The Boston, Halifax and Prince Edward Island Steamship Company.

The Boston Boat service was a seasonal direct link between Prince Edward Island and New England. In earlier postings I have talked about the Confederate blockade runners, the steamers Oriental (ex-Minna) and Greyhound.  However the ending of the war between the states also resulted in other vessels with a war history visiting Charlottetown – vessels that had been on duty against the blockade runners during the civil war.

S.S. Carroll (or perhaps the Worcester) in Charlottetown harbour about 1893. Public Archives and Records Office photo

In 1863 William P. Williams of New York commissioned a quintet of wooden steamships from the Van Deusen shipyards yards in the belief that as the civil war continued it would create a market for new steamers for either civil or naval purposes.  The five boats were almost identical – 209 feet long, 34 or 35 feet wide and drawing from 17 to 20 feet and displacing over 1000 tons. Henry Esler & Co. provided the machinery. They were fired by horizontal tube boilers powering two-cylinder direct action engines at right angles to the shaft. The cast iron propellers were twelve feet in diameter. The boats were awkward looking being high-sided with just a hint of a clipper bow looking as if the bowsprit had been forgotten.  Most striking in the design was the placement of the wheel house well forward leaving an unusually short fore-deck.

Williams’ gamble paid off, for even before the launch of the first boat, all five were purchased by the U.S. Navy for $160,000 each. The steamers Galatea  Glaucus, Nereus, Neptune, and Proteus were all named for sea gods in Greek mythology and all became U.S.S. Galatea etc.  All the vessels were armed with Parrott rifles  a type of armament used by both land and sea forces as well as smooth bore cannon.  Every one of the vessels was engaged in enforcing the blockade of the southern ports but only the U.S.S. Nereus saw active duty being one of the ships involved in the attacks on Fort Fisher, which protected the port of Wilmington North Carolina,  in December of 1864 and January of 1865.

Drawing by Erik Heyl for his book Early American Steamers Vol 1. 1953.

On July 12 1865, four of the vessels were acquired by agents for the Baltimore and Ohio Railway. The Proteus was re-named the Carroll, Nereus re-named Somerset; Glaucus re-named Worcester and the Neptune re-named Allegany.  The new names were all counties of Maryland.

S.S. Carroll in busy Boston Harbour.

The B&O Railway had decided to establish a direct first-class steamship service between Baltimore and Liverpool which began in 1865. The service continued on a monthly basis using three of the ships: the Carroll, the Somerset and the Worcester. The Allegany had been lost on Long Island in 1865. By 1868 it was clear that the vessels were too small and slow to provide a first-class service across the Atlantic and the experiment was brought to a close. The B&O Railway later made arrangements with the North German Lloyd line to put two new large boats on the route.

Advertisement in the Annual Report of the Boston Board of Trade 1884 p. 167

In 1870-71 the three vessels were sold to F. Nickerson and Company of Boston who were already operating a Boston – Halifax – Charlottetown service. The “very superior” Somerset joined the Alhambra on the Charlottetown-Boston run in 1873.  The Alhambra, which had been on the P.E.I. – Boston route since 1866, was wrecked early in the 1875 at Cape Sable Nova Scotia and she was replaced on the run to Charlottetown by the Worcester. Later both the Carroll and the Worcester became fixtures in the harbour while the Somerset made occasional appearances.  A hint of the commerce carried can be found in an 1873 report of goods shipped on one trip of the Somerset for the Boston market: 282 bbls mackerel worth $2280, 448 drums codfish, worth $1792, 221 bbls herring worth $663, 45 bbls sounds worth $2700, 588 sacks barley worth $1469, 18 bbls potatoes worth $27, 105 crates and 443 boxes of eggs worth $3693 making a total of $13,164. In addition, other goods were carried only as far as Halifax and passengers sailed for both ports.

Steamer Merrimack

Although ill-suited to the cross-Atlantic run the vessels were ideal for the shorter Maritime – New England route. For more than two decades the two boats which were almost impossible to tell apart were jointly known to Islanders as the Boston Boat. However other vessels also held the title although they only ran for brief periods. The two were joined by the 260 foot, 2200 ton Merrimack in 1886. This vessel was one of the first iron vessels built in Boston and was already 27 years old. She had seen service as a leased transport during the civil war. She was on a route to Brazil for a number of years and then had sailed between Boston and Halifax. Her first trip to Charlottetown in July 1886 with one hundred passengers was inauspicious as she fetched up on Rifleman Reef in Northumberland Strait but was able to get off the following day.  Her brief service ended in July 1887 when she was lost without loss of life on Little Hope Island Nova Scotia.

