STEAM COMMERCE OF THE GREAT LAKES.
United States and Canadian Commerce of the Great
Lakes—The Sault Ste. Marie Ship Canals—The
Erie Canal—Transportation Business—The
Elevator—Deeper Waterways Commissions—The Ottawa
and Georgian Bay Canal.
During the last quarter of a century the commerce of the Great
Lakes—the United States commerce especially—has grown with a rapidity
almost exceeding belief. It has become enormous! At the present time
it is stated on competent authority that the steam tonnage of these
inland seas largely exceeds the combined tonnage of this character
in all other parts of the United States put together. Not to speak
of the vast amount of shipping employed in the iron, the coal, and
the lumber trade, the Lake Superior grain and flour shipments for
1896 were 121,750,000 bushels. The Lake Michigan grain and flour
shipments for the same year were 273,820,000 bushels, together making
395,570,000 bushels of grain and flour shipped in one year from these
two quarters! It is difficult to realize the magnitude of such a
statement. Mr. Keep, already quoted, in his report for 1890 puts it
strikingly when he says: “If the freight carried on the Great Lakes
in the United States coastwise and foreign trade during the year 1890
were loaded into railway cars of average size and capacity, the cars so
loaded would cover 13,466 miles of railroad track.” The Commissioners
appointed by the Canadian Government to meet with a similar Committee
appointed by the United States Government to consider the subject
of international and deeper waterways, preface their report by
alluding to the commerce of the Great Lakes in these terms: “It is
impossible to convey, within reasonable space, an adequate idea of the
extraordinary[49] development of inland water transportation on the
Upper Lakes—which for rapidity, extent, economy and efficiency has no
counterpart even on the ocean. More than half of the best steamships
of the United States are imprisoned above Niagara Falls, and more than
half of the tonnage built in the United States in 1896 was launched
upon the lakes.” This inland water commerce has built up twelve cities
on the southern shores above Niagara, five of which have over 200,000
population, and one of them over a million. Within these limits there
are twenty-seven dry docks, the largest of which is on Lake Superior
and is 560 feet long, 50 feet wide, and 18 feet depth of water. There
are sixty-three life-saving stations upon these lakes, ten of which
are Canadian. “Unusual prosperity has stimulated ship-building to
such an extent that there are now in course of construction at the
various lake shipyards, sixty-five vessels, thirty of which are steel
freight steamers which will average 400 feet in length and 4,000 tons
capacity—costing in all $9,000,000.”[50]
Up to a comparatively recent date the bulk of the lakes commerce was
done by sailing vessels. Every town of any importance had its little
fleet of schooners. As time went on, the vessels increased in size,
and eventually a very fine class of three-masted schooners, with some
brigs, barquentines, and even full-rigged barques, were employed in the
carrying trade. One of the largest of these was the barque _Utica_,
of 550 tons, which sailed on the Buffalo and Chicago route in the
forties. A few of these clipper schooners may still be met with, but
they are rapidly being supplanted by iron and steel steamships of great
size, such as the _Maryland_, the _Owego_, the _E. C. Pope_, and the
_Manitou_, representatives of fleets of first-class steamships, ranging
from 300 to 350 feet in length, over 1,900 tons register, with triple
expansion engines, a speed of from fourteen to sixteen miles an hour,
and a carrying capacity of 120,000 to 125,000 bushels of grain. These,
and many others like them, were accounted “queens” a few years ago;
they are fine ships still, but there are much larger and finer than
they now.
The _Manitou_ here represented is one of the finest ships of her class
on the lakes, built in 1893 by the Chicago Ship-building Company. Her
hull is of steel, length over all 295 feet, breadth of beam 42 feet,
and depth of hold 22 feet. Her average draught of water is 15 feet.
She has triple expansion engines, a single four-bladed screw propeller
13 feet in diameter. Her gross tonnage is 2,944 tons. She is handsomely
fitted up with sleeping accommodations for four hundred passengers,
has a freight capacity of 1,500 tons, and develops a speed of eighteen
miles an hour. Her route is between Chicago and Sault Ste. Marie, where
she connects with the Lake Superior lines. She cost $300,000.
[Illustration: THE “MANITOU,” 1893.]
The _James Watt_, the first of the Rockefeller fleet and the largest
steamship on the lakes, is 426 feet long, 48 feet beam, and 29 feet
deep. She cost $260,000, and will carry from 4,000 to 6,000 tons of
ore, according as she is trimmed to draw 14 or 18 feet of water. The
_Empire City_, owned by the Zenith Transportation Company, is of
the same dimensions, less one foot in depth. She is now the largest
grain carrier on the lakes, having capacity for 213,000 bushels. The
Minnesota Iron Company have a fleet of fourteen steamships, each
carrying from 100,000 to 180,000 bushels of grain. The Lehigh Valley
Transportation Company own a fleet of large and powerful steel freight
steamers which ply between Buffalo and Chicago. These are but a few of
the many transportation companies that do business on the Great Lakes.
As to the vessels at present employed in the trade, it is safe to say
that they are to be regarded only as the precursors of a still larger
class of freight steamers that will navigate these waters when the
contemplated twenty-one foot channel shall have been established from
Lake Superior to Buffalo. At present there is a navigable channel of
17½ feet all the way.
Many of the large steamers take a number of barges in tow, and in
this way enormous quantities of grain are sometimes moved by a single
shipment. The _Appomattox_, for example, with three consorts in tow,
recently left Duluth with a combined cargo of 482,000 bushels, or
14,460 tons of wheat. Assuming the average yield of that cereal to
be twenty bushels to the acre, this single shipment represented the
produce of 24,100 acres!
[Illustration: SS. “NORTH-WEST,” 1894.]
