CHAPTER VIII.
STEAM ON THE GREAT LAKES.
The History of Steam Navigation on the Great Lakes—The Construction of the St. Lawrence, the Welland, and the Rideau Canals—The Port of Montreal.
THE waterways of Canada available for steam navigation are on a magnificent scale. The main system extends from the mouth of the St. Lawrence at Belle Isle to Fort William and the head of Lake Superior—a distance of nearly 2,384 miles, and rendered navigable without interruption by a series of ship canals. Proceeding four hundred miles farther west, another long stretch of inland navigation begins with Lake Winnipeg, 240 miles long, into which, at its northern extremity, flows the mighty Saskatchewan, navigable for steamers one thousand miles! Not to mention smaller streams, the rivers St. John and Miramichi, in the Province of New Brunswick, afford 300 miles of navigable water and float a large amount of shipping. Ships of the largest size can ascend the Saguenay seventy-five miles. The Ottawa in its several reaches is navigable by steam for three or four hundred miles. Steamers ply on the Assiniboine, 250 or 300 miles westward from Winnipeg. The Mackenzie River is navigable for a thousand miles. The Fraser, the Thompson, and the Columbia rivers in British Columbia contribute largely to the steam tonnage of the Dominion. The Great Lakes,[38] commonly so called, are in reality great inland fresh water seas, often swept by gales of wind and combing billows, and sometimes, alas, strewed with wrecks. They have their breakwaters, lighthouses and steam fog-signals as fully equipped as similar oceanic structures and appliances. The Lake of the Woods and Lake Manitoba are each 100 miles long.
As early as the year 1641 a few Jesuit missionaries and fur-traders had reached the rock-bound shores of Lake Superior in their canoes, but it is not until some years later that history makes us acquainted with the first sailing vessels that appeared on the lakes. One of the earliest of these was a schooner of ten tons, built near where Kingston now is by the enterprising French adventurer, La Salle, who had been appointed Governor of Fort Frontenac, and had a roving commission to explore the western wilds of North America. Accompanied by the famous Recollet Father, Hennepin, and some thirty others, La Salle set sail on the 10th of November, 1678, for the head of Lake Ontario. Finding his further passage barred by the Falls of Niagara, he wintered in that neighbourhood and had another vessel built at Cayuga Creek, a few miles above the Falls. This vessel, which he named the Griffin, of about sixty tons burthen, was launched in May, 1679, and was probably the first to navigate the upper lakes. On the 7th of August the Griffin, equipped with seven guns and a diversity of small arms and freighted with a load of goods, sailed away for Detroit and parts unknown. The Detroit River was reached in a few days, and Green Bay—at the head of Lake Huron—some time in September, when she was loaded with furs and despatched on her return voyage to Niagara, which, however, she never reached, the vessel and cargo having been totally lost on the way. For many years after the loss of the Griffin the navigation of the lakes seems to have been chiefly confined to bateaux, and up to 1756 the construction and use of sailing vessels was largely, if not entirely, confined to Lake Ontario. The first American vessel built on Lake Erie was the schooner Washington, built near Erie, Pa., in 1797. After plying on Lake Erie one season, she was sold to a Canadian and carried on wheels around the Falls to Lake Ontario, where she sailed from Queenston for Kingston in 1798 as a British vessel, under the name of Lady Washington. In 1816 the whole sailing tonnage on Lake Erie was only 2,067 tons. In 1818 the fleet on Lake Ontario numbered about sixty vessels.
It is not necessary to enlarge on the growth and decadence of sailing vessels on the Great Lakes. Suffice it to say that the sailing vessel had reached its palmiest days between the years 1845 and 1862. In the latter year the gross tonnage of the lakes had risen to 383,309 tons, valued at $11,865,550, and was divided as follows: 320 steamers, aggregating 125,620 tons; and 1,152 sailing vessels, aggregating 257,689 tons. Side-wheel steamers numbered 117, and propellers, 203. In 1896 the entire number of sailing vessels on the Northern Lakes (including Lake Champlain) was 1,044, and of steam vessels, 1,792. Many in both of these classes were small vessels, including yachts and barges: the number actually engaged in the transportation business would be about 774 sailing vessels and 1,031 steamers over fifty tons burthen—a large proportion of the steamers being from 1,500 to 2,500 tons burthen.[39]
Coming back now to the beginning of steam navigation on the Great Lakes, we find that the first Canadian steamer to navigate any of these waters was the Frontenac, built at Finkle’s Point, eighteen miles above Kingston, by Teabout & Chapman, of Sackett’s Harbour, for a company of shareholders belonging to Kingston, Niagara, Queenston, York and Prescott. The Frontenac was launched on September 7th, 1816. Her length over all was 170 feet, and her registered tonnage, 700 tons. She cost nearly £20,000 currency. The engines were made by Watt & Boulton, of Birmingham, England, and cost about £7,000. The Frontenac was said to be the best piece of naval architecture then in America, and her departure on her first voyage was considered a great event—“she moved off from her berth with majestic grandeur, the admiration of a great number of spectators.” Her maiden trip for the head of the lake was commenced on June 5th, 1817. Her regular route was from Prescott to York (Toronto) and back, once a week. She was commanded as long as she was afloat by Captain James Mackenzie, a gallant sailor who had previously served in the Royal navy. The Frontenac eventually became the property of the Messrs. Hamilton, of Queenston. She was maliciously set on fire by some miscreants while lying at her wharf at Niagara in 1827, and was totally destroyed.
