THE “EMPIRE.”
Built at Cleveland in 1844; a notable steamer in her day, being the largest, the fastest, and the most handsomely fitted-up vessel on the Upper Lakes at that time; ran many years between Buffalo and Chicago.
The commerce of Lake Superior developed long after that of the lower lakes had been established. In the earliest records of the navigation of this lake, a brigantine named the Recovery, of about 150 tons, owned by the North-West Fur Company, is mentioned as being one of the first to sail on Lake Superior, about the year 1800. It is said that during the war of 1812, fearing that she might be seized by the Americans, her spars were taken out and her hull was covered up by branches and brushwood in a sequestered bay till peace was proclaimed. She was then taken from her hiding-place and resumed her beat on the lake until about 1830, when she was run over the Sault Ste. Marie rapids and placed in the lumber trade on Lake Erie, under the command of Captain John Fallows, of Fort Erie, Canada West. Another vessel, the Mink, is mentioned as having been brought down the rapids at an earlier period. In 1835 the John Jacob Astor, accounted a large vessel in her time, was built on Lake Superior for the American Fur Company, and placed in command of Captain Charles C. Stanard, who sailed her until 1842, when Captain J. B. Angus became master and remained in charge of her until she was wrecked at Copper Harbour in September, 1844. Passing by a number of other sailing vessels we come now to the introduction of steam on Lake Superior, and this, according to the statement of an old resident at Fort William, is how it began.
The twin-screw propeller Independence, Captain A. J. Averill, of Chicago, was the first steamer seen on Lake Superior. This vessel, rigged as a fore-and-aft schooner, was about 260 tons burthen, and was hauled over the Sault Ste. Marie rapids in 1844. Her route of sailing was on the south shore of the lake. Another propeller, the Julia Palmer, was in like manner dragged up the Ste. Marie rapids in 1846, and was the first steamer to sail on the north shore. At intervals, prior to the opening of the ship canal, several other steamers were taken up the rapids, among which were the propellers Manhattan, Monticello, and Peninsular, and the side-wheel steamers Baltimore and Sam Ward.
Previous to the completion of the Welland Canal the transportation of freight over the portage from Queenston to Chippewa had come to be quite a large business, giving employment to many “teamsters,” for the entire traffic between Lake Erie and Ontario at this point was by means of the old-fashioned lumber-wagon. At the Sault Ste. Marie portage, Mr. Keep informs us that “one old grey horse and cart” did the business for a time, but as the volume of trade increased two-horse wagons were employed until 1850, when a light tram-road was built by the Chippewa Portage Company, operated by horses, which with a capacity for moving three or four hundred tons of freight in twenty-four hours, answered the purpose up to the time of the opening of the canal in 1855.
The Canadian Canals.
Before the construction of canals these great inland waters were of but little value to commerce, the only means of reaching them being by the bark canoe or bateau of the voyageur. The United Empire Loyalists who came to Canada at the close of the American war were conveyed to their settlements on the St. Lawrence and Bay of Quinte in the long sharp-pointed, flat-bottomed boats of the period, called “bateaux,” by a very slow, laborious and uncomfortable process. General Simcoe, the first Lieutenant-Governor of Upper Canada (1791-96), is said to have sailed from Kingston to Detroit in his bark canoe, rowed by twelve chasseurs of his own regiment and followed by another canoe carrying his tents and provisions. Many still living recollect how Sir George Simpson, Governor of the Hudson’s Bay Company, made his annual canoe journeys from Montreal to the Red River country. Having “sung at St. Ann’s their parting hymn,” his flotilla of canoes ascended the Ottawa, breasted the rapids, and by river, lake and portage, after many weary days, reached Lake Huron and the Sault Ste. Marie, thence along the north shore of Lake Superior to Fort William and the Grand Portage and by Rainy Lake and Lake of the Woods to Fort Garry. “With the self-possession of an emperor he was borne through the wilderness. He is said to have made the canoe journey to the Red River forty times. For his distinguished management of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s affairs and for his services to the trade of Canada, Governor Simpson was knighted. He died in 1860, a man who would have been of mark anywhere.”[42]
As early as A. D. 1700 a boat canal was constructed by the Sulpicians to connect Lachine with Montreal via the Little St. Pierre River. The depth of water was only two and a half feet. About the year 1780 certain short cuttings with locks available for canoes and bateaux were made at a few points on the St. Lawrence where the rapids were wholly impassable. About the beginning of the century the Government of Lower Canada, appreciating the advantages of improved navigation, made liberal appropriations to that end, resulting in the completion, in 1804, of a channel three feet in depth along the shore line of the Lachine Rapids connected with short canals at the Cascades, Split Rock, and Coteau du Lac, which were provided with locks eighty-eight feet long and sixteen feet wide—small dimensions, perhaps, but at the time regarded as a vast improvement, admitting of the passage of “Durham boats,” which then took the place of bateaux, with ten times their capacity. Two small locks had also been built at the Long Sault rapids, above Cornwall. But at many points the aid of oxen and horses was required, and for many years, up to the opening of the St. Lawrence canals, indeed, the chief cash revenues of the farmers along the river front were derived from the towage of barges up the swift water, in many cases to the serious neglect of their farms. In the spirit of the religion of the early voyageurs and boatmen, crosses were erected at the head of the rapids, suggesting to those who had successfully surmounted them to rest and be thankful; hence the name, still applied to the district immediately above the Long Sault rapids, “Santa Cruz.” Here, no doubt, stood for many years one of the holy crosses before which, on bended knee, thanks would often be given for a safe ascent of the rapids.