In the Province of Quebec.
AMONG the names of those who were chiefly connected with the introduction and development of steam navigation in this province may be mentioned the Hon. John Molson, Messrs. John and David Torrance, and George Brush.
The founder of the Molson family and father of the steamboat enterprise in Canada came to this country from Lincolnshire, England, in 1782. Two years later he returned to Britain and raised money on his paternal estate to erect a brewery in Montreal. Subsequently he sold his English property, which enabled him to complete the Canadian enterprise that eventually grew into an extensive and lucrative business. Mr. Molson was an excellent business man and did much to advance the commercial and educational interests of his adopted country. He was President of the Bank of Montreal from June, 1826, till his death, which occurred in Montreal in 1836, in his seventy-second year. He was also an influential member of the Executive Council of Lower Canada. His son, the late Hon. John Molson, who inherited his father’s enthusiasm in regard to steamboats and shipping, also took a prominent part in the introduction of railways in Canada. The Molsons Bank and the William Molson Hall of McGill University are fitting memorials of the family in Montreal.
JOHN TORRANCE.
The Torrances are a “Border” family. The late Mr. John Torrance was born at Gatehouse, in the Shire of Galloway, Scotland, June 8th, 1786. Early in the century he came to Canada, and before long established a wholesale business in Montreal and founded the eminent firm of John Torrance & Co. His elder brother Thomas had preceded him in Montreal, and was at the head of a large and lucrative business, residing at Belmont Hall, which he built, and which was at that time considered a palatial mansion. On his removal to Quebec this fine property was acquired by a member of the Molson family. Mr. David Torrance, a nephew of Mr. John Torrance, was born in New York in 1805. He came to reside in Montreal about the year 1821, and became a partner in his uncle’s firm. He was a man of exceptional business capacity, energy and enterprise, and did much to advance the commercial interests of Montreal and Canada. In 1826 this firm purchased the steamboat Hercules and placed her on the Montreal and Quebec route, in the double capacity of a tow-boat and passenger steamer—this being the first step towards the vigorous opposition to the Molson line of steamers that ensued. They were also the first in Canada to branch out into direct trade with the East Indies and China. Mr. David Torrance died in Montreal, January 29th, 1876. His son, Mr. John Torrance, now the senior member of the firm of David Torrance & Co., was born in Montreal in August, 1835. He has had the Montreal agency of the Dominion Line of steamships for many years, and is otherwise extensively occupied in the shipping business. It may be added that after the death of Mr. John Torrance, primus, in 1870, the name of the firm was changed to David Torrance & Co., which it still retains.
Mr. Brush was a native of Vermont, born at Vergennes, in 1793. After some time spent in mercantile pursuits, he engaged in boat-building and navigation on Lake Champlain, and became captain of a steamer plying between St. John’s and Whitehall. He afterwards had command of some of Mr. Torrance’s steamers on the St. Lawrence. In 1834 he became manager of the Ottawa and Rideau Forwarding Company, and resided in Kingston until 1838, when he joined the Wards in the Eagle Foundry, Montreal, of which he became the sole proprietor in 1840. Mr. Brush died in Montreal, at the advanced age of ninety years and two months. The following extracts from memoranda left by him are interesting and valuable:
“The steam-engines for the Swiftsure (1813), the Malsham (1814), the Car of Commerce (1816), and the Lady Sherbrooke (1817), were all made by Bolton & Watt, of Soho, England, who would not allow more than four pounds pressure of steam; and a hand-pipe was used to feed the boilers by gravitation. The first steam-engine built in Canada was in 1819, for the Montreal, a small ferry-boat, of about fourteen horse-power, built by John D. Ward, at the Eagle Foundry. In 1823 the merchants of Montreal formed a stock company for the purpose of building tow-boats. I was employed by that company to build their boats. The first (the Hercules) we built in Munn’s shipyard, about where H. & A. Allan’s office now stands. The Hercules was fitted with an engine of one hundred horse-power, built by J. D. Ward & Co., at the Eagle Foundry, on the Bolton & Watt low-pressure principle. Under my command the Hercules commenced towing vessels in May, 1824, when she towed up the ship Margaret of Liverpool from Quebec to Montreal and up the current of St. Mary’s—the first ship so towed up. Our company also built the steamers British America, St. George and Canada, of about 150 horse-power each.”
STEAMER “QUEBEC” AND CITADEL.
“In 1838-39 the Imperial Government built a steam frigate here, called the Sydenham. It was engined by Ward, Brush & Co., with a pair of side-lever engines, and proved to be one of the fastest vessels in the Royal navy of that time.”
Connected with Mr. Brush there is a good fish story, which is better authenticated than some of that class that have passed current. A pike-headed whale—the only one that is known to have visited these waters—followed some vessel up from sea into the harbour of Montreal, in September, 1823. Captain Brush rigged a boat and captured him with a harpoon. He was a beautiful specimen, measuring 39½ feet in length, and 23 feet in circumference. His jaw-bones were for many years to be seen overarching the entrance to Gilbault’s Gardens, and there are those still living who remember having seen the carcase as it lay, far too long for sensitive nostrils, on the river bank.
