Canadian Historic Sites: Occasional Papers in Archaeology and History No. 4

Industrial and Agricultural Activities at Lower Fort Garry

by George Ingram

Boat Building

Located near the mouth of the Red River and below the St. Andrews Rapids, the lower fort was in an ideal location to serve as a depot for shipping across Lake Winnipeg. Boat building was introduced in conjunction with the post's role in the transportation system. York boats stationed there required seasonal repair and frequent replacement. After 1865, when the steam mill was built, it became a logical place to construct the schooner Polly and later the steamboat Chief Commissioner.

5 York boats sailing on Lake Winnipeg. (Glenbow Foundation.)

York Boats

By the turn of the century, the York boat was the main vehicle of the inland transportation of the Hudson's Bay Company and remained so for most of the 19th century.¹ They were constructed at a number of posts, although one source notes that the building was "usually done at the head post of each district."² Repairs would be carried out wherever boats were stationed.

Norway House, where a new vessel was constructed in 1841, appears to have been an early centre for boat building.³ However, in 1842, the Northern Council suggested that the next vessel be constructed in the Red River Settlement, and during the 1840s there was some boat building activity there, probably at the upper fort, although Simpson still preferred Norway house.⁴ By the 1860s, when specific mention was made to the construction and repair of York boats at the lower fort, boat building had become an established practice at both of the Company forts in the settlement.

York boats were built at both the upper and lower forts as they were needed; and annually in preparation for the navigation season, the existing boats were extensively repaired. Lower Fort Garry was well equipped for boat construction. Its blacksmith could supply the required fittings and supplied the upper fort as well: in 1864, for example, William Mactavish at the upper fort wrote to George Davis, the clerk in charge of the lower fort, asking that "ironwork" be sent up "for the boats to be built here."⁵ And from the shop came a steady supply of tin, tacks, pitch and oakum for the construction and repair of the boats.⁶ Independent craftsmen, probably settlers around the lower fort, were quite often hired to do the work.⁷ At the fort were men adept at making sails, especially "Old Cox," who also made the sails for the schooner. By the 1860s there was a boat shed where the York boats were built.⁸

The actual procedures followed in the construction of a York boat changed very little over time. An article in 1923 explained the building operation at a later period. The approach at Lower Fort Garry was much the same.

Operations for building York boats began usually in July or August by hiring ten, twenty or more suitable men handy with the axe to get out "boat wood." The boat builder or his assistant went as boss of the gang, and they were supplied with a York boat, together with all necessary coverings to protect them from the rain. They carried enough provisions for two weeks or more, dependent on how much "boat wood" was to be secured. Wood used in the planking of the boats was required to be clean of knots and straight in grain to stand steaming and bending to the shape of the model. Ordinary spruce was used for the planking, keel and ribbing, though sometimes tamarac was used for the keel and ribs.

When the gang arrived, in a day or perhaps two days from the post, at a point where there was good timber, they would begin getting out logs marked by the boat builder as suitable and cut them in lengths of 15 or 20 feet. A number were cut 30 to 40 feet, according to the number of keels to be laid. All these logs were pulled out to the shore by man power with ropes and portage straps. While the men were getting the logs out, the boat builder was looking underground for roots bent at the right angle to make the timbers, and these were then cut out.

A raft was then made of the logs and the roots loaded on top. Some roots were put into the York boat and the return trip begun, sails and poles being used to propel the craft. On arrival at the post the raft was broken up and the logs and roots hauled up to the sawpit, where they were all sawn up by a whipsaw, with a man on the top of the stage on which the log was placed and one man below; hence the expression of "the top sawyer." A day's cut for two men would be from 15 to 25 boards. The logs were sawn in the round, in order to give the boat builder as much room as possible for cutting the planking, as the planks were of different shapes.

The day on which the keel was taken into the boat shed to be hewn, shaped and planed, an important entry was made in the daily journal. When the keel was placed on the stocks and levelled properly, the ceremony was gone through of holding a watch against the butt at one end and listening for the tick at the other end. If the tick sounded distinctly, the keel was a perfect piece of wood, while if not there was an imperfection somewhere, perhaps red-wood in the heart, and at times the keel was rejected. After the keel came the stem and stern crooks, which ware spliced on and bolted to the keel with bolts and nuts made by the blacksmith. Then came the "dead wood," usually tamarac, being a square piece bolted to the stern and stern crooks on the inside of the boat. These were what the ends of the planks were nailed to, both the bow and stern. This "dead wood" was shaped by an adze as the planking proceeded, and was cut as each plank was added.