The Northern Steamship Company of Buffalo has perhaps the finest fleet
of steamers on the Great Lakes, consisting of eight steamships. Six of
these are steel freight and emigrant ships of 2,500 tons each. They
are named the _Northern Light_, _Northern Wave_, _Northern King_,
_Northern Queen_, the _North Star_, and the _North Wind_. The other
two, the _North-West_ and the _North-Land_, are exclusively passenger
ships, up-to-date in every respect. They are identical in size, being
each 386 feet long, 44 moulded breadth, and 26 feet in depth. Their
gross tonnage is 5,000 tons apiece. They have quadruple expansion
engines of 7,000 indicated horse-power. The boilers are worked at a
pressure of 275 pounds to the square inch, and use up 70 tons of water
per hour. The twin screws are 13 feet in diameter and 18 feet pitch,
make 120 revolutions per minute, and drive the ships at a speed of
from 22 to 25 statute miles an hour, as may be required. The bunkers
hold 1,000 tons of coal. A double bottom, 42 inches deep, extends the
whole length of the ship, and is utilized for adjustable water ballast.
Luxurious accommodation is provided for five hundred first-class and
forty second-class passengers. Nearly twenty-six miles of electric wire
are used in conducting the subtle fluid for 1,200 lights. The electric
search-light has one hundred thousand candle-power. The refrigerating
plant, besides creating ample cold storage, makes one thousand pounds
of ice per day for the ship’s use. The grand saloon is, in American
parlance, “a magnificent achievement.” The routes of these twin ships
is from Buffalo to Duluth, at the head of Lake Superior, a distance of
1,065 miles, each of them making the round trip in a week. The fare for
the round trip is $30 for transportation, meals and staterooms being
charged extra.
For many years two causes prevented the building of vessels of such
large dimensions as those just described for lake navigation. One of
these was the insufficient size of the lock at Sault Ste. Marie, and
the other was the shallowness of the water on the St. Clair flats
and at other points. The former difficulty disappeared in 1881 when
the first of the large locks was opened at the Sault; the second
difficulty was overcome by the Northern Steamship Company in the
peculiar construction of their vessels with a water ballasting system
that permits of sinking the ship to the depth required for navigating
the deep waters of the lakes and of floating them over the shoals and
bars that obstruct the navigation. This ingenious device, however,
can only be regarded as a temporary expedient, pending the action
of the United States Government, which contemplates the making of a
twenty-one foot channel at all points where the shallows occur. This
is a measure felt to be due to the lakes’ marine, which has already
done so much to develop the resources of the North-West, especially
the mineral resources, which would otherwise have lain comparatively
dormant. “The United States have expended some $12,000,000 in widening
and deepening channels, which has already been more than repaid by the
rapid development of commerce. The largest item in the lakes’ traffic
is the transportation of iron—the richest ores are now being mined
along a line of coast of one thousand miles, dotted with manufacturing
towns.”[51]
It helps one to realize the immensity of the lakes’ traffic to learn
that the number of vessels that cleared from the district of Chicago
in 1893 was 8,789, with a gross tonnage of 5,449,470 tons—actually a
larger tonnage than cleared from the port of Liverpool in 1892.[52]
The tonnage passing down the Detroit River from lakes Superior,
Michigan and Huron, during the seven or eight months of navigation,
is, by official statements, greater than the entire foreign and
coastwise trade of London and Liverpool combined in twelve months. It
is estimated by competent experts to be three times greater than the
foreign trade of the port of New York, and to exceed the aggregate
foreign trade of all the seaports of the United States by 10,000,000
tons!
SAULT STE. MARIE SHIP CANALS.
To accommodate the vast volume of traffic emanating from Lake Superior
ports, magnificent canals have been constructed on either side of the
St. Mary River, which connects Lake Superior with Lake Huron. These
works, the most remarkable of their kind in existence, have reached
their present dimension by a succession of enlargements and a large
outlay of money. The first canal on the western or American side of
the river was constructed by a joint stock company formed in 1853, who
undertook to construct it for the State of Michigan upon receiving
therefore a grant of 750,000 acres of land. The work was completed in
1855, and from that date the commerce of Lake Superior may be said to
have had any appreciable existence. The opening of the canal was, as it
were, the opening of a sluice-gate through which a flood of commerce
was soon to roll.
The first canal cost about $1,000,000. It was a little over a mile in
length. Its width at the water line was 100 feet, and its depth 12
feet. There were two locks, each 350 feet long and 70 feet wide. The
growth of traffic and the increase in the size of the lake vessels
soon rendered it apparent that the canal must be enlarged. In 1870 the
United States Government made its first appropriation for deepening
the canal to 16 feet and increasing its lockage. A new lock was built,
550 feet in length by 80 feet in width, and 18 feet lift, at a cost
of $2,404,124.33. The work was completed in 1881. Its opening was
followed by an enormous increase of commerce—so much so that it soon
became quite inadequate to the traffic. A still further enlargement was
decided upon, and was completed in 1896, at a cost of about $5,000,000.
The new lock occupies the site of the two old locks of 1855, and is 800
feet long, 100 feet wide, and has 21 feet depth of water on the sill.
It is officially known as the St. Mary’s Falls Canal.
* * * * *
So long ago as the close of last century the North-West Fur Company
had constructed a rude canal on the Canadian side, with locks, adapted
for the passage of loaded canoes without breaking bulk. Though late
of construction, a ship canal had long been in contemplation by the
Canadian Government, and the time came when, owing to the increase of
traffic, it could no longer be delayed. This great work was completed
and opened for traffic on September 9th, 1895, at a cost of some
$3,500,000. The Canadian lock is 900 feet long, 60 feet wide, 20 feet
3 inches depth of water on the sill, and 18 feet lift, affording room
for three large vessels at one time. The length of the canal proper,
between the extreme ends of the entrance piers, is only 5,967 feet,
but including the excavated channels of approach it is about 18,100
feet. The American canal is a little over a mile in length. The locks
of both are unsurpassed for their size and solidity, as well as for the
completeness of their mechanical appliances.
An official report, compiled by the Chief Engineer of the St. Mary’s
Falls Canal (United States), contains a detailed statement of the
commerce of that canal for each year, from 1855 to 1895, and goes
far to substantiate what has already been said as to the magnitude
of the lakes’ commerce. The number of vessels that passed through
in 1895 was 17,956, with a registered tonnage of 16,806,781 tons.
