The Greavette Streamliner - A speedboat from the past

The Greavette Streamliner - A speedboat from the past

Boat building has been a part of the history of Ontario, Canada for thousands of years. From the hand-crafted birch bark canoes of the indigenous people to modern factory-built speedboats, the construction of small boats for fishing, transportation and later water sports has been a widespread commercial activity in the province.

Wooden Boats

With the building of sawmills along the many rivers, European boat building methods began to be adopted. Canoes, rowboats, skiffs, and other small boats began to be made with wooden planks, often of cedar, which resists rotting better than most other types of wood.

Canoes made of wooden planks instead of bark, called "board canoes" first began to appear in the 1850s, although it is not known which craftsman was the first to combine the native boat designs with "modern" technology of sawn and planed boards. In 1882, the Gidley Boat Works began manufacturing wooden plank boats on the shores of Georgian Bay.

One early builder of board or "cedar strip" canoes was Tom Gordon of Lakefield, near Peterborough. Over time, a number of boat-building companies grew up in the Peterborough area; one was the Peterborough Canoe Company. A long-time builder of plank-built boats was John William Stone, who set up a business building rowboats at Rat Portage (Kenora) in 1897. By 1906 the Stone Boat Company was also building duck boats, sailing canoes, ice boats, rowing shells, and barges.

Beginning in the early 1900s, with the advent of gasoline engines, and the building of canals and locks to make rivers more navigable, many Ontario companies began producing wooden power boats. These were built from wide planks and shaped for speedy travel. In 1920, the Gidley Boat Works on Georgian Bay was taken over by Arthur Grew, who enlarged the company, renaming it Grew Manufacturing.

The Muskoka region was particularly known for its wooden speedboats.  Early builders of these boats were Johnson of Port Carling and Ditchburn Boats; other companies were Minett-Shields, Greavette and Duke. The boats were often used for pleasure trips, fishing, and water sports, as well as transportation on Ontario's many lakes, rivers and canals. Today these boats are restored by hobbyists and valued as collectors' items.

Join us for a tour of this stunning Greavette Streamliner, built in Canada.  The boats most notable characteristic is its curved sides.

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