The Hudson's Bay Route Opposed. 525 



In the first place you misstate facts. In a previous issue of the Mail we 

 were told that the Ocean Nymph was frozen in at Churchill on the 15th of 

 October, 1883, and in the article to which I refer now, it is stated that she 

 met with the same fate of the Prince of Wales this winter. Both of these 

 statements are incorrect. The Ocean Nymph was late in reaching Churchill 

 last winter, and fearing to attempt the homeward voyage she laid up in 

 Sloop's cove on Churchill Harbour, and was not frozen in until the 30th of 

 December. Now we learn from your own columns on the testimony of Mr. 

 Christie that had she sailed for England instead of laying up she would 

 have gotten through all right, for the Prince of Wales, you say, " worked 

 through, reaching London in December." 



Now this Prince of Wales is a barque rigged vessel of less than two 

 hundred tons, and the fact that she was unable to get through the ice is no 

 proof against the practicability of the navigation of the route whatever. 

 When we steamed through the Straits in the Neptune last summer this 

 Prince of Wales was fast in the ice between Nottingham Island and Cape 

 Digges. We were at Nottingham four days, but all the while she, with 

 another Hudson's Bay vessel bound for Churchill and York, and a whaling 

 schooner, lay helpless in the ice about ten miles south of us. When we 

 had completed our work on Nottingham Island the Neptune ploughed 

 through this ice and passed these vessels with comparative ease. They had 

 probably been fast for three long weeks, and yet after we got through 

 Captain Sopp, Commander of the Neptune, testified in writing that had he 

 been bound from Liverpool to Churchill, or from Churchill to Liverpool 

 with a cargo, he would not have experienced from ice and all other causes 

 combined a delay of over twenty-four hours. 



It is unfair for you to condemn the route on the experiences of sailing 

 ships, and I am sure you have no excuse to do so on the experiences of the 

 Neptune. We were told that the Neptune met with ice heavier than the 

 Hudson's Bay Company's vessels have encountered for two centuries, and 

 yet we have it on the most undoubted authority that the greatest of 

 obstructions would not have delayed us twenty-four hours. 



With these explanations allow me to answer your questions. First, 

 as to the rate of insurance on vessels navigating Hudson Strait. It is less 

 to-day for sailing vessels in those waters than for ocean tramps coming up 

 the St. Lawrence to Montreal, and will be still less when steam power 

 comes to be used. Second, as to the probable duration of the voyage, 

 Captain Sopp says from twelve to fourteen days, at the outside, from Liver- 

 pool to Churchill. Third, as to the number of vessels required to carry a 

 North-West harvest, I answer a thousand, and more, if you will ; because, 

 when the route is opened, the North-West harvest of wheat and beef will 



