In the year 1805 the Trinity House was established by act of Parliament, with important powers relative to the navigation of the St. Lawrence.
The principal difficulty met with was at Lake St. Peter, over which (prior to 1851) only vessels of 250 tons could pass and come up to the wharves of Montreal. As early as 1831, the attention of the Legislature was directed to the matter. For ten years it was discussed and in 1841 the Board of Works was authorized by act to commence operations. At that time there were only eleven feet at low water on the lake.
Up to 1846, some $400,000 had been expended without important results. In June, 1851, the Harbour Commissioners, under the impulse of Hon. John Young, began dredging, and in November of the same year it was deemed a wonderful advance when the City of Manchester passed down the river, drawing fourteen feet. In 1853 the depth was increased to sixteen feet two inches, and the breadth of the channel to 150 feet. Every year saw improvements made and by 1869 vessels drawing twenty feet could make the passage in safety, while today the channel will permit navigation by vessels drawing thirty feet.
This deepening of the channel accompanied and caused a vast expansion of the shipping of the city, made more important by the establishment of steam navigation. The commerce of Montreal in the future will always be in direct proportion to the future depth of the channel.
LACHINE CANAL
Before the construction of canals the 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.
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,” the flotilla of canoes ascended the Ottawa, breasted the rapids, and after many weary days, by river, lake and portage, 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, and 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.