A Century of Sail and Steam on the Niagara River

by Barlow Cumberland

The situation had been at times alarming. At Lewiston the docks were completely engulfed under 60 feet of ice, the ice pinnacles sweeping up high above the level of the swollen water and carrying away a portion of the gallery of the hotel. On the Queenston side a mark has been placed about thirty feet above the usual water level showing the height to which the ice hummocks rose. At Niagara-on-the-Lake the ice mounted high above the level of the dock, but by happy fortune a good sized iceberg had grounded in the channel at the end of the dock leading into the inner basin. Here it held out as a buffer outside the line of the "piling" along the bank, withstanding all the attacks from above, and thrusting the floes out into the stream, thus preserving the dock, lighthouse and buildings from destruction.

When the waters subsided the shores of the river for twenty to thirty feet above the usual level were found to have been swept clear of every bush and tree from the rapids to the lake, a condition from which they have scarcely yet recovered. It was not until the end of May that the river was entirely free from ice. In reconstructing the dock we were able to introduce new improvements which would not have been previously possible.

1909 brought no further changes in the steamers, but a gradual increase in the travelling due to increased energy in the cultivation of new business and careful attention to the convenience and comfort of passengers by the management and efficient staff.

For many years, from time to time, the company has been endeavoring to purchase the Toronto docks which were the Northern terminal of their system. Four times we had been turned out of its occupation and obliged to find landing berths elsewhere. The necessity of holding their Toronto terminal was constantly before the Company and was the only and complete sequence of the holding of the several terminals at the ports upon the Niagara River. At last, in 1910, the opportunity of purchase arose and was immediately availed of. With this purchase the Company completed the policy which had been initiated from its very beginning. This Yonge Street dock property, extending from Yonge Street to Scott Street, has ever been the steamshipping centre of the city, for traffic to all ports on the lake. Its facilities can be still more expanded so that, for the convenience of the public, all the lake passenger lines can be concentrated at its wharves to the mutual advantage of all, a policy which the Niagara Company desired to promote and which has been contributed to by the purchase and concentration of the steamers of the Hamilton Line. This, effected in 1911, concentrates into one management an important passenger business and brings direct connection, as of old, between Hamilton, the Head of the Lake, and the Niagara River. These, together with the opening of a new route to the south shore by service between Toronto and Olcott, in connection with the International Electric Railway, will open a new era of contributing traffic.

Beginning with one steamer, the "Mother of the Fleet," the Line from one trip a day has, in its 35 years of endeavour, grown to be nothing short of "The Niagara Ferry," served by swift steamers, of increasing size, making six trips from each side, leaving every two hours during the day, and by persistent advertising and increasingly reputable service, the Company has made the "Niagara River Line" known throughout the travelling world, and created a business and carrying capacity which has risen on heavy excursion days to no less than 20,000 to 26,000 passengers moved on one day. What the "Kyles of Bute" route is to the tourist public of Great Britain and Europe, the Niagara River Line is to the tourist public of America. Toronto has trebled its population and in great industrial enterprises is forging ahead of all other cities in Ontario. Niagara Falls, with its wonderfully increasing factories created by the concentration of the electric power in its midst, has grown from being solely a summer hotel town to a great manufacturing community. Buffalo, with a population at present of 500,000, is expanding marvelously. The Richelieu & Ontario Company, for which the Niagara Company collects the passenger business of the south shore through the gateway of the Niagara and places it for them in Toronto, has exceedingly increased their accommodation and made known their service as a contributor to the route from the St. Lawrence to the ocean.

Whatever success there has been in the past, the prospects of the future shine brighter still.

In 1912, while these pages were being written, has come the final phase.

It will be remembered that in the early days the steamers for Montreal sailed direct from the Niagara River and that the guiding minds of the Royal Mail Line were at Queenston in 1847 and for subsequent decades.

In the slump of steamboat traffic and the decadence of the river business the Montreal steamers had shortened their route, and had made Hamilton, for some time, and afterwards Toronto, the starting point for their steamers for Montreal.

The introduction of the Niagara Navigation Company had produced a change of conditions on the river, and by energy and bold investment, had created an effective local organization, as has been detailed in this narrative.