City
A Ghost Ship on the Leslie St. Spit
Toronto's Portlands are home to many strange and beautiful things. Recently added to the industrial array is the partially deconstructed hull of a massive cargo ship.
There is something terrifying about the prospect of an enormous vehicle torn apart. Forgotten vessels such as this have seen so much of the world, and yet reach such inglorious ends. To find an item like this in Toronto is even more bizarre, and immediately reminded me of the distant shores of Alang, where over half of the world's ships go to die.
The waterway seemed interminable; the remains of the vessel seemed so surreal. How and why, Toronto?
From this view, many of the Leslie-spit legends were made clear...
I went back the other night to find the name of the ship, yet found that even that had been stripped.
Perhaps some questions are best left unanswered; walking by the ruin at night only solidified my uneasy feeling; the iron giant was now slightly turned in the ice, the mighty Canadian Miner (the ship just West), my only sense of comparison.
For me, visiting this place, this ship, was a surreal experience -- spending time on deck was a dream so convincing, that it was only upon waking that I felt the cold. Looking back, I realize how cold it really was, how scary it was, but most importantly, how beautiful it was.
(To see more photos, as well as high-res. versions of those above, you can view my Flickr slide-show below.)
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Great photos, great narrative.
The old, rusting pilothouse sitting on land came from the lake boat "Metis". You can still see the Metis, now just a barge, at the cement dock east of Cherry St.
really great images.
checkout this link to the satellite view of the Alang shoreline.
http://www.satellite-sightseer.com/id/5174
Climbing all over a rusting, falling apart ship with just fluffy mittens to protect your hands isn't the smartest thing I've ever seen.
What kind of safety equipment, if any, do you guys bring with you?
More importantly, do you get permission to enter (or board in this case) these places to begin with?
It just encourages those who know the area or place you've documented and all of a sudden there is a throng of people and their cameras just looking for an accident to happen.
Didn't BlogTO cover some story about an "explorer" guy who fell a couple of floors in some abandoned building and died?
Looks like a lake freighter probably. Fascinating: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_freighter
How is this related to the Leslie St Spit? These ships are in the Portlands, which isn't the Leslie St Spit at all.
Jonathan, that hulk is what remains of the Windoc, I believe.
That's the lake freighter that was going through the Welland Canal several years ago when lift-bridge operator, while medicated, lowered the bridge before the ship went through.
Hijinks ensued, the boat caught fire, and never sailed again.
Not sure why it's laid up in the port.
Some people are too concerned about what the ethereal "authorities" think about people harmlessly examining a piece of our past that has been abandoned for some time. As long as people ackknowledge and take responsibility for their actions (as well as potential dangers) and don't get others involved then why get your knickers in a twist over it?
This world is dull enough these days with so many people going through the same routines day after day. If an urban exploration by someone else (with nice photos) is an affront to your sensibilities then you need to get out more. I certainly appreciated it.
Exploration becomes a lot less harmless when we have to send rescuers into dangerous environments to save the explorers' asses.
Explore away, just don't show up with furry fuzz mittens.
The ship wouldn't be abandoned--the owner is likley waiting for an overseas sale or a domestic scrap metal price rebound.
Scrap value for a ship of this size would be about $1.0-1.5MM.
The Windoc (built 1959!) is less than 1/10 the size of the largest oceangoing ships (eg a supertanker, or "VLCC" in industry speak). Oceangoing ships typically trade for 25 years, but Great Lakes ships last much longer.
Here is info on the Windoc accident: http://www.boatnerd.com/windoc/
This story, and Geoff and The Beerad's replies make for a very intresting read.
i know from first hand account - the engines / engine room are worth a ton more more than the rest of the ship hence the carved section. what will become of her, remains to be seen.
Cool photos! Reminds me of the cover of Rammstein's CD Rosenrot.
I guess I'm one of the few who doesn't like your photos. What are you doing to them? They all look way over-processed by PS. Learn to use your flash and you wouldn't have to sharpen, blowout exposure areas, or perform HDR-like processing on them, or perhaps take a photography lesson or two.
tor: thanks for the comment; always good to get constructive criticism. I have my style, and I am sticking to it; I hate using a flash, heh. By the way, I use Adobe Lightroom, not Photoshop -- although at some point I should learn ps...heh.
jonathan@blogTO
I just wanted to say, I'm really digging your photo style. Very dark and ominous, Which very much suits all the places you shoot pictures in.
Which filters and effects do you use in lightroom?
Lance: much of he B&W stuff is actually done in-camera on this particular unit; I shoot in RAW, though, so have to convert the snaps from 'vivid black and white' to 'desaturated' in LR, then adjust my tone curve accordingly...
jonathan@blogTO
These photos depict ships in the Toronto Harbour at the foot of Cherry St. - NOT the Leslie St. Spit which is further east.