A Century of Sail and Steam on the Niagara River Part 7

[Ill.u.s.tration: OLD WELLAND Ca.n.a.l

LOCK 1

_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._ page 74]

Capt. D. Muir, the proprietor of the Dry Dock, with whom both now and later many a pleasant hour was spent, was a fine old character, and although then on the far side of sixty he held himself with square-set shoulders upright and sprightly. He had sailed the lakes until his face had taken on a permanent tan; eyes a deep blue with s.h.a.ggy overhanging brows, a strong mouth and imperturbable countenance. He was not greatly given to conversation and had a dry, pawky humour which gave much point to his slowly spoken words, but when, as sometimes, he was in narrative mood, he would string off incidents of early sailing days on the lakes the while he chewed or turned from side to side, some sliver of wood which was invariably held between his teeth. He had no fancy for metal vessels, or "tin-pots," as he called them. "Give me," said he, "good sound wooden vessels, built right," (as he said this you would glean from his emphasis he meant "as I build them.") "If ye hit against anything in the Canawl, ye don't dint; if ye go ash.o.r.e ye don't punch holes in your bottom, and ye ken pull yer hardest without enny fear uv rippin' it out."

There is this to be said that whatever work was done in his dock, was well done.

As soon as possible the two parts were put into the dock, the bulkheads taken out, the parts drawn together on launching ways (very cleverly done by Muir's men), and the plates and beams rivetted together again by rivetters brought down from Buffalo. The hull, both inside and out, was diligently sc.r.a.ped in every part and thoroughly oiled and painted. The main deck was relaid and _Chicora_ was a s.h.i.+p again.

While all this was going on, Mr. J. G. Demary, the "Overseer" of this section of the ca.n.a.l, and I, had been carefully looking over the ca.n.a.l lock and arranging the procedure for putting the boat in for the final lowering down to Lake Ontario level.

Close examination had proved that the conditions of the Port Dalhousie lock, under water, were much more favorable than appeared on the surface.

The lock had been built about thirty years previously and there was very little local knowledge about it.

The lock itself was 200 feet on full inside measurement, with both gates closed. The upper gates opening to the upper level, instead of being half the height of the lower gates, were of the same height, and the lock itself was continued at its full size and depth for 33 feet further beyond these upper gates until it came to the "breast wall" of the upper level. With the upper gates open and pressed against the sides, there was thus created an un.o.bstructed length of 233 feet, into which to place and lower the 230-foot steamer, as is shown in the accompanying drawing. It was a very welcome and satisfactory solution which investigation below the water level disclosed.

Like many other problems, it all seems very simple when once the unknown has been studied out and the results revealed, and so it was in this case.

The project and the plan of the whole enterprise of bringing the _Chicora_ down had been created by close search into conditions, by the adapting of a sudden opportunity which happened to become available, and thus rendered practicable that which all others had considered to be, and was, impossible.

It was a trying risk and worthy of a good reward.

In an undertaking so exceptional as this was it was unavoidable that unexpected difficulties should from time to time arise, as they often did, yet only to be overcome by decision and pertinacity. Another, at this stage, cropped up which for a time looked most unpleasant and caused much anxiety.

The 230-foot steamer was to be placed in the 233-foot lock, and the water run off so as to bring her to the Lake Ontario level, or 11 feet 6 inches below the upper ca.n.a.l level. It was now found, when trying out every inch of the proposition, that under the water in front of the breast wall there was a big boom, or beam, extending across the lock from side to side.

Demary did not know how it was held in position, for it had been there before he came into the service, but he understood it had been intended to stop vessels laden too deeply from coming up the ca.n.a.l and striking and damaging the stonework of the breast wall.

Enquiry at the Ca.n.a.l Office at St. Catharines resulted in learning that there were no records of it, although Mr. E. V. Bodwell, who was then the Ca.n.a.l Superintendent, gave us every aid. That beam had to be got out of the way or difficulty might be caused, so permission was obtained from Ottawa for its removal at our own expense.

First we thought we would saw it through, but soon found that it was sheeted from end to end with plates of iron, so we had to begin the long job of cutting the iron under water. Many a pipe was smoked while watching the progress, when one day it was noticed that heads of the round rods which held up the beam in the grooves were square, suggesting screws on the lower end. So huge wrenches were forged, blocks and tackle rigged up, and after an afternoon's work with a team and striking blows with sledge hammers, we succeeded in getting the screws moving and, happy moment, the beam dropped to the bottom of the lock, where, no doubt, it still remains.

