$250,000 project restores Trent-Severn Waterway's historic Trent tugboat
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Posted By BRENDAN WEDLEY/Examiner Staff Writer
Posted 1 month ago
Aussie Bryen put back on his skipper's uniform Friday for one of the first times since his retirement in 2005 to celebrate the relaunching of the historic tug boat Trent.
Bryen served as skipper of the Trent from 1980 to 2005, piloting the boat along the Trent-Severn Waterway with a travelling exhibit to promote the system that runs between Lake Ontario and Georgian Bay.
"I used to try to wrestle the damn thing up and down the canal," he said affectionately of the Trent. "I've still got a soft spot for the old girl…. It's a sort of a passing of an era for me."
Trent was relaunched Friday on the Trent-Severn Waterway after a $250,000 restoration project that was funded through the federal Infrastructure Stimulus Fund.
Parks Canada purchased the boat in 1948. It was primarily used for towing heavy in-water machinery and materials and as a platform for diving and in-water work until it was retired from service in the 1970s.
With the restoration, Trent will return to its use as promotional tool, Parks Canada central Ontario region spokeswoman Sara Atkins said.
"People want to know why the Trent-Severn Waterway is important to us and the tug will be the harbinger of those messages," she said. "Out will come our beautiful colourful tents and we'll create a tent city. We'll have costumed interpreters wandering around to tell our stories."
About 100 people gathered next to the Peterborough Lift Lock, outside the Trent-Severn Waterway visitors' centre, for the re-launching of the boat.
Following speeches by Peterborough MP Dean Del Mastro and Northumberland-Quinte West MP Rick Norlock, the boat was lowered from the top of the Lift Lock. The boat travelled a short distance down the canal where a bottle of "pseudo-champagne" was broken over its bow to mark its relaunching.
One of its first trips will be to Fenelon Falls for the celebration of the 125th anniversary of Lock 34 on Aug. 7.
It's about creating authentic and valuable visitor experiences and opportunities to experience national treasures such as the Lift Lock and the Trent-Severn Waterway, Parks Canada field unit supervisor Dawn Bronson said.
The boat will be used as a tool "to connect the hearts and the minds of Canadians with the special places in Canada that Parks Canada operates. It's a truly ambitious task," she said.
Del Mastro recalled seeing the tug boat docked in Lakefield in the fall when he was a child.
"It's an icon of this system. And I remember when it was taken out of the water about five or six years ago there was a sentiment in town that it would never be put back into the water ... as we've witnessed some of the deterioration of the TSW over a long period of time that this was another victim of some of the deterioration," he said.
"But rest assured we're pushing back. This is a great example of how we're pushing back to renew, revitalize, reinvigorate and reinvest back into the Trent-Severn Waterway.
"We want to see this system re-established and restored to its original lustre."
bwedley@peterboroughexaminer.com
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