Marine Heritage Society celebrates another successful year

The year of 2023 Chantry Island Tours has come to an end for another summer.

Each year, the Marine Heritage Society of Southampton operates tours to Chantry Island and its historic lighthouse, a short distance from the shore of Southampton (Saugeen Shores).  The tours are the only sanctioned method of visiting the Island as it has been designated a Federal Bird Sanctuary for many species of migrating birds.

The volunteer-driven Society has more than 150 members who maintain the Island, operate the daily summer tours from the tour base at Southampton Harbour, maintain the adjacent Pioneer Park, host the annual Marine Heritage Festival and the summer Friday Markets, and each year, hold a volunteer appreciation event.

This year’s volunteer appreciation was held recently at the Bruce County Museum and Cultural Centre on August 30th, when approximately 90 volunteers attended.

 

Eric Tolton

Chair of the Marine Heritage Society, Eric Tolton, thanked the volunteers saying that none of the Island work and tours could be done “without them”.

“We again had a successful year, except for those days when Mother Nature didn’t cooperate. But our tours were successful as were our Friday Markets.”

 

Saugeen Shores Mayor Luke Charbonneau also attended the event thanking the volunteers and saying that the municipality is in “… full support of the Marine Heritage Society.  Chantry Island is an icon for this community and, without you the volunteers, it would not be sustainable.  I can assure you that I will be advocating with the Minister (Fisheries & Oceans) to extend the lease that we currently have for the Island.”

 

The evening’s guest speaker was Jim McLay, one of the original members at the time when the Island’s restoration project began.  McLay, a geophysicist who lives at the harbour, became the ‘Harbour Master’ in Southampton and liaised with the Canadian Coast Guard when it came to issues over the Lighthouse and Island.

McLay spoke fondly of the founding members, such as John Weichel and Mike Sterling, who had a vision to restore the Lighthouse and the Keeper’s Quarters, working with a small group of senior volunteers and no government funding, but simply through donations from like-minded people and organizations.  “I remember one thing that John Weichel told me in 1993,” said McLay. “He said that a historian’s job is not to research the past but to document the present.  Back in the 90s I thought there was continuity of the marine present with the marine past in Southampton.  Twenty-six years later, I see the marine presence slipping away and, especially in the last 10 years, I see our marine heritage in the town slowly slipping away.”

“Another person I want to acknowledge is Mike Sterling,” added McLay.  “He did what John asked. He documented the present in the book, ‘We Were Here’. A lot of the wonderful people who were involved at the beginning are gone now but I want to acknowledge all the volunteers that came before and since … and you tonight (the volunteers).”

Among the volunteers are the boat captains and crews, cleaning crew of the lighthouse and Keeper’s Quarters; the volunteers who maintain the island gardens; the volunteers who maintain Pioneer Park; the volunteers who run the tour base store and Island bookings; the volunteers who maintain the tour boat, the Peerless II; the volunteers who plan and run the Marine Heritage Festival each year; the volunteers who participate in the annual community Santa parade … and the list goes on.