For Want of a Lighthouse: Building the Lighthouses of Eastern Lake Ontario 1828–1914

Copyright 2015 Marc Seguin.

Cover design by Dan Seguin

danseguindesigns@telus.net

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

All profits from the sale of this book will go towards the preservation of the remaining lighthouses on the shores of eastern Lake Ontario.

ISBN: 978-1-4907-5673-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4907-5672-1 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4907-5671-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015904018

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

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CONTENTS

Preface

Acknowledgements

Notes to the Reader

Chronology

Reference Maps

INTRODUCTION

PART I THE SETTING

Chapter 1 Lake Ontario

Chapter 2 The Inside Passage

PART II THE LIGHTHOUSES

Chapter 3 First Light

False Ducks Island Lighthouse (1829)

Chapter 4 A Chain of Stone

Point Petre Lighthouse (1833)

Nine Mile Point Lighthouse (1833)

Presqu’ile Point Lighthouse (1840)

Chapter 5 Harbour Lights

Kingston Harbour Lighthouse (1846)

Belleville Harbour Lights (1835 & 1851)

Presqu’ile Range Lights (1851)

Chapter 6 Strengthening the Chain

Scotch Bonnet Island Lighthouse (1856)

1st Snake Island Shoal Lighthouse (1858)

Pleasant Point Lighthouse (1866)

1st Pigeon Island Lighthouse (1870)

Salmon Point Lighthouse (1871)

Chapter 7 More Harbours… More Lights

Telegraph Island Lighthouse (1870)

Wellers Bay Range Lights (1876)

Calf Pasture Shoal Range Light (1879)

Portsmouth Harbour Lighthouses (1880 & 1887)

2nd Belleville Harbour Lighthouse (1881)

Prince Edward Point Lighthouse (1881)

Chapter 8 The Inside Passage Completed

Deseronto Harbour Lighthouse (1885)

Centre Brother Island Lighthouse (1890)

Brighton Range Lights (1891)

The Narrows Shoal Lights (1892 & 1894)

Other Private Lights (c. 1900)

2nd Snake Island Shoal Lighthouse (1900)

Chapter 9 The End of an Era?

Murray Canal Pier Lights (1890 & 1899)

Barriefield Common Range Lights (1892)

Trenton Range Lights (1905)

2nd Pigeon Island Lighthouse (1909)

Onderdonk Point Lighthouse (1911)

Portsmouth Range Lights (1912)

Automation and Demolition

Chapter 10 The Last of Its Kind

Main Duck Island Lighthouse (1914)

CONCLUSION

PART III EPILOGUE

Chapter 11 The 11th Hour

APPENDICES

Appendix – 1 List of Lighthouses and Light Towers

Appendix – 2 List of Lightkeepers

Appendix – 3 Specification - Presqu’ile Point Lighthouse N.H. Baird, 1837

Appendix – 4 Examples of Lighthouse Reuse in Canada

End Notes

Bibliography

The beacon light, the beacon light,

How sweet thy parting beams

There is a point on which the eye of the beholder lingers the latest

And on which it fixes the soonest

A point of farewell to the outward bound

And of greeting to the home bound

It is the light house

Storms may howl around

And blend ocean, sky and land in a seeming chaos

The clouds may be torn asunder by tremendous whirlwinds

And run, rugged and frightful, close under the ice of a pitiless horizon Yet, unmoved and calm and bright through all

The light house sends out its rays of hope

Amidst the black darkness and wild commotion

[Anonymous. Hallowell Free Press. Jan. 29, 1833]

PREFACE

W hen gazing from the mainland at the crumbling ruins of the distant Scotch Bonnet Island lighthouse, or viewing up-close the boarded-up Point Traverse lighthouse, I’ve often wondered… Why were these and other lighthouses along these shores built? Who built them, and who maintained them? Why were most of these lighthouses demolished, and what will become of those lighthouses that remain?

