15 Decline

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After the wAr of 1812, sir jAmes yeo hAd meetings with the Admiralty about the situation in British North America. During those meetings, he expressed his view that another war with the Americans would probably lead to the loss of British territory west of Montreal unless a fortress was built at Kingston and a secure route to Montreal maintained. The secure route could be a safe interior waterway that bypassed the St. Lawrence River. Yeo noted that a suitable route had been identified and surveyed. It ran through the Ottawa and Rideau River systems. Yeo became the first to advocate building the Rideau Canal.1

Yeo thought that a secure naval base was needed at Kingston to maintain naval superiority and keep control of Lake Ontario. Without it, there would be little hope of ensuring command of Lake Erie or the Upper Lakes during a conflict. In 1825, Yeo’s recommendation for the bypass canal was perpetuated by the Major-General Sir J. Carmichael Smyth Commission. Its report was endorsed by the Duke of Wellington while Commissioner Robert Barrie was in England and approved in 1827. Work on the Rideau Canal soon began.

While in England with his family, Barrie advised the Admiralty of his reluctance to continue in Canada. He would remain, he said, on the condition that he be appointed commodore, which would provide him with a broad pennant and a vessel. These discussions occurred while the British

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Fig. 15.1A: At the

left, Commodore Barrie’s Admiralty House, circa 1822. The commodore’s pennant is mounted high above the wharf. Fig. 15.1B: On the right is an aerial view of the modern site with the arrow indicating the possible remains of the commodore’s wharf.

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government was again considering its strategy for the defence of Canada. The British remained mistrustful of the Americans, still mindful of the lessons of the last war.

Wanting to keep Barrie at Point Frederick where he could maintain stability during the planned construction of the Rideau Canal, the Admiralty agreed to his conditions. He was appointed commodore on August 23, 1827, and given the title of “Commander-in-Chief on the Great Lakes,” which allowed him his broad pennant and authority to commission an armed Royal Navy vessel.2

Before Barrie’s return, and after the Byngs had left, the Admiralty house was vacant for a short period. Royal Navy captain Basil Hall and his family, visiting as tourists, arrived at the Kingston naval yard on July 28, 1827, and were met by the “second-in-command,” perhaps John Marks. They were put up in Barrie’s house, despite not being personally acquainted. The visitors took two days to “eat, drink, and sleep” and undoubtedly walk the grounds. After a trip up the lake to visit Niagara Falls, they soon returned, inspected the naval yard, and noted that two first-rates and several frigates were “nearly ready for launching.”

A few days later, upon returning from Sackets Harbor, Captain Basil Hall and a companion observed a group of people gathered on the beach at Point Frederick (see Fig. 15.1A). They soon learned that the party of men and women were gazing at a dead body in the water. The body was that of a young marine dressed in scarlet, evidently on guard duty, who had “drowned in our sight under the windows of the Commissioner’s House” on the evening they had first arrived from Niagara.3

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Commodore Barrie returned to Point Frederick from England in 1827 without his family. He soon arranged to buy vessels for his small fleet, with the intention of raising his broad pennant on HMS Cockburn. The other purchased vessels were a barge boat and a small yard boat called the Bull Frog. The Cockburn, newly built and converted to a gunboat, was originally crewed by 40 officers and men, but Barrie later increased the crew to 58 with the addition of 18 supernumeraries.4 With the one gun allowed, this constituted the Royal Navy presence on Lake Ontario in the 1820s. On July 7, 1828, Barrie, on the Cockburn with the Bull Frog following, sailed to York harbour where he was greeted with a salute from the fort. His vessel promptly returned the salute.5

Upon his return to Kingston, Barrie discovered some changes. Plans were underway in Kingston to construct a bridge from the landing on the military reserve in Kingston to the scow landing at Point Frederick. The Cataraqui Bridge Company had been created and stock issued. The specifications called for the bridge to be at least 25 feet in width, strong enough for artillery carriages, with a toll booth, drawbridge, and space between the piers of 40 feet to allow for river rafts. The bridge was started in 1827 and followed the line of today’s LaSalle Causeway, which replaced the bridge in 1917. From the balcony of his residence, Barrie had a prime view of the two-year project.6

