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This proof is sent to you for discussion only, and on the express understanding that It is not to be used for any other purpose whatever.— (.Sri- .SV. 40 »/ the Cmntituiiim.) iiwMim forifty of Cfivil (Sttfltne^rs. INCORPORATED 1S87. TRANSACTIONS. N.B.— This Society, as a body, does not hold itself resiioiisiblo for the fHots »nd opinions stated in any of its publiontions. SHIP TKANSPOE'l'ATION. By H. (}. C. Ketciium, M. Can. Soc. C. K. To be read Tuesday, 29th Dtcember, 1891. Ship transport, in some form or other, has hooii i)raf.ti«0(l foi- tiges, e\'on lieforo the Oiirislian era. The K"8t exumplo we liave on record is that ol' the Dioicus of (Jorinth. Some exctiviitions recently made on the iHtlimtis of Corintli cxpo.sed to view remains of tliin ancient Dioleus. It wutt ii meanH for land carriage of ships of that period from the harhoiir i.i" Scliajims to tlie eastern extremity of Port Lechtpum. Siiips were run ashore and dragged from one sea to tiin other. Tlie derivntion of the word D'olcui is from the (ireelt verb ' to drag.' The worli axisted in the time of Aristopiianos 427 B.C. antl is said to have been in operatitm aOO years. The site of Scineniis is now called Cofosi. This ship road is thus described in the Lexicon of Cornelius Schrievelius J(oA j-o.- (Diolcos) : '• Tractatus in Isthim " Corinthiaro ubi naves ex Tonio in <K<jifum et rlr.ismm trahebantur " — "A track on the Corinthian Uthmus where ships wore hauled " out of the Ionian into the<Eg«an Sea and neighbourhood." It Wiis such a great- advantage to commerce (owing to the diiftculty ofweatheringCape Malim) that Corinth hjcaiui;, by its means, the emporium of trade between Italy and Asia. The size of the ships cari'ied is said to be about 1-19 feet long, 18 feel wide, with )i draught of 8^ feet. It is said that this method of ship transport was practised by the Greek Admiral iMicetas Coryfas in tiie year 831 in order to enable him to attack the Arabian Corsairs who jvere then devastating the coasts of the Poloponesus. In 1438 the Venetians carried ii fleet ol thirty galleys overland from the Eiver Adige to Lake Garda, a distance uf 200 miles, the motive power being oxen, assisted on the mountsiins by wiud- lasses. One thousand oxen are said to have been employed. This herculean enterprise was proposed by Blasio de Arboribus and Nicolo Sorbolo and was succesBfully carried out with the loss of but one vessel. In 1453, at the siege of Constantinople, Soleiman Pacha trans- ferred liis fleet by land into the Gulf of the (iolden Horn by tim- ber ways, greased and laid on trestles and staging. The feat was carried out in order to avoid a huge chain laid across the Helles- pont, which presented an impassable barrier to tiie entrance of ins fleet by water. This cvup de yuerre was accomplished in a single night. The vesseln were dragged over two miles, so, ou the morning of 22nd April, 1453, the astonished inhabitants saw a large fleet lying close under their walls, and capitulated. In 1718 Count Emanuel Swedenborg ctniveyed a shallop, two galleys and four large boats five leagues over mountains and valleys from Stromstadt to Idefjal, in Sweden. Swedenborg was ennobled on account of his invention, which is described as ' a sort of rolling machine." It was also used by Charles XIL to ti-ans- port cannon to the siege ef Frgdorickshall. All these oxa'jnples of ship transportation overland were undertaken and carried out prlncipaiiy lor warlike enterprises. Coming nearer our own time, we have the example of a Portage railway, fifty years ago, from Holidaysburg to Johns town, Pennsylvania, where canal boats were carried in sections thirty mileH from one canal to another, betbro the Pennsylvaniii Central Kailroad was opened. The Portage lUilway was con- structed to connect the canal system of Eastern and Western Pennsylvania. It was a system of " gravity railways," with ten inclined planes, and up and down these steep inclines the large boats of the " Pioneer Packet. Line" made regular trips until the Pennsylvania Railroad was built, when it ceased to bo operated There was another of similar construction on the Morris and Essex Canal, in the State of New Jersey. In Cornwall, England, between Bude and Launceston, the Bude Canal has existed since 1826. At Hobbacote Downs