It’s
expected to be a waterfront spectacle as defunct seafood restaurant is towed
from its long-time home
Almost every day this
week, “Captain” John Letnik has made a heart-wrenching pilgrimage to the foot
of Yonge St. to watch his life’s work being dismantled, bit by rusting bit.
The iconic Captain
John’s Seafood Harbour Boat Restaurant sign that stood for decades on the aged
bow of the waterfront landmark, the Jadran, was lifted down by crane on Wednesday.
The gangplank that used
to welcome businessmen and, later, busloads of tourists onto the former
Mediterranean cruise
ship is now gone. So are the twin anchors of the 90-metre ship.
Even the tattered
Canadian flag has been removed from the upper deck and replaced with a snappy
new flying ad for Marine Recycling Corporation, the Port Colborne ship
scrapping company that will guide the Jadran to its final resting place
starting next Tuesday morning — weather, wind and waves permitting.
“People say to me, ‘How
can you take it?’ But the ship and the restaurant were part of me. I invested
my life inside that ship,” says Letnik, 76.
One thing remains
connected and, strangely, still working — the restaurant’s reservations line.
It dates back to 1976 when the city’s first floating restaurant, on what was
then a desolate stretch of Toronto waterfront, threw open its doors on what was
considered, at the time, a fine-dining experience.
“People are still
calling, leaving messages,” says Letnik. “Some are saying the foot of Yonge St.
won’t look the same without Captain John’s. Others are saying it’s time for
Captain John’s to go.
“I guess I’m going to
have to have that removed.”
So much of the ship —
and its long history — is already gone.
Letnik has spent the
last three years, since public health officials shut off water to the ship and
civic officials shut down the business over unpaid back taxes and other fees,
slowly removing anything of value.
Sadly, that’s included
most of the brass fittings and elaborately carved wood panels that have graced
the former luxury cruiser since it was first built in the former Yugoslavia
back in 1957. It would later go on to become the private ocean-going getaway
for former president Josip Broz Tito and his entourage.
When Letnik bought the
ship back in 1975 for $875,000 (U.S.), it came with a statue of Tito, as well
as fine linens and bedding in its 355 guest cabins. Letnik donated all of it to
Adriatic-based shipping company Jadrolinija Rijeka as part of the deal.
It took more than 15
days and a crew of 16 to navigate the ship across the North Atlantic from Pula,
Yugoslavia to Toronto.
“It was quite stormy.
For three days we spent more time under the water than on top of it,” said
Letnik. “She would pitch 45 degrees and then roll.”
When they finally
arrived in Toronto in November of 1975, a crowd of 150 civic officials and
curious onlookers were there to greet the ship as it eased into the Queen’s
Quay slip where it would become a pioneering attraction on a waterfront that,
back then, had little else to offer.
Letnik would spend some
$3 million installing insulation, new wiring and a new kitchen where he would
man the decks on a dream that thrived through the 80s but crashed onto the
rocks during the 1990s recession.
Until the downturn, a
sizable list of the Who’s Who of Toronto’s business elite had their own tables
and would make the ship a regular stop for Letnik’s trademark clam chowder or
drinks on the deck.
The CHIN bikini contest
got its start there in 1976 before outgrowing Captain John’s two years later
and heading for Toronto Island. The novel floating restaurant — which offered
one of the best views of the city next to the recently opened CN Tower — was
the unique go-to place for bar mitzvah’s, Christmas parties, visiting
relatives.
Letnik’s daughter,
Denise, got married on the ship in 1994, as did many other couples over the
years.
As late as a week ago,
when Letnik did a final, nostalgic and teary-eyed walk around the Jadran’s
battered and duct-taped decks, the thank you note and picture from Dan and Anna
Sprague’s September 3, 2006 wedding remained tacked on the wall of his
dishevelled office.
“Our wish to be married
on the deck came true!”
Even as debts mounted,
Letnik struggled to keep the business going: At last count, he owes well over
$1.7 million in realty taxes, berthing fees and mortgages.
Much of the history of
the Jadran — from brass lights to massive rope cleats — now sits on the lawn of
a low-rise Scarborough apartment building that Letnik still owns. He’s now
living in a basement unit after years in the top deck Captain’s Quarters of the
Jadran.
Letnik’s last hope is
that Marine Recycling will honour its promise to reserve a spot for him on the
ship as it makes its final journey.
“It’s not going to be
easy leaving the ship in Port Colborne. But I understand that its time is up.”
Source: the star.
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