USS Niagara

“ The Americans made great efforts to obtain a more fortunate result on the Niagara frontier. Though the New England States, disapproving of the war, withheld their militia, yet early in September more than 6,000 men were brought to the banks of the river, with the view of crossing it, and penetrating into Canada. They were encouraged by the exploit of two row-boats, which captured the same number of British gun-brigs, with valuable cargoes, as they were passing Fort Erie. ”

“ The traveler looking upon Niagara sees the onward rush and surge of countless drops of water. They sweep by and pass on, and return not again. Still other countless millions of drops follow them, and forever follow, and so in spite of separateness, there is perpetuity and permanence. Niagara is immortal. The teachers, heroes, apostles, prophets, singers and entertainers, come and go, and pass out to the great sea beyond, but others come with word and song and smile, and forever shall they come, and so as with Niagara, there is perpetuity and permanence. The Lyceum Platform is immortal. ”

“ A steamboat, the Caroline, was cut out of the ice at Buffalo, and sent down the still open river, to ply between the rebel island and the American shore, to carry men, arms, and supplies to the rebels. The position was a remarkable one. Between Navy Island and the Canadian shore flows the main current of the Niagara, a deep and rapid river, which a short distance below turns to foaming rapids; while the roar of the great cataract fills the air, the ground trembles with its shock, and the cloud that rises above it is plainly visible. ”

“ The Loyalist of the 4th of August says: "We regret to state that the steam-boat Canada, while crossing the Lake from Niagara on Tuesday last, unfortunately broke her main shaft. The accident we hope is not of such a nature as to deprive us any great length of time of the convenience which that excellent Boat has afforded us of daily communication with Niagara." In the paper of August 18th it is announced that the Canada is all right again. "The Canada, we are happy to state, has again commenced making her usual trips to Niagara: she left the Harbour yesterday afternoon." ”

“ The "Peerless" was purchased by the American Government in 1861 and left for New York under command of Captain Robert Kerr, and by 1863 all the American Line steamers had been sold in the same direction and gone down the rapids to Montreal, and thence to the Atlantic. A general clearance had been affected.
The "Zimmerman" returned from the Hamilton Route to the Niagara River, which had been left vacant by the removal of the "Peerless," but, taking fire alongside the dock at Niagara in 1863, became a total loss. ”

“ This new steamer Niagara was in reality Capt. Mosier's schooner The Union of Wellington Grove, turned into a steamer. Some error had been committed in the build of the Union, and she suddenly capsized in the river near Prescott. Capt. Mosier then cut her in two, added to her length thirty feet by an insertion, and converted her into the Niagara steam-packet. Her arrival at York is announced in the Loyalist of July 29, and her return thither from Niagara with American tourists on board. ”

“ But Niagara in its greatness makes all else little. It stands, incomparable and alone, a time-defying monument of creation as first called from chaos; one feels that the waters of the deluge may have risen above it and subsided, leaving it unaltered. It is possible to imagine all other worldly things either changed, or within the scope of mutation and the power of Time. You feel that with most earthly things you have a right to speculate, to calculate on their endurance, to control and to direct them: but never so with old Niagara. ”

“ More than half of the best steamships of the United States are imprisoned above Niagara Falls, and more than half of the tonnage built in the United States in 1896 was launched upon the lakes.” This inland water commerce has built up twelve cities on the southern shores above Niagara, five of which have over 200,000 population, and one of them over a million. ”

“ But the Niagara had run out a hundred and eleven miles, and knowing that the Agamemnon had done about the same, she expected the latter would keep on her course eastward, not stopping till she reached Queenstown. The Niagara, therefore, reluctantly bore away for the same port.
Of course, the return voyage was "any thing but gay." When soldiers come home from the war, they march with a proud step, if they have had a victorious campaign. But it is otherwise when they come with a sad tale of disaster and defeat. Seldom had an expedition begun with higher hopes, or ended in more complete failure. ”