the canal boats, which are furnished with small iron wheels, ascend the up. lands by an inclined plane 900 feet long, provided with two lines of rails terminating at each end in the canals. The iron wheels tit the rails and the boats are raised by an endless chain moved by two vast tanks alternately filled with water and descending into wells 220 feet deep. There are seven of these inclined planes in operation on the Bude Canal. In Germany vessels of sixty tons capacity are carried overland from the upper to the lower part of the Elbiug-Obeiland Canal, in West Prussia. This transport system has been in successful operation for over twenty years, but Tjhen the idea was first broached it was ridiculed by everybody. In 1860 Sir James Brunlees and the late Mr. E. B. Webb pro- posed to the Emperor Napoleon III. a ship railway across the Isthmus of Suez in lieu of the present ship canal. Marshal Vail- laut, Minister of War for the Emperor, referred the matter toM. de Lesseps.who rejected the idea. . Amongst the advantages men- tioned in favour of the proposed Suez Ship Railway was the con- venience with which the ship's hulls could be examined whilst on their cradles during the passage from sea to sea. The railway was to have been level throughout. The ships were to be sup- ported on a framing of iron resting on numerous whet's and springs, these, again, on ten rails. The ^pied was to havb oeen twenty miles an hour, and the estimate of cost was one-seveuth iu&t of a ship cunal. The passage from the Mediterranean into the Red Sea was to have been made in 16 hours. The speed of steam vessels in the present canal is reduced to about 2^ miles an hour. The Hydraulic Lift invented by Mi-. Edwin Clark, M. Inst. C. B, was proposed to be used for the first lime by Sir James Brun- lees as the means to be employed for raising and io-vering vessels at each terminus of the proposed Suez Ship 7 Iway. This invention, first carried out at the Victoiii Jocks, London, renders it possible to construct Ship Railways any- where on the globe whei-e canals have been projected. The author will have the pleasure of exhibiting a model of the ship lift this evening by which it will be plainly demon- strated that by its means, not only ships can be lifted out of their natural element, but that anywhere on dry land, physical diflSculties, hills and valleys may be overcome by the use of the Hydraulic Lift, thus avoiding heavy gradients and obtaining shorter lines than would be possible under any other contrivance. An hydraulic lift can be used to lift vessels on land as well as from the sea. It only requires a water supply sufficient to feed the engines. The water used in the pi-csses can bo supplied from a separate tank, which once filled is a sufficient supply for a very long time by re-using the water which is all the batter for a little mixture of grease and oil. By the use of the hydraulic lift to surmount ditt'erences of level, and a simple Turntable to change direction, it is easy to build Ship Railways anywhere. It was owing to a suggestion ot Mr. Edwin Clark, in his paper read before the Institution of Civil Engineers in 1866, that the author turned his attention to the possibility of largely cheapen- ing the construction of the Baio Verto Canal by using the Hydraulic Ship Lift, witli boat shaped pontoons to convey large draught vessels on a shallow canal. The first plan for a canal was to have i» depth of only four foet, the next plan was for eight feet. Wh«n Cuptain Crawley, K.K., propo:<o(i nine feet of water on the sills of the cana! locks, he declared it to ho impracticable owing to the deficiency of a fresh water supply, and he objected to the use of the Bay of Fundy water, owing to its turbid nature. The cleai' water of Baie Verto could not bo used owing to its lower level, which, without being pumped to the height required to supply the deficiency, could not be made available. The author thought, that with such a working depth as the fresh water obtainable would „upply, it would be a great advantage to adopt Mr. Clark's suggestion (vide Minutes Inst. C. E. Vol XXV. page 309) : " This system," he said, " affoi-ds ready " means, by the constiuction of a shallow canal of transporting " the large.st vessels in cargo, either acro-tt an isthmus or over " river shallows ; and of removing vessels of