The number of sailing vessels was 4,790; of steamers, 12,495; and of
unregistered craft, 671. The number of passengers conveyed from lake
to lake was 31,656. As to the cargoes of the vessels, these are a few
of the chief items: 2,574,362 net tons of coal; 8,902,302 barrels of
flour; 46,218,250 bushels of wheat; 8,328,694 bushels of other grain;
107,452 tons of copper; 8,062,209 tons of iron ore; 740,700,000 feet
of sawed lumber; 100,337 tons of manufactured and pig iron; 269,919
barrels of salt—in all, 15,062,580 net tons of freight. The freight
traffic of the St. Mary’s Canal, in seven months of 1895, was more than
twice that of the Suez Canal, which is open all the year. During the
year 1897 it was much greater than in any previous year, the registered
tonnage being 17,619,933, the tons of freight 18,218,411, and the
number of passengers 40,213.
[Illustration: ST. MARY’S FALLS SHIP CANAL OF 1881, STATE OF MICHIGAN,
U. S. A.]
The gradual development of steam navigation on Lake Superior is shown
in a table of parallel columns, extending over thirty years. In 1864
the sailing vessels that used the canal were three times as numerous
as the steamers; but in 1895 the steamers were three times as numerous
as the sailing vessels, and they had increased enormously in tonnage.
The number of sailing vessels built on the Great Lakes in 1896 was
nineteen; in that year there were built _seventy-five_ steamers,
aggregating 75,743 tons register, and of these thirty-five were built
of steel, with a combined tonnage of 63,589 tons. The principal
ship-building yards on the Upper Lakes are at Buffalo, Cleveland,
Detroit, Bay City, Milwaukee, Chicago and Superior. At most of these
points there are plants for the construction of iron and steel vessels.
It is said that Cleveland is the largest ship-building port, and also
the largest iron ore market in the United States.
The transportation of iron ore, it will be noticed, forms a large
element in the commerce of Lake Superior. Not only is the ore found
in great abundance in that region, but it is the best in quality and
the most in demand of any in the United States. Over 100,000,000 tons
of this ore have been mined in the lake region within the last forty
years. Owing to its great bulk and weight it is nearly all carried by
water; the estimated capital engaged in mining and transporting the
ore to the 120 furnaces in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Buffalo and Chicago
is about $234,000,000.[53] But for the number and the size of the
steamers thus employed, and the facilities now in use for loading and
unloading them, the trade could not exist. The largest vessels in the
iron ore trade are regularly loaded in three or four hours; 2,500 tons
of ore have been loaded into a vessel of that capacity in an hour and
three-quarters.[54]
THE ERIE CANAL.
This great artificial waterway, lying wholly in the State of New York,
and under State management, connects Buffalo with the Hudson River at
Albany. Although of comparatively limited capacity, it is to-day the
most formidable rival the St. Lawrence route has to compete with in the
transportation of freight from the west to the seaboard. The Erie was
first opened for traffic in the same year as the first Lachine Canal
(1825). It was originally 363 miles long, with eighty-three locks, each
90 feet by 15 feet, and 4 feet depth of water.
The first enlargement of this canal was commenced in 1836 and completed
in 1862, at a cost of $44,465,414, making the entire cost up to the
last-named date over $50,000,000. It is now 351¾ miles in length, 70
feet wide on the surface and 56 feet wide at the bottom having 72
locks, each 110 feet by 18 feet, and 7 feet deep. The limit of the
canal for navigation, however, is only 6 feet of water, restricting its
use to vessels of 240 tons capacity, say, 8,000 bushels of wheat.
Navigation has hitherto been carried on by horse traction—the boats
running in pairs—and by small steam tugs towing three or four boats,
after them. The tug often pushes one boat ahead and tows the others
behind. In this latter way a load of 900 tons will be moved at an
average pace of about 2½ miles per hour while in motion. Including
lockages, the distance from Buffalo to New York may be covered in nine
or ten days. The boats are about 98 feet long and 17 feet 5 inches
wide. They make on the average about seven round trips in the season.
The average price received for the transportation of wheat in this
manner from Buffalo to New York is about 3½ cents per bushel, which
allows a fair margin of profit to the boatman.
Experiments have been made for the application of electricity to the
traction of the boats, with promise of further development. In the
meantime considerable importance is attached to the installation of
electric telephone communication from one end of the line to the
other, whereby instant communication can be had with the section
superintendents, the lock tenders and other officials. The system
is devised solely for the use of the canal officials, and will be
invaluable in sudden emergencies caused by accidents to the boats,
leaks, breaks, or other disasters that may occur and interfere with the
navigation of the canal.
For some time past western shippers have been testing the feasibility
of establishing a through line of transportation from the Great Lakes
to New York by way of the Erie Canal without the delay and expense
of transhipment at Buffalo. In 1895 this idea was worked out by the
construction of a fleet of steel canal boats, consisting of one steamer
and five consorts, by the Cleveland Steel Canal Boat Company of Ohio.
Several fleets of this kind have since been put in operation, and the
projectors believe that they have demonstrated the practicability of
thus carrying freight to the seaboard from any of the western lakes
at a fair margin of profit and in successful competition with the
railways. These steel barges have encountered severe storms on the
lakes without any serious damage to the boats or their cargoes. The
cost of the tug boat is about $15,000, and of each consort about
$6,000. The time occupied by the steel fleet from Cleveland to New York
has been from ten to twelve days.
The second enlargement of the Erie Canal, now in progress and
nearing completion, will afford greatly increased facilities for
transportation, by increasing the depth from 7 to 9 feet and doubling
and lengthening all the locks. There will be no increase in the width
of the locks nor in the length of the boats navigating the canal, but
two boats (which form a horse-tow) will be locked through at once, and
by the locks being doubled, side by side, no boats will have to wait
for others coming in an opposite direction. The cargo will be increased
by the greater depth of water in boats of the same size, more deeply
loaded, and the traction will be so improved that boats will run easier
and faster. The amount of freight carried on the Erie Canal—east and
west—in the year 1896 was 2,742,438 tons.[55] The amount transported on
the Welland Canal for that year was 1,279,987 tons.
CANADIAN COMMERCE ON THE GREAT LAKES.
