Forts, Museums and Canadian Food (#20S)

We had a wonderful time visiting Fort Henry, S.S. Keewatin, and the old Kingston Pumphouse tourist attactions in Kingston. Our visits really helped us learn Canadian history.

Fort Henry was constructed after the War of 1812 as a defense against the US. The fort was never invaded, but did house soldiers and interred Canadian Ukrainian during World War II. Fort Henry was built to protect the Rideau canal at the entry into Lake Ontario and St. Lawrence. This was looking down from the fort as we walked up to the Fort.

We arrived in time to see the "Firepower of the Military" live demonstrations with 1830's British Army infantry military manuevers and artillary fire including cannons and rifles with bayonets.

Ted tried the Canadian favorite dessert called Beavertails. He selected the Nutella with Coconut flavor. It's like a flat doughnut with toppings.

View from the Fort overlooking Lake Onatario.

Kingston Pumphouse

The Pumpouse was active from 1851-1952, after being the primary way to bring clean water into the city using a long pipe deep into St. Lawrence Seaway.

The display showed the large mechanics of the pumphouse. The pumphouse was built to deal with the illnesses from poor drinking water. The residents would get their water by pails. The local businessmen built the pumphouse to provide water to be pumped directly to homes in the area.

This was were the coal was shoveled in to keep the pumps active.

Since the pumphouse was powered by steam engines, they had additional displays on the steam engine technology. They had two model train displays that we got to see in action.

S.S. Keewatin

The S.S. Keewatin is one of 3 ships out of 3,000 built in Scotland in the Edwardian era in 1901-1909.

The Titanic was built during this era but didn't have the same steel hull as this ship. After the sinking of the Titanic, lifeboats were installed throughout the boat with clear signs indicating where to go. This model shows that the size difference with the Titanic.

This was the grand entry with polished brass steps.

Once you entered, you were greeted with these open airwasy housing live plants. The interior of this ship is all wooden. New ships can not be built with this amount of wood because it is a fire danger. Sprinklers are installed throughout to help comply with the Canadian regulations.

Our guide had worked as a waiter on this ship in 1964, the last year of operation was 1965. He gave us a wealth of behind the scenes details about what it was like living and working as a waiter.

This was the women's parlor

He showed us the exact table he was assigned. Meals were formal. In the later years only a jacket and pants were required, but the early years were much more formal

The chairs are all bolted to the ground. And the hot plates were served with a slight amount of water so they would stick to the table and not move with rolling seas.

This was the most common room called first class.

There were a handful of bigger rooms called First First Class.

This shows how the train would pull upr right next to the S.S. Kewatin to deliver passengers.

The bow was an area where the crew would hang out to relax.

We enjoyed the sights in Kingston, and there were many more museums and activities we weren't able to participate. Kingston is a great location to visit in Canada.