2 Finding Navy Bay

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with the surrender of the french, mAjor robert rogers, who later commanded the King’s Rangers, visited Fort Frontenac with 200 soldiers in 15 whaleboats. Arriving on September 23, 1761, they found some Indigenous hunters near the old fort, likely Haudenosaunee, who furnished them with venison and fowl. The fort was empty and ruined and consisted of about 500 acres of cleared ground covered in clover, rocks, and pine trees.1 They were delayed a day by weather before they moved on.

The remains of any French defences on Point Frederick would have faded as forest growth returned. Trading continued locally. Travellers looking for camp sites would have been attracted by the location near travel routes as well as by the sheltered waters. There are reports that a few French families and Indigenous peoples continued to subsist near the ruins of the fort. A French trader was located there in 1778, who was notorious for supplying rum to the Indigenous.2

When the American Revolutionary War began on April 19, 1775, Quebec was ruled by Governor-in-Chief Guy Carleton, who was also the commanding officer of military forces in Canada. A cool-headed, tough soldier, he had been a friend of Major-General James Wolfe and commanded the grenadiers on the Plains of Abraham in 1759. Carleton was wounded, carried off the field, and recovered. A student of military history and strategy, Carleton inherited all of Wolfe’s “books and papers, both here and in England.”3

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Although control of Lake Ontario would not be a major factor in the outcome of the Revolutionary War, Carleton understood the need to protect the western supply lines that crossed the lake. Delivery of supplies depended mostly on French bateaux operating along the St. Lawrence River and delivering stores for transfer to larger sailing vessels on the lake. Operating sailing transports on Lake Ontario required naval skills, but Carleton was not interested in using the Royal Navy. Between the wars, government transports on the lakes had been crewed by retired Royal Navy officers and merchant captains.

With the Revolutionary War underway, Carleton took control of all vessels, increased their number, and banned merchant shipping. He also created a service, known as the Provincial Marine, that would be an army-controlled naval transport service. The Royal Navy detached an experienced naval officer to lead the new organization. Lieutenant John Schank, who had distinguished himself on Lake Champlain, became the commissioner of “His Majesties Naval Yards and Docks upon the Lakes.”4 Schank proceeded to draft regulations for the Provincial Marine based on those of the Royal Navy.

Since the officers of the Provincial Marine would hold neither army nor naval commissions, their status was that of civil employees. The Royal Navy had stringent and complicated rules for promotion and appointments, which were not followed by the new organization. The effect was that Provincial Marine officers could not qualify for transfer at rank to the Royal Navy, an important issue in the future. While some in the Provincial Marine had Royal Navy experience, a number were merchant mariners who lacked military training.

There was also the thorny problem of sailing on Lake Ontario, small compared to oceans but no less dangerous due to sudden storms, shallow bays, and lack of room to manoeuvre. Although a few British sailors acquired experience on the lake, the greater depth of knowledge resided with former officers and sailors of the French navy. This also applied to those with skills to build and maintain the vessels, specifically shipwrights. Whatever their feelings toward their past enemies, former French sailors who wished to sail on the Great Lakes could only do so through the Provincial Marine, which in turn needed them. Agreeing to serve included pledging allegiance to Britain. This was not a problem for either René Laforce or Pierre de La Brocquerie, the former French captains who had drawn the maps of Lake Ontario.

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After his many adventures, Laforce had returned to Quebec and gotten involved in merchant sailing. With the American invasion of Canada in 1775 and the attack on Quebec, Laforce served as a captain of artillery under Carleton, who became acquainted with the French Canadian and later appointed him to the transport service on Lake Ontario. Not only did Laforce know the lake, but his other skills included those of carpenter and shipwright, and he knew how to fight. Laforce became the “Commodore Afloat of the Lakes and Rivers of Canada.”5 He left for Oswego in 1777 to build a new vessel on Lake Ontario, the Seneca. He would have known Oswego, having attacked it 20 years previously from the lake side.

Another French Canadian who travelled to Oswego was Jean-Baptiste Bouchette, formerly an owner and captain of an armed schooner in the service of the British. Governor Carleton knew Bouchette from their first meeting at Montreal, immediately after the fall of Fort St. Jean in November 1775. With the Americans advancing rapidly, Carleton was threatened with capture. He hoped to escape to Quebec to command the defending army and administer the town. Carleton boarded Bouchette’s vessel for the run

15

Fig. 2.1: Lake

Ontario trace map with the important naval ports of the 18th and early 19th centuries indicated.

