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.
[Illustration: “QUEEN CHARLOTTE.”
Second steamer on Lake Ontario, 1818.]
About the same time the Americans had built a steamboat at Sackett’s
Harbour, N. Y., named the _Ontario_, a vessel 110 feet long, 24 feet
wide, and 8½ feet in depth, measuring 240 tons. The _Ontario_ made her
first trip in April, 1817, thus establishing her claim of precedence
in sailing on the lakes. She was built under a grant from the heirs of
Robert Fulton. On her first trip she encountered considerable sea,
which lifted the paddle-wheels, throwing the shaft from its bearings
and destroying the paddle-boxes. This defect in her construction
having been remedied, she was afterwards successful, it is said, but
her career is not recorded.[40] The Americans built another steamer
at Sackett’s Harbour in 1818, the _Sophia_, of 70 tons, to run as a
packet between that port and Kingston. In that year also the Canadians
built their second lake steamer, the _Queen Charlotte_. She was built
at the same place as the _Frontenac_, and largely from material which
had not been used in the construction of that vessel. She was launched
on the 22nd of April, 1818, and was soon ready to take her place as
the pioneer steamer on the Bay of Quinte.[41] The _Queen Charlotte_
was a much smaller boat than the _Frontenac_. Her machinery was made
by the brothers Ward, of Montreal, and she seems to have plied very
successfully for twenty years from Prescott to the “Carrying Place” at
the head of the Bay of Quinte, where passengers took stage to Cobourg
and thence proceeded to York by steamer. She was commanded at first by
old Captain Richardson, then for a short time by young Captain Mosier,
and afterwards, to the end of her career, by Captain Gildersleeve,
of Kingston. She was finally broken up in Cataraqui Bay; but in the
meantime upwards of thirty steamers were plying on Lake Ontario and the
Upper St. Lawrence, to some of which particular reference will be made
later on.
[Illustration: “WALK-IN-THE-WATER.”
First steamer on Lake Erie, 1818.]
[Illustration: THE “VANDALIA.”
From _Scriber’s Magazine_ for March, 1890.]
The first steamer on Lake Erie was the _Walk-in-the-Water_, built at
Black Rock, near Buffalo, by one Noah Brown, and launched May 28th,
1818. She was schooner-rigged, 135 feet in length, 32 feet beam and 13
feet 3 inches deep: her tonnage was 383-60/95 tons. Her machinery was
brought from Albany, a distance of three hundred miles, in wagons drawn
by five to eight horses each. She left Black Rock on her first voyage
August 25th, and reached Detroit, 290 miles, in 44 hours 10 minutes.
“While she could navigate down stream, her power was not sufficient to
make headway against the strong current of the Niagara River. Resort
was therefore made to what was known in the early days as a “horned
breeze.” The _Walk-in the-Water_ was regularly towed up the Niagara
River by a number of yokes of oxen, but once above the swift current
she went very well.” She made regular trips between Black Rock and
Detroit, occasionally going as far as Mackinac and Green Bay on Lake
Huron, until November, 1821, when she was driven ashore near Buffalo
in a gale of wind and became a total wreck. Her engines, however, were
recovered and put in a new boat named the _Superior_, in 1822. Soon
after this the first high-pressure steamer on the lakes was built at
Buffalo. She was named the _Pioneer_. In 1841 the first lake propeller
was launched at Oswego. This was the _Vandalia_, of 160 tons, said to
be the first freight boat in America to make use of Ericsson’s screw
propeller. She made her first trip in November, 1841, and proved
entirely successful. In the spring of 1842 she passed through the
Welland Canal, and was visited by large numbers of people in Buffalo,
who were curious to see this new departure in steam navigation, and the
result was that two new propellers were built in that year at Buffalo,
the _Sampson_ and the _Hercules_.