I’ve long been curious about how past events and people are connected with the houses, barns, barracks, churches and other structures which they’ve built and which are still standing as enduring monuments to their energy and vision. Historic documents and written accounts can help to connect us with our past; as can old maps, paintings and photographs. However, it’s only the three-dimensional, tangible objects, especially buildings, that evoke in me a strong connection with those people and events that have preceded us.

It’s with this mindset that I started to delve into the history of the few lighthouses that are still standing in the area where I live, at the eastern end of Lake Ontario on the shores of Prince Edward County in Ontario, Canada. Through my research, I found that, prior to 1914, there had been no fewer than twelve lighthouses constructed in Prince Edward County, and that these dozen towers were really part of a much larger, closely connected network of lighthouses stretching over one hundred kilometers along the Canadian shore of Lake Ontario and through the Bay of Quinte from Presqu’ile Point in the west to Kingston harbour in the east.

I soon realized that to restrict my examination of lighthouses to the limited boundaries of this one county was to ignore the larger historical and geographical context which led to the establishment of what I discovered was one of the world’s largest concentrations of lighthouses. By expanding my research, I found that more than forty-five lighthouses and light towers had been built on the Canadian shores of eastern Lake Ontario in the period from 1828 to 1914.

In an attempt to present a comprehensive record of the building of these lighthouses and to provide a resource for others who may be inspired to do further research, I’ve compiled this documentary history relying heavily on primary sources; especially contemporary newspaper articles and official government reports from which I’ve quoted extensively. In so doing, I’ve tried to place these documents — this raw historical data — into a broader context to show why these lighthouses were important to 19th and 20th Century mariners, and how they made a significant contribution to Canada’s history.

Over the decades, as transportation patterns changed and aids to navigation evolved, most of the lighthouses and light towers of eastern Lake Ontario were discontinued, demolished or replaced by simpler, more efficient lighting systems. Today, only seven of the original forty-five towers are still standing. It’s my hope that, by documenting the history of all of the lighthouses which were once part of this remarkable network of fixed aids to navigation, I might be able to contribute, in some small way, to saving these last few pieces of our built marine heritage; these last remaining physical links to an important part of our past.

Marc Seguin

Prince Edward County, Ontario

February, 2015.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

M y sincerest thanks to those individuals who, through their financial contributions and general encouragement, have made this book possible:

Thayer B. Cluett

Robert Cluett IV

Philip and Loretta Seguin

I am also indebted to a number of persons who provided hands-on support for the creation of this book:

Marjorie C. Seguin, my wife, editor and chief supporter

David Rowney, my friend and publicist

Dan Seguin, by brother and designer of the book cover

My sons Philip and Daniel, for their photography work

In compiling this documentary history, numerous libraries, archives, online collections and individuals have provided valuable materials, information and advice, all of which have made this book possible. Among them are:

Amanda Hill, archive.org, Archives of Ontario, Aubrey Johnson, Bay of Quinte Yacht Club, Belleville Public Library, The British Library, Canadian Coast Guard, canadiana.org, Chance Brothers, Cobourg Public Library, David Rumsey Map Collection, Deseronto Archives, Ernest Margetson, Hastings County Archives, Hastings County Historical Society, John Lyons, Kingston Public Library, Krista Richardson, Library and Archives Canada, Marine Museum of the Great Lakes, Prince Edward County Mariners Park Museum, maritimehistoryofthegreatlakes.ca, New York Public Library, NOAA, Orland French, ourontario.ca, Prince Edward County Public Library and Archives, Queen’s University Archives, Sue Fraser, The Naval Marine Archive The Canadian Collection, Toronto Marine Historical Society, Toronto Public Library Baldwin Room, U.S. Patent Office.

Thanks to all for your contributions.

Marc Seguin, April 2015

NOTES TO THE READER

Quotations

Extensive quotations from original sources have been included in this work. Every effort has been made to reproduce these original passages as accurately as possible. In most cases, words or place names that are misspelled or that use spellings or capitalization that are not generally accepted today have not been corrected. In order to clarify any spellings which may be misleading or confusing, comments or clarifications within square brackets […] have been added by the author. Portions of quotations in round brackets (…), are part of the original quotation. Names of all ships and all published works appear in italics.

