On the Ottawa River.
The navigation of the Ottawa differed from that of the St. Lawrence in that its rapids were wholly impassable for boats with cargo. The necessity for canals thus became urgent. The original Grenville Canal was designed and commenced by the Royal Engineers for the Imperial Government, and was completed in 1832, simultaneously with the Rideau Canal. It was enlarged by the Dominion Government a few years ago, but it is not yet of sufficient capacity to allow the free passage of the larger steamers on this route. Travellers are therefore subject to transhipment at Carillon, and are conveyed by railway to Grenville, a distance of thirteen miles, where another steamer is ready to convey them to Ottawa. This little bit of railway is one of the oldest in Canada, and is further remarkable as being the only one of 5 feet 6 inches gauge in the country. It was purchased by the Ottawa River Navigation Company in 1859, and is operated only in connection with their steamers, not being used in winter.
OTTAWA RIVER STEAMER “SOVEREIGN.”
The completion of the Grenville Canal in its original form opened up a new route to the West, somewhat circuitous, doubtless, but with greatly increased facilities for the transportation of merchandise, the immediate effect of which was to transfer the great bulk of west-bound traffic from the St. Lawrence route to that of the Ottawa and Rideau. About this time was formed “The Ottawa and Rideau Forwarding Company,” by leading merchants in Montreal, with Mr. Cushing as manager. A few years later the forwarding business became a lucrative one, and was carried on by a number of prominent firms represented at Montreal, Prescott, Brockville and Kingston. Chief among these were the Messrs. Macpherson, Crane & Co., Hooker & Jones, Henderson & Hooker (afterwards Hooker & Holton), H. & J. Jones of Brockville, and Murray & Sanderson of Montreal. Messrs. Macpherson and Crane were easily the foremost in the enterprise, for they owned a private lock at Vaudreuil and thus held the key to the navigation of the Ottawa, and had complete control of the towage until 1841, when Captain R. W. Shepherd, then in command of the steamer St. David, belonging to a rival company, as the result of a clever and hazardous experiment, discovered a safe channel through the rapids at St. Ann’s, which put an end to the monopoly.
Up to 1832 the long portage between Carillon and Grenville was a serious drawback to traffic, necessitating a double service of steamers and barges, one for the upper and one for the lower reach of the river. The first steamer on the upper reach seems to have been the Union, Captain Johnson, built in 1819, and which commenced to ply the following year between Grenville and Hull, covering the distance of sixty miles in about 24 hours! On the lower reach the William King began to ply about 1826 or 1827, at first commanded by Captain Johnson, afterwards by Captain De Hertel. The St. Andrew followed soon after. In 1828 the Shannon, then considered a large and powerful steamer, was built at Hawkesbury and placed on the upper route, commanded at first by Captain Grant and afterwards by Captain Kaines.
At the height of the forwarding business on the Ottawa, Macpherson & Crane owned a fleet of thirteen steamers and a large number of bateaux and barges, which were towed up the Ottawa and through the Rideau Canal to Kingston, the entire distance being 245 miles. The flotilla would make the round trip, returning via the St. Lawrence, in twelve or fourteen days. The steamers engaged in this service were mostly small, high-pressure boats—commonly called “puffers.” At the first the noise which they made, especially the unearthly shriek of their steam-whistles, scared the natives as well as the cattle along the banks of the river. The passengers were usually accommodated in the barges in tow of the steamers, but as time went on a few of the “puffers” attained the dignity of passenger boats, and, when unencumbered with tows, made the round trip in a week. The writer well remembers making the trip in the early forties on the Charlotte, Captain Marshall, and a very pleasant trip it was, the chief attractions being the long chain of locks at the small village of Bytown—soon to become the beautiful capital of the Dominion; the big dam at Jones’ Falls, with its retaining wall three hundred feet in thickness at the base and ninety feet high; the marvellous scenery of the Lake of the Thousand Islands, and, as the climax, what was then the novelty of shooting the rapids on a steamboat. Captain Howard informed me that the first steamer to shoot the “lost channel” of the Long Sault rapids was the old Gildersleeve of Mr. Hamilton’s line, in command of Captain Maxwell and piloted by one Rankin. That was in 1847, and was considered a daring feat at the time, but it established the safety of the new channel which has ever since been used by the larger passenger steamers. No one, however, can form an adequate idea of the grandeur of this raging torrent who has not made the descent upon a raft; though, speaking from experience, this mode of shooting the “lost channel” is not to be recommended to persons of weak nerves.
It is said that in 1836 a steamboat named the Thomas Mackay plied between Quebec and Ottawa, but its journeyings seem to have been erratic and its subsequent history “lost in obscurity”—a phrase that applies in some degree, indeed, to the early history of steam on the Ottawa. The St. David was the only steamer that could pass through the Grenville Canal in 1841. The first truly passenger service on the Ottawa commenced in 1842 with the Oldfield on the lower route and the Porcupine on the upper. In 1846 the Oldfield was purchased by Captain Shepherd and others who formed a private company named the “Ottawa Steamers Company.” The steamer Ottawa Chief was built by that company in 1848, but she was found to draw too much water, and in the following spring was chartered by Mr. Hamilton and placed on the St. Lawrence route. The Lady Simpson, built in 1850, was the precursor of a number of excellent steamers that have made travelling on the Ottawa popular with all classes. Among these were the Atlas, Prince of Wales (which ran for twenty-four years), Queen Victoria, Dagmar, Alexandra, etc. The reputation of the line is well sustained at present by the Empress, Captain Bowie, and the Sovereign, Captain Henry W. Shepherd, both very fine and fast steel boats of 400 and 300 tons, respectively. Other steamers in commission and employed in the local trade bear such loyal names as Maude, Princess and Duchess of York.
