A Century of Sail and Steam on the Niagara River Part 4

There was, at that time, no railroad around the head of Lake Ontario so a Freight Route by steamer across the lake was opened to Lewiston, from where rail connection could be made to the Atlantic.

In January, 1855, large s.h.i.+pments of flour made from Upper Canada mills along the north sh.o.r.e of Lake Ontario began to be collected. The enterprising agent of the _Peerless_ (Mr. L. B. Gordon) wrote to the Central that he hoped to "make the consignment up to 10,000 barrels before the ca.n.a.l and river opens." This being a reference to the competing all-water route via the Erie Ca.n.a.l and Hudson River.

The first winter s.h.i.+pment of a consignment of 3,400 barrels was begun by the _Chief Justice Robinson_ from the Queen's Wharf on 17th January.

The through rates of freight, as recorded in Mr. Gordon's books, are in these modern days of low rates, remarkable. Not the less interesting are the proportions accepted by each of the carriers concerned for their portion of the service, which were as follows:

Flour, per barrel, Toronto to New York--

Steamer--Queen's Wharf to Lewiston 12-1/2c Wharf.a.ge and teaming (Cornell) 6 New York Central, Lewiston to Albany 60 Ferry at Albany 3 Hudson River Railroad to New York 37-1/2 ----- Through to New York $1.19

What would the Railway Commissioners and the public of the present think of such rates!

The s.h.i.+pments were largely from the products of the mills at the _Credit_, _Oakville_, _Brampton_, _Esquesing_, and _Georgetown_, being teamed to the docks at _Oakville_ and _Port Credit_, from where they were brought by the steamers _Queen City_ and _Chief Justice Robinson_ at 5c per bbl. to the Queen's Wharf, Toronto, and from there taken across the lake by the _Chief Justice Robinson_ and the _Peerless_.

The propeller _St. Nicholas_ took a direct load of 3,000 barrels from Port Credit to Lewiston on Feb. 2nd. s.h.i.+pments were also sent to Boston at $1,24-1/2 per bbl., on which the proportion of the "New York Central" was 68c, and the "Western Railroad" received 35c per bbl. as their share.

Nearly the whole consignment expected was obtained.

Another novel route was also opened. Consignments of flour for local use were sent to Montreal during this winter by the _New York Central_, Lewiston to Albany, and thence by the "_Albany Northern Railroad_" to the south side of the St. Lawrence River, whence they were most probably teamed across the ice to the main city.

Northbound s.h.i.+pments were also worked up and received at Lewiston for Toronto--princ.i.p.ally teas and tobaccos--consignments of "English Bonded Goods" were rated at "second-cla.s.s, same as domestic sheetings" and carried at 63c per 100 pounds from New York to Lewiston.

It was a winter of unexampled activity, but it was the closing effort of the steamers against the entrance of the railways into their all-the-year-round trade.

Immediately upon the opening of the Great Western Railway from Niagara Falls to Hamilton in 1855 and to Toronto in 1856, and of the Grand Trunk Railway from Montreal in 1856, the steamboating interests suffered still further and great decay. In the financial crisis of 1857 many steamers were laid up. In 1858 all the American Line steamers were in bankruptcy, and in 1860 the _Zimmerman_ abandoned the Niagara River to the _Peerless_, the one steamer being sufficient.

The opening of the American Civil War in 1860 opened a new career for the Lake Ontario steamers, as the Northern Government were short of steamers with which to blockade the Southern ports.

The "Peerless" was purchased by the American Government in 1861 and left for New York under command of Captain Robert Kerr, and by 1863 all the American Line steamers had been sold in the same direction and gone down the rapids to Montreal, and thence to the Atlantic. A general clearance had been affected.

