page_title: SS Sagamo
section_title: Beginning
hierarchical_section_title: SS Sagamo / Cruising career / Beginning
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph of the pilothouse of the SS Sagamo circa 1907 with Commodore Bailey, the first skipper of the steamer.
context_page_description: The SS Sagamo was designed by naval architect Arendt Engstrom of Cleveland, Ohio in 1905 based roughly on the design of the SS Cayuga a ship on the Toronto to Niagara run which Engstrom had just completed designing. The ship's steel hull was fabricated by the Canadian Ship Building Company in Toronto, Ontario and was assembled at the Gravenhurst, Ontario yard of the Muskoka Lakes Navigation and Hotel Company, the ship's owner and operator. The hull was riveted steel with a steel frame above and a wooden superstructure. She was powered by two Triple expansion steam engines and four Scotch marine boilers, developing 68.8 horsepower for a top speed of 18 mph.
  The Sagamo was designed with two full decks above the hull, and two additional partial decks above those. On the main deck was the galley and the dining room which seated 90 people, and the washrooms. The promenade deck above had forward and aft lounges. On the third deck was a smoking lounge. The ship could hold 800 passengers with luggage along with a crew of 26.
  The ship was launched on 25 July 1906 in Gravenhurst and christened Sagamo or "big chief". She was towed to the Navigation Company shipyard to be completed.
context_section_description: Sagamo began her cruising career with the 1907 season, her maiden voyage taking place on 15 June under Commodore George Bailey, her first Captain. That year the Grand Trunk Railway expanded their station at Muskoka Wharf in Gravenhurst to accommodate the greater volume of traffic transferring from their trains to the Navigation Company's steamers.
  Flagship of the Navigation Company's line, Sagamo was the largest steamer on any of the minor lakes in Ontario. Her size restricted where she could go. For instance she made only one trip to Bala, and it was such a harrowing experience it was never repeated. She never sailed up the Muskoka River to Bracebridge. Instead the Sagamo operated as the trunk carrier of the system, carrying traffic from the Muskoka Wharf in Gravenhurst to Beaumaris, Port Carling, Windermere, the Royal Muskoka Hotel, (also owned by the Navigation Company), and finally to Port Cockburn where she would exchange passengers with some of the company's smaller steamers who would then carry them to the smaller ports of call. Sometimes the passenger exchange would take place mid-lake.
caption: Pilothouse of the Sagamo on her first season in 1907 with Commodore Bailey on the bridge
exif: {}