Old Time Canada – Coast to Coast

Tine for a break from my Covid-19 food and local scenery posts.  This rather long post features more of my old postcard collection.  It’s all about history plus ships and boats from coast to coast…and the focus is on Canada!

Laurie and I have visited both Vancouver and Victoria in British Columbia and we love the area.  Big ferry boats still maintain a busy schedule taking vehicles and people back and forth between the 2 cities.  Victoria is located across the Straits of Georgia on Vancouver Island while Vancouver (the city) is on the mainland.

This postcard is one of the few that I own that was never mailed, doesn’t have a stamp on it and lacks a message.  I just liked the picture!  The names of the ships in the fleet of the coastal vessels operated by the Canadian Pacific Railway all started with “Princess”.  The 330 foot long SS Princess Charlotte was built in Glasgow Scotland.  She was in service by 1908, transporting up to 1,200 passengers at a time.  This ship was one of CPR’s vessels that made the regular ‘triangle run’ from Vancouver to Victoria, then onto Seattle Washington USA, and back to Vancouver.

This postcard that was mailed in November of 1911 shows the harbor at Victoria British Columbia.  FYI, Victoria is the Provincial Capital.  Two of the Canadian Pacific Railroads steamships are in the harbor and the famous Empress Hotel is shown off to the left.  Laurie and I love Victoria and we’ve been in but have not stayed at the Empress Hotel.  FYI, this was a coast-to-coast Canadian postcard with it being addressed to someone in St. John, New Brunswick.

The Empress Hotel is a Chateauesque-style 8-story building.  It was opened by Canadian Pacific Hotels (a division of CPR) in January 1908.  The hotel was expanded twice and a major $60 million restoration was completed in June of 2017.  To learn more about this hotel, its 412 rooms, 52 suites and 4 restaurants, go to https://www.fairmont.com/empress-victoria/.  The hotel is closed for now due to the Covid-19 pandemic…

This is the SS Princess Victoria, another of CPR’s fleet of luxury ships that really were small ‘ocean liners’ with many of the larger ships luxury appointments.  This 300 foot long ship was built in Wallsend, Newcastle upon Tyne in England and she was delivered to CPR in Vancouver in 1903.  Like the Princess Charlotte, she served on the ‘triangle route’.  

In August of 1914, during heavy fog she rammed and sank an American ship that was en-route to Juneau Alaska.  Quick action by the Victoria’s captain saved almost all of the passengers and crew from the other ship.  The Princess Victoria’s useful life ended after being converted as a bulk oil carrier in 1951 and then sinking after striking a rock in a narrow passage in 1953.

This particular postcard wasn’t mailed too far in October 1912, just from Vancouver British Columbia Canada to Tacoma Washington USA.  Keeping in mind that back in the early 1900s, postcards served the purpose that texts and emails do today…sending short messages quickly to friends and relatives.  In this case the sender told Mrs. Stanley “Got your card Mary, am very tickled too”…and “Why didn’t you write sooner?”

This postcard showing what Vancouver’s waterfront/harbor looked like ca. 1913, was mailed to Duluth Minnesota USA.  Peter reported that he “had a good skate last night” but that there was snow there and he had “10 inches of slush to wade through”.  With its beautiful harbor and surrounding mountains, Vancouver is one of the prettiest big cities we've ever visited.

The city of Vancouver wasn’t incorporated until April of 1886.  By 1891, the city’s population only numbered 13,709.  However, by the time this postcard was mailed, 22 years later, the population was over 100,000!  Today Vancouver is the largest port in Canada and the third largest port in North America.  The city is also very diverse.  26.5% of the population is Chinese and about 53% of its residents don’t speak English as their first language. 

From the west coast of Canada to the Great Lakes area.  This postcard from 1910 was mailed from Ashtabula Ohio USA to Duluth Minnesota USA…but it shows the locks at Sault Ste. Marie Ontario Canada.  Since both Duluth and Ashtabula were and are both ports on the Great Lakes, I’m guessing that the sender and/or recipient of the postcard had something to do with shipping.

 

In 1910, only 2 locks existed at Sault Ste. Marie.  Note: Cities with the same name are located in the USA and Canada just across the St. Mary’s River.  When this postcard was sent, one lock was operating on the Canadian side and another was on the US side.  Both locks were built in order for shipping to be able to bypass the rapids on the river…a fall of 21 feet.  Lake Superior is at the north end of the river and Lake Huron is at the south end.  The first locks were actually opened in 1855!

Today, the only remaining lock on the Canadian side is primarily operated for leisure craft.  The other locks regularly handle about 7,000 ships (lake carriers and ocean going freighters) per year with about 86,000,000 tons of cargo.  The largest ships are 1,000 feet long.  Keep in mind that all this traffic takes place once the lakes are ice free enough to allow safe navigation.  Laurie and I have visited the locks and both Sault Ste. Marie’s and it’s a very interesting destination.

OK, I know that the Maid of the Mist tour boat at Niagara Falls is actually located on the US side of the river…but the best part of the tour is the approach to the magnificent falls on the Canadian side.  This 1910 postcard also shows the Canadian side of the bridge over the Niagara River below the falls.  Again, there are 2 cities with the same name…Niagara Falls New York and Niagara Falls Ontario.  FYI, this card was sent from Niagara Falls NY to Batavia Illinois.

