Musée du Bas-Saint-Laurent

Routine

A cruise steamer at the end of a wharf.

The cruise steamer Murray Bay docked in Saint-Siméon, west of the mouth of the Saguenay (1905‒1920).

© Musée du Bas-Saint-Laurent, Jean-Baptiste Dupuis coll., jbd031.

The two men in the foreground pay no attention to the huge boat docked in Saint-Siméon. On the St. Lawrence and along its wharves, white boats navigated side by side with tankers, schooners and pleasure boats. Piloting such ships called for intimate knowledge of one’s ship and, especially, the capricious ins and outs of the Estuary. A great many captains came from just a few families. It was as if these precious skills were passed along right in their DNA!

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