That Schooner From Smiths Falls: Schooner Days MCCXXXI (1231)

by C. H. J. Snider

THE ACACIA mentioned as having been built at Smiths Falls in 1873 was a stepper, too. The Dundonald, built near there earlier, is described in Thomas' Register as "flat," meaning not that she was a scow, but pretty flat in the bottom. The Acacia was sharp, although she, too, had a centreboard. She was a good carrier, but neat as a yacht - good lines, clipper bow, pleasant sheer, neat stern. Sometimes she wore white with green trim, but she was at her best dressed in black, with red stripe at the coveringboard and light lead color bottom. That was how Capt. Byron Bongard of Picton, he who later took the fast steamer Turbinia to the West Indies and back, kept her. He was not her first captain nor her last. "In the 14 seasons I sailed her," said he, "she gave me very little work with the pumps."

The Acacia was 102.3 ft. long, 24.2 ft. beam, 9.6 ft. depth of hold, and registered 153 tons. She could carry 10,000 bushels of wheat or 300 tons deadweight on 9-ft. draught, classed A1, and always hailed from Kingston, where her first owner registered her.

From model and dimensions the Acacia looked to be the handiwork of Christopher Harris of Dog Lake, back of Kingston, who built the Nellie Hunter, of similar profile, at Dog Lake in the following year, 1874. The Nellie Hunter, a foot shorter and a foot wider, registered 172 tons, although she was not so deep in the hold by five inches. She was usually painted white, but in her later years wore black like the Acacia, but with yellow beading in the bulwarks and red body.

THE COMEDOWN

By 1910 the Acacia had been dismantled, and was towing, as a barge, in the Bay of Quinte and St. Lawrence River, along with an older rival, the ex-schooner Annie Minnes. Her putative sister, the Hunter, had then been a tow barge for some time.

We saw the Acacia and the Minnes side by side in Belleville in 1910. Shorn of spars, the two hulls were in strong contrast - the Acacia clean-lined, with plenty of spring left in her sheer; the Minnes, old as Confederation, and a product of Hatter's Bay, Portsmouth, Ont., showing the bluffer bows and heavier quarters of a shallower model of earlier days. She was 8-ft. 9 in the hold, and two feet shorter than the Acacia, but registered 172 tons, like the Hunter. By this time she had been towing for ten years. The Minnes been a good sailer.

The Acacia was still on the register in 1925, with Wm. G. Woodman, Wolfe Is., owner. She may not have been in commission. The Minnes had gone then, and so had the Hunter.

These vessels had many adventures under sail. Some of the Acacia's before she became a barge, will be told in future numbers.