CAPTAIN R. W. SHEPHERD.
Captain Robert Ward Shepherd retired from active service in 1853, when he was appointed General Manager of the line. In 1864 the Steamers Company was incorporated by Act of Parliament under the name it now bears, the Ottawa River Navigation Company, of which Mr. Shepherd was President as long as he lived. Mr. Shepherd was born at Sherringham, County Norfolk, England, in 1819. He died at his country seat at Como, Quebec, August 29th, 1895, having been for fifty-five years closely identified with the progress of steam navigation on the Ottawa, and having earned for himself a high reputation. His brother, Captain H. W. Shepherd, who succeeded him in the command of the Lady Simpson in 1853, is now the commodore of the fleet—the oldest and most experienced captain on the Ottawa, who in all these years has not been chargeable for any accident to life or limb of the many thousands who have been committed to his care. The head office of the company is in Montreal, Mr. R. W. Shepherd, a son of the founder, being the Managing Director.
In the Province of Ontario.[62]
As already mentioned in the previous chapter, the Frontenac and the Queen Charlotte were the first two steamers in Upper Canada, launched respectively in 1816 and 1818. In 1824 another steamer was built for Hon. Robert Hamilton—the Queenston, of 350 tons—which was at first commanded by Captain Joseph Whitney and plied between Prescott, York and Niagara. The Canada, Captain Hugh Richardson, came out in 1826 and used to run from York to Niagara (36 miles) in four hours. The famous Alciope, of 450 tons, Captain Mackenzie, appeared in 1828, and plied with great éclat between Niagara, York, and Kingston, under the Hamilton flag.
The late Hon. John Hamilton, who for many years may almost be said to have controlled the passenger traffic on the Upper Canada route, commenced his connection with the steamboat business about the year 1830, when he built the Great Britain, of 700 tons, the largest vessel then on the lake. After this there was a rapid succession of steamers, and some very fine ones. The Cobourg, of 500 tons, Captain Macintosh, came out in 1833; the Commodore Barrie, 275 tons, Captain Patterson, in 1834. The Sir Robert Peel, 350 tons, one of the finest boats then on the lake, was seized and burned on the night of May 29th, 1838, by a gang of rebels headed by the notorious Bill Johnson. The Queen Victoria, Thomas Dick, commander, launched in 1837, was advertised to sail daily between Lewiston, Niagara and Toronto, connecting at Toronto with the William IV. for Kingston and Prescott. “This splendid fast sailing steamer is fitted up in elegant style, and is offered to the public as a speedy and safe conveyance.” The Sovereign, 500 tons, Captain Elmsley, R.N., Captain Dick’s City of Toronto, and the famous Highlander, Captain Stearns, began to run about 1840. The Chief Justice Robinson, Captain Wilder, the Princess Royal, Captain Twohey, and Captain Sutherland’s Eclipse were all noted steamers in their day. The Traveller and the William IV., Captain Paynter, both powerful steamers, famous also for many years, ended their careers as tow-boats, the latter being conspicuous by her four funnels.
“These steamers, and others that could be named,” says one of my informants, “bring to mind good seaworthy ships, fit for any weather and commanded by able seamen. Nor was the steward’s department unworthy of the vessels. As good a breakfast and dinner was served on board as could be desired.” Such were some of the early steamboats in Upper Canada more than fifty years ago, for which the public are indebted to the Hon. John Hamilton, Mr. Alpheus Jones, of Prescott, Mr. Donald Bethune, of Cobourg, and Mr. Heron, of Niagara, as well as to Captains Dick, Sutherland and Richardson.
OLD “WILLIAM IV.,” 1832.
Up to 1837 the lake steamers did not venture farther down than Kingston, but about that time they commenced running through the Lake of the Thousand Islands to Prescott. From that point the small steamer Dolphin sailed every morning for the head of the Long Sault rapids, enabling passengers to reach Montreal the same evening. The route was from Dickenson’s Landing to Cornwall by stage, thence through Lake St. Francis by steamer to Coteau du Lac, thence by stage over a plank road to the Cascades, where the quaint old steamer Chieftain would be waiting to convey passengers to Lachine to be driven thence in a coach and six to Montreal. It was not until 1848, when the enlarged Lachine Canal was opened, that the Upper Canada steamers began to run all the rapids of the St. Lawrence as they now do.
In 1840 Mr. Hamilton had built a powerful steamer, the Ontario, with the expectation that she might be able to ascend the rapids, but failing in this she was sold to a Montreal firm and placed on the Quebec route. The Ontario descended all the rapids of the St. Lawrence safely on the 19th of October, 1840, being the first large steamer to do so. Facile descensus! It is not recorded that more than one steamer ever succeeded in ascending those rapids. In November, 1838, the little Dolphin, after four weeks of incessant toil, was towed up the Long Sault rapids with the aid of twenty yoke of oxen, besides horses, capstans and men, added to the working of her engine—the first and probably the last steamer that will ever accomplish the feat. About this time the Iroquois, with one large stern-wheel, was built for the purpose of stemming the swift currents between Prescott and Dickenson’s Landing, but had so much difficulty in ascending the river that at Rapide Plat and other points posts were sunk at short distances along the shore to each of which she made fast in turn until she recovered her breath.
