The City of Sault Ste. Marie-owned M.S. Norgoma, rusting since June 2019 at a private berth near Algoma Steel, has drawn attention from the Canadian Coast Guard.
The 188-foot former package freighter/ passenger ferry/ museum ship is one of 125 Ontario "problem" boats listed on the Coast Guard's national inventory of wrecked, abandoned or hazardous vessels.
The Coast Guard assesses risks associated with each vessel on the list, prioritizing responses for high-risk situations.
Under Canada's Wrecked, Abandoned or Hazardous Vessels Act, which went into effect in 2019, the Coast Guard can direct owners of problem vessels to address those problems.
Failure to comply with directives could result in significant financial penalties or fines, or in the case of a serious regulatory offence, fines up to $6 million and/or as much as three years of imprisonment.
Late last week, the Canadian Coast Guard announced it had issued its first-ever fine to a vessel owner for failing to comply with the 2019 hazardous vessels law.
Ryan Brackenbury, owner of the Akoo, a 27-foot cabin cruiser that went aground in Cadboro Bay, British Columbia, was fined $15,000.
"The Canadian Coast Guard has responded to the Akoo numerous times over the past several months including when the vessel drifted ashore, discharged pollution into the marine environment, and deteriorated rapidly posing a public safety hazard," the Coast Guard said in a news release issued Friday.
The Wrecked, Abandoned or Hazardous Vessels Act prohibits boat owners from:
- abandoning a vessel
- causing a vessel to become a wreck because of failure to maintain it
- sinking, stranding or grounding a vessel on purpose
- leaving a vessel in poor condition in the same area for more than 60 consecutive days within a radius of three nautical miles without authorization of the location owner
- leaving a vessel adrift for more than 48 hours without taking measures to secure it
- taking possession of a wreck before reporting it to Transport Canada, unless it's in danger and must be secured or otherwise protected
- entering into Canada with a wreck found outside of Canadian waters without reporting it to Transport Canada as early as possible
The Norgoma was built by the Owen Sound Transportation Co. in Collingwood.
It served 13 years as a passenger freighter, plying the Turkey Trail from Collingwood, Owen Sound, Tobermory, Manitoulin Island, Killarney, Thessalon and Bruce Mines to Sault Ste. Marie.
That stopped when the Trans Canada Highway was completed in 1963 and the automobile became the main mode of transportation within the province of Ontario.
From 1963 to 1974 the Norgoma was a car ferry, running between Manitoulin Island and the Bruce Peninsula.
Since 1975, it's been on the Sault waterfront, operating as a museum ship and raising concerns at city hall about the condition of the ship and its viability as a business.
In 2019, exasperated city councillors voted to evict the Norgoma from the berth it had occupied for four decades, to allow a dock-replacement project.
The ship was towed to the Purvis Dock near Algoma Steel, where it remains at a discounted berthing rate of $40 a day.
Later in 2019, the city took possession of the Norgoma.
Last year, the city agreed to sell the boat to a retired ship breaker for the cost of a second-hand trombone, but that deal fell through early this year.
The most recent estimate for decommissioning the vessel is between $275,000 and $325,000, as the city continues to pay Purvis to berth the Norgoma.
Meanwhile, the Canadian government's national inventory contains a number of wrecked, abandoned or hazardous vessels of local interest:
- a sister ship to the Norgoma, the Norisle, is in Manitowaning on Manitoulin Island
- the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald in Lake Superior
- the Gull Isle, former Coast Guard search-and-rescue ship, was reported stopped in the St. Marys River near Grandview Gardens
- a tug, name unknown, at Grandview Gardens
- Leona Ray, a motor boat at the old boat ramp in Bruce Mines
- the Java, a sailboat at Fitzwilliam Island
- a wood boat, name unknown, at Gargantua Bay
- a steel pleasure craft, reportedly between 50 and 100 metres, at Echo Bay
- two motor boats, names unknown, at Goulais Mission
- TNT, a steel motor boat at Mamainse Harbour
- a fishing vessel between 12 and 20 metres, name unknown, at Sault Ste. Marie
- a steel fishing vessel at Batchawana Bay
- a commercial vessel at Gargantua Harbour
- a steel barge at Thessalon