A Century of Sail and Steam on the Niagara River - The Original Classic Edition. Cumberland Barlow

Justice Robinson and the Peerless.

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       The propeller St. Nicholas took a direct load of 3,000 barrels from Port Credit to Lewiston on Feb. 2nd. Shipments were also sent to Boston at $1,24-1/2 per bbl., on which the proportion of the "New York Central" was 68c, and the "Western Railroad" received 35c per bbl. as their share.

       Nearly the whole consignment expected was obtained.

       Another novel route was also opened. Consignments of flour for local use were sent to Montreal during this winter by the New York Central, Lewiston to Albany, and thence by the "Albany Northern Railroad" to the south side of the St. Lawrence River, whence they were most probably teamed across the ice to the main city.

       Northbound shipments were also worked up and received at Lewiston for Toronto--principally teas and tobaccos--consignments of "English Bonded Goods" were rated at "second-class, same as domestic sheetings" and carried at 63c per 100 pounds from New York to Lewiston.

       It was a winter of unexampled activity, but it was the closing effort of the steamers against the entrance of the railways into their

       all-the-year-round trade.

       Immediately upon the opening of the Great Western Railway from Niagara Falls to Hamilton in 1855 and to Toronto in 1856, and of the Grand Trunk Railway from Montreal in 1856, the steamboating interests suffered still[Pg 43] further and great decay. In the financial crisis of 1857 many steamers were laid up. In 1858 all the American Line steamers were in bankruptcy, and in 1860 the Zimmerman abandoned the Niagara River to the Peerless, the one steamer being sufficient.

       The opening of the American Civil War in 1860 opened a new career for the Lake Ontario steamers, as the Northern Government were short of steamers with which to blockade the Southern ports.

       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. During the winter the third "City of Toronto" was built by Captain Duncan Milloy, of Niagara, and began her service on the river in 1864 and thereafter had the route to herself. In

       1866 the "Rothsay Castle" brought up by Captain Thomas Leach from Halifax, ran for one season in competition, but the business was not sufficient for two steamers so she was returned to the Atlantic. The "City" then had the route alone until 1877, when the "Southern Belle," being the reconstructed "Rothsay Castle," re-entered upon the scene and again ran from Tinnings Wharf in connection with the Canada Southern Railway to Niagara.

       Such had been the courses of navigation and steamboating on the Niagara River from its earliest days--the[Pg 44] rise to the zenith of prosperity and then the immeasurable fall due to the encircling of the lakes by the increasing railways. The old time passenger business had been diverted from the water, the docks had fallen into decay, only one steamer remained on the Niagara River Route, but it was fair to consider that with more vigor and improved equipment a new era might be begun.