CHAPTER XXXVIII

TRANSPORTATION

I

SHIPPING--EARLY AND MODERN

BY RIVER AND STREAM

MONTREAL HEAD OF NAVIGATION--LAKE ST. PETER--JACQUES CARTIER’S DIFFICULTIES--THE GRADUAL DEEPENING OF THE CHANNEL--THE LACHINE CANAL IN 1700--ITS FURTHER HISTORY--MONTREAL THE HEAD OF THE CANAL SYSTEM OF CANADA.

From a very early age of improvement in the art of navigation it must have become evident that water carriage was that which presented the cheapest and most easy mode of transporting merchandise from place to place. Accordingly, with some exceptions, such as occur to all rules, we find that great cities have always arisen either upon convenient ports of the sea, or upon large navigable rivers and inland waters.

Such being the case, it is no wonder that the spot on which Montreal now stands was early chosen for the foundation of a commercial city.

It is true that the commerce of Canada in the early days was not such as to employ many hands.

Peltry was for a long period the only traffic to which importance was attached, and the cargoes of a few canoes, rich though they were in value, required little labour for their transfer to the hold of the European merchantman, and the market was managed by a very few agents of the great houses in France.

While furs were the only exports, the bateau was suited to the trade in both directions; but when agricultural exports commenced, grain was first sent down before 1800 on the rafts and in scows or “arks” which were broken up and sold as lumber in Montreal. Merchandise was at that time carted to Lachine, whence the bateaux and Durham boats took their departure (in “brigades” of five or more boats that their united crews might help one another at the rapids) and sailed through Lake St. Louis.

Still, such as the trade was, Montreal presented a most favorable site for carrying it on. Never was a place for shipment and transhipment more plainly indicated by natural laws.

For hence, more or less, navigable water courses spread out like a fan over hundreds of thousands of miles in the interior, and permitted the canoe of the Indian trader to penetrate in all directions, while on the other hand, a broad and safe river led to the great ocean.

When the labours of the voyageur and native hunter gave way before the steady toil of the agricultural settler, the advantages which had first prompted the selection of Montreal were by no means diminished. The articles of export had changed, but those by which they were followed could only reach Europe by water and could be sent only thence by the same means.

The St. Lawrence, however, with all its acknowledged capacity, was not without its drawbacks. Foremost was the long winter which sealed its waters during six months of the year, and next were the dangers of navigation of nearly nine hundred miles to the sea. The first could not be overcome, but the enterprise of the people has, to a great extent, done away with the other.

In years gone by, when, for instance, Jacques Cartier visited the town then upon the site of Montreal, he was compelled by the shallowness of the river to abandon his larger vessel and approach the town by means of his pinnace.

In the year 1805 the Trinity House was established by act of Parliament, with important powers relative to the navigation of the St. Lawrence.

The principal difficulty met with was at Lake St. Peter, over which (prior to 1851) only vessels of 250 tons could pass and come up to the wharves of Montreal. As early as 1831, the attention of the Legislature was directed to the matter. For ten years it was discussed and in 1841 the Board of Works was authorized by act to commence operations. At that time there were only eleven feet at low water on the lake.

Up to 1846, some $400,000 had been expended without important results. In June, 1851, the Harbour Commissioners, under the impulse of Hon. John Young, began dredging, and in November of the same year it was deemed a wonderful advance when the City of Manchester passed down the river, drawing fourteen feet. In 1853 the depth was increased to sixteen feet two inches, and the breadth of the channel to 150 feet. Every year saw improvements made and by 1869 vessels drawing twenty feet could make the passage in safety, while today the channel will permit navigation by vessels drawing thirty feet.

This deepening of the channel accompanied and caused a vast expansion of the shipping of the city, made more important by the establishment of steam navigation. The commerce of Montreal in the future will always be in direct proportion to the future depth of the channel.

LACHINE CANAL

Before the construction of canals the great inland waters were of but little value to commerce, the only means of reaching them being by the bark canoe or bateau of the voyageur.

Many still living recollect how Sir George Simpson, Governor of the Hudson’s Bay Company, made his annual canoe journeys from Montreal to the Red River country. Having “sung at St. Ann’s their parting hymn,” the flotilla of canoes ascended the Ottawa, breasted the rapids, and after many weary days, by river, lake and portage, reached Lake Huron and the Sault Ste. Marie, thence along the north shore of Lake Superior to Fort William and the Grand Portage and by Rainy Lake and Lake of the Woods to Fort Garry.

With the self-possession of an emperor he was borne through the wilderness, and is said to have made the canoe journey to the Red River forty times.

For his distinguished management of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s affairs and for his services to the trade of Canada, Governor Simpson was knighted. He died in 1860, a man who would have been of mark anywhere.

The Lachine Canal, therefore, is to be closely connected with the history of transportation, seeing that it was the initial stage of the journey from Montreal, northward.

The credit of being the pioneer of the first Lachine Canal is to be given to the Sulpician Dollier de Casson who, in 1700, undertook to deepen the Little St. Pierre River and to make it navigable for canoes through Lake St. Pierre between Montreal and Lachine and thence to open a cut from the lake to a point on the St. Lawrence above the worst part of the rapids.

