gain a traveller
counted sixty wagons carrying goods from Queenston, beyond the other end
of Lake Ontario, to Chippawa, so as to get them past Niagara Falls.
Anywhere west from Montreal the unit of measurement for all freight was a
barrel of rum, the transport charge for which was over three dollars as
far as Kingston, where it was trans-shipped from the bateau to a schooner.

There was very little shipping on Lake Erie {73} till after the War of
1812. The first American vessel launched in these waters had a curious
history. After a season's work in 1797 she was carted past Niagara and
launched on Lake Ontario, where she plied between Queenston and Kingston
under the British flag with the name of _Lady Washington_. The rival
Hudson's Bay and North-West Companies each had a few boats on the western
Lakes at the beginning of the nineteenth century, and the government
maintained there a tiny flotilla of its own. But shipping was a very
small affair west of Niagara for several years to come.

While the War of 1812 killed out the feeble trade on the Lakes, it
greatly stimulated the well-established trade in sea-going craft from
Quebec and the Maritime Provinces. The British command of the sea had
become so absolute by 1814 that the whole American coast was practically
sealed to trade, which was thus forced to seek an 'underground' outlet by
way of Canada, in spite of the state of war. This, in addition to the
transport required by the British forces in Canada, sent freights and
tonnage up by leaps and bounds. The only trouble was to find enough
ships and, harder still, enough men.

Canadian sailing craft in the nineteenth {74} century had a chequered
career. Many disturbing factors affected the course of trade: the
cholera of '32; the Rebellion of '37; the Ship Fever of '47; the great
gold finds in California in '49 and in Australia in '53; Reciprocity with
the United States in '54; Confederation in '67; the triumph of steam and
steel in the seventies; and the era of inland development which began in
the eighties.

The heyday of the Canadian sailing ship was the third quarter of the
nineteenth century. This period, indeed, was one of great activity in
the history of mast and sail all the world over. There was intense
rivalry between steam and sail. The repeal of the Navigation Act in
England had brought the whole of British shipping into direct competition
with foreigners. The Americans were pushing their mast