By Graeme Hoatson Beattie, Manotick Chapter
William L. Ralph was the adopted son of Michael Ralph. Little is known about Michael, yet he did have the financial means and wherewithal to acquire a 99-year lease from the Canadian Crown to establish Ralph Island in 1889. Ralph Island is a mile away from Portland near the C. T. Thomas Estate on the South shore of Big Rideau Lake part of the Rideau Canal, a World Heritage Site.
Around the turn of the century William made his way to Chicago, joining the railroad and eventually becoming a railroad engineer. He was able to arrange his holidays so that he could be at his beloved Ralph Island each and every summer. In the mid-thirties the Chicago and North Western Railway ran a seasonal train adorned with a flaming torch emblem from Chicago to the North Woods of Wisconsin making stops at lakes, villages and resorts along the way, with Lac de Flambeau being one of the stops.
The lake derived its name when French explorers saw Indians catching fish by torchlight. Flambeau translated simply means ‘torch’ while Flambeaux means ‘torchlight.’ It is not hard to imagine the English, who have a long history of changing words after taking over territory, dropping the X and then morphing the meaning of Flambeau to ‘flaming torch’. The name struck a chord in William.
Flambeau is a 1938 23-foot W. J. Dowsett triple cockpit runabout powered by a Kermath marine conversion of a Ford Flathead V8 engine. Since 1907 W. J. Dowsett had been building fine water craft in his small shop, producing some of the nicest boats on the Rideau Lakes. Will Dowsett added his son Clare to the ranks in the late twenties, so, at the time of Flambeau’s launch, the company was named W. J. Dowsett & Sons. She was launched near the town docks at Portland Marine, now housing The Galley Restaurant, part of Len’s Cove Marina. People came by car and boat to witness her launch. None more excited, we think, than William’s three teenage boys Morris, Arthur and Thomas. William allowed each a turn at the helm the day of launching and the balance of summer. But their boating pleasure was soon ended with the outbreak of WWII.
Flambeau sat in her boathouse throughout the war and many years after as William was in poor health before his passing in 1955. She saw more time on the water in the sixties, recalls Thomas’s oldest child Susan Peterson, a teenager at the time, before Thomas had her towed to a barn in Portland citing ongoing engine problems.
She sat there neglected and forgotten until the mid-seventies when a new cottager to the area showed some interest. That cottager? Why our own Jimmy Potter, Manotick Classic Boat Club president at the time. Jimmy brought her to life again and he and Linda enjoyed many rides aboard Flambeau around the Rideau Lakes, taking her to many ACBS boat shows, and winning numerous MCBC and ACBS awards along the way. Jimmy would later sell Flambeau to fellow club member Kevin Tackaberry, where she is now showcased in the family’s private museum.
With notes, e-mails and conversations with Susan Peterson (nee Ralph) and her daughter JoAnn Fowler. Pictures courtesy of their family album.