The engineer was Gédéon de Catalogne between whom and Dollier de Casson a notorial contract was made for the excavation of canal twenty-four arpents (about one mile) in length, twelve feet wide at the surface of the ground and of varying width at the bottom, according to the depth of the cutting.

The water flowing through the canal was to be at least eighteen inches deep at the lowest water in the St. Lawrence.

The work was begun in 1700. It was apparently never fully completed, though it is very likely that the imperfect channel could be used by canoes, for Upper Canada, during the period of high water.

About the year 1780 certain short cuttings with locks available for canoes and bateaux were made at few points on the St. Lawrence where the rapids were wholly impassable.

As early as the 1795-6 session of the Provincial Parliament, a bill was introduced for the construction of a canal and a turnpike to Lachine by the Hon. John Richardson.

In 1804 was completed a channel three feet in depth along the shore line of the Lachine Rapids, connecting with short canals at the Cascades, Split Rock, and Coteau du Lac, which were provided with locks eighty-eight feet long and sixteen feet wide, admitting of the passage of “Durham boats.”

In 1805 the first attempt was made to improve the Lachine rapids. The sum of $4,000 was voted to be expended in removing any obstacles to navigation.

It is scarcely necessary to add that the attempt proved futile. It had, however, the advantage of making perfectly plain that the only means of overcoming these rapids was by the construction of the Lachine canal.

The necessity of such a work, owing to increased intercourse with Upper Canada, was obtaining more general recognition; but some few years were to elapse before definite steps were taken to carry the project into effect.

The proceedings of 1805 are worthy of record, as the first practical attempt at any improvement of the navigation at this spot.

The history of the modern Lachine Canal begins in 1815 when an appropriation of £25,000 was voted for its construction, but no steps were taken until 1819 when a joint stock company was formed with a capital of $600,000. Surveys were made and the design perfected by 1821 when the government took it up as a provincial undertaking.

The work was commenced July 17, 1821, and was completed in 1825 at a cost of $438,404. The first sod was turned by the Hon. John Richardson.

It had seven locks, each 100 feet long, 20 feet wide and with 4½ feet of water on the sills, but it was inadequate for the wants of the trade as may be gathered from the following notice from the Quebec Gazette of the 3d November, 1831:

“Public notice is hereby given that the undersigned, and others, will apply to the Legislature of this Province as its ensuing session for the privilege to form a Joint Stock Company for the purpose of making a Canal, Locks, and Basins, in such places as they may find necessary for a useful navigation from the Lake of the Two Mountains to the waters of Lachine, and from thence to the foot of the current St. Mary, with a branch to the port of Montreal should they think fit, of dimensions not less than will admit the passage of such vessels as can pass through the locks of the Rideau Canal, and to acquire lands for basins and water privileges as may be wanted by the said Company for the Navigation and the use of the waters thereof.

Horatio Gates Dr. Arnoldi Thomas Phillips Andrew White Peter McGill Joseph Masson Jules Quesnel J. Bouthillier Frs. Ant. La Rocque Jos. Logan Montreal, 1 October, 1831.”

The enlargement was not, however, undertaken until 1843.

In 1843-49 it became a “Ship Canal” with five locks, each 200 feet long, 45 feet wide, and nine feet of water, costing $2,149,128.

The enlargement, commenced in 1875, cost $6,500,000 and by this the locks were increased to 270 feet in length and 14 feet depth of water throughout the canal.

The Lachine Canal movement also included that for overcoming the rapids of the Cedars, the Cascades and the Coteau. These were completed in 1871. Since Montreal gave the impulse a canal system has been instituted, so that from Belle Isle at the mouth of the St. Lawrence via Montreal there is a water communication by navigable rivers and great lakes to Port Arthur at the head of Lake Superior, a distance of 2,200 miles, Duluth 2,343, and Chicago 2,272. The number of locks passed from Montreal to Port Arthur is forty-nine.

II

THE DEVELOPMENT OF MONTREAL SHIPPING

A--SAILING VESSELS

BIRCH BARK CANOE--BATEAU--DURHAM BOAT--SHIPBUILDING IN MONTREAL.

B--STEAM VESSELS

JOHN MOLSON’S ACCOMMODATION, 1809--PASSENGER FARES BETWEEN MONTREAL AND QUEBEC--PASSAGE DESCRIBED--THE TORRANCES--INLAND NAVIGATION--THE RICHELIEU AND ONTARIO COMPANY--THE FIRST UPPER DECK STEAMER TO SHOOT THE LACHINE RAPIDS.

C--ATLANTIC LINERS

THE ROYAL WILLIAM FIRST OCEAN STEAMER AND PIONEER OF THE OCEAN LINERS--ITS CONNECTION WITH MONTREAL--MAIL SERVICE TO MONTREAL--THE GENOVA--ARRIVAL IN MONTREAL IN 1853--DINNER TO CAPTAIN PATON--THE CRIMEAN WAR--THE MONTREAL OCEAN STEAMSHIP COMPANY--THE FIRST CANADIAN ATLANTIC SHIP COMPANY--THE ALLAN LINE--EARLY BOATS--MAIL CARRIERS--1861 DISASTERS--SUBSEQUENT SUCCESS--THE PRESENT MONTREAL ALLAN SERVICE--THE CANADIAN PACIFIC RAILWAY STEAMSHIP LINES--OTHER LINES--THE SHIPPING AND THE WAR OF 1914--THE GREAT ARMADA.