Dates

There is often confusion over the precise date that a particular lighthouse was constructed. Some sources quote the date that construction of a lighthouse was begun. Other sources quote the date that the main lighthouse tower was completed. Still others quote the date that the lighthouse was first put into active service when its lamps were first lit. I have chosen to standardize on this last date, the date that the lighthouse was first activated for use as a functioning aid to navigation.

Lighthouse Names and Place Names

In some cases, there is very little consistency from source to source in the naming of the lighthouses and the naming of the geographical locations where they were built. This is often the result of a lack of a standard geographical naming convention; a condition that existed throughout the 19th Century and still exists in some cases today in spite of attempts to normalize geographic names after the Geographical Board of Canada was established in 1897. [See: Natural Resources Canada. http://www.nrcan.gc.ca/earth-sciences/geography-boundary/geographical-name/search/11084]

For instance, throughout the 19th Century, the south-eastern point of Prince Edward County was usually referred to as South Bay Point, and the lighthouse there was initially called the South Bay Point lighthouse. Since 1932, the official name of the point where the lighthouse is located has been Prince Edward Point [See: Natural Resources Canada. http://www4.rncan.gc.ca/search-place-names/unique.php?id=FCIMX] and the official name of the lighthouse is now the Prince Edward Point lighthouse. Some historical sources however, refer to this as the Point Traverse lighthouse and local residents always refer to this as the Point Traverse lighthouse even though the geographic feature officially named Point Traverse is more than a kilometer north of the lighthouse.

For the sake of consistency and to avoid confusion, the most current official name of lighthouses and place names is generally used in the narrative. The official names of lighthouses are taken from the 2009 edition of the Canadian Coast Guard’s List of Lights Buoys and Fog Signals [See: http://www.notmar.gc.ca/go.php?doc=eng/services/list/inland-waters-2009]. Official place names are taken from Natural Resources Canada’s Canadian Geographical Names Database [See: http://www.nrcan.gc.ca/earth-sciences/geography/place-names/search/9170]. In quotations, the official name appears in square brackets [ … ] where it differs from the quoted name.

A complete list of lighthouses and their alternate names can be found in Appendix 1.

Measurements

For distances over water, I have used nautical miles: 1 nautical mile = 1.85 km.

In quotations, any distances over water stated in kilometers or statute miles have been converted to nautical miles and surrounded by square brackets [NN nautical miles].

1 kilometer = 0.54 nautical miles

1.15 statute miles = 1 nautical mile

For distances over land, I have used kilometers (kms): 1 km = 0.62 miles.

In quotations, any distances over land stated in miles have been converted to kilometers and surrounded by square brackets [NN kms].

1 mile = 1.61 kms

Other distances appearing in quotations have been converted to meters, kilometers or nautical miles as appropriate.

For water depths and ship dimensions, I have used feet: 1 foot = 0.3 meters.

In quotations, any measurements stated in meters or fathoms have been converted to feet and surrounded by square brackets [NN feet]. For the sake of clarity, in some cases, multiple units of measure are shown. Illustrative nautical charts marked with depths in meters or fathoms have not been altered.

1 meter = 3.28 feet = 0.55 fathoms

1 foot = 0.17 fathoms = 0.30 meters

1 fathom = 1.83 meters = 6.00 feet

For speeds over water, I have used knots: 1 knot = 1.85 kilometers per hour (kph).

In quotations, any speeds over water stated in kilometers per hour or miles per hour have been converted to knots and surrounded by square brackets [NN knots].

1 kilometer per hour = 0.54 knots

1.15 miles per hour = 1 knot

Lighthouse Terminology

Aid to navigation

Any technology used to assist mariners in the navigation of their vessels. These include lighthouses, buoys, beacons, fog signals, radio systems, computers and satellites.