“PASSPORT,” SHOOTING THE RAPIDS IN HER FIFTIETH YEAR.
The completion of the canals prepared the way for a larger class of steamers between Lake Ontario and Montreal, and the “Royal Mail Line” was accordingly re-enforced. The Passport was built of iron on the Clyde and brought out in sections in 1847, and is still in commission and in good running order. The Magnet, also built of iron and on the Clyde, and in which Captain Sutherland had a large pecuniary interest, came out shortly after the Passport, and under the name of the Hamilton, in command of Captain A. J. Baker, is now, in her green old age, and with her hull as sound as a bell, performing a weekly service between Montreal and Hamilton. The Kingston, since named the Algerian, followed in 1855, and was first commanded by Captain Clarke Hamilton, now of H. M. Customs at Kingston. About this time the Brockville, Captain Day, the Gildersleeve, Captain Bowen, the Banshee, Captain Howard, and the Lord Elgin, Captain Farlinger, were well-known and favourite boats.
The fifteen years from 1840 to 1855 were the most prosperous in the history of steam navigation on Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence. The Americans had at that time several lines of steamers plying between Ogdensburg, Oswego, Rochester and Lewiston. Some of these were large and very fine passenger steamers, such as the United States, the Bay State, the New York, the Rochester, the Lady of the Lake, the Northerner, the Cataract, and the Niagara. The Great Western Railway Company had also a fleet of splendid steamers—the Canada, the America, the Europa and the Western World. At the breaking out of the American civil war, most of these vessels and some others were purchased by the United States Government and taken round to New York. Their places on the lake are now occupied by numerous screw propellers, chiefly doing a freight business, but many of them having excellent accommodation for passengers also.
The opening of the Grand Trunk Railway in 1855 proved disastrous to the steamboat interests. Mr. Hamilton, as well as many others, struggled gallantly for a time, endeavouring to stem the tide of competition with the new system of transportation, but about the year 1862 he was obliged to retire from the business which he had created and carried on successfully for thirty years. The steamers in which he had a large personal interest were sold to a joint stock company, which was named the “Canadian Steam Navigation Company.” Mr. Hamilton was appointed General Manager of the new company; Sir Hugh Allan, President, and Alexander Milloy. Secretary-Treasurer. A few years later Captain Thomas Howard became Superintendent of the line, a position which he held until 1881, when he was appointed Harbour-master in Montreal. He died in Montreal on Easter Sunday, 1898. In 1875 the company united with the Richelieu Company, as already stated.
“CORONA,” ON NIAGARA RIVER, 1896.
Lake Ontario.—The volume of steam traffic on Lake Ontario at the present time, though not to be compared with that on the Upper Lakes, is by no means inconsiderable. From the official “Report of Trade and Navigation of the Dominion for 1895,” the arrival and departure of steamers at eighteen ports of entry on Lake Ontario, either as coasting vessels or as trading with the United States, was 17,558, and an aggregate of 6,443,443 registered tonnage; to which must be added the large amount of steam shipping that frequents the harbours on the American side of the lake, as at Lewiston, Oswego, Sackett’s Harbour, Cape Vincent, and that descends the St. Lawrence to Ogdensburg. Niagara heads the list on the Canadian side with 3,198 arrivals and departures, and 1,581,643 tonnage. Toronto, with 3,844 arrivals and departures, counts for 1,569,123 steam tonnage; Kingston stands third, with 3,563 vessels, and 882,414 tonnage. Hamilton is represented by 427,100 tonnage. After these come Belleville, Picton, Cobourg, Port Hope, Deseronto and Port Dalhousie, in the order named, and eight other smaller ports, each contributing its quota.
Toronto is largely interested in steam navigation. Not to speak of numerous steam yachts, ferry steamers and tug-boats, it controls a large passenger traffic. The Niagara Navigation Company of Toronto has three very fine steamers running to Niagara and Lewiston—the Chicora, Chippewa and Corona. The Chicora was built in England, as a “blockade runner,” more than thirty years ago, but the civil war was ended before she reached this side of the Atlantic. She is an iron side-wheel vessel of 518 tons, with a rakish, Old-Country look about her. The Chippewa, built at Hamilton, Ont., in 1893, is a very fine paddle-wheel steamer of 850 tons, modelled somewhat after the Hudson River boats, with a conspicuous walking-beam. The latest addition to the fleet is the Corona, launched in May, 1896, from the noted ship-building yard of the Polsons, Toronto, which takes the place of the Cibola, a Clyde-built steel steamer, put together by the Rathbun Company, Deseronto, in 1887, and which was burned at Lewiston in 1895. The Corona is claimed by her owners to be “a model of marine architecture, and one of the finest day-steamers in the world!” Though only 277 feet long, and 32 feet beam (59 feet over the guards), she carries nearly two thousand passengers. The hull is constructed of open hearth steel. The engine is of the inclined compound condensing type, and develops nearly two thousand indicated horse-power. The mechanical fittings are all of the most approved kind, and the internal arrangements highly artistic.
