A Century of Sail and Steam on the Niagara River

By Barlow Cumberland

This narrative is not, nor does it purport to be one of general navigation upon Lake Ontario, but solely of the vessels and steamers which plyed during its century to the ports of the Niagara River, and particularly of the rise of the Niagara Navigation Co., to which it is largely devoted.
Considerable detail has, however been given to the history of the steamers "Frontenac" and "Ontario" because the latter has hitherto been reported to have been the first to be launched, and the credit of being the first to introduce steam navigation upon Lake Ontario has erroneously been given to the American shipping.
Successive eras of trading on the River tell of strenuous competitions. Sail is overpassed by steam. The new method of propulsion wins for this water route the supremacy of passenger travel, rising to a splendid climax when the application of steam to transportation on land and the introduction of railways brought such decadence to the River that all its steamers but one had disappeared

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Books Ltd.
• Release date: Mar 9, 2016
• ISBN: 9781473360594

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A Century of Sail and Steam on the Niagara River

By

Barlow Cumberland

Contents

A Century of Sail and Steam on the Niagara River

Boating – A Very Short History of Boats.

PUBLISHERS’ NOTE.

FOREWORD.

CHAPTER I.

CHAPTER II.

CHAPTER III.

CHAPTER IV.

CHAPTER V.

CHAPTER VI.

CHAPTER VII.

CHAPTER VIII.

CHAPTER IX.

CHAPTER X.

CHAPTER XI.

CHAPTER XII.

CHAPTER XIII.

CHAPTER XIV.

CHAPTER XV.

CHAPTER XVI.

CHAPTER XVII.

Illustrations

Barlow Cumberland

Queenstown. The NIAGARA RIVER from Queenston Heights. Lewiston.

The ONTARIO. 1817. The second Steamer on Lake Ontario. From the original drawing by Capt. Van Cleve

The GREAT BRITAIN. 1830. By courtesy of Mr. John Ross Robertson reproduced from his Landmarks of Toronto.

The WILLIAM IV. 1832. From the Landmarks of Toronto.

The CHIEF JUSTICE ROBINSON. 1841. From the Landmarks of Toronto.

The ALGOMA. 1862. The 2nd CITY OF TORONTO. 1840. Rebuilt.

The 3rd CITY OF TORONTO. 1864. From an old drawing.

Plan of Lock at Port Dalhousie with Upper Gate closed, only 200 ft. long The Lock at Port Dalhousie with Upper Gate open—233 ft. 6 in. long. Chicora 230 ft. long as placed in Lock and lowered to Lake Ontario Level.

The CHICORA on Lake Ontario

Niagara Navigation Co. Steamer spinning in the Rapids below Queenston Heights.

The CIBOLA in the Niagara River off Queenston.

The CORONA leaving N. N. Co. Dock at Toronto.

Sir Thomas Lipton on CHICORA.

H.R.H. the Duke and Duchess of York going on board CORONA.

The CHIPPEWA in Toronto Harbour.

The CHIPPEWA in Drydock at Kingston, Bow.

The CHIPPEWA in Drydock at Kingston, Stern.

How the FALLS have cut through the GORGE.

The CAYUGA in Niagara River off Youngstown.

The ICE JAM. 1906, at Lewiston.

The ICE JAM. 1906, at Niagara-on-Lake.

Boating

–

A Very Short History of Boats.

Boating is the leisurely activity of travelling by boat or the recreational use of a boat, whether powerboats, sailboats or man-powered vessels (such as rowing and paddle boats), focused on the travel itself, as well as sports activities, such as fishing or waterskiing. It is a popular activity, and there are millions of boaters worldwide. A ‘boat’ itself, is a watercraft of any size designed to float or plane, to work or travel on water – used by humans even before recorded history. Boats come in an enormous variety of shapes, sizes and construction, due to intended purpose, available materials and local traditions. For example, canoes have an incredibly long history with various versions used throughout the world for transportation, fishing or sport. Fishing boats in turn, vary widely in style mostly to match local conditions. Pleasure boats represent a less practical approach and can include anything from ski boats, pontoon boats to sailboats… the list goes on! Most small boats are designed for inland lakes or protected coastal areas, whereas others, such as the ‘whaleboat’ are operated from another ship, in an offshore environment.

In naval terms, a boat is a vessel small enough to be carried aboard another vessel (a ship). Yet for reasons of naval tradition, submarines are also usually referred to as ‘boats’ rather than ‘ships’, regardless of their size. ‘Dugouts’ are the oldest boats archaeologists have found, dating back about eight thousand years. It is known however that boats served as transport since early times; circumstantial evidence, such as the early settlement of Australia over 40,000 years ago, findings in Crete dated 130,000 years ago, and findings in Flores dated to 900,000 years ago, suggest that boats have been used since prehistoric times. The earliest boats are thought to have been logboats (a boat made from a hollowed tree trunk), and the oldest recovered boat in the world is the Pesse canoe, (a logboat) from a Pinus sylvestris, constructed somewhere between 8200 and 7600 BC. This canoe is exhibited in the Drents Museum in Assen, Netherlands. Other very old dugout boats, as well as other types have also been recovered, for instance a 7,000 year-old seagoing reed boat, found in Kuwait.