Base

The lowest point of the tower above grade or above high-water that rests on the foundation or pier.

Buoy

A floating aid to navigation often used to mark channels and underwater obstructions.

Catoptric light

Type of lighting apparatus used to reflect the light from a lamp by means of one or more parabolic dishes.

Dioptric light

Type of lighting apparatus used to focus the light from a lamp through a cut glass or molded glass lens. Also called a Fresnel lens or lenticular apparatus.

Focal plane height

The measurement from the surface of the water to the centre of the light. This usually differs from the overall height.

Foundation

The structure, usually below grade, upon which the tower is built. On a marine site, the foundation is often a timber pier or crib filled with stones.

Gallery

The narrow walkway around the outside of the lantern, usually surrounded by a railing.

Lightkeeper

The person responsible for lighting the lighthouse lamp(s) and generally maintaining the lighthouse and the related equipment and grounds. Also referred to as the keeper.

Lantern

The glassed-in structure at the top of the lighthouse, often a small room up to 10 feet across and 10 feet high, inside of which the lighting apparatus is placed. Usually square, octagonal or 12-sided.

Light

The lamp(s) and equipment used to project a beam across the water.

Also the term used for any lighted aid to navigation including a lighthouse itself.

Light tower

A fixed aid to navigation usually consisting of an open framework of iron or steel and usually lighted by a weatherproof lamp, often with no gallery or enclosed lantern.

Lighthouse

Historically, a lighthouse was a tall, enclosed tower built as a fixed aid to navigation with a light placed at the top that was enclosed by a lantern surrounded by a gallery. It also had enough space inside to provide living accommodations for at least one lightkeeper. Therefore the lighthouse was both a dwelling and a navigational aid combined.

In Canada, very few lighthouses were constructed to accommodate a keeper within the walls of the tower itself. No lighthouses of this type were ever built on Lake Ontario. Instead, the keeper’s dwelling was either a building that was completely separate from the lighthouse or it was attached directly to the tower even though the tower itself was never used as living space.

Over time, as building technology and lighting technology evolved, lighthouses changed form. The early towers were cylindrical or polygonal stone structures. Later, enclosed wood-framed towers became common. Finally, concrete towers were built. In addition, there were other forms that often bore little resemblance to a traditional lighthouse. These forms included partially enclosed wood-framed towers, open steel framework (skeleton) towers and partially enclosed steel framework towers. All of these types of fixed aids to navigation that lacked a gallery and enclosed lantern are referred to here as light towers rather than lighthouses. Some types of navigational lights are not included here, particularly lighted buoys, navigational lights on bridges, and lights on other buildings that were not built specifically as aids to navigation, such as a light on a church steeple.

Overall height

This is the official height of the lighthouse. Theoretically, this is the height as measured from the base to the vane (the top portion of the ventilator on the roof of the lantern marking the highest point of the lighthouse). This official height often only measures the tower and excludes the lantern. As a result, this measurement can be less than the actual height of the entire structure. Also, the overall height usually differs from the focal plane height.

Platform

The top of the tower upon which the lantern and gallery are placed.

Tower

The main vertical structure of the lighthouse.

Watch room

Usually the room in the lighthouse directly below the lantern. This is traditionally where the lightkeeper stayed at night to watch the light. Many lighthouses in Canada did not have a watch room.

Vessel Types

Barge

Any vessel used primarily for transporting bulk cargo. A barge may be powered by sail or steam (see Steam barge), or it may be towed by another ship.

Barque (or Bark)

A large square-rigged sailing ship. Barques were the largest commercial sailing vessels used on the Great Lakes.

Bateau

A flat-bottomed boat used to carry cargo, powered primarily by oars or poles, but could be rigged with a sail to run with the wind. Used extensively on the St. Lawrence River before it was canalized. Superseded by the larger Durham boat.

Canaller

A late 19th Century term for any steam-powered cargo ship that was small enough to fit through the Welland Canal (less than 270 feet over all, and drawing less than 12 feet of water).

