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Mr. Letnik’s tenants say he is retreating to dry land.

“He moved in here about a year ago,” says a young woman, motioning to apartment 11, below her own. “I knew the people who lived there before.”

Terry McCarthy, a flooring installer who moved into this building three years ago, confirms that Mr. Letnik has moved from the ship to the building. He thinks the world of his landlord.

“I like John,” he says. “There’s a rare breed of honourable noble men, and he fits that description. He’s done a lot of work around here since he’s had some free time.”

Mr. Letnik insists he lives on his ship, and hauls water in pails from Scarborough or his sister’s place in Mississauga. He vows to fight to the end.

Fleeing communism in the former Yugoslavia, Mr. Letnik moved to Toronto in 1957. He washed dishes at St. George’s Golf & Country Club in Etobicoke before he opened the Pop Inn, at McCaul and Dundas Streets. In 1970 he opened his first seafood restaurant in an old fire boat, the MS Normac. In 1981 the city ferry Trillium rammed that boat and sank it.

Mr. Letnik bought the MS Jadran, a 355-cabin passenger vessel in 1975. He sailed it from Yugoslavia and tied it to the foot of Yonge Street, where it has floated since.

Now the city wants him out. But I feel bad for Captain John. He agreed in the 1970s to pay property taxes, but how can a ship be real estate? Tax assessors say the ship is appreciating; generally, vessels depreciate.

“Have you checked any of those tour boats?” he asks, referring to the party boats tied up behind his ship. “They come back, they hook up with the city water, they hook up with the hydro, and they don’t pay realty taxes. I have no realty.”