Port Arthur and the Ship Building industry

The Port Arthur Shipbuilding Company was originally the Western Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Company Ltd. of Port Arthur, Ontario. In May of 1909 the company entered into a construction agreement with the city of Port Arthur . In 1916, the Port Arthur Shipbuilding Company or PASCO. was incorporated to purchase and take over the assets of the Western Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Company. Once fully established the company built ships of all types including war vessels in both World Wars, pulp and paper machinery, and commercial boilers. The company also operated as a dry dock facility for repairing and docking ships. As well it was authorized to carry on warehousing and storage so as to acquire licenses for the establishment of steamship lines.

In 1910 local capitalist James Whalen determined to build a shipyard in Thunder Bay to augment his salvage, towing and lumber business. Subsequently he approached the American Shipbuilding Company of Cleveland to direct an engineer to Port Arthur to layout and complete a shipyard including drydock. This individual did a first class job: layout of the shipyard was so efficient that very little has had to be changed in the intervening years. This was the establishment of the Western Drydock Company.

First Contracts

Under the management of Mr. Whalen a few tugs and barges were built, then the firm got the order to build the largest and most palatial passenger ship on the Great Lakes. She was duly launched in 1913. The machinery was installed. Trials were run and the vessel proceeded to Cleveland to receive the finishing touches. While there it was noted that her stability was poor; she lay over against the wharf in an alarming fashion. The ship had been designed by the American Shipbuilding Company and she was put in their drydock. At the waterline, the hull was enlarged with battleship type blisters which corrected the persistent stability problem. The ship performed very well over a lifespan that extended to September 1949; that month while on a cruise of the lower lakes she caught fire at the dock in Toronto and was completely destroyed with the loss of 119 people. She was the Noronic.

World War I

During World War I the Western Drydock Company directed by Mr. Paige, built one large upper laker bulk carrier, and several seagoing freighters for both the Canadian Government Merchant Marine and the British Admiralty. These were followed by a series of armed naval trawlers for both the above owners. Toward the end of the war, the shipyard was engaged in building more seagoing merchant ships for the Canadian Government Merchant Marine - this was part of the government's efforts towards mitigating the effects of the post-war depression and the work continued until 1923.

Depression

In 1924 the shipyard built a further upper lakes bulk carrier for the Matthews Steamship Company of Toronto. But they found in common with the other Great Lakes shipyards at this time, that business was drying up; at the conclusion of this contract, all new construction ceased until 1940. During this long difficult period which spanned the Depression the shipyard remained viable with ship repair work. Fortunately at this time an expansion of the papermills of northwestern Ontario took place and the shipyard set up a very successful general engineering division to manufacture papermill machinery, flumes, hoppers, and other related mill machinery. This became so active that the management of the shipyard became oriented toward this work rather than shipbuilding.

Worlf War II

Shipbuilding once again came to the fore. In 1940 the Canadian Government and British Admiralty as in the previous war, were looking for naval vessels to be built in Canada. Consequently the Port Arthur Shipbuilding Company received contracts for the first of many corvettes. This shipyard with its modern and very active machine shop and boiler shops was able to produce the engines and boilers for these ships as well as the hulls. This machinery was rated by both governments as the best of its kind produced in Canada. Halfway throught the war period the shipyard was ordered to construct a fleet of minesweepers of the Algerine class. The work on these went just as well as that of the corvettes and the shipyard proved a very able producer. At the conclusion of hostilities, the Canadian government, in assisting France to recover, asked Port Arthur to construct a fleet of twelve self-propelled garbage scows for the French government.

Corvette pennant K 127. Built by Port Arthur Shipbuilding Co. (Port Arthur, Ontario, Canada). Ordered 1 Feb, 1940, laid down 18 Jun, 1940, launched 17 Dec, 1940.
Commissioned 11 Jul, 1941, end service 6 Jul, 1945.

Displacement 925 BRT
Length 205 feet (oa)
Complement 85 men
Armament 1 4" gun 1 2pdr AA 4 .303" MG AA
Max speed 16 knots
Engines Reciprocating engine, 1 shaft
Power 2750 HP

Prosperity

The prosperous 1950's brought continued success. In 1953 the yard received orders from the Algoma Central Railway to build a turbine driven laker. This ship was followed by one for Patterson Steamships of exactly the same pattern. At the same time they built two upper lakers for Canada Steamship Lines. Under the direction of manager Gordon Macdougall (1936-64) the yard became involved in building hydraulic suction dredges in the mid 1950's for use at the Steeprock Lake mine for dewatering the last of the water and finally 300 feet of sludge and mud from the lake bottom. When this work was completed the dredges were sitting on a floor of pure iron ore.

Recent Years

Port Arthur Shipbuilding entered the 1960's with only one new construction, the icebreaker Alexander Henry. Once again shipbuilding was at a very low ebb, but with the vast increase in the number of ships in the 1960's, the drydock was constantly busy especially during the winter months. During this period the yard was managed by Mr. Robert Sutton and the engineering work held up very well. With the design and construction of a lathe able to turn a cylinder forty feet in diameter by over one hundred feet long, they became assured of continuing mining machinery contracts.

Under the management of Mr. Don Page (1974-80), the yard received in 1974 an order from Collingwood Shipyards - with whom it was closely affiliated - to build a new auto and passenger ferry for service between Kingston and Wolfe Island, Ontario. This proved to be the last completed ship to date to have been built at the yard although several conversions of bulk carriers to self unloaders have also been carried out. Thus the shipyard enters the 1990's with a full order book for winter repairs and a full order book of machine shop and boiler shop work to be pursued.

A photograph of the CHICORA. The CHICORA'S hull was made of steel, she was 221 feet long, 26 feet wide. The paddlewheel on her side was 28 feet in diameter. The CHICORA was built to be a blockade runner for the Confederacy in the American Civil War. In 1868 the CHICORA was rebuilt and refurbished in Collingwood, Ontario. She became part of the Lake Superior Mail Line, and operated between Collingwood and what would be Port Arthur in later years. In 1870 the CHICORA was one of the ships that transported Colonel Wolseley and his troops to "the Landing" as they travelled west to quel the Riel Rebellion.

View of the first two ships to use the new Western Dry Dockand Ship Building's dry dock in Port Arthur. June 1911. The photo shows the sterns of the SS Beaverton and th SS Dunelm in dry dock with two of the company's buildings in the background.

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