Before 1846, rowboats ferried passengers across the river below the falls.  In 1846, the first Maid of the Mist steamboat was built.  It was large enough to carry a stagecoach and horses.  But in 1848 a suspension bridge brought this commercial venture to a stop and the business was ‘rebranded’ as a sightseeing adventure.  The postcard pictures “Maid of the Mist I”.  She operated between 1892 and 1955.  I lost my rain hat overboard from this vessel ca. 1951...the same year that my 'beloved' wife was born.    

The original suspension bridge across the river was the idea of a Canadian to increase commerce.  It was built by companies from both countries.  That wooden bridge stood until 1897 and it was the world’s first working railway suspension bridge.  The bridge shown on the postcard is the Whirlpool Rapids Bridge.  It replaced the older bridge in 1897 and its still in use, with one level for trains and the other for non-commercial vehicles.  This bridge is located just north of the Rainbow Bridge, which is a much newer crossing for vehicles that was built in 1941. 

This postcard that was mailed in 1908 shows the Niagara River Line Steamer “Chippewa”.  The card was sent from Toronto Ontario to Miss Ruth Mumma in Mt. Morris Illinois.  Mae Aubrey told Ruth that she “crossed to Canada on this boat with 2,000 people”.

The Niagara Navigation Company was formed in 1877.  The Chippewa went into service in 1894.  This 308 foot-long steamship could carry 2,000 passengers.  Her finished ornamentation included intricate gold decorative trail boards on the deck rail and carved Chippewa Chieftain Heads on the center of each paddlebox. (The latter covered the paddle wheels)

There were 5 ships in the company’s fleet and they made six trips each day between Toronto and Niagara-on-the-Lake Ontario, making the latter port the busiest Canadian port for steamer traffic on Lake Ontario.  Lewiston New York was another popular port.  At Niagara-on-the-Lake or Lewiston, passengers could connect by railway for excursions to Niagara Falls, Buffalo and many other destinations.  At the peak of the summer season, as many as 26,000 passengers traveled these steamship routes each day!

This is one of my oldest postcards…dated in November 1907…mailed to a destination in the Province of Quebec.  The Modjeska, a 178 foot-long steel hulled day passenger steamer, was built in 1888-1889 in Yoker, Scotland.  In May of 1889, she began a 34-year career carrying passengers and fruit between Toronto, Hamilton and Port Dalhousie.  Back in the late 1800s and early 1900s it was much easier to take a steamer between Toronto and Hamilton Ontario than it was to go by road…even though they’re only about 40 miles apart. 

  

In the spring of 1926, the Modjeska was purchased by the Owen Sound Transportation Company and she was renamed “Manitoulin”.  The ship spent her next 23 years serving the Lake Huron/Owen Sound “Turkey Trail”, finally being retired in 1949.  FYI, the name “Turkey Trail” was given to the east-west water route from Georgian Bay along the North Channel and up the St. Mary’s River (through the locks at Sault Ste. Marie) to Lake Superior.  The name either stemmed from the erratic route the ships followed to various ports of call or because of the turkeys they transported from Manitoulin Island.

This is another postcard that dates back to 1907.  It depicts a scene with 3 steamers at the harbor in Pugwash Nova Scotia, Canada.  Strangely, it was mailed from Brazil (Complete with stamp) and it was sent to Miss F. Keller in Corona on Long Island in New York USA. 

We’ve been to Nova Scotia 2 or 3 times…and we’ve done the ‘figure-8’ route around the southern portion of the Province and Cape Breton Island…but we’d never heard of Pugwash.  Pugwash is a village in Cumberland County Nova Scotia...population 736.  It’s on the isthmus connecting the main portion of the Province to the rest of Canada.

Soon after the American Revolutionary War, UK Empire Loyalists fled the United States for Canada.  Looking for a better life, Britons, Scots and Irish also arrived.  The native’s name for the area, “Pagwe’ak” was translated to ‘Pugwash’.  FYI, Pugwash is just a minor harbor/port today… “Pagwe’ak” actually translates to “shallow water” as there is a reef near the entrance to the harbor, a real problem these days given our large ships.  However back in the late 1800s and into the early 1900s, the smaller freighters of the day stopped here to pick up loads of lumber, bricks and sandstone.  Today some small freighters do stop here for a load of salt from a local mine. 

At least 2 former residents of Pugwash are worthy of note… First there is Cyrus Eaton.  He founded what developed into Canada’s Continental Gas and Electric Corporation, then he built Republic Steel in the USA and was later Chairman of the Board for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad.   

The second ‘famous’ person from Pugwash was James Dewar.  He created something that makes my wife happy even today and which is more lasting than Eaton’s Republic Steel or the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad!  In 1931, as a plant manager for Hostess Brands, Dewar created a shortcake with cream on the inside.  Having seen a billboard for a shoe company called the “Twinkle Toe Shoe Co.”, he was inspired to call his new invention, a “Twinkie”!

   

That’s all for now.  Just click on any of the postcards to enlarge them.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Stay Safe and Take Care, Big Daddy Dave