The early navigation apart from the few small sailing vessels that would come up from Quebec was confined in great part to the birch bark canoe, than which nothing yet has been found more successful for primitive transportation. These were supplanted later by the bateau. In 1679 La Salle, whom Montreal may claim as one of its earliest citizens, launched the Griffin above Niagara Falls in which he sailed to Lake Michigan, but previous to 1790 little else but the bateau or open boat was constructed. The bateau which supplemented the birch bark canoe was a large, flat-bottomed skiff, sharp at both ends, about forty feet long and six to eight feet wide in the middle, and capable of carrying about five tons. It was provided with masts and lug sails, with about fifteen feet hoist, an anchor, four oars and six setting-poles shod with iron and a crew of four men and a pilot. With forty barrels of flour on board it drew only twenty inches of water. This was a very safe and adaptable vessel.

The Durham boat, an improvement on the bateau, was introduced by the Americans after the War of 1812. They were flat-bottomed barges with keel and center board and with rounded bows, eighty to ninety feet long and nine to ten feet beam, with a capacity of about ten times that of a bateau down stream, but in consequence of the rapids and want of back freight they brought up on an average only about eight tons.

A--SAILING VESSELS

The first ships built in Montreal were those constructed by Mr. David Munn, who commenced his operations about the year 1806.

Two or three years later he entered into partnership with Mr. Robert Hunter; the vessels they built were generally from 200 to 350 tons burthen; one, the Earl of Buckinghamshire, was 600 tons.

J. Storrow & Co. built two vessels in 1808 and 1809.

James Dunlop, in the three following years, built several of 330 to 350 tons burthen each.

James E. Campbell, M’Kenzie and Bethune, and James Millar & Co. also built a number of vessels generally of about this same tonnage.

There were built in the Province in 1825, 61 vessels; in 1826, 59 vessels; in 1827, 35 vessels; in 1828, 30 vessels, and in 1831, only 9 vessels.

The Canada Ship Building Company from London began to build in 1828, but finished only two vessels.

In 1829 Shay and Merritt took possession of the yard and that year built the steamboat British America, 170 feet long, 30-foot beam, for John Torrance & Co. as a trader between Montreal and Quebec; in 1830 the steamer John Bull, 182 feet long, 32-foot beam, for John Molson & Co. as a trader between Montreal and Quebec; the same year the steamboat St. George, 160 feet long, 26-foot beam, for John Torrance & Co.; in 1831 the steamboat Canada, 175 feet long, 26-foot beam; also the steamboat Eagle for Mr. James Greenfield, 140 feet long, 24-foot beam, and the steamer Canadian Patriot, 130 feet long, 24-foot beam, for a joint stock company.

In 1833 they built the steamboat Britannia, 130 feet long, 24-foot beam, for John Torrance & Co.; in the same year the Varennes, 140 feet long, 23-foot beam, for Rasco & Co.; also the steamer Montreal, 96 feet long, 18-foot beam, for James Wait.

In 1834 was built the ship Toronto of 345 tons for Captain Collinson, running between this port and London; also the Brilliant and Thalia, each 472 tons, for James Millar & Co., sent home for the Baltic trade.

In 1835 the ship Dougles, 348 tons, was built for Captain Douglas and in 1836 the bark Glasgow, 347 tons, and the bark Thistle, 260 tons, were built for Millar, Edmonstone & Co., and sent home for West India trade.

In 1837, the bark John Knox, 347 tons, and in 1838, the ship Gypsey, 572 tons, for the same company.

The same year--1838--the bark Colburne, 340 tons, and the brig Wetherall, 252 tons, were built for Captain Collinson.

The situation of these shipbuilding yards was very favourable, as the timber was hauled in at once from the St. Lawrence. The length of the yard was 200 feet and all conveniences then known were at hand for facilitating and completing the work in the most perfect manner.

B--STEAM VESSELS

To a citizen of Montreal belongs the honour of launching the second steam vessel which navigated the waters of America, and the first on the river St. Lawrence.

In 1809 Hon. John Molson launched the Accommodation, a steam vessel of eighty-five feet length.

When eighteen years of age he had come to Montreal in 1782 and there he built the brewery. It was from the river bank at the back of his brewery that he launched his first vessel broadside into the river. The early history of steam navigation should always remember Molson’s name.

The inventor of the application of steam to a marine engine was William Symington who first constructed, in 1788, a vessel on Lake Delawater, Dumfrieshire. In 1801-2 he completed a tow-boat on the Forth and Clyde canal called the Lady Charlotte of Dundas.

Robert Fulton obtained drawings of the machinery and constructed his Clermont, the machinery being made by Boulton & Watts of Birmingham, England. The Clermont navigated the Hudson River in 1807.

