Cashing In While The Going Is Good

We’re finding ourselves back on the shores of Excelsior in what, at this point, should be a familiar sight. The TCRT docks in Excelsior Bay once stood approximately where Maynard’s is today.

To the keen eye, this relatively rare postcard has a curious error: The caption at the top of the card says “Twin City River Traffic Co” when, in actuality, it was the Twin City Rapid Transit Company.

The image itself shows two steamers at the dock. The one we’re interested in today is on the left. This boat carried the name Puritan. Puritan was commissioned by Captain John R. Johnson in 1900 as an addition to his successful fleet of Minnetonka steamboats. Upon her launch the following year, her hull and superstructure were painted a splendid green, her awnings were a contrasting red, and her interior was mostly of polished wood. For steamers of the day, Puritan was a fine and comfortable vessel measuring in at 85 feet in length with a single propeller and triple expansion steam engine.

So why, you may wonder, is a competitor’s boat docking at the Rapid Transit docks? As a seasoned businessman in the Minnetonka shipping trade, Captain Johnson saw the writing on the wall when TCRT came to town in 1906 with a fleet of brand new steamers. It’s hard to overstate how big the streetcar lines were at this time, with the assumption being that no Minneapolis resident was more than a quarter mile from a streetcar station. They were a juggernaut, to say the least. As a result, Johnson sought to break up his business before the strong competition sank him entirely. In 1906, he sold three of his vessels to the Rapid Transit Company. Among them was the Puritan which, upon its acquisition, was painted to match the streetcar boats color scheme. They, in turn, were painted to match the streetcars themselves; canary yellow with oxide red trimmings.

Unfortunately for the company their plan to monopolize Minnetonka went awry and, by 1913, it was clear that they were operating too many boats with too little ridership. As a result, the Puritan was laid up in reserve in case of emergency. By 1914, the boat was decommissioned then dismantled over the winter of 1915 and into spring of 1916. Thus, bringing an end to the Puritan’s rather short life.

It may be hard to imagine the company’s need to scrap their ships but, just a decade later, all seven of the streetcar boats would be sold, scrapped, or sunk. . . Puritan occupies a narrow window of optimism in our shared history on Minnetonka. One that starts with a booming navigation business and ends with a dull fizzle as the times passed her by. Many of the lake’s steamers lived well beyond 14 years but, had Puritan gone further, it’s somewhat likely she too would be resting on the bottom of Minnetonka. Perhaps it’s better then, that she was dismantled rather than being around today yet so out of reach to the average person. That much, however, is for you to decide.