Notwithstanding the large amount of money expended by the Canadian
Government upon its unrivalled St. Lawrence canals and the deepening
of its waterways, the volume of western traffic that comes this way is
as yet disappointingly small. The great bulk of the trade in western
produce, Canadian and American, finds its way to the seaboard in
American vessels by way of Buffalo, Oswego and Ogdensburg to New York
and Boston. What effect the deepening of the canals to fourteen feet
will have on this deviation from the “natural outlet” remains to be
seen.
From a statement kindly furnished by Mr. T. F. Taylor, Marine Inspector
at Kingston, it appears that the number of companies in Canada having
steamers and other craft engaged in the commerce of the Great Lakes
is twenty-four. Three of these go no farther than the head of Lake
Ontario, three extend their operations to Lake Erie, five to Lake
Huron, and thirteen to Lake Superior. Five steamers are employed on
Lake Erie, thirteen on Lake Huron, twenty-six navigate the waters
of Lake Superior. About one-half of these steamers are first-class
steel freight and passenger vessels of from 1,200 to 2,600 tons each.
A few of them pass through the Welland Canal and have their cargoes
transhipped into barges at Kingston or Prescott. Others connect with
lines of railway at Sault Ste. Marie, Owen Sound, Collingwood, Windsor
and Sarnia. Occasionally one or two of the smaller ones run through to
Montreal. Besides the steamers, there are employed in the lakes’ grain
trade twenty-one lake barges, each of 50,000 bushels capacity, and
fourteen tug steamers. There is also a fleet of about sixty-two sailing
vessels trading between the Upper Lakes and Kingston, and some sixty
or seventy barges employed in transporting grain from that port to
Montreal.
[Illustration: C. P. R. SS. “ALBERTA,” 1883.]
On the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway the company formed
a line of freight and passenger steamers of their own, consisting of
the _Algoma_, the _Alberta_ and the _Athabasca_. The _Algoma_ had
sailed the lakes previous to this under different names. The other two
are fine steel ships, built by Aitken & Co. of Glasgow, in 1883. They
are each 270 feet long and 2,300 tons burthen, fitted with all modern
improvements in their machinery and with excellent accommodation for
a large number of passengers. They commenced their work in 1884 and
have been very successful and popular. The _Algoma_ was unfortunately
wrecked off Isle Royale in Lake Superior in November, 1885, during a
fearful snow-storm that swept over the lake, when many lives were lost.
She was replaced by the _Manitoba_, a very fine vessel built of steel
at Owen Sound by the Polson Ship-building Company. The _Manitoba_ is
the largest Canadian steamer on the lakes, being 300 feet long and
2,600 tons burthen. By means of these steamers a regular and most
satisfactory summer service is maintained once a week from Windsor
and Sarnia, and twice a week from Owen Sound and Sault Ste. Marie to
Fort William. Their capacity for the transportation of grain is about
400,000 bushels a month.
The Montreal Transportation Company, founded in 1868, is the oldest
of the existing forwarding companies, and does the largest amount
of business. Their fleet consists at present of three steamers, six
tug-boats, six lake barges and thirty-two river barges. Two of the
steamers, the _Bannockburn_ and the _Rosemount_, are first-class steel
ships, built at Newcastle-on-Tyne, about 250 feet in length, 40 feet
beam, with a carrying capacity of 75,000 bushels of wheat. The lake
barges play an important part as “consorts” to the steamers. They
resemble in appearance so many large dismasted schooners, and serve
their purpose economically and well so long as they keep in tow, but
when they break loose, as they occasionally do when overtaken by a gale
of wind, they become unmanageable and are apt to come to grief. This
company with its present equipment handles about 250,000 bushels of
grain per month.
The North-West Transportation Company, dating from 1871, and otherwise
known as the “Beatty Line,” has two fine passenger and freight
steamers, the _Monarch_ and the _United Empire_, of 1,600 tons and
1,400 tons respectively, forming a weekly line from Windsor and Sarnia
to Fort William and Duluth, in connection with the Grand Trunk Railway;
they forward about 200,000 bushels of grain per month.
The Hagarty and Crangle Line, running between ports at the head of
lakes Superior and Michigan to ports on the River St. Lawrence, has
two large steel steamers, the _Algonquin_ and the _Rosedale_, on the
Upper Lakes, and the steamer _Persia_ which plies between the head of
Lake Ontario and Montreal. Hamilton has three “Merchants Lines” in the
Upper Lakes’ shipping business—Mackay’s, Fairgreaves’, and Thomas Myles
& Sons, owning in addition to other lake craft such fine steel and
composite steamers as the _Sir L. Tilley_, _Lake Michigan_, _Arabian_
and the _Myles_.
The Calvin Company’s Line, of Garden Island, Kingston, has four
steamers, four lake barges, and four tug steamers running between Lake
Superior ports, Kingston and Montreal. The Collins Bay Rafting Company
has on the same route three steamers, three lake barges, and two tug
steamers. The Jacques & Co.’s Line has two steamers running from the
head of Lake Erie and one from the head of Lake Ontario to Montreal.
The Great Northern Transit Company, with headquarters at Collingwood,
has four freight and passenger steamers—the _Majestic_, _Pacific_,
_Atlantic_, and _Northern Belle_—keeping up a well-appointed service
twice a week from Collingwood to Sault Ste. Marie, and having
connection with the Northern Railway to Toronto. The _Majestic_, built
at Collingwood, is a steel screw steamer, 230 feet long, 36 feet wide,
1,600 tons register, and cost $125,000. She has compound condensing
engines of 1,200 horse-power, and is fitted up internally with great
elegance. The North Shore Navigation Company has five excellent
steamers plying on the Georgian Bay and northern shores of Lake Huron
from Collingwood and Owen Sound to Sault Ste. Marie and Mackinac
Island, where connections are made with American lines of steamers to
Chicago and other ports on Lake Michigan. The steamers are the _City
of Collingwood_, 1,400 tons; _City of Midland_, 1,300 tons; _City of
Toronto_, 800 tons; _City of Parry Sound_ and _City of London_, each
600 tons.
Reference will be made hereafter to steamers plying on Lake Ontario and
the River St. Lawrence.