Dredge

A vessel adapted to dig a channel to make a waterway navigable by ships.

Durham boat

A flat-bottomed boat used to carry cargo, powered primarily by oars or poles, but could be rigged with a sail to run with the wind. Durham boats had a greater capacity than bateaux.

Laker

A late 19th Century term for any steam-powered cargo ship that was too big to fit through the Welland Canal, so it could only sail the upper lakes and Lake Erie as far as Port Colborne.

Propeller

A steam-powered ship fitted with a propeller, instead of paddlewheels.

Schooner

A sailing ship with two or more masts whose principal sails were rigged fore-and-aft. Schooners were the most common type of commercial sailing ships on the Great Lakes throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Sloop

A small, single-masted sailing ship.

Steam Barge

Any steam-powered vessel used primarily for transporting bulk cargo.

Steamboat

Any steam-powered vessel, usually referring to one fitted with paddlewheels.

Steamer

Any steam-powered vessel, usually referring to one fitted with a propeller.

Steamship

Any steam-powered ship.

Tug

Any steam-powered vessel used primarily for towing other vessels or for marine salvage work.

CHRONOLOGY

Pre-history     First Nations peoples establish settlements throughout the Great Lakes region.

REFERENCE MAPS

(1) Map of the Great Lakes region. Adapted from U.S. Coast Survey Chart of Lake Ontario, 2014.

[Courtesy of U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - NOAA]

For Want of a Lighthouse

Building the Lighthouses

of Eastern Lake Ontario

1828-1914

INTRODUCTION

The want of a light house at the eastern extremity of the lake

has often been complained of.

["The Loyalist", December 16th, 1826]

F or most of its length and breadth, the deep, open waters of Lake Ontario, the most easterly of the Great Lakes, have long been easily navigated by sailing ships, steamboats and steamships. However, from Presqu’ile Point near Brighton, Ontario, to the entrance of the St. Lawrence River at Kingston, the north-eastern quadrant of the lake has always presented numerous hazards to mariners. This sixty-five nautical mile stretch is dominated by the irregular-shaped peninsula of Prince Edward County which protrudes out into Lake Ontario from the Canadian shore like a giant, misshapen anvil awaiting the hammer-blows of fierce storms to smite ships against its rocky reefs and sandy shoals. For much of the 19 th Century, ship captains had no choice but to navigate around this protruding land mass and, as there were no sheltered harbours along its Lake Ontario shore, they were forced to sail much of the distance knowing that there would be no refuge should a storm suddenly develop.

A number of geographical, geological, hydrographical and meteorological factors converge in this quadrant of the lake to compound the dangers presented by the protruding Prince Edward peninsula, one of which is a line of shoals, reefs and rocky islands reaching right across Lake Ontario from Prince Edward County’s southeastern point to the shores of New York State, forming a further series of obstacles to ships sailing to and from Kingston and the entrance to the St. Lawrence River. Along this line, known by hydrographers as the Duck Galloo Ridge, the otherwise deep lake suddenly becomes shallower and narrower, thereby magnifying the effects of storms which resulted in such a large number of ship sinkings and shipwrecks in the 19th Century that this area became known as the graveyard of Lake Ontario¹.

This same Prince Edward peninsula also has a calmer, gentler side in the form of a sheltered Inside Passage along its northern and eastern edge where there are dozens of safe harbours. This Inside Passage is centered on the relatively smooth waters of the Bay of Quinte; a wide, meandering waterway providing more than forty nautical miles of generally easy sailing from Pleasant Point at the Upper Gap off of Prince Edward County’s eastern tip, to The Carrying Place at the narrow isthmus separating the Bay of Quinte from Lake Ontario via Wellers Bay and Presqu’ile Bay. With the opening of the Murray Canal across this isthmus in 1890, a complete waterway connection from the Bay of Quinte directly to the open lake was established. Eastward from the Upper Gap, the North Channel in the lee of Amherst Island extends the Inside Passage to the mouth of the Cataraqui River where Kingston’s harbour is sheltered from Lake Ontario’s worst storms by Simcoe Island and Wolfe Island at the entrance to the St. Lawrence River.

