Schooners on Lake Simcoe: Schooner Days CMLXXVII (977)

by C. H. J. Snider

Lake Navigated By Sail and Steam From Early Days, With Ancient Holland Landing on Yonge Street a Port

IT was a long time ago, seventy or eighty years at the least, but Lake Simcoe, which now floats nothing but pleasure craft and summer cottages, once had its schooner fleet.

They were not large vessels, but were full-rigged centreboard craft, with gafftopsails and jibtopsail and the complete seven-piece rig of two-masters and fore-and-afters. There were half a dozen of them, in size between 30 and 40 tons register, and around 60 feet in length. Their carrying capacity was between 60 and 80 tons weight, about equal to that of two railway freight cars.

They served to carry lumber, shingles, cordwood, country produce including livestock, to Barrie, Orillia, Keswick, Belle Ewart, Beaverton and Holland Landing, for consumption or further shipment. They got these cargoes and delivered furniture, drygoods, groceries, implements and machinery, at every farm that touched the two hundred miles of navigable shoreline on Lake Simcoe and its appurtenances, Kempenfeldt Bay, Couchiching, Cooke's Bay, the Holland River and the Beaver River.

They needed no wharves. Drawing only five feet when fully loaded, and as little as two feet when light, and being equipped with centreboards, they could come close to the friendly beaches, there being few rocks, and lighten their cargoes with scows and rafts, their farmer customers assisting.

THE FLEET

The sailing fleet "of Simcoe included:

Schooner SULTANA, built at Beaverton in 1849.

Schooner ST. GEORGE, built at Orillia, 1851, length 52.8 feet, beam 14.4 feet, depth of hold 5 feet.

Schooner QUEEN, built at Orillia, 1853, length 62.5 feet, beam 17.2 feet, depth of hold 5.9 feet.

Sloop EDWARD JOHN, built at Belle Ewart in 1859 or 1861, and owned in 1873 by Edward C. Jones, barrister of Toronto. The first Dominion register, which gives the later building date, gives these dimensions: length 63 feet, beam 16.5 feet, depth of hold 4.7 feet, registered tonnage 37. She was a handful for two men, because of her singlemmasted rig and big mainsail.

Schooner SARAH JANE HARRIS, built at Beaverton, 1864.

Schooner LUCILLE BACON, built at Holland Landing, 1870, the last sailing vessel built there and the last on Lake Simcoe. Her successors were yachts, fishboats, dinghies.

STEAMERS TOO

There were also, of course, steamers on Lake Simcoe, from very early times, in fact fourteen years after the Frontenac, pioneer of steam navigation on any of the Great Lakes. The only old timer we recall was the Enterprise, painted gaily in blue and white with black bandings, in the early 1890s. Before her were the Ida Burton, used as a wharf at Orillia after 1875, the Emily May, which became the Lady of the Lakes in 1874, the Fairy, renamed the Carrie Ella, and the J. C. Morrison, finest of all, 150 feet long and costing $60,000. She was named after the Hon. James Curran Morrison, Judge of the Queen's Bench and promoter of the Ontario Simcoe and Huron Railway and president of its board of directors. A full-length figurehead of the honorable gentleman adorned her stem, and when the steamer burned at Barrie, strenuous efforts were made to save it, but in vain.

Still earlier steamers were the Morning, built at Holland Landing at the same time and place as the schooner Sultana, already mentioned, 1849, the Beaver at Thompsonville, 1845, the Peter Robinson, 1834 and the Sir John Colborne in 1831, first on the lake and ninth steamer in Canadian waters. She was built at Holland Landing by retired army officers and other early settlers there.

The steamers did very well with the passenger trade in stage coach days, and for a time after the railways came in. The schooners also carried passengers, but could not maintain a schedule because of the uncertainty of wind and weather.

EARLY IMPORTER

Quetton St. George, registered owner of the schooners St. George and Queen in the Dominion Register of 1873 could not then have been alive. He was a Chevalier of the Order of St. Louis and French Royalist officer, and emigrated to Canada at the time of the French Revolution. His name was Laurent Quetton, and as he first trod British soil on St. George's day he assumed the surname St. George. He was an importing merchant in the early town of York in 1805, and had various trading posts for the Indian trade, one at Orillia as early as 1802. He acquired a large tract of land at the Oak Ridges in North York. He also built the first brick house in Toronto, a fine mansion at the northeast corner of Frederick and King streets, in 1807, bringing the bricks by schooner from Oswego. This was also his store and warehouse. The building was also the headquarters of the Canada Company. It stood, in excellent condition, until about 1920. It should have been preserved as the best permanent memorial of the old City of York and a picturesque pioneer.

COINCIDENCE

Sir,—In reading an article about Holland Landing in The Telegram I was very much surprised to read, and I quote "In 1860 a schooner was built there, the Lucille Bacon." End of quote.

You see, my wife happens to be Lucille Bacon and we both thought it very uncommon that the two names should appear in 1860 and reappear almost a century later. As I read your Schooner Days each week I am writing to ask you if you might have any more information about the schooner the Lucille Bacon, who and why it was named after, etc.

In closing I might add that my great-grandfather, William Vynne Bacon, born in England, 1842, lived for a while in Kingston, studied law, and later lived in Toronto. My own living in Kingston at present has no bearing on my great-grandfather, as I was sent to Kingston while in the army, and we just stayed here. My wife was Lucille Estelle Kennedy, born in Buckingham, Que. Thank you for any information you may be able to give us. We are sincerely .

—LUCILLE and JAMES V. BACON,

254 Concession street,

Kingston, Ont.

FIRST BRICK HOUSE IN TORONTO

Quetton St. George residence and warehouse at Frederick and King streets, built 1807. Quetton St. George built Simcoe schooners.