THE TRANSPORTATION BUSINESS.
In the matter of transportation it may be interesting to learn how a
consignment of wheat is “handled” from the time it leaves the field
in Manitoba, where it is grown, until it reaches its destination in
Liverpool or London. When there were only a few hundred thousand
bushels to be sent to the seaboard, the means of transport were very
simple and primitive. It was carried on men’s backs from one conveyance
to another, and floated down rivers or shallow canals in small boats or
on rafts of timber. But when the thousands became millions the problem
of cheap transportation became a serious one. American ingenuity rose
to the occasion and invented the most marvellous of labour-saving
appliances—THE GRAIN ELEVATOR.
[Illustration: C. P. R. GRAIN ELEVATOR AT FORT WILLIAM, ONT.]
The farmer sells his crop of wheat to the grain-dealer, and carts
it, say, to Brandon, where the purchaser takes delivery of it at his
elevator. Let us examine this thing somewhat minutely, taking by
way of illustration one of the elevators belonging to the Canadian
Pacific Railway Company at Montreal. It is a medium-sized one, having
capacity for storing about 600,000 bushels of grain. The same company’s
elevators at Fort William and Port Arthur are much larger, having
capacity for 1,500,000 bushels. In Chicago and Buffalo there are
elevators of three millions of bushels capacity; but, whether larger or
smaller, in their main features they are all alike.
The elevator is a wooden structure of great strength. Its massive stone
foundations rest on piles imbedded in concrete. The framework is so
thoroughly braced and bolted together as to give it the rigidity of a
solid cube, enabling it to resist the enormous pressure to which it
is subjected when filled with 18,000 tons of wheat. The building is
210 feet long, 80 feet wide, and 142 feet in height from basement to
the peak of the roof. Including the steam-engine (built at the C. P.
R. works) of 240 horse-power, the entire cost of this elevator was
$150,000. It consists of three distinct compartments—for receiving,
storing, and delivering grain. On the ground floor are two lines of
rails by which the cars have ingress and egress. The general appearance
of this flat is that of a bewildering array of ponderous posts and
beams, shafting, cog-wheels, pulleys and belts, blocks and tackle,
chutes, and the windlasses for hauling in and out the cars, for a
locomotive with its dangerous sparks may not cross the threshold.
Beneath this, in the basement, are the receiving tanks, thirty-five
feet apart from centre to centre, corresponding to the length of the
cars. Of these there are nine, enabling that number of cars to be
simultaneously unloaded. This is quickly done by a shovel worked by
machinery, with the aid of two men, the grain falling through an iron
grating in the floor into the tank. The elevator has nine “legs.”
The leg is an upright box, 12 inches by 24 inches, extending from
the bottom of the tank to the top of the building; inside of it is a
revolving belt with buckets attached 15½ inches apart. The belt is
256 feet long, and as it makes 36 revolutions per minute, each bucket
containing one-third of a bushel, each leg is able to raise 5,250
bushels per hour.[56] A car is unloaded and its contents hoisted into
the upper regions in fifteen minutes. When all the legs are at work
30,000 bushels are handled in an hour.
The four-story house on top of the granary contains a number of
different mechanisms. In the uppermost flat the leg’s revolving
belt turns round a pulley and discharges the grain into a receiving
hopper on the next floor. From this it is withdrawn to the weighing
hopper, nicely balanced on a Fairbanks beam-scale, having a capacity
for 30,000 pounds or 500 bushels of wheat, which is weighed with as
much exactitude as is a pound of tea by the grocer. At either end of
this room there is a separating machine in which the grain can be
thoroughly cleansed by the removal of smut and dust. Underneath is the
distributing room, with jointed pipes leading to the storage bins, of
which there are one hundred, each 50 feet deep and 12 feet square,
calculated to hold 6,000 bushels each. The process of withdrawing the
grain from the bins, strange to say, is a repetition of that just
described. It must go down into the cellar, and up again to the attic,
and pass through the weighing machine and thence to the car, the barge,
or the ship. A car of 600 bushels can be loaded in three minutes. The
most singular part of the whole apparatus is the “carrier” by which the
grain is conveyed from the elevator to the vessel lying at the wharf,
260 feet off. The carrier is an endless four-ply rubber belt, 515 feet
long and 36 inches wide, upon which the grain is dropped and carried
to its destination. The difficulty of comprehending why the grain is
not shaken off that flat, rapidly revolving belt is not lessened by
the explanation given, that it is held in place by the concentrative
attraction of the particles in motion. But from whatever cause, the
grain clings to the belt, and may be carried in this way any distance,
and in all manner of directions, turning sharp corners and even going
over the roofs of houses if they stand in the way. The elevator in
question delivers by “carrier” from 8,000 to 10,000 bushels an hour.
There are over 50 such elevators in New York, only of much larger
capacity; Buffalo has 52, with a storage capacity of over 15,000,000
bushels; Chicago, 21; Duluth and Superior, 9 each. There are elevators
in Buffalo that can take grain out of a vessel at the rate of 25,000
bushels an hour.
A Duluth paper of May 21st, 1898, says: “Globe elevator No. 1 carries
the broom for rapid loading this year, and the record made yesterday
has probably never been equalled. The steamer _Queen City_ loaded there
yesterday morning, taking 185,000 bushels in 180 minutes.”
Now, suppose that an order has reached Brandon for a shipment of
220,000 bushels of wheat,[57] to be forwarded to Montreal _via_ the St.
Lawrence route. The initial cost of receiving, storing for a given time
and delivery from the Brandon elevator is three cents per bushel. It
must be hauled from Brandon to Fort William, a distance of 559 miles
by railway. The consignment is the produce of 11,000 acres and weighs
6,600 tons. It will load 330 box-cars, each containing 40,000 pounds.
