During the early part of February, Ye Ed. was able to enjoy a break from the winter weather by taking a Caribbean cruise aboard the Paquet steamer RHAPSODY, (a) STATENDAM, a superb ship which, incidentally, we would recommend to anybody planning such a trip. When transferring from Fort Lauderdale airport to the ship terminal at Port Everglades, we happened to see two seemingly familiar shapes, resplendent in white, blue and orange colours, reposing atop a wharf not far from where RHAPSODY was moored. Having settled in on the ship, we set off on a mission to see what was on the neighbouring pier, and found out that it was the hydrofoils PRINCE OF NIAGARA and QUEEN OF TORONTO.

It was back in 1980 that Royal Hydrofoil Cruises operated a summer service from Toronto to Niagara-on-the-Lake using the Panamanian registry hydrofoils QUEEN OF TORONTO, (a) QUEEN OF THE WAVES (80); PRINCESS OF THE LAKES, (a) PRINCESS OF THE WAVES (80), and PRINCE OF NIAGARA, (a) EXPRESSAN (69), (b) HS 15 (69), (c) HYDROLINER (69), (d) SCANRIDE (70), (e) NORFOIL (73), (f) PRINCE OF THE WAVES (80). Royal Hydrofoil S.A., Panama, purchased the craft from K/S A/S International Hydrofoil Operation Norway, but the Lake Ontario service was not a success. Local operators and unions alike complained about the Panamanian registry and foreign crews of the boats, and passengers, not fond of high ticket prices, stayed away in droves. The hydrofoils spent the winter of 1980-1981 at Port Dalhousie and, in the spring of 1981, explosives were found aboard the vessels, although police investigation failed to yield any proof of which disgruntled parties were responsible.

The hydrofoils then disappeared from Lake Ontario and, despite suggestions that "they might be used at several other spots on the lakes, nothing concrete ever developed. And now PRINCE OF NIAGARA and QUEEN OF TORONTO turn up at Port Everglades, and up on a pier in cradles, yet! They appear to have been kept in good condition, but are certainly not being used. And we have no idea where PRINCESS OF THE LAKES has gone.

Can any of our readers enlighten us?

Return to Home Port or Toronto Marine Historical Society's Scanner

Reproduced for the Web with the permission of the Toronto Marine Historical Society.