CAYUGA ADDS HER NAME--NIAGARA AND HAMILTON JOINED--THE NIAGARA FERRY
COMPLETED--ICE JAMS ON THE RIVER--ONCE MORE THE UNITED MANAGEMENT FROM
"NIAGARA TO THE SEA."
Under virile management the business on the route kept fast increasing and
it became evident that more accommodation should be supplied even before it
might become absolutely necessary. It was therefore determined to build
another steamer, which in speed and size would be a still further step
forward and would be ready for any adverse competitors should any happen to
arise. Mr. Folger visited Great Britain to make inquiries and on his return
Mr. Angstrom was again engaged to prepare the designs for the new steamer.
Contracts were let to the Canadian Ship Building Co., of Toronto, for a
steamer 317 feet long, 36 feet beam, 4,300 horse-power to carry 2,500
passengers.
We were again faced with the necessity of a choice of a new name. Requests
were made for suggestions, and "Book Tickets" offered as a prize to those
who might send in the name which might be accepted. Two hundred and
thirty-three names beginning with "C" and ending with "A" were contributed
to us by letters and through the public press. Out of these names the name
_Cayuga_ was selected in recognition of the Indian tribes on the south
shore of Lake Ontario, the district of the inner American lakes, in the
State of New York, one of which bears the name of Lake Cayuga.
It is also the name of an old and flourishing town in Ontario, near the
shores of Lake Erie, adjacent to the land reserved for the Mohawks under
Brant, and still occupied by their descendants. A very interesting annal
was at that time exhumed, being the record kept by the first Postmaster of
this town of _Cayuga_, of the spellings of the name of his post office as
actually written upon letters received there by him during a period of some
twenty-five years. The list is curious. It seems strange that there could
have been such diversity of spelling, but it is to be remembered that in
the "thirties" there were not many schools, and by applying a phonetic
pronunciation to the names in this list, and particularly by giving a K
sound to the C and splitting the word into six syllables and pronouncing
each by itself, some appreciation may be acquired of a similarity in sound,
although the spelling is so exceedingly varied. The adherents of spelling
reform will perhaps be heartened by the result of everyone spelling as they
please.
List of Mr. Isaac Fry, the Postmaster at Cayuga, in the
County of Haldimand, giving 112 ways of spelling
Cayuga, "everyone of which" he wrote "have been
received on letters at this office."
Cyuca
Cuba
Cayagua
Cuga
Kauguge
Cayga
Keugue
Cayega
Esquga
Cayhuga
Ceaugy
Ciyuga
Cayaga
Cayuhoga
Cayua
Cauaga
Gaugoke
Ciuga
Cajaga
Caiuga
Cyega
Kukey
Cuygey
Caucy
Cugga
Caugy
Cayago
Chaugy
Caugh
Cayugia
Caughe
Cauguay
Kiucky
Cayoha
Canuga
Kikuwa
Cayuago
Caugey
Cauyga
Cayueg
Kajuke
Cajuka
Payuga
Caugia
Cayuag
Cajauga
Kajuka
Cauguga
Kaucky
Cayaga
Cogugar
Cayuage
Caugua
Couga
Cuyahja
Cahucia
Cayuga
Kayuga
Keyuka
Cayuge
Cyuga
Cayug
Caoga
Ceuaga
Canugua
Caygua
Cayauga
Cuagua
Caouga
Gayuga
Caguga
Kiuga
Caugga
Kayga
Caiuka
Cayuka
Kugogue
Cycuga
Cayeugo
Couga
Caugay
Cayyuga
Cayugay
Kauga
Ceuga
Cayouga
Caluga
Cyug
Cayhaigue
Keugey
Keugeageh
Cuyuga
Cyugiah
Kyuga
Cayuah
Cauga
Cyuga
Chaquga
Cayugu
Caugy
Cayugua
Cayega
Cayugo
Ceauga
Cayugga
Cuyugo
Cayuig
Cahuga
The steamer was successfully launched in the company's yards at the foot of
Bathurst street, Toronto, on the 3rd of March, 1906. Miss Mary Osler,
daughter of the President, conferring the name.
After the completion of the steamer, the speed trials which were of a most
interesting and important character, were engaged in. The contract was that
the steamer, under the usual conditions for regular service, should make
the run between Toronto and Charlotte, and return, a distance of
ninety-four miles each way, at an average speed of 21-1/2 miles per hour. A
further condition was to make a thirty-mile run, being the distance between
Toronto and Niagara, at a maintained speed of 22-1/2 miles per hour. Both
conditions were exceeded, greatly to the credit of the designer and of the
contractors.
When put upon the route in 1907, the _Cayuga_ received the commendation of
the travelling public, her weatherly capacity and speed enabling the
leaving hour to be changed from 7 a.m. to 7.30.