As each car weighs about 25,000 pounds, the entire weight to be moved
by rail will be 10,725 tons. Until quite recently, twenty cars of wheat
made up an average train load, but with the powerful locomotives now in
use twice that number may be taken at a load. A safe estimate for this
particular shipment will be ten trains of thirty-three cars each, the
gross weight of engine, tender and train being about 1,100 tons.[58]
The cost of transport from Brandon to Fort William, at the summer rate
of 19 cents per 100 pounds, will be 11.40 cents per bushel. By means
of the elevator at Fort William it is transhipped to lake vessels. A
large propeller takes on board 70,000 bushels; the balance is stored
away in three barges containing 50,000 bushels each. The propeller
takes the trio in tow and proceeds on its long voyage of 1,200 miles
through Lake Superior, the “Soo” Canal, lakes Huron and Erie, the
Welland Canal and Lake Ontario to Kingston, in seven days. The cost
of transportation from Fort William to Kingston is from three to four
cents per bushel, and to Montreal two cents more. At Kingston floating
elevators come alongside the propeller and her consorts, and quickly
transfer their cargoes into lighters carrying from 20,000 to 30,000
bushels each.[59] The fleet of nine or ten river barges is towed down
the St. Lawrence, passing through the Cornwall, Beauharnois and Lachine
canals to Montreal, 1,940 miles from Brandon by this route. They are
laid alongside the ocean steamers in pairs, one opposite the forehatch
and the other at the afterhatch, and their contents are poured into the
big ship at the rate of 8,000 to 10,000 bushels per hour. The average
rate to Liverpool is about 5¼ cents per bushel, bringing up the total
cost of transportation from Brandon to Britain to, say, 22¼ cents per
bushel. The first shipment of wheat from Manitoba to Britain was made
in October, 1877.
Mr. Hugh McLennan, the president of the Montreal Transportation
Company, is also one of the most extensive shippers of grain in Canada.
No better illustration can be found anywhere of the man who is the
architect of his own fortune. Mr. McLennan was born in the County of
Glengarry in 1825. His father’s family came from Ross-shire, Scotland,
in 1802, and his mother’s family were United Empire Loyalists, who
settled in Glengarry at the close of the American War of Independence.
After serving some years in the hardware business in Montreal, Mr.
McLennan joined the mail steamer Canada, as purser, under Captain
Lawless. In 1850 he started business on his own account in Kingston,
as wharfinger and shipping agent. During that season he united with
some others in organizing a steamboat line to run between Kingston
and Montreal, in the furtherance of which enterprise he removed to
Montreal in 1851, adding the business of general shipping agent. In the
year 1854 he was joined by his elder brother John, when they entered
extensively into the grain trade, Mr. McLennan going to Chicago in
connection with that business. In 1867 he returned to Montreal, and
organized the Montreal Transportation Company, of which he has been
president to the present time.
[Illustration: ANDREW ALLAN. W. W. OGILVIE. HUGH M^cLENNAN.]
Mr. McLennan’s name soon became identified with many of the leading
enterprises of the city, as well as in its educational and benevolent
institutions. He still continues his active connection with the
transportation and grain export business, and by reason of his
long connection has become an acknowledged authority in everything
pertaining to the past history of these important branches of Canadian
trade. He is an ex-president of the Board of Trade, and represented
that organization upon the Harbour Board for a quarter of a century,
resigning the position during the present season. He is a director
of the Bank of Montreal, a governor of McGill University, and of the
Montreal General Hospital, and is treasurer of the Sailors’ Institute.
He is also an active member of the American Presbyterian Church.
* * * * *
A large proportion of the wheat grown in the Western States and in
Canada is made into flour and transported in that form to eastern and
foreign markets. Minneapolis, in the State of Minnesota, claims to
be the greatest flour manufacturing centre in the world. Its milling
capacity is said to be 54,800 barrels daily. Its actual output in
1895 was 10,581,633 barrels. Although Canada may not compare with
Minneapolis in its annual output of flour, she claims to have the
largest individual miller in the world, in the person of W. W. Ogilvie,
of Montreal. Mr. William Watson Ogilvie was born at St. Michel, near
Montreal, April 14th, 1836, being descended from a younger brother
of the Earl of Angus, who, some centuries ago, was rewarded with the
lands of Ogilvie, in Banffshire, and assumed the name of the estate.
His immediate ancestors belonged to Stirlingshire, Scotland, his
grandfather having come to this country in the year 1800.
The milling business now represented by Mr. Ogilvie was begun by
his grandfather, who, in 1801, erected a mill at Jacques Cartier,
near Quebec, and also one at the Lachine Rapids, in 1808. In 1860
he became a member of the firm of A. W. Ogilvie & Co., then formed,
whose transactions in grain soon became very extensive, resulting in
the building of the “Glenora Mills,” at Montreal, and others of large
capacity at Goderich, Seaforth and Winnipeg. On the death of Mr. John
Ogilvie, in 1888, Senator A. W. Ogilvie, having retired in 1874, Mr.
W. W. became the sole member of the firm, and has since proved himself
a man of marvellous executive ability. He went to Hungary to see
the roller process at work, where it came into use in 1868, and was
one of the first to introduce it into this country. He acquired by
purchase the famous Gould Mills in Montreal, at a cost of $250,000,
thus adding 1,100 barrels to his daily milling capacity, which, at the
present time, is about 9,000 barrels a day. The annual output of Mr.
Ogilvie’s mills is about 2,500,000 barrels. About 30 per cent. of that
amount is exported to different European countries; and, recently, a
demand has arisen in Japan, Australia, and even in the Fiji Islands,
for “Ogilvie’s Hungarian flour.” The balance is sold in all parts of
the Dominion. Mr. Ogilvie purchases between four and five millions of
bushels of wheat annually, and is rich in elevators, having as many
as sixty-nine of these for his own special use in various parts of
the country. In carrying on his extensive business he occasionally
charters whole fleets of lake steamers and barges, and it is said
of him that he is as fair in his business methods as he is generous
in his charities. Mr. Ogilvie is a director of the Bank of Montreal,
ex-President of the Montreal Board of Trade, and largely interested in
several of the leading commercial interests of Canada.
DEEPER WATERWAYS.