S.S. State of Indiana

In 1891 the two steamers were briefly joined by a former trans-Atlantic steamer, The State of Indiana. This vessel was Clyde -built and hade been launched in 1874 for the State Steamship Line which carried on a trans-Atlantic liner operation. In 1891 the State Line was absorbed by the Allen Line, formally the Montreal Ocean Steamship Company  and the State of Indiana was transferred to the Boston, Halifax and P.E.I. line. However the 2500 ton, 330 foot vessel with room for more than 400 passengers may have possessed more capacity that the volume of traffic called for and she ran on the line for only one year. She eventually ended her days in Turkey.

ANTONIO NICOLO GASPARO JACOBSEN Danish/American, 1850-1921 The American passenger vessel Carroll Signed and dated lower right “A. Jacobsen 1918” http://myartblogcollection.blogspot.com/2015_07_26_archive.html

In late fall of 1891 there were anxious moments when the 29 year-old Carroll was three days overdue from its usual 36 hour trip from Halifax to Boston and was believed to have gone down with 150 passengers and 40 crew. The Carroll had been condemned as unseaworthy several years earlier but was repaired and returned to service. Fortunately the vessel had only been disabled and was safely towed into Boothbay Maine.

Confusingly in 1889 a Canadian company the Halifax and Prince Edward Island Steamship Company had been incorporated. This company had no relationship with the Boston firm and was Halifax-based and linked to the Pickford and Black interests. Their steamer, the Princess Beatrice, which operated beginning in 1889 was wrecked near Isaacs Harbour, N.S. in September 1890. She was replaced by the Fastnet.    

North Atlantic Steamship Company advertisement. Boston Globe 13 October 1893.

However by the end of 1892 the Boston, Halifax and Prince Edward Island Steamship Company was insolvent, with the blame placed on the imprudent purchase of the State of Indiana.  In that year and in 1893 the Worcester and the Carroll were operated by the North Atlantic Steamship Company but they appear to have been in direct competition with the recently-formed Canada Atlantic and Plant Line. A pooling arrangement with the Canada Atlantic line had been cancelled in 1891.  A price war saw tickets from Boston to Charlottetown go as low as $3.50 for a berth. However, the two worn out steamers were sold out of service and were scrapped in Boston Harbour in 1894. The service by then had come to be operated by the Plant Line with newer and larger boats and continued until the Great War.

Lost in the Fog – The sinking of the Steamer Heather Belle

Displayed on one of the earliest charts of Northumberland Strait has the words “Fogs are rare here.”  Entire seasons can go by without reports of dense fog and the area is in direct contrast to the Atlantic Coast of Nova Scotia where heavy fog is an ever-present danger.

For Captain MacLean of the steamer Heather Belle his return trip from Brush Wharf Orwell to Charlottetown had begun at 4:50 on the already dark evening of 12 November 1891. It was therefore an unpleasant surprise when fog closed in as the ship was steering towards the harbour mouth after rounding the Bell Buoy (as Fitzroy Rock Buoy was then known.)  Heading for the Black Buoy, now called Spithead, he was forced to slow in the dense fog and try to find his position by sounding the reef.  He left the Black Buoy to port and steered north-east towards Blockhouse, sounding his whistle the whole time.

Steamer Fastnet at Pickford and Black wharf Halifax about 1892.

At the same time the Pickford and Black Steamer Fastnet under command of Captain Hopkins was passing through the harbour entrance after leaving the dock at Charlottetown heading for Halifax with passengers and cargo. The 145 foot screw steamer Fastnet had been built in Glasgow in 1878 for the Clyde Shipping Company for service in South West Ireland and had been bought by Pickford and Black for the Charlottetown run earlier in 1891. The Fastnet encountered the fog bank at about 6:30 after it had passed the Blockhouse light at the entrance to Charlottetown Harbour and reduced its speed to three and a half knots running against the incoming tide.

After a few minutes after passing the Black Buoy the Heather Belle’s crew picked up the sound of another steam whistle which the Captain correctly identified as the Pickford and Black steamer Fastnet leaving the harbour.   He steered slightly to starboard to keep the Heather Belle to the correct side of the channel and assumed from the signals that the Fastnet  was taking the same action. The time was about 6:40.

Suddenly the masthead and starboard light of the Fastnet appeared out of the fog.  The Captain called for the engines to be put hard astern and tried to turn the vessel to port to avoid collision. The Heather Belle was nearly at a standstill when the Fastnet struck her near the port bow and water began pouring in. Although there was limited damage to the Fastnet, the Heather Belle was in serious trouble.  She was quickly made fast to the starboard side of the Fastnet and they both proceeded at full speed to the harbour entrance with the Heather Belle filling with water. The fifteen passengers and the crew scrambled onto the Fastnet. As the water steadily rose the paddle steamer’s stokers raked out the boiler of the paddle steamer to prevent an explosion and the ship steadily settled into the water.  They got within 800 yards of the Blockhouse when the steamers separated and the Heather Bell drifted off into the dark fog and disappeared.  The Fastnet was so close to the shore that the voice of the Blockhouse lightkeeper could be plainly heard although nothing was visible in the fog.  The Fastnet shortly afterwards went aground on the sands of Cumberland Cove and a crew rowed to Charlottetown to report the accident. The passengers from both steamers were brought ashore by the steam-tug Frank Batt  and the tug returned the next day  to get the Fastnet afloat.

