Maid of the Mist

The Maid of the Mist is a sightseeing boat tour of Niagara Falls, N.Y., U.S.A., starting and ending on the American side, crossing briefly into Canada during a portion of the trip.

James V. Glynn is chairman and chief executive officer of Maid of the Mist Corp. He joined Maid of the Mist in 1950 as a ticket seller and purchased the company in 1971. During his tenure, Maid of the Mist expanded operations, achieving ten-fold growth.

The current fleet, the result of the innovation of Maid of the Mist President Christpher M. Glynn, consists of two vessels, both of which launched in 2020. The James V. Glynn was named in honor of the Maid of the Mist Chairman and CEO James V. Glynn, who in 2020 celebrated 70 years with the company, and the Nikola Tesla, for the man who developed a type of alternating current (AC) motor. Nikola Tesla's patents were licensed by George Westinghouse whose company later won the bid to build the first AC power plant at Niagara Falls. Prior to the current two boats, all prior ships had been named Maid of the Mist, dating back to 1846. The first ships were steam-powered; these were replaced by diesel-powered vessels from 1955 until 2019, and later replaced with the current two boats powered by lithium-ion battery-powered electric motors.

The name, Maid of the Mist, could be a reference to the Iroquois myth of Lelawala.

The United States
The original Maid of the Mist was built at a landing near Niagara Falls on the American side of the border. The boat was christened in 1846 as a border-crossing ferry; its first trip was on September 18, 1846. The two-stage barge-like steamer was designed primarily as a link for a proposed ferry service between New York City and Toronto. It was a 72-foot-long side-wheeler with an 18-foot beam which was powered by steam produced from a wood- and coal-fired boiler. It could carry up to 100 passengers.

The ferry did well until 1848, when the opening of a suspension bridge between the United States and Canada cut into the ferry traffic. It was then that the owners decided to make the journey a sightseeing trip, plotting a journey closer to the Falls.

The present day Maid of the Mist Corporation was formed in 1884 by Captain R. F. Carter and Frank LaBlond, who invested in a new Maid that would launch in 1885. Captain Carter and Mr. LaBlond hired Alfred H. White from Port Robinson, Ontario to build the new ship. A letter in the archives of the Buffalo Historical Society from Mr. LaBlond to Alfred White says that they are well pleased with the vessel and asks Alfred to add a wale onto the boat.

The service is run by Maid of the Mist Corp. of Niagara Falls, New York. Maid of the Mist has been owned by the Glynn family since 1971.

James V. Glynn is chairman and chief executive officer of Maid of the Mist Corp. Glynn joined Maid of the Mist in 1950 as a ticket seller, and purchased the company in 1971. During his tenure, Maid of the Mist expanded operations, achieving ten-fold growth.

Canada
Access to the river-level attraction on the Canadian side was provided by the Maid of the Mist Incline Railway, a funicular railway, between 1894 and 1990, to travel between street level and the boat dock. As this service proved increasingly inadequate in transporting the growing passenger base of the 1990s, four high-speed elevators replaced the railway in 1991. On the American side, the dock is reached by four elevators enclosed in the observation tower.

The Russel Brothers of Owen Sound, Ontario made two all-steel Maids for the Niagara Falls Gorge, in 1955 and 1956. The first one is now based in Parry Sound, Ont. and runs dinner cruises and day excursions. The second Maid was sold in 1983 to the United Pentecostal Church of Ontario and destined for missionary service in the Amazon. Maid of the Mist II took part in the July 9, 1960, rescue of Roger Woodward, a seven-year-old boy who became the first person to survive a plunge over the Horseshoe Falls with nothing but a life jacket. Maid of the Mist II served as a Maid of the Mist until 1983. Subsequently she was relocated to the Amazon River, where she served as a missionary ship for some years.

A partial history of Maid of the Mist is featured in the IMAX film Niagara: Miracles, Myths and Magic.

Notable passengers
While on his 1860 tour of Canada, Albert Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII), rode on Maid of the Mist.

June 1952: Marilyn Monroe rode the Maid of the Mist while in Niagara Falls to film the movie, Niagara.

Mikhail Gorbachev was a passenger in 1983.

1991: Prince Charles and Princess Diana, and their two young sons, Princes William and Harry, rode on Maid of the Mist.

