Many “tramp” steamers call at Halifax with freight or for freight. Many call for coal. Many a storm-tossed mariner is glad to make for Halifax and to find in it a secure harbour of refuge, with all needful appliances for refitting a battered ship. The whole coast of Nova Scotia, indeed, is indented with harbours of refuge, which are the resorts of large numbers of sailing craft. The graving-dock at Halifax is the largest on this continent. It was completed in 1889 by a private company, subsidized by the Imperial and Federal Governments and the city of Halifax to the extent of about $30,000. It is 585 feet in length, 89¼ feet wide at the entrance, and has 30 feet of water on the sills. It is adapted for steamships of the Teutonic class, but is 35 feet too short for the Lucania. A few months ago it had the honour of accommodating within its walls the Indiana, one of the largest of the United States ships of war, sent here for repairs. There are three other graving-docks, the property of the Dominion Government, as follows:[68]
| At | Esquimalt, B. C., | built in | 1886, | 430 × 65 × 26½ | feet. |
| " | Kingston, Ont., | " | 1871, | 280 × 55 × 16½ | " |
| " | Levis, Que., | " | 1887, | 445 × 62 × 26½ | " |
In New Brunswick.[69]
The first steamboat in New Brunswick, the General Smyth, was launched from the yard of John Lawton, Portland, St. John, in April, 1816. Her owners were John Ward, Hugh Johnson, sen., Lauchlan Donaldson, J. C. F. Bremner, of St. John, and Robert Smith, of Fredericton. This vessel was run between St. John and Fredericton, making the round trip in a week. She started from St. John on her first trip, May 13th, 1816. She was a paddle boat. No official description of her is extant, as the registry book of that date was burned in the great fire of 1877. Later steamboats on this route were the St. George, John Ward, Fredericton, St. John, Forest Queen, Heather Bell, Olive, Prince Arthur, David Weston, Rothsay (which afterwards ran between Montreal and Quebec), the Fawn and May Queen.
The second steamer, the St. George, was launched on April 23rd, 1895, from the yard of John Owens, at Portland, St. John. Her owners were John and Charles Ward, of St. John; Jedediah Slason and James Segee, of Fredericton—the last-named being the first master of the vessel. Her tonnage was 20417⁄94; length, 105 feet; greatest breadth, 24 feet 6½ inches; depth of hold, 8 feet 6 inches. She had one mast, a standing bowsprit, square stern, and was carvel built. She had a copper boiler, and, like the General Smyth, made one trip each way between Fredericton and St. John in a week. The Victoria, the first steam ferry-boat between St. John and Carleton, commenced running September 5th, 1839.
The pioneer steamboat on the Bay of Fundy was the St. John, built at Deer Island, N. B., in 1826. In her was placed the machinery of the General Smyth. Her tonnage was 8784⁄94; length, 89 feet; breadth, 18 feet; depth, 8 feet. Later boats on this route were the Royal Tar, Fairy Queen, Maid of Erin, Pilot, Emperor, Commodore, Empress, Scud, Secret and City of Monticello. The steamers at present running from St. John are: to Digby, the steel paddle SS. Prince Rupert, 620 tons, having a speed of 18⅞ knots; to Windsor and Hantsport, N. S., the Hiawatha, 148 tons; to Yarmouth, N. S., the Alpha, 211 tons; to Grand Manan, the Flushing, 174 tons.
The first New Brunswick steamer to ply between St. John and Boston was the Royal Tar, 25690⁄94 tons, Thomas Reed, master, built at Carleton in 1835. She was burned in Penobscot Bay, October 25th, 1836, on her voyage to Portland, Maine, when thirty-two lives were lost; also a whole menagerie with elephants, horses, etc. This service is now performed daily by the International Steamship Company of Portland, Maine, who have three splendid steamers on the route—the State of Maine, 818 tons; the Cumberland, 896 tons, and the St. Croix, 1,064 tons. On the River St. John there are eight passenger steamers and eleven tug-boats. A large number of tugs also ply on the harbour. The number of steamers that entered the port during the year ending June 30th, 1897, was 823, aggregating 609,319 tons. Of these, 359 were ocean and 464 coasting steamers. The lines of ocean steamers plying to and from St. John during the winter of 1897-98 were: the Furness Line, to London and to the West Indies; the Beaver Line, carrying Her Majesty’s mails to Liverpool, via Halifax and Moville; the Allan Line and William Thomson & Co.’s boats to London; the Donaldson Line, to Glasgow, and the Head Line, to Belfast and Dublin.
Many advantages are claimed for St. John as a winter port for the Dominion. In point of distance from Liverpool it has the advantage over Portland of 80 miles, and over New York of 450 miles. Halifax is nearer England by 200 miles, but the land carriage from the West is much greater. St. John is the centre of an extensive lumber business. It is connected with Western Canada by both the Intercolonial and Canadian Pacific railways. The approach to the harbour is said to be free from fogs in the winter months, and ice is altogether unknown in the Bay of Fundy. Large sums of money have been expended during the last few years in improving the export facilities, and the lieges of St. John see no reason why this port should not become the Canadian winter terminus of the coming “Fast Line.”
Captain W. L. Waring, the Inspector of Steamboats in New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, claims that the invention and application of the compound steam-engine, which has done so much towards the increase of power and lessening the amount of fuel for its production, belongs rightfully to Canada. Though experiments had been made in using steam twice for the same engine, it was only in 1856 that John Elder, of the Fairfield Ship-building Company on the Clyde, reduced it to a practical success in Britain, and it was not until 1870 that it came into general use. Captain Waring states that the steamer Reindeer, 129 feet 9 inches long, 13 feet 8 inches wide and 8 feet deep, was built by Thomas Prichard at Fredericton, N.B., and launched April 20th, 1845, and that she was fitted with compound engines, the diameter of the high-pressure cylinder being 17 inches, of the low-pressure cylinder 32 inches, and the length of stroke 4 feet 9 inches. “This,” says Captain Waring, “was the pioneer steamboat with engines using steam the second time. For the first four or five years she was not a success. While the principle was good, the machinery was defective, and between the incredulity of the people and the defects in the machinery she was near being laid up as a failure. After a thorough overhaul, it was demonstrated on her trial trip—the writer being on board—that she was a success, in proof of which the owners of the steamers on the St. John River bought her at an advance of four times what they offered for her in the fall.” It is added that the Reindeer’s machinery was placed in a new boat called the Antelope, which proved a great success, being very fast. It was next placed in the Admiral, where it now is, the original compound engine of 1845.