Another visitor, Sir George Head, came to Point Frederick in February 1829. He recalled walking across the ice of Kingston Harbour to view the St. Lawrence. Head described the magnificent appearance of the frozen lake extending nearly as far as the eye could see, the distant waters appearing as a black line on the horizon. The lake surface was frozen on all sides, and it was possible to walk up to the ship. He noted the two first-rates on the slips, a frigate, and some gunboats, mistakenly thinking they were all under construction. Besides the St. Lawrence, he believed there were three other larger ships completely equipped. There was constant activity around the St. Lawrence, with officers and men living on board as if they were at sea. Sleighs and country vehicles of all descriptions drove around the vessel, bringing goods to sell. Head noted two women in a light sleigh having a flirtatious conversation under the bow with a “gentleman in a cap.” Many were on foot, and the snow was well packed around the ship.7

Barrie wrote to his daughter Juno in the summer of 1829, when she was about 10 years old. He had little news for her except that the Byng family

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were again staying with him and that dockyard friends were well. Barrie described the Byng children as noisy and spoiled and that the oldest girl’s education was much neglected. He told Juno he would send her a small box of Indigenous curiosities from the Winnebago tribe on the next mail and that she could have some little thing from it for a keepsake.8 Barrie also wrote that one side of the new bridge to Kingston would soon be passable and that he was about to return again to England to pick up his family.

Once more, Byng filled in for Barrie during the latter’s absence. The Byngs had enjoyed their social life in Kingston during their first extended stay in the Admiralty House. After spending the winter and relishing the convenience of the new “Penny Bridge,” which gave them immediate access to Kingston, they threw a spring costume party, with many famous people represented, including King Henry IV, the Prince of Wales, and Prince John of Lancaster. There were also many “Indians” who did a war dance interpreted by John Marks.9

The completed new bridge from Point Frederick to Kingston proved a success. Writing the following year, a Scottish traveller, Walter Riddell, described it thus:

The bridge consists of 17 arches and a drawbridge, making the whole 18 arches. Each arch is 30 yards long and the drawbridge, 15 or 20 yards, making the whole length about 530 yards from side to side. The pillars of the bridge are of stone and all the rest of wood. On the bar at the West end is this Motto: “Let my care be no man’s sorrow: Pay today, I’ll trust tomorrow.” The bridge has a double roadway, each taking the right; no wagon or carriage or rider is allowed to pass over it faster than a walk.10

In 1830, Thomas Mossington returned to Point Frederick once again, this time as an immigrant seeking land. He commented on the bridge and offered a grim assessment of the yard:

Kingston … has improved wonderfully, among other things we found a noble looking wooden bridge thrown across to the point near the place where the scow used to cross….

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The place [naval yard] now looks a desert, as respects business. They have built a noble range of storehouses. The Psyche has been hauled up, stripped, and her frame renewed, in fact laid off again and enlarged. The Saint Lawrence is shoved up along side the wharf, but much broke…. I apprehend they will never be able to move her, except by breaking her up where she is, and it is certainly very bad management to encumber the heaving down wharf with a wreck just in the deepest water. The Charwell is laying as ground or receiving ship, all the others are wallowing in the mud and gone past recovery.11

On September 30, 1830, presumably on orders carried with him from England, Barrie discharged the caretaker crews of the ordinary.12 He would have understood the reason. The Rideau Canal, built by the Royal Engineers, would be completed in 1831. Although rebuilding Fort Henry would not start until 1832, and other Kingston defences a decade later, completion of the canal would allow navy gunboats to reach Lake Ontario from Montreal. With the ability to project naval power on Lake Ontario, there was little reason to maintain a naval presence. While the effect of the order was to abandon the vessels in Navy Bay, it was not the end of the Royal Navy on Point Frederick. A month later, Barrie requested funds to improve the officers’ quarters.