It was on these shores of eastern Lake Ontario that a network of more than forty-five lighthouses and light towers was constructed for the safety and convenience of navigation in the period 1828 to 1914. These aids to navigation were a key element in a general transportation policy that was gradually developed by successive colonial and Canadian governments throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries. This policy recognized that shipping on the Great Lakes, and the improvement of this great natural inland water route that connects with the St. Lawrence River and the Atlantic Ocean, was absolutely essential to Canada’s developing economy.

The primary focus of this inland transportation policy was the digging of canals. From the 1820’s through to the 1950’s, canals were constantly being dug, improved, expanded and upgraded to allow ships eventually to sail non-stop from the head of Lake Superior to the Atlantic Ocean. As a direct response to the Americans’ Erie Canal — running from Lake Erie, across New York State to the Hudson River and constantly threatening to divert much of the shipping trade to New York City — the Welland Canal and St. Lawrence canals were established. In addition, the Rideau, Ottawa River, Trent, Murray and Sault Ste. Marie canals were also part of this policy to improve internal transportation and to keep much of the carrying trade in Canadian waters.

Secondarily, the transportation policy focused on establishing harbours, building roads to connect the backcountry with the harbours, and constructing lighthouses to guide ships safely from harbour to harbour. Through a combination of dredging river mouths and building extensive breakwaters, harbours were created on Lake Ontario and along the shores of the other Great Lakes wherever rivers emptied into them. These harbours provided ships with the ports that they needed to load and unload their cargoes. From the harbours, rudimentary roads were cleared to the back country so that raw materials could be moved down to the ports, and finished goods brought in by ship could be moved back to the towns and villages that were developing in the hinterland.

As the population around Lake Ontario increased, more canals were dug and improved, more harbours were dredged and more ships were built. Before the War of 1812, the combined population of the Great Lakes region including Upper Canada, western New York State, Ohio and Michigan Territory was less than 200,000.² There were only six harbours of note on Lake Ontario: three on the Canadian side; at Kingston, York (renamed Toronto in 1834), and Niagara, and three on the American side; at Sackets Harbor, Oswego and Charlotte. In all, there were less than 50 ships on the Great Lakes.³

By the beginning of the 20th Century, the population of the Great Lakes region had ballooned to more than 10,000,000,⁴ and the number of commercial vessels plying the Lakes had increased more than eighty-fold to some 4,400 ships.⁵ With the opening of the Welland Canal in 1829 and the Sault Ste. Marie Canal in 1855, all of the Great Lakes were connected together as one continuous navigable waterway. By 1900, hundreds of ports dotted the shores of these inland seas. On the Canadian side of eastern Lake Ontario alone, the number of ports had increased from one, at Kingston, to more than a dozen including Wellington, Consecon, Trenton, Belleville, Deseronto, Picton, Bath and Portsmouth.

As more ships carried more cargo and more passengers to more ports, the want of lighthouses on the Great Lakes was increasingly felt. The construction of lighthouses was recognized as one of the few contributions that the government could make to help keep ships on course so that they might arrive at their destinations with their hulls and cargoes intact, and their crews and passengers safe. As the 19th Century progressed, ship captains and ship owners demanded that more and more lighthouses be built, especially in the north-east quadrant of Lake Ontario where the numerous navigational hazards coincided with some of the busiest shipping routes.

In response to these demands, a remarkable network of lighthouses developed along the Canadian shores of eastern Lake Ontario. By the early 20th Century, a total of more than forty-five lighthouses and light towers had been erected along this sixty-five nautical mile stretch over the course of some eighty-five years. The result was one of the greatest concentrations of lighthouses anywhere in the world.

This is the story of the building of those lighthouses.

PART I

THE SETTING

PART I – THE SETTING

CHAPTER 1

Lake Ontario

Everywhere beset with ducks and drakes.

