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magazine / ja09
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July/August 2009 issue |
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FEATURE - St. Lawrence Seaway
Inland superhighway (Page
4 of 4)
For half a century, the St. Lawrence Seaway has served as a vital artery for ships carrying the coal, grain and iron ore that fuelled Canada’s economy. But a sea change may be brewing.
By D’Arcy Jenish with photography by Martin Beaulieu
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The CSL Niagara of the Canada Steamship Lines and the Maritime Trader meet on the eastside of the St. Louis Bridge in Valleyfield, Que.
Photo: Martin Beaulieu |
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The river giveth
and
taketh away
When Carol Potts left Cornwall, Ont., in the fall of 1955 to
attend nursing school in Ottawa, construction on the
St. Lawrence Seaway and several accompanying hydroelectric
projects was just starting. She returned often over the next four
years and was struck by the changes occurring in her once quiet
riverside city. “When you went downtown, the sidewalks were
thick with people,” says Potts, president of the Cornwall Historical
Society. “You could never find a parking spot. Everything was
thriving because of all the people working on the seaway.”
Decades of wrangling between political factions and competing
economic interests preceded construction, but the impasse was
trumped by the North American steel industry’s need for an
efficient marine transportation system to supply plants with iron
ore from newly opened mines in Labrador and eastern Quebec.
Moreover, Ontario and New York State both needed to tap the
hydroelectric potential of the upper St. Lawrence to keep pace with
rapid post-war growth in their economies.
The St. Lawrence Seaway Authority, a Crown corporation established
to manage the project, began awarding contracts in late
1954 for a system of locks, canals and shipping channels between
Montréal and Iroquois. At the same time, the Hydro-Electric Power
Commission of Ontario — the forerunner of Ontario Hydro — and
the New York Power Authority were hiring contractors to build two
major dams, along with powerhouses and generating facilities,
in the vicinity of Cornwall.
Workers used bulldozers, excavators and dynamite to construct
the 22.5-kilometre South Shore Canal, which bypassed the Lachine
Rapids, and they relied on dredges to carve shipping channels out
of the bottom of the St. Lawrence. Billions of tonnes of rock were
moved, some of it so hard that contractors wore out bulldozer blades,
excavator teeth and drill bits in hours instead of the usual days.
Remarkably, the waterway and the electrical-generating projects
were completed on time and on budget. But for some, the projects
brought tears and heartache. The hydro dams created a lake that
stretched nearly 50 kilometres upstream from Cornwall. It flooded
more than 16,000 hectares of farmland, as well as six villages and
three hamlets, and forced over 6,500 people to relocate, mostly to
the newly established communities of Long Sault and Ingleside.
Those drowned communities have not been forgotten. Former
residents formed The Lost Villages Historical Society and created
The Lost Villages Museum (www.lostvillages.ca), west of Cornwall,
which consists of 11 buildings, some of them original structures
that were moved to the site prior to the flooding.
“My family arrived in Long Sault on October 28, 1957,” recalls
historical society president Jane Craig, whose father owned the
Lion Hotel in the village of Moulinette. “We had a beautiful new
home, but it wasn’t home. My dad cried that night.”
D.J.
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The Canadian shipping industry employs about 5,000 people, and the seaway itself another 600, but the
waterway supports a remarkably diverse range of businesses and trades, including, indirectly, port employees, Coast
Guard personnel and railway workers. And family ties are evident everywhere.
When ships such as the Spruceglen transit the Welland Canal, they sail past facilities owned and operated by Snider
Dock Services, a Port Colborne, Ont., company that is almost entirely reliant on seaway traffic. The family firm loads and
unloads commodities, as well as manufactured goods, at the Lake Ontario and Lake Erie entrances to the Welland Canal.
Its Lake Erie dock serves as a transfer point for about half of the road salt used in the Niagara Peninsula each winter.
The aging vessels of the Canadian seaway fleet require constant maintenance, which provides work for another
Port Colborne company, Allied Marine & Industrial. Many of Allied’s welders, machinists, millwrights and electricians
ride the ships to service them during the season, although major repairs take place during the three-month winter
layup, when Allied’s workforce can triple to 150. “It’s a constant battle,” says plant manager Dave Marsland, “to keep
the ships running.”
