Bamford - Canada;Grands Lacs américains (Région);Grands Lacs (Amérique du Nord);Great Lakes;Great Lakes

A History of Sail on the
Great Lakes, 16701918

DON BAMFORD

Foreword by Maurice Smith

Copyright 2007 Donald A. Bamford

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, mechanic, photocopying or otherwise (except for brief passages for purposes of review) without the prior permission of Dundurn Press. Permission to photocopy should be requested from Access Copyright.

Published by Natural Heritage Books

A Member of The Dundurn Group

3 Church Street, Suite 500

Toronto, Ontario, M5E 1M2, Canada

www.dundum.com

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Bamford, Don

Freshwater heritage: a history of sail on the Great Lakes, 1670-1918 / Don

Bamford; foreword by Maurice Smith.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-897045-20-6

1. Great Lakes (North America)NavigationHistory. 2. Sailing shipsGreat Lakes (North America)History. 3. ShipbuildingGreat Lakes Region (North America)History. 4. ShipbuildingOntarioHistory. 5. ShippingGreat Lakes (North America)History. 6. CanadaHistoryWar of 1812Naval operations. I. Title.

HE635.Z7G74 2007 386.509713 C2007-900194-7

1 2 3 4 5 11 10 09 08 07

Front Cover: The St. Lawrence, O.K. Schenk, artist; back cover: The Alvin M. Clark, Charles L. Peterson, artist. All original paintings and all sketches, maps and photographs are courtesy of the author unless otherwise indicated.

Cover and text design by Sari Naworynski

Edited by Paul Carroll and Jane Gibson

Printed and bound in Canada by Hignell Book Printing of Winnipeg

Care has been taken to trace the ownership of copyright material used in this book. The author and the publisher welcome any information enabling them to rectify any references or credits in subsequent editions.

J. Kirk Howard, President

We acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for our publishing program. We also acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Book Publishing Industry Development Program and The Association for the Export of Canadian Books and the Government of Canada through the Ontario Book Publishers Tax Credit Program and the Ontario Media Development Corporation.

As long as I can remember, I have been addicted to books.
My lifes partner, Jean, has been very patient but frequently promised
to put a book in my hands when I am laid to rest.
Unfortunately she preceded me.

To Jean, my first mate, I offer this historical tribute to her memory.
And to the authors who have come before me,
I humbly dedicate this book.

by Maurice Smith

by Paul Carroll

PART ONE: THE ERA OF FRENCH CONTROL ON THE GREAT LAKES,
16781760

PART FOUR: COMMERCIAL SAIL ON THE LAKES
UNTIL THE EARLY 1900S

I ACKNOWLEDGE A GREAT DEBT to the earlier writers who not only whetted my appetite by their own works, but also made my own search much easier by providing extensive bibliographies for their works. Prominent among them were Father Louis Hennepin, George Cuthbertson, C.H.J. Snider, President Theodore Roosevelt, Captain H.C. Inches, Howard Chapelle and many, many more. The list goes on and on. A new surge of interest, at least on the Canadian side of the International Border, seems to be occurring. Works by authors, Barry Gough, Robert Malcomson and Thomas Malcomson, Arthur B. Smith and others have appeared. An excellent maritime artist, Peter Rindlisbacher has also added his splendid visual works. He will undoubtedly be known as one of the best marine artists in the field. They all have brought me great pleasure.

Further, to gather much additional information, I visited and corresponded with museums and historical societies all around the lakes and across the eastern seaboard of the United States. To these and similar societies in England, France, Holland and the Scandinavian countries, I owe much gratitude for their assistance.

To my long time friend, counsellor and fellow enthusiast of history and sailing, Paul Carroll, without whose influence and input this book would probably still be a work in progress I owe a great debt. His knowledge of writing proper English, word processing and publishing procedures is far superior to mine and he has corrected many of my errors and omissions. For any that remain, I take full responsibility.

I also thank those who assisted in locating visuals and additional background information: Paul Adanthwaite, Archives & Collections Society, Picton, Ontario; Ian Bell, Port Dover Harbour Museum, Port Dover, Ontario; Ann-Marie Collins, Bruce County Archives, Bruce County Museum & Cultural Centre, Southampton, Ontario; Rob Cotton, Grey Bruce Image Archives, Owen Sound, Ontario; Pat Hamilton and Jeremy Allin, Huron County Museum, Goderich, Ontario, and Peter White of Toronto for sharing his memorabilia on the Bruno. I also thank Heidi Hoffman and James Sommerville for providing maps and sketches.

In my earlier texts, and for all of my published articles, I have held the sole responsibility for editing. The challenge to review the manuscript, to make it more readable and to correct the inimitable errors was mine and mine alone. In the case of this current work, however, I have been blessed to have the assistance of a stalwart editor, Jane Gibson, who has worked diligently to improve my manuscript. Albeit a subject quite foreign to her broad experience with Canadian heritage, she has persevered. Her suggestions, her questions and her offers to help make the text more presentable to the general readership for whom this work is intended, and her work has been of inestimable value. I am grateful for her tireless assistance.

This book is written from the perspective of a author who has been to sea. He brings to the pages that follow an intimate understanding of the Lakes because he has sailed on all of them, anchored in their bays and like all experienced sailors, had close calls in the dark of night when fierce winds and tumbling waves are unforgiving.

With a few exceptions, Dons perspective is from the point of view of those sailors, scholars and authors who lived closer to the age of sail. Those sources have been well read and analyzed by Donald and the result is thoughtful good read. This book may not, as he says with great respect, enamour the skilled and the knowledgeable writers of pure and scholarly Canadian history. Dons intent is to enlighten and entertain you in the spirit of his predecessor, G.A. Cuthbertson who wrote Freshwater in 1931.

This book may be the very catalyst you need to awaken a nascent interest in a subject that can easily become a passion.

MAURICE D. SMITH, KINGSTON, ONTARIO

Maurice D. Smith is the Curator Emeritus of the Marine Museum of the Great Lakes at Kingston. Prior to his museum career he sailed at sea and on the Great Lakes as captain of the sailing vessel Pathfinder, one of two Toronto Brigantine vessels. He is the author of Steamboats on the Lakes, published by James Lorimer & Company in 2005.