“ The noise of the steam exhaust ceased as abruptly as it began. The ship was riding easily in spite of the heavy sea. Drifting with wind and wave is a simple thing for a big vessel. There is no struggle, no tearing asunder of resisting forces. Thus might a boat caught in the pitiless current of Niagara glide towards the brink of the cataract with cunning smoothness.
And then, while the occupants of the saloon were endeavoring to persuade each other that all was well, the loud wail of the siren thrilled them with increased foreboding. ”

“ Full subsistence for the troops in Upper Canada could not be procured among the scanty population, and they were largely dependent for rations on pork and biscuit from England. So long as the waterway was open, the defence of the Niagara frontier was possible. As the supremacy of the U.S. navy on Lake Erie made it impossible for the British to continue the war on the Detroit frontier, so a decisive defeat on Lake Ontario would have lost the Niagara frontier also. But, till the end of the war, the U.S. navy never succeeded in establishing more than a temporary supremacy on Ontario. ”

“ The story of Fort Niagara is peculiarly the story of the fur trade and the strife for commercial monopoly; and it is, too, in considerable measure, the story of our neighbor, the magnificent colony of Canada, herself worthy of full sisterhood among the nations. It is a story replete with incident of battle and siege, of Indian cruelty, of patriot captivity, of white man's duplicity, of famine, disease and death,—of all the varied forms of misery and wretchedness of a frontier post, which we in days of ease are wont to call picturesque and romantic. ”

“ The Falls increased the historic importance of Niagara because it limited navigation and made a portage necessary; the purposes of trade and missionary enterprise, as well as those of conquest, demanded that this point be occupied, and occupation necessarily meant defence. Here, from Lewiston and Queenston to Chippewa and Port Day (to use modern names) ran the two most famous portage paths of the continent. Here were to be seen at one time or another the footprints of as famous explorers, noble missionaries, and brave soldiers as ever went to conquest in history. ”

“ The Niagara frontier, as before, was the scene of desperate strife. The Americans were determined to wrest it from the British, and they carefully trained their best troops for the effort. Their prospects seemed bright, as the whole of Upper Canada was suffering from want of men and means, both civil and military. Drummond, the British commander-in-chief there, felt very anxious not only about the line of the Niagara but even about the neck of the whole peninsula, from Burlington westward to Lake Erie. ”

“ Fort Niagara was not only the key to the upper lakes, the base of supplies for Detroit, Michillimackinac and minor posts, but it had long been an important trading post and the principal rendezvous of the Six Nations, upon whose peculiarly efficient services against the American frontiers Sir Frederick relied scarcely less than he did upon the British troops themselves. ”

“ For another fifty years only sailing vessels navigated the lakes to Niagara, and these, and batteaux, pushed along the shores and up the river by poles, made their way to the foot of the rapids at Lewiston with difficulty. These vessels were mainly small schooners with some cabin accommodation.
After the cession of Canada, by the French, the British Government began the establishment of a small navy on Lake Ontario. An official return called for [Pg 13] by Lord Dorchester, Governor-General of Canada, gives the Government vessels as being in 1787, Limnale, 220 tons, 10 guns. ”

“ The important result, however, was the removal of French domination over the warlike Seneca nation in this region and the natural inheritance that came with Niagara, the trade of which it was the centre. Near the site of the destroyed Fort du Portage, at the upper end of the portage, Captain Schlosser erected Fort Schlosser. Fort Niagara itself was improved; the present "bakehouse" was built in 1762. The Niagara of this time has been well described by Mr. Porter:
It was the head centre of the military life of the entire region, the guardian of the great highway and portage to and from the West ”

“ One of the most remarkable things about Niagara is entirely lost in the drawing—its motion. The visitor to Niagara should devote one day exclusively to the observation of this astonishing feature. The broad flood glides out of Lake Erie with a confiding tranquillity that seems to you, when you know its impending destiny, like that of a human creature advancing irresistibly, but unconsciously, to his death. He embraces the bright islands that part his arms for a caress ”

