La Grande Hermine
La Grande Hermine: Remembering the Jordan Harbour Shipwreck
La Grande Hermine is no longer at Jordan Harbour. The familiar ship beside the QEW was dismantled and removed in 2024. My sunrise photograph records the landmark as it looked before that removal, when its tilted hull and masts were a familiar sight on the drive between Toronto and Niagara Falls.
Finally Stopping to Photograph It
I lived about 45 minutes from the ship and had passed it without making time to photograph it. One weekend, while my wife and I were in Mississauga, I finally decided to go. I had a picture in mind: colour in the sunrise sky, with the old ship standing against it.
The light gave me what I had hoped for. The warm sky and its reflection softened the scene, while the leaning masts kept the ship’s unusual shape clear. The photograph is about that balance as much as the wreck itself. I wanted the quiet water to remain part of the picture.
Familiar places can be the easiest ones to keep putting off. My Ontario photography collection includes photographs made close to home as well as on longer trips through the province.
A Brief History of La Grande Hermine
The Jordan Harbour vessel was a later ship made to resemble a historical sailing vessel, not Jacques Cartier’s original Grande Hermine. It arrived at Jordan Harbour in 1997, where plans for a new use did not come to fruition. A fire in 2003 destroyed much of its wooden exterior, leaving the damaged structure that became known locally as the ghost ship or pirate ship.
Accounts of its earlier career often become mixed with the separate replica associated with Expo 67. I would not treat those as the same vessel. The history most directly connected with this photograph is its long stay beside Lake Ontario, its deterioration and its eventual removal.
After concerns about its condition, the masts were taken down in 2021. Dismantling of the remaining wreck began in October 2024. Clifton Hill’s account of the removal describes the end of its time as a roadside landmark. Older directions and photographs should not be taken as evidence that the ship can still be visited.
What the Photograph Preserves
Knowing the ship is gone changes how I see this image. It holds a view of Jordan Harbour that cannot be photographed in the same way now. That is one reason I am drawn to photographing abandoned places and structures: they are part of a landscape for a time, but their presence is never guaranteed.
The sunrise is equally important to the photograph. Without it, the same hull and masts would tell a different visual story. My article on beach sunrise photography looks more closely at the light and atmosphere that draw me to the waterfront early in the day.
You can explore more vessels, working boats and maritime details in my ship photography collection. La Grande Hermine remains there as a photograph of a landmark I am glad I finally stopped to see.