A competition which had been anticipated now developed itself, and the fast
and able steamer _Turbinia_ was in 1908 placed by her owners upon the
Lewiston-Toronto route, making two trips per day. She put up a gallant
fight, but, against a company making six sailings at each end of the route
per day, there was no room left into which she could squeeze without
finding a competitor alongside. It was found, too, that although her speed
was greater than that of any of the other steamers on the lake, she was
exceeded in speed by the _Cayuga_. Her attack upon the route was met, as
the Niagara Navigation Company intended it should be, by frequency of
sailings and strict fulfillment of service, leaving no room for any
competitor to find an opening, and by the high average speed maintained by
all its steamers and particularly the new one. After keeping up a gallant
struggle until the end of the mid-summer season, the _Turbinia_ retired to
her previous route between Toronto and Hamilton.
Another addition to our dock properties was now effected. We had for many
years been lessees of the dock at Lewiston, but now, in 1908, became its
full owners by purchasing the whole frontage from Mr. Cornell, our lessor,
with whom we had for so many years been in cordial working. The dock had
fallen somewhat out of repair and very considerable improvements were
requisite for the convenience of the increasing numbers of our passengers
and for their comfort. Fortunately the larger part of these improvements
were postponed to the next season, for during the winter 1908-09, which was
exceptionally severe, an extraordinary freshet and piling up of ice on the
river occurred.
The lower Niagara River rarely freezes over in all places, much running
water being left in evidence and as a rule the ice which has anywhere been
formed during the winter goes out into the lake in the spring without any
trouble. There are records of two great "Ice Jams" which had happened
during the previous history of the river. The earliest of these was in
1825. During this winter the steamer _Queenston_ was under construction in
the ravine on the Canadian side which opens up from the river just below
the Queenston dock. In the spring the preparations were being made ready
for the launching when an exceptional ice jam suddenly formed, causing the
waters of the river to rise. The pressure of the floes which were now
carried by the water up against the steamer became so great and dangerous
that it was necessary to block her up and by extending the ways inland to
move her further back into the gully, from here, after the waters had
subsided, she was successfully launched.
[Illustration: The ICE JAM. 1906, at Lewiston. page 192]
[Illustration: The ICE JAM. 1906, at Niagara-on-Lake. page 193]
Another instance was in 1883, when the waters and ice rose exceptionally,
but beyond sweeping the sheds off the Lewiston docks no exceptional damage
was done.
This latest ice jam of 1908-09, was according to past records, and the
traditions of the oldest inhabitants, the worst that had ever been
experienced. The winter had been severe and much ice had formed in Lake
Erie and on the upper river. This was brought down in successive rushes in
the spring during alternating frosts and thaws, so that, the river between
Lewiston and the mouth had become jammed from bank to bank with huge floes
of ice, heaving and heaping up on one another, and binding together with
_serracs_, and _crevasses_ much like the ice river of an Avalanche. As the
successive ice runs came down they were driven under the floes until at
length the masses grounded on the shallows at the mouths below
Niagara-on-the-Lake.
The river being now blocked up, the waters gradually rose fully twenty feet
higher than usual bringing the ice floes with them. With the exception of a
few places where small sections of water could be seen, the whole Rapids
from the Whirlpool to the outlet of the Gorge at Lewiston was packed with
ice and the rapids eliminated, a condition never previously known. As the
spring thaws came, the ice mounds, being unable to get exit below, mounted
still higher with mighty heavings and struggles, rounding up in the centre
of the river, as had been noticed to some extent in 1883, and pushing and
piling up on the banks but not making any progress down the river, until it
became evident that Nature was unable to break the barrier and immense
injury was likely to occur.
At that juncture the Engineer Corps of the United States Regular Army, at
Buffalo, initiated a series of explosions of dynamite, by electric mines,
in the main blockade down near the river mouth opposite Fort Niagara. After
several days of very difficult and dangerous work, as much as 4,000 lbs. of
dynamite being exploded at one time, the blockade was broken, the seven
miles of ice began to move in alternate rushes and haltings, until at
length the river was clear.
The situation had been at times alarming. At Lewiston the docks were
completely engulfed under 60 feet of ice, the ice pinnacles sweeping up
high above the level of the swollen water and carrying away a portion of
the gallery of the hotel. On the Queenston side a mark has been placed
about thirty feet above the usual water level showing the height to which
the ice hummocks rose. At Niagara-on-the-Lake the ice mounted high above
the level of the dock, but by happy fortune a good sized iceberg had
grounded in the channel at the end of the dock leading into the inner
basin. Here it held out as a buffer outside the line of the "piling" along
the bank, withstanding all the attacks from above, and thrusting the floes
out into the stream, thus preserving the dock, lighthouse and buildings
from destruction.
When the waters subsided the shores of the river for twenty to thirty feet
above the usual level were found to have been swept clear of every bush and
tree from the rapids to the lake, a condition from which they have
scarcely yet recovered. It was not until the end of May that the river was
entirely free from ice. In reconstructing the dock we were able to
introduce new improvements which would not have been previously possible.
1909 brought no further changes in the steamers, but a gradual increase in
the travelling due to increased energy in the cultivation of new business
and careful attention to the convenience and comfort of passengers by the
management and efficient staff.
