Trillium and Toronto Island: The Centennial Edition

The year was 1910, and signs of progress were in the air. That June, a new steam ferry for the Toronto Ferry Company was launched and christened Trillium. Only briefly mentioned in the local dailies at the time, the double-ended, side-paddle Island ferry cruised Toronto Bay for nearly fifty years. After forty-six years of service, the Trillium retired in 1956, only to be saved from the scrap yard in 1973. The Trillium made its second debut in 1976 as a fully operational steam ferry and is still in service today.

As the Trillium reaches the century mark, Mike Filey revisits the history of this fascinating Canadian ship. With a new preface and updated photographs, including some in colour, Filey traces Trillium's remarkable rise, fall, and rebirth in a book that honours one of Toronto's most interesting treasures.

Mike Filey has written nearly two dozen books on various facets of Toronto's past, including A Toronto Album and Toronto: The Way We Were, which received a 2009 Heritage Toronto Award of Merit. For more than thirty-five years he has contributed a popular column, "The Way We Were," to the Toronto Sunday Sun, and co-hosts "Mike Filey's Toronto" on AM 740 radio. He lives in Toronto.