The Hamilton Steamboat Company has two fine powerful screw steamers, the Macassa and Modjeska, plying between Hamilton and Toronto. Both were built on the Clyde, and have been very successful financially, and also as seaworthy, fast sailing vessels. Kingston, which occupies an important position at the foot of the lake and head of the river navigation, owns a fleet of no less than forty-six steamers, and is the headquarters of half a dozen steamboat companies, some of which are largely interested in the Lake Superior trade, while others connect Kingston with ports on the Bay of Quinte, Rochester and Cape Vincent, N. Y., and Gananoque and the Thousand Islands. The James Swift plies between Kingston and Ottawa, via the Rideau Canal. The Passport, the oldest steamer now afloat in Canada, is registered at Kingston, and was built, as already stated, in 1847.
HON. JOHN HAMILTON.
The Hon. John Hamilton, whose name is so intimately associated with the rise and progress of steam navigation in Western Canada, was born at Queenston, Ontario, in 1802—the seventh and youngest son of the Hon. Robert Hamilton, formerly of Edinburgh. One of the sons founded the city of Hamilton, another attained distinction in the medical profession. John devoted the greater part of his life to the development of commerce between Montreal and the cities and towns bordering on Lake Ontario, having his headquarters at Kingston. Mr. Hamilton was a man of fine presence and highly accomplished; was called to the Legislative Council of Upper Canada by Sir John Colborne in 1831, and to the Senate of the new Dominion, by writ of Her Majesty’s sign-manual, in 1867. He was an influential member of the Presbyterian Church, and many years chairman of the Board of Trustees of Queen’s College, Kingston. He died in 1882.
In Manitoba.[63]
The first steamer to ply on the Red River was brought in pieces across the country from a tributary of the Mississippi, and rebuilt at Georgetown, a small place some twenty miles north of the present town of Moorhead. The boat was called, before its transportation, the Anson Northrup, and was afterwards known as the Pioneer. She began her career on the Red River in 1859, and in that year took a cargo to Fort Garry. She was the joint property of the Hudson’s Bay Company and Messrs. J. C. and H. C. Burbank & Co., of St. Paul, Minnesota. (A cut of this steamer may be seen in a book called “The Winnipeg Country,” published by Cupples, Upham & Co., Boston.)
The next steamer was the International, built at Georgetown, in 1861, for the Hudson’s Bay Company, at a cost of about $20,000. Her length was 160 feet, breadth 30 feet, depth (from the water-line to the ceiling of her upper saloon) 20 feet, and her registered tonnage was 133⅓ tons. She was found to be too large for the Red River navigation. The same company’s steamer, the Northcote, commenced to ply on the Saskatchewan about 1875. In 1878 there were running on the waters of Manitoba seventeen steamers, among which were the Manitoba, Dakota, Selkirk, Swallow, Minnesota, Prince Rupert, Keewatin, etc.
The Hudson’s Bay Company at that time owned a propeller which ran on Lake Winnipeg to the portage at the mouth of the Saskatchewan, where connection was made with the Northcote and a steel-built steamer, the Lilly. This company had also another steamer plying on the Red River, named the Chief Commissioner.
Since the opening of the country by railways the navigation of the Upper Red River and the Assiniboine has been of small account, but below Selkirk there is still a considerable trade carried on. There are at least half a dozen companies interested in the navigation of these waters. The North-West Navigation Company runs three steamers, the Princess, 350 tons; the Red River, 200 tons; the Marquette, 160 tons, and a number of barges. The Selkirk Fish Company owns the Sultana, of 200 tons; the Manitoba Fish Company has the City of Selkirk, of 160 tons. Besides these there is a numerous fleet of steam-tugs and barges. In all there are some fifty steamers on these inland waters. During the palmy days of Red River transportation the leading name was that of Norman W. Kittson, at that time of St. Paul, Minnesota, but formerly a trader of the old Red River settlement, who was often familiarly called “Commodore Kittson.”
In British Columbia.[64]
The pioneer steamship of the Northern Pacific was the Beaver, whose history from first to last was a very romantic one. This vessel was built at Blackwall, on the Thames, by Messrs. Green, Wigram and Green, for the Hudson’s Bay Company, and was launched in 1835 in the presence of 150,000 spectators, including William IV. and many of the English nobility. Cheers from thousands again greeted her in answer to the farewell salute of her guns when she sailed away for the New World. The Beaver was a side-wheel steamer, 101.4 feet long, 20 feet beam, and 11 feet deep; tonnage, 109. Her machinery, made by Boulton & Watt, was placed in position, but the paddle-wheels were not attached. She was rigged as a brig, and on August 27th sailed for the Pacific under canvas, in command of Captain Home, with the barque Columbia as her consort. On March 19th, 1836, the Beaver dropped anchor at the mouth of the Columbia River, having made the voyage in 204 days. In her log-book it is recorded on May 16th: “Carpenters stripping paddle-wheels. At 4 p. m. engineers got up steam, tried the engines, and found to answer very well; at 5 o’clock, came to anchor, and moored in our old berth; at 8 o’clock all hands were mustered to ‘splice the main brace’”—a nautical phrase used in reference to the custom, less common now than then, of celebrating particular events by serving out a liberal supply of rum. The Beaver went into service without delay, running up and down the coast, in and out of every bay, river and inlet between Puget Sound and Alaska, collecting furs and carrying goods for the company’s posts.