(Sir Richard Bonnycastle, 1846)

L ong before any lighthouses were built on the Great Lakes, the first commercial trading vessels on these inland seas were undoubtedly the canoes of the First Nations peoples. The first European sailing ship on Lake Ontario appeared in the late 17 th Century when the French launched the Frontenac at Cataraqui (now Kingston) in 1678. ¹ By the mid-18th Century, both the French navy and Britain’s Royal Navy had small fleets of bateaux, sloops and schooners built to support the fur trade around Lake Ontario. ² Until 1788, only government-owned ships, mostly naval vessels, were allowed on the Great Lakes. With the increase in population on the Canadian side of Lake Ontario due to the settlement of Loyalists displaced after the American War for Independence, the first privately owned sailing ships were permitted to sail the Great Lakes for purely commercial purposes:

An Ordinance, For promoting the Inland Navigation.

Whereas present circumstances do not require that the transport of merchandize and peltries over the upper lakes should be carried on solely by vessels belonging to His Majesty, and the thriving situation of the new settlements of loyalists in the Western-country [west of Montreal, in what is now the Province of Ontario], makes it expedient under certain restrictions, to facilitate the transport of a variety of other articles across those Lakes, which will tend to increase the exports of this Province, and consequently to augment its commerce, be it therefore enacted … that it shall and may be lawful for all his Majesty’s good and liege subjects trading to the Western-country by the way of the great Lakes, who shall have taken out the usual pass conformable to the law, to cause such their effects and merchandize as shall be specified in the said pass, to be waterborne in any kind of vessel under the burthen of ninety tons, if the same be built and launched in any part or place within his Majesty’s government, and all the owners of the bottom and cargo, and the captain, conductor, crew and navigators shall (since the first of May, 1783.) have taken the oath of allegiance to his Majesty….

And be it also enacted by the same authority, that nothing in this Act shall be construed to affect any small vessels under the burthen of five tons, found navigating the river St. Lawrence and the bay of Quinty [Quinte], on the North-eastern side of Lake Ontario, for the convenience of the loyalists and others in their settlements….³

This law recognized the economic reality that where there are settlements there is commerce and trade, and that trade was highly dependent on the efficient transportation of goods. With the absence of passable roads, it was the lakes and rivers of the interior of the country, especially the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River, that were the most practical transportation routes available.

(5) French map of Lake Ontario 1757. Note that North is at the bottom of the map. Carte du Lac Ontario by Labroquerie.

Seven ships of the British fleet on Lake Ontario are shown at top. The French fleet on the lake is shown at bottom. The inset at lower left shows Cataraqui (Kingston).

[Courtesy of The British Library]

When the old province of Quebec was divided to form Upper Canada and Lower Canada in 1791, only bateaux and a few British government ships could be found sailing Lake Ontario. The first commercial merchant ship, the York, was launched in 1793.⁴

Three years later, a traveler from Dublin, Ireland, Isaac Weld, observed that:

Several decked merchant vessels, schooners, and sloops, of from fifty to two hundred tons each, and also numberless large sailing bateaux, are kept employed on Lake Ontario. No vessels are deemed proper for the navigation of these lakes but complete sea boats, or else flat bottomed vessels, such as canoes and bateaux, that can safely run ashore on an emergency. At present the people of the United States have no other vessels than bateaux on the lake….⁵

The same year that Weld was travelling through Upper Canada, Jay’s Treaty, the Treaty of Amity, Commerce and Navigation, between the United States and Great Britain, came into effect and the handful of commercial vessels plying the Great Lakes were then able, for the first time since the end of the American War for Independence, to openly transport goods across the international boundary to and from ports on both sides of Lake Ontario:

Article III

It is agreed that it shall at all times be free to his majesty’s subjects, and to the citizens of the United States, and also to the Indians dwelling on either side of the said boundary line, freely to pass and repass by land or inland navigation, into the respective territories and countries of the two parties, on the continent of America … and to navigate all the lakes, rivers, and waters thereof, and freely to carry on trade and commerce with each other.⁶