war inland, either " for their protection, or for their employment us a means of " internal dofeuse." The author found a difficulty in working out the problem at the Bay of Fuudy without using some sort of a railway to transfer these pontoons from the Ship Lift to the proposed shallow canal. This idea led to the present Ship Kailway in construction at Chignecto. It became apparent that vessels might as well be lifted to the surface of the ground and hauled across the neck of land on steel rails, thus avoiding all the question of watdr supply and its various perplexities in this particular locality. It occurs to the author that such a scheme might be used in all the canals of Canada, to convey vessels having any draught, say up to twenty feet. There is no necessity of deepening the existing canals at immense expense when by u&iug pon- toons you may so easily and safely convey ocean vessels of 20 feet draught und more through the present canals. All .t lequires is a lift at or near each terminus at a convenient place where the water is deep enough for the purpose. The pontoon should be open at the top and provided with blocking gear to receive the vessel on the Hydraulic Lift. When lifted the pontoon can be towed away with the vessel upon it to the other end of the canal, in the vicinity of which another lift would be erected, and ready to receive the vessel and release her from the pontoon, when she could continue her voyage to her destination. The simplicity and economy of this method is beyond question. The hydraulic Lifts could also be utilized as Graving Docks for all sorts of Lake craft. With proper precautions to preserve the pipes from frost, as proposed to be used at Amherst, N.S., on the Chignecto Ship Railway, there is no danger of damage from this cause, or from ice if properly situated and protected. The sys- tem of pontoon floating may also be applied to the River Shallows of the St. Lawrence in many places. The pontoons, which may be called "steel rafts," would draw from six to eight feet water according to their size and the load of vessel carried upon them. They are largely used at Malta in the Mediterranean for vessels of 3,000 tons in cargo. (Illustrations ave given of the Malta Docks.) In 1872 a remarkable Ship Railway was proposed by the Re- public of Honduras across its territory from Puerto Caballos on the Atlantic Ocean to tho Bay of Fonseca on tlio Pacific Ocean, about half way between the Panama canal of M, de Lesseps and Captain Eads' Ship Railway on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. It was intended to adopt the Interoceanic Railway, then under con- struction by the Republic, for the purpose of a Ship Railway. It was to carry 1,200 tons and would doubtless have been carried out if the Republic could have found the] money, which they failed to do. Later on SL; John Fowler prepared plans for a Ship Railway 3 m for thoKhoJivo of E;;ypt to overcomo the ciilaractH of the Nile. Then llio 'rohuunto|ioc Ship Hiiilwiiy, the huge entorpriso of Mr. KikIn, iho enginot-r oi' St. Louin Bridgo and MisHiMwippi JottioH. was piojected and a (!oiico8-<ii>ii obtained by him liom the Mexican Government. This Ship Railway project is still alive. It will Ijo abuul 130 miles long and will connect the Gulf of Mexico with the Pacilic Ocean. The gradients are to be 60 feet to the mile. The elaborate investigation into the raorils of this gi'eat worl<, wiiich toolv place before a committee of the United States Senate brought forward an amount of evidence of experts in ship build- ing which ought to silence forever any objections that might be raised against Ship Railways in general as to the liabilitj' to un- duly strain vessels during their transport from sea to sea. Mr. Eads and his able coadjutor, Mr. Corthell, have don<j valuable Work in the cause of Ship' Railways, by spreading abroad their views and disseminating the evidence given before the committee of Congress. The prdjcctors of all Ship Railways will be greatly indebted to Mr. Corthell for .'