The lower Niagara River rarely freezes over in all places, much running water being left in evidence and as a rule the ice which has anywhere been formed during the winter goes out into the lake in the spring without any trouble. There are records of two great "Ice Jams" which had happened during the previous history of the river. The earliest of these was in 1825. During this winter the steamer _Queenston_ was under construction in the ravine on the Canadian side which opens up from the river just below the Queenston dock. In the spring the preparations were being made ready for the launching when an exceptional ice jam suddenly formed, causing the waters of the river to rise. The pressure of the floes which were now carried by the water up against the steamer became so great and dangerous that it was necessary to block her up and by extending the ways inland to move her further back into the gully, from here, after the waters had subsided, she was successfully launched.
[Ill.u.s.tration: The ICE JAM. 1906, at Lewiston. page 192]
[Ill.u.s.tration: The ICE JAM. 1906, at Niagara-on-Lake. page 193]
Another instance was in 1883, when the waters and ice rose exceptionally, but beyond sweeping the sheds off the Lewiston docks no exceptional damage was done.
This latest ice jam of 1908-09, was according to past records, and the traditions of the oldest inhabitants, the worst that had ever been experienced. The winter had been severe and much ice had formed in Lake Erie and on the upper river. This was brought down in successive rushes in the spring during alternating frosts and thaws, so that, the river between Lewiston and the mouth had become jammed from bank to bank with huge floes of ice, heaving and heaping up on one another, and binding together with _serracs_, and _creva.s.ses_ much like the ice river of an Avalanche. As the successive ice runs came down they were driven under the floes until at length the ma.s.ses grounded on the shallows at the mouths below Niagara-on-the-Lake.
The river being now blocked up, the waters gradually rose fully twenty feet higher than usual bringing the ice floes with them. With the exception of a few places where small sections of water could be seen, the whole Rapids from the Whirlpool to the outlet of the Gorge at Lewiston was packed with ice and the rapids eliminated, a condition never previously known. As the spring thaws came, the ice mounds, being unable to get exit below, mounted still higher with mighty heavings and struggles, rounding up in the centre of the river, as had been noticed to some extent in 1883, and pushing and piling up on the banks but not making any progress down the river, until it became evident that Nature was unable to break the barrier and immense injury was likely to occur.
At that juncture the Engineer Corps of the United States Regular Army, at Buffalo, initiated a series of explosions of dynamite, by electric mines, in the main blockade down near the river mouth opposite Fort Niagara. After several days of very difficult and dangerous work, as much as 4,000 lbs. of dynamite being exploded at one time, the blockade was broken, the seven miles of ice began to move in alternate rushes and haltings, until at length the river was clear.
The situation had been at times alarming. At Lewiston the docks were completely engulfed under 60 feet of ice, the ice pinnacles sweeping up high above the level of the swollen water and carrying away a portion of the gallery of the hotel. On the Queenston side a mark has been placed about thirty feet above the usual water level showing the height to which the ice hummocks rose. At Niagara-on-the-Lake the ice mounted high above the level of the dock, but by happy fortune a good sized iceberg had grounded in the channel at the end of the dock leading into the inner basin. Here it held out as a buffer outside the line of the "piling" along the bank, withstanding all the attacks from above, and thrusting the floes out into the stream, thus preserving the dock, lighthouse and buildings from destruction.
When the waters subsided the sh.o.r.es of the river for twenty to thirty feet above the usual level were found to have been swept clear of every bush and tree from the rapids to the lake, a condition from which they have scarcely yet recovered. It was not until the end of May that the river was entirely free from ice. In reconstructing the dock we were able to introduce new improvements which would not have been previously possible.
1909 brought no further changes in the steamers, but a gradual increase in the travelling due to increased energy in the cultivation of new business and careful attention to the convenience and comfort of pa.s.sengers by the management and efficient staff.
For many years, from time to time, the company has been endeavoring to purchase the Toronto docks which were the Northern terminal of their system. Four times we had been turned out of its occupation and obliged to find landing berths elsewhere. The necessity of holding their Toronto terminal was constantly before the Company and was the only and complete sequence of the holding of the several terminals at the ports upon the Niagara River. At last, in 1910, the opportunity of purchase arose and was immediately availed of. With this purchase the Company completed the policy which had been initiated from its very beginning. This Yonge Street dock property, extending from Yonge Street to Scott Street, has ever been the steamshipping centre of the city, for traffic to all ports on the lake. Its facilities can be still more expanded so that, for the convenience of the public, all the lake pa.s.senger lines can be concentrated at its wharves to the mutual advantage of all, a policy which the Niagara Company desired to promote and which has been contributed to by the purchase and concentration of the steamers of the Hamilton Line. This, effected in 1911, concentrates into one management an important pa.s.senger business and brings direct connection, as of old, between Hamilton, the Head of the Lake, and the Niagara River. These, together with the opening of a new route to the south sh.o.r.e by service between Toronto and Olcott, in connection with the International Electric Railway, will open a new era of contributing traffic.
