Thunder Bay - Lodge 16
ALEXANDER HENRY MOVED TO THUNDER BAY
The Alexander Henry, former coast guard icebreaker, which was built by the Port Arthur Shipbuilding Company, has completed its journey back to the Lakehead. The ship was moored at the former Pool 6 site along the City’s waterfront and members of Lodge 16 and 15 were involved in the tow. The ship was commissioned in 1959. It worked the Great Lakes until the mid-1980s, when the current vessel, the Samuel Risley, came into service. For 30+ years, the Alexander Henry was on display at the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes in Kingston, on Lake Ontario. When that facility tragically lost its 40-year-old space, which included a dry dock that contained the icebreaker, museum officials floated the idea to sink the ship to the bottom of Lake Ontario as a dive tourism spot. Thunder Bay city council signed off on $125,000 to have the Alexander Henry towed from Lake Ontario to Thunder Bay. She arrived in Thunder Bay in June 2017, and was shifted to her her new berth in late November. The ship is in generally very good condition but still needs final inspections and a tidying up before people can board it. It will be open in the Spring of 2018. The ship will be owned by the Lakehead Transportation Museum Society.
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