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downstream, but their small squadron was blocked at Sorel by the Americans. Guided by Bouchette, Carleton managed to escape in a small boat at night, and in disguise, reached Quebec. He led the successful defence of the town against attack and siege that lasted until spring. After the battle, Bouchette was rewarded with an appointment as master and commander on Lake Ontario and joined Laforce at Oswego. He became the captain of the Seneca soon after it was launched.6

The British naval yards on Lake Ontario in 1777 were located at Oswego and Niagara. There were problems with both harbours in terms of suitability for shipbuilding and defence. Neither was well located on the lake; both were far from the outlet to the St. Lawrence River (see Fig. 2.1). With no dockyard near the outlet, it was difficult to transfer stores from the St. Lawrence River bateaux to large vessels on the lake. Movement of stores at Oswego required that the small bateaux navigate a large part of the southeast shore while exposed to the open lake. Transfers required a wharf and storehouses, since the goods had to be protected between off-loading and onloading, a period that could be lengthy. Since the storehouses needed security, the best transshipment locations were established bases.

By 1778, Carleton was looking for another place on Lake Ontario for a dockyard. He wanted it close to the headwaters of the St. Lawrence River. It was midsummer before progress was made, and after Carleton had returned to England. He was replaced by Sir Frederick Haldimand as “Captain General and Governor-in-Chief” on June 26.7 Haldimand concurred with Carleton’s plans and soon sent a detachment to determine the best of two alternatives: Cataraqui or Buck’s Island. Buck’s Island was located in the centre-south channel joining Lake Ontario with the St. Lawrence River. Cataraqui was adjacent to the north channel. Both had advantages and disadvantages.

Lieutenant William Twiss left Quebec with a detachment of soldiers prepared to identify the best choice and begin building a fort. Twiss was an experienced Royal Engineer who had worked on the fortifications at Quebec. He arrived at Deer (also Buck’s) Island on August 11, 1778, which he immediately renamed Carleton Island.

Haldimand himself had a personal understanding of the geography. He had been with Major-General Amherst and his army of 11,000 in 1760 when they passed Carleton Island before descending the St. Lawrence River to Montreal. Haldimand also understood the problems of defending Cataraqui,

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since he had served on the war council that had approved Lieutenant-Colonel Bradstreet’s successful operation to destroy Fort Frontenac.8

After an overnight stay at Carleton Island, Twiss sailed in the Seneca with Captain Laforce to Cataraqui. They spent the morning sounding the entrance of the Cataraqui River. This was a familiar task for Laforce and not the last time he would do it.9 Twiss found the land about the ruins of Fort Frontenac still cleared of trees and was able to walk along the upslope to the heights west of the old fort where Bradstreet had placed his guns. The problem of high ground west of Fort Frontenac was well understood.

Twiss was soon met at Carleton Island by Lieutenant John Schank. As the head of the Provincial Marine, Schank had an obvious interest. Aside from the high ground, they agreed that another problem with Cataraqui was the shallow harbour depth, which limited it to small vessels. Laforce advised that the Seneca drew 11 feet of water when loaded, which was near the limit. Schank also noted a lack of timber for shipbuilding and assumed the needed material would have to be brought in. They considered the location vulnerable to attack and “untenable, being commanded by almost every spot of ground near it.”10

In contrast, they found many advantages at Carleton Island. As an island, it was not vulnerable to overland ground attack. The southwest portion of the island had two adjacent dockyard sites with elevated terrain that could support a fort and heavy ordnance. The island had ready access to the open lake and abundant timber for both vessels and buildings.

There is no sign that Twiss inspected Navy Bay, the small cove separated from the Cataraqui River by Point Frederick. Laforce would have known Navy Bay well and must have realized it was deeper than the Cataraqui. But there is no indication that they sounded the depths. Point Frederick provided shelter from southwesterly winds and was removed from the threatening high ground west of Fort Frontenac. The high ground to the east at Point Henry would provide the location for defensive artillery batteries.

