Maritime History of the Great Lakes

Old Port Darlington I.: Schooner Days DCLIII (653)

Publication
Toronto Telegram (Toronto, ON), 12 Aug 1944
Description
Full Text
Old Port Darlington I.
Schooner Days DCLIII (653)

by C. H. J. Snider

_______

WHEN RED-AND-WHITE GLEAMS STILL WELCOMED MARINERS

_______

THE "POCKET COMPASS," printed in Oswego, was a little book that cost 75 cents and provided all the printed pilotage directions available for lake navigation seventy-five years ago. Its information was not always accurate, but its general hints were practical for their time.

In describing the perhaps forgotten Port Darlington, which has become so identified with the growing town of Bowmanville that it is usually known by that name (although Bowmanville is two miles inland). The Pocket Compass said:

"This port is the place of entry for Bowmanville, and is 40 miles N.E. by E. 1/4 E. of Toronto, and 26 miles W. 1/2 S. of Cobourg. There are two piers at Darlington, which run N. and S. The west pier is 325 feet in length and extends 50 feet further south than the east pier, thereby breaking the roll of the lake from the southwest. The distance between the piers is 150 feet. The depth of water at the outer end of the piers is 12 feet.

"Darlington is a good place to take with westerly winds, but when the wind is easterly and vessels coming into this harbor, they require to keep up their after canvas and keep the east pier close aboard. An east wind causes a heavy sea at the entrance, but none with a westerly wind.

"The lighthouse was burned down in the fall of 1870, but was immediately rebuilt the same year, and is on the east pier. The lighthouse is 54 feet high and shows from the south a red light, and approaching from the east and west a bright light."


No longer does it. A blaze of high-powered electric lights from summer cottages marks the beach of what was the port of Bowmanville, but at night one searches in vain for a lighthouse flash, either red or white, and by day, beating up the shore, no sign of piers, elevator or lighthouse can be discovered.

The old red-and-white arrangement of Darlington's light was as useful to show when the piers were lined up properly for entrance. When the red showed you were in line with the opening and south of the harbor. When the white came on you were either east or west and not in a position to enter. "Taking" a harbor was a matter of great moment in schooner days. You had to come in right or stay out, if you did not wish to be wrecked.

The line of the old cribs can be seen when you get close enough, and four fishboats still use Port Darlington and do a good business. Spring freshets clear the channel but there is said to be a 4 foot bar now where once there was 12 feet of water. The tower of the old lighthouse, though reprieved five years ago from destruction by being given a concrete base, has fallen a victim to the winter's ice and spring freshets and disappeared.


Last season's high water wrote "30" on the last vestiges of many old lake shore landmarks, but Port Darlington still lives, and the Port Darlington Harbor Company, though over a hundred years old, survives and has its annual meeting.

James McClellan was one of the original subscribers to the Port Darlington Harbor Company when it was organized in 1837 and incorporated in 1839. He became wharfinger for the port in 1854, his son John succeeded him as harbormaster, his grandson J. A. McClellan succeeded him in turn, and his great-grandson, J. Guernsey McClellan, 14 Oriole crescent, Toronto, is present secretary-treasurer of the Port Darlington Harbor Company. May his little laddie, still far from his 'teens, become the harbormaster for the fifth generation. The harbor company is still very much of a going concern. Its 1941 activities are largely confined to developing the old port as a summer resort and residential suburb, for summer cottages there have long been popular. In schooner days it was often a long voyage to Darlington from anywhere, but it is now only an hour's run from Toronto—if you have the gas.

Port Darlington has a history, and next week we may have more of it to tell.


Caption

This is Port Darlington as late as 1913, when the old grain elevators and coal warehouse were still in use and the occasional steamer or schooner still called. Newcastle Harbor, seven miles east, was very similar in appearance, but the lighthouse was different.


Creator
Snider, C. H. J.
Media Type
Newspaper
Text
Item Type
Clippings
Date of Publication
12 Aug 1944
Language of Item
English
Geographic Coverage
Donor
Richard Palmer
Creative Commons licence
Attribution only [more details]
Copyright Statement
Public domain: Copyright has expired according to the applicable Canadian or American laws. No restrictions on use.
Contact
Maritime History of the Great Lakes
Email:walter@maritimehistoryofthegreatlakes.ca
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Old Port Darlington I.: Schooner Days DCLIII (653)