Normac is a floating restaurant boat that was launched as a fire tug, named the James R. Elliot. She was built at the Jenks Shipbuilding Company in Port Huron, Michigan, in 1902. After serving as a tug, the boat was later used as a ferry boat on Lake Huron until 1968 when it was retired. It was then converted into a floating restaurant in Toronto. After sinking in Toronto, the boat was raised and sold to be used as a floating restaurant in St Catharines, Ontario.
History
After she lost her usefulness as a fire tug, she was sold in 1930 to the Owen Sound Transportation Company Limited. At that time, she was taken to the Georgian Bay Shipbuilding Company at Midland for conversion into a combination package freighter and passenger ferry, and from a steamer to a diesel powered vessel,[1] at a cost of CA$80000.[2] The vessel was renamed the Normac which was the namesake of captain "Norman Mckay," founder and general manager of Owen Sound Transportation Company Limited. Mckay was the captain of the company flagship SS Manitoulin.