John Molson now began to equip his Accommodation, fitting it with engines, also by Boulton & Watts, and launching it in November, 1809. Though it caused him a loss of £3,000 he persevered and his venture was followed by the Swiftsure in 1811; Lady Sherbrooke, the Car of Commerce, and other vessels. These steamboats were a powerful factor during the War of 1812 in forwarding troops and supplies up the St. Lawrence to Montreal. Mr. Molson died in 1836 in his seventy-third year.

The first trip, November 3, 1809, of the Accommodation was thus described by a contemporary writer:

“The Accommodation shot out into the current and after a voyage of some sixty-six hours, of which some thirty hours were spent at anchor in Lake St. Peter, reached Quebec. As might have been expected, this vessel created a great deal of excitement, and the Quebec Mercury chronicles its arrival thus: ‘On Saturday morning at 8 o’clock, arrived here from Montreal the steamboat Accommodation with ten passengers. This is the first vessel of the kind that ever appeared in this harbour.

“‘She is continually crowded with visitants. She left Montreal Wednesday at 2 o’clock, so that her passage was sixty-six hours, thirty of which she was at anchor.

“‘She arrived at Three Rivers in twenty-four hours.

“‘She has at present berths for twenty passengers, which next year will be considerably augmented.

“‘_No wind or tide can stop her._

“‘She has seventy-five feet keel and eighty-five feet deck. The price for a passage up is nine dollars and eight down, the vessel supplying provisions.

“‘The real advantage attending a vessel so constructed is that a passage may be calculated on to a degree of certainty in point of time, which cannot be the case with any vessel propelled by sail only.

“‘The steamboat receives her impulse from an open double spoked, perpendicular wheel on each side, without any circular band or rim.

“‘To the end of each double spoke is fixed a square board that enters the water, and a rotary motion of the wheel acts like a paddle.

“‘The wheels are kept in motion by steam operating within the vessel.

“‘A mast is to be fixed on her for the purpose of using a sail when the wind is favourable, which will occasionally accelerate her headway.’”

The first steamboat advertisement we quote from the Canadian Courant:

“THE STEAM BOAT

will leave Montreal tomorrow at 9 o’clock precisely for Quebec. Those wanting to take a passage will make choice of their Birth (sic) and pay their Passage money before 8 o’clock tomorrow morning, that a proper supply of fresh Provision may be provided.

FARES TO QUEBEC

For Passenger £2--10s--0d Child under 11 £1--5s-- 0d Servant with birth £1--13s--4d Servant without birth £1--5s-- 0d

N.B.--60 lbs. weight will be allowed for each full Passenger, and so in proportion. Way Passengers are to pay 1s per league and if a meal occurs in the going, not less fifteen leagues, will be gratis, if less will be charged Two Shillings and Six-pence each meal.

Montreal, 4th June, 1810.”

* * * * *

The Accommodation was the first steamer on the river between Montreal and Quebec. She made her first trip from Montreal November 3, 1809. The Swiftsure followed in 1811, the Car of Commerce, the Caledonia and others came later, but these early steamers landed their passengers and freight at Molson’s wharf at the foot of the current, and these which first ascended the current did so with the aid of oxen or horses.

The Hercules (a tow-boat) was the first vessel with steam power and without other aid to ascend St. Mary’s current, with the ship Margaret in ballast in tow, during the season of navigation in 1824.

The well known writer M. de Gaspé, says of traveling between Montreal and Quebec at this period, 1818:

“This reminds me of a first voyage from Quebec to Montreal by steamer. It was in October of 1818, at 11 o’clock in the evening, when the Caledonia, in which I had taken passage, left the Queen’s wharf.

“Between 7 and 8 o’clock on the following morning my companion, the late Robert Christie, opened the windows of his stateroom and called out, ‘We are going famously.’

“We were really progressing well, for we were opposite Pointe Aux-Trembles: aided by a strong wind we had made seven leagues in nine hours.

“We arrived at the foot of the current below Montreal on the third day, congratulating ourselves on the rapidity of steamer trips, nor did we feel humiliated in the absence of favourable winds, which did not last more than twenty-four hours, to have recourse to the united strength of forty-two oxen to assist us in ascending the current.

“I acknowledge that the Caledonia deserved to be ranked as a first class steamer of that time, and it was with regret that we bade adieu to it, after the pleasant time we had on board.”

Among the names of those who were chiefly connected with the introduction and development of steam navigation in the Province of Quebec may be mentioned, besides the Hon. John Molson, the father of the steamboat enterprise in Canada, those of Messrs. John and David Torrance, who, in 1826, placed the steamboat Hercules on the Montreal-Quebec route, and who were also the first in Canada to branch out into direct trade with the East Indies and China; and George Bush, in 1834 manager of the Ottawa and Rideau Forwarding Company, and after 1840 the sole proprietor of the Eagle Foundry in Montreal.

INLAND NAVIGATION

The Canada Steam Ship Lines, Ltd., succeeding the Richelieu and Ontario Navigation Company, had its inception in 1845 when the Richelieu, a small boat of 125 tons, commanded by M. Sincennes who formed the Company, was put on its route between Montreal and Chambly for the transportation of freight and passengers.

