THE MAPLE LEAF'S CANADIAN
HISTORY
By Gerald T Girvin
Farewell to the Genesee
Lake Steamers Go to War.
As stated previously, the large Great Western steamers America and
Canada were sent down the St. Lawrence rapids in 1858 for service on the
eastern seaboard. The America was renamed Coatzocoalcos and
chartered by the government for various expeditions along the Atlantic and Gulf
coasts. The Canada, under the name of Mississippi, foundered in the south
Atlantic in 1862.136
The two largest and most luxurious American Line steamers, the "palace steamers"
New York and Northerner, lay idle at Ogdensburg in 1859, in the hands of the
American Steamboat Company receivers. In 1860, they were chartered to John
Hamilton of Kingston and run on the Canadian line on Lake Ontario and the St.
Lawrence, the New York under the command of the renegade Captain James Van
Cleve, one of the first American owners of the Maple Leaf. The steamers were not
in service at all in the spring of 1861, and on May 17, a rumor was circulated
that the New York was being sold for service in the war.
The owners offered no comment, preferring to keep plans confidential, since she
was docked at the Ogdensburg depot, within sight of the Canadians on the
opposite bank, some of whom may have harbored resentment of her reported
destination. But a few days later, on the morning of May 22, the New York cut
lines at Ogdensburg and sailed down the rapids. She was commanded once more by
Captain Richard Chapman, her long-time captain who had supervised her
construction in 1851, and piloted by Captain John Rankin, the most celebrated
rapids pilot of his day. Since the New York was too large for the St. Lawrence
canals, the rapids were the only possible route, and it was decided to take New
York down when the water in the river was at its spring time peak. Reporters
from several newspapers were invited on the trip, and detailed recountings of
the voyage were widely published. At Montreal, the furnaces of New York were
converted to coal, and she continued on to the east coast. During the war, New
York became known as the "flag of truce boat" at Fortress Monroe.137
After being converted to coal at Ogdensburg, and having a new shaft installed,
the Northerner finally left Ogdensburg on July 17, and manned by Captain Chapman
and the crew who guided the New York down successfully, the Northerner, with
John Rankin again at the wheel, "shot" the rapids to Montreal and proceeded to
the coast. Sold to the Quartermaster General's Department, Northerner spent her
war years as a transport and supply steamer.138 John Hunter, Second Engineer on
both the New York and Northerner on their historic trips down the St. Lawrence,
returned to Rochester after leaving the Northerner on the coast, and took the
position of Second Engineer on the Maple Leaf, working under his brother.
Meanwhile, the Canadian steamer Peerless, idle at Toronto, was purchased on May
1, 1861, by a New York buyer for $36,000, reportedly for charter to the United
States Government. She left Toronto on May 19, passed down the St. Lawrence canals
and arrived at Quebec on May 27. When her new owner attempted to register her
as an American vessel with the U.S. Consul at Quebec, she was seized by
American officers, since rumors had circulated of her being destined for use as
a Confederate blockade runner. The problem was resolved, and Peerless went down
to the coast, chartered to the U.S. Quartermaster's Department. The Peerless was
lost in a storm while part of the expedition against Port Royal.139
The old steamer Princess Royal, which had been sold
down the St. Lawrence in 1854, finally ended up in 1862 in Quartermaster's
Department service, after disappearing from Canadian records and mysteriously
emerging on American records as the West Point.140
The Canadian steamer Arabian, which had run with the Maple Leaf in Canadian
service on the north shore, and also substituted on the Rochester to Cobourg
route after the Maple Leaf was seized in October 1858, had gone down to Quebec
in 1859 as a tow boat, and after the outbreak of war somehow managed to
circumvent the American authorities and emerged as a blockade runner between
Nassau and Confederate ports.141
By 1862, East Coast ship brokers were busily combing Great Lakes ports for idle
vessels which could be purchased for charter to the government. Because of the
war, trade had hit such a low that ship owners were not hesitant to accept the
large amounts of cash being offered them. The ship brokers, on the other hand,
could easily afford to offer attractive sums, knowing what prices the government
was willing to pay to obtain the use of ships. The Union and Advertiser noted
that the:
...government is using up steamboats and the market is bare, so the Lakes are
resorted to, and even this market is now cleared of spare boats.