Not only did Jay’s Treaty open opportunities for trade between the American Great Lakes states and Upper Canada — the first American ship on Lake Ontario being launched in 1797⁷ — but the treaty stipulated the removal of the British garrisons from the forts at Michilimackinac, Detroit, Niagara, and Oswego, and this lead to an influx of American settlers into Michigan, Ohio and western New York state. By 1800, this region of the United States had a population of more than 100,000 people.⁸

While the population of Upper Canada was slower to increase, steady arrivals of immigrants from Britain and Ireland as well as from the United States continued to add to the number of settlers on the Canadian side the Great Lakes. Weld commented that,

Already are there extensive settlements on the British side of Lake Ontario, at Niagara, at Toronto, at the Bay of Canti [Bay of Quinte], and at Kingston, which contain nearly twenty thousand inhabitants; and on the opposite shore, the people of the states are pushing forward their settlements with the utmost vigour.⁹

By 1806, the population of Upper Canada was estimated at more than 70,000.¹⁰

Commerce kept pace with this population growth and more ships — the link vital to sustain the growth of this young economy — were built on the Great Lakes to satisfy the demand for the transportation of goods and people, especially on Lake Ontario near whose shores most of Upper Canada’s population lived. In 1800, the number of sails that could be counted on Lake Ontario was only a few dozen, and many of those were naval vessels; but by the 1820’s, there were virtually no naval vessels on the lake due to the Rush-Bagot Treaty,¹¹ and the number of commercial vessels exceeded one hundred, including a number of steamboats. By the 1830’s, as a result of the construction of the Welland Canal to bypass the Niagara Falls and allow ships to sail between lakes Erie and Ontario, several hundred ships had access to Lake Ontario and were transporting cargoes to Kingston and other Lake Ontario ports from as far away as Buffalo, Cleveland, Detroit and Chicago.¹²

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, large ships from Britain and Europe regularly crossed the Atlantic Ocean carrying imported goods and immigrants up the St. Lawrence River as far as Montreal. Beyond that point, their further passage to Upper Canada was effectively blocked by a series of rapids beginning with those at Lachine and including several others to just above the Galops rapids where the towns of Prescott, Ontario and Ogdensburg, New York were established. At Montreal, the cargoes and passengers were transferred onto bateaux or onto larger Durham boats for the difficult passage up the rapids of the upper St. Lawrence River. At Kingston, situated at the extreme north-eastern corner of Lake Ontario where the waters of the lake funnel into the St. Lawrence, freight forwarders would warehouse the goods and forward them onward to ports on Lake Ontario and beyond in company with passengers aboard larger schooners and steamboats capable of navigating the waters of the Great Lakes.

Raw materials and partially manufactured goods including lumber, wheat, flour and potash as well as other cargo destined for overseas markets were likewise trans-shipped at Kingston or Prescott for the return trip down the St. Lawrence. Even after railroads began to slowly develop starting in the mid-19th Century, sloops, schooners, and other sailing ships, and later side-wheeler steamboats and propeller-driven steamships, still provided the most efficient and cost-effective mode of transport for cargo and passengers.

On Lake Ontario, there was also a substantial cross-lake shipping trade between the United States and Canada. Salt from Syracuse and later coal from Pennsylvania as well as manufactured goods were shipped north to Toronto, Belleville, Deseronto, Kingston and other Canadian ports, while barley from Prince Edward County, apples from Northumberland County and lumber from mills all across the north shore of Lake Ontario were shipped south to Rochester’s port at Charlotte as well as to Oswego and other ports on the U.S. side of the lake. As canals were dug, improved and expanded and as populations throughout the Great Lakes region increased, the amount of cargo, the variety of goods and the number of ships sailing on Lake Ontario increased throughout the 19th Century.

For much of the 19th Century, Kingston was the most important port on the lake. As the primary trans-shipment point for cargoes passing up and down the St. Lawrence River, most ships sailing