Chronology
Every dated history fact across the site, in date order. Precision varies — some dates are just a year — so ordering within a year is approximate. Showing vessels.
| Date | Subject | Statement | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1885-01-10 | Canada Atlantic Transfer | TESTED. - the new ferry steamer of the Canada Atlantic Railway intended for the transport of passenger and freight cars between Coteau and Valleyfield was tested a few days ago, and found to be in every particular suitable to the service. The boat has two tracks, and a capacity for carrying ten box cars or seven passenger cars. As soon as the slip at Valleyfield is completed the through freight and passenger service between here and points south east and west will come into operation. | Ottawa Citizen 1885-01-10(Transcribed by Colin J. Churcher in 'Local Railway...) |
| 1885-08-03 | Canada Atlantic Transfer | The Canada Atlantic Transfer: how the railway cars cross the St. Lawrence at Valleyfield. One of the greatest hardships the railway had to contend with was the manner in which its proposal to bridge the St. Lawrence from Coteau to Valleyfield was treated -- all sorts of objections were urged by interested parties until the Government insisted upon such measures as left no hope for building the bridge at present. The result was a splendid new ferry steamer built for the Company's service and now in full operation. She is large enough to carry a locomotive, tender and five passenger cars, is double tracked, has two engines -- one on each side -- and two distinct boilers and funnels. She is 170 feet long, forty feet beam, seventy feet over all and flat bottomed, uses four balancing rudders at each end. She is a side wheeler, with four water-tight compartments, and her wheels are twenty-eight feet in diameter, with twelve feet bucket paddles, making eighteen turns to the minute. The name of the vessel is "The Canada Atlantic Transfer," and she draws three feet of water light and four feet with ten cars on board. Her engines are 300 horse-power, built by Rees Brothers of Pittsburgh, Pa.; her boilers were built by Messrs. J. McDougall & Co. of Montreal, of steel, 22 feet 6 inches long, 5 feet diameter, fitted with 113 three-inch tubes. Her first timbers were laid in June 1884, and on January 1st steam was gotten up for the first time. She makes the round trip with her load in forty five minutes and consumes eighteen cords of wood per week. | Montreal Daily Witness 1885-08-03(Transcribed by Colin J. Churcher in 'Local Railway...) |
| 1889-02 | Canada Atlantic Transfer | In February 1889 "the Ottawa C.A.R. passenger train, with the addition of two freight cars, was loaded on to the train-boat for the trip across the river" from Coteau to Clark's Island in a blinding snowstorm; the boat "went about 100 feet out of its regular channel and ran on to a sandbar at the head of a little island" and stayed there for a week. Two tugs failed to free it; the passengers were taken back to Coteau Landing, the flour in the two freight cars was unloaded, and the two empty box cars were rolled into the river before the boat floated. Phil Roy was the engineer of the train. | Ottawa Citizen 1931-01-17(Transcribed by Colin J. Churcher in 'Local Railway...) |
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