-u clearly ^ottirlg forth the economy to be gained by the inti'oduction of Ship Railways in his papei' on •' Canals and Railroads, Ship Canals and Ship Railways," read at the Convention ot the American Society of Civil Engineers, June 2r)th, 1885. The conclusions <lerivablc from Mr. Coi'thell's valuable papei' are " that ;i cansil cannot comyieto in speed or economj- or facili- tiss with a railroad ; and that a Ship Canal must also be much more expensive than a Ship Railway in first cost, maintenance and operation, and much inferioi' to it in dispatch facilities and ^•onveniences." He says : " The cost on the best railroads is three mills per ton per mile fur through freight." Deducting irrelevant items, such as do not pertain to a Ship Railway, the cost can be properly I'educed to one and a half mills- Fiut he also maintains tha'. the cost can be i'educed on Ship Rail ways to one mill pir inn pir mile, because much larger loads are Carried. 'The ratio of paj'ing to non-paj'ing loads is greater,' 'The frictional resistance to the motive power is reduced,' ' The Line of Railway is slrnight,' ' The Track perfect,' ' The Gradients, if any, very easy,' ' Greater result^j are obtained with less fuel and Service.' Detailed plans of a Steamboat Railway on the Dalles of the Columbia River, Oregon, have been submitted to the Secretary of State for war, U.S.A., and General Casey, Chief of Engineers, U. S. Army, in forwarding his report to tlie Secretary of Wai' pronounced it feasible and the best solution of the problem presented ! A Ship Railway has also been proposed across the Peninsula of Ploi ida. Torpedo boats 35 metres in length have been transported li'orn Brest to Toulon, France, oti an ordinaryi'ailway, on five specially adapted luggage trucks. In fact, Ship Railways may be largely used in war to transfer even ii',.nclads from one sea to another, and even into the interior of a country. The author will now turn your attention in general terms to his own project of the Chignoeto Ship Railway— 17 miles long, to Carry vessels of 1000 tons I'egister with cargoes, total 2,000 tons weight. At the time it was conceived ho had not the most remote idea of its evei' being brought to its present stage of com- pletion, and it was not until Sir Charles Tapper took hohi of it that there seemed any jjrobability of its being carried out. It was Sir Charles Tapper who gave it life and prevented the pi'oject from being crushed beneath the weight of ridicule and incredulity which assails any great work of a novel description. The declaration of your Ex-president, Mr. Thomas C. Kecfer, CM.G., that a Ship Railway was the only feasible method of overcoming the obstacle to commerce presented by the Isthmus of Chign«cto i was also of powerful influence in support of the scheme in its early stages. The first essential of a Ship Railway is to have good ports at each te-minus, not only to enable vessels of the maximum depth to enter with oaso, but also to piMvido a receptacle or basin for them to lay in quiot water, ^o tlioy may take their turn to be floated over tiio Grid of the Lifting Dock, otherwise in any great breeze of wind, it would be difficult to insert the blocks properly under the bilges of the vessels whilst they are about t<» be lifted from the water to the level of the Railwiiy. A few remarks now about Hydraulic Lifts and the strains on vessels will conclude this paper, which is an introduction to another paper on the " Chignecto Ship Railway, the substitute of the Bale Verte Canal," which will be read this evening. The present paper is a proper prelude as illustrating the many steps leading up to tlio Chignecto undertaking, whereby Canada will be the first country to actually inaugurate this new and economical system of ship transportation for steamers and large sized vessels. The Hydraulic Lift Graving Dock at the Victoria Docks, London, has been in operation nearly thirty years and has lifted about four thousand vessels with perfect safety. It is 300 feet long and sixty feet wide ; it can lift a vessel of 3,000 tons weight. The successful operation of this first experiment of t'le kind led to the construction of others in different parts of the world. Tn 1876, the Clarence Lifting Dock at Malta was another great success. It was the first to lift vessels in cargo. Ships coming through the Suez Canal stop here when they require repairs without disturbing the cargo. In August, 1888, the ship "Glenasteg" of 2,143 tons gross register wiis lifted with 2,000 tons of cargo, and many other examples can be given. (An illustration will be given of this Dock.) Another Hydraulic Ship lift was erected at Bombay, now owned by the Peninsula and Oriental S. S. Company, which lift« vessels of 5,000 tons register. There is no Hydraulic Lift that the author has heard of in America excepting one at .