THE LAST OF THE OLD “BEAVER.”
On March 13th, 1843, the Beaver arrived at Camosun with Factor Douglas and some of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s people to found the Fort Victoria, and the first salute which echoed in what is now Victoria harbour, was fired on the 13th of June, when the fort was finished and the company’s flag hoisted.[65] “The old steamer Beaver,” as she was called, continued her rounds under different owners with remarkable regularity and success until the fatal trip in July, 1888, when she went on the rocks near the entrance to Vancouver harbour, and was totally wrecked.
THE STERNWHEELER “NELSON,” AT NELSON, B. C.
It was fourteen years after the arrival of the Beaver before much effort was made at steam-boating in these waters. About that time several small steamers were built on the Columbia River. In 1852 the Hudson’s Bay Company had another vessel built at Blackwall: this was the Otter, a screw steamer of 220 tons, with a pair of condensing engines by Penn, of Greenwich, which took the first prize at the London Exhibition in 1851. The Otter left London in January 1853, and arrived at Victoria five months later. The year 1858 witnessed a boom in steam navigation, consequent upon the rush and wild excitement of gold-seekers to the Fraser River and Cariboo. “The Surprise first woke the echoes in the grand mountain gorges in the wild regions of Fort Hope with the shrill scream of the steam-whistle, and astonished the natives with her wondrous power in breasting successfully the fierce current of the now world-renowned Fraser. That wild and unearthly yell of the imprisoned steam escaping into the free air of heaven must have astonished the denizens of those mountain fastnesses and startled man and beast into the belief that some uncanny visitor, not of earth, had dropped in upon their solitude.” The Surprise was followed by a fleet of small steamboats built in the United States. Among those were the Ranger and Maria—mere steam launches of about 40 feet in length. The Maria was brought up from San Francisco in a barge. The first boat built in British Columbia was the Governor Douglas, a good-sized stern-wheeler which commenced to ply between Victoria and the Fraser River in 1859. Among the other notable boats were the Seabird and the Eliza Anderson. The former carried immense crowds, but drew too much water for the river trade. The latter was a side-wheeler, built in Portland, 140 feet long, and of registered tonnage, 279. On her arrival at Victoria in 1859 she commenced a career of money-making which has seldom been equalled. After these appeared the Umatilla, Enterprise and Colonel Moody, the last-named being the fastest yet built for this route. All the light-draught boats were then, as they are now, stern-wheelers. About this time another and larger vessel arrived from London, the Labouchere, a side-wheel steamer, of 680 tons register, 202 feet long, 28 feet beam, and 15 feet hold. She continued running up north until 1865, when she was granted a subsidy of $1,500 a trip to carry mails between Victoria and San Francisco, but was lost on her first voyage. In 1861 more steamboats were built than in any previous year. Nearly a dozen were added to those already plying on the rivers and lakes, and the subsequent progress in steam navigation was continuous. The entrance of mining prospectors into the Kootenay country in 1886 led to the necessity of increased transportation on the Columbia River, which has gone on increasing until now on that river and the Kootenay lakes there are some of the finest river steamers in the Dominion, fitted with every comfort and appliance that experience can suggest. The development of the coast wise trade has also led to the building of special steamers both in British Columbia and also in England. The coal mines at Nanaimo and the Comox district also find employment for a large quantity of steam tonnage.[66] The aggregate amount at the four ports of Victoria, Vancouver, Nanaimo, and Westminster for 1895 was: Arrivals, 1,496,409 tons; departures, 1,513,233 tons. There are at present registered in British Columbia 161 steamboats with a tonnage of 24,153.
Besides the inland steamers there are coasting lines from Victoria and Vancouver to Portland and San Francisco, and to Puget Sound and Alaska. There are also four regular lines of steamships to Japan and China, namely, the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company, with its beautiful fleet of “Empress” steamers; the Northern Pacific Steamship Company; the Oregon R. R. and Navigation Company, and the Nipon Yunen Kaisha of Japan. There is also the direct line of steamers to Australia elsewhere referred to. The number of vessels in the different lines is uncertain, as they are increased by chartered boats whenever there is much freight moving.
In Nova Scotia.[67]
The harbour of Halifax is one of the finest in the world. It is easy of access and open all the year round. It is nearly six hundred miles nearer to Liverpool than is New York, and has therefore many advantages to offer as a point of arrival and departure for ocean steamers. It is the centre of an extensive local and coasting trade, in which a large number of both steamers and sailing vessels are employed. The number of arrivals of sea-going vessels in 1895 was 978, with a gross tonnage of 627,572 tons; the number of arrivals of coasting vessels was 3,651, of which 496 were steamers, with a tonnage of 153,790 tons. The number of steamers registered in the port is 55, with a gross tonnage of 10,912 tons. The steam tonnage which entered the port in 1896 was 212,085; the clearances were 229,653 tons.