Boats played an incredibly important part in the commerce between the Indus Valley Civilisation and Mesopotamia, and much evidence of boat modelling has been discovered at various Indus Valley sides. The ‘Uru’ wooden big boat was made in Beypore, a village in South Calicut, Kerala, in south-western India – but was also used by the Arabs and Greeks since ancient times as trading vessels. This mammoth wooden ship was constructed using teak, without any iron or blueprints and which has a transportation capacity of 400 tonnes. A boats construction is usually its defining feature; and the measure of its success or failure at sea. There are several key components which make up the main structure of most boats though. These are, the ‘hull’; the main component that provides buoyancy. The ‘gunnel’; the sides of the boat, offering protection from the water and making it harder to sink. The ‘deck’; the roughly horizontal, but chambered structures spanning the hull of the boat (more commonly found in ships), and above the deck are the ‘superstructures.’ Underneath is the ‘cabin’, which similarly to the ‘superstructure’ will have many constituent parts.

Until the mid-nineteenth century most boats were constructed using natural materials, primarily wood although reed, bark and animal skins were also used. However, this changed with the industrial revolution, when many boats were made with iron or steel frames (now readily available and reasonably inexpensive to construct) – but still planked in wood. In 1855 ferro-cement boat construction was patented by the French as Ferciment. This is a system by which a steel or iron wire framework is built in the shape of a boat’s hull and covered (trowelled) over with cement. Reinforced with bulkheads and other internal structure, it is strong but heavy, easily repaired, and, if sealed properly, will not leak or corrode. These materials and methods were copied all over the world, and have faded in and out of popularity to the present.

As the forests of Britain and Europe continued to be over-harvested to supply the keels of larger wooden boats, and the Bessemer process (patented in 1855) cheapened the cost of steel, steel ships and boats began to be more common. By the 1930s boats built of all steel from frames to plating were seen replacing wooden boats in many industrial uses, even the fishing fleets. In the mid-20th century aluminium gained popularity. Though much more expensive than steel, there are now aluminium alloys available that will not corrode in salt water, and an aluminium boat built to similar load carrying standards could be built lighter than steel. Such construction methods have changed dramatically in recent years though – as around the mid-1960s, boats made of glass-reinforced plastic, more commonly known as fibreglass, became popular, especially for recreational boats. A great number of small and large scale pleasure boats are now made using this material.

Fibreglass boats are strong, and do not rust (iron oxide), corrode, or rot. They are, however susceptible to structural degradation from sunlight and extremes in temperature over their lifespan.

People have even made their own boats or watercraft out of materials such as foam or plastic, but most home-builds today are built of plywood and either painted or covered in a layer of fibreglass and resin. This type of boating for pleasure might involve a singlehanded vessel, or the boat may be crewed by families and friends – proceeding on its own, or joining a flotilla with other like-minded voyagers. They also may be operated by their owners, who often also gain pleasure from maintaining and modifying their craft to suit their needs and taste. Boating for trade, food, travel and recreation is an immensely widespread activity over the globe, and it is showing no signs of abating. We hope the reader enjoys this book.

Barlow Cumberland

PUBLISHERS’ NOTE.

Although the book is published about two months after the author’s death, it will be gratifying to many readers to know that all the final proofs were passed by Mr. Cumberland himself. Therefore the volume in detail has the author’s complete sanction. We have added to the illustrations a portrait of the author.

FOREWORD.

This narrative is not, nor does it purport to be one of general navigation upon Lake Ontario, but solely of the vessels and steamers which plyed during its century to the ports of the Niagara River, and particularly of the rise of the Niagara Navigation Co., to which it is largely devoted.

Considerable detail has, however been given to the history of the steamers Frontenac and Ontario because the latter has hitherto been reported to have been the first to be launched, and the credit of being the first to introduce steam navigation upon Lake Ontario has erroneously been given to the American shipping.

Successive eras of trading on the River tell of strenuous competitions. Sail is overpassed by steam. The new method of propulsion wins for this water route the supremacy of passenger travel, rising to a splendid climax when the application of steam to transportation on land and the introduction of railways brought such decadence to the River that all its steamers but one had disappeared.

The transfer of the second City of Toronto and of steamboating investment from the Niagara River to the undeveloped routes of the Upper Lakes leads to a diversion of the narration as bringing the initiation of another era on the Niagara River and explaining how the steamer, which formed its centre, came to be brought to the River service.

The closing 35 years of the century form the era of the Niagara Navigation Co., in which the period of decadence was converted into one of intense activity and splendid success.

Our steam boating coterie had been promised by Mr. Chas. Gildersleeve, General Manager of the Richelieu & Ontario Navigation Co., that he would write up the navigation history of the Lake Ontario and St. Lawrence River sections upon which he and his forbears had been foremost leaders. Unfortunately he passed away somewhat suddenly, before being able to do this, and they pressed upon me to produce the Niagara section which had been alloted to myself.

The narration has been completed during the intervals between serious illness and is sent out in fulfilment of a promise, but yet in hope that it may be found acceptable to transportation men and with its local historical notes interesting to the travelling public.