As this venture proved a success, the Jacques Cartier was built three years later and ran between Montreal and Berthier.

In 1855 the Company added two greatly improved boats, the Victoria and Napoleon, 350 tons each, to ply between Montreal and Quebec. As a result of the keen competition thus produced the Torrance Company, which had, prior to this, controlled the entire traffic of the route, in 1858 sold their boat, the Quebec, for $30,000 to the Richelieu Company, which by this time had a capital of upwards of $125,000. During 1860-61 two additional boats, the Columbia and the Europa, were added and the capital of the Company considerably added to.

During 1862 the Company was increased by the fusion of Terrebonne, and l’Assomption and Lake St. Peter Lines with the Richelieu Company.

In 1861 the Montreal, costing $12,000, was placed on the line; in 1863 the Francois Yamaska was added, and in 1864 the Quebec was constructed at a cost of $172,000.

In 1875 the company line was further enlarged by the taking over of the line of boats running from Montreal to Toronto and Hamilton.

This amalgamation took the name of the Richelieu and Ontario Navigation Company and had a capital of $1,500,000 and eight steamboats. Four more were soon added, the Athenian and Abyssinian in 1876, the Cultivateur in 1880, and the St. Francis in 1883.

From 1876 to 1882 the late Sir Hugh Allan was president of the company, succeeded by L.A. Senecal, who died in 1887.

In 1895 Louis J. Forget became president of the company.

June 21, 1898, the company launched at Toronto, The Toronto, a handsome new steel steamer, costing about $250,000. In 1913 the Richelieu and Ontario became the Canada Steamship Lines Company, which amalgamation controls most of the freight and passenger boats operating in Canadian waters between the Gulf and the Great Lakes, except the Sincennes, McNaughton Line, which controls the towing in the district of Montreal, the Montreal Transportation Company, the Hall Forwarding Company and several smaller inland lines.

The Steamer Ontario, Captain Hilliard, was the first upper-deck steamer to descend Lachine Rapids, August 19, 1840. Her name was afterward changed to the Lord Sydenham.

It is not recorded that more than one steamer ever succeeded in ascending the rapids of the St. Lawrence River. In November, 1838, the little Dolphin, after four weeks of incessant toil, was towed up the Long Sault rapids with the aid of twenty oxen, besides horses, capstans and men, added to the working of her engine--the first and probably the last steamer that will ever accomplish the feat.

C--ATLANTIC LINERS

Montreal can claim some share in the success of the first ship that ever crossed the Atlantic under steam. The Royal William was built in the yards of Campbell and Black in Quebec in 1830-1, the designer being Mr. John Gondie.

The ship was launched in the spring of 1831 and towed to Montreal to receive her machinery, and on being fitted out for sea her first voyage was to Halifax, thence to Boston, being the first British steamer to arrive at that port.

Her dimensions were: Length, 176 feet; hold, 17 feet, 9 inches; breadth outside, 44 feet; breadth between paddle boxes, 28 feet. She had three masts, schooner rigged; builders’ measurement, 1,370 tons; with accommodations for sixty passengers. She left Quebec for London on August 5, 1833, via Picton, Nova Scotia. Thence her voyage was twenty-five days.

Ten days after her arrival she was chartered by the Portuguese Government to enter the service of Dom Pedro. In 1834 she was sold to the Spanish Government and was converted into a war steamer under the name of the Ysabel Segunda and was employed against Don Carlos.

She was undoubtedly the pioneer of the great Atlantic liners.

The connection of Montreal and the Atlantic Service is now to be told.

The origin of the Montreal steamboat mail service is indicated from an article by Thomas C. Keeffer, civil engineer, 1863. “On the 13th of August, 1852, a contract was entered into between the Commissions of Works of Canada and Messrs. McKean, McLarty & Company, a Liverpool firm, for a term of seven years, by which a line of screw steamers of not less than 1,200 tons, carpenter’s measurements, 300 horsepower and capable of carrying 1,000 tons of cargo, besides coal, for twenty-two days, were to commence running between Liverpool, Quebec and Montreal in the spring of 1853, one every fortnight during the season of navigation, and to Portland once a month; the outward passage not to exceed fourteen days and the homeward passage thirteen days. The maximum rate of freight to be charged was 60 shillings per ton. Fourteen trips were to be made from Liverpool to the St. Lawrence and back, for which at least five steamers were to be provided; and five trips to Portland and back, for which three steamers were required. The vessels were all to be ready and to commence their fortnightly service on or before the 1st of May, 1854, and a sufficient number to be ready and to commence the monthly trips in the spring of 1853. The price to be paid by the province was for fourteen fortnightly trips to the St. Lawrence, £1,238--1--11 sterling. The Grand Trunk Railway was to pay £388--6--8 sterling for each monthly trip to Portland. In October, 1852, Messrs. McKean, McLarty & Company formed a provisional company under the title of the Liverpool & North American Screw Steamship Company, and petitioned the Board of Trade for a Royal Charter with limited liabilities. In this they were vigorously and successfully opposed by the Cunard Steamship Company (already magnificently subsidized by the British government) and generally by ship owners not protected by a limited liability, and were compelled to attempt the formation of their company under a Canadian charter.

