A Century of Sail and Steam on the Niagara River Part 14

"What for why?" said the captain in reply to a suggestion that a deck awning might be a good thing. "To keep off the rain," was the reply. "Ah mon," said he, "it wad keep aff the sun."

Perhaps in the contrast between the Scotch climate and ours in Canada, he was right, for they cannot spare any of the glimpses of the sun so sparingly vouchsafed to them.

After fullest enquiry and consideration, we came to the conclusion that the best thing we could do was to repeat a highly successful day pa.s.senger paddle steamer, the _Ozone_ which had been built on the Clyde, and sent out to Australia a year and a half previously, and had there obtained a splendid record for speed and commercial success.

She was just the size we wanted, 250 feet long, 28' 6" beam in hull, or 52 feet over guards, draft 6 ft. 6 in. Compound engines with two cylinders of 47 inches, and 87 inches, developing 2000 horse power, and sending the steamer at the officially certified speed of 20 miles per hour on the Scotch trials on the Clyde between the _Cloch_ and the _c.u.mbrae_.

This would be a step larger and a step faster than _Chicora_. We arranged with Mr. Robert Morton, the designer and supervisor of the _Ozone_, for a set of plans and specifications for the hull, which, constructed of Dalzell steel, would be put together on the sh.o.r.es of Lake Ontario, where the upper cabin works would be added according to our own requirements.

They offered to deliver a fully completed steamer at Montreal in four months, but we would have had to cut her and take off one of the guards to get her up through the ca.n.a.ls. For my part, I had had quite enough of bringing steamers in parts up the St. Lawrence River on which the smaller ca.n.a.ls were still incompleted, so we decided to erect our new steamer on the sh.o.r.es of Lake Ontario.

The engines would be built by Rankin, Blackmore & Co., of Greenrock, from whose shops had come some of the fastest engines on the Clyde. These would be a repet.i.tion of the engines which had been so successfully built by them for the _Ozone_ and would be s.h.i.+pped out in parts to Montreal by the first steamer in the spring.

FOOTNOTES:

[4] _Chicora_ was put in dry dock at Kingston in the winter of 1904 and largely replated at an expense of $37,000.

CHAPTER XIII.

WINTER AND WHISKEY IN SCOTLAND--RAIL AND STEAMER ALONGSIDE AT LEWISTON--HOW "CIBOLA" GOT HER NAME--ON THE ROUTE--THE U.E. LOYALISTS ONGIARA ADDED.

After decisions had been made it still took some time for the arranging of tenders and completion of contracts.

During this wait we whiled away the time by seeing football played in seas of mud, and half lost in fogs, women by the thousands with heads uncovered except when they pulled their shawls over them, and children innumerable with feet entirely bare. Poor kiddies how they suffered when on one day there was a fall of snow. Such snow, damp, heavy clots, which moistened as they touched anything, exuding cold, and s...o...b..ring over the stone pavements.

The children wrapped their red frosted feet with rags, or bits of carpet, to keep them off the stones, while their elders hunched themselves together and s.h.i.+vered. No wonder these people feared the snow and cold of Canada, for they thought that if they felt such suffering in a temperature only just at the freezing point, what must it be when the thermometer went below zero.

Yet did they only know it, as many have since learned, the dry salt-like winter snow of Canada is pleasant for the children to play in, and the sensation of cold not to be measured by the figures on the thermometer. It is the dampness which brings the suffering, which, needing to be met by heat from within, inclines to the suggestion, expressed by some, that whiskey is a natural beverage for Scotland. That it is a usual one I learned in actual experience.

In our "steamboat samplings" we had made a trip through the "Kyles of Bute"

and to Tarbert, where we took carriage across the Mull of Cantire to the outer sea. Stopping for lunch at a neat little inn about half way across.

The mid-day meal was being served in a large room with one long table down the centre. At this all the company sat, one, apparently a commercial traveller, occupying the seat at the head and doing the carving. A large open fireplace with glowing fire gave comfort and pleasant radiance.

The one maid, a cheery looking young girl, did all the serving and was busy in her attentions to the guests. When she had got them all served I asked her, as she pa.s.sed by, if she would please get me a cup of tea. Pausing for a moment she gave me a searching look and then without speaking pa.s.sed on.

A little while later I again caught her attention and suggesting that perhaps she had not understood me, said that I would like to have a cup of tea. Bending forward over me with a puckering of the forehead she said abruptly, "Where do ye coom frae?" "From Canada," I answered.

"Dye ye hae tea 'i the noon in Canada?" "Yes," said I in my most pleasing tone, "we have tea three times in the day in Canada--at morning, mid-day and evening."

With a sniff she retorted, "Wull, y're no in Canada the noo, y're in Scotland. Y' cannot hae tea i' the middle o' the day in Scotland--ye can hae whiskey."