“ As soon as he jumped on deck, Perry took command of the Niagara, sending Elliott off to bring up the rearmost schooners. There was no lagging or hesitation now. With topgallant sails sheeted home, the Niagara bore down upon the Detroit, driven by a freshening breeze. Barclay's crippled flagship tried to avoid being raked and so fouled her consort, the Queen Charlotte. The two British ships lay locked together while the American guns pounded them with terrific fire. Presently they got clear of each other and pluckily attempted to carry on the fight. But the odds were hopeless. ”

“ Richardson, made her first trip to Niagara on Monday last, and went out of the harbour in fine style. Her appearance reflects much credit on her builder, Mr. Joseph Dennis; and the machinery, manufactured by Messrs. Wards of Montreal, is a specimen of superior workmanship. The combined excellence of the model and machinery of this boat is such," says the Loyalist, "as will render her what is usually termed 'a fast boat.' The trip to Niagara was performed in four hours and some minutes. Her present route, we observe, is advertised from York to Niagara and the Head of the Lake. ”

“ The greater volume of Niagara increases the roar of the descent and the quantity of mist from below, but the thunder of Montmorenci is also heard from a great distance, and its column of vapor is a fine spectacle in a strong sunlight or in a storm of thunder and lightning. Its accessories of scenery are certainly superior to those of Niagara in that they are much wilder. The country around is rough, rocky and woody. In front is the broad expanse of the St. Lawrence, and beyond lies the beautiful Isle of Orleans which is nothing less than a picturesque garden. ”

“ Bradstreet's Army, it is recorded that over 5,000 barrels of provisions alone lay at Fort Schlosser, the upper terminus of Niagara's portage, awaiting shipment to the West. By Niagara also went—had to go, for besides being the only feasible route, it was the only safe way, for it had military protection,—all the traders, with their boat loads of cheap merchandize; men who spent months at a time in journeying among the tribes in the Northwest, trading their wares for valuable furs ”

“ The transfer of the second "City of Toronto" and of steamboating investment from the Niagara River to the undeveloped routes of the Upper Lakes leads to a diversion of the narration as bringing the initiation of another era on the Niagara River and explaining how the steamer, which formed its centre, came to be brought to the River service.
The closing 35 years of the century form the era of the Niagara Navigation Co., in which the period of decadence was converted into one of intense activity and splendid success. ”

“ As under the then trade conditions she could neither be profitably [Pg 59] run nor be returned to the Lower Lakes, the steamer was of little worth to her owners, and could be readily purchased. It had for some time appeared to me that there was an opening for a good boat upon the Niagara River route. The "City of Toronto" plying to Lewiston and the New York Central was getting insufficient and out of date in equipment. The Canada Southern Railway at Niagara-on-the-Lake was not satisfied with the "Southern Belle." Why not get the "Chicora" and strike out for a career of one's own? ”

“ The first picket wall was falling down by 1739, when it was repaired. At this time Niagara was fast losing its hold on western trade because of the enforcing of the policy of not selling the Indians liquor; however, in 1741, the Governor of New York affirmed that he held the Six Nations only by presents and that Fort Niagara must be captured. In 1745, when the French policy regarding the Indians was changed, Fort [202] Niagara contained only a hundred men and four guns. ”

“ The ultimate destiny of that great power may be safely predicted. Niagara will turn machinery.
After mid-day Lord Stafford, Mr. Wright, and myself drove from the hotel to do the sights. It is an aggravating function. There never was such a nest of harpies as is nurtured here. Talk of a Swiss valley, or Savoy, or the Lakes, or Killarney, of any place infested by the creatures who live on travellers' blood—roll them into one gigantic fee-devouring giant, with the hands and heads of Briareus, it would not be "a circumstance" to Niagara. Every step is marked by demands for dollars and cents. ”