The foundries of the East cannot build all the engines required, and the great
steamers of Lake Erie are being stripped of their engines to supply the demand
for the Atlantic Coast.
The mammoth steamers City of Buffalo and Western Metropolis were two of the Lake
Erie steamers converted to barks after their engines were removed and shipped
east.
After 1859, the Ontario Steamboat Company only found use for three steamers on
the American shore line, and had tied up the idle Niagara at Charlotte during
1860 and 1861. When presented with a purchase offer to sell Niagara for $9,000
for East Coast service, the Company decided in April 1862 to seize the
opportunity, and the Niagara was prepared for her trip down the St. Lawrence
canals, since like the Peerless she was small enough to traverse the canal locks.
The Niagara left on June 5, and went down the river in charge of Palmer Wescott
of Charlotte, the man who had been carried out into the icy lake aboard Maple
Leaf the previous March. The following December, news reached Rochester that the
Niagara had almost sunk at a dock in Chesapeake Bay with the 5th Massachusetts
on board, that she was leaking badly, and found to be rotten and unseaworthy.
In relating the Niagara's fate, the Union and Advertiser told its readers "how
the government is swindled" and protested that:
...this wholesale robbery of the government is bad enough, but language cannot
express the contempt we feel for men who would be parties to sending a regiment
of soldiers...on such a craft. This is only one of many rotten old tubs in the
service of the government at exorbitant rates of charter.
The "parties" to which the editor referred were east coast ship brokers and
merchants purchasing vessels for charter to the government, exploiting the fact
that the British had banned passage of the United States Government owned
vessels through Canadian waters and privately owned vessels had no problem
passing from Lake Ontario down to the Atlantic Ocean.142
Farewell to the Genesee.
From the course of events, it can be assumed that it was most likely about the
time of the Niagara's departure that a ship broker approached Captain Schofield
with a purchase offer for the Maple Leaf. The offer was reportedly made by Lang
and Delano of Boston, who hoped to charter the Maple Leaf to the government as a
troop transport. The price offered was reportedly $25,000.
In 1862, business was poor and profits sparse. The route to the north shore had
become a problem because of the hostile attitudes of certain Canadians. And
conditions seemed to be getting progressively worse with no hope for improvement
on the horizon. Captain Schofield had purchased the Maple Leaf in 1859 for $10,000. A sale to the Boston parties would provide a very handsome return. We do
not know the date on which the deal was consummated, but it was probably decided
to honor the excursion charters already booked and not have the Maple Leaf leave
until at least after the Cobourg Regatta.143
After Lincoln's call for 300,000 more men, officers were
on hand in every city and small town, organizing companies of recruits for the
Union Army. In upstate New York, it was not difficult for young men trying to
avoid recruiters to flee to a haven in neighboring Canada, and many of them did
just that, across the Niagara and St. Lawrence Rivers and on the steamers across
Lake Ontario. The Canadians referred to them as the "Skedaddlers" and one
Canadian newspaper commented "three times three groans for the sneaking
cowards."144
Because the practice was becoming widespread, the War Department in Washington
issued an order on August 8, "by direction of the President of the United
States," forbidding any young man of recruiting age from leaving the country.
The decree was signed by Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War, and came to be
known as the Order of Non-Intercourse.
A certain Captain Mooney, chief officer at the Rochester recruiting office, felt
it his solemn duty to gather a "file" of soldiers and proceed to Charlotte to
zealously police the embarkation of the steamers leaving the docks each evening.
