At the end of November, the thirty-year lease expires for the property that is the site of the Marine Museum of the Great Lake

At the end of November, the thirty-year lease expires for the property that is the site of the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes at Kingston. Without urgent intervention by the Federal Government, the future of the Museum, along with its designated collections, as well as the National Historic Kingston Dry-Dock and Engine House Buildings appears to

be at great risk.

The Marine Museum is asking the Federal Government to address long overdue pressing structural and safety concerns for the site. Notwithstanding that the Department of Public Works and Government Services Canada (DPWSGC) deems the property surplus and therefore wishes to dispose of the property, we maintain that the site is unique to Canada, is important for our National Identity and should continue to remain accessible to the public.

Furthermore, we believe it is wrong to expect the municipality to be burdened with financing long overdue repairs to a Nationally Designated Historic Site that, shamefully, has seen little or no maintenance or repair work by its owner since it was designated and occupied as a museum site under lease more than thirty years ago.

We call on all citizens who believe in the importance of preserving our national heritage, to voice their views on this urgent issue by contacting their Federal M.P. or by signing our online petition at http://www.marmuseum.ca/.

For over 150 years, Mississauga Point was the site of major shipyards, when Kingston was one of the most important naval and commercial ports and ship building centres on the Great Lakes. The significance of this industry led the federal government to construct a dry-dock on the site in 1890. Designed by Henry F. Perley, Sir John A. Macdonald himself laid the first stone for the dry-dock on June 19th of that year. Below is a brief chronology of the site’s most historically significant events:

1909: The Kingston Shipyard building was constructed adjacent to the dry-dock and its stone Engine House. Department of Public Works staff made things happen in the early days of nation building. Prior to World War I, the Department of Public Work’s mandate was to make Kingston the terminus of the Great Lakes, supported by the deepening of the Welland Canal, the development of Kingston’s Inner Harbour and the establishment of giant elevators and CNR and CPR terminals. World War I delayed the Welland Canal reconstruction, but work proceeded on the Inner Harbour, and the LaSalle Lift Bridge/Causeway.

1910: Initially, operated by the Department of Public Works as a repair facility for lake vessels, the Kingston Shipyard was enlarged and leased to the Kingston Shipbuilding Company, the first of a series of private firms which operated the shipyard until 1968, constructing paddle-wheelers, steamships, and commercial cargo carriers for use on the Great Lakes.

1939 – 1945: During the Second World War, nine Royal Navy corvettes were built for convoy duty at the Kingston Shipyards and served in the Battle of the Atlantic. Two of them were sunk and a total of 15 lives were lost: HMCS Charlottetown and HMCS
Trentonian. Annually, on both November 11 and Battle of Atlantic Sunday, Kingston’s contribution is solemnly intoned at Navy Park at the foot of Mississauga Point.

1967: The Kingston Shipyard manager R Sutton lobbied the DPWSGC for help and quoted that the dry-dock had cost $416,000 to construct and Kingston Shipyards had paid in rent $846,000. As to the lengthening in 1929 which had cost $430,000, the Kingston
Shipyard had paid rent of $600,000 devoted to amortizing the cost of this capital investment by DPWSGC. He was pleading a case for the DPW to lengthen the dry-dock in 1968. DPWSGC had no interest in the upkeep of their dry-docks and / refused to make any further capital investments that might have kept the industry alive for some years. It left them in a state of benign neglect until the decision was made to house the museum there.

1974: Through the assistance and intervention of the Honourable Flora Macdonald, the Marine Museum was authorised to use the derelict Kingston Shipyards and Dry-dock site by W. D. Saunders of the Federal Department of Public Works to house a museum dedicated to the maritime history of the Great Lakes. Saunders stated, “It had become the policy of the Department to put such property to work for non-commercial use and enjoyment of the general public”.

1974: This year the founders of the Marine Museum began to move into the derelict shipyard buildings. Inside, raccoons and other wildlife had taken over the building and snow had drifted in through the partially collapsed roof. It took courage to enter the old shipyard buildings in that winter of 1974/5, and it took stamina to stay there.

