THE MAPLE LEAF'S CANADIAN
 HISTORY
 By Gerald T Girvin

A Broken Walking Beam
The Admiral Burns
Home on the Genesse

Demise of the Through Line.
    As a result of heavy losses in 1852, it was decided not to continue the Through Line the following season. Downbound service on the south shore was in direct competition with the larger American side-wheelers running in three lines on the lake and river. The upbound course paralleled the mail lines operated by the same proprietors as well as competing with Canadian freight vessels.

    It was decided to consolidate services to effect more efficient use of some of the better vessels. The Lake Mail Line and the River Line were increased from three to four boats each, and the Lake Line was extended down river beyond Kingston to Prescott and Ogdensburg, while the River Line continued to go all the way upstream to Kingston. Hence an option was available to passengers to proceed down the rapids on the River Mail Steamers, or transfer from the Lake Mail Steamers at Ogdensburg to the Northern Railroad for Montreal or American cities on the east coast. The Maple Leaf joined the Magnet, Passport and Arabian on the Lake Mail Line from Hamilton to Ogdensburg with calls at all the usual ports on the north shore.⁴³

    The America had served the Toronto Cobourg-Rochester route in conjunction with the Admiral, but well past her prime, she was sold to the Calvins of Garden Island for tow boat service on the Bay of Quinte. Her place on the Rochester route was taken by the Princess Royal with Captain Robert Kerr, who was replaced on the Admiral by Captain Duncan McBride of the America. Two steamers on this route made it possible to maintain the daily service in each direction warranted by the heavy trade of the cross-lake course.

    The Rome and Cape Vincent Railroad completed its tracks to the Cape Vincent docks in 1852, and the newly founded Cape Vincent Railway Company, through MacPherson and Crane, assumed operation of the Mayflower, Champion and Highlander and ran them in a daily line from Hamilton to Cape Vincent, calling at intermediate Canadian ports.⁴⁴

A Broken Walking Beam.
    On Friday April 30, the Maple Leaf left Kingston on her upward trip at her usual hour of 3 P.M. A short time later, while passing Long Point, her cast iron walking beam suddenly cracked and broke, bringing the boat to a complete halt. The following day the disabled Maple Leaf was towed into Kingston by the Canadian freight boat Western Miller, and placed on the marine railway in the shipyard where she was built. A completely new walking beam was cast at the Kingston Foundry and placed in the steamer. She resumed her place on the Mail Line on May 10, cutting lines from the St. Lawrence Wharf for Toronto at 3 that afternoon.⁴⁵

The Admiral Burns.
    On Friday, June 10, the steamer Admiral arrived from Rochester at Browne's Wharf in Toronto about 1 A.M., with a number of emigrant passengers on board, already in their berths for the night. At about 8 A.M., fire was discovered in the hold. All passengers and crew were able to escape to the dock in safety, but lost all of their baggage in the conflagration.

    The Admiral burned to the water's edge -  a total loss - and $20,000 insurance did not cover the damage inflicted on the already troubled company.

    The company did not have a spare craft available to replace the Admiral and maintain daily service on the cross-lake route. The Princess Royal ran alone for the remainder of the 1853 season, making three trips per week between Toronto and Rochester, with stops at Port Hope and Cobourg. Reports were circulated in the fall that the Maple Leaf would join her on the route when the Mail Line ceased operations for the season, but in the face of mounting financial difficulties, the company could only delay any such plan.⁴⁷

    Accounts of the Admiral's tragic loss were of a special interest in Rochester, and not simply because of an interruption in steamboat service across the take. Discussing the losses to the Bethune Company, it was revealed in Rochester news reports that "several of the partners in this firm reside in this city." Evidently Donald Bethune had secured financing on the American shore from Rochester businessmen eager to maintain the Canada steamer route when financial problems seemed to threaten the continuation of the service.

    Apparently there was considerable unrest among these Rochester "partners," because a certain Charles W. Dundas, a prominent Rochester wool merchant, evidently visited Bethune in Toronto in an attempt to work out some agreeable settlement. Dundas later wrote to Bethune from Rochester in an October 27 letter bearing the inscription "Private," suggesting that:

...if you could arrange with your Canada friends to pay for the Rochester stock of $15,000 ... with interest.., it would fully satisfy all parties, be an equitable settlement, and place you before the Rochester people in an honorable light, and favorable position for future business. This certainly would be for better than to sell the boats and go into liquidation of' the concern.

    Dundas had presumed that "some such arrangement would suit" Bethune and referred to his "coming once more to Toronto to complete the business." He emphasized that his advice was "submitted ... in private - no one is acquainted with my views on the subject."