“Under this contract the Genova, a small steamer of 700 tons and 160 horsepower, was sent out in 1853, the first trans-Atlantic steamer which entered the St. Lawrence proper.”

It reached Montreal carrying the royal mail on Friday, May 13, 1853, amidst great rejoicing. She was an iron boat from Liverpool, commanded by Captain Paton.

On the evening of her arrival a dinner was given in the Donegani Hotel, the following being the text of the address presented to Capt. Walter Paton, who with Mayor Wilson and the others sat at the banquet:

* * * * *

“Captain Paton, Sir.--Your arrival in the Port of Montreal in charge of the Genova, the pioneer steamer of the Ocean Line, is an event of too much importance to Canada to be allowed to pass without notice.

“To mark the sense which the City Council entertains of this very gratifying token of our Country’s advance, I have been instructed to welcome you with heartfelt congratulations, and to offer you the hospitalities of the City.

“It is now happily beginning to be understood that the highways which nature has provided for access to the interior Countries, are usually the shortest and most practicable, and a single glance at the Map of North America, should convince the most skeptical that the St. Lawrence, with its chain of lakes, is the true channel for the commerce of the Great West. To divert into other outlets the products of the vast granaries which skirt our waters for thousands of miles, has employed the talents, energies and resources of our great rival and neighbour, and not without success.

“The time, however, is fast approaching when the tide of trade and travel will take its proper and destined course. Canada begins to feel its strength and to value its advantages. Its pupillage has not been altogether misspent. Arrived at the maturity which demands self-reliance it is ready to take its place, as a full grown worker, and little doubt need be entertained of the vigour which it is prepared to bring to the task. What the future of Canada will be, the largest minds have not adequately conceived. A knowledge of its unbounded resources, the tithe of which has not been developed--an appreciation of its salubrious climate, and the essentially liberal character of its institutions offer guarantees to the emigrant for the successful pursuit of competency and happiness which no other country can exceed.

“The disturbance of our waters by your gallant vessel is one of those strong pulsations which indicate the high health of Canada. And the time cannot be very distant when this pulse will beat--not once in the month, but with greatly increased power and frequency. Nevertheless, Dear Sir, The Genova and Captain Paton will ever be associated in the history of a note-worthy era; and when the first Steamer of the ocean line is referred to, these names will stir up the most pleasurable reminiscences. Again, then, we hail your advent among us; and we may express the hope that your connexion with this enterprize will be sufficiently prolonged to place you in competition with other rivalries in the same honourable strife.”

The Genova was followed by the Lady Eglinton, 600 tons and 160 horsepower, and the Sarah Sands, 1,200 tons and 150 horsepower. But these boats only made five trips in 1853. The average voyage was fourteen to twenty-two days, home twelve to eighteen days; and 80 shillings freight instead of 60 shillings was charged. In consequence of this total failure on the part of the contractors the government of Canada annulled the contract.

The Crimean war of 1854 now broke out and no doubt the vessels were needed for military transport purposes, so that no new contract was made with the firm. This was the great opportunity which was seized upon by the Allan Company, so that on September 28, 1855, a new contract was entered into with Hugh Allan, of Montreal, to commence in April, 1856, and to give the same time and number of trips as before, but with vessels not less than 350 horsepower. The subsidy was £24,000 sterling per annum, and a penalty of £1,000 for every trip lost was provided for, the deduction of a pro rata amount of the subsidy. The contract was terminable by the contractors at the end of any year by giving six months previous notice. Although the line was not remunerative in its first season, 1856, the contract was fulfilled in the most satisfactory manner, the outward passage being under thirteen days and the home work a little over eleven days. The Montreal Ocean Steamship Company was, therefore, the first “Canadian Atlantic steamship company.”

But it must not be imagined that this was a brand new firm. It had been long connected with the Montreal shipping ventures. The Allan line dates back to 1822. In that year Capt. Alexander Allan sailed to the St. Lawrence from Glasgow in the brig Jean--not one-fiftieth of the tonnage of the liners of today, but the first of the fleet, withal. Captain Alexander was succeeded by his five sons, Captain Bryce commanding some of the earlier ships.

Hugh Allan arrived as a boy in Montreal, sailing from Greenock in Scotland with his father on the brig Favorite. We can imagine the scene of landing from the state of the development of the port at that time. Hugh went into business as a bookkeeper to William Kent & Company, but in 1831 he entered the office of Messrs. William Edmonstone & Company, ship agents and ship builders. Andrew, his brother, joined him later and they both married sisters, daughters of R. John Smith, a wealthy importer. These two brothers represented the Allan line in Montreal, while Glasgow and Liverpool were served by the three other sons. Meanwhile the Allan fleet, especially since 1834, had been growing with such ships as the clippers Glennifer, Abeona, the Corinthian, and their first steamship Sardinian, of which Captain Dutton, a religious-minded but capable seaman, known as “Holy Joe,” was the commander, afterwards becoming the commodore of the fleet.