The enlargement of the St. Lawrence and Erie canals cannot fail to
prove advantageous to the inland shipping trade; but, so far from
solving the question of “cheapest transportation,” it seems rather to
have accentuated the demand for greater facilities of a like kind. The
cry for “deeper waterways” has been in the air for many years, but
never has it been louder than just now. The first enlargement of the
St. Mary’s Falls Canal in 1881, and the subsequent deepening of the
channels connecting the Upper Lakes had the effect, almost immediately,
of doubling the tonnage of vessels plying the lakes and of producing a
corresponding reduction in the rates of freight. The increase of the
commerce of the lakes, incredible to those who are not engaged in it,
and what appears to be its limitless future, have been keenly discussed
in conventions as well as on the floors of Parliament and Congress
for a number of years past, but it was only in 1894 that the movement
assumed an organized form.
At a meeting held in Toronto in September, 1894, there was formed
“The International Deep Waterways Association,” the declared object
of which was “to promote the union of the lakes and the high seas by
waterways of the greatest practicable capacity and usefulness; and
recognizing the supreme utility of such waterways’ development.” At
that meeting it was resolved: “That the depth of all channels through
the lakes and their seaboard connections be not less than twenty-one
feet, and that all permanent structures be designed on a basis not less
than twenty-six feet, in order that the greater depth may be quickly
and cheaply obtained whenever demanded by the future necessities of
commerce.”
On the 8th of February, 1895, it was resolved by the Senate and
House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress
assembled, “That the President is authorized to appoint three persons
who shall have power to meet and confer with any similar committee
which may be appointed by the Government of Great Britain or the
Dominion of Canada, and who shall make inquiry and report whether it is
feasible to build such canals as shall enable vessels engaged in ocean
commerce to pass to and fro between the Great Lakes and the Atlantic
Ocean, where such canals can be most conveniently located, and the
probable cost of the same, with estimates in detail; and if any part of
the same should be built on the territory of Canada, what regulations
or treaty arrangements will be necessary between the United States and
Great Britain to preserve the free use of such canals to the people of
this country at all times.”
By an order of Council dated at Ottawa, 14th December, 1895, Messrs.
O. A. Howland, M.P.P., of Toronto, Thomas C. Keefer, C.E., and Thomas
Munro, C.E., of Ottawa, were appointed Commissioners on behalf of the
Canadian Government to meet and confer with the Commissioners appointed
by the President of the United States on this important subject.
Several meetings of this International Waterways Commission have
been held, a good deal of money has been spent in preliminary
surveys, and reports favourable to the proposal, embodying much
exceedingly interesting information as to the amount and rapid growth
of the commerce of the lakes, have been submitted to the respective
Governments. The American Commissioners favour the construction of
a series of ship canals connecting Lake Erie with the seaboard,
suggesting that the minimum depth of navigable water should be 28 feet,
with canal locks 560 feet long and 64 feet wide. They present a choice
of routes: (1) “The natural route” _via_ the St. Lawrence to Montreal,
and _via_ Lake Champlain to the Hudson River. (2) _Via_ Lake Ontario to
Oswego and thence through the Mohawk Valley to Troy on the Hudson. The
latter would be entirely through United States territory; the former
would necessarily be of an international character, and preferable,
provided that satisfactory treaty arrangements could be effected for
the settlement of any differences that might arise between the two
Governments interested. In either case the construction of a ship canal
at Niagara Falls on the American side of the river is judged to be
necessary. The international route would involve a ship canal from some
point below Ogdensburg to near the boundary line on Lake St. Francis,
and thence through Canadian territory to Lake Champlain.
The Canadian Commissioners in general terms endorse the international
proposal as the one “which would give an opportunity of doing what our
canals were intended to do, but have failed to do, that is, to obtain
the maximum amount of the western trade for the St. Lawrence route.”
It is agreed that the class of vessels adapted to the Welland and St.
Lawrence canals, limited to a draft of fourteen feet, can never compete
successfully with the large United States vessels plying on the Upper
Lakes; and the fact that these large United States vessels are unable
to leave the Upper Lakes, “seems to embrace the whole ‘Deep Waterways’
question in a nutshell.”[60]
Regarding Montreal as a seaport and the natural outlet for the
commerce of the West, it is conceded that its harbour accommodation
must be largely increased, that it should be furnished with the best
known appliances for the storage and shipment of grain, and that the
navigable channel to Quebec be deepened to at least thirty feet and the
Welland Canal to at least twenty feet.
The project of enlarged ship canals to connect the Great Lakes with the
Atlantic Ocean is a magnificent one. Its advantages have been skilfully
set forth. There are no insurmountable engineering difficulties in
the way of its accomplishment, but it is still in nubibus. Apart from
the complications necessarily attending an international work of this
magnitude, it is not likely that it will be entered upon until the
results to commerce of the enlargement of existing canals in both
countries have been fairly tested.
In estimating the comparative merits of Montreal and New York, or any
other American port on the North Atlantic coast, it may be assumed
that the average summer rate of freight upon a bushel of wheat by
either route from the head of the Upper Lakes to Liverpool is almost
identical.[61] But it must be borne in mind that grain shipped _via_
Buffalo, whether by rail or canal, may be stored at the American
seaboard, to be shipped at any time during the winter that may be
desirable, thus placing the Montreal route at a disadvantage. The rates
of marine insurance are also said to be in favour of New York. Another
argument in favour of the route to New York _via_ Buffalo is that the
Erie Canal is open for navigation from three to four weeks later in the
autumn than the St. Lawrence canals, a fact of great importance to the
Western farmer who wishes to dispose of as much of his crop as possible
before the close of navigation.
MONTREAL, OTTAWA AND GEORGIAN BAY CANAL.
This latest canal project is the revival of a proposal that was
entertained by the Canadian Government many years ago, and upon which
there was spent a good deal of money, but which was subsequently
abandoned in favour of the St. Lawrence route. Mr. Macleod Stewart,
ex-Mayor of Ottawa, and a man of great energy as well as of influence,
is the chief promoter of the present enterprise. At his instance a
company of British capitalists has been formed for the purpose of
constructing and operating a system of canals to complete a through
waterway from Montreal to the Great Lakes along the course of the
Ottawa and Mattawa rivers, Lake Nipissing and French River to the
Georgian Bay, Lake Huron—following precisely the track of the early
voyageurs. The chief advantage claimed for this route, from a
commercial point of view, is that it is by far the shortest that can be
devised from the Upper Lakes to the seaboard. Owing to the directness
of the route it would effect a saving in distance of 450 miles over the
Erie Canal route, and of 375 over the Welland and St. Lawrence route.
