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PORT PERRY STAR - Tuesday, June 6, 2000 - 21 HE LAST MAJOR STEAM- BOAT to be built on Lake Scugog, was the Cora. It was constructed by Captain -John Bardsley Bowerman at the Port Perry waterfront in 1902. The Bowerman family had been engaged in the woolen mill business in Brooklin. John was born in Columbus, just south of Port Perry in 1849, and later learned his trade in wool' at the Brooklin mill. In 1874 a carding mill opened in Port Perry. John moved to Port Perry that year 'and shortly after, married Louise Kembley. There were two Bowerman children; 'Charles and Corrie May. Tragically, Corrie May died in infancy in 1884. A miniature coffee pot boils water on the side of one of John's steam engines. Four years later, Bowerman's wife, Louise, also died. John remarried in April, 1890. His new bride was Margaret MacGregor. They had five children; George, Tom, Ivan, Cora and Vera. They all lived on Mary Street in Port Perry. Shortly after moving to Port Perry, Bowerman became interested in boats and was hired to help build the Anglo Saxon at Port Hoover for Bigelow and Trounce. He then decided to venture into boat building by himself. His first big steam vessel was the Mary Louise, a 43 foot screw yacht for local passen- ger trade. . The cargo of the Mary Louise includ- ed produce and a maximum of 45 pas- . sengers on a daily run from Lake Scugog ports to Lindsay. One of its major assignments was to haul scow loads of brick from Lindsay to Port Perry after the fires of 1883 and 1884. The entire downtown core of Port Perry was destroyed in the 1884 fire and all the new buildings were built of brick. Port Perry's disastrous fire of 1883 destroyed the home of lumber mer- chant W. S. Sexton at the south west corner of North and Water Streets, directly north of the Sebert House. Bowerman rented the property after the fire and built a large shop to house his boat building enterprises. Later this boat building shop was turned into a home. nally planked with Georgia Pine In 1899, Bowerman bought the Express from Josiah Ball of Caesarea. The Express had been on Lake Ontario for many years before Ball had purchased her and brought her to Lake Scugog. By the time Bowerman had. acquired the vessel she was struc- turally well beyond her prime. In 1901 Bowerman scrapped the Express and began building the Cora in his shop at North and Water Streets. He took the engine from the Express to' power the new 55 foot, 16 ton vessel. The Cora had a 9' 9" beam and, from the Express, Bowerman installed the 12 h.p. Polson: engine and boiler with an operat- ing pressure of 130 pounds per square inch. The hull was origi- but ten years later it was replanked with Ontario cedar. Bowerman made a weekly trip to Lindsay in the Cora but accept- ed charters for the vessel all over the Trent- Severn. The Lindsay Post reported on August 23, 1907, that the Cora and the Stranger were the only two steamers left plying the waters of Lake Scugog. James Carnegie later bought the Cora for his milling operations. Of the Bowerman children, only Charles and Tom continued their _ father's interest in boat building. Bowerman's daughter, Cora May, after whom the boat was named, moved to Detroit. Tom built afew yachts and small boats for local residents in his father's shop before closing it down forever and moving to Orillia. John Bowerman's first son, Charles, built row-boats and small gasoline powered vessels in a large shed at the corner of Clark and Crandell. Unfortunately, the market for commer- cial vessels on Lake Scugog had been eradicated and the traffic taken over by trains and road transport John Bardsley Bowerman, the last of the great steamboat builders of the Central Lakes passed away quietly in NOG is vi ' ~N --. April 1933, three years after his wife. Charles Bowerman died in Port Perry in 1955 at the age of 77. With their passing, we lost direct contact with a bright, colourful and romantic era. The coming Steamboats on Scugog Festival will make an attempt to stim- ulate an interest in this bygone era. The Cora will be returning to Port Perry for the Steamboats on Scugog Festival. This Cora is the pride of John Chappell's workshop. He from the Physics department of the University of Toronto almost twenty years ago. His consuming hobby was engineering, even while at the U of T. John's workshop at his Newmarket home, is a hobbyists' delight with lathes, drills and all the machinery to build engines and mechanical devices from blocks of metal. A section of a working steam engine built by John Chappell of Newmarket. Steamship "Cora" lives in miniature John Chappell displays his scale working model of the steamship 'Cora', which was built by Captain John Bowerman, of Port Perry in 1901. John and his model will be on display at this weekend's Steamboats of Scugog Festival. In 1967 he built a miniature steam engine and then sought out a boat design to house and utilize the working engine. From one of his fellow mem- bers at the Toronto Model Engineers Society, he heard about the Cora. His meticulous research led him to Port Perry to search out the history of the vessel. His search led him to Bill Brock who had some old photographs of the Cora. From Bill, he was able to find names and addresses of the Bowerman family and trace them down for information. Eventually he began to construct an accurate 1:15 scale model of the Cora. While he was building this model he continued to experiment with dif- ferent steam engines, boilers, fuels, control mechanisms and steering devices. He has built over 50 different burners for the vessel. John says "One of the most exasperating problems during the whole period of construction was the source of power to make the boat go. I have tried nine different fuels." John presently uses Methanol and itis this fuel which he will be using when he brings his model of the Cora to the Steamboats on Scugog Festival. As John enthusiastically adjusts the various details of his model, always experimenting, he is always looking for another way to improve his model. His energetic enthusiasm for detail and constant search for more improve- ments belie the fact that he is 85 years old. John and his Cora are sure to be an attraction at the Festival. He will be busy tinkering with the vessel and simultaneously answering questions. His pride in bringing his version of the Cora back to Lake Scugog will be clearly evident. = i I --