Thanks are given to Mr. J. Ross Robertson, for the reproduction of some cuts of early steamers, and particularly to Mr. Frederick J. Shepard, of the Buffalo Public Library, who has been invaluable in tracing up and confirming data in the United States.

Dr. A. G. Dougaty, C.M.G., Archivist of Canada, Mr. Frank Severance, of the Buffalo Historical Society, and Mr. Locke, Public Librarian, Toronto, have been good enough to give much assistance which is warmly acknowledged.

Barlow Cumberland.

Dunain, Port Hope.

Queenstown. The NIAGARA RIVER from Queenston Heights. Lewiston.

A CENTURY OF SAIL AND STEAM ON THE NIAGARA RIVER

CHAPTER I.

The First Eras of Canoe and Sail.

Since ever the changes of season have come, when grasses grow green, and open waters flow, the courses of the Niagara River, above and below the great Falls, have been the central route, for voyaging between the far inland countries on this continent, and the waters of the Atlantic shores.

Here the Indian of prehistoric days, unmolested by the intruding white, roamed at will in migration from one of his hunting-grounds to another, making his portage and passing in his canoe between Lake Erie and Lake Oskwego (Ontario). In later days, when the French had established themselves at Quebec and Montreal, access to Lake Huron and the upper lakes was at first sought by their voyageurs along the nearer route of the Ottawa and French Rivers, a route involving many difficulties in surmounting rapids, heavy labour on numberless portages, and exceeding delay. Information had filtered down gradually through Indian sources of the existence of this Niagara River Route, on which there was but one portage of but fourteen miles to be passed from lake to lake, and only nine miles if the canoes entered the water again at the little river (Chippawa) above the Falls.

On learning the fact the French turned their attention to this new waterway, but for many a weary decade were unable to establish themselves upon it. In 1678 Father Hennepin, with an expedition sent out by Sieur La Salle sailed from Cataraqui (Kingston) to the Niagara River, the name Hennepin Rock having come down in tradition as a reminiscence of their first landing below what is now Queenston Heights. Passing over the Carrying Place, they reached Lake Erie. Here, at the outlet of the Cayuga Creek, on the south shore, they built a small two-masted vessel rigged with equipment which they brought up for the purpose from Cataraqui, in the following year.

This vessel, launched in 1679, and named the Griffon in recognition of the crest on the coat of arms of Count Frontenac, the Governor of Canada, was the first vessel built by Europeans to sail upon the upper waters. In size she so much exceeded that of any of their own craft, with her white sails billowing like an apparition, and of novel and unusual appearance, that intensest excitement was created among the Indian tribes as she passed along their shores.

Her life was brief, and the history of her movements scanty; the report being that after sailing through Lake St. Clair she reached Michilimakinac and Green Bay, on Lake Michigan, but passed out of sight on Lake Huron on the return journey, and was never heard of afterwards.

Tiny though this vessel was and sailing slow upon the Upper Lakes, yet a great epoch had been opened up, for she was the progenitor of all the myriad ships which ply upon these waters at the present day. It was the entrance of the white man, with his consuming trade energy, into the red man’s realm, the death knell of the Indian race.

With greatly increased frequency of travelling and the more bulky requirements of freightage this one portage route was more increasingly sought, and as the result of their voyagings these early French pioneers have marked their names along the waterways as ever remaining records of their prowess—such as Presquile (almost an island); Detroit (the narrow place); Lac Sainte Clair; Sault Ste Marie (Rapids of St. Mary River); Cap Iroquois; Isle Royale; Rainy River (after René de Varennes); Duluth (after Sieur du Luth, of Montreal); Fond du Lac (Head of Lake Superior).

From here mounting up the St. Croix River, seeking the expansion of that New France to whose glory they so ungrudgingly devoted their lives, these intrepid adventurers reached over to the Mississippi, and sweeping down its waters still further marked their way at St. Louis (after their King) and New Orleans (after his capital), annexing all the adjacent territories to their Sovereign’s domains.

The Niagara River Route then became the motive centre of a mighty circum-vallation by which the early French encompassed within its circle the English Colonies then skirting along the Atlantic.

What a magnificent conception it was of these intrepid French to envelope the British settlements and strengthened by alliances with the Indian tribes and fortified by a line of outposts established along the routes of the Ohio and the Mississippi, to hem their competitors in from expansion to the great interior country of the centre and the west. Standing astride the continent with one foot on the Gulf of St. Lawrence, at Quebec, and the other at New Orleans, on the Gulf of Mexico, the interior lines of commerce and of trade were in their hands. They hoped that Canada, their New France, on this side of the ocean, was to absorb all the continent excepting the colonies along the shores of the sea. So matters remained for a century.

Meanwhile the English colonies had expanded to the south shores of the Lakes Oswego and Frontenac, and in 1758 we read of an English Navy of eight schooners and three brigs sailing on Lake Ontario under the red cross of St. George and manned by sailors of the colonies.

In 1759, came the great struggle for the possession of the St. Lawrence and connecting lines of the waterways. Fort Niagara, whose large central stone castle, built in 1726, still