The first steamer to enter this renowned harbour was the Royal William (Captain John Jones, R. N.), from Quebec, August 24th, 1831, which arrived here on the morning of the 31st and was welcomed with great éclat. The trip was made in six days and a half, including two days’ detention at Miramichi. The cabin fare was £6 5s., including meals and berths. Having been built for this trade, the Royal William made a number of successful voyages between Quebec and Halifax, calling at intermediate ports previous to her historic voyage across the Atlantic, which was to proclaim her the pioneer of ocean steam navigation!
The Cunard Line commenced to call at Halifax fortnightly en route to Boston, in 1840. The Britannia was the first of that famous fleet to enter the harbour of Halifax. This arrangement did not last very long, however, for, on making New York their western terminus, the Cunarders gave “the finest harbour” the go-by, never to return except in cases of emergency. There are, however, some fifteen or sixteen lines of steamers plying regularly from Halifax to Britain, the United States, the West Indies, South America, Newfoundland, and Canadian ports. During the winter months the Beaver Line, carrying the Canadian mails, calls here weekly en route from St. John, N. B., to Liverpool. The Allan Line from Liverpool to Philadelphia, via Newfoundland, touches here once a fortnight going and coming. The Furness Line has excellent steamers sailing fortnightly from London to Newfoundland and Halifax. The Canada and Newfoundland Line also maintains a good service from Halifax to St. John’s, Liverpool and London; the Jones Line to Jamaica; the Pickford and Black Line to Bermuda and the West Indies; the Musgrave Line to Havana. The Red Cross Line from New York to Newfoundland calls here; besides, a number of coasting steamers to Cape Breton, Newfoundland, Yarmouth, Bridgewater, St. Pierre and other places call at Halifax, while the Canada Atlantic and Plant Line supplies a direct route to Boston and all points in the United States.
Many “tramp” steamers call at Halifax with freight or for freight. Many call for coal. Many a storm-tossed mariner is glad to make for Halifax and to find in it a secure harbour of refuge, with all needful appliances for refitting a battered ship. The whole coast of Nova Scotia, indeed, is indented with harbours of refuge, which are the resorts of large numbers of sailing craft. The graving-dock at Halifax is the largest on this continent. It was completed in 1889 by a private company, subsidized by the Imperial and Federal Governments and the city of Halifax to the extent of about $30,000. It is 585 feet in length, 89¼ feet wide at the entrance, and has 30 feet of water on the sills. It is adapted for steamships of the Teutonic class, but is 35 feet too short for the Lucania. A few months ago it had the honour of accommodating within its walls the Indiana, one of the largest of the United States ships of war, sent here for repairs. There are three other graving-docks, the property of the Dominion Government, as follows:[68]
| At | Esquimalt, B. C., | built in | 1886, | 430 × 65 × 26½ | feet. |
| " | Kingston, Ont., | " | 1871, | 280 × 55 × 16½ | " |
| " | Levis, Que., | " | 1887, | 445 × 62 × 26½ | " |
In New Brunswick.[69]
The first steamboat in New Brunswick, the General Smyth, was launched from the yard of John Lawton, Portland, St. John, in April, 1816. Her owners were John Ward, Hugh Johnson, sen., Lauchlan Donaldson, J. C. F. Bremner, of St. John, and Robert Smith, of Fredericton. This vessel was run between St. John and Fredericton, making the round trip in a week. She started from St. John on her first trip, May 13th, 1816. She was a paddle boat. No official description of her is extant, as the registry book of that date was burned in the great fire of 1877. Later steamboats on this route were the St. George, John Ward, Fredericton, St. John, Forest Queen, Heather Bell, Olive, Prince Arthur, David Weston, Rothsay (which afterwards ran between Montreal and Quebec), the Fawn and May Queen.
The second steamer, the St. George, was launched on April 23rd, 1895, from the yard of John Owens, at Portland, St. John. Her owners were John and Charles Ward, of St. John; Jedediah Slason and James Segee, of Fredericton—the last-named being the first master of the vessel. Her tonnage was 20417⁄94; length, 105 feet; greatest breadth, 24 feet 6½ inches; depth of hold, 8 feet 6 inches. She had one mast, a standing bowsprit, square stern, and was carvel built. She had a copper boiler, and, like the General Smyth, made one trip each way between Fredericton and St. John in a week. The Victoria, the first steam ferry-boat between St. John and Carleton, commenced running September 5th, 1839.
The pioneer steamboat on the Bay of Fundy was the St. John, built at Deer Island, N. B., in 1826. In her was placed the machinery of the General Smyth. Her tonnage was 8784⁄94; length, 89 feet; breadth, 18 feet; depth, 8 feet. Later boats on this route were the Royal Tar, Fairy Queen, Maid of Erin, Pilot, Emperor, Commodore, Empress, Scud, Secret and City of Monticello. The steamers at present running from St. John are: to Digby, the steel paddle SS. Prince Rupert, 620 tons, having a speed of 18⅞ knots; to Windsor and Hantsport, N. S., the Hiawatha, 148 tons; to Yarmouth, N. S., the Alpha, 211 tons; to Grand Manan, the Flushing, 174 tons.