On October 4, 1830, while writing to his mother from his quarters on HMS Cockburn, Barrie shared other thoughts. Having just returned from England, he thought Kingston little improved after nine months. He groused about the condition of the house after the Byngs left and noted dryly that they had been giving formal balls. Julia and the children were now with him and back on Point Frederick after an absence of five years. His wife was fondly welcomed and had “at least 50 visits to return.” Barrie was planning a journey to Lake Huron to visit the naval establishment at Penetanguishene. He also hoped to travel to Quebec to meet the new governor general, Matthew Whitworth-Aylmer, Fifth Baron Aylmer, who he knew.13

Steam technology was developing rapidly, and Barrie considered the feasibility of using it for warships. Even though he thought it was unsuitable, he suggested converting the Psyche to steam.14 The Psyche had been

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manufactured in England using properly seasoned wood and must have been in good condition compared to the rest of the Point Frederick vessels. A midshipman noted that the Charwell (likely Beckwith) was hauled up because it was no longer safe afloat.15

The Barrie family settled into their old home life with a new governess. Barrie’s public school was located nearby and was accepting students from Barriefield, Point Frederick, and the garrison at Fort Henry, but the Barrie children received their lessons at home. They continued to experience frequent illnesses, perhaps due to the unhealthy water, wood fireplaces, and winter conditions. Whooping cough, or pertussis, set in and lasted for months, and in an era before antibiotics and vaccines, it could be serious and sometimes fatal.

Juno, who was 12, with short-cropped hair, was able to renew her old friendships. She recalled many years later:

The 66th were stationed at Kingston then, and there were some very patient officers among them. Captain Kingsmill was stationed at the Point and we became very intimate with his family. The Yarwoods were then in England and we were pleased to have new friends. Many an hour have I sat on a pile of cannon balls on the ramparts inventing thrilling narratives for the edification of the Kingsmills and my sisters. I can remember the wonderful plots to this day….16

During the summer of 1831, Barrie was given use of Lieutenant Governor Peregrine Maitland’s “Stamford Cottage,” located near the whirlpool rapids at Niagara Falls. The vacation group consisted of Julia, their four daughters, a friend, the governess, and four maids. Barrie decided on a summer vacation for the family.

They probably sailed on the Cockburn, since Barrie did not hesitate to use it for personal trips like picnics. One can picture HMS Cockburn tied alongside the commodore’s wharf, with the young family of girls excitedly bouncing around in anticipation of their journey to Niagara Falls. After the furniture was loaded, there were the horses, phaeton, clothing chests, and trunks, followed by the governess, four maids, and finally Julia and the four girls.

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Juno described their clothing: “We all had, for daily wear, brown holland pinafores with long sleeves and high in the neck; and we wont to wear skipping ropes as girdles. Our bonnets were sun bonnets of green crepe, looking like enormous cabbages.”17

Barrie himself did not go. He and his son, William, now 14, used the summer to journey to the Upper Lakes as far as Sault Ste. Marie. Barrie returned via Stamford Cottage, dropping William off for the rest of the summer, and returned to Point Frederick. While at Stamford, William learned to ride, shoot, and swim at a “quiet safe place very near the rapids.” He cut his forehead while firing a pistol. They enjoyed “heaps of beautiful drives” and saw the new trees and flowers and collected seeds to be sent home to England.

By October, with the weather becoming cold and damp, Barrie waited on the Halifax mail at Point Frederick and prepared to take “steam” to Niagara to retrieve his family. He wanted William to join Commander Bayfield at Quebec as a midshipman on the survey of the St. Lawrence River.

The family was soon back at Point Frederick, celebrating the Christmas and New Year season. The dining room was hung with flags and lighted by tin sconces and tallow candles. Barrie had a barrel of punch placed in the

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Fig. 15.2: This

remarkable sketch done in 1831 shows the old Provincial Marine wharf and two covered vessels, one the Netley. Note the heavy anchors stowed neatly near the wharf on the left (black arrow).

