Christmas was a happy and well-earned rest. We had completed the first part of the undertaking, but not for unmeasured wealth would the experience be repeated. Youth is energetic and looks forward in roseate hope, so the anxieties and risks were soon forgotten, and all nerves turned toward the business engagements and profits, which, now that we had her safe in hand, the boat was to be set to earn.
The balance of that winter, and the spring of 1878 were fully occupied in rebuilding the upper works of the steamer in their new form adapted to her service as a day boat and in overhauling and setting up the engine after their long rest. Not long after our arrival, Captain Manson developed a severe inflammation, which confined him to his room in the Richmond House. Here, bright and cheerful to the last, he died on 29th February and was buried in Collingwood on March 2nd, deeply regretted by all sailorfolk and particularly by our crew. Five others of that crew, lost with the Wabuno and Asia, found watery graves in the waters of the Georgian Bay. The writer is now the sole survivor, and Mr. R. H. M. McBride, and he the only remaining members of the original company.
For the interior work a party of experienced French-Canadian ship joiners were brought up from Sorel, no centre of ship carpentering existing in Ontario at that time.
The comely main stairway which gives such adornment to the entrance hall was then erected in all its grace of re-entrant curves, ornate pillars, and flowing sweep of head-rail and balustrade. When one thinks of the unnumbered thousands of travellers who have passed up and down its convenient steps, ones admiration and respect are raised for the French-Canadian Foreman who designed its form and executed it with such honest and capable workmanship, that to-day it still displays its lines of beauty without a creak or strain.
The octagonal wheel-house of the upper lakes which had been brought by rail from Collingwood was re-erected with its columned sides and graceful curving cornice under which was again hung the little blockade-running bell, lettered "Let Her B."
CHAPTER VIII.
The Niagara Portal—History of Names at Newark and Niagara—A Winter of Changes—A New Rivalry Begun.
On the south side of Lake Ontario, opposite Toronto, is the Niagara Portal, where the mouth of the Niagara River, with high banks on either hand, makes its entrance into the lake, forming the only uninterrupted deep water harbour on that shore.