One of the many enterprises owned by entrepreneur James Whalen was the Western Dry Dock and Shipbuilding Company, built between 1909 and 1911. Later renamed the Port Arthur Ship Building Company, this firm held an important place in the local economy. It constructed tugs, ice-breakers, and barges needed in the harbour and lakers for the Great Lakes navigation system. The firm also conducted winter maintenance work on ships of all kinds. The highest production years were those of the two world wars when the firm produced vessels for the naval service. Among the company s better known early ships was the deluxe passenger liner and flagship of the Northern Navigation Company, the Noronic, launched in 1913 and destroyed by fire in Toronto harbour in 1949 with loss of 118 lives. Another was the 625-foot freighter W. Grant Morden (later Donnaconna) launched in 1914 and for the next twelve years the largest fresh water ship in the world. This photograph shows the Noronic setting off on its maiden voyage.
Formerly one of the area's largest employers - with over one thousand men in 1913 and over two thousand during World War II - the company now has about three hundred employees working solely on repairs. Its outdated facilities prevent it from undertaking construction of the now standard 731-foot-long lakers.
Courtesy: Whalen Collection, Lakehead University Library
