CHAPTER VIII 



STEAMERS 



STEAMERS and all other machine - driven 

 craft are of very much greater importance to 

 Canada now than canoes and sailing craft 

 together. But their story can be told in a 

 chapter no longer than the one devoted to 

 canoes alone ; and this for several reasons. 

 The tale of the canoe begins somewhere in the 

 immemorial past and is still being told to-day. 

 The story of the sailing ship is not so old as 

 this. But it is as old as the history of Canada. 

 It is inseparably connected with Canada's for- 

 tunes in peace and war. It is Canada's best 

 sea story of the recent past. And, to a far 

 greater extent than the tale of the canoe, it is 

 also a story of the present and the immediate 

 future. Moreover, sailing craft helped to 

 make turning points of Canadian history as 

 only a single steamer ever has. Sailing craft 

 made Canada known distinctively among every 

 great seafaring people as steamers never have. 



