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The Waubuno Story

The story of the wreck of the steamer “Waubuno” is still a mystery. Not a single person, neither passenger nor sailor was saved and not a body was recovered. The battered hull of the ship was found months after, bottom up, but the upper works have never been located.

The Waubuno was built at Port Robinson, Ontario, for the Georgian Bay transportation Company in 1865. She was a side-wheeler about 150 feet in length and had a 40 foot beam.

In her early days the steamer made trips to and from any port where freight was to be picked up, sometimes going as far north as Thunder Bay and Lake Superior. She carried mainly mixed cargo and packaged freight, but sometimes lumber.

The Waubuno periodically made trips to Parry Sound where the late William Beatty, one of the ship’s owners, was logging. The Waubuno was weakening with the age and her earnings helped build bigger and better boats, so the old boat took the Parry Sound and Collingwood route. It supplied Parry Sound with most of its dry goods.

At 4:00 o’clock a.m., Saturday, November 22nd, 1879, the Waubuno left the Collingwood dock for Parry Sound with its last load of cargo for the year.

The night before, a young bride and passenger, Mrs. Doupe, had a terrifying dream. She dreamt about a shipwreck in which herself, her husband and fellow passengers were in cold water, fighting for their lives. She told her dream to others who decided to stay a night at a nearby hotel. Mrs. Doupe begged her husband not to go, but he insisted, since their baggage and furniture were already on the boat.

Delayed by snow and wind, the weather looked promising with bright stars in the clear black sky.

There were 14 crew and 10 passengers on board.

The weather turned nasty, and Mrs. Doupe’s dream became a reality as the steamer capsized near the Haystack Reefs and Moose Point. There was no sign at the bottom of the hull to show it had struck rocks.

Every life preserver from the steamer was found, none having been used, showing that the wreck had occurred suddenly and without warning. Every Island for several miles North and South was strewn with wreckage of the lost ship. The destruction caused the loss of twenty-four lives and upwards of $10,000.00 worth of freight, very little was recovered.

There have been many other wrecks among the 30,000 Islands but none as mysterious as “The Waubuno”.
 

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