The BLUEBELL: 1906 - 1955

AS MENTIONED earlier, when the Toronto Ferry Company came into being, there were 12 ferries operating on the Bay, and the number of the fleet was raised to 14 with the addition of the MAYFLOWER and the PRIMROSE in 1890.

It was decided soon after that larger capacity ferries were needed to carry the increasingly large crowds that were going to the Island during the long and busy summer season. This prompted the company to commission the Polson Iron Works Limited of Toronto, then located at the foot of Sherbourne Street, to construct two new and larger craft.

The first vessel was completed in 1906, and was christened the BLUEBELL. She entered service in that year and immediately became a favourite with her passengers.

This advertising billboard for the Hanlan's Point amusement park prominently features the BLUEBELL.

From 1906 until 1928 the BLUEBELL served Hanlan's Point which was then in the throes of Lol Solman's amusement park and baseball stadium. From 1928 until her retirement in 1955 the BLUEBELL was placed in shuttle service to Centre Island.

June 1919, and the BLUEBELL is seen here in the company of another of the Toronto Ferry Company vessels, and–of course–one of the ubiquitous sculls.

Newer diesel-powered ferries necessitated her retirement in 1955, after 49 years of faithful service to Toronto. She was stripped of her superstructure and today [1976] her remaining hull is tied up at the Island Water Filtration Plant at Hanlan's Point.

The BLUEBELL's hull will be used to form part of the Outer Harbour breakwater near Ashbridge's Bay for a future development. (See TRANSFER POINTS page 10, Vol. 1, No. 2, July 1975.)

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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