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passageway on party nights, always prepared by him and decorated with evergreen branches, of which everyone, young and old, partook.18

On May 28, 1831, Barrie received orders from London directing the vessels of the fleet to be broken up. When his six remaining shipwrights informed him that they would be unable to do so, Barrie requested authority to sell the ships instead. Permission was received in November, and it was announced that an auction would be held on Point Frederick on January 18, 1832. Every vessel would be up for sale, plus most of the rigging. Barrie held back 200 pieces of ordnance and the sails of the three first-rates for shipment to Quebec and London, where they could still be of use. Shipping the largest anchors was too expensive, and he was instructed to keep them on-site (see Fig. 15.2).19

The auction took place as scheduled. A few interested buyers assembled, but it was soon evident there was no interest in purchasing any of the vessels for sailing purposes. Only one was bought: the great HMS St. Lawrence, built for an estimated cost of £500,000 in 1814, was sold for only £25 to local businessman Robert Drummond, who wanted it for a wharf. The ship was completely rotten above the water, but Barrie agreed to the sale on the condition that the vessel be removed from the yard. By this time, the St. Lawrence was sunk next to the wharf. Moving it required pumping out the hull and sealing the leaks. The rigging, which had more practical use, was sold for £1,400.20

The St. Lawrence remained next to the wharf for another year before Drummond was able to move it, which he did in January 1833. Interviewed in 1909, one old gentleman reported that he had watched the ship being towed out by a paddlewheeler,21 likely the Rideau.22 The Rideau successfully hauled the hulk to the site of Drummond’s brewery just outside Kingston. According to one account, however, the winter deck housing separated during the trip, plunged into the water, and was lost.23 A granddaughter of Drummond recalled that her mother described seeing the ship anchored.24 A winter storm blew in soon after, and the poorly secured vessel ran aground and became oriented east-west.25 Drummond then used the hulk as the end of a pier attached to Morton’s Distillery, and for storing cordwood in its hull for steamer fuel.26 Some of the timbers are visible today.

Lieutenant Edward Frome, a Royal Engineer, has left ink drawings made while he was stationed at Kingston, one of which is shown in Fig. 15.3. The year 1833 may have been a high-water year, since the Navy Bay sandspit

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appears submerged. Boathouses, which were used for storing gunboats, are shown near the mast pond and along the sandspit.27 The drawing displays HMS Canada and HMS Wolfe on Slips No. 2 and No. 3, but the vessel on Slip No. 3 is smaller in size, probably due to the damage from an 1832 storm. On the far left of the image is a vessel hauled up onto Slip No. 4, perhaps the Charwell (Beckwith). On Slip No. 1 is another hauled-out vessel, probably the Niagara (Royal George).

Figure 15.3 also reveals the completed stone perimeter wall to the base of the Navy Bay spit, defining the northern boundary of the dockyard. There are buildings both inside and outside the wall along the north segment. The mast pond is enclosed on the north by a floating walkway that extends from the shoreline, in line with the surgeon’s house, to about the end of the Navy Bay sandspit. There, a vessel, likely the Charwell (Earl of Moira), is hauled up. Attached to the floating walkway, near the shore, is another section of walkway proceeding south into the mast pond, where masts can be seen, perhaps partly submerged in shallow water. Adjacent to the sandspit are three large vessels thought to be the Burlington (Princess Charlotte), the Kingston (Prince Regent), and the Psyche. The St. Lawrence is not shown because it had been removed.

With the auction a failure, Barrie was still obliged to get rid of the aging vessels. A partial solution came unexpectedly when two severe storms occurred in 1832 and 1833. The first was typical of the violent summer storms on Lake Ontario, like the one that took the Speedy years before. The storm reached Kingston and Point Frederick on July 25, 1832.28 During heavy wind and lightning, the unfinished first-rate on Slip No. 3 came apart and scattered

Fig. 15.3: This 1833

ink drawing may have been done using a camera lucida. Vessels are shown hauled ashore, afloat, or anchored near the Navy Bay sandspit. The St. Lawrence has been removed from the yard.

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wood across the yard. A visiting officer wrote that “a few days before our arrival a heavy squall of rain, accompanied by lightning, had split the St. Lawrence [sic] of 120 guns, down the centre, and, the props giving way, the vessel broke into a thousand pieces, covering the ground all around with a heap of ruins.”29 Although the St. Lawrence was still present in the yard on that day, sitting next to the pier and resting on the bottom, there is no indication it was damaged in the storm.