What ensued in the city amounted to a proverbial tempest, involving the
military, the press, and the steamboat owners and agents. Captains and crews
were especially indignant when soldiers blocked gangways and interrogated male
passengers attempting to board. In some instances, pistols were drawn, and when
Captain Ledyard of the Cataract resisted the military by having his crew remove
them bodily, Captain Mooney telegraphed ahead and had the Captain arrested in
Ogdensburg.
After some agitation, the matter was finally resolved - Captain Ledyard had many
local friends ready to intervene on his behalf. But Captain Mooney continued his
surveillance of the docks and turned back many youths attempting to board the
steamers. It was also reported that on one evening alone, he intercepted some 30
army deserters attempting to flee to Canada.145
After the Order of Non- Intercourse was published, however, the Maple Leaf was
only to make one more revenue trip across to Canada before departing the lake,
and her embarkation for that trip was attended by a deputy marshal, not by
Captain Mooney or his men.
Perhaps Captain Mooney was too pre-occupied with the American Line steamers
docking each evening to concern himself with the Maple Leaf, but reports of his
diligence seem to preclude that theory. Most likely, Captain Schofield was
making a concerted effort to avoid all confrontations and to cooperate fully
with the military during the Maple Leaf s last days at Charlotte. Given the
sequence of events, it is most unlikely that there was any connection between
the War Department directive and its enforcement and the sale of the Maple Leaf.
There was not the slightest hint in any newspaper that Maple Leaf would be
leaving the lake. The Union and Advertiser may well have known the information
in advance, but had agreed not to publish it before the steamer's departure,
while she was still making regular stops at north shore ports where there might
have been indignation about her planned destination.
The Cobourg Regatta was scheduled for Thursday and Friday, August 7 and 8. There
was little fear of "row" problems at Cobourg during this event, since yachtsmen
were for the most part partial to the Americans with whom they shared the lake.
The Maple Leaf
made a first excursion to Cobourg Wednesday night and cruised with the yachts on
Thursday, returning to Charlotte to connect with the 9 P.M. train. The second
excursion left Thursday night, and after repeating the yacht cruise on Friday
returned to Charlotte. Stops at Wellington and Oswego were pre-empted by the
excursion. The Maple Leaf reportedly carried "a large load of passengers;" meals
were available in the dining room as well as refreshments at the bar, and both
excursions and yacht cruises were accompanied by Captain Perkins' Cornet Band.146
The Maple Leaf lay over at Charlotte on Saturday, the day that the Order of Non-Intercourse
was published, and Sunday, and on Monday night left on her last passenger trip
to Colborne, Cobourg and Port Hope. She returned to Charlotte on Tuesday and
layover until Wednesday morning.
When the Maple Leaf entered service in September 1851, her first passenger trip
was an excursion to the Provincial Fair at Brockville. So it was fitting that
her last passenger trip would be an excursion trip - this time from Charlotte to
Troutburg. The trainload of excursionists arrived at the Charlotte dock at 8
o'clock Wednesday morning August 13, and the crowd boarded the Maple Leaf This
time it was Captain Newman's Band on board for dancing in the main saloon.
Evidently there were no plans for serving food on the excursion since
passengers were advised to:
...take their families and provide their own rations, which can be easily conveyed with them.
The cost of the excursion was 50 cents for the round trip. During the layover at
Troutburg, many availed themselves of the "pleasant groves," and the
Maple
Leaf made two excursions out on the lake. The Maple Leaf returned to Charlotte
in time for the passengers to board the 9 P.M. train for the city depot.147
When the train had come down to Charlotte, it brought copies of the evening's
Union and Advertiser. An article on page 2 stated that the Maple Leaf
...will go to the Canada shore tonight on her usual time,
but will not for the present make any more trips The Maple Leaf can do
better elsewhere.
Also on board the train was George Darling, who had packed his luggage and
locked up the Steamboat Office downtown before departing for Charlotte. If the
Maple Leaf had ever had a patron or a godfather, it certainly was George Darling.
