With the future of the James Whalen tugboat undecided, let’s look into the life of the man for whom the tugboat became a namesake and the history of the boat itself.
James Whalen was born in 1869 and moved with his family to Port Arthur in 1875 at the age of six. After school, he became a contractor for the logging and railway industries, where his entrepreneurial spirit was already evident. One of the industrialist's early ventures was the Great Lakes Dredging Company. Many accused his father-in-law, James Conmee, then Member of Parliament, of arranging federal contracts to dredge the harbours of Thunder Bay to favour Whalen's company as the successful bidder. Nonetheless, Whalen and the Great Lakes Dredging Company were fundamental in establishing our commercial ports. Whalen drew up plans for a seaway for Thunder Bay at the present site of Keefer Terminal in 1912.
By 1908, James Whalen was worth an estimated five million dollars. That same year, he decided to dabble in retirement and only lasted six months. When he went back to work, he spent two years developing the Western Drydock and Shipbuilding Company, which was later renamed the Port Arthur Shipbuilding Company. Whalen was the first president of the shipyard.
In 1913, he, along with two other business partners, bought the land for the Whalen Building and started construction. The eight-story building was a realization of Whalen's dream to have Port Arthur become the “Chicago of the North.” He even brought in marble from the same quarry in Italy used by the Vatican.
His other job titles included founder of the Canada Pebble Co. and the Canadian Towing and Wrecking Co., which became the Dominion Towing & Salvage Co.; president of Thunder Bay Contracting Co.; president of the Commercial Building Co.; director of the Thunder Bay Harbour Improvement Co.; and president of Whalen Pulp and Paper Mills in Vancouver, to name a few. He was also a member of the Shuniah Club in Port Arthur, the Leo Council, the Knights of Columbus, the Loon Lake Campers’ Association, the National and Ontario Clubs in Toronto, and the Kitchi Gami Club of Duluth.
Whalen was also an avid gardener and a member of the Port Arthur Horticultural Society, and his home had sprawling gardens of flowers, fruits and vegetables. James was also known for his generosity. On Christmas Day, it was said that he would anonymously send out turkeys to struggling families.
Whalen died of kidney failure on June 4, 1929, in Duluth, Minnesota. His funeral was held on June 6 in Port Arthur, which the Port Arthur News Chronicle reported as being attended by thousands. Businesses were closed for the hour of the funeral, curtains were drawn, and flags were flown at half-mast.
The vessel that bears Whalen’s name has a storied past of its own. The James Whalen tugboat was built in 1905 by the Bertrand Shipbuilding Co. of Toronto for Whalen’s Great Lakes Dredging Co. of Fort William. The ship has a hull 108 feet long and 24 feet wide. Six bulkheads braced the hull, and the vessel could plough through two-foot-thick ice, which helped it open the port of Thunder Bay each spring. In 1910, it became the first vessel in the Great Lakes to be equipped with wireless telegraph technology, which allowed for communication with shore as well as other vessels. In addition to opening the harbour, it frequently helped with rescue missions for other vessels. In 1959, after 54 years of service, it was purchased by another company and later given a new wheelhouse and a diesel engine.
In 1965, the James Whalen was sent to Hamilton and slated to be scrapped, but it was saved by a Quebec company, Verreault Navigation. They purchased the boat and renamed it “Denise V” after the daughter of the company’s owner, and it was sent to work on the St. Lawrence River. The tugboat, under the name Denise V, was slated for the scrapyard again in 1977. However, the owner of Verreault Navigation didn’t have the heart to cut the tug up on account of its new name. The vessel was thus spared again and ran ashore, where it rested until 1992.
The City of Thunder Bay’s Tourism Department purchased the vessel for $1 in 1992 to bring it back to the Lakehead. The James Whalen was in terrible shape when it returned to Thunder Bay. The City was able to apply for funding through the Ontario Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Recreation to restore the ship to the way it looked in the 1920s. It would become a marine museum, and would be docked at the Kam River Heritage Park, which was, at that point, in its development stage. The restoration work was carried out by PASCOL Engineering (formerly the Port Arthur Shipbuilding Co.) for $204,736.50.
On March 18, 1994, the ship caught fire while at the drydock receiving restoration work. Thankfully, no one was injured, and reports from officials said there was more smoke than fire. The fire was likely started by the heat of a torch that was too close to the dry panelling on an interior wall of a bunk room. It took fire crews an hour to put out the flames, and it was safe for workers to resume the restoration work by the afternoon.
By 1995, the restoration work was completed, and the vessel was ready to go to its new home at Kam River Heritage Park, but the park wasn’t ready for the James Whalen’s arrival. The City was stuck in negotiations with CP Rail over the park land, and at the time it was projected that the tug could be moved by the spring of the following year.
It wasn’t until October 27, 1998, that the James Whalen was finally moored at Kam River Heritage Park. It was at this time that interior cleaning was able to begin by the James Whalen Restoration Project group. By 2001, it was transformed by the group into an interpretation centre with pictures and artefacts. The Kam River Heritage Park was opened on June 1, 2001.
In more recent history, the James Whalen tug started to list to one side, and one of the ship’s moorings took on a significant amount of water in April 2021. City workers were able to stabilize the boat. Around this time, discussions began between the City and the Transportation Museum of Thunder Bay about potentially moving the James Whalen, as well as the VIA Rail passenger trains, from Kam River Heritage Park to Pool 6, where the Museum is based. The site would have required dredging to accommodate another vessel in front of the existing Alexander Henry Museum.
One fateful day at the beginning of May 2022, the James Whalen took on water and sank, with the stern of the ship completely submerged. In September of that same year, the Whalen was hoisted onto the Toronto Dry Dock Coastal Titan. Four different companies were part of the rescue mission for the vessel, at a cost of $800,000. During this feat, the front rigging broke and the boat ended up back in the river. The James Whalen was eventually successfully loaded onto the Coastal Titan and brought to the Patterson Dock, located near the James Street Swing Bridge, where it still awaits its fate.
With a 7–5 vote, the Thunder Bay City Council moved to recycle the James Whalen in September 2024. The Transportation Museum of Thunder Bay advocated for parts of the tug to be saved. By January 2025, the City of Thunder Bay opened the tender process for companies to submit bids to recycle and preserve select parts of the vessel.
The tender process for recycling the James Whalen tug is still currently in progress. The ship has survived two scrapyard attempts in 1965 and 1977, an interior fire in 1994, waiting out legal issues to find its new home from 1995–1998, taking on water in 2021, sinking in 2022, and falling back into the river after being hoisted for relocation that year. Only time will tell if this boat has nine lives.
If you would like to learn more about the history shipbuilding or anything else Thunder Bay and Thunder Bay District related, contact us at research@tbpl.ca
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