THUNDER BAY -- Proponents of returning the former coast guard vessel Alexander Henry to Thunder Bay plan to ask city council for up to $125,000 to help make it happen.
Charlie Brown, chair of the Lakehead Transportation Museum Society, on Wednesday said he’d like the city to cover half the cost of transporting the ship, which was is currently in Marine Museum of the Grea Lakes in Kingston.
On Tuesday Kingston city council voted in favour of chipping in $50,000 toward the towing cost, preferring it as the least expensive option for the vessel.
“We were very pleased with the whole result,” he said, adding they’ve got a number of requests for towing quotes out and don’t expect it will cost the full $250,000 estimate.
Private funding would make up the difference, said Brown, who intends to make a presentation to council on Dec. 19.
“We’ve already got a very generous private donor lined up right now and the rest would be done in fundraising in the early part of the spring.”
Brown said bringing the Alexander Henry back to the city – it was built at the Port Arthur Shipyards in the late 1950s and served as an icebreaker on the Great Lakes between 1959 and 1984 – is a tribute to Thunder Bay’s nautical past.
“If you look at it, we wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for transportation. Right from Day 1 this community has been based on transportation, whether it’s the shipping industry, marine, rail or air – you name it and it’s been here in Thunder Bay and actually grown this entire community,” he said, making a push for a museum.
Brown said one of the selling points to council will be organizers believe they can make the ship itself self-sufficient and not reliant on continued municipal funding.
In the summer, for example, the Alexander Henry has operated as a bed and breakfast.
This revenue, plus tour admission fees, should be enough to pay for the ship's upkeep, he said.
Also on Brown’s shopping list is permission for a place to berth the ship.
“We would like a very highly visible location. We do have a docking facility right now on the Kam River, but to really utilize this in the proper fashion we would like the cruise-ship port down at Pool 6. It hasn’t been used in a number of years and really, the city doesn’t have to provide us with any other facilities whatsoever,” Brown said.
“The ship is in excellent shape, we can bring it in, dock it, put the gangway down and people can get on it and enjoy it.”
Other options include selling the Alexander Henry for scrap or turning it into an artificial reef, both of which come with price tags in excess of $300,000, costs that would have to be partially borne by the City of Kingston.
The ship lost its long-term berth in the Limestone City when the museum’s waterfront property was sold. It’s been berthed near Picton, Ont. for several months.
Iain Angus, chair of the waterfront development committee, said the issue has not yet been considered by the committee.
