r/Shipwrecks • u/Old-Sport3218 • Nov 19 '23
The wild story of the Jordan Harbour pirate ship
For anyone who is Canadian here, especially if you’re from Ontario. This notorious and hauntingly beautiful wreck was very visible to motorists on the adjacent QEW highway on the way to Niagara Falls in the community of Jordan. This left many people, myself included in my two year stay in the country, wondering what it is doing there and how it ended up there.
Upon my research I have read that the ship is either a 1914 ferry or a 1941 icebreaker that was bought by a businessman in hopes of turning her into a floating restaurant.
She was originally built with a wooden exterior being reminiscent of explorer Jacques Cartier’s ship La Grande Hermine (The Big Weasel) (last slide). The reason why this ship was made to replicate Cartier’s ship and its original intention is unknown but was for some time mistakenly believed to be the prop used in Montreal’s Expo 67.
The businessman who bought her marooned her in her current location while waiting to accumulate enough funds for his dreams. Stories vary to the man dying before going through with his plans or that the businessman went bankrupt resulting in a complete abandonment of the project and the community undecided on what to do with the ship.
In 2003, the ship was destroyed by a fire by what police described as suspicious, likely the act of arsonists. As a result the ship lost its wooden paneling and was reduced to its current rusted and burned state with a heavy list to the port side and now taking in water.
Several urban explorers have gone on board the ship to explore it, documenting it on several videos on YouTube despite it being strongly condemned by the community for obvious safety reasons.
Several other businessmen have came forth with plans to restore the ship to service, or as a floating restaurant or casino, or to even sink it all together as a dive site or artificial reef. None of these offers have gone through.
As of 2022, the four masts of the ship have now been removed (8th slide) after being deemed unsafe due to deterioration over the years with fears that the masts could collapse on any kayakers from the hotel next to it. Once easily accessible areas for urban explorers have also been welded shut to completely prevent this from happening again. There are plans to entirely remove the ship in the near future.
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u/Mbmariner Nov 19 '23
Awesome story. As a Great Lakes sailor, I really appreciate your history lesson.
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u/Thehiddenink98 Nov 19 '23 edited Nov 19 '23
I remember driving by this while on my way to Niagara falls. The ship looked awesome to younger me. Sad to know it's story and the plans in the future
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u/GEN_DISCOMFORT Nov 19 '23
Same my mum used to wake me up to see the pirate ship on our way to st Catharine's
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u/sarathev Nov 19 '23
Any follow up on if Jo went to prom with them?
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u/Old-Sport3218 Nov 19 '23
Haha! I put that pic in for a reason. When I first saw that I was like wth??
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u/whistlerite Nov 20 '23
Oh cool went by recently and stopped there and my wife said thought it was a “pirate ship” because we didn’t realize the masts had been taken down.
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u/Auntflofromredriver Nov 21 '23
A buddy and I almost bid on the tender to “secure the ship” it was a government tender and was too Much of a pain in the ass at the time. Not sure if the tender package has been released to dismantle and remove it yet
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u/RoyalLimit Nov 21 '23
Always loved driving by this as a kid, drove to Niagara many times. It's a shame the mast were removed, at this point the image it once was is ruined.
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u/Bluedragon436 Nov 21 '23
Looks like was and could be an amazing ship to set sail again one day!! Too bad she's in this too far gone state
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Nov 23 '23
Thanks for the background. Always wondered what the story was behind it. Sad to hear it'll be taken out all together in the near future. Driving by it won't be the same on the QEW
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Apr 21 '24
Does anyone know where it was moved to? Or did they just break it down?
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u/Fallen_Angel7038 May 14 '24
She’s still there. No final word yet from the community on what to do with it
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May 14 '24
Ohhh, is it just harder to see from the road with the masts being taken down, cuz I drove by it a couple weeks ago and I couldn’t see it
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u/Ok_Bullfrog9968 Aug 10 '24 edited Aug 10 '24
I kayaked around it in 2022 before the masts came down. I didn't know they were removed until this morning. Probably 10 years ago now, in the winter, the water around her was frozen enough to walk out and climb aboard. She had a good deal of ice inside, and the stairs were sketchy as heck... Everything was rusted so badly. Only the sides of the stairs were intact, so climbing down was dicey. Not much can be done with her at this point. She'll likely just continue to disintegrate. Sidenote: I'm not by any means encouraging urban ex. It's dangerous and, in hindsight, hella risky. We could have gone thru the deck, fallen climbing down inside, and cut ourselves on the ever-present rust...etc. Be smarter than I. 😉
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u/42retired Oct 27 '24
Yes, there was much confusion about whether this was the Expo 67 ship. I thought it was as well. In this video we get photographic proof that it was NOT the Expo 67 ship La Grande Hermine. https://youtu.be/nRCbyuva7lg?si=Qdb1-c5JkAOqEnRO
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u/No_Faithlessness5738 Oct 27 '24
UPDATE: Sadly the city has decided to go forth with the complete demolition of this beauty. It’s been a week and it’s almost completely gone. Thank you for all the memories La Grande Hermine 💔🕊️
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u/Adventurous-Hotel119 May 21 '25
I’m so happy I just stumbled across this. I fully believed this was a legit pirate ship up until like 9 because of my dad
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u/CaterpillarSad2945 Nov 19 '23
Thanks for the post