Marine City: Schooner Days DCCLXXXIII (783)

by C. H. J. Snider

One of the Ports of Call on the First of All Cruises from Toronto to Green Bay Last Summer—And also for the King's Navy in the 18th Century, and for Uncle Sam's Commerce in the 19th.

DISCOVERY while passing up the St. Clair river of the sunken hull of the tern schooner J. T. Wing, "last of the last of the lakers," was entirely unexpected. It was not for this that we had been so anxious to locate Marine City when on the way to Green Bay, Wis., last year, in the wake of La Salle's almost mythical barque Griffon. It was because Marine City was on the site of one of the very earliest harbors on the chain of Great Lakes.

Father Hennepin had not mentioned the Griffon having moored in this harbor, but if she didn't poke into it, on the very first time that the St. Clair was navigated under sail, she certainly passed close by it as she clove the current on her way to the "Lac des Hurons," "Missilimacinac," and "Baie des Puants," as they called Green Bay. She had to. There was no other way for her to go. It was probable, almost certain, that either the barque herself or one of her canoes explored this slit of the unknown on that epochal first voyage.

It was curious that in tracing the track of the first of the lakers we should come on the resting place of the "last of the last" them.

REFUGE FOR ROYAL NAVY

This slit was La Belle Riviere of the French, Belle River of the English, definitely a pert of call before the British gave up Detroit in 1796, for we have the testimony of the Scotch commandant, Col. Wm. Campbell, that the government vessel, which had started for Mackinac, was storm stayed in "Belle River" and forced to winter there, 1794-5.

"Nov. 24, 1794, the weather having been uncommonly severe for this season of the year . . . this day accounts arrived that the Dunmore had failed in her attempt to get to Mackinac and had returned to the river Sinclair (St. Clair) and unloaded her cargo, supposing that she would not be able to get down here (to Detroit) but must take the first opportunity to go to Belle River to be laid up for the winter. The Dunmore had got as far as within 30 leagues of Mackinac, near to Thunder Island, when contrary winds, and the frost being set in, obliged her to give up the attempt."

INDIAN FIGHTING

We have no record of the Dunmore being engaged in actual combat with the hostile Indians of the west, but she was armed for that purpose, for the government schooners Huron and Michigan were attacked during Pontiac's conspiracy and only escaped capture by the use of their cannon.

The Huron and the Michigan were small schooners of 80 tons, 60 feet, long, 14 feet beam and 7 feet depth of hold, built at Navy Island in the Niagara River in 1763. They are said by Cuthbertson to have been the first sailing vessels to ply the Upper Lakes since the Griffin.

The Huron was attacked by Indian canoes in the Detroit River one morning before daylight and fought: them off with her ten 4-pounder guns and two bow swivels, sinking several canoes and killing fourteen savages. It took her several days to reach beleaguered Detroit. To clear the passage she had to rake the Wyandot village of Indians with broadsides of grape.

The Michigan was boarded by Indians who dropped into her rigging from overhanging trees as she slowly stemmed the current one night in a narrow place in the river. Capt. Horst and several men were killed. The mate, named Jacob, called loudly "Blow up the magazine and send them all to hell!"— a safe bluff, for he only had the key to the powder room. The Indians leapt overboard to escape and the crew, rallying, turned the guns on them and brought the Michigan through. The Michigan was wrecked on the north shore of Lake Erie in 1766.

The Nancy had a mate named Jacob in 1813, a less heroic figure according to the master's log.

The Huron, Michigan, and Dunmore were early units of His Majesty's Provincial Marine, at first controlled by the Quarter Master General of the army, and later by the Royal Navy.

The Dunmore was a topsail schooner of 100 tons commanded by Lieut. J. Barnard, RN, in 1778. She was about 70 feet overall length, 50 feet on the keel, 21 feet beam, 7 feet depth of hold, and 10 feet draft according to Cuthbertson's careful transcription of the Quartermaster General's records. The 10 feet draught dimension is out of proportion to her length and would be impossible to carry up the St. Clair in her time. She was built at Detroit.

THEN CAME COMMERCE

LaBelle Riviere was undoubtedly a recognized "port" in 1794, and from thgn onwards. After the British gave up in 1796 it was named Newport. Later, in the great western expansion, it became Marine City and flourished throughout the era of wooden shipbuilding, which was not quite the whole of the 19th century.

We were told that in the "old days," those mysterious times other than ours, it was one of the three great places on the St Clair River.

Palmer, now St. Clair, where the Pine River oozes in was the development of Capt. Patrick Sinclair's fort, two stockaded blockhouses and a wharf, built in 1764, below LaBelle Riviere. Sinclair also built the fort at Mackinac Island.

Desmond, on the Black River, farther up the St. Clair, near the entrance to the lake, became the present Port, Huron.

In the last seven decades of the 19th century here were built over a hundred sloops, schooner's, brigantines, "barques" and 80 steamers, and we were told as many were built ai Marine City, or at least frequented the port. It used to be crammed with vessels up as far as the mills at the bridge, a few hundred yards above the entrance.

FIRST LAKER TO NEW YORK

One of its pioneer craft was the little scow schooner St. Clair, butt-ended like a canal boat, with a barn door rudder hanging astern. She was built by Samuel Ward in 1820. He came to the mouth, of LaBelle Riviere in 1819 with a pack on his back, built the schooner next year, and peddled and picked up among the settlers along the river front until he had a cargo for export east. Then he sailed for the new Erie Canal at Buffalo—720 steamers and 920 sloops, schooners and brigs entered that port in 1835—bought two horses, lifted out his two small masts so as to get under the bridges, and towed his schooner all the way to Troy. Here he set up his masts again and sailed down the Hudson to the Erie Basin, in New York. He was indignant at canal tolls being demanded. Said he should have a bonus for bringing the first lake vessel through. Ward sold his wilderness ware, loaded a cargo of manufactured goods, and towed and sailed back to Newport, as Belle River had been rechristened.

This was the foundation of the great Ward industry—Samuel, Eber Brock and Eber II. Ward — which flourished for a century from the Marine City centre. They tanned hides, made bricks, cut lumber, built ships of wood, iron and steel, and operated freight and passenger lines. This scow St. Clair was their first vessel. Their first steamboat was the Huron, built in 1839. They built around 30 steamers, many of them "palace" passenger liners, at Marine City, and as many sailing vessels. So the last of the lakers, though born on salt water, chose a good spot to fold her wings when she settled on the historic bottom of LaBelle Riviere.

LA BELLE RIVIERE

STEAMERS AND SAILING VESSELS of the Ward enterprises once crowded this charming inlet on the St. Clair, and the Royal Navy used it in the 18th century. When visited last July its last craft was the schooner J. T. WING of SAULT STE. MARIE, ex-West Indian lumber and molasses drogher, and Great Lakes pulpwood carrier. She was then lying water-filled, awaiting conversion to a marine museum for Detroit.

SAFE AT ANCHOR AFTER ESCAPING INDIAN MASSACRE

H.M.S. HURON and H.M.S. MICHIGAN", " first British vessels to look INTO LA BELLE RIVIERE as drawn by George R. Cuthbertson for The Canada Steamship Lines Marine Historical Collection and his book "Freshwater."