SAILING CRAFT 73 



till after the War of 1812. The first American 

 vessel launched in these waters had a curious 

 history. After a season's work in 1797 she 

 was carted past Niagara and launched on Lake 

 Ontario, where she plied between Queenston 

 and Kingston under the British flag with the 

 name of Lady Washington. The rival Hudson's 

 Bay and North- West Companies each had a 

 few boats on the western Lakes at the begin- 

 ning of the nineteenth century, and the govern- 

 ment maintained there a tiny flotilla of its own. 

 But shipping was a very small affair west of 

 Niagara for several years to come. 



While the War of 1812 killed out the feeble 

 trade on the Lakes, it greatly stimulated the 

 well-established trade in sea-going craft from 

 Quebec and the Maritime Provinces. The 

 British command of the sea had become so 

 absolute by 1814 that the whole American coast 

 was practically sealed to trade, which was thus 

 forced to seek an ' underground ' outlet by 

 way of Canada, in spite of the state of war. 

 This, in addition to the transport required by 

 the British forces in Canada, sent freights and 

 tonnage up by leaps and bounds. The only 

 trouble was to find enough ships and, harder 

 still, enough men. 



Canadian sailing craft in the nineteenth 