As agent for Bethune, he had met the Maple Leaf when she first arrived at
Charlotte on an early morning in October 1851, coming to replace the crippled
Admiral- and again in March 1854 when she arrived to begin fulltime service
between Charlotte and Canada. In the spring of 1855, he had spearheaded the
drive to purchase the Maple Leaf in Rochester; he sold the new company stocks and
traveled to Toronto to negotiate her purchase from the Bethune interests.
George Darling boarded the Maple Leaf and joined Captain Schofield in the pilot
house -
while a good supply of wood was loaded into her hold. He had ticketed every
passenger on the Maple Leaf for eight years, and had booked every excursion. Now
on this trip, he was to be the passenger.
Unlike the side-wheelers of later years, when the Maple Leaf docked on the west
bank of the Genesee, her starboard side was secured to the dock with her bow
headed upstream. At 11 P.M., her bow line was cut and her engines started
forward. The starboard wheel forced a current of water in between the boat and
the dock, and with her stern line still secured, the bow of Maple Leaf turned to
port in the river. When the boat had come about until she was perpendicular to
the dock, the engines were reversed and the port wheel drew the water between
the dock and the port side of the boat out into the river, causing the boat to
continue turning to port. By the time the stern line was cast off, Maple Leaf s
bow was headed downstream towards the lake.
The Maple Leaf headed out between the piers and into the open lake, then bearing
to port and heading north. Soon the flicker of lights was no longer visible from
Rigney's Bluff. The Maple Leaf had left the Genesee forever.148
Maple Leaf landed at Cobourg before dawn Thursday, August 14. It was an important
call. Another passenger joined Capt. Schofield and George Darling. He had been
George Schofield's "silent partner" whose name had never been heretofore
mentioned, who had only been referred to as "parties in Canada." His name was
Josiah Borget Dewey, a citizen of Cobourg, and he reportedly owned 32 percent
of the Maple Leaf.
The Maple Leaf left Cobourg that morning and headed down the lake. That evening
the Union and Advertiser revealed the news:
The steamer MAPLE LEAF has
been sold to Messrs. Lang & Delano of Boston, and by them chartered to the US.
Government. She left the Genesee last night and is on her
way to the ocean, never to return. A steamer of less capacity and less expense
for running will be put upon the route of the MAPLE LEAF in a
few days. The trade is light and growing less all the time.
The MAPLE LEAF is a fine sea boat and will acquit herself well on the ocean. She has been a long time
favorite with us, and her departure is a matter of regret.
The editors had to have known this information before Captain Schofield and
George Darling sailed out.
The other Rochester papers, the Evening Express and the Democrat and American,
took up the news on succeeding days, as did the Oswego Commercial Times and the
Cobourg Sentinel, with some variations based on available sources. The Evening
Express reported Maple Leaf sold to parties in Portland, Maine, and the
Sentinel
reported her sold to the United States Government for $25,000. It was unusual
that none of the Ogdensburg papers noted her passing down the river. The editors
may possibly have been unaware of her planned voyage down past the city, not
having heard the news from the American Line steamers arriving daily from
Rochester.149
We are told that the Maple Leaf locked down through the St. Lawrence Canals to
Montreal. It was implied that she stopped at Montreal if she did, it was most
likely for fuel. She assuredly stopped at Quebec, where she was boarded by her
new captain, Henry W. Dale from Chelsea, Massachusetts, who was to travel as a
passenger to Boston, as well as an unnamed ocean pilot who had just returned
from piloting the Niagara over the same course.
From Quebec, she traveled the l400-mile route down the St. Lawrence, around
Gaspe Peninsula into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, past Prince Edward Island,
through the Gut of Canso into the Atlantic, around Nova Scotia into the Bay of
Fundy, and into Cobscook Bay to the port of Lubec, Maine, near the border of New
Brunswick. The New York Journal of Commerce reported on August 23 that the
"Maple Leaf from Rochester" had arrived at Lubec on Monday, August 18 - the
New
York Herald had reported on August 22 that "the American paddle steamer
Maple
Leaf arrived at Lubec 17th inst. from Rochester"- making the trip from Cobourg
to Lubec in 3 or 4 days.150
But there is a serious problem with the chronology of this sequence of events.