-San Francisco. Here vessels are placeil and blocked directly on the grid without the intervention of pontoons. All the otheis named have used open pontoons, for the purpose of floating vessels away to auoi <r place to undergo repairs. Any number of pontoons may be employed to multiply the uses of the dock. Without their aid (as in the case of the San Francisco dock) one vessel only at a time can undergo repairs An Hydraulic Lift is in use at Anderton, Cheshire, where one press lifts a trough of wafer fifty-five feet high, from the River Weaver to the level of the Trent and Mersey Canal. Many persons thought a water cradle or a trough of water would be necessary to carry vessels on a railway. A little study will prove the contraiy. One vessel would then be inside of another one, really weaker in construction, as the outer vessel could not very well have cross beams like the one to be carried, and it is also carrying double the load. Mr. W. M. Smith, M. Inst. C. E. of Aberdeen, has patented a Ship Cradle with hydraulic cushions — "a series of plain " tubes of India rubber and canvas filled with water, and placed " side by side athwart the ship from stem to steri., the open ends " of each tube on a level with the deck and the middle of the " tubes bent underneath the ship's bottom, and resting on the " car." The idea is ingenious, and time will show whether it ought to be adopted. It is desirable not to set up any oscillating motion to prevent the undue distribution of the weight of vessels and cargo while on the ci-adle. The inventor claims that the vessels would be as good as water borne, but if vibration should be in anyway caused by this mode, the advantage of a merely soft on-nhion would be 5 b noutralizod by this defect, iiiid it would l)0 bettor to stick to proved riuithods of blockin^^ in the tlrst inHtanoe. (an iilustriition of Mr. Smith'rt plan will ho given.) The author deems no apology necesHary for inserting in thin paper the opinions of well qualified men as to the strains on ve:HselH whilst being lifted, and the opinion of some of these authorities will now bo given. Sir Kdward J. Roed, K. C. B., late Chief Constructor in the British Navy, in his evidence before the Committee on Commerce before mentioned, said : — " I should like to say at first that, as a naval couBtructor, i have no fear whatever of a ship undergoing any strain in the process ot lifting out of the water (a.s would be necessary in the case of a ship railway) that she is not liable to at present in ordinary docking. I would say, further, that 1 am quite sure that the processes of ordinary docking carried on in a vast num- ber of private establishments are very negligent and insufficient in comparison with those which would be adopted in the case of the hydraulic lifts connected with the proposed ship railway. " They seem to think thei'o are no vibrations or jerking, or forces of some kind the ship would be subjected to on the railway that she is not subjected to at sea. That feeling. I know, is a pretty general one. I can only attribute it to the fact that the gentlemen who so think are not acquainted with the strains that ships undergo at sea. " The next thing I would say is that we have ships on railways and wo have them in the worst form. Nothing is commoner than heaving up slips upon which ships are pulled up out of the water. They have to take their bearing lirst at the bow, and gradually come up until they get upon the eolid, and are then hauled up by chains. '' That has been done evei-y where, all over the world, thousands of time-^ in this country, and it is now carried on to a very large extent indeed. With docks for ships of 3,000 or 4,000 tons nothing is thought of pulling these ships np, and nothing is thought of any strains thoy undergo under the circumstances. " If it issutHcicnl on a Ship Railway to provide against some- thing like the worst hurricanes at sea, then I have no hesitation in saying that it is perfectly impossible for these ships on the railway to come to any grief from wind, because the resistance to hold the ship upright on her cradle on the railway track is, I think, very