The first New Brunswick steamer to ply between St. John and Boston was the Royal Tar, 25690⁄94 tons, Thomas Reed, master, built at Carleton in 1835. She was burned in Penobscot Bay, October 25th, 1836, on her voyage to Portland, Maine, when thirty-two lives were lost; also a whole menagerie with elephants, horses, etc. This service is now performed daily by the International Steamship Company of Portland, Maine, who have three splendid steamers on the route—the State of Maine, 818 tons; the Cumberland, 896 tons, and the St. Croix, 1,064 tons. On the River St. John there are eight passenger steamers and eleven tug-boats. A large number of tugs also ply on the harbour. The number of steamers that entered the port during the year ending June 30th, 1897, was 823, aggregating 609,319 tons. Of these, 359 were ocean and 464 coasting steamers. The lines of ocean steamers plying to and from St. John during the winter of 1897-98 were: the Furness Line, to London and to the West Indies; the Beaver Line, carrying Her Majesty’s mails to Liverpool, via Halifax and Moville; the Allan Line and William Thomson & Co.’s boats to London; the Donaldson Line, to Glasgow, and the Head Line, to Belfast and Dublin.
Many advantages are claimed for St. John as a winter port for the Dominion. In point of distance from Liverpool it has the advantage over Portland of 80 miles, and over New York of 450 miles. Halifax is nearer England by 200 miles, but the land carriage from the West is much greater. St. John is the centre of an extensive lumber business. It is connected with Western Canada by both the Intercolonial and Canadian Pacific railways. The approach to the harbour is said to be free from fogs in the winter months, and ice is altogether unknown in the Bay of Fundy. Large sums of money have been expended during the last few years in improving the export facilities, and the lieges of St. John see no reason why this port should not become the Canadian winter terminus of the coming “Fast Line.”
Captain W. L. Waring, the Inspector of Steamboats in New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, claims that the invention and application of the compound steam-engine, which has done so much towards the increase of power and lessening the amount of fuel for its production, belongs rightfully to Canada. Though experiments had been made in using steam twice for the same engine, it was only in 1856 that John Elder, of the Fairfield Ship-building Company on the Clyde, reduced it to a practical success in Britain, and it was not until 1870 that it came into general use. Captain Waring states that the steamer Reindeer, 129 feet 9 inches long, 13 feet 8 inches wide and 8 feet deep, was built by Thomas Prichard at Fredericton, N.B., and launched April 20th, 1845, and that she was fitted with compound engines, the diameter of the high-pressure cylinder being 17 inches, of the low-pressure cylinder 32 inches, and the length of stroke 4 feet 9 inches. “This,” says Captain Waring, “was the pioneer steamboat with engines using steam the second time. For the first four or five years she was not a success. While the principle was good, the machinery was defective, and between the incredulity of the people and the defects in the machinery she was near being laid up as a failure. After a thorough overhaul, it was demonstrated on her trial trip—the writer being on board—that she was a success, in proof of which the owners of the steamers on the St. John River bought her at an advance of four times what they offered for her in the fall.” It is added that the Reindeer’s machinery was placed in a new boat called the Antelope, which proved a great success, being very fast. It was next placed in the Admiral, where it now is, the original compound engine of 1845.
Honour to whom Honour! Mr. Barber states that the first steam fog-whistle in the world was started on Partridge Island, at the entrance of St. John harbour, in 1860, under the superintendency of Mr. T. T. Vernon Smith. “The whistle was made by Mr. James Fleming, of St. John, in 1859.”
In Prince Edward Island.[70]
The smallest of the provinces of the Dominion and the last to enter Confederation, in 1873, has long been noted for its marine enterprise, its ship-building, and its fisheries. As many as a hundred sea-going vessels have been built there in a single year; but iron and steel in these days have so largely superseded wood, this branch of industry has greatly decreased in Prince Edward Island, which modestly claims not much more than 2 per cent. of the registered steam tonnage of the Dominion of Canada.
The first steamer to enter any port in Prince Edward Island was a tug-boat, built in Pictou for the Albion Mines Coal Company, and named after the then manager, Richard Smith. She brought over a party of excursionists to Charlottetown, on August 5th, 1830, and returned the same day. On September 7th, 1831, the famous Royal William, on her first return voyage from Halifax to Quebec, called at Charlottetown, but as the merchants of that place declined to purchase the fifty shares of stock in the new enterprise, which they had been offered conditionally, she called there no more. On May 11th, 1832, a steamer named the Pocahontas, built in Pictou, commenced to ply between that port and Charlottetown, about fifty miles distant, under arrangement with the post-office authorities. This vessel was followed at successive intervals by the Cape Breton, the St. George, the Rose, and the Rosebud, the last three being owned on the Island. A fine steamer, the Lady Marchant, owned in Richibucto, also made Charlottetown a port of call. There were many periods, however, between these steamers when communication with the Island had to be kept up by sailing schooners, until about 1852, when a regular service was commenced by the Fairy Queen and the Westmoreland, between Point du Chene and Summerside, and thence to Charlottetown and Pictou.
In 1863 the Prince Edward Island Steam Navigation Company was organized, and the steamer Heather Belle, built in Charlottetown, began the service in 1864, followed by the Princess of Wales, built at St. John, N.B. The St. Lawrence was added in 1868. With these three steamers a regular service was maintained between Miramichi, Richibucto, Point du Chene, Summerside, Charlottetown, Brulé and Pictou, until the railway was opened to Pictou, when the service was extended to Port Hood and Hawkesbury, on the Gut of Canso, and to Georgetown and Murray Harbour on the Island. Again, on the completion of the Cape Breton railway and the extension of the Island railway to Georgetown, the service was changed to a daily route between Charlottetown and Pictou, and Summerside and Point du Chene, as at present. The new steamers, Northumberland and Princess, are scarcely surpassed for the work they have to do by any steamers in Canada, and the company are able to show a record which is probably unique—that during thirty-three years not an accident has occurred by which a person or a package of freight has been injured.
