The success of Jackson’s Alligator, when at work, was soon noted, and in January 1890 West & Peachey received orders for two more Alligators. One was ordered by the Moore Lumber Company of Detroit (Alligator #2) for use in their limits on the French and Pickerel rivers in Ontario, The other was ordered by R.H. Klock and Company (Alligator #3) for use on Lake Kipawa and the Ottawa River in the province of Quebec.
Both Alligators were shipped out to their new owners in March 1890. John West followed them a few days later to instruct those responsible for them on their operation.
The H. Trudel, Alligator #3, shown here tied to a dock, was built in 1890 for R.H. Klock & Co. of Klock’s Mills. Note the pointer boat tied astern, the passenger steamer, and the steam engine sitting at the railroad terminal.
Courtesy of Library and Archives, Canada, PA-13574.
This became standard practice with each Alligator tug that West & Peachey built. The tugs were normally shipped to their destinations in early spring to arrive in time for the spring log drives. This allowed time for the firm to test them thoroughly in the Lynn River before shipment to their final destination. Then John West, James Peachey, or one of the senior members of the firm would follow the warping tug to its destination, where they would put it into service for the new owner. Obviously this attention to detail and the interest of the firm in seeing that their client had a sound working knowledge of the tugs capabilities and operation payed off. The following testimonials bear this out.
Alligator #2 — Did All That Was Claimed Of It.
No. 4 Buhl Block,
Detroit, Mich,.
January 7th, 1891.
Messrs. West & Peachey, Simcoe, Ont.
Gentlemen, —
In reply to your request for a testimonial as to the working of the steam warping tug you built for us, we have pleasure in saying that the tug has given entire satisfaction; that it has done all the work that you claimed it would do, and that it has saved us, at least, one half its cost the past season in men and time.
Yours truly,
MOORE LUMBER CO.,
A. H. Fleming, Sec.1
Alligator #3 — Has Given Entire Satisfaction
Klock’s Mills, Ont.,
December 29th, 1890
Messrs West and Peachey, Simcoe, Ont.
Dear Sirs,
The steam warping tug which we purchased from you has given us entire satisfaction. It has, indeed, done all that is claimed for it; and we have much pleasure in recommending it to all parties doing business of this nature.
We remain,
Yours very truly,
R.H. Klock & Co.2
West & Peachey were soon making claims for the versatility of the Alligator Warping Tug to lumbermen and mill owners, as this statement implies:
It will climb hills and go through swamps and woods or up small streams from one lake to another. After warping a boom of logs it will return with the empty boom doing the work cheaply and thoroughly with a great saving of time and number of men … It is also useful in taking in supplies to the lumber camps, or in towing scows bearing horses and provender.3
The Alligator also proved useful in breaking rollways of logs. Many mill owners found it to be most useful in their mill ponds, as well, for towing small booms of logs to the jack-ladder, which carried the logs up to the waiting saw carriage. The long, steel cable and winch on the tug was used also for skidding heavy timber out of the woods efficiently from shoreline locations.
West & Peachey also developed and manufactured a small, portable sawmill that could be operated on location anywhere by the versatile Alligator tug. In replacing the old cadge crib and its horses and sixteen to eighteen men, the Alligator only required four or five men for warping, namely: the captain or pilot, an engineer, an engineer’s assistant, a fireman, and one or two deckhands or logmen.
The Canadian Lumberman and Woodworker, in its June 7, 1893, issue, noted that: “Messrs. Shepard, Morse and Company had the Alligator tug ‘North River’ on the Kippawa and the way this Alligator tug brought out a tow of logs astonished all old-time river men.”
The Alligator #10, North River, was purchased by Shepard & Morse Lumber Company of Ottawa in 1893 and sold in 1898 to the McLachlin Bros. of Arnprior. She is shown frozen in for the winter on a lake in Algonquin Park, circa 1900.
Courtesy of Archives of Ontario, #S-5145.
WARPING WITHAN ALLIGATOR WARPING TUG
Woodsmen spent the winter months felling trees. Bucking crews cut them into logs and trimmed the branches and knots. Teamsters hooked skidding tongs into the logs and snaked them out of the bush to a yarding point, called a skidway. Beginning in January, while in the yard or skidway, scalers would use a log rule to scale or estimate the number of board feet in each log and record it on their tally-boards. They would also identify each log with the owner’s mark, using a scaling hammer.
Edmund Zavitz’s huge, wooden box camera captures a typical stand of white pine.
Courtesy of Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, E.J. Zavitz Collection, #808.
Skidders then positioned the logs for loaders, or cant-hook men, to load them onto sleighs. They and the “skyloader,” who had to be an agile, sure-footed man, loaded and directed the logs onto sleighs. This was done with the help of a tall wooden crane called a “jammer,” powered by the sleigh team of horses. The team pulled a cable attached by hooks, or “pig’s feet” jammed into either end of the log to be loaded. Two men, known as “bull-ropers,” guided the logs into position over the sleigh. The skyloader stood on top of the sleighload of logs to position them for safe travel. This was always a dangerous job. A fully loaded sleigh carried from 15 to 20 tons of logs piled high on the sturdy bunks of the sleigh bobs.
Teamsters and their horses assemble outside the camp’s “camboose shanty” in preparation for the day’s work.
Courtesy of the Clarence F. Coons Collection.
Once loaded and the logs made secure, the sleighs were drawn out by the team of horses, over the tote roads, to the nearest lake or riverbank to be piled on the shore or stream bank to await spring breakup. At times the logs were piled directly on the ice of the lake or river. Upon the breakup of the ice, those logs not already in a lake would be broken out of their winter piles on shore to be driven downstream to the nearest lake by the spring freshets.
A skidding crew loads a sleigh with logs for transport to water.
Courtesy of Library and Archives Canada, PA-12942.
A “Brag Load.” Here, a bobsleigh load of almost ninety logs are secured with logging chains and are ready to be moved out. The men are unknown, but the team of horses bear the names “Kid” and “Farmer.”
Courtesy