P. 140: “We arrived at Kingston at half-past eleven at night. The next morning we were agreeably surprized to find ourselves moored among the shipping in a snug harbour, with the Lake Ontario, like the ocean, expanded before us; nor was the intelligence unwelcome that a man-of-war’s boat with an officer was in attendance to take us to our quarters at the dock-yard. We
p. 141: met with a kind reception from the officers of the establishment. The yard is large, in excellent order, and completely furnished with stores of every description, which, from the dryness of the atmosphere, are exempted in an extraordinary degree from the influence of decay. Here we have two three-deckers, a frigate, a sloop of war, a schooner, and eleven gunboats, all on the stocks. Their timbers are up, but they are not planked over, and the few workmen employed are occupied in keeping them in repair and replacing any unsound parts. In less than a month they could all be got ready for sea. It is remarkable that they are fastened with iron instead of copper, in consequence of the non-tendency of metals to rust in this country. I am inclined to believe that this phenomenon is attributed to the small quantity of saline particles existing in the atmosphere, owing to the great distance from the sea. There are several old ships of war in the harbour, chiefly in a half sunken-state. On board one of them I saw what is called an ice-boat.
p. 142: It is about twenty-three feet in length, resting on three skates; one attached to each end of a strong cross-bar, fixed under the fore-part, and the remaining one to the bottom of the rudder, which supports the stern of the vessel. Her mast and sail are similar to those of a common boat. Being placed on the ice when the Lake is sufficiently frozen over, she is brought into play. Her properties are wonderful, and her motion is fearfully rapid. She can not only sail before the wind, but is actually capable of beating to windward. It requires an experienced hand to manage her, particularly in tacking, as her extreme velocity renders the least motion of the rudder of the utmost consequence. A friend of mine, a lieutenant in the navy, assured me that he himself last year had gone a distance of twenty-three miles in an hour : and he knew an instance of an iceboat having crossed from York, to Fort Niagara (a distance of forty miles) in little more than three quarters of an hour. This will be readily believed, when we reflect on the velo-
p. 143: city which such a vessel must acquire when driven on skates before a gale of wind. These boats are necessarily peculiar to the lakes of Canada. In the course of our examination of the yard, we could not but be struck by the immense energy of Great Britain, which had effected the completion of so enormous an undertaking in a country where not a single material except the wood was to be found. Here were anchors, chain and hemp cables, guns, and all the ponderous materiel of a great maritime establishment, the greater part of which had been brought hither on sledges, from Montreal, during the winter. In the short space of two years, we had built and equipped a squadron, of which one vessel was a three-decker: nor should it be forgotten that this great national exertion was made in furtherance of a war which was but of secondary importance.”
Source
Fred. Fitzgerald de Roos. Personal narrative of travels in the United States and Canada in 1826. London, 1827.