For many years, from time to time, the company has been endeavoring to
purchase the Toronto docks which were the Northern terminal of their
system. Four times we had been turned out of its occupation and obliged to
find landing berths elsewhere. The necessity of holding their Toronto
terminal was constantly before the Company and was the only and complete
sequence of the holding of the several terminals at the ports upon the
Niagara River. At last, in 1910, the opportunity of purchase arose and was
immediately availed of. With this purchase the Company completed the policy
which had been initiated from its very beginning. This Yonge Street dock
property, extending from Yonge Street to Scott Street, has ever been the
steamshipping centre of the city, for traffic to all ports on the lake. Its
facilities can be still more expanded so that, for the convenience of the
public, all the lake passenger lines can be concentrated at its wharves to
the mutual advantage of all, a policy which the Niagara Company desired to
promote and which has been contributed to by the purchase and concentration
of the steamers of the Hamilton Line. This, effected in 1911, concentrates
into one management an important passenger business and brings direct
connection, as of old, between Hamilton, the Head of the Lake, and the
Niagara River. These, together with the opening of a new route to the south
shore by service between Toronto and Olcott, in connection with the
International Electric Railway, will open a new era of contributing
traffic.
Beginning with one steamer, the "_Mother of the Fleet_," the Line from one
trip a day has, in its 35 years of endeavour, grown to be nothing short of
"The Niagara Ferry," served by swift steamers, of increasing size, making
six trips from each side, leaving every two hours during the day, and by
persistent advertising and increasingly reputable service, the Company has
made the "_Niagara River Line_" known throughout the travelling world, and
created a business and carrying capacity which has risen on heavy excursion
days to no less than 20,000 to 26,000 passengers moved on one day. What the
"_Kyles of Bute_" route is to the tourist public of Great Britain and
Europe, the _Niagara River Line_ is to the tourist public of America.
Toronto has trebled its population and in great industrial enterprises is
forging ahead of all other cities in Ontario. Niagara Falls, with its
wonderfully increasing factories created by the concentration of the
electric power in its midst, has grown from being solely a summer hotel
town to a great manufacturing community. Buffalo, with a population at
present of 500,000, is expanding marvelously. The Richelieu & Ontario
Company, for which the Niagara Company collects the passenger business of
the south shore through the gateway of the Niagara and places it for them
in Toronto, has exceedingly increased their accommodation and made known
their service as a contributor to the route from the St. Lawrence to the
ocean.
Whatever success there has been in the past, the prospects of the future
shine brighter still.
In 1912, while these pages were being written, has come the final phase.
It will be remembered that in the early days the steamers for Montreal
sailed direct from the Niagara River and that the guiding minds of the
Royal Mail Line were at Queenston in 1847 and for subsequent decades.
In the slump of steamboat traffic and the decadence of the river business
the Montreal steamers had shortened their route, and had made Hamilton, for
some time, and afterwards Toronto, the starting point for their steamers
for Montreal.
The introduction of the Niagara Navigation Company had produced a change of
conditions on the river, and by energy and bold investment, had created an
effective local organization, as has been detailed in this narrative.
Gradually passenger business had been attracted and centralized until
Niagara Falls had been created in their Annual Rates Meetings by the
Railway Companies as the starting point of all "Summer Rates Excursions,"
and "The Niagara Portal" as the nucleus basing route for all summer tours.
At the same time the Richelieu & Ontario Navigation Co., which succeeded to
the Royal Mail Line, has grown in scope and equipment to be the premier
steamboat organization of Canada, the controller of the passenger lines of
the St. Lawrence system of river, lakes and rapids, and operating the
longest continuous route of any Inland Navigation Company in the world. In
all, this interval of years its old advertising heading of "_Niagara to the
Sea_" had been continuously maintained, it was not unreasonable therefore
that there should be a desire to make the old caption a present fact and by
acquiring the local organization restore the old-time conditions.
Negotiations had for some time been in progress and at length in June,
1913, at a Board meeting, presided over (in the absence of the President,
Sir Edmund Osler in England) by Vice-President Cumberland, the originator
of the company, and its continuous Vice-President during all its existence,
the Niagara Navigation Co. was formally transferred as a working enterprise
in full operation to the Richelieu & Ontario Navigation Co. The directors
of the company at this time and for several years previously were:
President, Sir Edmund Osler; Vice-President, Barlow Cumberland;
Directors--Hon. J. J. Foy, K.C.; Hon. J. S. Hendrie, C.V.O.; W. D.
Matthews, F. Gordon Osler, J. Bruce Macdonald. These in succession
transferred their seats to the nominees of the new owners and Sir Henry
Pellatt, C.V.O., became President of the company.
The two systems were thus joined into one. The Company operating the St.
Lawrence system came back to its old starting point at the head of
navigation on the Niagara River. With this is completed the century and
this story of the early days of passenger movement on the river, and of the
origin, rise and establishment of the Niagara Navigation Company in its
contribution to the records of sail and steam on the Niagara River.
Another cycle of steamboat navigation has passed, another era has closed
and a new one has begun, and once again there is one Company and one
Management under the Richelieu & Ontario Navigation Company for the Niagara
River and the St. Lawrence Route, from _Niagara to the Sea_.