Along the north shore of Lake Erie, in the middle reaches, there are half a dozen small, attractive harbour towns which share some similar characteristics.
Although the landscape here is fairly level and smooth, it's also located some distance above the level of the great lake, so the shoreline tends to be dominated by steeply sloping bluffs of a fair height. But these bluffs are composed of layers of soft sedimentary rocks, easily eroded by wind and weather and lake waves, so the shoreline areas almost always feature one or more spectacular beaches -- like this one. You can see the bluffs in the distance of the photo.
The rivers which flow towards the lake in this area, tend to follow meandering channels because of the level landscape, but they also cut their way down into deeper and deeper valleys as they near the lake. So these towns tend to lie either part way down or at the bottom of the slope, along the banks of the river as it approaches its mouth. The river mouth, then, forms a small natural harbour. It's quite common for the river mouth to have a breakwater to try to prevent the silting of the channel by the wave action of the lake.
Other common features of these small port towns include a traditional lighthouse, designed to help vessels find their way into the port (this one dates from 1840 and is the oldest wooden lighthouse in Canada)...
...and one or more classic fishing tugs at dock. Some are converted into
houseboats, but a few still pursue the traditional seine net style of
commercial fishing.
The streets tend to be tree-lined, have plenty of lovely old homes, either wood or brick, and the occasional sturdy church.
The small port town which lies at the spacious mouth of Big Otter Creek is for the most part typical of the species, but it has one extraordinary feature which hardly receives the attention or fame it deserves. In fact, it's so neatly tucked away behind the row of shops and restaurants on the street leading to the beach that you might think you were hallucinating on the drive into town when you caught a brief passing glimpse of it.
You're not. It's here. It's in Port Burwell. And it's real -- very real.
This submarine, HMCS Ojibwa, served with the Canadian Navy for 33 years, from 1965 to 1998, and after retirement was laid up in Halifax. In 2011, the government approved the vessel's transfer to the Elgin Military Museum, and the submarine was towed from Halifax up the St. Lawrence Seaway. After a stopover in Hamilton, where the ship was fitted with special cradles to allow movement overland, HMCS Ojibwa was loaded on a barge and towed from Hamilton through the Welland Canal to Lake Erie, and to Port Burwell, where she was shifted overland from the barge at the riverbank to her present location. The submarine opened for tours in 2013.
At this time, the interior of the sub is closed to visitors -- it would be too difficult to keep the interior with its 500,000-plus components clean and sanitized in the age of Covid-19. But the museum still operates walk-around tours at a reduced cost, using photo placards at various points to illustrate the interiors of different parts of the vessel for visitors. That was fine with me. I would never have been able to visit the interior anyway, with its wormhole hatches which you have to crawl through on all fours. My days for that kind of dexterity are long gone.
When I got there for my pre-reserved tour on Thursday, I found a small workforce in the throes of painting the submarine's exterior! With profuse apologies, the museum offered me a walk-around tour outside the fence (topped with barbed wire) which secures the site -- at no charge. I'm sure I got as detailed and interesting a tour as I would have had if I had been inside the fence!
The only difficulty is that, from outside the fenced enclosure, it's really difficult to photograph the entire vessel. But I did get three good ones -- the overview above, taken from the street up the hill, is the first, with bow at the left, stern at the right. This second one is looking up at the bulbous sonar dome mounted on the bow, three stories or more above the ground.
The conning tower, amidships, raises the submarine's overall height to the equivalent of a five-storey building.
This third picture shows the stern, with the innovative, Canadian-designed propellers. The blades, slightly squared off at the tips, were covered with numerous engraved grooves which helped to prevent cavitation. Thus, unlike more conventional propellers, they left behind very little in the way of noise which could be tracked by an enemy vessel's sonar.
The tour I got was full of intriguing details about the ship's history, its construction (in Britain -- it was acquired by Canada from the British Royal Navy in an incomplete state), the interior layout, the various hazards and quirks of life aboard a submarine, and a few amusing stories which I took with a grain of salt. I have to say that, even if I had paid for the tour, I would still feel I had gotten my money's worth out of the experience. It was fascinating.
It's truly unfortunate that this unique attraction is so little known.
To get to Port Burwell you have to make your way overland along various regional roads. From either east or west, you can travel along provincial highway # 3, and turn south on regional road # 19. From the north, you can follow road 19, which crosses Highway 401 at Ingersoll, or one or more of the various alternate routes.
This map shows you the area in which Port Burwell is located.
And here's a link to the museum website, where you can read advance information, and make online or phone reservations for a guided tour.
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