The Beaver Line.
This is an out-and-out Canadian enterprise, dating from 1867, under the name of the “Canada Shipping Company, Limited,” when several Montreal capitalists, among whom were the late William Murray and Alexander Buntin, Messrs. Alexander Urquhart, John and Hugh Maclennan and others, combined to originate a line of iron fast-sailing ships to trade between Montreal and Liverpool. Having adopted for its distinguishing flag the emblem of the Canadian beaver, the company soon came to be popularly known as the Beaver Line, a line which, though not remunerative to its originators and stockholders, is worthy of honourable mention as having contributed in many ways to the interests of Canadian trade and commerce. The company commenced with a very fine fleet of five Clyde-built iron ships of from 900 to 1,274 tons each. These were the Lake Ontario, the Lake Erie, the Lake Michigan, the Lake Huron and the Lake Superior. The ships were in themselves all that could be desired. They were beautiful to look at, and made swift voyages, but there was a necessary element of success wanting. They did not pay. In fact, they began their short-lived career at the time when the days of sailing ships were rapidly drawing to a close. The important question of steam versus sails had been settled. The Canada Shipping Company must therefore retire from the business altogether or avail themselves of the advantages of steam power. They decided upon making the experiment, and gave orders for the building of steam vessels to supersede the sailing ships. In the meantime the Lake Michigan was lost at sea with all on board, adding another to those mysterious disappearances, of which there have been so many instances—gallant ships and noble sailors setting out on their voyage buoyant with hope, reporting themselves at the last signal station as “all well,” but never to be heard of any more.
ROYAL MAIL SS. “LAKE ONTARIO,” BEAVER LINE.
CAPTAIN HOWARD CAMPBELL.
The Lake Huron was wrecked on Anticosti. The year 1875 saw the first steamers of the Beaver Line afloat. They were the Lake Champlain, Lake Megantic and Lake Nepigon, snug little ships of about 2,200 tons each, such as would pass nowadays for cruising steam yachts, but much too small for cargo ships on the Atlantic, to say nothing of the passenger business. The Lake Manitoba and Lake Winnipeg, of larger size and higher speed, were added in 1879, followed by the Lake Huron and the Lake Superior. The last-named is a fine ship of 4,562 tons, and credited with thirteen knots an hour. It was not long before three of the steamers came to grief. The Lake Megantic was wrecked on Anticosti in July, 1878; the Lake Manitoba, on St. Pierre Island, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in June, 1885; the Lake Champlain, stranded on the north coast of Ireland in June, 1886. To keep up the weekly line, the Lake Ontario, built at Sunderland in 1887, was purchased at a cost of nearly $300,000. She is a vessel of about 4,500 tons, with midship saloon, triple expansion engines, and a maximum speed of thirteen knots. She is an excellent sea boat, with good accommodation for one hundred cabin passengers. The ships of this line all carry live cattle, sheep and horses, for which they are well adapted. The Beaver Line led the way towards the reduction of transatlantic cabin passage rates on the St. Lawrence route. It also introduced the custom of embarking and landing passengers at Montreal instead of Quebec as formerly. Unfortunately the line had not been a success financially. In the winter of 1895 the boats were all tied up, the company went into liquidation, and the entire fleet was sold at a nominal price to the bondholders. During the following winter, however, the ships of this line maintained a weekly service from Liverpool to St. John, N. B., receiving from the Canadian Government a subsidy of $25,000, and in 1897 the Beaver Line was awarded the contract for carrying the Canadian mails, to be landed at Halifax in the winter months. The annual subsidy for this service is understood to be $146,000. This arrangement, however, is necessarily of a temporary nature, pending the development of the long-expected “fast service.” In the meantime the Beaver Line has added to its fleet the fine SS. Gallia, of the Cunard Line, and the Tongariro, of 4,163 tons, formerly belonging to the New Zealand Shipping Company. The service has thus far been satisfactory.
Captain Howard Campbell, of the SS. Lake Ontario, died very suddenly on Sunday morning, April 3rd, 1898. The second day out from Halifax towards Liverpool, he went on the bridge, sextant in hand, intending to take an observation. While in the act of doing so he fell into the arms of a quarter-master and died instantly. Captain Campbell had been long connected with the Beaver Line. He was widely known as a skilful mariner and a genial and accomplished man. He was born at St. Andrews, N. B., and was fifty-four years of age.
There are a number of other lines of steamships plying regularly from Montreal in summer and from different Atlantic ports in winter. They are chiefly cargo and cattle ships, with limited accommodation for passengers. Among these are the Donaldson Line, with five ships of from 2,000 to 4,272 tons, giving a weekly service to Glasgow and Bristol; the Thomson Line, with seven ships to London, Newcastle and Antwerp. The Johnston Line has regular sailings to Liverpool. The Ulster Steamship Company, or “Head Line,” has five ships running to Belfast and Dublin fortnightly. The Elder, Dempster Line has a fleet of sixteen large freight steamers, ranging from 4,500 to 12,000 tons each. Some of them are fitted with cold storage, and all of them have the modern improvements for carrying live stock and grain; they maintain a regular weekly service to London and to Bristol.[35] The Hansa St. Lawrence Line plies to Hamburg and Antwerp; the Furness Line to Antwerp and Dunkirk, and also to Manchester.[36] The Quebec Steamship Company has regular communication with Pictou, N. S., by the fine upper saloon steamship Campana, of 1,700 tons. The Black Diamond Line has five ships of from 1,500 to 2,500 tons each, plying regularly in the coal trade from Montreal to Sydney, Cape Breton, Charlottetown, P. E. I., and Newfoundland.
The export trade in live stock, which commenced here in 1874 with only 455 head of cattle, has now assumed large proportions. In 1897 there were shipped from Montreal 119,188 head of cattle, 12,179 horses and 66,319 sheep, valued in all at about $8,700,750. The cattle were valued at $60 a head, the horses at $100, and the sheep at $5.00 each. The ocean freight on cattle was $10 per head, and on sheep $1.00 each.[37]