While it’s not a battleship, a war of words seems to be heating up over the SS Keewatin.
The Port McNicoll-based Keep Keewatin Home group recently sent an open letter to Kingston residents, politicians and media over the decision by Skyline Investments to donate the Edwardian-era vessel to the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes.
The note encourages residents of the Limestone City to write to their local political representatives and the museum to ask them to “abandon their unjust acquisition” of the Keewatin.
“There is an organization in your incredible city working headlong to deprive us of our most loved historic possession,” the letter penned by Keep Keewatin Home lead Dan Travers reads.
“The Marine Museum at Kingston has signaled its intention to appropriate a 116-year-old historical vessel from the small Ontario community from which it once sailed, and whose residents have lovingly restored and maintained it over the last decade.”
Travers goes on to point out the historic link the Keewatin and Port McNicoll share and notes that while Skyline will receive a tax receipt from its donation, the ship is “priceless” to the Georgian Bay village.
“Its presence anchors the community - both literally and figuratively - its image graces our murals, flags, stationary, publications and community events,” the letter states.
“In the minds of many thousands in our community a move to Kingston is an abhorrent act - the unjust appropriation of cultural and heritage property that is, in 2023, grossly out of sync with national and global opinion.”
While museum chair Chris West was not available for comment, a spokesman forwarded a letter that it sent out to its “fans, patrons and supporters” where they address Keep Keewatin Home's assertions that appeared in a local newspaper.
“This article was prompted by a complaint from a well-intentioned, but misguided group,” the letter states.
“This group has, for several years, been trying to raise local support to keep the ship in Port McNicoll. Note, however, that this group did not own or directly care for the ship.
“As Eric Conroy of the Friends of Keewatin said, "Keep Keewatin Home do not speak for the ship, the volunteers, or the community. The Friends of Keewatin support Keewatin’s move to Kingston.”
One politician who received the Keep Keewatin Home letter says he understands the village's sentimental hold on the ship.
"I have spoken to the people in Port McNichol (sic), and I sympathize with the fact that many volunteers worked on restoring the SS Keewatin and it is an important part of Port McNichol's (sic) history,” Kingston and the Islands MPP Ted Hsu wrote in an email.
The museum’s letter goes to ensure its supporters have the proper “context” behind these stories and the Keep Keewatin Home campaign, which “has expressed its intent to continue agitating for the ship to be kept in Port McNicoll.”
In fact, the museum has set up an FAQ section on its website to address the ongoing Keep Keewatin Home campaign.
“The first thing to know is that no group in Port McNicoll has been successful in raising the necessary funds for repairs and maintenance, obtaining the Canadian Heritage designation required to maintain this cultural property, and acquiring a new place in Port McNicoll to dock the ship,” the museum points out.
“To underscore those points, the ship cannot remain in Port McNicoll as there is no qualified or resourced organization to care for it and nowhere to park it.
“It cannot remain moored where it is due to planned developments by the new property owner. The previous owner of the Keewatin itself, Skyline Investments, tried for years to keep the ship in the Georgian Bay area and could not successfully find a new home. Multiple other communities in the Great Lakes turned this opportunity down.”
The museum also notes that if the ship wasn’t coming to Kingston, it would be going elsewhere or scrapped.
“This is why we have been noting in our statements that we have the expertise and resources to care for the ship within our drydock – we are an ideal home,” the letter says, adding it has not “appropriated” the ship, but rather accepted a donation after being approached as a potential home for the vessel.
It adds: “To qualify to receive the Keewatin, we had to go through a gruelling review process by the Canadian Conservation Institute to demonstrate we had the expertise and resources to preserve the ship, a review process no one in the Port McNicoll area has successfully completed.”
Keep Keewatin Home members, meanwhile, remain undeterred and note that more than 15,000 residents have signed a petition to keep the Keewatin in Port McNicoll and thousands of hours of volunteer work have gone into its restoration.
“There are heritage organizations in Simcoe County that are fully capable of operating and managing the vessel, and would be delighted to do so,” Travers notes.
“As cultural properties continue to be returned to their respective communities globally - Babylonian tablets to Iraq, Indigenous artifacts to their native communities - how long will it be before the pressure to return the SS Keewatin to its home port becomes irresistible - 5 years? 10? 40?
"How much will the people of Kingston have invested in the Keewatin before this happens? Why not simply leave the ship where it belongs in the first place?”
Then, the letter delves into a number of resignations from the museum’s board last year, which the letter speculates could have been caused by the museum's attempted acquisition of the ship.
“West may be hoping that once the ship weighs anchor, the people of Port McNicoll will simply forgive and forget,” the letter says. “But we won't. This community will continue to ask those who will listen to return our vessel, until it is rightfully at home, at rest.
“You, good people of Kingston, have the opportunity to make a choice about what kind of a community you wish to be. Is it a community that respects cultural heritage and finds its own path to success, or one that profits from the pain of others?”