A postscript to the letter offered Bethune the encouraging advice that:

....some such arrangement would enable you to continue the business as now, without change or interruption.⁴⁸

    But Dundas' views were naive in the least.  We do not know how much knowledge he could have had about Bethune's business practices, but it had to have been very limited.

    In December, Donald Bethune not only neglected his payment of £6,000 he personally owed the company, but "relieved the paid-up capital of Donald Bethune and Company of some £4,000" in addition, and secretly sailed for England, "leaving the co-partnership in a state of great financial embarrassment." The remaining directors, although only limited partners, were left to shift as best they were able to save what they could of their own investments.⁴⁹

Home on the Genesse.
    During the final weeks of 1853, the Company succeeded in signing a contract with the Great Western Railway, to transport locomotives to the railroad at Hamilton. The cabins were removed from most of the deck of the Princess Royal and she was employed all winter carrying one or more locomotives and tenders on her deck on each trip from the railroad spur at Charlotte to the Great Western tracks at Hamilton.

    At about this time, Captain Robert Kerr moved to the command of the Maple Leaf replacing Captain James Dick. Captain Duncan McBride, formerly of the ill-fated Admiral, took over the helm of the Princess Royal and guided her through her winter ventures across the lake.⁵⁰

    On February 22, 1854, a persistent rumor was at long last confirmed. It was announced in Rochester by George Darling, local agent for the Bethune Company, that the Maple Leaf would become the regular steamer on the Toronto to Rochester route. She was described as a "first class upper cabin sea-steamer, and the finest boat ever placed on the route." Alluding to anticipated large trade to the Canadian ports once the season began, it was stated that the Maple Leaf would have "a consort to form a daily line," but no reference was made to a specific vessel, in view of the conversion of the Princess Royal to freight service. Darling announced soon after that the Maple Leaf would arrive at Charlotte from Toronto on Sunday March 5, and would return to the north shore on Monday, touching at Cobourg, Port Hope, Bond Head, Darlington, Oshawa and Whitby, on route to Toronto.⁵¹

    Captain Kerr left Toronto with the Maple Leaf Saturday night, and called at each of the north shore ports, finding each of the harbors open and generally clear of  ice. He left Cobourg at 1 A.M., and headed across the lake in the midst of a gale blowing from the west with consider able sea. But Robert Kerr was no stranger to the cross-lake passage nor to the challenges of weather on Lake Ontario.

    He first sailed on this route in 1846, as captain of the America, and successively commanded both the Admiral and the Princess Royal on the same course. Over the years, he had gained the reputation in Rochester of  being "the first out in the spring and the last to lay up in the fall." No man on the lakes was more qualified to bring Maple Leaf across to the Genesee. The Maple Leaf arrived at Charlotte at 6 A.M. on the chilly Sunday morning of March 5. She had made the crossing from Cobourg in five hours in heavy seas, a real accomplishment in 1854. (The twin-screw Ontario car ferries ran five hours on the same course in the 1940s in calm waters.)

    George Schofield was aboard the Maple Leaf as her purser. He had sailed with Captain Kerr on every vessel since the America, and was considered to be the commander's right hand. James Smith, the steward, was also well-known in Rochester, having served on the Princess Royal the previous season.

    It was quite evident from the Rochester papers that there was a good amount of excitement in the city about the arrival of the Maple Leaf. Referring to the officers and the steamer, it was stated that:

. . .these gentlemen are all favorites with the Rochester people and the traveling public, and find a hearty welcome after a brief winter' s absence. We are happy to find then? on board a fine craft so well adapted to the growing trade of the route on which they sail. The Maple Leaf is a staunch, upper-cabin steamer, of large size and excellent accommodations - among the fastest of the Canadian steamers. and for heavy weather and rough water she has no superior on the Lakes.

    The Maple Leaf brought over a "fair load of passengers and some freight, principally peas and grass seeds." When she left for Canada on Monday evening, she took a "cargo of merchandise, mostly bonded goods for Canada merchants, and a good list of passengers." For a time, the Maple Leaf would leave Rochester every Monday and Thursday evenings on the arrival of the train from the Rochester Depot of the New York Central Railroad.⁵²

    Thence became a romance between a city and a steamer unparalleled in the annals of the Rochester port. Soon she would have the attention of daily news coverage, announcing her every arrival and departure, and every detail of her career during the next nine years on Lake Ontario. Maple Leaf had a new home and a new family. She was to become a Rochester steamboat tradition.

