MV Kwasind

Canadian passenger ferry, 1912 onwards

History

Canada
Name	Kwasind
Owner	Royal Canadian Yacht Club
Builder	Polson Iron Works Ltd., Toronto
Launched	1912
In service	27 June 1912
Identification	Official number: 130318
Status	in active service
General characteristics ^[1]
Tonnage	46.96 GT 31.94 NT
Length	71 ft (22 m)
Beam	15 ft (4.6 m)
Propulsion	1 × Polson fore & aft compound steam engine, 8.16 nhp (1912) 1 × Caterpillar diesel engine, 115 bhp (86 kW) (1946) 1 shaft

M/V Kwasind is a passenger ferry built in 1912 for the Royal Canadian Yacht Club, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.^[2]^[3] She is 71 feet (22 m) long. She was built by the Polson Iron Works and cost CA$13,000. Her name was taken from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem about Hiawatha, as the yacht club's previous ferry is Hiawatha.^[4]

Kwasind has served as a ferry for the yacht club since 1912.^[2] She was converted from a steam engine to a diesel engine in the 1940s.

On July 29, 2000, both Kwasind, and the yacht club's older ferry, Hiawatha, were sunk by vandals.^[5] The Kwasind was refloated, and was back in working order the day of the sinking, while Hiawatha required further repair.^[6]

References

^ "Polson Iron Works ships built 1912, T.R. Teary, Kwasind, MNCO No 6 Drill Scow". polsonironworks.com. 2014. Retrieved 2014-06-02.
^ ^a ^b "Ship of the Month, No. 9 Hiawatha". Toronto Marine Historical Society. Retrieved 2011-12-21.
^ "Nautical History". Save Ontario Shipwrecks. 2003. Archived from the original on 2012-02-07. Retrieved 2011-12-21. The Iron Works' only two existing ships in Toronto are the Trillium (built in 1913, which still ferries passengers to Centre Island) and the RCYC passenger ferry Kwasind (1913).
^ "Doing water-tight deals". Canada.com. 6 August 2011. Archived from the original on 22 November 2013. Retrieved 2011-12-21. The Royal Canadian Yacht Club, founded 1852, moved its clubhouse to Toronto Island in 1881; members and guests access the island with a pair of century-old ferry boats, the Hiawatha and Kwasind (names in a Longfellow poem).
^ "Ferry Sinks". boatnerd. 29 July 2000. Retrieved 2011-12-21. The Hiawatha's sister vessel the Kwasind was also left semi-submerged and adrift, but was salvaged and returned to its dock. Police investigation continues but the police suspect that vandals opened the sea valves, allowing the vessel to fill with water.
^ Greg Younger-Lewis (22 August 2000). "Cash reward offered to solve boat sinkings". Toronto Star. p. B 05. Archived from the original on 21 April 2018. Retrieved 2011-12-21.