Soon after the introduction of steamboats, and because of them, when
as yet railroads were not in this part of the world, Lake Erie became
the great highway of travel to the western States, and it was not
long until magnificent upper cabin steamers, carrying from 1,000 to
1,500 passengers, were plying between Buffalo and Chicago. The writer
well remembers making the voyage in one of these steamers late in
the autumn of 1844, and that, owing to the tempestuous state of the
weather, we had to tie up most every night, so that the voyage lasted
nearly a whole week. The crowd of passengers was great, but it was a
good-natured crowd, bent on having a “good time.” Dancing was kept up
in the main saloon every evening till midnight, after which many of us
were glad to get a shake-down on the cabin floor.
[Illustration: THE “PRINCETON.”
First propeller on the lakes that had an upper cabin—one of a fleet
of fourteen passenger steamers plying between Buffalo and Chicago in
1845—had twin screws, and a speed of eleven miles an hour.]
The year 1836 marks an important era in the navigation of the Great
Lakes, for in that year the first cargo of grain from Lake Michigan
arrived at Buffalo, brought by the brig _John Kenzie_ from Grand River.
It consisted of three thousand bushels of wheat. Previous to that date
the commerce of the lakes had been all westward, and, curiously enough,
the cargoes carried west consisted for the most part of flour, grain
and other supplies for the new western settlements. In 1840 a regular
movement of grain from west to east had been established.
In the early years of the grain trade the loading and unloading of
vessels was a very slow and irksome business. As much as two or three
days might be required to unload a cargo of 5,000 bushels. In the
winter of 1842-43 the first grain elevator was built at Buffalo,
and a new system of handling grain introduced which was to prove of
incalculable benefit to the trade. The schooner _Philadelphia_, of 123
tons, was the first to be unloaded by the elevator.
The Canadian steam traffic on Lake Erie commenced with the steamers
_Chippewa_ and _Emerald_, plying between Chippewa and Buffalo; the
_Kent_, which foundered in 1845; the _Ploughboy_, owned by a company
in Chatham, and the _Clinton_, owned by Robert Hamilton, of Queenston.
A much larger Canadian steam traffic developed on Lake Huron. One
of the earliest passenger steamers on the Georgian Bay was the
_Gore_, of 200 tons, built at Niagara in 1838, and called after the
Lieutenant-Governor of that name. That boat, which had plied for some
years between Niagara and Toronto, was placed on the route between
Sturgeon Bay and Sault Ste. Marie. On Lake Huron proper, the _Bruce
Mines_ was probably the earliest Canadian steamer. She was employed in
carrying copper ore from the Bruce mines to Montreal, and was wrecked
in 1854. Shortly after, on the completion of the Northern Railway,
in 1854, the company, with a view to developing their interests,
entered into a contract with an American line of steamers to run from
Collingwood to Lake Michigan ports tri-weekly and once a week to Green
Bay. In 1862 six large propellers were put on the route. Later, a
line of first-class passenger steamers began to ply twice a week from
Collingwood and Owen Sound to Duluth at the head of Lake Superior.
Among the steamers of that line, which became very popular, were the
_Chicora_, _Francis Smith_, _Cumberland_, and _Algoma_. These in turn
were superseded by the magnificent steamers of the Canadian Pacific and
other lines elsewhere referred to.
[Illustration: 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.
The mail service in these days between Montreal and Kingston was in
keeping with the times. It was undertaken by a walking contractor, who
with the mail on his back took up his line of march from Montreal,
gauging his speed to accomplish the walk to Kingston and return in
fourteen days.[43]
A good many years later it was a four days’ journey from Montreal to
New York by the most expeditious route then existing. Thus it was
advertised in the Montreal _Gazette_, November 25th, 1827:
=DAILY STAGES=. ALBANY AND MONTREAL LINE. SEASON
OF 1826 AND 1827. The only full and perfect
line running between Montreal and Albany leaves B.
Thatcher’s office, No. 87 St. Paul Street, Montreal,
every day, passing through Laprairie, Burlington,
Middlebury, Poultney and Salem to Albany, through an
old-settled, rich and populous country, and mostly on
a smooth gravelly turnpike. Through in three days,
and fare very reasonable. Extras and expresses at a
moment’s notice. Young, Swain, Esinhart and others,
proprietors.