    The charter of the Princess Royal was renewed in February and she continued transporting locomotives to Hamilton through the end of March. The Great Western was in the process of building two large steamers at Niagara, to be named America and Canada, and had ordered their engines from New York's West Point Foundry. The engines were shipped to Rochester by rail in early April and loaded upon the barge Britannia, which was towed to Niagara by the Princess Royal. The Princess Royal was then tied up at Toronto until her sale to John Wilson of Quebec for service as a towboat on the lower St. Lawrence.⁵³

    In her first advertisement in Rochester newspapers, dated March 8, Maple Leaf was listed as running across the lake twice each week, leaving for Cobourg every Monday and Thursday at 9 P.M., "connecting at Toronto with Steamer for Hamilton." It was also noted that:

    ...by an arrangement with the Custom House in Toronto, goods for Hamilton and the West will be forwarded by steamer without any detention.⁵⁴

    Most steamers on the lake were still in winter lay-up when the Maple Leaf was ploughing her way through the unpredictable March seas. On March 22, she made several attempts to land at the pier at Port Hope, but after repeated groundings on the sand bar, abandoned the call and went on to Cobourg. On the morning of Saturday March 18, she left Toronto Bay in the height of a late winter gale. Captain Kerr attempted a landing at Whitby, but finding that harbor unsafe, went on directly to Cobourg. But when the wind switched towards the south, the Captain feared for the safety of the Maple Leaf, should the vessel remain there overnight. He accordingly left Cobourg in the evening to cross the stormy lake, aimed at a safe haven in the protection of the Genesee. But when the Maple Leaf arrived off Charlotte at about 2 A.M., Kerr found no light on the pier - the gale was so severe that no one could reach the beacon to light it. With a "tremendous sea running," the Captain would not attempt to enter the mouth of the river, but "lay up for four hours, contending with the wind and waves until daybreak," when he brought the Maple Leaf safely into port.

    She did not have a large number of passengers, but all agree ... that the boat behaved admirably, and some assert that she would be able to face the fiercest gale that ever swept over the lakes.

    The Maple Leaf left for Cobourg on Monday evening at her appointed hour.⁵⁵

    After being delayed again at Whitby on March 22, praise for the gallant boat and her gallant Captain was forthcoming:

    This fine vessel makes her trips regularly, regardless of the weather. She is crossing the broad lake amid gales, and snow storms, in a beam sea, when the Oswego propellers are scudding for a refuge in the Genesee harbor... She is probably one the best, if not the best, sea steamer on the Lakes."⁵⁶

    In early April, it was announced that the Maple Leaf would begin a tri-weekly service to Cobourg, leaving every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and that after April 15, another steamer would be added to the line, leaving on alternate days.

    On her passage to Toronto on April 14, the Maple Leaf had one of her sidewheels "pretty much carried away by the sea," and made it safely into Toronto Bay with one wheel, where she was laid up for repairs.⁵⁷

    This disabling of the Maple Leaf caused a serious problem for the troubled Bethune Company, which had no spare vessel available to replace her, let alone provide for a promised daily service on the route, if they were to maintain the increasing trade. An agreement was reached to charter the Highlander from Hooker and Holton for the frugal sum of $7,000 per year, and Captain Duncan McBride was named her captain.

    The Highlander, a slightly smaller steamer than the Maple Leaf, and a year older, but also a dependable sea boat, arrived for the first time in Rochester on April 19 "with a full freight and large number of passengers." The Maple Leaf did not return to Rochester until April 28 to resume her regular run, but on her return, the Highlander was moved to a route from Toronto to Hamilton, leaving any promises of a daily cross-lake line on hold.⁵⁸

    Whether the added strain of rougher cross-lake voyages was responsible or not, we cannot say, but the Maple Leaf started experiencing more mechanical problems than had been usual on the north shore route. On Monday, June 12, on her northbound trip, when within two miles of Cobourg, the pin holding the piston rod to the walking beam suddenly snapped, causing the piston and rod to crash into the cylinder. The boat was anchored while passengers were ferried into Cobourg in small boats. On Tuesday, she was towed into Cobourg by the Magnet, and soon after towed to the Kingston shipyard by the steamer Boston. The Highlander was again dispatched to Rochester to replace the Maple Leaf, this time for a more extended period.⁵⁹

    A new engine cylinder had to be cast at the Kingston Foundry and the Kingston press related that "with other repairs" she was given a "complete new engine." The Bethune Company was more than pleased with the quality of the work performed, and the "extremely moderate charge." The Kingston Whig declared the Maple Leaf "in a more complete state than at any period since she was launched." The Maple Leaf finally left Kingston on July 25, and returned to her regular route. The Highlander returned to her Toronto to Hamilton service.⁶⁰

CW 2/21/05