Without considering Point Frederick, and after days of back and forth, Twiss and Schank determined that Carleton Island was the best choice.11 Construction began on “Fort Haldimand” and plans were made to develop a shipyard. The naval yard at Carleton Island would centralize control and allow for construction of vessels for the Provincial Marine fleet. Twiss worked on the fortifications and buildings, while Schank directed the shipwrights to build gunboats.12

17

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The Provincial Marine dockyard moved from Oswego to Carleton Island in 1778–79. It took the full attention of both Captains Laforce and Bouchette. While Laforce was the titular head of the operation, he seems to have assumed a role in directing construction and layout of the dockyard, more in line with the duties of a “commissioner” than commodore. Both men spent the winter of 1778–79 with Schank at Carleton Island. By 1779, the dockyard employed 75 men engaged in building and repairing vessels. The Caldwell was moved to Carleton Island where it wintered and underwent overhaul.13

Captain James Andrews of the Haldimand was also involved in developing the early dockyard. Like other officers, he had served in the Royal Navy and had been on half pay but with no hope of being reappointed. He joined the Provincial Marine, sailing on Lake Erie before joining the Lake Ontario fleet.14 Calm and methodical, Andrews was considered by Haldimand to be “a diligent, good seaman and an officer, indefatigable for the good of the services.”15 He was appointed the “Commodore on Lake Ontario,” giving him charge of the vessels.

Laforce, who had been “Commander of Ships on Lake Ontario,” became the “Superintendent of the Civic Department of the Dock Yard at Carleton Island.”16 Undoubtedly Schank’s idea, this was an organizational change that brought the Provincial Marine more in line with a practice of the Royal Navy, which was to appoint a senior officer as the commodore, who commanded all ships at sea, and another senior officer as the commissioner. The commissioner directed those on shore and had responsibility for the dockyard, shipbuilding, provisioning, and all logistical support to the fleet. While this worked well with two naval officers in charge, the Provincial Marine was a creation of the army. It would founder when Schank returned to England and was replaced by army officers. The misjudgments that would follow led to the eventual breakdown of efficiency, authority, and function.

The first vessels built at Carleton Island were gunboats. But soon, a larger vessel, the 16-gun Ontario, was launched on May 10, 1780, in the presence of Andrews and Laforce. Soon after, a sister ship, the Limnade, was launched. A third, the Mohawk, was completed in 1781. These vessels were used for many tasks, including transporting soldiers and their families across the lake. It was while sailing from Niagara to Carleton Island on October 31, 1780, with 120 people aboard, that the Ontario encountered a storm and was lost with all crew and passengers,17 including Commodore Andrews.

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Without a commodore, a power struggle developed that resulted in a dispute between Laforce and Bouchette. As the quarrel became bitter, Laforce abruptly left Carleton Island, returning to Quebec.18 The problem was solved when Captain David Beaton, who had long experience on Lake Ontario, got the job.19 Captain Laforce eventually returned and remained with the Provincial Marine until 1784.

The Revolutionary War ended on September 3, 1783, with the recognition of the United States of America. With the war over, there was concern for those in America who had remained loyal to Britain. Many were ostracized by their neighbours, had their properties confiscated, and faced exile, sometimes violently. Some, including former enslaved people, made their way northward to New York where ships transported them to other places. Some settled in the Maritimes, including Prince Edward Island. Others went to Upper and Lower Canada. The last departed New York on November 25, 1783.20

Besides dealing with resettling these United Empire Loyalists, Haldimand learned that Carleton Island would fall on the U.S. side of an agreed border. Looking for an alternative, he began considering the old French fort at Cataraqui as a location for a military settlement. He was also concerned about resettling the Haudenosaunee, who traditionally had occupied the area south of Lake Ontario but were now displaced.21

Before land could be granted in Upper Canada, surveys had to be completed. Areas of settlement along the St. Lawrence River were identified, and plots were made of townships, farm lots, and towns. Hoping to get ahead of the rush and concerned that hostilities would restart, Haldimand ordered his surveyor general of North America, Major Samuel Holland, to travel to Cataraqui and evaluate the site. He would also conduct a survey of the whole north shore of the lake from Cataraqui to Niagara.22 Haldimand also sent orders to Major John Ross, the commander at Oswego, to begin moving soldiers to Cataraqui. Ross was given broad authority to provide support to settlers, direct development of the settlement, and establish a post.23

Holland and his party reached Carleton Island on June 10, 1783. By the following day, he was aboard ship with Captain Laforce, who was involved in the familiar task of taking soundings of the mouth of the Cataraqui River. The party included Lieutenant Lewis Kotté, a former Hessian officer and the deputy surveyor at Quebec, who would survey much of the surrounding land, including Point Henry. It also included Ensign James Peachey,

19

20

Fig. 2.2: Point

Frederick is the forested area in the background spreading behind the two vessels, Provincial Marine ships, while (1) is near the open area at the base of the tall tree; (2) is close to swampy ground between the inlets; and (3) is near the future dockyard area.

