Honour to whom Honour! Mr. Barber states that the first steam fog-whistle in the world was started on Partridge Island, at the entrance of St. John harbour, in 1860, under the superintendency of Mr. T. T. Vernon Smith. “The whistle was made by Mr. James Fleming, of St. John, in 1859.”
In Prince Edward Island.[70]
The smallest of the provinces of the Dominion and the last to enter Confederation, in 1873, has long been noted for its marine enterprise, its ship-building, and its fisheries. As many as a hundred sea-going vessels have been built there in a single year; but iron and steel in these days have so largely superseded wood, this branch of industry has greatly decreased in Prince Edward Island, which modestly claims not much more than 2 per cent. of the registered steam tonnage of the Dominion of Canada.
The first steamer to enter any port in Prince Edward Island was a tug-boat, built in Pictou for the Albion Mines Coal Company, and named after the then manager, Richard Smith. She brought over a party of excursionists to Charlottetown, on August 5th, 1830, and returned the same day. On September 7th, 1831, the famous Royal William, on her first return voyage from Halifax to Quebec, called at Charlottetown, but as the merchants of that place declined to purchase the fifty shares of stock in the new enterprise, which they had been offered conditionally, she called there no more. On May 11th, 1832, a steamer named the Pocahontas, built in Pictou, commenced to ply between that port and Charlottetown, about fifty miles distant, under arrangement with the post-office authorities. This vessel was followed at successive intervals by the Cape Breton, the St. George, the Rose, and the Rosebud, the last three being owned on the Island. A fine steamer, the Lady Marchant, owned in Richibucto, also made Charlottetown a port of call. There were many periods, however, between these steamers when communication with the Island had to be kept up by sailing schooners, until about 1852, when a regular service was commenced by the Fairy Queen and the Westmoreland, between Point du Chene and Summerside, and thence to Charlottetown and Pictou.
In 1863 the Prince Edward Island Steam Navigation Company was organized, and the steamer Heather Belle, built in Charlottetown, began the service in 1864, followed by the Princess of Wales, built at St. John, N.B. The St. Lawrence was added in 1868. With these three steamers a regular service was maintained between Miramichi, Richibucto, Point du Chene, Summerside, Charlottetown, Brulé and Pictou, until the railway was opened to Pictou, when the service was extended to Port Hood and Hawkesbury, on the Gut of Canso, and to Georgetown and Murray Harbour on the Island. Again, on the completion of the Cape Breton railway and the extension of the Island railway to Georgetown, the service was changed to a daily route between Charlottetown and Pictou, and Summerside and Point du Chene, as at present. The new steamers, Northumberland and Princess, are scarcely surpassed for the work they have to do by any steamers in Canada, and the company are able to show a record which is probably unique—that during thirty-three years not an accident has occurred by which a person or a package of freight has been injured.
Some years ago the North Atlantic Steamship Company was organized at Charlottetown, with a view of establishing a direct trade with the Old Country. The fleet consisted of one steamer only, the Prince Edward, and as the enterprise did not prove self-sustaining, after having run for several seasons the vessel was sold at a considerable loss to the shareholders.
The Winter Ferry.
Prince Edward Island, lying in the southern part of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, is separated from the mainland by the Strait of Northumberland, which at its narrowest point is about nine miles wide. Owing to the accumulation of ice by which this strait is obstructed in winter, communication with the Island at that season of the year has always been attended with difficulty and not unfrequently with danger. For many years the only conveyance for mails and passengers in winter was by means of open boats or canoes manned by expert boatmen. Latterly these boats, most of which now belong to the Government of Canada, have been greatly improved. They now make the passage never less than three together, each manned by five able men, and the fleet under the charge of an experienced ice-captain. If large ice-fields should be jammed between capes Tormentine and Traverse, the crossing may be made without putting the boats into the water at all—the men, assisted by the male passengers, hauling the boats over the ice by straps fastened to the gunwales. When the ice is good the passage may be made in three or four hours. At other times lanes of open water occur into which the boats are launched and rowed as far as practicable. If there is much “lolly” to work through, this entails great loss of time and labour. Or the ice may be very rough and hummocky, which makes the crossing difficult and tedious. When overtaken by a snow-storm there is danger of losing the bearings and of travelling in the wrong direction. There have been occasions when parties have been out all night and nearly perished; but since the Government has taken charge of the ferry better regulations are in force. Each boat carries a fixed number of passengers and a limited amount of mail and baggage. This, with carrying compasses, provisions, and proper fur wraps, has greatly improved the service.
The ice attached to the shores on either side of the strait extends about one mile, leaving seven miles for the ferry, but owing to the run of the tide—about four miles an hour—which carries with it, to and fro, huge masses of ice, often closely packed, the actual distance traversed by the boat is greatly increased. Horses and sleighs await the arrival of the boats at the board-ice on either side, when the passengers and mails are conveyed to the boat-sheds. For about two months every winter this boat service proves the quickest and most reliable means of crossing, and it is likely to remain so.
At the time of Confederation the Dominion Government guaranteed to provide the Island with a steam ferry service. The first effort to carry out the agreement was made by employing an old steamer, the Albert, to run between Pictou and Georgetown, but she had not sufficient power to force her way through the ice. In the meantime the Northern Light was being built at Quebec—a vessel of considerable power and extraordinary shape. She drew nineteen feet aft, and it was intended that her keel, forward, should be above the water-line, but owing to a miscalculation as to her displacement, it proved to be some two feet below, and this spoiled her for ice-breaking; but on the Whole she did good service from 1876 to 1888, although she was often “frozen in,” and was for several weeks at a time fast in the ice when full of passengers.