So another kink had been untwisted.

Navigation ceased for the year, the ca.n.a.l was closed for the pa.s.sage of vessels and the upper gates of the lock were opened and firmly secured. The _Chicora_ was brought from her mooring, and placed in the lock with her bow up-stream. The water in the lock was now the same level as that of the upper level. On the 5th December, 1877, the process of drawing off the water of the five-mile level was begun, unwatering the ca.n.a.l as far as St.

Catharines. It took ten days or so before the wider areas of the drowned lands were uncovered.

We watched the waters falling lower and lower until at length the steamer began lowering into the lock. Being fully secured, she was held in position clear of all obstacles. All was going well, but slowly, the time taken for the last few feet seeming to be interminable. At last suspense was over and on the 20th December we opened the lower gate and _Chicora_ floated out into the harbour at the Lake Ontario level! The barges were quickly brought alongside, the guards were jacked up and fastened back into place to be completed after we reached Toronto, and the material which had been brought along in the expedition collected and loaded.

Arrangement had been made with Capt. Hall to keep the tug _Robb_ in commission to be ready to tow us over. Being telegraphed for the tug duly arrived, and about noon on 24th December, started out from Port Dalhousie with _Chicora_ in tow.

Navigation had long been closed and we were the only boats out on the lake.

The air was cold but clear, and we had a fine pa.s.sage, delighting greatly when the buildings of Toronto came clearly into view--soon we would enter the haven where we fain would be. As we crossed the lake a smart and increasing breeze rose behind. As we came abreast of the shoal near the New Fort (now called Stanley Barracks), and rounded up to make for the entrance to the harbour, suddenly the _Robb_ _stopped_. Something had evidently gone wrong with the engine. Carried on by our way we swung broadside to the sh.o.r.e under our lee. A quarter of an hour, half an hour, three-quarters of an hour pa.s.sed as we were steadily drifted by the breeze nearer and nearer to the beach. We could not do anything for ourselves--still there was no movement from the tug--would she never start again? A little nearer and we would go aground among the sand and boulders, to stick there perhaps through the whole of the winter which was so close at hand. After working out our enterprise so far, were we to be wrecked just when safety was less than a mile away? It seemed hard lines to be so helpless at such a stage.

But fortune had not abandoned her adventurers, for just in the nick of time we saw the tug moving, the engine had started again and in half an hour the _Chicora_ was inside the harbour, tied up alongside the old Northern Railway Dock, her journey from Collingwood ended on this the afternoon of the day before Christmas Day.

Capt Hall, who was on his tug, had suffered as much from anxiety as had we, for he knew that every other tug on the lake had been laid up, so there would have been nothing left to pull the _Robb_ off had she, as well as we, been carried upon the bouldered sh.o.r.e.

The _Robb_ was the largest Canadian wrecking tug then on the lakes. She had done service in the Fenian Raid of 1866 at the time of the engagement at Fort Erie between the Welland Battery and the Fenians, some of the bullet marks still remaining on her wheel-house. After a long and honourable career she was grounded at Victoria Park, where her hull was used to form a portion of the landing pier, and where some of her timbers may still remain.

What a happy relief it was to be back on old familiar ground again, to meet the cheery greetings and congratulations of the "Old Northerners" of the yards and machine shops who took the utmost interest in this enterprise of their President, Hon. Frank Smith, and their General Manager, Mr. F. W.

c.u.mberland, and formed an affection for the _Chicora_ which is lasting and vivid to the present day.

Christmas was a happy and well-earned rest. We had completed the first part of the undertaking, but not for unmeasured wealth would the experience be repeated. Youth is energetic and looks forward in roseate hope, so the anxieties and risks were soon forgotten, and all nerves turned toward the business engagements and profits, which, now that we had her safe in hand, the boat was to be set to earn.

The balance of that winter, and the spring of 1878 were fully occupied in rebuilding the upper works of the steamer in their new form adapted to her service as a day boat and in overhauling and setting up the engine after their long rest. Not long after our arrival, Captain Manson developed a severe inflammation, which confined him to his room in the Richmond House.

Here, bright and cheerful to the last, he died on 29th February and was buried in Collingwood on March 2nd, deeply regretted by all sailorfolk and particularly by our crew. Five others of that crew, lost with the _Wabuno_ and _Asia_, found watery graves in the waters of the Georgian Bay. The writer is now the sole survivor, and Mr. R. H. M. McBride, and he the only remaining members of the original company.