many times greater than the forces which keep her upright at sea. "With a track like that, and with locomotives adapted to it, there would be no difficulty in transporting ships. It would be best to avoid a very high rate of speed. It would not be neces- sary, I should think, to move these ships at a greater speed than eight or ten miles an hour, although I am quite prepai'ed to believe that, with a proper track and locomotives, vessels could be transported much faster." In September, 1882, the author referred the question of ship strains to Professor T. Claxton Fidler, M. Inst. C. E., now of the Dundee Tlniversity, who reported as follows : — "In connection with the ship herself, it will be important to arrive at some estimate of the strains to which she may be exposed during the process of land-carriage, as compared with the blraius whith she frequently indergoos in it heavy sea, and to which her strength should be, and generally would be pro- portioned. " The gross weight of ship and cargo being takeii at 2,000 tons, her dibplacement will be 2,000 x 35-- 70,000 cubic feet; and with an ordinary coefficient of fineness the leading dimen- sions of a sailing vessel of this displacement may be taken to average roughly. Length .200 feet Breadth 35 " Depth 16 to 17 feet 6 I " As an average example, T may, porhapn, take the cane of an actual Huilin^ xhip win su length is 205 foet and breuilth about .''.() It in.; the i,'i'oatist loml displufomont of this vessel is somewhat groiitor than li.OOO torin, hut sho has that oxiiet dis- placemont when loaded In a smaller dopih of ItJ ft. 3 in. The ends of thin vi-shoI are of moderate ftnonoss, while her middle body is very full iiiid for oiiu-third of her lenirth nearly parallel, the ttverui^o area of the immorst;d cross soution for the middle thud of hor length is about r)20 sij. ft., u nearly 15 tons diu- plactuient per fuot of length. One half (.f the total displace- ment is therefore containod in the middle thinl of her length, the othoi- half is diviiied between the two otids and will average 7^ tons pei' foot. This repres(>tits the actual distribution of the supporting t'orcos when the ship is tlouting in quiet water ; the distribution of the load, however, will, of course, vary according to the lading of the ship. Assuming, with I'rif Rankino, that one half of the total load may be taken lobe distributed in pro- portion to the displuiemont and the other half uniformly dis- tributed over the length of the ship, this would give (as a. rough calculation) a load of about 12^ tons j)or fooi for the miildle body diminishing to 5 tons per foot at the extreme ends, or averaging about 8^ tor.s per foot f<.r the fore und after bodies, and this rough calculation would show that in still watei' the vessel suffers u hogging strain of about 7,000 foot tons as the moment due to the excess of weight of the fine ends over their buoyancy. This amount would, of course, vary according to the build of the vessel, being greatest in vessels with very tine ends, but when the ship is supported upon the crest of a wave she undergoes a further hogging strain, which is much more serious and which is greatest in vessels having bluff ends. " The total hogging moment due to these two causes is given by Rankino equal to the total displacement multiplied by ^^ of the length for all vessels of ordinary build. In the case of tho . 2,000 ton ships, therefore, this will amount to 2,000 x ^^ = 20,000 foot tons. In order to compare this theoretical require- ment with the strength of vessels as actually built in good practice, the case of an iron sailing ship 205 feet long is taken as a practical example. This vessel is 23^ feet deej) from the floor to the stringers of the upper deck , and her neutral axis lies at I of the depth. The hogging moment given by Runkine's rule ubt>ve quoted produces a maximum tensile strain of 3.92 tons per square inch, and a compressive strain of 3.92 ; X f = 1.47 tons per square inch only. In the case also of a well built wooden vessel itappeai-s that the strain is within the working stre.iglh of the material in neaily the same propor- tions as in this iron ship. " We may take it therefore that the safe working strength of any well built vessel is fully sutScient to carry this bending moment, viz : Displ. x ^ length when acting as a