Crew members live aboard seaway vessels for two months straight, and they rely on chandlers
to supply them with food, towels, fresh bedding and other basics. C. E. Elliott & Sons
Ltd. of Hamilton has been provisioning the Great Lakes shipping industry for 80 years. The
firm services about 30 ships every year, with a staff of nine driving to ports throughout
southern Ontario, providing clean linens every 10 to 14 days and groceries every two to three
weeks. Current owner Sharon Elliott, the granddaughter of the company’s founder, expects
the company to remain family owned for a fourth generation: her two sons and a nephew are
on the payroll.
If Highway H2O’s partners are right, there will be work for C. E. Elliott & Sons and most of the businesses serving the
Great Lakes shipping industry for years to come. The coalition of 45 or so partners, which includes shipping companies,
port authorities, the SLSMC and its American counterpart, believes that transporting bulk commodities and containers
of manufactured consumer goods by water will ease road and rail congestion and reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.
More container traffic may be the seaway’s best shot at an increased volume of cargo. Most container vessels are too
large to sail beyond Montréal and must unload there or in Halifax, with trains or trucks carrying their goods farther
inland. The Highway H2O coalition wants smaller seaway ships to pick up those containers. "They will bring these
goods to all the ports along Highway H2O, such as Montréal, Toronto, Hamilton, Cleveland, Detroit and Chicago," says
SLSMC president Richard Corfe, "because the roads and railways are already congested. And it’s only going
to get worse."
At 6:30 a.m. on April 1, I am awakened abruptly by three sharp raps on the door of my cabin and a gruff voice
announcing, “Half an hour to Iroquois.” It’s time to disembark, and it’s happening too soon. Fortunately, I was able to
experience the entire system on my first seaway voyage. On a summer Saturday in 2007, while researching a book on the
seaway, I boarded the MV Algomarine at Pier 99 in Montréal with my teenage son, Patrick, for the trip of a lifetime.
We plied the waters of the upper St. Lawrence and the Thousand Islands on a Sunday afternoon, when the river was
buzzing with pleasure craft. We crossed Lake Ontario overnight and arrived at the Welland Canal just as the sun
was illuminating the horizon. The Algomarine spent about 12 hours transiting the canal and another night crossing Lake
Erie, affording us a daytime trip up the Detroit and St. Clair rivers, two very different waterways. On the Detroit,
we had a panoramic view of Detroit and Windsor and could hear the hum of traffic. On the St. Clair, we wound
through vast marshes and wetlands and passed sparsely inhabited shores.
The cold, blue waters of colossal Lake Superior were as calm as a backyard swimming pool when we sailed west out
of Whitefish Bay — rare conditions, we were told. Sixteen hours later, 108 hours after leaving Montréal, we arrived at
Thunder Bay.
Related content: CG Photo Club
Field Report — an interview with Martin Beaulieu
Travel with photographer Martin Beaulieu through the locks and channels of the historic St. Lawrence Seaway.
Get a “behind-the-scenes” look at the assignment through our one-on-one interview with Beaulieu as he shares his experience photographing the St. Lawrence Seaway.
Learn more about Beaulieu, view a gallery of his images and get some photography tips.
In these days of considerable economic uncertainty, the St. Lawrence Seaway and its partners in the shipping
industry are facing serious challenges. Some of them are financial, others environmental. But after spending two
years exploring the waterway and its history, I can see it continuing to serve as a vital artery for the movement of
goods. And I am deeply impressed by the skill, teamwork and dedication of the people who sail ships such as the
Algomarine and the Spruceglen on a marine highway that reaches deep into the heart of the continent.
D’Arcy Jenish is the author of Epic Wanderer: David
Thompson and the Mapping of the Canadian West.
Photographer Martin Beaulieu lives in Montréal.