I didn't so I'm afraid Canada fell greatly in her estimation.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Sir Thomas Lipton on CHICORA. page 175]

[Ill.u.s.tration: H.R.H. the Duke and d.u.c.h.ess of York going on board CORONA.

page 183]

The contracts were at length completed and we hastened for home, taking the Guion Line _Alaska_ as the fastest s.h.i.+p on the Atlantic. She held the "record" for the then fastest pa.s.sage, 6 days, 21 hours, 40 minutes from Queenston to New York.

We had a frightful pa.s.sage, during one 24 hours making only 52 miles. When the captain of a first-cla.s.s Atlantic liner enters on his log, as ours did next day, "_dangerous sea_," one may feel satisfied that something unusual had been going on.

Instead of not over eight days, as had been expected, we took twelve days, much to the alarm of our families, and reached Toronto only three days before Christmas.

So _Chicora_ and her successor had twice run the home-coming festival pretty close.

In 1887 the services were opened by _Chicora_ alone, with Capt.

McCorquodale in command.

Construction of the new steamer was begun early in April in the yards of the E. W. Rathbun Company, at Deseronto on the Bay of Quinte, there being then no other s.h.i.+pyard on the sh.o.r.es of Lake Ontario. The facilities here were excellent, in convenience of access by rail to the waterside, and in complete iron and wood-working factories for the cabin construction.

The hull was erected by W. C. White, of Montreal, who also had built the steamer _Filgate_, and the wood-work done by ourselves and the Rathbuns under the charge of our foreman carpenter, Mr. J. Whalen.

The engines arrived in good shape and were erected in the hull by Rankin, Blackmore & Co., who sent out men for this purpose.

The cabin work was being made in sections in the workshops, so that it could be erected as soon as the decks were ready.

In the early part of the season of 1887 the New York Central completed the extension of its tracks to the sh.o.r.e line at Lewiston, just above the steamer dock. The relief to the traffic was welcome and immediate. The pa.s.sengers were saved the weary jolting for the mile and a half transfer through enveloping dust, or of red bespattering mud, according to the varying conditions of the weather, and the through time between Niagara Falls and the steamer was also much shortened.

Ever since the branch railway had emerged from the Gorge this trial of temper and nerves had continued just in the same state as it had when Lewiston was the focus centre for the quickest routes to Rochester, Ogdensburgh, and to Albany and New York, via Lake Champlain, and the only route to Toronto, Kingston and Montreal.

At length, after a meritorious service of so many years, their duty being over, the lumbering old Transfer Coaches, which looked as though they had never felt another coat of paint since their first, were consigned to the retirement of broken bottles and old tins. No traces of them are now to be found. There are, however, some notable memorials still left in the old town of its earliest days of tourist and travel activities.

On the old road between Lewiston and the dock, once traversed by the transfer coaches, and part of the main road from Bataira when the village was known as "Lewis-Town," is the "Frontier House," built in 1825, and for many years considered the "finest hotel west of Albany." It was once the stopping place of many early celebrities, and with its broad stoop and great pillars is still a very prominent building. The residence of Captain Van Cleve, one of the earliest navigators on the lakes, and who sailed from the port on the _Martha Ogden_, is on the hillside not far from the present terminus of the railway.

At last the railway and the steamers had been brought alongside. This facility of interchange, and the shortening of the schedule time much improved the volume of traffic in both directions and a start was made which indicated that, when made more fully known to the general public, would justify the expenditures being made by both the railway and the steamer interests.

A new era was being opened for the Niagara River route. We had brought about the first steps, had taken part in the bringing of the railways and the river together, and now were to add the new steamer.

Consideration of what should be the name of the new addition was much occupying the attention not only of ourselves but of many others.

It was conceded that the name must begin with a "C," and end with "A," and not exceeding eight letters in length, so that proper balance in advertising display might be preserved. A good deal of public interest was taken in the matter and many names suggested.

A number of these were selected, and a somewhat novel method adopted for coming to the final decision.

The members, both male and female, of the two families interested in the company, were invited by Hon. Frank Smith, to dine at "Rivermount," his residence on Bloor street. We sat down about twenty-five in number, being all the adult members of the Frank Smith, Foy and c.u.mberland connections, and at a splendid repast good fortune to the new steamer was heartily toasted.

I had had some twenty posters printed in the same size and wording as we then used for street advertising purposes. On each of these was displayed the name _Chicora_ together with one of the new names which had been suggested. These posters were then set in a line along one side of the s.p.a.cious hall, so that the exact effect of the contiguity of the two names could be seen.

After dinner a sort of Dutch auction was held. The adherents of each name stated the reasons for their preference, promoting some amusing discussion.

Each of the posters was then voted on in succession and with varying majorities ordered down until finally the one with _Chicora_ and _Cibola_ gained the preference.

There would seem good reason for this selection, for in addition to the suitability in appearance and emphony of the two names, a very interesting historical connection between them had been unearthed in the archives and annals in the beginning of Spanish-American history, after following up the exploits of Pizzaro in South America.

The early Spaniards had made a foothold in the island of Cuba.