July 1, 1975 (Canada Day): The Marine Museum of the Great Lakes opened to the public.

September 6, 1986, the Dry-Dock and associated Engine House were declared a National Historic Site by the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.

1990: The Association of Professional Engineers of Ontario dedicated a plaque, now located at the Marine Museum, to commemorate Henry Perley’s engineering accomplishments.

After $3 million in capital improvements to the building by the Museum, achieved through grants, private and corporate philanthropy and with over thirty years of community involvement including a team of volunteers who contribute in excess of 10,000 hours annually, a nationally significant museum, library and archives stands on the dry-dock site. The Museum’s location on the Kingston Shipyard and Dry-dock property represents a unique, symbiotic re-purposing of the site.

The constitution of the museum defines its mission thus: “ The primary purpose of the Museum is:

1. To collect, document, conserve and display artifacts that relate to the collections mandate of the Museum...”

The Marine Museum is currently the only museum in Canada which exclusively represents the maritime history of the Great Lakes. It is in the unique situation of being a community museum, with nationally significant collections, telling a national story. The Museum and this site are not only important to the Kingston community's sense of identity, but also, to the story of Canada's economic and social development and to a global appreciation of Kingston and the Great Lakes corridor as a centre of maritime

history.

The Marine Museum boasts the largest single collection of Great Lakes historic material in Canada, including: many collections which have been designated as Canadian Cultural Property; 3,000 artifacts including the Museum Ship Alexander Henry; 11,000 books;

40,000 ships plans; 15,000 images; and 3,500 boxes of archival records. The Museum has five permanent galleries, a temporary gallery with changing exhibits, Gift Shop, Tearoom and a seasonal Bed and Breakfast which operates on board the Museum Ship Alexander Henry.

The Marine Museum and the Shipyard and Dry-dock site already serve as a principal tourism attractor for the Kingston region, which has an international reputation as one of the best freshwater sailing and sport diving sites in the world. Cultural tourism theories such as ‘Creative Cities’ and initiatives such as ‘Premiere Ranked Destinations’ endorse investment in museums and heritage sites as principle drivers of cultural and heritage

tourism.

Over 11,000 tourists visit the Museum annually. In 2006, visitors from 6 continents, 30 countries, 9 provinces, 26 states and 143 cities, towns and villages in Ontario stopped by. The Museum frequently plays host to visiting ships such as the tall ship Picton Castle. The Marine Museum is a significant tourism resource for the Southeastern Ontario.

The Museum Ship, Alexander Henry, acquired by the Museum in 1985, was a worthy acquisition. At 210 feet and over 2,000 tons, the Alexander Henry is the Marine Museum’s largest single artefact. Built on the Great Lakes at Port Arthur Shipyards in 1958, this decommissioned Canadian Coast Guard light icebreaker and buoy tender served its entire career on the Great Lakes and has been a highly visible landmark on the Kingston waterfront since 1985.

From Kingston’s perspective, the Rideau Canal, together with Fort Henry and the military infrastructure lining Navy Bay and the Marine Museum, constitute a unique regional nautical/marine complex that ties the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence into the story of Canada.

Given UNESCO’s recent designation of the Rideau Canal and Kingston Military Installations as a ‘World Heritage’ site, the Marine Museum is uniquely able to interpret the link between the Rideau, which was initially military in intent, and the subsequent

development of commercial shipping and the St. Lawrence Seaway system.

The Marine Museum community is asking the Minister of Public Works and Government Services Canada to approve emergency Federal Funding so that repairs to the East Wharf, West Wharf, Caisson Gates and Wall, Limestone Dry-Dock and Dry-Dock extension

commence, thus removing the threat to public safety and risk of irreparable damage to Nationally Designated properties and buildings, should failure of the structures occur.

Mark Siemons

Chair

Marine Museum of the Great Lakes at Kingston