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an extraordinary illustrator and painter, who has left us the earliest known images of Kingston Harbour.

During his inspection, Holland noted that the Fort Frontenac stone vaults were still intact, and there were prospects for rebuilding the fort, perhaps prompting him to consider a military use. He directed that Laforce proceed west and conduct the survey of the north shore.24 Laforce took with him Lieutenant Kotté and Ensign Peachey.25

Holland thought that Point Frederick was the best place for a town, a curious choice given the cleared land around the ruins of Fort Frontenac. He may have thought that locating the town on the Point Frederick peninsula would avoid the problem of the high ground to the west. He may have also betrayed an old-world proclivity to tight, compact harbour towns. Clearly visualizing the area as a population centre, Holland arranged for men and materials to be transferred to Cataraqui. About the same time, Haldimand learned from Guy Carleton, who had been directing the movement of the Loyalists at New York, that several hundred families in two parties were on their way to Cataraqui.26

A picture image that includes Point Frederick came from the brush of James Peachey during the summer of 1784. Widely published, Fig. 2.2 is a detail of his painting that includes an early rendering of Point Frederick, our subject. The view is toward the southeast from the elevated shoreline north of Fort Frontenac. The forested area in the background is Point Frederick with mature deciduous tree growth, and a very large tree at position 1. This is the elevated area of a knoll on the west shore near the small inlet. The cleared area at the base of the tree suggests a boat landing. Position 2 marks the low

1 2

3

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ground between the south and north peninsula where the dockyard gate would be located. Position 3 indicates the south portion of Point Frederick in the area of today’s sport field. In its broader scope, Peachey’s painting reveals a frontier settlement teeming with activity, ruins under renovation, buildings under construction, schooners alongside and under sail, and animals grazing on cleared land. In this, and another painting of Kingston Harbour, Peachey shows a vigorous Indigenous presence, as well as families going about the activities of daily life, such as fishing and cooking.

It was Major Holland who renamed the peninsula “Point Frederick,” the designation first appearing in his letter of July 23, 1783, to Governor Haldimand. He went on “to adopt names to the several places” and refers to “Hamilton Cove,” today’s Deadman Bay.27 The original name for Navy Bay, “Haldimand Cove,” is contained in a letter by Major John Ross written on September 3, 1783, to Governor Haldimand.28 Some historians have attributed both terms as an honour to “Frederick Haldimand,” the governor, perhaps to make up for the loss of “Fort Haldimand,” which would soon be nearly abandoned.29

Major Ross arrived at Cataraqui on July 30, 1783. Ross was a veteran of the Revolutionary War and had seen action in the Mohawk Valley. He commanded at Carleton Island in the early 1780s and would have known Bouchette and Laforce. With Carleton Island being reduced, Ross had transferred his soldiers to the fort at Oswego.30

With Ross were 50 members of the 34th Regiment of Foot. Ross soon discovered the ordnance left behind by the French, many of the guns without trunnions, which had been broken to render them unserviceable. He ordered an inventory of the old cannons, carefully documenting and measuring each piece, then storing them. They would later show up in unusual ways around Kingston and Point Frederick. He found that the walls and foundations of the old fort provided protection and could be used as rudimentary barracks.

Ross had his personal quarters built on rising ground just west of the fort. From his house, he could look south over the cleared ground and open lake, west toward the elevated forests beyond the clearing, north up the Cataraqui River toward Bell Island, and east toward the low, forested Point Frederick and the treed heights of Point Henry. Aside from forest paths, there were no roads or surveyed lots. Travel was by small boat or canoe, ships from Carleton

21

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Island, or bateaux. Despite Holland’s opinion, it was Ross who was to decide the town’s location.