The next operation was putting on the false timbers on which the planks were bent to the shape of the model. After the planks were cut into shape, they were steamed in a steam-box, which was a long box with a furnace under a large kettle having a pipe running into the steam-box. From five to ten minutes in this steam would be sufficient to make the boards quite pliable and easy to fit into shape on the timbers. After planking was completed, excepting the two top strakes, which were clinkers, the real timbers were put in. These timbers were sawn out of the roots by the pitsaw method, usually two inches thick. The moulds or patterns ware placed on them and the shape traced, after which they were cut out by a frame saw on the same principal as fret-work is done.

The nails used in nailing the planks on the timbers were clinched inside, while the clinkers were rivetted with copper rivets made out of the copper hoops which were on the 66-lb. powder kegs used in importing gunpowder. Gunwales for the oar pins were put in. The iron stern and stern plates were put on the stern and stern posts of the boat. Thwarts were then put in, one in the centre, and one about six feet from the bow, and another six feet from the stern. The stern sheets or accommodation for passengers was then put between the back thwart and the stern.

The boat was then completed, and the entry was made in the daily journal. From twenty to thirty days was the general time, depending on the ability of the boat builder and his assistant. The boat was then run out of the boat shed, caulked with oakum and boiled pitch and tar mixed and rubbed on. After this was rubbed all over the outside, it was burnt over with birch bark torches and rubbed smooth with a canvas mop. The boat was then completed and put into the water, filled and allowed to soak for two or three days. After this treatment the boat was usually tight enough to carry cargo.

A close account was always kept of the actual cost of construction, and the posts supplied with new boats were charged accordingly.⁹

The following entries in the journal for 1869 explain the procedure at the lower fort. This was a particularly active year; none of the other years covered by the journal (1868-74) refer to York boat construction.

The journal also illustrates the extensive preparations for the navigation season in the late winter and spring. The reference to the "last of the twenty" boats being put into the water indicates that there was a considerable number stationed at the lower fort. Each fall they were hauled up "from the river to the top of the bank"¹⁰ for repair and to remove them from the ravages of ice. The chore was a strenuous one: in 1871, it took "all the men with four oxen to haul up the boats."¹¹

York boats were used almost daily at the lower fort. There was a constant intercourse with the upper fort and other parts of the settlement. Wheat was hauled to the mills and hay to the fort. Even after the steamboats were introduced on the river, they were dragged behind their future replacement. The brigade to York Factory was an annual event and most of the boats seem to have come from the lower fort. With the switch to the southern supply line, however, the use of York boats decreased and gradually as the lower fort itself declined in importance, the York boat was phased out. There was probably little or no boat construction at the fort after 1880.

The Schooner Polly

The schooner Polly, which for a number of years made frequent journeys each season between Lower Fort Garry and Norway House, was built at the lower fort in 1865-66 under the direction of John M. Brown.¹² After its construction, the schooner was kept in repair and occasionally refitted at the lower fort. In 1868, for example, John Cox was making a new sail and in 1869, two men were "caulking the schooner."¹³ The Polly sometimes wintered at the lower fort, but more frequently with the other boats at Cooks Creek in the Indian settlement.

The Steamboats

The switch to the Minnesota route enhanced the position of the lower fort: with the indent now brought up from the south, the lower fort became the distribution point for goods moving out across Lake Winnipeg. Steamboats were introduced into the Company's service shortly after the decision was made in 1857 to use the St. Paul route. The Anson Northup, the first steamer down the Red River, made her maiden voyage in 1859 after which she made intermittent trips until she sank at her moorings in the early 1860s. When rebuilt, she was renamed the Pioneer. The Anson Northup made trips to the lower fort in the spring and fall when the water level allowed navigation through the St. Andrews Rapids. A larger steamboat, the International, began to run on the Red River in 1862. After its purchase in 1864-65 by the Hudson's Bay Company, the International had frequent contact with Lower Fort Garry. It wintered at Cook's Creek, as had the Pioneer, and craftsmen were sent from the fort to repair the vessel, especially to prepare it for navigation in the spring.¹⁴ Ironwork, wood and special parts were provided by the facilities at the lower fort. More extensive repairs were carried out at the fort itself. In September, 1869, for instance, Captain Aymond and the crew of the International laid down skids and improvised a crab to pull the steamboat out for a refit.¹⁵ The boat spent the winter at the lower fort undergoing repairs.