THE ALLAN LINE ROYAL MAIL STEAMERS

The firm now owned a fleet of fast sailing vessels of about three hundred and fifty tons register--full-rigged ships which, with ice-blocks round their bows, pushed their way through the ice, so that sometimes they would arrive in port on the 15th of April. In 1853 Mr. Hugh Allan, who was a man of great tenacity of purpose, and at the same time of remarkable foresight, saw that the time had come for the building of iron ships for the St. Lawrence trade. Besides, there was the consideration that they would run to Portland in the winter time, and connect with Montreal by rail. He enlisted the support of several wealthy men, including Mr. William Dow and Mr. Robert Anderson, of Montreal, and formed the Montreal Ocean Steamship Company. The Canadian and Indian were the first two boats built by the company.

The boats cost about two hundred and fifty thousand dollars each and had a speed of eleven knots.

They were wonders at the time and made a great impression, as the people had not been accustomed to see iron ships. Thus it happened that when about this time the Crimean war broke out, and the government was at its wit’s end to provide transports, the Allans went into the business, and while the war lasted made large profits.

The Canadian Government now made a contract with Mr. Hugh Allan for carrying the mails, paying an annual subsidy of $120,000 per annum. The Anglo-Saxon, a new boat, ran from Quebec to Liverpool in nine days on one occasion. This was thought to be wonderful, as the people had been accustomed to a voyage of forty days on the old sailing vessels. At that time the ships got 30 cents per bushel for carrying grain. Contrast this with the 2 cents of today, or the carrying of grain for nothing, as is done by New York shipping at certain periods of the year, in order to get ballast on an outgoing trip.

The requirements of the service in 1858 demanded more accommodation, and the Allan brothers determined on a weekly service.

Larger and faster boats were introduced. The government paid subsidies to the new service totalling $416,000 per annum. Year by year the Allans launched new boats, always bigger and faster, though speed was never the chief consideration with the company.

In 1861 they had a fleet of over twenty vessels; but a sinister fortune befell the company in the first ten years of its existence. Eight ships were lost in as many years.

In 1857 the Canadian, in 1859 the Indian, in 1860 the Hungarian and the second Canadian, and the North Briton in 1861, and later the Anglo-Saxon, the Norwegian and the Bohemian--all became total wrecks. The river was badly lighted. The tides did not run true. The pilots were incompetent. The compass deviated, owing to some strange local attraction due, it was said, to mineral deposits in the gulf. Anyway, disaster followed disaster, and, as was said at the time, any other man than Mr. Allan would have given up in despair. But that gentleman had something of the firmness of his native granite in his composition, and he never wavered. Difficulties in time were overcome; the Allans began to prosper and from this on their boats were singularly free from accidents.

To show, however, how little even the most perspicacious can see in advance of their time, it may be stated that at the banquet which the citizens tendered Mr. Hugh Allan in 1850, he said that ships of 1,700 tons were the most suitable for the Montreal trade. He lived to see his boats grow to 5,500 tons.

The line prospered; the number of boats was constantly increased to meet the need; the Northwest was opened up; and the Allan boats brought in many thousands of immigrants. In addition the company branched out to South America.

The building of the Parisian in 1881 was supposed to be about the last word in shipbuilding. She was far in advance of anything to be seen on the route. Today she is, by comparison with the leviathans of the route, almost as antique as the old Favorite was when steamships came in.

In 1887, the Canadian Government decided to subsidize a line of fast steamships. They asked for twenty knots an hour and that the vessels should call at a French port. The Allans held that the first demand was impracticable, owing to the fact that high speed would be dangerous because of the fogs in the gulf; while, as to the second, it was deemed to be out of the question. The Government played with a tender from another firm, Anderson, Anderson & Co., of London, which, however, did not make good; and the fast Atlantic service, in spite of much discussion and tentative efforts on the part of the Government and the shipping people, has never come to anything to this day. The C.P.R. offered to build a fast service; but the terms were deemed by the government to be too onerous.

The line increased, however, in ships, in business done, in reputation, both from our own and the American ports.

Mr. Hugh Allan was knighted in 1870. In 1877 he determined to associate his name with the C.P.R. enterprise. He, in fact, formed the first syndicate to build it. The fall of the Macdonald Government defeated his plan.

He succumbed to an attack of gout in 1882, at the age of seventy-two years. His remains were brought out to Canada in one of his own ships, and laid to rest in Mount Royal Cemetery.

Alexander Allan died at Glasgow in 1892, leaving a fortune of three million dollars. Andrew, so well remembered by Montrealers for his public spirit, his identification with good works, his “canny” Scotch caution, compatible, at the same time, with an enterprise and boldness in the conduct of his business, died in Montreal in the ’90s.

The business today is carried on by Mr. Hugh A. Allan, chairman, resident in London, and Mr. Andrew A. Allan, vice chairman, resident in Montreal.

The firm has broadened out in many important ways. It was the first to introduce turbines on the St. Lawrence, and it is still augmenting the fleet.

Of the Allan fleet, the steamers on the Montreal-Quebec-Liverpool service making the port of Montreal are: Tunisian, 10,576.38 tons; Victorian, 10,629.09 tons; and Virginian, 10,569.62 tons.

