erful way into
every sea. The rush to California was drawing eager fleets of Yankee,
Bluenose, and St Lawrence vessels round the Horn. India, China, and
Australia were drawing other fleets round the Cape. The American
clippers threatened to oust the slower 'Britishers' and throw the
comparatively minor Canadians into the shade. For the first and only
time in history American tonnage actually began to threaten British
supremacy. {75} But the challenge was met in the proper way, by building
to beat on even terms. The British had already regained their lead
before the Civil War of the sixties; and the subsequent inland
development of the United States, with the momentous change from wood and
sails to steel and steam, combined to depress the American mercantile
marine in favour of its British rival.

Canada played a great part in this brief but stirring era, when the
wooden sailing vessel was making its last gallant stand against steam,
and the sun of its immemorial day was going down in a blaze of glory
which will never fade from the memories of those who love the sea.
Canada built ships, sailed ships, owned ships, and sold ships. She
became one of the four greatest shipping centres in the world; and this
at a time when she had less than half as many people and less than
one-tenth as much realized wealth as she has now. Quebec had more than
half its population dependent on shipbuilding in the fifties and sixties.
In 1864 it launched sixty vessels, many of them between one and two
thousand tons. About the same time Nova Scotia launched nearly three
hundred vessels and New Brunswick half as many. The Nova Scotians,
however, only averaged two {76} hundred tons, and the New Brunswickers
four hundred. If the Lakes, Prince Edward Island, the rest of Canada,
and Newfoundland are added in, the total tonnage built in the best single
year is found to be close on a quarter of a million. Allowing for the
difference in numbers of the respective populations, this total compares
most favourably with the highest recent totals built in the British
Isles, where the greatest shipbuilding the world has ever seen is now
being carried on.

It was the change from wood to metal that caused the decline of
shipbuilding in Canada. It was also partly the change to steam; but only
partly, for Canada started well in the race for building steamships.
What proves that the disuse of wood was the real cause of the decline is
the fact that Ca