I have seen the masts of this ship from the QEW every time I pass St. Catherines on my way to Niagara Falls but I've never made the effort to stop and actually see what is there.
Grande Hermine, Jordan Harbour
Well, this time I did. I purposely drove to the St. Catherines area, Jordan Harbour, in particular to see what was there. I took exit # 55 and drove a short distance along the service road to get to the parking area. I was pleasantly surprised to find the entire ship sitting in a shallow bay.
From the limited research I did, I discovered that this is a replica (one of several) of the Grande Hermine, the carrack (large merchant ship) that took Jacques Cartier and crew to the island of St. Pierre and subsequently the mouth of the St. Lawrence River, on June 15th 1535.
This particular ship was built as a replica of the replica built for Expo 67 and was intended to be used as a floating restaurant. Apparently, the entrepreneur ran out of funds and the ship was left to rot in this location where, over the years, it succumbed to the vagaries of time, weather, abandonment and a fire in 2003.
For me it's still a cool place to visit and take photos.
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