Model ships on display at the Saunders Hydro Dam Visitor Centre

Two new guests have dropped anchor inside the lobby of OPG’s Saunders Hydro Dam Visitor Centre in Cornwall.

They are model ships, on loan from the Canadian Seaway Management Corporation, and they arrived at the centre this past summer for an extended stay.

The ships are replicas of the type of large freighters that have navigated the St. Lawrence Seaway since it first opened in 1959. The timing is fitting as the Seaway marks its 60^th anniversary of operations this year.

One of the ships on display is a replica of the Federal Mayumi, a Japanese ship built and commissioned in 2012. It has three cranes on deck for loading and unloading. The actual ship is 199 metres long and 23.8 metres wide with a loading capacity of 35,868 tonnes. The ship undertakes voyages on the Great Lakes and the Seaway, as well as the ocean.

The second ship on display is a Great Lakes self-unloading bulk carrier known as the Algowood. The original ship was built in the Collingwood Shipyards in Collingwood, Ont., and was launched on Oct. 7, 1980. The ship measures 225.6 metres in length and 22.9 metres in width, with a loading capacity of 32,253 tonnes. It is powered by a 10,200 bhp diesel engine and is still used for commercial operations today.

You can take a closer look at the detailed and accurate replica ships at the Saunders visitor centre.