The surrounding land, including both Point Frederick and Point Henry, was old-growth forest. Until it was cut, the detailed character of the ground was not known. Ross had his men begin clearing brush and trees. By late summer, they were cutting “paths and avenues” on Points Frederick and Henry in preparation for a town survey.31 Cutting paths usually started with marking or blazing the trees, then progressed to removing the boughs for mounted riders and sleighs. If it became a road, the path was cleared of trees for wagons.32

The direct line from Fort Frontenac to Point Frederick was straight east and was preferred for boats, barges, and scows. There was soon an area called the scow landing. From there, Ross’s troops could enter the forest and mark, bushwhack, and chop paths along an east line until they reached the low, swampy reeds at the head of Navy Bay. Finding the dry ground beyond likely involved detours until reaching the rising elevations of Point Henry. A path cut to the left would have climbed the high shore of the river, eventually following the headlands toward Kingston Mills. Paths to the right went into Point Frederick. In preparing for a town survey, paths were probably cut through the centre and along the two shorelines of the peninsula.

By September, Ross had learned enough to consider the Fort Frontenac location undefendable. He chose not to rebuild the fort but continued to use it as a barrack and garrison. That was fine with Governor Haldimand, who directed that the land around Fort Frontenac be reserved for the military and that Point Frederick be surveyed as the townsite.33 The planning task fell to John Collins, an experienced surveyor who served on the Governor’s Council and had acted as surveyor general when Holland was absent.34 Collins was to survey townships on both sides of the Cataraqui River with assistance from the military and Laforce.35

Negotiations between the British and the Anishinaabe over land ownership delayed Collins. The Anishinaabe had migrated into today’s Southern Ontario after 1700 in the absence of the Wendat and decline of the Haudenosaunee. According to the agreement that was reached, Britain claimed ownership of the north shore of the St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario roughly between today’s Gananoque and Trenton, and inland from the lake and river for about 30 miles. The agreement was called the

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“Crawford Purchase,” after the army captain who arranged it. It was signed at Carleton Island on October 9, 1783. In return for this vast tract of land, the Anishinaabe received blankets, clothing, guns, and red cloth.36

The delay offered Ross the chance to further explore the ground around Navy Bay, which led him to consider Point Henry as the better location for both fort and town. In pressing his point, Ross argued that there would be sufficient space for a town under the guns of a fortress built on Point Henry.37 Haldimand was convinced and ordered Collins to generate a plan for a town on Point Henry. Collins was advised to open an avenue from Point Henry in a line toward the high ground and cut the other avenues at right angles. While final decisions remained up in the air, Haldimand had confidence in Ross and delegated the final decision to him.38

The ground around Point Henry was surveyed in early October. When a survey to the east of Point Henry showed the ground to be stony, barren, and generally unfit for agriculture, Ross again considered the town’s location. Instead, he decided to locate the town on the west bank of the Cataraqui River near the ruins of the old fort. That decision was followed by the first town survey, which was completed by Lieutenant John Holland, the son of the surveyor general.39 The name “Kingston” was in general use by 1788.40

Collins went on to finish the first township survey in Upper Canada on October 27, 1783. One of Collins’s maps shows Ross’s house just west of the fort, which had been improved with barracks for the 400 soldiers then under his command.41

Ross was instructed to remove any buildings, materials, and stores at Carleton Island and use them to construct the new post at Cataraqui. They could not take the dockyard buildings, since no decision had yet been made to transfer the Provincial Marine. The Americans were not raising the issue of the British presence on Carleton Island, the border had yet to be surveyed, and there was always the chance of a return to hostilities.

With all indications that the new “King’s Town” would grow in population and commerce, the business prospects of Carleton Island began to decline. Settlers arrived at Cataraqui, and businessmen at Carleton Island started to relocate. With the army settling at Cataraqui, the governor was urged to relocate the Provincial Marine to Kingston.

Governor Haldimand was open to the idea. Captain David Beaton, the acting commodore of the Provincial Marine, discussed the possibility with

23

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Major Ross. The two met at Navy Bay in early November 1783, probably on the deck of Beaton’s flagship, the Limnade. Surrounding the bay was unbroken forest, the trees now bare of leaves. At the head of the bay was swampy ground with thinner woods that permitted a view of the upper Cataraqui River and high shoreline on the right. Without leaves, the land features of Point Henry were discernible and the Kingston garrison was visible through the bare Point Frederick woods.

