Permanent Collection Cont'

The Shipping Room

Patients would enter through the door from the waiting room and the doctor would administer to their symptoms in what is now referrd to as the Boat Room. Shipping in the area was very important because of the lumber camps and mills, which were the major business for the Township and area. There were approximately 54 working ships/tugboats on Lake Nipissing.

Information of our boating history: The Chief Commanda 1 was a tour boat, which is now located at North Bay's waterfront and is being run as a restaurant. The Woodchuck (built in 1925) was an ideal tugboat that could retrieve jammed logs in shallow water. They were slow but powerful and could haul up to 4000 logs. The Seagull 1 (built in 1906 by J.B Smith and Sons) was a steam tugboat that was used to haul booms of logs across Lake Nipissing. Its hull required extensive repairs so the engine was removed and was taken out of use. The Seagull 2 (built in 1930, and first owned by Armstrong Towing CO.) also hauled log booms. By the mid 1930s the lumber trade deteriorated greatly and it became a tour boat making trips down the French River. In 1940 it was purchased by J.B Smith and Sons and became a tugboat once more; it was used until 1960 when it became more economical to transport by land. The Screamer was built in 1922 by J.B Smith and Sons. Its hull was too box like and therefore hard to handle; another hull was built on the outside of it. It could haul up to 10,000 logs. By 1940 the Screamer's hull was badly rotted so the wheelhouse and engine were removed and it was towed by the Woodchuck to Smith Island where it was doused with gas and set on fire. The Northern Belle was a passenger vessel built in 1905 and owned by J.A Clark. In 1926 it burned to the water line and then sank in shallow water at the dock in North Bay.

This room was used for patients to wait in. This room is now used to display the importance of the nurses and the Red Cross Centre, which was located at the south end of Main Street. Louise de Kiriline was head nurse in charge of the Dionne Quints. Dr. Dafoe admired her professionalism greatly and insisted that she come to work with the girls. It is rumoured that the doctor was enamored by her and had once asked her to marry him; however she declined, although she too admired the doctor and his professional principles. Louise's life history is quite remarkable; she went on to write several books, one very interesting book entitled Another Winter, Another Spring details her life in Sweden and Russia and her reasons for leaving when she finally accepted the lose of her husband in the Bolshevik war. She chose to come to northern Ontario because its conditions reminded her very much of her home. She could also speak several languages; one being French which was needed in the area.