Safety for All Should Be Always Open to All: Schooner Days DCCCLIX (859)

by C. H. J. Snider

BURLINGTON YACHT CLUB has done a public service in its vigorous protest against an attempt on the part of the Department of Public Works to ration the navigation channel into Burlington Bay to five minutes only on the hour for sailing craft.

Not the convenience or pleasure of unpaid sailors, but human life, is what is menaced by such an order. Burlington Bay is a recognized harbor of refuge, and to switch its facilities off and on like a light, at the nod of a district engineer in Toronto is to increase a thousandfold the possibilities of death or damage.

The capsize of a yacht throwing 12 into the water in Toronto harbor this morning, the breaking of a mast drowning Humphrey Morris of this city near Ottawa, could also happen in the Burlington channel, night or day. And would be more likely to happen if the bridges failed to rise or swing at need.

Even with present navigation privileges unabridged some of the most ardent cruisers eschew Burlington Bay as of too hazardous entrance. One large and properly conducted cruising yacht has only been into Burlington Bay twice in sixteen seasons for this reason.

G. Herrick Duggan, president of the Dominion Bridge Co., her original owner, terminated sixty years’ cruising to Hamilton after one trial the double hurdle the two bridges over the canal present, even though access was then unrationed, and the bridges were prompt in swinging on-signal. The yacht Quest was damaged and one of her crew was in the hospital for weeks two years ago, in a bout with the canal bridges.

The veteran cruiser Aggie was partially wrecked ten years ago in the channel because the bridge did not swing. She was completely wrecked outside the same piers eight years later. Access rationing was not in force on any of these occasions, but it shows what can and will happen if a sailing craft is unable to enter when necessary.

Small boats, big boats, sailing yachts and 10,000-ton freighters have no right and do not claim any fight, to hold up railway or highway traffic frivolously or needlessly. But small boats, big boats, sailing yachts and 10,000-ton freighters alike have the right of aces to harbor "on their lawful occasions," and certainly seeking shelter within or exit to the open lake is a lawful occasion for them all.

Years ago the railway bridge over the Burlington Canal was slow in swinging. The schooner P. E. Young of Port Dover had entered the channel and could not stop. Sailing craft under weigh have great difficulty in stopping in a channel. There is not room to turn around or to anchor. She struck the bridge and both her masts were carried away at the deck. Tons of timber, canvas and rigging crashed down. Her crew of four had the narrowest of escapes from death. The railway paid $1,500 damages. Had anyone been killed a charge of manslaughter could have been laid, and apart from appropriate punishment damages could have been collected.

The present situation is well put in this letter from Commodore N. R. Vinton of the Burlington Yacht Club, to the district engineer of the Department of Public Works:

Dear Sir,—Your recent order regarding the passage of sailboats through the Burlington Canal for five minutes only on the hour was received by the Burlington Yacht Club. We have during the past month exerted every effort to cooperate with your department in carrying it out. As you know a sailboat under sail has certain rights recognized the world over. It would appear to me that one of these rights should be the allowance of passage for a sailboat through a ship canal as dangerous as the Burlington Canal at any hour of the day or night. In this connection may I say that I am referring to a trip being made for a good reason by a yachtsman and his crew.

The members of the Burlington Yacht Club in common with our fellow sailors in other clubs in these waters recognize the very great increase in motor traffic over the bottleneck bridge at the canal (a bottleneck which should as quickly as possible be eliminated by the building of the proposed viaduct), and in order to cause as little inconvenience as possible to the motoring public using this bridge have co-operated and will continue to co-operate in the carrying out of your order. We are doing this at great inconvenience and no little risk to the boats involved and to the lives of those on board.

In connection with this latter factor may I respectfully point out that there are occasions when there should be no hesitancy in raising the Burlington Canal bridge at any hour of the day or night and I submit them herewith:

1. When a sailboat is running before a high wind and sea. At this, time the boat is likely to be under jib only or perhaps the bare sticks and at such a time is very difficult to maneuver.

2. A sailboat seeking entry or exit, in a bad storm.

3. A sailboat endeavoring to beat a bad storm into port.

4. A sailboat in obvious distress or one whose skipper is sounding the understood distress signal of five short blasts.

There are probably other circumstances for which the Burlington bridge should be opened no matter what the hour but the four mentioned above I believe cover reasons, so important as to call for a re-consideration of your recent order.

For the information of the sailor members of the Burlington Yacht Club and the many other yachtsmen on Lake Ontario may I ask the following questions:

1. Did your department consult with any of the old experienced yachtsmen or power boat owners before issuing this order and if so may we know who they are?

2. Did your department give any consideration to the very great risks involved to the sailboats and power boats plying the waters of this section of Lake Ontario?

3. Did your department consider who will pay the damages when a sailboat or motor boat smashes up in the Burlington ship canal because the bridge was not opened?

4. Have you considered on who’s shoulders will rest the blame for the loss of a life or lives when this accident occurs?

We here in Burlington feel this matter of such gravity that we are going on record by this letter as protesting your recent order on the grounds that it is too rigid, too arbitrary, and with too little attention given to the risk involved to the property and the lives of the yachtsmen who use the channel. To lessen this risk the flag officers, executive committee, and the members of the Burlington Yacht Club wish to recommend the following course of action by your department to be implemented without delay.

1. The employees on the bridge be instructed to use every precaution and their common sense to permit the passage of sailboats and motorboats through the channel under any of the circumstances previously mentioned in this letter.

2. A conference of experienced yachtsmen, including a motorboat representative, be called as quickly as possible to review with your department the risk to ships and lives involved in your order.

3. The notification to all yacht clubs on the lake that the usual distress signal of five short blasts repeated until heard will ensure that the bridge will be speedily raised a any hour of the day or night.

May I say to you, Sir, that this letter is not sent by way of criticism but with a very earnest desire to avoid a tragedy at the Burlingtor Canal; a tragedy which will undoubtedly occur if the present order is not made extremely elastic and is not carried out with a great deal of common sense and good judgment by those who are responsible at the bridge. Yours very truly.

N. R. VINTON,

Commodore, Burlington Yacht Club

LAST COAL CARGO SAILING THROUGH BURLINGTON CANAL

FORTY YEARS AGO the Conger Coal Co. schooner STUART H. DUNN carried the last coal cargo into Hamilton under sail. Here she is coming in to the canal. What would happen were the departmental order of five-minutes-on-the-hour-no-more to close the bridge to her? She would be dismasted—and the bridge would be destroyed. Once having started she could net stop.

What would happen if a small sailing yacht were refused entrance? The bridge would not be destroyed, but the small sailing yacht, and her crew might be.

To ration use of a harbor entrance, and discriminate against any class of craft needing it, is as unfair as to ration the use of a fire-escape or an emergency exit to only non-sailors or non-smokers.