Municipal Ownership

BEGINNING ON April 15, 1927, the Toronto Transportation Commission took over operation of the ferry service, using the MAYFLOWER, PRIMROSE, BLUEBELL, TRILLIUM, MISS YORK, MISS SIMCOE, the CLARK BROS., JOHN HANLAN, LUELLA and the freight boat T.J. CLARK. But, many of these didn't see immediate service before the TTC had a good chance to carefully survey its "fleet". What was found further intensified the fact that City Hall had definitely put the cart before the horse:

• The JOHN HANLAN was placed in dry dock, as it was to be the first vessel in service in 1927. The TTC commented at the time, "The conditions upon removal of the planking [are] not capable of description by mere words!"
• The Hanlan's Point docks were so unsafe that there was no guarantee that any boat tied up to it wouldn't pull the whole dock away from its moorings.
• Examination of the CLARK BROS. found two cracked pistons in a engine which had been run in that condition for three years.
• The JASMINE (formerly named OJIBOWAY) entered dry dock, and a hose was turned on in the hull, only to show water pouring out the stern like Niagara Falls.
• What little fire-fighting apparatus there was had to be scrapped, as it was either obsolete or beyond use.
• Even at this time, the TRILLIUM was suffering from extensive dry-rot to its upper decks, which were often filled with as many as 1,000 people.

Toronto Transit Commission photo 4965 The ferry JOHN HANLAN on June 6, 1927, shortly after being refurbished and returned to service by the Toronto Transportation Commission. These appears to be posed pictures as the photographer's boat and the JOHN HANLAN circle each other. Toronto Transit Commission photo

Toronto Transit Commission photo Returning to the terminal and docked at last; two more publicity photos of the JOHN HANLAN. Toronto Transit Commission photo

It is frightening today to realize that if these items had not been part of a list of repairs ordered by a Department of Transport inspector, the whole ferry fleet could have transported people to the bottom of the lake instead of to the Island!

As a sidelight, Solman closed down his business on the Island and built Maple Leaf Stadium [on the southwest corner of Bathurst and Fleet Streets] in 1926, moving his Island ball team there. Solman would probably be upset if he were alive today to learn that this stadium, which was quite a popular place to be in his day, was torn down in 1961 and the club moved to Winnipeg because of declining patronage.

In the days of the amusement park and baseball stadium, one sure method of luring a crowd to the Island was the burning of some old sailing ship or craft which was no longer needed and couldn't be scrapped for profit.

The first Friday of August, 1929, and the PRIMROSE is going out in a pyrotechnic blaze of glory just offshore of the Sunnyside amusement park.

On August 2, 1929, the old JASMINE met her end in such a manner. She was followed before long by two other old-timers, the JOHN HANLAN and CLARK BROS. Another old relic of the sailing ship era, the schooner Julia B. Merrill, was burned off Sunnyside Beach in 1931 in this same continuing spectacle to draw more patrons to the Island and the western beaches.

When LUELLA was retired in 1934, she was put on display at Hanlan's Point to remind many of her great days on the Bay. But vandals managed to disfigure this ancient mariner to the point that one day, shortly after she had been put on exhibit, two Island workmen mistook the vessel for a pile of firewood and promptly burned her! Most of the smaller ferries mentioned earlier, such as the MISS YORK and MISS SIMCOE, were scrapped one by one in 1929.

Looking south at the new ferry docks. In the upper picture, taken in 1927, the TRILLIUM and the MAYFLOWER are docked (the latter about to depart, as evidenced by the plume of smoke pouring from its stack), while the CLARK BROS. eases its way towards the slip. A lone passenger is about to board an ex-Toronto Railway Company double-truck wooden car.

Below, the PRIMROSE has just departed, and three other ferries are visible, plying back and forth across the Harbour to and from the Islands. A P-1 class (2700-series) small Witt is heading east on Queen's Quay on its way back uptown in this 1929 view.

A major achievement of 1926 was the construction of new ferry docks at the foot of Bay Street. The old docks, which had become hazardous, were demolished and Queen's Quay fitted in well with the language of the waterfront. The Bay and Dupont streetcar lines were extended to the new docks, and these were later replaced the Bay bus route. In the early 1970s the new Queen's Quay docks gave way to new ones located just east of them.

1931 must be considered as the best year to date for patronage to the island. During that year 2,172,558 passengers made their way across the Bay. And another feat was also achieved that year: a record one-day passage totaling 101,000 was carried on July 1.

The big question arising out of the City's decision to buy the ferry fleet in 1926 was, Would this move giving the City control of the Island transportation finally prompt the building of bridges over the Eastern and Western Gaps, thus ending the ferry service? The answer, of course, was "No", and even though some plans along this idea have been raised over the years, none of them have been taken seriously.

When the TTC took over the operation of the ferry service in 1927, they decided that it would be a good idea to use TTC tickets and fares for the ferries as well, as they were now in effect TTC "routes". (It was at about this time that new roll signs were made for the ferries; these being fabricated at Hillcrest Shops. Some of these are still in use today on the present fleet.) By using car tickets on the ferries, Torontonians could plan for a "Four-Ticket Sunday", which meant a family outing consisting of two tickets for the trip to the docks and home, as well as two tickets for the fares in both directions from the mainland to the Island and back. Later, when the TTC ended operation of the ferry service, the use of TTC tickets (and tokens, introduced after the subway opened in 1954) was not allowed, and a new fare structure came into use.

It began like this...	Ferries of the 1890s	The MAYFLOWER: 1890 - 1938	The PRIMROSE: 1890 - 1938	The BLUEBELL: 1906 - 1955
The TRILLIUM: 1910 - 1957	The Changing Fleet: 1918 - 1926	Municipal Ownership	The Modern Fleet: 1935 - 1960	Fleet List

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