The voyage of the Durham boat was a very tedious one, depending as it
did largely on a favouring easterly breeze in traversing the lakes and
quieter portions of the river, and on the dexterity of the boatmen who
wielded the “setting-poles”[44] in swifter water, as well as their
_luck_ in surmounting the rapids, where they were liable to be detained
for hours, sometimes for days, contending against the swift currents,
subject to the mishaps of grounding or being damaged by big boulders,
or, worse still, of being caught by an eddy or an out-current and swept
down the rapids, sometimes with the loss of the oxen or horses which
had them in tow, and in some instances with the loss of the boat and
cargo. Woe to the teamster who was not provided with a knife to cut the
rope in such an emergency!
The first Lachine Canal proper, for barges, was commenced July 17th,
1821, and was completed in 1825, at a cost of $438,404. Of this amount
$50,000 was contributed by the Imperial Government on condition that
all military stores should be free from toll. It had 7 locks, each 100
feet long, 20 feet wide, and with 4½ feet depth of water on the sills.
In 1843-49 it became a “ship canal” with 5 locks, each 200 feet long,
45 feet wide, and 9 feet depth of water, costing $2,149,128. The
recent enlargement, commenced in 1875, cost $6,500,000. By this the
locks were increased to 270 feet in length and 14 feet depth of water
throughout the canal.
THE WELLAND CANAL.
The necessity of devising means to overcome the stupendous obstacle
to navigation caused by the Falls of Niagara had long been apparent,
but it was not until 1824 that work was commenced on the Welland
Canal which was to connect Lake Ontario with Lake Erie and the west.
This important work was completed in 1829, chiefly through the energy
and perseverance of the Hon. William Hamilton Merritt, son of a U.
E. Loyalist family, born in New York State in 1793. A man of great
enterprise; he had this project on the brain for years, but like Cunard
and his steamships, had difficulty in “raising the wind”—the people
and the Government of Upper Canada being at that time both alike poor.
He crossed the Atlantic, and, on the ground of military expediency,
was said to have secured a subscription of £1,000 from the Duke of
Wellington, which greatly aided him in the formation of a joint stock
company who carried the work to its successful completion. The original
locks were constructed of wood, 120 feet in length, 20 feet wide, with
7½ feet of water on the sills. The entire length of the canal was
twenty-six miles. This accommodated vessels carrying 5,000 bushels
of wheat. Half a million of pounds were spent upon it up to the year
1841, when it was assumed by the United Canadas[45] and immediate steps
taken for its enlargement. With locks 145 x 26 x 9, vessels loaded
with 20,000 to 23,000 bushels could pass from lake to lake. A second
enlargement (1873-83) increased the depth of water to twelve feet; and
a third, in 1887, gave the canal a uniform depth of fourteen feet,
admitting the passage of vessels with a carrying capacity of 75,000 to
80,000 bushels. When this depth shall prevail throughout the entire
system of the St. Lawrence canals, vessels of 1,600 to 1,800 tons
register will be able to bring full cargoes from the Upper Lakes to
Montreal, and to cross the ocean if their owners see fit.[46] In the
meantime the Montreal Board of Trade are memorializing the Government
to have the Welland enlarged so that the largest vessels navigating the
lakes may be able to tranship their cargoes at Kingston or Prescott
as they now do at Buffalo; in other words, to locate the ship canal
projected by the Deep Waterways Commission on Canadian territory
instead of on the American side of the Niagara River.
* * * * *
The Rideau Canal, connecting Kingston with Ottawa, was undertaken as
a military work by the Imperial Government at the instigation and
under the personal superintendence of Colonel John By, of the Royal
Engineers, from whom the obsolete Bytown derived its name. A stupendous
undertaking it was considered at the time—126¾ miles long, with
forty-seven locks, 134 feet by 32 feet each. It was begun in September,
1826, and on the 29th of May, 1832, the works being completed, the
steamer _Pumper_ passed through from Bytown to Kingston. The limit of
this canal is a draught of five feet. Its cost is said to have been
about one million pounds sterling. It was transferred by the Imperial
authorities to the Provincial Executive in 1856.
