Stepping aboard Toronto’s Trillium ferry is like travelling through time, but passengers on this vintage paddle steamer may not know about the time it was left to rot partially sunken.
It’s been 115 years since the Trillium was first commissioned, though the ship was almost deprived of the rich legacy it maintains to this day.
The Trillium was one of a class of paddle steamer ferries constructed for the Toronto Ferry Company by local shipbuilding operation, Polson Iron Works, and would enter service transporting passengers between the Toronto Islands and the mainland in June 1910.
In its early years, the Trillium ferried scores of crowds to the Islands for various activities and events, including watching baseball games at Hanlan’s Point. In fact, part of the reason it was built was to help support the flow of baseball fans to Hanlan’s Point’s newly built ballpark, where the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team played until 1925.
While the ferry was intended for the masses, it also operated on more intimate harbour crossings. The Trillium’s prestige only grew in 1919, when it took the Prince of Wales to the Toronto Islands during a royal visit to Canada.
View of the Trillum ferry in the background and a partially-submerged Captain John’s in the foreground.
The Trillium was named in an early homage to provincial patriotism, before the flower officially became the official one of Ontario in the 1930s. Other ships in the feelt at the time were also named for other flowers, too: the Primrose, the Mayflower and the Bluebell.
By 1957, the ferry had spent nearly 50 years carrying passengers to and from the islands every summer before it was taken out of service.
And then, it was quietly abandoned.
The abandoned vessels
As the 1950s drew to a close, the Toronto Ferry Company was modernizing, as steam-powered vessels were being replaced by diesel-powered boats. For the Trillium and its sister ship, the Bluebell, it was a signal that time was almost up.
View of aging steel on the hull of the abandoned Bluebell.
The Bluebell, a steam-powered, side-wheel ferry built in 1906, came into service when demand for ferry rides to the islands increased. Also built by Polson Iron Works, it served the same purpose as the Trillium, ferrying crowds of people across the Toronto Harbour for decades.
The Bluebell remained in service until 1955, and after the ferry was retired, it underwent major restoration to be used as a garbage scow.
The Bluebell, paddle steamer promenade deck, during conversion into a scow at City Marine Yards, foot of Rees St., Toronto. Photo: Toronto Public Library Archives
The Bluebell was taken to the City Marine Yards at the foot of Rees. St., where its cabins, deck structures and upper decks were removed.
The Bluebell paddle steamer during conversion into a scow at City Marine Yards, foot of Rees St. Photo: Toronto Public Library Archives
After it sank multiple times, including its first test trial, the Bluebell’s hull was eventually dumped in the Leslie Street Spit, where it still exists today as part of the landfill that forms the artificial peninsula.
Similarly, the Trillium was intended to lug waste after it was retired two years later. It was sold to the Metro Toronto Works Department for just $4,500 to be repurposed as a sewage sludge-hauling boat, but was then towed to one of the island’s lagoons and left to rot instead.
It sat partially sunk in the water for almost 20 years.
A new lease on life
The Trillium seemed doomed to a life of abandonment, even after the ferry loyally served Toronto for decades.
However, by the 1960s, there was a renewed public interest in the ferry, including a proposal for the Trillium to be displayed alongside other historic boats at the Toronto Maritime Museum, as well as calls for the boat to return to service.
However, it wasn’t until local historian Mike Filey and Alan Howard, curator of the Marine Museum at Toronto’s Exhibition Place, advocated for the Trillium that things began to move into motion.
Reviving the ferry would require a significant amount of money: Filey and Howard initiated a study that led to the Metropolitan Toronto Council raising nearly $1 million to restore the ferry.
Proper work began as plans were approved for the restoration of the Trillium, and the ship was hauled off to drydock to begin its new life.
The restoration of the ferry took place in Port Colborne, supervised by Champion Engineering Ltd., at the E. B. Magee drydock in Ramey’s Bend.
Bringing the Trillium back to life meant a complete overhaul of the ferry’s infrastructure, including the replacement of the superstructure, boiler and deck. Significant effort was made to preserve the ferry as it was originally built, including creating replicas of parts such as the ferry’s brass bells and the beavers on either side of the paddle boxes.
By June 18, 1976, the Trillium was ready to get back out and do what it does best: float on Toronto Harbour — 66 years to the day after it first launched in the water.
In November 1976, the refurbished vessel took on its first passengers as it re-entered service, becoming the last steam-operated side-paddle wheeler to operate on the Great Lakes.
Today, the Trillium continues to serve between the Jack Layton Ferry Terminal and the Toronto Islands. However, unlike the modern ferries of today, it can take almost an hour to cross the water, allowing passengers to marvel at the ferry’s rich history while riding in it.
The Trillium, after a near-tragic fate, continues to fulfill its original purpose: carrying island-bound passengers to the islands, as a vessel that carries over 100 years of Toronto’s heritage along with it.
