BORDERTOWNS Update

The Manitoulin - steamer ship featured in Chuck Walker's BORDER TOWNS

The photograph above, recently located on this website, is one of the only known photographs of the original ship by that name that ran under the Great Northern Transport Company between Collingwood, ON and Duluth, MN.  It carried many emigrants from Canada to Minnesota in the 1870's and 1880's.  It had a colorful history, being known as the only ship to have sunk twice.  The short version of the story is, it caught fire in 1882 as the Manitoulin, the hull was salvaged and it was rebuilt as the Atlantic, and later burned/sunk again - this time for good - in 1903.  It was on a ship like this that the Gamble family took for part of their journey to St. Vincent, also.