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, the Davis Tannery site has created a lasting legacy for environmental impacts on the Cataraqui River. As a brownfield site, this legacy has been part of any future uses of the site in question.

Kingston Business Owners in 1909

Some interesting descriptions of Kingston industries, published in a special edition of the Kingston British Daily Whig newspaper, in 1909. Portrayed with text and photos are: Bajus Brewery, Canadian Locomotive Co., Cereals Ltd., Fenwick & Hendry Ltd., Forwarders Ltd., W.P. Peters, James Swift & Co., and R.H.Toye. (Click on any image for a larger version)

Outer Station Colour Panorama, 1961

From the City of Kingston Planning Department files, this panorama (click for a larger version) of the Outer Station on Montreal Street presents a pleasing panoply. An express car with open doors is spotted behind the original station, while a line of posts leads to the parking lot, where several vintage vehicles are parked. A woman makes her way out Montreal Street. Several maple leaf boxcars are in the yard, and a billboard seems to face the tracks. A few cars are parked along Montreal Street, and a mailbox or something similar frames the scene of this simple two-lane road.

CP Relocates its Ontario Street Operations, 1967

As Canada's Centennial approached, the City of Kingston was looking to memorialize the important events that had happened on the Canadian Pacific (Kingston & Pembroke) waterfront station site across from City Hall on Ontario Street. These included the life and death of Canada's first Prime Minister, Sir John A. MacDonald. To do so, CP would have to vacate the properties they occupied here and elsewhere in Kingston's downtown, in what today might be called a land swap. 

Mayor William Mills and J.R. Strother, a CP vice-president reportedly agreed to the swap in principle in a March 31, 1964 newspaper article. Thirty acres would be required for CP's trackage and the Smith Transport terminal. This swap was a direct result of the city's 1960 planning report by George Muirhead and Gordon Stephenson. The report suggested revitalization of the waterfront across from City Hall, centred on, but not limited to the relocation of the CP yard trackage.

Excerpts from the City of Kingston report, above the name of then-Kingston mayor Bill Mills:

Of interest is the requirement to maintain railway access to CLC and the Kingston Shipyards, though the future of both would not be long. The project file included drawings and photos of the Market Battery and new plans, as well as photos of Sir John A.'s funeral cortege on Ontario Street as well as at Cataraqui Cemetery.

What they gave - a people place which looks much the same 50 years later (CSTM collection STR31724a.001.aa.cs) and only a remnant of the Market Battery:

What they got: CP Express (left, beyond guardrail) and Superior Propane (far right) as seen from the Division Street overpass:

Another view of the hinterland site with Highway 401 in the background. May, 1974 Whig photo:

An additional voice in this story comes from a 2001 edition of Historic Kingston: 

Excerpt from a letter written by George Vosper to well-known planner George Stephenson. It described events following the release of the 1960 urban planning report. The new Urban Renewal Committee's first action was to arrange a meeting with the Vice President and Eastern Manager of the CP, Mr S.M. Gossage at his office in Union Station, Toronto. (This meeting took place circa September, 1962). On the day of the second meeting, Gossage had arrived in Kingston in his private car at the CP station across from City Hall. Several of his staff arrived separately. They drove around Kingston and returned to City Hall where Mr Gossage commented what a shame it was that City Hall's portico was missing. He was told by George Vosper that he himself could be the one to put it back on. The result was a land swap: across from City hall for industrial park property. The photo (below) posted to the C. Robert Craig Memorial Library may show this private car visit. Dated May 4, 1961, CP business car Kingsmere, originally built for the Toronto, Hamilton & Buffalo in 1927 at Angus Shops, later rebuilt at Strathcona for CP, is pictured by the CP freight sheds across from City Hall in Kingston:

This interesting photo from Kingston Rail shows the Spirit of Sir John A. prior to its dedication in the newly-created park. Apparently when 'steaming' into position, the little D-10 clipped the observation platform constructed for dignitaries! It's on dual-gauge track at the Canadian Locomotive Co. plant:

Links from my main Trackside Treasure blog:

• Kingston's CP-Served Industries - with another version of the land swap
• Boxcars at CP Express - some of the interesting cars spotted at the new facility in the 1980's.
• Switching the CN-CP Interchange  - and industries, as it was done in 1979.

Kingston Waterfront in 1967 on 8 mm film & the Baygeorge

Scott Struik kindly contacted me this week. Scott's grandfather, Robert J. Van Dyke, was on vacation in Canada in 1967, including a stop in Kingston. Mr. Van Dyke's 8 mm film offers a heretofore unseen glimpse along the CP trackage on the waterfront. Starting near City Hall then encompassing King, Ontario and Wellington Streets, the film shows some scintillating signature scenes. The CPR yards and Canadian Dredge & Dock operation (top photo and below- stills from the film), including a lake freighter (see below for more information on this interesting vessel and fleet):

The top photo shows a Baltimore & Ohio boxcar, while the next shows a CP grain-loading boxcar.