[Illustration: CANADIAN SHIP CANAL AT SAULT STE. MARIE, 1895.]
The St. Lawrence Canal System, with a uniform depth of nine feet of
water, was completed in 1848. The canals are eight in number, viz.: the
Lachine Canal, 8½ miles; the Beauharnois, 11¼ miles; the Cornwall, 11½
miles; Farren’s Point, ¾ of a mile; Rapid du Plat, 4 miles; Galops, 7⅝
miles; the Welland, 26¾ miles, and the Sault Ste. Marie, ¾ of a mile—in
all 71⅛ miles, with 53 locks, and 551¼ feet lockage. In 1871 the
Government decided to enlarge the locks of the whole system to 270 feet
by 45 feet, and to deepen the canals to fourteen feet. These dimensions
were decided upon after consultation with the Boards of Trade of
Oswego, Toledo, Detroit, Milwaukee and Chicago; but so great has been
the increase of commerce on the lakes since then, so much larger are
the vessels now employed in the trade, and so keen has the competition
become in the transportation business, it is already apparent that the
limiting of the locks to 270 feet has been a mistake, and that before
the work in hand is finished there will be a call for locks of at least
double that capacity.
Under the new arrangement the Lachine Canal has two distinct systems of
locks, giving two entrances at each end. The Cornwall Canal has in the
same manner two sets of locks at its lower entrance, and has in other
respects been greatly improved. The Beauharnois Canal was not enlarged,
but, instead, an entirely new canal on the north shore of the river is
being constructed, fourteen miles in length, of the same dimensions as
the other enlarged canals, at a cost of $5,000,000. The total cost of
the St. Lawrence canals and river improvements west of Montreal has
been $29,000,000; of the Welland Canal, $24,000,000; the Sault Ste.
Marie, $3,258,025; of the Ottawa and Rideau canals, about $10,000,000;
and of the whole canal system of the Dominion about $75,000,000. The
total revenue derived from tolls and hydraulic and other rents for the
year 1895 was $339,890.49; 2,412 vessels passed through the Welland
during the season of 1894, carrying 1,008,221 tons of freight. The
quantity of freight moved on the St. Lawrence and Ottawa canals was
1,448,788 tons, and on all the canals over 3,000,000 tons, whereof the
products of the forest, 1,077,683 tons; agricultural products, 993,348
tons—the remainder being general merchandise and manufactures.[47]
The deepening of Lake St. Peter and other shallow reaches of the St.
Lawrence between Montreal and Quebec has created what may be called
a submerged canal, fifty miles long, three hundred feet wide, with a
minimum depth of 27½ feet, permitting ocean steamers of the largest
class now in the trade to discharge their cargoes in the port of
Montreal, which is undergoing enlargement at the present time at a cost
of many millions of dollars.
During the season of 1897 the number of sea-going vessels that arrived
at Montreal was 796, with a total tonnage of 1,379,002; 752 of these
were steamers, aggregating 1,368,395 tons. The inland vessels numbered
6,384, with a tonnage of 1,134,346. The sea-going steamers were
eighty-three in excess of the previous year, with a marked increase of
tonnage.[48] During that summer steamships of 10,000 and even 12,000
tons burthen were to be found loading and discharging cargo alongside
the wharves of Montreal.
The total value of merchandise exported from this port during the year
1897 was $55,156,956. The chief articles of export were as follows:
_Quantity_. _Value_.
