Vacating her mooring of nearly 50 years
MANITOWANING—The S.S. Norisle will be removed from the Manitowaning waterfront at some point during the last week of September. This comes after an agreement was reached by Assiginack Township and Marine Recycling Corporation (MNR), located in Port Colborne. At least 95 percent of the ship will be recycled.
“I wanted to provide an update and explain what is going on with the ship,” said Brenda Reid, mayor of Assiginack Township at a special council meeting last week. “This is expected to be removed between the 25-29th of this month.”
“We will tow the ship from Manitowaning on or about September 25,” Mr. Elliott told The Expositor recently. “Our schedule right now is to prepare things for towing on September 21, and to sail the ship out under tow from Manitowaning sometime between September 25-29.” The ship will be moved off the dock to the lake by stern, and then towed.
“From there it will be taken to Port Colborne and be removed from the water hull for dry docking,” said Mr. Elliott. “It will be recycled,” he said, noting that, “we expect it will take six weeks of work.”
Mr. Elliott said the schedule is tentative and dependent on weather conditions.
As was reported in the September 6 edition of The Expositor, at an Assiginack council meeting in late August council agreed that the vessel would be removed from the Manitowaning harbour for recycling, citing its safety and environmental concerns with the ship remaining in Manitowaning. It will cost the township approximately $743,000 for MNC to remove the ship from the Manitowaning waterfront for recycling at its certified vessel recycling facility at Port Colborne.
Mayor Reid told council the cost, “Includes having a special pilot aboard the tugboat. We are also required to have a US assist between Lake St. Clair and the St. Mary’s River. There is also a cost for insurance,” she said, noting that the township is also paying some of the cost of disposal (of the ship). “At least 95 percent of the ship will be recycled,” she said. “There are also permits the township needs to purchase.”
“There are a few things from the ship in the trailer and mill, and we will be removing them and decide what will be done with the remaining parts of the ship.”
Mayor Reid further explained events coordinator Jackie White is going to set up a link on the township website for people to post memories or photographs of the Norisle that will possibly be transferred to a memory stick for the museum board to have. She said the ship’s engineer order telegraph (also known as a chadburn), a communications device used on a ship for the pilot on the bridge to power the vessel at a certain speed, will go to the Assiginack Museum as part of a display.
“There are a lot of people who want to see the ship when it leaves (Manitowaning),” said Councillor Dwayne Elliott. “Will we be making it public when this is going to take place?”
“As soon as know we will be letting people know,” said Mayor Reid.
Councillor Jennifer Hooper said, “I would like to thank you for bringing this information to us tonight. There has been a lot of misinformation about the ship brought up in the past. Disposing of the ship wasn’t our first option. It was the last option, because every other avenue has been exhausted.”
