Sir Sandford Fleming, who has made a study of this subject, and published his opinions respecting it in a series of pamphlets, is not sanguine as to the success of the undertaking. “The conditions imposed by nature,” he says, “are unfavourable for rapid transit by the St. Lawrence route, and any attempts to establish on this route a line of fast transatlantic steamships to rival those running to and from New York would result in disappointment.” In the event of such a service being instituted, Sir Sandford assumes that it would be almost exclusively for the use of passengers, and suggests that the route should be from Loch Ryan, on the Wigtonshire coast of Scotland, to North Sydney, in Cape Breton. The distance between these points being only 2,160 knots, the voyage might be made in 4½ days, while 30 hours more would land mails and passengers in Montreal by railway. In this way the average time from London to Montreal would be reduced to 6 days and 6 hours—36 hours less than the time usually occupied between Montreal and London via New York and Queenstown.
“In connection with the ocean service there might also be a line of fast light-draught steamers to run to and from Montreal to Sydney and the Gulf ports. In this way the people of the Maritime Provinces, including Newfoundland, would share in the benefits to be derived from the fast ocean service equally with those of Quebec and Ontario.” Sir Sandford’s idea is to have the fastest ocean ship on the shortest ocean passage, and by all means to avoid the Straits of Belle Isle, “the saving of a few hours being insufficient to counterpoise the tremendous risks to which fast passenger steamships, in navigating the Belle Isle route, would so seriously and frequently be exposed.” It is claimed that if this plan were adopted three ocean steamers would suffice instead of four. Reference to the accompanying sketch-map, showing the relative positions of Sydney, Newfoundland, and the Straits of Belle Isle, with the existing lines of railway, will help to make Sir Sandford’s proposal clear.
Among other proposals, an English syndicate recently offered to furnish a 24-knot service between Milford-Haven, on the coast of Wales, and a port in Nova Scotia, representing to the British Government that they would be able to carry troops across the Atlantic in four days, and land them in Victoria in six days more. But the 24-knot steamship has not yet been launched.
MAP OF THE GULF OF ST. LAWRENCE AND NORTH ATLANTIC PORTS.
(Kindly furnished by Sir Sandford Fleming.)
Sir Sandford Fleming, K. C. M. G., LL. D., C. E., is one of Canada’s most eminent civil engineers. He was born at Kirkcaldy, Fifeshire, Scotland, January 7th, 1827, came to Canada at the age of eighteen, and has ever since been identified with the progress and development of the country. He was on the engineering staff of the Northern Railway from 1852 to 1863, and for the latter half of that time was chief engineer of the work. He was chief engineer of the Intercolonial Railway, and carried it through to a successful completion in 1876. In 1871 he was appointed engineer-in-chief of the Canadian Pacific Railway; he retired from that position in 1880 and was subsequently elected a director of the company. He received the freedom of the Royal Burgh of Kirkcaldy and the degree of LL. D. from the University of St. Andrews in 1884: was appointed to represent Canada at the International Prime Meridian Conference in Washington in 1884: at the Colonial Conference, London, in 1887, at the Colonial Conference in Ottawa, in 1894, and at the Imperial Cable Conference in London, in 1896. Sir Sandford has been Chancellor of Queen’s University at Kingston since 1880. He is the author of numerous scientific and other publications, is an active member of the Royal Colonial Institute of London, and on the occasion of Her Majesty’s Diamond Jubilee was accorded the honour of knighthood.
The conflicting rumours, which for many months have been in circulation as to the inability of Messrs. Peterson, Tate & Company to fulfil the terms of their agreement, have finally been set at rest by the cancelling of the contract, and the Canadian Government calling for tenders for a weekly steamship service for carrying Her Majesty’s mails for a period of two years from the 1st of May, 1899, from Montreal and Quebec to Liverpool, during the summer months, and from St. John, N. B., and Halifax in winter. The time occupied in making the voyage from Rimouski to Moville and vice versa, is not to exceed an average of seven days. This is clearly a temporary arrangement and not an implied abandonment of a faster service than already exists. The opinion, however, in business circles seems to be gaining ground that something much less costly than a twenty-knot service might for some years to come meet the requirements of the country.