The second storm was more severe and happened on October 17, 1833. This was probably the remnants of a hurricane that had struck New York City four days earlier.30 The wind began to increase during the day and gradually gathered in severity after dark. A U.S. passenger ship, the Byron, bound for Kingston, became caught up in the tempest and struggled to make port. While attempting to gain entrance to Kingston Harbour, the vessel became distressed and was driven toward Point Frederick. Struggling to keep the ship off the shore, the captain dropped and lost both anchors. The vessel then struck hard against Point Frederick’s west shore, just below the naval cottages.

It was after midnight, and Barrie was immediately roused and given the news. He quickly ordered a rescue operation, which soon reached the ship. The terrified passengers were successfully taken from the vessel and shuttled to shore by sailors, soldiers from Fort Frederick, and residents of the cottages. Once on shore, Barrie had everyone brought to the Admiralty House, where blankets were ordered and the survivors made warm and dry. There were 36 passengers. With those assisting, along with the Barrie family, they would have filled the house.

After a restless night, Barrie and members of his staff found the vessel still hard and fast against the shore. Climbing aboard, they discovered a leak in the hull. Once the water was pumped out with the bilge pump, Barrie had one of his few remaining shipwrights seal the leak, allowing the ship to float and proceed. The vessel’s captain, owners, and passengers were appreciative, to say the least.31

While Barrie and his staff were responding to the wrecked ship, the storm tore apart much of the yard. Damage was widespread but concentrated around the limestone storehouse and northern perimeter wall. An office on the deck of the Netley, which was tied alongside “Netley’s wharf” (see Fig. 15.2), was blown off the deck and across the river. A large boathouse near the mast pond32 containing four gunboats was demolished. The gable end of another boathouse (No. 1) was caved in, and the west end of the rigging

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house was unroofed. Seven hundred feet of the yard wall were knocked down, mostly along the north wall. Because of the swampy ground and proximity to water, this section of wall continued to be a problem. The debris found across the river suggests that a tornado had touched down.

Two windows in the limestone storehouse, including the frames, were forced in. Immediately west, the stone blacksmith building was raised on the south end and the tin roof rolled up. The porch of the storekeeper’s clerk house was lifted and driven away. The guardhouse fence was carried off, as was the porter’s lodge. The bell post at the dockyard gate was blown down. The victualling store, which then contained a sail loft and chapel, was completely unroofed.33

After the storm, the yard was littered with debris, mostly wooden fragments of gunboats, boathouses, roofs, porches, sheds, and the two first-rates on stocks. The Kingston Chronicle and Gazette made no mention of damage to the vessels in Navy Bay, perhaps because they were already dilapidated and had been written off, so further destruction was of no interest. This event marked the end of the Canada and the Wolfe. Both were completely demolished and absent from subsequent images of the yard. With one exception, the other hauled-up vessels are not seen again in illustrations, although some were reported present as late as 1836.34

The Netley (Beresford, Prince Regent) was another matter. The presence of an office on the Netley, tied next to the wharf, indicates the vessel was still in the water and able to float before the storm. Although later hauled ashore, it would be recommissioned in 1838, although not sailed. Ironically, the Netley, a vessel built at York, would serve once more in an odd and unpredictable way. Other vessels in the water or hauled ashore that are difficult to find may have been destroyed by the storm and later swept up in a yard cleanup. Examples include the transports Beckwith and schooner Brock, the latter launched in 1817 but never sailed. They had both been “hauled aground and condemned.”35 If still in existence in some form in 1833, they might have been carried away as yard debris.

The larger ships had not moved from their previous locations. They were the Psyche, the Charwell (Earl of Moira), the Montreal (Wolfe), the Burlington (Princess Charlotte), and the Kingston (Prince Regent), still in the yard. Four of these vessels, certainly the Burlington, the Kingston, and probably the Charwell, are among the ships clustered around the Navy Bay sandspit and depicted in Fig. 15.3. And there they remained for some years, defying Commodore Barrie’s best intentions to empty the yard of warships.

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