''Northern Belle'' was a steamship that provided service in

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

, Canada, from 1875 to her accidental destruction by fire in 1898. Shortly after she was launched, as ''Gladys'', in

Marine City, Michigan Marine City is a city in St. Clair County in the U.S. state of Michigan. Located on the west bank of the St. Clair River, it is one of the cities in the River District north of Detroit and south of Lake Huron. In the late 19th century, it was a m ...

, she was purchased by the Georgian Bay Navigation Company, which renamed her ''Northern Belle''. She burned shortly after arriving in Byng Inlet, the mouth of the

Magnetawan River The Magnetawan River is a long river in Parry Sound District, Ontario, Canada. The river flows 175 km from its source of Magnetawan Lake inside Algonquin Provincial Park to empty into Georgian Bay at the community of Britt on Byng Inlet. ...

, on November 7, 1898. The fire burst out unexpectedly and her

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

, C. Jacques, barely had time to

beach A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc shel ...

her. There were no deaths, but not only was her cargo lost, her crew and passengers lost all their possessions. Her wreck became a popular site for recreational divers.

References

{{Reflist, refs= {{cite news , url = http://steamboatstories.ca/steamboatmail.pdf , title = Steamboat Mail On Georgian Bay, the North Channel, and Lake Superior , accessdate = 2018-09-06 , quote = By 1878, a complex series of steamer alliances, corporate alignments, and business realignments resulted in the formation of the Great Northern Transit Company. The company's ships worked the routes from Collingwood to Parry Sound, French River, Byng Inlet, Killarney and the Sault. Much of this company's business was delivering supplies and mail to the lumber camps and small communities along the shore on the Northern Belle and the Waubuno which occasionally ran trips along the southern shore to Meaford and Owen Sound. {{cite news , url = http://s3.cottagecountrynow.ca/special/parrysound/data/pdfs/459/08.pdf , title = Remembering the Northern Belle - Byng Inlet's favourite vessel , work =

Parry Sound North Star PARRY was an early example of a chatbot, implemented in 1972 by psychiatrist Kenneth Colby. History PARRY was written in 1972 by psychiatrist Kenneth Colby, then at Stanford University. While ELIZA was a tongue-in-cheek simulation of a Rogeria ...

, author = Fred Holmes , date = 2008-07-16 , accessdate = 2018-09-06 {{cite news , url = http://images.maritimehistoryofthegreatlakes.ca/61620/data , title = Northern Belle (Propeller), C71111, fire, 7 Nov 1898 , work =

Maritime History of the Great Lakes Maritime may refer to: Geography * Maritime Alps, a mountain range in the southwestern part of the Alps * Maritime Region, a region in Togo * Maritime Southeast Asia * The Maritimes, the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Princ ...

, accessdate = 2018-09-06 Shipwrecks of Canada Magnetawan River