It required three days for the Maple Leaf to lock up from Montreal to Lake
Ontario through the canals when she was on the Through Line in 1852. This was
about the same time required for the fast-sailing Peerless to lock down on her
trip in May 1861.
When the New York went down in May 1861, she ran the rapids, taking only six hours from
Ogdensburg to Montreal. Her trip from Montreal to St. John, New Brunswick (also on the Bay of Fundy), a distance equal
to the trip to Lubec, required five days, traveling at what was reported to be
record speed.151
The Maple Leaf could not possibly have traveled from Cobourg to Lubec in even
four days by traveling through the 27 locks of the St. Lawrence Canals. But it
is not so unreasonable to suppose that she could have possibly been run down
the St. Lawrence rapids. We know that she successfully ran the rapids downbound
every week on the Through Line in 1852. And between Ogdensburg and Montreal,
several pilots would have been available who were skilled in rapids navigation
for boats the size of the Maple Leaf (The Ontario Steamboat Company had several
St. Lawrence rapids pilots in its employ.)
The Journal of Commerce referred to the "MAPLE LEAF from Rochester as a fine
side wheel craft, newly painted and looking very well," and said that the
steamer would remain at Lubec about a week for repairs "necessary to adapt her to
the new business in which she is to be engaged." Most likely her boilers were
converted to firing coal, and a steam condenser may have been installed,
enabling her to operate more efficiently in salt water.152
Leaving Lubec, the Maple Leaf had rather a rough passage, owing to
head winds and heavy gales, but justified her claims to be considered a staunch
sea-going craft.
She "behaved so well as to excite the admiration of the pilot" as well as
Captain Dale. She arrived at Boston on Sunday August 21.
The next day she was overhauled and cleaned inside. On Tuesday
morning, she was hauled up on the railway, and some six hundred men
set at work on her scraping, caulking, painting her bottom, etc. The
next day she was in the water again, and such arrangements as were necessary in the interior were completed.
When the Inspector at Boston issued a certificate for the Maple Leaf after a
thorough inspection of her hull and machinery on Friday, September 5, the
steamer was given a classification of A No.2., which, according to the System
of Classification of the Board of Marine Inspectors, was the highest rating
that could possibly be given to a steamer more than five years old. The Maple
Leaf left Boston that same day, and arrived at Fortress Monroe on Monday,
September 8, after a voyage of 70 hours.153
When the Maple Leaf entered government service, several of her old Lake Ontario
crew members stayed on with the steamer and sailed south. Among these were her
First Mate, John Henderson from Charlotte; John Hunter from Sackets Harbor,
formerly of the New York, who replaced his brother as Chief Engineer; Eric
Darling of Rochester, who remained on as Steward; and two firemen from
Charlotte.154
Captain Schofield and George Darling returned from Boston to
Rochester on September 6. Captain Schofield never returned to the pilot house
again, but joined Darling in operating a travel agency in Rochester. When
Darling retired, Schofield operated the agency alone, and many years later was
killed in a tragic railroad accident on a Rochester street.155
The day after the Maple Leaf left Lake Ontario, the military were removed from
service at the Charlotte docks and inspection duties were returned to the
civilian authorities.156
For the first time since 1834, there was no steamer in service across the lake
to Cobourg. William Rankin of Charlotte arranged to have the schooner Petrel
take the trips of the Maple Leaf twice each week, connecting with the train,
with "good cabin accommodations on board the schooner for passengers."
A new side wheeler, smaller than the Maple Leaf, was built over the winter at
Montreal and began service between Charlotte and Cobourg in the spring of
1863.She was named the Rochester. George Darling and George Schofield sold
tickets for the new steamer.157
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