The original Heather Belle from the 1878 bird’s eye view of Charlottetown. The second Heather Belle would have looked much the same.

There was no loss of life or injury and the freight load was slight. However, the Heather Belle was uninsured. Its owners, the Inland Steam Navigation Company, had been in business for eight years but the boat, at least parts of it, was older.  The original Heather Belle had been launched in 1862 from the James Duncan Shipyard in Charlottetown. The 108 foot boat was built of wood with engines from Todd and McGregor of Glasgow. She was owned by the Prince Edward Island Steam Navigation Company from 1864 to 1875 when she was sold to John Hughes. She served on regular steamer routes in the Bay and in 1878 had an extensive overhaul including a new keel and planking and extensive repairs to the upper deck and cabins. However, by 1882 she was showing her age. The owners searched for a vessel to replace the Heather Belle and even looked to the States for a new vessel but could not find one suitable. They then contracted with James White in Mount Stewart to build a new ship. The new Heather Belle was only slightly longer at 120 feet but was wider and so had greater carrying capacity. Although built with a single main passenger cabin she had room aboard for 500 people. She was framed in juniper and had diagonal iron straps fastened before being planked. She had stringers of pitch pine.

Stern view of the Heather Belle PARO Accession 3466.73.102.53.1 – Hunt Collection This is probably the first vessel of the name

Launched in June 1883 she was towed to Charlottetown for finishing. In order to save money the Todd and McGregor engine, which had already served for more than twenty years, was rebuilt and put into the new hull along with a new boiler built in Saint John. The hulk of the old boat was sold as scrap for $20 and by mid-June had been dismantled . The steamer was also under new ownership. In 1883 the Inland Steam Navigation Company had been incorporated with capital stock of $25,000. The principal owners were John Hughes, William Welsh, Lemuel Cambridge Owen, Daniel Todvin, James Turner and John MacMillan.

Following the sinking, flotsam and parts of the deckhouse washed ashore near Keppoch at the harbour mouth, but the sunken wreck of the Heather Belle was not found for several days. It was eventually located off Cumberland Farm, not far from where the Fastnet had gone aground on the night of the sinking. Divers were brought over from Halifax but attempts to raise the steamer were frustrated by poor weather and by the fact that the hull began to break up when it had been moved no more than 500 feet.  The attempt was abandoned in mid-December 1891. The following year new attempts to raise the wreck proved too difficult and its remains may still lie beneath the sands off the cliffs at Cumberland.

Within a few days of the sinking the Inland Steamship Company had restored the service to the mainland using the steamer M.A. Starr, a Halifax ship which was leased for the remainder of the season. The M.A. Starr dated back to 1855 when it was launched as H.M.S. Delight, an Albacore Class gunboat designed for use in the Crimean War. It had been decommissioned and sold mercantile in 1867.  The following year the Inland Steam Navigation Company acquired the paddle steamer Jacques Cartier which ran on the route until it was wrecked on the Nova Scotia shore.

Meanwhile, court proceedings had been heard in Admiralty Court with both parties claiming damages from the other.  After a lengthy hearing before Chief Justice W.W. Sullivan, with the assistance of F.W. Hyndman as a nautical assessor, it was found that both vessels were traveling at an excessive speed without taking enough consideration for the fog and that they had both failed to set a course which would ensure they were in opposite sides of the channel.  Under the admiralty law principles each wrong-doer was obliged to pay half the damages of the other. The total loss of the Heather Belle was assessed at just over $18,000 while the repairs to the Fastnet were set at $2,800. Court costs were borne equally.

The Fastnet continued to call at Charlottetown through 1897. The next year she was sent around Cape Horn with a party of gold seekers bound for the Yukon. The vessel was sold to a company in British Columbia and again to a Mexican firm in 1898 when she was re-named the Alamo.  In 1909 she was wrecked on Tortuga Island in the Gulf of Mexico.

Sources

The P.E.I. Public Archives and Records Office has the Admiralty Court case records in R.G.6 which include transcripts of the evidence. The Exchequer Court Reports Vol. 3 pp.40-56 contain the judgment in the case.  The account of the collision as well as the subsequent search for the wreck can be found in the Daily Patriot for the relevant dates.  Details of the several ships named can be found in the Mercantile Naval Lists, most easily accessed through the on-line holdings of Memorial University’s Maritime History Project.