 | |
| 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 | |
| Length | 71 ft (22 m) |
| Beam | 15 ft (4.6 m) |
| Propulsion |
|
M/VKwasind is a passenger ferry built in 1912 for theRoyal Canadian Yacht Club, inToronto,Ontario, Canada.[2][3]She is 71 feet (22 m) long. She was built by thePolson Iron Works and costCA$13,000. Her name was taken fromHenry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem aboutHiawatha, as the yacht club's previous ferry isHiawatha.[4]
Kwasind has served as a ferry for the yacht club since 1912.[2] She was converted from asteam engine to adiesel engine in the 1940s.
On July 29, 2000, bothKwasind, and the yacht club's older ferry,Hiawatha, were sunk by vandals.[5] TheKwasind was refloated, and was back in working order the day of the sinking, whileHiawatha required further repair.[6]
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).
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).
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.