On Friday afternoon, ship enthusiasts gathered at Lock 7 in Thorold, to watch the S.S. Keewatin make its way up the Welland Canal.
The historical ship — which was built in 1907, five years before the Titanic — is currently making its final trek from Port McNicoll to Kingston.
It was a very special day for many, but even more so for the loved ones of the late Barrett Smith, whose Chapel Street house, overlooking the Welland Canal, is built as a tribute to the ship.
On Friday, his loved ones came together in his honour, to witness the historical moment as the "two ships” finally met.
“My father loved this ship,” said Barrett’s son David Smith, in an interview with ThoroldToday. “He worked on it as a boy and that’s why he designed the house to look like that. ”
The house was built in the late 1980’s by David’s brother, who had no real carpentry experience, but a strong desire to make his father’s dream home a reality.
“It’s like the bridge and the wheelhouse of the ship, where the captain stands,” David said. “That’s what the design of the outside structure is. It even got a little patio deck that looks like the bow of the ship. He really went to town on this.”
Barrett lived in the house for almost 25 years before passing away in 2014.
His widow, Rita Smith, has a special connection to the S.S. Keewatin herself, as she hails from Glasgow, Scotland where the ship was built.
“A lot of ships were built on the River Clyde in Glasgow and that was one of them,” she told ThoroldToday. “They all said it was Clyde-built which meant it was a really good ship.”
Barrett used to work on the ship as a high school student, and this was an experience that really stayed with him, according to Rita.
“He worked on the Keewatin during the summer,” she said. “He was a cabin boy. He was always talking about it. It was his favourite ship.”
Family members had come down all the way from Port McNicoll to watch the two ships meet.
Also in attendance were two former workers of the ship, who had come down to Thorold to see the Keewatin in action one last time.
Throughout the years, Sandra Czarnik heard many stories about the Chapel Street house so it was an exciting moment to finally get to see it in person. She spent the last seven weeks packing up the S.S. Keewatin for its final journey.
“It was sad that we were packing it up and the memories it brought back,” Czarnik said. “We were polishing brass and silver and vacuuming. It was a lot of work packing but it’s going to a good home.”
Czarnik is hopeful that she will get to see the S.S. Keewatin again in Kingston.
“We’re definitely going to visit,” she said. “We’ll help them out if they need it.”
Rita, for her part, wishes her late husband would have been able to witness the magical moment as the two ships finally met.
“He would have been over the moon today to see all the excitement and the passion for the ship,” she said.
