Wheelhouse arrives in Port Burwell

The George Barnes Memorial Wheelhouse arrived in Port Burwell mid-afternoon on Wednesday, June 17 after a six hour journey from Port Maitland where it had been used as an office for George Barnes and Sons, an excavating company. The two-storey structure will be restored over the next several months in an area next to Otter Creek, below the wooden lighthouse and behind (south of) the HMCS Ojibwa submarine. When the wheelhouse is refurbished, it will be moved up the hill to its permanent display site on Robinson Street at the Marine Museum. The project is being led and paid for by community volunteers who are raising the estimated $25,000 cost to transport and restore the wheelhouse which was donated to the Port Burwell Historical Society in memory of George Barnes. The wheelhouse was once the navigational control room of the laker ship named Fernglen which was constructed in 1917. Its steel exterior measures 27 feet by 24 feet and its interior is tongue-and-groove fir with a built-in chart cabinet and gyrocompass. The volunteer committee aims to make the wheelhouse the latest addition to the collection of the Marine Museum and a highly visible tourist attraction on its own along Port Burwell’s main street.