The steamers on the Montreal and Glasgow line are: Corsican, 11,436 tons; Grampian, 10,900 tons; Scandinavian and Hesperian, 12,100 and 10,900 tons, respectively.

Those in the Montreal and London service are: Ionian, 8,267.61 tons; Sicilian, 6,229.49 tons; Scotian, 10,490 tons; Corinthian, 6,229.49 tons; and Tunisian, 10,576.38 tons.

Those in the Montreal and Havre service are: Ionian, 8,267.61 tons; Scotian, Corinthian, Sicilian, 6,229.49 tons; and Tunisian, 10,576.38 tons.

The year 1914 also saw the introduction to the Liverpool service of the Allan Line the new steamers Alsatian and Calgarian, quadruple screw turbine steamers, ships of 18,000 tons, 21 knots speed, the largest, fastest and most luxuriously equipped steamers on the St. Lawrence route.

Among the great mercantile fleets of the world no house flag is better known than the red pennant and tri-color of the Allan Line and none represents to the ocean voyager a greater degree of safety and comfort.

To the Allan Liner Corsican, Capt. John Hall, belongs the honour of being the first ocean liner to make the port of Montreal in 1914, arriving here at 12:30 p. m., Wednesday, April 29th.

Following the time honoured custom Captain Hall was presented by the Harbour Commissioners with a gold headed cane and a silk hat.

OTHER FLEETS

Another great fleet connected closely with Montreal is that of the Canadian Pacific Railway steamship service. The history of the inception and development of the railway is told elsewhere.

The history of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company, as steamship owners, dates back for more than a quarter of a century, for it was early in 1883 that the company contracted on the Clyde for the construction of three steel screw steamships for service on the Great Lakes. In 1887 a trans-Pacific service was established, and in 1889 a car ferry service was put into commission between Windsor, Ontario, and Detroit, Michigan. In 1896 the C.P.R. bought the Kootenay Navigation Company, and in 1903 was established the British Columbia Coast service. In 1903 also the Atlantic service was established, and all these services have been extended until as it may be said it is possible to take a trip completely around the world on a C.P.R. ticket and never leave a C.P.R. boat or train.

It has also a trans-Pacific and a Mediterranean fleet. The Canadian Pacific railway steamship service also operates three freight boats between Montreal and Avonmouth Dock in summer and from Halifax in winter. In 1906 the Empress of Ireland, which met disaster in May, 1914, and the Empress of Britain were put on the Quebec route.

The Elder Dempster line established the South African line in 1902 and in 1905 established the service to Cuba and Mexico.

The White Star Dominion established a weekly service in 1909 between Liverpool, Quebec and Montreal and the great liners, the Laurentic and Megantic, appeared at Montreal in the early summer of that year.

Meanwhile the Thomson & Donaldson lines had long been connected with the port under the agency of the Reford Company, so long connected with commercial and shipping interests of the port. The Furness Withy Company, which has its agency here, also have been trading for some time between Montreal and Manchester, and the east coast of England.

Another fleet closely connected with Montreal is the Royal Line, owned and operated by the Canadian Northern Railway Company since 1912, between Montreal and Bristol.

For various reasons the Royal Line did not wish to run to Liverpool, which was already overcrowded with Canadian shipping. So they ran to Avonmouth dock instead, and opened up an entirely new artery of traffic to the Canadian ports. Before the inauguration of the Royal Line, no passenger ships of importance ran to Bristol, and naturally the securing of the Royal Line service was made an occasion of much rejoicing.

The Royal George and the Royal Edward began their trips in 1912. These are the only Canadian registered ocean liners. The other fleets entering the Port are connected with agencies elsewhere and only enter into the history of the Port inasmuch as they contribute largely to its success as a mercantile center.

These include the White Star-Dominion, Canada, the Cunard, the Monson and Donaldson lines, which the Reford Company so long connected with the commercial circles of the city, the Furness-Withby lines to Manchester, the Elder-Dempster Dominion lines.

Today ten big ocean steamship lines now run passenger vessels to the port of Montreal, and many smaller lines of coastwise and tramp traffic swarm the port during the shipping season which opens in May and closes in November.

During the season of 1912 the Allan Line alone carried 87,159 passengers into and out of Montreal, while the C.P.R., White Star, Donaldson, Thompson, Cunard, Royal, Elder-Dempster, Canada, Canadian Northern Railway and Dominion Line boats carried passengers in proportion.

During the same season the Custom House in the port collected $15,508,124.53 in duties on foreign made goods imported here. These figures take no account of exported goods, goods made in Canada, or the tremendous grain business which is done each fall, and to a lesser degree throughout the season. In 1912 125,000 tons of coal were brought into the port of Montreal from the mines at Glace Bay alone, and 736 ocean-going vessels entered the port during the season, showing a total tonnage of 2,403,924 tons, and in wharfage dues, $461,396.43.

During the last two years the Port of Montreal has seen the advent of the Cunard Line, originally founded by Mr. S. Cunard of Halifax, who had the first contract with the British government for a fortnightly mail service in 1850 from Halifax to Liverpool and Boston.