As already stated, Molson’s Accommodation began to ply between Montreal and Quebec in 1809—two years later than Fulton’s Clermont on the Hudson, and three years earlier than Bell’s Comet on the Clyde. The Accommodation proved a fairly successful commercial venture, although Mr. Molson did not obtain a monopoly of the business as Mr. Fulton had done. She was soon followed by the Swiftsure, the Malsham, the Car of Commerce, the John Molson, the Lady Sherbrooke, and other steamboats. The last-named was 170 feet long, 34 feet beam, and 10 feet in depth, with a sixty-three horse-power side-lever engine. A much better service had now been instituted, for up to about 1818 many preferred to drive all the way from Montreal to Quebec in caleches over rough roads. Now, however, that the steamboats had comfortable cabins, and canvas awnings over their decks, they secured nearly all the through passenger traffic. About the year 1823 several powerful tow-boats were built, which also carried passengers. After these the Waterloo and the John Molson of the Molson Line, the St. George, the British America and the Canada, owned by John Torrance & Co., and other boats of larger dimensions, having better passenger accommodation and higher speed, followed in rapid succession. The Waterloo foundered in Lake St. Peter, and was replaced by the John Bull, a fine boat of 190 feet in length, but which was burned in 1838. The John Bull used too much coal to be profitable, and the saying that she made most money when lying at anchor, arose from the fact that, anchored off the city, she was repeatedly used as the official residence of the Governor-General, Lord Durham. The Canada, which came out in 1837, was 240 feet long, and was accounted the largest and fastest steamer then afloat in the New World. In 1840 the Lord Sydenham (the former Ontario) and the Lady Colborne ran as the mail boats to Quebec. About 1845 several famous boats were built—the Rowland Hill, Mr. Torrance’s Montreal, Wilson Connoly’s Quebec, the Queen and the John Munn—all upper cabin boats of high speed. The John Munn was longer than any previous, or, indeed, any subsequent, river steamer on the St. Lawrence, being 400 feet in length. Her boilers were placed on either guard, as the fashion then was, and a huge walking-beam in the centre. She was too large for the trade. After running a few years she was broken up, and her magnificent engines were sent to New York. The Montreal, also a large and fine steamer, was lost in a snow-storm near Batiscan, in November, 1853, and was replaced by the Lord Sydenham, afterwards lengthened to 250 feet, and renamed the Montreal.
The first iron steamers came into use on the St. Lawrence in 1843, namely, the Prince Albert and Iron Duke, which at that time began to ply as ferry-boats to Laprairie and St. Lambert, in connection with the Champlain and St. Lawrence railway service. These boats were designed in Scotland, sent out in segments, and were put together by Parkins, of the St. Mary Foundry, Montreal.
The Richelieu Steamboat Company, formed in 1845, commenced business by running a market boat to Sorel. In 1856 they put two small steamers on the through line to Quebec, the Napoleon and the Victoria. About this time Messrs. Tate Brothers, ship-builders, in Montreal, purchased the Lady Colborne, renamed her the Crescent, and coupling her with the Lady Elgin, started a fourth line of steamers to ply between Montreal and Quebec. The business had already been overdone, and this was the last straw that breaks the camel’s back. The opposition had gone far enough when it had reduced the cabin fare to $1.00, including meals and stateroom, and the steerage passage to 12½ cents! The excitement that prevailed at this time was intense. The arrival and departure of the boats at either end of the route were scenes of indescribable confusion. Vast crowds of people assembled on the wharves, while clouds of smoke issuing from the funnels and the roar of escaping steam plainly indicated that the stokers were doing their level best to burst the boilers. This vicious and ruinous opposition was brought to an end by a tragic occurrence, the burning of the steamer Montreal.
On a fine summer evening in June, 1857, while on her voyage from Quebec with a load of over 400 passengers, most of whom were emigrants from Scotland, who had just completed a long sea voyage, and were gazing with interest on the shores that in anticipation were to offer them happy homes, suddenly the cry of “Fire!” was raised. Clouds of smoke burst out from between decks. A panic ensued. Groups of men and women clung to each other in despair, imploring help that was not to be found; then a wild rush, with the terrible alternative of devouring flames and the cold water below. Two hundred and fifty-three persons perished; and all the more sadly that the calamity was traced by public opinion and the press of the day to “culpable recklessness and disregard of human life.” A truce to ruinous opposition ensued. An amicable arrangement was reached, by which superfluous boats were withdrawn. The bulk of the passenger business fell to the Richelieu Company, which continued for a number of years to do a lucrative trade, paying handsome annual dividends to its shareholders.
In 1875 an amalgamation was effected with the Canadian Steam Navigation Company (the old Upper Canada Line), under the name of the Richelieu and Ontario Navigation Company, which has become one of the largest enterprises of the kind in America, having a paid-up capital of $1,350,000, a fleet of twenty-four steamers, and operating a continuous line of navigation a thousand miles in length. The Montreal and Quebec, which ply between the cities from which they are named, though more than thirty years old, still have a high reputation for speed and comfort. They are each over 300 feet long, and have an average speed of about sixteen miles an hour. They have each ample sleeping accommodation for some 300 cabin passengers. They make their trips during the night. Supper on board either of these steamers is an event to be remembered.
The head office of the Richelieu and Ontario Company is in Montreal. The General Manager is Mr. C. F. Gildersleeve. Mr. Alexander Milloy, the Traffic Manager, who was born in Kintyre, Scotland, in 1822, came to Canada in 1840, when he entered the Montreal office of the Upper Canada Line of mail steamers, and continued his connection with the company, amid all its changes, until May, 1898, when he retired from the service.