For additional information visit: www.greatlakes-seaway.com
| Comments on this article | Leave a comment | After graduating from high school in New Brunswick, I had the opportunity to discover the wonderful Great Lakes regions as a deckhand. Even though the waters could be rough and cold at times, the spectacular scenery from Sept Isle, Quebec to the Great Lakes was wonderful. Everything was going well when I became seriously ill in Lake Michigan. The American Coast Guard was called in and I was airlifted to Grand Haven Michigan and subsequently transferred to Hackley Hospital in nearby Muskegon. Just got there in time as I was diagnosed with a ruptured appendix which required 21 days hospitalisation. I can remember some of the staff visiting me with their family. Still too sick to travel, after being discharged, I was offered a place to stay by one of the local staff. Amazing hospitality for an 18 year old Canadian so far away from home who did not know anyone in that community. This happened 36 years ago, and we have remained in contact for all these years. Your article on the Seaway brought back memories on this wonderful region and its people.
Excellent article but I offer one correction.There is one Newfoundlander aboard the CSL Spruceglen and that is Captain Mark Dillon.
A most interesting article with excellent images. Last week we purchased a print copy of your magazine. Your table of comparison, on the enclosed map "Using very little fuel ships carry tonnes of cargo". What is the range of transit times, in days (24 hour period) for a vessel to navigate from Montreal to Lake Ontario. How manny vessels passed the St. Lawrence Seaway - in both directions - in the 2008 shipping season? Without being a pessimist I believe that the 21st century will belong to the South-East Asian countries. The cargo shift from the North Atlantic to the Pacific is permanent. What are the concepts for assuring an economic future of the St. Lawrence Seaway?
Give another 10-15 years, with the melting of the Northcap, Port Churchill, MAN will become an integral part of the Transportation Axis Central Canada to the Caribbean Gulf region.
I like to wish the seaway authorities my heartfelt congratulations on the 50th anniversary of the seaway locks and shipping transport.
I sailed the Great lakes Between Holland and Chicago from 1963 till the end of 1969 when my company the
Orange Lijn ceased to excist on the Great Lakes, the company with all the names on her ships named after members of the Dutch Royal Family past and present. From 1966 till the end I was the pernament helmsman on board the Prins Philip Willem and I enjoyed going in and out the locks, being part of the bridge crew beside the Pilot and Captain. I remember several times when we arrived in Montreal when the pilot wanted "Thomas" on the bridge when he went through the locks, it felt good and steering the ship through the locks became a specialty for me. I felt the ship moving under my feet before the compass moved and very seldom had the pilot to give me any instructions changing course or any other course changes. I was there on the bridge had my food brought up etc. I was the most wonderful sailing experience for me and I hope to see the Great lakes one more time. One short story from me. While going down the Detroit river on out way home from Chicago the Pilot gave me an order the change course of ten degrees. You can do it slow, not to slow ofcourse or the way I did that time by turning the wheel hard over to port side and then after the ship was well on her way, very fast I turned the wheel all the way over to starboard side. By doing so the ship rocked back and forth like it was on the ocean and the pilot kept an eye on the compass and when the ship finally stop rocking the boat was perfectly on the given course the pilot gave me a wink and I could see that he enjoyed that very much and said so. The chief steward didn't like it as several pots and pans came off the stove in the galley and several officers spilled their soup into their laps, the time of that course change was 1300 Hours dinner time for the officers, will never forget that incident.
Hope to see this in your next magazine.
I live now in Edmonton but still enjoy the salty water.
Thank for putting this article in your magazine.
Sincerely.
Thomas de Jong former 1st class sailor Dutch Merchant Marine " ORANJE LIJN " 1663 - 1969
Thank you for this great article. I loved the interactive clip on the Internet on how the locks work. How sad that our roads take us away from waterways, so Canadians have lost touch with how vital they are and how much a part of our history. As I looked at the photos, I realized I could only identify one place the bridge at Montréal. So although I have traveled widely in Canada, I have never seen any of the locks in the system. The article has given me the thought to travel along the St Lawrence Seaway to see for myself the locks operating and the towns near it. Why is there no tourist travel on the Seaway?
We enjoyed the well presented and informative article and supplementary information on the website. Learning the history of an important Canadian commerical success helps us to more fully appreciate what we see as we make pleasure craft excursions on parts of the system and the Great Lakes.
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