The "Zimmerman" returned from the Hamilton Route to the Niagara River, which had been left vacant by the removal of the "Peerless," but, taking fire alongside the dock at Niagara in 1863, became a total loss. During the winter the third "_City of Toronto_" was built by Captain Duncan Milloy, of Niagara, and began her service on the river in 1864 and thereafter had the route to herself. In 1866 the "Rothsay Castle" brought up by Captain Thomas Leach from Halifax, ran for one season in compet.i.tion, but the business was not sufficient for two steamers so she was returned to the Atlantic. The "City" then had the route alone until 1877, when the "Southern Belle,"

being the reconstructed "Rothsay Castle," re-entered upon the scene and again ran from Tinnings Wharf in connection with the Canada Southern Railway to Niagara.

Such had been the courses of navigation and steamboating on the Niagara River from its earliest days--the rise to the zenith of prosperity and then the immeasurable fall due to the encircling of the lakes by the increasing railways. The old time pa.s.senger business had been diverted from the water, the docks had fallen into decay, only one steamer remained on the Niagara River Route, but it was fair to consider that with more vigor and improved equipment a new era might be begun.

The decadence of trade had been so great, and the prospects of the Niagara River presenting so little hope that Captain Thomas d.i.c.k had turned his thoughts and energies into the direction of the North Sh.o.r.e of Lake Huron, where mining and lumbering were beginning, and to Lake Superior, where the construction of the Dawson Road, as a connection through Canadian territory, to Fort Garry was commenced. He had several years previously transferred the second _City of Toronto_ to these Upper Lake waters, and after being reboilered and rebuilt, her name had been changed to _Algoma_, commanded at first by his half brother, Capt. Jas. d.i.c.k, and in 1863 he had obtained the contract for carrying the mails for the Manitoulin Island and Lake Huron Sh.o.r.e to Sault Ste. Marie.

If ever there was a steamer which deserved the name of "_Pathfinder_," it was this steamer "Algoma." It was said that all the officers, pilots and captains of later days had been trained on her, and that she had found out for them every shoal along her route by actual contact. Being a staunchily built wooden boat with double "walking beam" engines, working independently, one on each wheel, she always got herself off with little trouble or damage. One trip is personally remembered. Coming out from Bruce Mines the _Algoma_ went over a boulder on a shoal in such way as to open up a plank in the bottom, just in front of the boilers. Looking down the forward hatch the water could be watched as it boiled up into the fire-hold, but as long as the wheels were kept turning the pumps could keep the in-rush from gaining, so the steamer after backing off was continued on her journey.

When calling at docks the engines were never stopped, one going ahead the other reversed, until after Sault Ste. Marie had been reached and the balance of the cargo unloaded, when the steamer, with the men in the fire-hold working up to their ankles in water, set off on her run of 400 miles to Detroit, where was then the only dry dock into which she could be put.

After a long and successful career the brave boat died a quiet death alongside a dock, worn out as a lumber barge.

This transference of Captain d.i.c.k's interests to the Upper Lakes was, strangely enough, the precursor to the events which led to the creation of another era in navigation on the Niagara River. This "North Sh.o.r.e" route, although for long centuries occupied by the outposts of the Hudson Bay and North West fur companies, was so far as immigration and mercantile interests were concerned, an undeveloped territory. Along its sh.o.r.es was the traditional canoe and batteaux route from French River to Fort William on the Kaministiqua River for trade with the great prairies by the interlacing waterways to Lake Manitoba and the Red River. At intervals, such as at Spanish River, Missa.s.saga, Garden River, Michipicoten and Nepigon River, were the outlets for the canoe and portage routes, north to the Hudson Bay and great interior fur preserves. This ancient rival to the Niagara River route had remained little varied from the era of canoe and sail. The secrets of its natural products, other than fur, being as well kept as were those of the fertility of the soil of the "great Lone Land,"

under the perennial control of the same adventurers of Charles II.

The creation of the "Dominion of Canada" and of the "Province of Ontario"

under Confederation in 1867 and its establishment as the "District of Algoma" brought it political representation in the Provincial Legislature and a development of its unoccupied possibilities.

The size of the const.i.tuency was phenomenal. Its first representative in the Legislature of Ontario used quizzically to describe it: "Where is my const.i.tuency? Sir, Algoma, is the greatest const.i.tuency on earth, and larger than many an Empire in Europe. On the east it is bounded by the French River, on the south by all the waters of Lakes Huron and Lake Superior, on the west by Manitoba, with an undecided boundary, and on the north by the North Pole, and the Lord knows where."

