It was into this tourist era that the Peck family arrived. The family was wealthy; as owners of the Bowman milk company of Chicago they established a summer lifestyle on Lake of Bays which would be the envy of all.

In 1908, Dr. David Peck of Chicago visited Lake of Bays and began a long association with the area. Summering first at Fox Point Inn, the Bigwin Inn and from 1930 on, at his private family cottage on Burnt Island, Dr. Peck, his wife and sons, Cameron and Edson, were well known in the Baysville area and had a host of friends around the lake. 

Burnt Island, at the south end of the lake, a short distance by water from Baysville, became an idyllic retreat for the Pecks. Son Cameron, an avid boat enthusiast, began to create a collection of vessels, large and small, which by the 1950s became a veritable flotilla. With apparently unlimited resources at his command, Cameron within two decades commanded a fleet of fifty vessels including forty-two gas launches and eight steamers! Most of these craft were located on Lake of Bays and in Baysville.

Boathouses on Burnt Island were supplemented by more numerous boathouses and docks at Baysville – buildings which today form part of the Baysville Marina. Even today, after renovations over the years, these boathouses display the distinctive vented cupolas from which smoke could escape as a steam yacht was being fired up for a jaunt on the lake. It is said that Peck built a marine railway at the boathouses in Baysville and even contemplated the establishment of a marine museum on Burnt Island.

Other writers have referred to Cameron Peck's insatiable appetite for sleek boats, his freedom to indulge in this hobby, and the fact that he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Whether this was true, he had unlimited time and resources to pursue his dreams.

Jessie Garratt, in her fascinating story My Happy Days at Lake of Bays, referred to young Cameron Peck racing madly around the lake in fast boats. Susan Pryke, formerly of “The Muskokan”, in an article about the McLaughlin family of General Motors fame, described the rivalry between Ewart McLaughlin, a famous motorboat racer, and Cameron Peck. Apparently their races were followed by the Toronto media, and popular columnists of the day, including Gordon Sinclair, entertained readers with details of their exciting competitions.

The Naiad

In 1890, the Naiad, an extremely attractive vessel which was to become the first steam yacht on the lakes of Muskoka, was built in Toronto for Senator Sanford Eli Sanford of Hamilton. Senator Sanford commissioned the graceful craft to ferry his family and friends to his summer home on Sans Souci Island in Lake Rosseau. 

The design of the boat made her worth of ownership by royalty. Indeed, the story goes that when Sanford was contemplating summering in Muskoka he knew he would need a boat. A trip to England gave the Sanfords the unusual experience of cruising on the Thames with Queen Victoria on her private yacht. Senator Sanford was so impressed with the beauty and construction of the yacht that he requested and was granted royal permission to build an identical craft in Canada!

The Naiad, named for the nymph in Greek mythology who gives life to springs, river, and lakes, was a joy to behold. Sixty-eight feet long and a slim ten feet wide, she was rated to carry forty passengers. Her steel frame was planked in mahogany, the stern was round, and the windows of British plate glass and the doors were installed at a ten to fifteen degree angle, giving the vessel a sleek, rakish appearance With a gilt ornamented clipper-like bow, a small brass cannon on the deck, and the flag fluttering at the stern, the Naiad under full steam, gliding across the water, would have been a very impressive sight. 

Since the Naiad had been built for Senator Sanford, one of Canada's wealthiest wholesale clothing merchants, and was to see many years of service at his elaborate home on Lake Rosseau, a host of celebrities and Sanford friends enjoyed her company. In 1894, Prime Minister Sir John Thompson was escorted on a fishing trip, and in 1898, Lord and Lady Aberdeen sailed on the Naiad. Sadly, in July 1899, Senator Sanford drowned in a tragic accident near Windermere. But the Naiad remained within the family for decades after this unfortunate event.

Then, as luck would have it, she began her new life on Lake of Bays. During January of 1940, the Naiad was transported on heavy sleighs from Gravenhurst to Baysville, a task that took a month with a bulldozer hauling, as well as a bulldozer pushing. The sleek craft was stored amid snowdrifts at the roadside adjacent to the west public dock. In the spring she was launched into the flotilla of boats owned by Cameron Peck.

Back to Harvey Vanclieaf

As might be expected the Naiad and the numerous other boats in the Peck ownership required a few employees to groom, service and run them – a boon to the local residents of Baysville. Enter Harvey Vanclieaf!

Referring to his captaincy at the time, Harvey said, “things were a lot different then; there weren't as many boats in the water and it was much darker than it is today because there weren't so many cottages around.”

Until 1951, Vanclieaf spent summers taking the Peck family around the lake. During the winter he maintained and repaired the yachts and assisted the foreman in the maintenance of the Peck cottage on Burnt Island.

The End of an Era

Suddenly, in 1951, the Peck flotilla came to an end; all of the fleet went up for sale. “You hear so many stories about what happened but nobody really knows because people like the Pecks don't have to tell you anything. You're just working there and that's it,” said Vanclieaf. 

Whatever the reason, Cameron Peck's fleet, one by one, was sold off and dispersed to other bodies of water. The beautiful Naiad became the property of the Ontario Boatline Company on Lake Temagami where she serviced the cottagers and camps in the area, In 1965, after 75 years of service, the gracious steam yacht was destroyed, except for her beautiful ow, which remains today, slowly deteriorating in a Toronto company property. 

In Baysville, we are left with Harvey Vanclieaf's memories, the Burnt Island cottage still visited each year by the descendants of Cameron Peck's family, and the former boathouses of the Peck fleet which now form part of Baysville Marina, owned by the Hough family.

Author's Note: For information included in this, the writer is indebted to Harvey Vanclieaf, the Baysville Tweedsmuir History, The Steamboat History Era in the Muskokas by Richard Tatley, Steamboating in Muskoka by Richard Tatley, My Happy Years at Lake of Bays by Jessie Garratt, “The Muskokan” August 12, 1982, “Summer Passport 2001” and the Lake of Bays Association Yearbook 1991. 

This article republished with permission of the author. “A Unique Decade” was originally published in the South Shore Times, Baysville, in 2002.