Beginning with one steamer, the "_Mother of the Fleet_," the Line from one trip a day has, in its 35 years of endeavour, grown to be nothing short of "The Niagara Ferry," served by swift steamers, of increasing size, making six trips from each side, leaving every two hours during the day, and by persistent advertising and increasingly reputable service, the Company has made the "_Niagara River Line_" known throughout the travelling world, and created a business and carrying capacity which has risen on heavy excursion days to no less than 20,000 to 26,000 pa.s.sengers moved on one day. What the "_Kyles of Bute_" route is to the tourist public of Great Britain and Europe, the _Niagara River Line_ is to the tourist public of America.
Toronto has trebled its population and in great industrial enterprises is forging ahead of all other cities in Ontario. Niagara Falls, with its wonderfully increasing factories created by the concentration of the electric power in its midst, has grown from being solely a summer hotel town to a great manufacturing community. Buffalo, with a population at present of 500,000, is expanding marvelously. The Richelieu & Ontario Company, for which the Niagara Company collects the pa.s.senger business of the south sh.o.r.e through the gateway of the Niagara and places it for them in Toronto, has exceedingly increased their accommodation and made known their service as a contributor to the route from the St. Lawrence to the ocean.
Whatever success there has been in the past, the prospects of the future shine brighter still.
In 1912, while these pages were being written, has come the final phase.
It will be remembered that in the early days the steamers for Montreal sailed direct from the Niagara River and that the guiding minds of the Royal Mail Line were at Queenston in 1847 and for subsequent decades.
In the slump of steamboat traffic and the decadence of the river business the Montreal steamers had shortened their route, and had made Hamilton, for some time, and afterwards Toronto, the starting point for their steamers for Montreal.
The introduction of the Niagara Navigation Company had produced a change of conditions on the river, and by energy and bold investment, had created an effective local organization, as has been detailed in this narrative.
Gradually pa.s.senger business had been attracted and centralized until Niagara Falls had been created in their Annual Rates Meetings by the Railway Companies as the starting point of all "Summer Rates Excursions,"
and "The Niagara Portal" as the nucleus basing route for all summer tours.
At the same time the Richelieu & Ontario Navigation Co., which succeeded to the Royal Mail Line, has grown in scope and equipment to be the premier steamboat organization of Canada, the controller of the pa.s.senger lines of the St. Lawrence system of river, lakes and rapids, and operating the longest continuous route of any Inland Navigation Company in the world. In all, this interval of years its old advertising heading of "_Niagara to the Sea_" had been continuously maintained, it was not unreasonable therefore that there should be a desire to make the old caption a present fact and by acquiring the local organization restore the old-time conditions.
Negotiations had for some time been in progress and at length in June, 1913, at a Board meeting, presided over (in the absence of the President, Sir Edmund Osler in England) by Vice-President c.u.mberland, the originator of the company, and its continuous Vice-President during all its existence, the Niagara Navigation Co. was formally transferred as a working enterprise in full operation to the Richelieu & Ontario Navigation Co. The directors of the company at this time and for several years previously were: President, Sir Edmund Osler; Vice-President, Barlow c.u.mberland; Directors--Hon. J. J. Foy, K.C.; Hon. J. S. Hendrie, C.V.O.; W. D.
Matthews, F. Gordon Osler, J. Bruce Macdonald. These in succession transferred their seats to the nominees of the new owners and Sir Henry Pellatt, C.V.O., became President of the company.
The two systems were thus joined into one. The Company operating the St.
Lawrence system came back to its old starting point at the head of navigation on the Niagara River. With this is completed the century and this story of the early days of pa.s.senger movement on the river, and of the origin, rise and establishment of the Niagara Navigation Company in its contribution to the records of sail and steam on the Niagara River.
Another cycle of steamboat navigation has pa.s.sed, another era has closed and a new one has begun, and once again there is one Company and one Management under the Richelieu & Ontario Navigation Company for the Niagara River and the St. Lawrence Route, from _Niagara to the Sea_.