Some years ago the North Atlantic Steamship Company was organized at Charlottetown, with a view of establishing a direct trade with the Old Country. The fleet consisted of one steamer only, the Prince Edward, and as the enterprise did not prove self-sustaining, after having run for several seasons the vessel was sold at a considerable loss to the shareholders.
The Winter Ferry.
Prince Edward Island, lying in the southern part of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, is separated from the mainland by the Strait of Northumberland, which at its narrowest point is about nine miles wide. Owing to the accumulation of ice by which this strait is obstructed in winter, communication with the Island at that season of the year has always been attended with difficulty and not unfrequently with danger. For many years the only conveyance for mails and passengers in winter was by means of open boats or canoes manned by expert boatmen. Latterly these boats, most of which now belong to the Government of Canada, have been greatly improved. They now make the passage never less than three together, each manned by five able men, and the fleet under the charge of an experienced ice-captain. If large ice-fields should be jammed between capes Tormentine and Traverse, the crossing may be made without putting the boats into the water at all—the men, assisted by the male passengers, hauling the boats over the ice by straps fastened to the gunwales. When the ice is good the passage may be made in three or four hours. At other times lanes of open water occur into which the boats are launched and rowed as far as practicable. If there is much “lolly” to work through, this entails great loss of time and labour. Or the ice may be very rough and hummocky, which makes the crossing difficult and tedious. When overtaken by a snow-storm there is danger of losing the bearings and of travelling in the wrong direction. There have been occasions when parties have been out all night and nearly perished; but since the Government has taken charge of the ferry better regulations are in force. Each boat carries a fixed number of passengers and a limited amount of mail and baggage. This, with carrying compasses, provisions, and proper fur wraps, has greatly improved the service.
The ice attached to the shores on either side of the strait extends about one mile, leaving seven miles for the ferry, but owing to the run of the tide—about four miles an hour—which carries with it, to and fro, huge masses of ice, often closely packed, the actual distance traversed by the boat is greatly increased. Horses and sleighs await the arrival of the boats at the board-ice on either side, when the passengers and mails are conveyed to the boat-sheds. For about two months every winter this boat service proves the quickest and most reliable means of crossing, and it is likely to remain so.
At the time of Confederation the Dominion Government guaranteed to provide the Island with a steam ferry service. The first effort to carry out the agreement was made by employing an old steamer, the Albert, to run between Pictou and Georgetown, but she had not sufficient power to force her way through the ice. In the meantime the Northern Light was being built at Quebec—a vessel of considerable power and extraordinary shape. She drew nineteen feet aft, and it was intended that her keel, forward, should be above the water-line, but owing to a miscalculation as to her displacement, it proved to be some two feet below, and this spoiled her for ice-breaking; but on the Whole she did good service from 1876 to 1888, although she was often “frozen in,” and was for several weeks at a time fast in the ice when full of passengers.
The Stanley, which succeeded the Northern Light, was built in 1888 at Govan on the Clyde, after the model of similar ice-steamers in Norway and Sweden. She has done excellent service, and her powers of breaking ice and separating large floes must be seen to be understood or believed. That she has not been able to keep up continuous communication does not surprise those who know what the Gulf is at some seasons of the year. She has made passages when it seemed futile to expect it; and while she has been imprisoned in the ice for as much as three weeks at a time, she has made the voyage from Pictou to Georgetown—40 miles—in two hours and a half. During the season 1894-95 the Stanley carried 1,600 passengers. Her earnings were $9,266.92; the cost of her repairs and maintenance was $28,179.32.
“STANLEY,” WINTER FERRY-BOAT TO PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND, 1881.
The Stanley is built throughout of Siemens-Martin steel. Her dimensions are: length, 207 feet; breadth, 32 feet; depth, 20 feet 3 inches. She is a screw boat of 914 tons gross, and 300 horse-power, and attains a speed of nearly 15 knots in clear water. She is so constructed that she runs up on heavy ice, breaking it with her sheer weight. At times she has passed through what is called “shoved ice,” eight feet in thickness. She has good state room accommodation for about fifty cabin passengers, and is in every way a very efficient, powerful and staunch boat.
In the spring and fall of the year the Stanley is employed in the Coast Buoy service; in summer she takes her place in the Fisheries’ Protection fleet, and proves herself a smart and formidable cruiser and a terror to evil-doers. She commences the winter mail service from Charlottetown to Pictou about the first of December, and about Christmas, when the Charlottetown harbour is frozen over, she takes up the route from Pictou to Georgetown, at the eastern end of Prince Edward Island. When she is imprisoned in the ice, as frequently happens, the mails and passengers are taken by the open boats in manner above described. From February 8th to April 12th, 1895, when the Stanley was laid up for repairs, the ice-boat service carried 3,497 mail bags, 458 pounds of baggage, 76 pounds of express goods, 9 passengers, and 77 “strap-passengers.”