1996: Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter was a passenger, escorted by James V. Glynn.

2003: BBC Scotland's popular comedy sitcom Still Game made mention of the Maid of the Mist when lead characters Jack and Victor visited the formers family in Canada, and Victor takes Jack's grandson's aboard off screen.

2003: Maid of the Mist was featured in a scene of the movie Bruce Almighty, where Jim Carrey's character Bruce Nolan, a news anchor, has a mental breakdown after being told over his earpiece that his rival was given a promotion he himself was eyeing.

2009: NBC-TV's popular sit-com The Office filmed scenes on Maid of the Mist. The episode centered on the wedding of the characters Jim and Pam.

2018: ESPN's Monday Night Countdown recorded a segment before a Buffalo Bills game.

2020: NFL great DeMarcus Ware and a crew from NFL Films were onboard James V. Glynn in 2020 ahead of the Buffalo Bills - New England Patriots game.

2022: Maid of the Mist was featured in the 2022 motion picture, A Man Called Otto, starring Tom Hanks.

Original ships
The first series boats to bear the "Maid of the Mist" moniker were steam-powered wooden-hulled ferries. These were in use until an early-season fire destroyed the last of them in 1955.

First Maid of the Mist
 * Years of service: 1846–1854
 * Type: double-stack steamboat ferry
 * Engine: one sidewheel steam

Second Maid of the Mist
 * Years of service: 1854–1860
 * Length: 72 ft
 * Type: single-stack steamer
 * Engine: paddle boat



Third Maid of the Mist Fourth Maid of the Mist
 * Years of service: 1885–1955
 * Type: steam boat
 * Years of service: 1892–1955
 * Type: white oak steamboat
 * Length: 89 ft
 * Engine: two-engine steam

Diesel vessels
After a fire destroyed the last of the wooden-hulled steamers, they were replaced by steel-hulled, diesel-powered ferries, launched in 1955 and 1956. About every 20 years or so, new ships were added to the fleet, of increasingly larger capacity; the initial Maid of the Mist held only 101 passengers, while the last of the diesel-powered vessels, Maid of the Mist VII, could hold up to 600. The last of these were retired in 2019, to be replaced by an electric-powered fleet that can both hold 600 passengers.

Maid of the Mist I
 * Years of service: 1955–1990
 * Length: 66 ft
 * Engine: 200 hp diesel engines
 * Passengers: 101

Maid of the Mist II
 * Years of service: 1956–1983
 * Type: all-steel boat, twin of I
 * Engine: 200 hp diesel engines
 * Passengers: 101



Maid of the Mist III
 * Years of service: 1972–1997
 * Length: 65 ft
 * Gross tonnage: 75
 * Engine: single 250 hp diesel
 * Passengers: 210

Maid of the Mist IV
 * Years of service: 1976–2013
 * Length: 72 ft
 * Gross tonnage: 75
 * Engine: two 250 hp diesel
 * Passengers: 300

Maid of the Mist V
 * Years of service: 1983–2013
 * Length: 72 ft
 * Gross tonnage: 74
 * Engine: two 355 hp diesel
 * Passengers: 300

Maid of the Mist VI
 * Years of service: 1990–2019
 * Length: 74 ft
 * Breadth: 30 ft
 * Depth: 10 ft
 * Gross tonnage: 155
 * Engine: two 355 hp diesel
 * Passengers: 600

Maid of the Mist VII
 * Years of service: 1997–2020
 * Length: 80 ft
 * Breadth: 30 ft
 * Depth: 10 ft
 * Gross tonnage: 155
 * Engine: two 350 hp diesel
 * Passengers: 600

Electric vessels
Beginning with the 2020 season, the Maid of the Mist launched two all-new electric ships, with a similar size and capacity to the prior diesel-powered ones.

James V. Glynn
 * Years of service: 2020–present
 * Length: 90 ft
 * Breadth: 34 ft
 * Depth: 6 ft
 * Propulsion system: lithium-ion battery packs power the all-electric motor
 * Passengers: 600

Nikola Tesla
 * Years of service: 2020–present
 * Length: 90 ft
 * Breadth: 34 ft
 * Depth: 6 ft
 * Propulsion system: lithium-ion battery packs power the all-electric motor
 * Passengers: 600