For the interior work a party of experienced French-Canadian s.h.i.+p joiners were brought up from Sorel, no centre of s.h.i.+p carpentering existing in Ontario at that time.

The comely main stairway which gives such adornment to the entrance hall was then erected in all its grace of re-entrant curves, ornate pillars, and flowing sweep of head-rail and bal.u.s.trade. When one thinks of the unnumbered thousands of travellers who have pa.s.sed up and down its convenient steps, ones admiration and respect are raised for the French-Canadian Foreman who designed its form and executed it with such honest and capable workmans.h.i.+p, that to-day it still displays its lines of beauty without a creak or strain.

The octagonal wheel-house of the upper lakes which had been brought by rail from Collingwood was re-erected with its columned sides and graceful curving cornice under which was again hung the little blockade-running bell, lettered "Let Her B."

CHAPTER VIII.

THE NIAGARA PORTAL--HISTORY OF NAMES AT NEWARK AND NIAGARA--A WINTER OF CHANGES--A NEW RIVALRY BEGUN.

On the south side of Lake Ontario, opposite Toronto, is the Niagara Portal, where the mouth of the Niagara River, with high banks on either hand, makes its entrance into the lake, forming the only uninterrupted deep water harbour on that sh.o.r.e.

Here the rapid waters, outfall of all the gatherings of the inland Upper Lakes, pour out in fullest volume, enabling entrance even in winter, when all other harbours are closed in the grasp of ice. It is worthy of its mighty source, the product of the greatest Fresh Water Lakes in all the world.

Over the west bank floats the Union Jack on Fort Missasuaga, and over the east on Fort Niagara, the Stars and Stripes, each the emblem of the British and United States nationalities, between whose possessions the river forms the boundary line.

The first port of call on the Canadian side at the mouth of the river, now known as Niagara-on-the-Lake, had in olden times an importance and a past, which much belies its present outlook of quiet and placidity. Once it was the princ.i.p.al and most noted place in the Province of Upper Canada, and the centre of legislative power, making its surrounding neighborhood full of reminiscence.

The successive changes in the name of this ancient lakeside town, as also those of the settlement on the opposite sh.o.r.e, are interesting, as in themselves they form footprints in the paths of history.

The French had entered the St. Lawrence in 1534, and, as we have seen, had fully established their first route of connection to the Upper Lakes and the inner fur-trading districts, via the Ottawa and Lake Nip.i.s.sing. The Niagara River route, via Lake Erie, had been learned of by them in 1669 under Pere Gallinee, and followed by the enterprise of the _Griffon_ in 1678, but then, and for long after, was too fiercely occupied by hostile Indian tribes to be greatly available for commercial use. A first advance from Montreal intending to occupy the route, under Chevalier de la Barre, was intercepted by the Indians at Frontenac (Kingston) and driven back to Montreal.

In 1687 another advance for possession of the river succeeded in creating a foothold and the French erected a wooden fort and palisade upon the projecting point on the east bank of the river at its junction point with the lake. This outpost they named Fort Niagara, the name by which the place has ever since continued to be known.

The little garrison was not long able to keep its foothold. Beset by Indians and cut off by the failure of food supplies expected from their compatriots in the east, they were in dire straits, but yet boldly holding out in hopes that relief might yet arrive. At this juncture, Col. Thomas Dongan, Governor of the English Colony of New York, then loyal subjects of James II., made demand that the French should evacuate the fort, as it was in British territory. The British colonists of New York and New Jersey had recently joined hands with the Colonies of New England, in a British union, for united defence against the French. Upon the English Home Government having indicated to the French authorities its support of the Colonial demand, the Marquis de Denonville, Governor of Canada, ordered the garrison to retire. This they reluctantly did, but before leaving raised in the centre of the fort, under the influence of Pere Millet, their Jesuit Missionary, a great wooden cross 18 feet in height, upon which they cut in large letters:

, "REGN: VINC: IMP: CHRS:"

_Regnat_; _Vincit_; _Imperat_; _Christus_; (Christ Reigns, Conquers, Rules.)

The place was being for a while abandoned as a military post, but by this they left notice that it was still held as on outpost of their religion.

Here again at Niagara an episode was being repeated exceedingly similar to that which had been developed at Quebec a century and a half before.