6 By 1879, when Robert Bell photographed the Colvile tied to the old Chief Commissioner, then a floating warehouse, the buildings of the industrial area had become quite dilapidated. The roofs of the distillery and the steam mill show above the bank. The small building at the junction of the creek with the Red River is possibly the York boat building shed. To the right is the engineer's cottage, and in the distance, between the cottage and the mill, stands the miller's house. (Public Archives of Canada.)

When operating, the steamer came to the lower fort whenever possible. In 1869, for instance, it stopped there on its way down from its wintering place at Cook's Creek.

26 April: the steamboat came up and got nearly all hands to work to get her lading on board so that the delay should be as little as possible as the river seems to be falling rapidly.¹⁶

The Anson Northup and International were only the first of many steamboats as the lower fort assumed a growing part in this new aspect of the Company's transportation system. From navigation on the Red River, the Company turned to attempts to link the Red with the Saskatchewan across Lake Winnipeg. In 1871-72, as part of the programme, a steamer planned for the Saskatchewan was built at Lower Fort Garry.

In the implementation of the plan to connect the Red with the Saskatchewan, a screw steamer with one funnel was built at Lower Fort Garry during the winter of 1871-72. On 7 June 1872 she was launched, Miss Mary Flett breaking the traditional bottle of wine over her bow and christening her the Chief Commissioner. The name was no doubt in honor of Donald A. Smith. Sometime during the navigation season the new steamer tried to reach Lake Manitoba from Lake Winnipeg, but was unable to get through by the Dauphin River (then called the little Saskatchewan), and so was doomed to sail the rough waters of Lake Winnipeg for which her shallow draught was unsuited.¹⁷

The construction of the steamboat was a one-shot effort using makeshift methods. The work was done outside, probably near the creek south of the fort. The progress of the boat building through the winter and spring of 1871-72 was carefully noted in the journal:

Work was by no means finished after the steamer was launched, as she still had to be fitted out. Shipbuilders and blacksmiths continued their work on board:

The steamer returned two days later with boiler problems. The old boiler from the Pioneer was brought from the White Horse Plain and installed, this one proving to be more adequate. On August 19, the Chief Commissioner made a fresh start for the little Saskatchewan:

19 August: the steamer Chief Commissioner left here this afternoon at half past five for the little Saskatchewan Captain Hewett in command, Mr. Bell engineer, John Mowat pilot, Mr._____ Finlayson clerk for the time.²⁰

At the end of August, however, the boat crew returned, reporting that the water was too low in the Saskatchewan for the "steamer to go up at present."²¹ On September 29, it came down to pick up supplies for another steamboat which was to be constructed at the Grand Rapid for use on the Saskatchewan.²² Boat builders from Lower Fort Garry were used to build it.

The Chief Commissioner continued to run across Lake Winnipeg until it was finally dismantled in 1875 and its machinery transferred to its successor, the Colvile. The Chief Commissioner was relegated to service as a floating wharf first at the lower fort and then at Colvile Landing.

Steamers became more numerous on the Red River in the 1870s and Lower Fort Garry continued to be a stopping place and repair point on their schedules. In 1877, for instance, the Swallow was wintering at the lower fort and the Colvile, the Lady Ellen, and the Jessie McKenney were at Cook's Creek, a satellite post of the fort.²³

As long as Lower Fort Garry served as the depot for the steamboat service across Lake Winnipeg it continued to be used for the repair of the boats. In 1879, the Colvile and Manitoba were pulled out for repairs and often the boats would be brought there for the services which the fort could provide. However, when the depot was transferred to Colvile Landing in 1880, the repair facilities were no longer used and the machinery was eventually sold off.