The Georgian Bay Mackinaw

The Georgian Bay Mackinaw, designed by William Watts of Collingwood is an example of a Georgian Bay innovator creating a vessel to service the needs local mariners.

The large stocks of fish in Georgian Bay and Lake Huron was one of the attractions which drew early settlers and commercial enterprises to this area. When Ontario and the surrounding American states became more established, Georgian Bay and Lake Huron became more popular as a tourism and recreation area. Sport fishing grew in popularity as the summer visitors to the area discovered the still plentiful and tasty fish that inhabited the waters of the area.

The boats used for commercial and recreational fishing in this area are commonly used throughout North America. However, this was not always the circumstance. Fishermen using hooks or seine nets could use canoes or any kind of rowing vessel to harvest the White Fish, Sturgeon, and trout that inhabited these waters.

The use of gill nets required a sturdier craft, and this led to the development of a vessel which was considered unique to the Georgian Bay region, although many found their way into usage in the Lake Superior fishery.

The Georgian Bay Mackinaw is Born

In the 1850s, an Irish-born fisherman, William Watts of Collingwood, created the Collingwood skiff or, as it came to be more popularly known, the Georgian Bay Mackinaw. Watts created the vessel by adapting various designs of rowing crafts already in use.

The Georgian Bay Mackinaw was a double-ended, open-decked wooden vessel. It had a centreboard which made it safer to use in bad weather in the open water of Georgian Bay, although it had shallow enough draft for inshore fishing. These vessels averaged 28-35 feet in length, seven to eight feet in beam and drew about 22 inches of water with the centreboard up. The two masts were about 28 feet long and bowsprit six feet long could carry a jib, a loose-footed gaff foresail and a boom-and-gaff mainsail.

During the hey-day of Georgian Bay commercial fishing, these boats dominated the industry and could quite likely have been a regional symbol, given the fact that they remained, with the exception of usage by some Lake Superior fishermen, unique to Georgian Bay.

Lake Huron fishermen also used a unique vessel to ply their trade. The Huron Mackinaw was much larger than its Georgian Bay cousin. It was two-masted, with a square stern and a heart-shaped transom. The Huron Mackinaw averaged 30-40 feet in length, eight-nine feet in beam. It had a larger capacity with more draught. It was more at home in deeper water.

While Watt's boat building enterprise in Collingwood seems to have been the only major producer of the Georgian Bay Mackinaw, the Huron boat had several builders. However, the McGaw Brothers of Kincardine and Henry Marlton of Goderich were perhaps the most widely recognized builders.

In the 1870s, these unique vessels started to be displaced with the introduction of steam tugs. A Georgian Bay Mackinaw with three men would employ 6,000 - 10,000 yards of net, while a steam tug with six men could easily handle 60,000 yards of gill net. With an increasing demand for fish in the larger markets to the south of Georgian Bay, it became more efficient, economical, and therefore profitable for fishermen to switch to the steam tug.

The Georgian Bay Mackinaw, is an important chapter in the fishing history of Georgian Bay.

A version of this article first appeared in my Owen Sound Sun Times Local History column.

Georgian Bay Shipping

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