Its permanent voters were few and spa.r.s.ely spread along a line of nigh 500 miles. By the Act of Confederation, Algoma was given a special qualification for its voters being for every male British subject of 21 or over, being a householder. Thus it has sometimes been averred that during hotly contested elections the migratory Indians for a while ceased to wander, that "shack towns" suddenly arose in the neighborhood of the saw mills, composed of small "slab" sided dwellings in which dusky voters lived until election day was over. It may be from these early seedlings that the several const.i.tuencies which have since been carved out from their great progenitor, have not been unremarkable for eccentricities in methods of ballot and in varieties of voters.

Further diversion of vessel interests from the Niagara Route to the Upper Lakes, and the circ.u.mstances which, within personal knowledge, accompanied it, are a part of the history, and a prelude to the return to the river.

CHAPTER V.

ON THE UPPER LAKES WITH THE WOLSELEY EXPEDITION AND LORD DUFFERIN.

The way having been opened by the _Algoma_ between Georgian Bay and the Sault, with sundry extra trips beyond, N. Milloy & Co., of Niagara, brought up from Halifax, in 1868, the even then celebrated steamer _Chicora_ to increase the service to Lake Superior. No finer steamer was there on the Upper Lakes than the _Chicora_, and none whether American or Canadian, that could approach her in speed; she could trail out a tow line to any compet.i.tor. She had arrived opportunely and had greatly increased her renown by carrying the Wolseley Expedition, in 1870, from Collingwood to the place on the sh.o.r.es of the Thunder Bay where the expedition for the suppression of the Riel Rebellion at Fort Garry was landed.

It was in the arrangements for the movement of this Wolseley Expedition that some difficulties arose which were due to a want of harmony between the local government of the State and that of the National Cabinet of the Federal Government at Was.h.i.+ngton, a condition which is liable to occur at any time under the peculiar provisions of the American Const.i.tution.

Having been compiled in the time of stress for the avoidance of an autocracy and for the development of the individual rights of the several component States, the relations between States and Federal authority were strongly drawn. While in the Canadian Const.i.tution any power which has not been specifically allotted to the Provinces remains in the Dominion Government, which is thus the centre of all power, in the United States the reverse condition exists.

Speedy dealings with foreign nations are thus somewhat hampered on the part of the United States Federal Government.

The only ca.n.a.l lock at that time at the Sault by which the rapids of the Sault River could be overcome and the level of Lake Superior be reached from that of Lake Huron, was on the Michigan side, and owned and controlled by the State of Michigan. As an armed force could not be sent by rail through the United States, it was necessary that all supplies and the men of the Canadian forces for Fort Garry should be forwarded by this water route to the head of Lake Superior, from where they were to take the "Dawson Route" of mixed road and river transit to Lake Winnipeg and the scene of action. A cargo of boats, wagons, and general supplies for use by the troops had been sent up by the "Chicora" (Captain McLean), leaving Collingwood on the 7th May, but the steamer was not permitted by the Michigan authorities to pa.s.s through the Sault Ca.n.a.l. Owing to this action immediate steps were imperatively necessary, pending negotiations, to obtain additional tonnage to carry forward the expedition.

Col. c.u.mberland, A.D.C., M.P.P., was sent on a secret duty to Detroit, where he succeeded in chartering the American steamer _Brooklyn_, which was at once sent off with instructions to report for orders above the ca.n.a.l at Point Aux Pins, to Col. Bolton, R.A., Deputy Adjutant General. Being pa.s.sed up the ca.n.a.l, without obstacle, the difficulty was immediately relieved.

Fortunately the "Algoma" was at the upper end of the route and on Lake Superior. The supplies and stores were accordingly unloaded from the _Chicora_ at the Canadian Sault, portaged across by the twelve miles road to the wharf at Point Aux Pins, on the Canadian side above the Rapids, and sent on up Lake Superior by the "Algoma," and "Brooklyn."