The total distance by the proposed route from Montreal to the waters
of Lake Huron is 430 miles, requiring, it is said, the construction of
only twenty-nine miles of canal, in addition to the existing canals,
to complete a through waterway adapted to the navigation of vessels
of 1,000 tons burthen and drawing ten feet of water. Assuming the
estimated cost not to exceed $25,000,000, it is represented in the
company’s prospectus as an investment holding out the prospect of
becoming a fairly remunerative commercial enterprise. It is further
advanced in favour of the immediate prosecution of the work, that
this route, being cooler and more sheltered than the lakes’ route,
would enable grain and cattle to be taken through in better condition;
that the rate of insurance would be less; that it would render
available immense natural forces in the waters of the Ottawa and its
tributaries; and, especially, that owing to its distance from the
international boundary it would, in case of war, be of the highest
military importance, and prove of great value as a means of defence
and of protection to our commerce. Provided that the necessary funds
are forthcoming, there are said to be no engineering difficulties to
prevent the work being completed in three years’ time. On the other
hand, it is alleged that a canal system limited to a draft of ten feet
would not meet the present-day requirements, and could not be expected
to compete successfully with one offering fourteen feet, even if the
distance to be traversed would be shorter. Grain merchants, East and
West, hold strongly to the opinion that the route which will bring the
largest class of vessels navigating the Great Lakes to the seaboard at
least expense is the route that will capture the trade. A ship canal
for the Ottawa route, having twenty-five to thirty feet depth of water,
with locks of 500 to 600 feet in length, would seem to offer many
advantages, though in the estimation of the Deep Waterways Commission
“its consideration is not now justified.”
FOOTNOTES:
[49] _Vide_ page 26 of said Report.
[50] “Buffalo Board of Trade Report, 1895,” p. 98.
[51] “United States Deep Waterways Commission Report, 1896.”
[52] “Chicago Board of Trade Report, 1895.”
[53] “United States Deep Waterways Commission Report, 1896.”
[54] “United States International Commerce Report, 1892,” p. 52.
[55] For these notes on the Erie Canal the author is chiefly indebted
to Kingsford’s “Canadian Canals,” Mr. Thomas C. Keefer, C. E., Ottawa,
and the Superintendent’s “Report on Canals in the State of New York,
1896.”
[56] The latest improvement in this direction is what is called the
“Grain Sucker,” by which the process of loading and unloading cargoes
of grain is accomplished with astonishing speed. The new appliance
combines in its construction the main features of the ordinary
elevator, and causes the grain to go through all the different
movements above described, with this difference, that instead of the
leg with the belt and bucket, the grain is elevated to the top of the
structure on the principle of suction through a flexible pipe. The
air being drawn off by pumps from the vacuum chamber, the grain is
sucked up like water from a well. Machines of this kind, fitted with
any number of these pipes that may be required, are used at the London
docks, and are said to be capable of transferring wheat at the rate of
a hundred and fifty tons an hour—_Vide Strand Magazine_ for May, 1898.
[57] “The steamship _Bannockburn_ and consorts left Fort William on the
3rd instant loaded with 220,000 bushels of No. 1 hard wheat for Mr. W.
W. Ogilvie’s mills. This is the largest shipment that ever left the
port.”—_Montreal Gazette, June 5th, 1896._
[58] The weight that can be hauled by a locomotive depends largely on
the gradients of the road traversed. Winnipeg and Fort William are
nearly on the same sea level, but between them the line of railway
ascends and descends some 800 feet, limiting the drawing power of
a sixty-ton locomotive in certain sections to, say, 900 tons. On a
level road a large American locomotive will easily draw sixty cars
containing 1,000 bushels of wheat each, or a total weight of 3,000
tons. As with steamships, the tendency is to increase the size of the
locomotive. There is this difference, however: the weight and power of
the locomotive are limited by the strength of the rail upon which it
travels.
[59] Since these lines were written, three stationary elevators have
been erected at Kingston—one by the Montreal Transportation Company,
with a capacity of 800,000 bushels; one by the Moore Company, for
500,000 bushels, and one by James Richardson & Sons, for 250,000
bushels. The Prescott Elevator Company has erected one at Prescott
of 1,000,000 capacity, and still another has been built at Coteau
Landing in connection with the Canada Atlantic Railway system, with
500,000 capacity. All indications are that the enlargement of the St.
Lawrence canals is confidently expected to result in a large increase
in the Canadian grain trade and forwarding business. There are sixteen
floating elevators in Montreal harbour, capable of handling from 4,000
to 8,000 bushels of grain each per hour.
[60] The following paragraph, taken from the _North-Western Miller_ for
November 12th, 1897, doubtless reflects the opinion of the majority
of Western grain dealers in the United States, with whom the feeling
of sentiment for the “natural route” is of small account: “The steel
barge _Amazon_ left Fort William recently loaded with 205,000 bushels
of Manitoba hard wheat for Buffalo, indicating that the Buffalo route
is still at its best, and that the monster craft is cutting off the
Montreal route as effectively as could be desired by any rival.”
[61] We have good authority for quoting the rates of the summer of
1897 as follows: Duluth to Buffalo, 1½ cents per bushel; Buffalo to
New York, by the Erie Canal, 3½ cents; New York to Liverpool, 5 cents;
elevator charges, ⅞ of 1 cent; total, 10⅞ cents per bushel. Fort
William to Kingston, 3½ cents; Kingston to Montreal, 2 cents; Montreal
to Liverpool, 5¼ cents, including port charges; total, 10¾ cents per
bushel. In 1857 the average rate by lake and canal on a bushel of wheat
from Chicago to New York was 25.29 cents per bushel; now it is less
than 6 cents. The reduction in cost of transmission is due to improved
methods of handling freight, deeper channels, larger vessels and more
rapid conveyance.