A Night at the Museum of the Great Lakes

JOSH HANSEN
KINSTON, ONTARIO

Alexander Henry likely misses her old job as a Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker. The long days at sea with her crew and the places they visited. But when retirement time rolled around, Mrs. Henry, like so many of her colleagues, was forced out of a job. Her time as an icebreaker was over.

Her service as a Bed and Breakfast however, had just begun.

After a brief pilot project by the Museum of the Great Lakes, The Alexander Henry was renovated to accommodate paying guests instead of seamen, and opened as a bed and breakfast two years after her final run in 1986. Although breaking into the tough Kingston B&B market was unchartered waters for the museum at the time, the ship has attracted more than 60,000 guests since, mainly because of its price and novelty.

Lingering inside one of Canada’s oldest lock systems on the banks of Lake Superior, the Alexander Henry has 27 cabins for rental with a total capacity of 47 people. Prices vary by room and while all are equipped with a sink, only four cabins (Captain, VIP (2), and Chief Engineer) have a shower and toilet. The extra comfort will cost you about $25 extra per night.

The rooms are what you would expect on a ship: cozy. Most are fitted with two single bunks, though the majority of the officer and engineer cabins have full double beds and a lot more space. The ship’s layout is perfect for meeting and greeting other guests, a mainstay at any Bed and Breakfast. A sailor’s breakfast is served every morning in the officer’s mess, after which you can either visit the museum (admission is included) or relax in the common lounge.

Be warned that the ship is part of the museum beginning every morning at 10a.m. However, they are not allowed in or around the sleeping quarters. While not built for luxury like the Queen Mary II, the Alexander Henry is a popular choice for backpackers and divers seeking an affordable and unique experience in Kingston’s Bed and Breakfast market.

The Museum

So now that we’ve got the museum’s biggest exhibit out of the way, it’s time to talk about the array of other artifacts the museum hasn’t turned into floating motels. The current museum is actually the town’s old dry dock. The original hydraulic room is part of the museum and could flood the dry dock, which is full of water and the Alexander Henry, in 55 minutes with 2,100,000 gallons of water.

Back in the day, Kingston flourished as the primary shipping port of the Great Lakes. But the construction of the St. Lawrence Locks reduced that role and hit the town hard economically. Because it was a busy shipping port, ships sank in and around the area on a weekly basis. In 1883, 90 ships alone were lost or about one every four days. A map on the museum’s walls highlights where the vessels are believed to have gone down.

Consequently, Kingston’s ship-building industry received a major boost. Unfortunately, that didn’t last long either. The move from riveting to welding the pieces of a ship together meant fewer men and fewer jobs. The museum does an excellent job of portraying the art of ship-building with a chronological black and white photo essay of the construction of the S.S. Mathewston.

Using the older method of welding, the ship took only seven weeks and 350 men to build. A nearby exhibit displays the tools used in the construction, along with the newer method of welding, which required nearly half the amount of men to build a ship. It’s unlikely any of them became a bed and breakfast.