A similar course was obliged to be adopted with the cargoes of supplies for the expedition brought up on the Canadian steam barge _s.h.i.+ckluna_, and on the schooners _Orion_ and _Pandora_ towed by her.

This was in other ways a remarkable event, as being one in which the "Coasting Laws of Canada" were for a time, cancelled by the action of a citizen. The "Brooklyn" being an American boat could not legally carry cargo between two Canadian ports, such as Point Aux Pins and the Landing, so Col. c.u.mberland gave Captain Davis a letter[1] to Mr. Joseph Wilson, the Collector of Customs at the Canadian Sault, authorizing him to permit the American vessel to trade between Canadian ports. As Mr. c.u.mberland was member of Parliament for the district, the local authorities gave immediate attention, especially as everyone on the Canadian side was ready to run all risks and do everything in their power to help the expedition along.

Returning to Collingwood the "Chicora" left again on the 14th May with two companies of the Ontario Contingest recruited from the Volunteer Militia of the Province, twenty-four horses and more arms and stores. Refusal was again given and the same portaging took place as before, the men during the transfer being encamped near the old Hudson's Bay Fort. Urgent representations had been made to the local State authorities, pointing out that the expedition was pressed for time, much loss might be occasioned, and the rebellion spread if the troops were delayed. The British Minister at Was.h.i.+ngton was using every endeavor to obtain the necessary permission, but without avail. The "Chicora" returned to Collingwood and left again on 21st May with Col. Garnet Wolseley (afterwards Viscount Wolseley), a detachment of the "60th Rifles" of the Regulars (the Regiment of H.R.H.

Prince Arthur) and the balance of the expedition. In the absence of the expected permission the same procedure was again followed, and when everything on board had been unloaded the _Chicora_ was pa.s.sed empty through the ca.n.a.l, and reloading the soldiers and all the equipment at the Point aux Pins proceeded up the lake to her destination.

Canada has since then, for her self control and the protection of her trade, built a great ca.n.a.l on her own side, through which ever since it was constructed the United States vessels have been freely allowed to pa.s.s upon exactly the same terms as her own.

Navigation upon the Upper Lakes was in those years in the most primitive condition.

When the "Chicora" landed the Wolseley Expedition at Prince Arthur's Landing there was no wharf large enough for her to be moored to, so she had to anchor off the sh.o.r.e, and the men and cargo were landed in small boats.

As Col. Wolseley came ash.o.r.e in a rowboat he was met by Mr. Thomas Marks, a princ.i.p.al merchant, and Mr. William Murdock, C.E., who was then in conduct of the Government Railway Exploration Surveys from the sh.o.r.es of Thunder Bay to Fort Garry for what afterwards became the Canadian Pacific Railway.

The Colonel, finding on enquiry that the place had no particular name beyond that of "The Landing," proposed that it should be called "Prince Arthur's Landing." This was to be in honour of Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught, who was then serving in his battalion of the Rifle Brigade at that time stationed in Montreal. The name was immediately adopted and was kept unchanged until 1883, when, to mark the eastern end of the Canadian Pacific and to correspond with "Port Moody," the then accepted terminus at the western end, it was changed to "Port Arthur." The name and reminiscence of the Royal Prince is in this way still happily retained.

Rivalries had begun between the long established hamlet cl.u.s.tered around Fort William, the ancient post of the Hudson Bay Company on the banks at the mouth of the Kanistiqua River, and the newly created village on the sh.o.r.es of the Lake at the "Landing." To appease the vociferous claimants of both, the expedition was divided, one part being sent up by the lower river from "Fort William," the other by waggon on land from the "Landing," to join together again at a point on the Kaministiquia above the Falls, from where they proceeded together by the mixed transport of water and waggon on the "Dawson Route" to Fort Garry.

There were then few lighthouses on the lakes, and no buoys in the channels.

When a steamer left the sh.o.r.es of Georgian Bay nothing was heard of her until she came in sight again on her return after being away ten days, for there were no telegraphs on the North Sh.o.r.e nor even at the Sault.

The hamlets were few and far spread, being mainly small fis.h.i.+ng villages.