Millard & Lumb, Confederation garden and oil tanks are next, the former providing an excellent view of the painted lettering on the end of this building.

My thanks to Scott for sharing his Robert's film recollections. Scott has been rather successful in identifying the scenes in the film, using this blog as a resource.

This seemingly routine lake freighter led me to further discoveries! In response to on online query of mine, Eric Potter kindly identified the vessel as the Baygeorge, of Brockville's Bayswater Shipping  Company. I made some further online inquiries with this valuable information, learning in the process that it's important not to google 'Bay George' unless one wants a plethora of stories on Culture Club's lead singer - Boy George! The actual Baygeorge is shown above in Brockville, taken through the windows of the Bayswater Shipping Co. offices - Brockville Museum 016.04.03.

Formed in 1946, Bayswater operated four self-unloading canallers. Founder George Davidson was formerly an employee of Coal Carriers of Brockville. All ships in his new fleet began with 'Bay' with Baygeorge being named after Mr. Davidson. 

Built in 1912 by Caledon Shipbuilding and Engineering in Dundee Scotland, as Imperial Oil's Iocoma a 248-foot lakeboat, with pilothouse on forecastle and a gross tonnage of 1669, she was requisitioned for WWI service in saltwater trade. Thereafter, entering service in Peru in 1928, Iocoma returned to Canada to provide bunkering service in Montreal and then Halifax until WWII. Returning to the Lakes in 1947, she was renamed Imperial Whitby as part of the renaming of Imperial Oil tankers. Retired by Imperial in 1949, she was laid up at Port Weller, ON. Rebuilt by Montreal's Canadian Vickers as a self-unloading collier, renamed George S. Cleet with a light blue hull in 1951, colours she would wear until her demise, including the top photo at Kingston, and this photo at Brockville, at the Reynolds Coal Co. - Brockville Museum 016.04.23.

Here's another photo of George S. Cleet, showing her self-unloading boom - Aukevisser site photo:

Interestingly, in the Brockville Museum collection, it's possible to find several photos of Kingston's Inner Harbour! The George S. Cleet laboured in her new service until being rebuilt by Canadian Shipbuilding of Kingston, in 1961, now with a 175-foot unloading boom and a gross tonnage of 2174, and renamed Baygeorge. Rebuilt with a cruiser stern and increased rudder size, Baygeorge was considered unaesthethic by some! Here, she unloads the last load of the season (undated) in Kingston - note the Christmas tree decorating the end of the boom! Brockville Museum 016.04.22:

Four years later, also at Kingston, Baygeorge was lengthened to 343 feet, now with a gross tonnage of 3172. Interestingly, at the time, Kingston Shipbuilding manager R.W. Sutton was advertising for welders and fitters to complete the job, and not having much luck. Soon, 'Bayswater Shipping' was optimistically lettered along her side. The mortgage on this rebuilding was called in, leading to the Baygeorge's seizure as part of a voluntary liquidation at the end of the 1967 shipping season, three years after George Davidson's death in 1964. This seizure may have kept her in Kingston, where Mr. Van Dyke filmed her in 1967!

During its seizure, owned variously by Transworld Shipping, and New York's Long Island Salvage, Baygeorge was taken to Hamilton where she languished 1969-1971 before being scrapped by United Metals in 1971, after a long and somewhat illustrious and varied career. Not a bad story for one briefly-seen, seemingly ignominious reposing before Mr. Van Dyke's film camera here in Kingston in 1967!

Some other photos at Kingston, all from the Brockville Museum Collection:

Bayanna unloads at the Kingston coal dock, undated 016.04.41 (above) and on another visit, unloading into Bayquinte which in turn deposits the coal on Anglin's coal dock, undated 016.04.31 (below). Interestingly, the Jacques Gravel, shown at right, was a former WWII Landing Ship Medium landing craft, used in the East Coast pulpwood trade, then a drilling ship of some sort, before moldering away several years in Kingston, before finally being scrapped at Humberstone in 1974 with the name L.S.M.187.

Bayquinte sadly being towed away through the Kingston causeway, east of downtown, undated 016.04.33

 A page of company letterhead 016.04.47

Lots of links: 

• More photos of Imperial Whitby - The Imperial Oil fleet by Auke Visser
• Iocoma - from Marine History of the Great Lakes
• Ship of the Month - Iocoma
• Bayswater artifacts in the Brockville Museum Collection. This page may need to be refreshed - enter Bayswater under Keyword Search/Search the Collection.