Caleb Nickerson
BRISTOL Sept. 13, 2017
If you were cruising the Ottawa River last Wednesday evening you might have sworn you had travelled back in time. An old steam-powered vessel, with its paddle wheel chugging away, made the trek from the far side of the river to a safe harbour in Bristol, at the home of Peter and Barbara Haughton.
The boat is a replica of a specific type of tugboat that was used in the log drives of the late 19th and early 20th century. They were called Alligators because they featured a large winch with which they could pull themselves both along the river and across land.

Though they were towed most of the way from Braeside by a modern boat, they travelled by steam power for a short jaunt.
“It was the first all-terrain vehicle you might say,” said Douglas resident Dave Lemkay, one of the members of the team of about a dozen that built the vessel.
He explained that the project was masterminded several years ago by Burnstown resident Bill Burwell, an aficionado who has hosted several steam engine shows on his property in the past.
“It’s quite a sight on his farm,” said Peter Haughton, another member of the crew. “All his buddies got together and said, ‘We should build an Alligator boat.’”
“I helped source the white oak for the hull,” said Lemkay, adding that Burwell recruited a whole crew of friends and neighbours to salvage parts and help engineer the boat, a process that took several years. They were inspired by a visit from another Alligator boat in 2011 to celebrate Renfrew County’s 150th anniversary.
“A lot of it was an educated guess in terms of where to place things in the hull, fore to aft, so you’d have things balanced properly,” Lemkay said.
“Bill, when he decided to build a boat, he didn’t want to go that large,” he continued. “It’s unhandy to haul that, you need an oversize permit to haul it on the highways. So Bill made his eight feet wide and 30 feet long.”
The safe, protected harbour on the Haughton’s property was the logical place to moor the boat.
“It’s a wonderful cove, with the island out front, it’s out of the wind, it’s in the lee,” he explained, adding that the large scow (or barge) that rests in the harbour is the perfect dock to tie up to.
After the sailors had secured their vessel the Haughton’s treated them to a bean and ham supper. Their property already features several logging boats and a museum dedicated to the history of the river, so the Alligator managed to fit right in.