Produce of the mines ... $ 188,127
" " fisheries ... 120,242
" " forest ... 5,731,583
Horses (Number) 12,179 1,205,941
Horned Cattle " 119,188 7,151,280
Sheep " 66,319 340,060
Butter (Pounds) 10,594,824 1,878,515
Cheese " 162,322,426 14,325,176
Eggs (Dozen) 4,806,011 575,782
Meat of all kinds (Pounds) 16,377,806 1,345,894
Wheat (Bushels) 9,900,308 8,415,261
Indian Corn " 9,172 676 3,121,753
Other grains
(barley, oats, peas, etc.) " 10,298,444 3,904,128
Flour (Barrels) 891,501 3,120,253
Apples " 175,194 350,000
Manufactured and
miscellaneous articles ... 3,954,919
FOOTNOTES:
[38]
DIMENSIONS OF THE GREAT LAKES.
───────────┬──────────┬──────────┬────────┬───────────┬────────────
│ │ Greatest │ │ │
LAKES. │ Length. │ Width. │ Depth. │ Above Sea.│ Area.
│ (Miles.) │ (Miles.) │ (Feet.)│ (Feet.) │(Sq. Miles.)
───────────┼──────────┼──────────┼────────┼───────────┼────────────
Ontario │ 180 │ 65 │ 500 │ 247 │ 7,300
Erie │ 240 │ 80 │ 210 │ 573 │ 10,000
Huron │ 280 │ 190 │ 802 │ 581 │ 24,000
Michigan ‡ │ 335 │ 88 │ 868 │ 581 │ 25,600
Superior │ 420 │ 160 │ 1,008 │ 601 │ 32,000
───────────┴──────────┴──────────┴────────┴───────────┴────────────
‡ Lake Michigan lies wholly within the United States.
[39] These figures refer exclusively to vessels belonging to the
merchant marine of the United States on the Great Lakes and are taken
from official reports.
[40] Mr. C. H. Keep, in his report on the “Internal Commerce of the
United States for 1891,” has given a graphic History of Navigation on
the Great Lakes, and is our chief authority for these notes on the
early American lake steamers.
[41] Robertson’s “Landmarks of Toronto,” p. 847.
[42] Bryce’s “Short History of the Canadian People,” p. 333.
[43] Hugh McLennan’s “Lecture on Canadian Waterways, 1885.”
[44] The setting-pole might be twenty-five feet long, heavily shod with
iron at one end and at the other fitted with a rounded knob. This pole
was dropped into the water at the bow of the boat, and the boatman
having put his shoulder to the other end of it, facing the stern, and
pushing with all his might, walked to the farther end, cleats being
fastened to the deck to give him foothold. By the time he reached the
stern the barge had advanced exactly its own length, when he withdrew
the pole, dragged it to the bow and repeated the process. Two or three
men on each side of the boat would be similarly employed, and so the
barge dragged its slow length along, much after the fashion of the
horse-boat, only that the horse tugged at a stationary post while the
men pushed from it.
[45] Kingsford’s “Canadian Canals” (Toronto, 1865) contains an
elaborate history of the Welland and the financial difficulties that
attended its construction. The Imperial Government seem to have
contributed some £55,555 towards it, while stock was taken in the
enterprise by individuals in the United States for £69,625, and by
English capitalists, £30,137. The first vessels to pass through the
canal are said to have been the schooners _Ann and Jane_ and _R.
H. Boughton_, in November, 1829. On the 5th of July, 1841, during
the first session of the United Parliament of Canada, Lord Sydenham
announced that Her Majesty had confirmed the bill for transferring the
Welland to the Provincial Government.
Mr. McLennan states that the first Canadian vessel to pass through the
Welland was the propeller _Ireland_, Captain Patterson.
[46] The schooner _Niagara_, built by Muirs, of Port Dalhousie, was
sent to Liverpool with 20,000 bushels of wheat about the year 1860.
Captain Gaskin, of Kingston, built several sea-going vessels, one
of which he took over to Liverpool himself and sold her there. But
experience has proved that vessels suited to the navigation of the
lakes will never be able to compete successfully with ocean steamships
of 10,000 tons.
[47] “Report of Dominion Railways and Canals, 1895,” p. 256.
[48] “Montreal Board of Trade Report, 1897,” p. 70.