Beaton thought the bay very suitable for naval requirements and noted there was timber and stone on the site for building. He thought that a wharf built on the bay near the rising gravel beach at the base of a sandspit would provide a convenient location.42 The sloping beach and deep water would allow shipbuilding, and there was plenty of room for storehouses. At the very least, a wharf would work as a place of secure transshipment of military stores.

Ross relayed Beaton’s opinion to Haldimand, who took things further. He approved building the wharf suggested by Ross and Beaton43 and also suggested that buildings constructed by the “Naval Department” could be placed on a compact plan that allowed enclosure with picketing. Although the final choice was yet to be made concerning the location of the dockyard, the decision to construct the wharf during the 1783–84 winter was the first solid indication that Point Frederick would be the next location of the Provincial Marine.

The wharf was designed by Captain René Laforce, who likely also directed the construction.44 It was “sunk and filled with Stone to the level of the Water”45 during the winter of 1783–84, a practice employed at the Quebec shipyards, where “carpenters bolted huge timbers together to form cages, which were then filled with stone and sunk to make new wharves.…”46 This could have been started on the frozen lake during the winter. With the disappearance of ice during the spring thaw, the cages and rocks would have settled on the bottom, forming a jetty. The rocks provided the foundation for the wharf. The stone platform not only afforded protection to vessels alongside against wave swells, but the foundation would also support generations of wooden pilings and decks. The stones remain today, deep under the asphalt surface of the RMC’s boathouse dock. The planned length of the Provincial Marine wharf (200 feet) matches that of today.

Some early depictions of the Provincial Marine dock show a lateral extension to the north, forming an L shape. Also built of stone, this extension

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Fig. 2.3: This detail from a 1790 map shows the wharf and two buildings, at least one, likely both, of which was the 1784 “Navy Store.” These storehouses were located between the RMC Old Gym and Senior Staff Mess close to the shoreline and about 200 yards from the wharf.

offered an enclosed slip on the north side that gave additional security against the threat of lake storms. Since the extension paralleled the shore, it also allowed for “careening,” the process of tipping the vessel onto its side using tackles and rope attached to the upper masts with force applied by a “capstan” on the shore. This was needed for work on the hull in any dockyard lacking a drydock. Such a dock could be called a careening wharf. When utilized to mount masts on ships using “sheers” — an early type of crane — it could be called a sheer wharf.

There would have been no reason for the wharf without the storehouses. A “Navy Store” measuring 50 by 25 feet was partially built but not completed until the fall of 1784 and was described as two storeys.47 A second storehouse was finished soon after. According to a 1790 map of Point Frederick, these storehouses were the only buildings before 1789 (see Fig. 2.3). The two buildings were located close to today’s Senior Staff Mess. The construction

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of the wharf and storehouses can be regarded as the beginning of the British military presence on Point Frederick. The boundary line represents a fence or “good picketing” that Haldimand thought would be necessary to enclose it.48

The distance between the wharf and storehouses was likely meant to accommodate brigades of 12 bateaux, each manned by five men who would need the space to unload. Stores could be most efficiently loaded onto a ship tied alongside the wharf but could also be ported to nearby storehouses if a ship was not available. Although storehouse security would have been an issue, the forested ground likely provided camping sites for the brigade crews on layovers. By the spring of 1784, the wharf was ready to receive stores in transit from Montreal to Niagara and beyond.

Ross returned to England in January 1785,49 having finished his assignment. While he is little known or recognized today, his mark on Kingston, signified by the city location and durable military presence, was considerable. He identified Point Henry as the location for a fortress, and the paths and trails he pushed through the bush allowed for later and more detailed land surveys. He identified the location of the town of Kingston and ordered the first town plot surveyed. He established the army garrison in the ruins of Fort Frontenac at a site where a military presence remains today. He established the naval presence at Kingston. He provided the support for the early settlement and ensured its survival and prosperity.

Captain David Beaton and Ross deserve credit for realizing, at last, that Navy Bay had attributes, such as depth, that made it most suitable for a dockyard. The depth of the bay would prove fundamentally important to winning control of the lake in the coming war.