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]
Canadian Fast Atlantic Service.
Ever since the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1885, the idea of instituting a fast service between Great Britain and the St. Lawrence has been regarded with yearly increasing favour. Now it is regarded as a necessary link in the chain that binds the colony to the Mother Land, and indispensable if this route is to become Britain’s highway to the East.
As early as 1887 the Canadian Government advertised for tenders for a line of Atlantic mail steamers to have an average speed of 20 knots an hour, coupled with the condition that they should touch at some French port. The Allans, who at that time deemed a 20-knot service unsuited to the St. Lawrence route, offered to supply a weekly service with a guaranteed average speed of 17 knots, for an annual subsidy of $500,000 on a ten years’ contract. That offer was declined. About the same time the English firm of Anderson, Anderson & Co. offered to provide a line of vessels “capable of running 20 knots” for the same subsidy. This dubious offer was accepted provisionally by the Canadian Government, but it was eventually fallen from. Two years later another abortive attempt was made, when the Government of the day voted $750,000 as an annual subsidy for a 20-knot service; but nothing resulted. In 1894 Mr. James Huddart, of Sydney, N. S. W. (the contractor for the Vancouver-Australian Line of steamers), entered into an agreement with the Dominion Government for a weekly 20-knot service for said amount of $750,000 per annum. For reasons that need not be explained, this proposal also fell through. In 1896 the Allans were said to have tendered for a 20-knot service on the basis of a subsidy of $1,125,000, but the offer was declined owing to some informalities.
In view of so many failures it is scarcely safe to affirm that the fast service is now assured. In May, 1897, however, it was officially announced by the Canadian Government that a contract had been entered into, with the approval of the British Government, whereby Messrs. Peterson, Tate & Co., of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, agreed to furnish a weekly service with a guaranteed speed of at least 500 knots a day. The contractors are to provide four steamers of not less than 520 feet in length, with a draft of water not exceeding 25 feet 6 inches. The ships are to be not less than 10,000 tons register, fitted to carry from 1,500 to 2,000 tons of cargo, with suitable cold storage accommodation for at least 500 tons. They are to be equal in all respects to the best Atlantic steamships afloat, such as the Campania and Lucania, with accommodation for not less than 300 first-class, 200 second-class and 800 steerage passengers. The annual subsidy is to be $750,000, whereof the Canadian Government is to pay $500,000 and the British Government $250,000. The steamers are not to call at any foreign port, and the company is forbidden to accept a subsidy from any foreign country. The mails are to be carried free. The termini of the line will be Liverpool and Quebec during summer, the ships proceeding to Montreal if and when the navigation permits. In winter the Canadian terminus will be Halifax or St. John, N. B., at the option of the contractors, who are to provide a 22-knot tender of the torpedo type to meet each steamer on her approach to the Canadian coast when required, and pilot her to her destination. The contractors must deposit £10,000 in cash, and a guarantee of £10,000 additional, with the Minister of Finance of Canada as security that the contract will be faithfully carried into effect.
Twelve months having passed since the signing of the contract, without any substantial progress having been made towards its fulfilment, a new agreement was entered into in April last whereby the Government granted Messrs. Peterson and Tate an extension of time, and introduced several important changes into the contract. Under the new arrangement the contractors were required to have a steamship company incorporated by May 30th, 1898, with a substantial capital of $6,250,000, to have contracts signed with ship-builders at that date for four steamships, and to have two of them actually under construction. The 1st of May, 1900, was named as the time when the four steamers are to be ready to go on the route and commence a regular weekly service. The preliminary conditions attached to the contract appear to have been complied with, and a company has been incorporated under the name of the “Canadian Royal Mail Steamship Company, Limited;” but grave fears are entertained that the necessary funds may not be forthcoming, and that the long-expected fast service may be indefinitely delayed.