MINEWA

Freight-Passenger-Commercial Fishing Vessels of Lake Nipigon

As remembered by Adolph King, Rossport, Ontario , 1974

From the Nipigon Archives:

The writer recalls another vessel of the pioneer construction days. This was a scow or barge, (the Minewa ) but operated for the construction of the C.N.R.

This barge I recall was about 55 feet in length. It had a clean deck with only enough housework to cover the boiler and engines, plus the crew quarters.

The writer can not recall the name of this craft. (Buzz Lein did)

Being flat and shallow draught she was equipped as a twin screw having two steam engines, one on each side giving the vessel very easy manoeuvrability in narrow waters due to the vessel having a propeller on each side.

This vessel was not taken out of water but left in a quiet bay in very shallow water. The boiler is still there but the engines were taken by different outfits for different crafts, especially the fishing industry down through the years.

Each of the twin units were of the same engines as that of the "Pewabic". These engines were also built by the 'Polson Iron Works' of Toronto.