hogging strain, and ^ of this amount as a sagging strain, and that this bending strain will not exceed the strain that she actually suffers at sea whether she is well built or not." This repoi't goes to show that on a Ship Railway Cradle there would be less strain upon a vessel than she suffers by simply laying in quiet water. It is impossible within the limits of one paper to enter more largely into the various problems that have to bo worked out in connection with Ship Railway Cradles, Axles, Wheels, Rails, etc., and the Society will excuse the author from going into more details, until the problem (which has been carefully worked out at Chignecto) is fully tried there, THE cmONKCTO SHIP RAILWAY -TlIK SUBSTITUTP FOIi THE BAIK VKHTK CANAL. By H. G. C. KiTcHUM M. Can. Soc. C. R. To be read The tirst proposal for a ciinul to connect the waters of (ho Golf of at. Lawrence with the Buy of l-'iinuy wan made during the French legimo by the Abb* <le la Loiitro, the enterpri«in^ leader of the French <oloniiitH of Aciidie. In 1783 Colonel Robert Momo, Chief of the Royal Engineerw, wtta ordered by 8ir Guy Carleton, Commaiiderin-chief of Kin Britannia Majesty's foi-cew in North America, to make u rep<jit on the "state of the defences, with obNervations lewling (o the further growth and "security of the colony of Nova Scotia," which then included New Brunswick and a part of the State of Maine. In this loport Colonel Morse suggested " the idea of " opening a water communication between the Gulf of St. '• Lawrence and the Bay of Fundy," which he said, " would be " attended with good etfacts," and he ^poke of " the many and " groat adviiDtuges which would result to the cotintiy from such •' a communication." In this respect all the engineers v,ho have studied the project from that date have been in perfect accord with Colonel Morse, who, however, looked upon such a comniunicatiou mostly 'om a military and naval point of vi(»w. He regarded the Canal as a means of naval defence, whereby war vessels could pass fVom sea to sea for the purpose of attack or defe ice without running the gauntlet of a hostile fleet on tho Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia. This isthmus of Chignecto is historic ground. Twoanda-half centuries ago Fort Lawrence was the headquarters of Chevalier de la Valli^re, the Seigneur of Chignecto and Governor of Acadio. From his day until the fall of Quebec the country within sight was almost continually the theatre of stirring action. The French regarded the possession of the Isthmus of Chignecto of strategic importance as a half-way station between Port Eoyal and Louisburg, Cape Breton, on the one hand, ttnd Quebec on the other . The English fought and struggled for its possession, as it aflbrded the French a base of operations from which the English settlements could be harassed. The tide of combat rolled around it intermittently for 150 years. It nas been captured and recap- tured in the French and Indian wars, and during the American revolution a small army of volunteers from the neighbouring repnbltc beseiged Fort Cumberland. The heights of Fort Cumberland have frequently beheld fleets of warships flying the Lilies of France, and the White Cross of St. George. It ranks with Louisburg and old Port Royal in historic interest and importance, and was rightly considered one ot the keys of Canada. Should there be war between Great Britain and any European power there is no doubt that a highway for vessels of war, such ai* gunboats and torpedo boats, would be of the greatest possible advantage to Great Britain and Canada in the defence of the Maritime Provinces. In 1822 the Government of New Brunswick instructed Mr. Robert C, Minnette, Proviticial Land Surveyor, to make the first actual survey of a canal, which he accomplished in that year. In 1825 Sir Howard Douglas, Governor of New Brunswick, employed Mr. Francis Hall, Civil Engineer, to report on the oonstructioti of a canal on the line of Mr. Minnette's survey. In 1826 Mr. Thomas Telford, the most eminent English engi- neer of the day, was consulted us to the feasibility of Mr. Hall's 8 p)nnf<. TTt» r«fio"tod that " if this ciinal were ronipleteri, rcaiAf " aocoHM would thoreby be o|)«ne<l, nut only with Quebec and ■' Montreal, but ulitu with thit uppt>r litlc?^ to a bouniilM^ " ext«<nt." In 184.'<, <'n|.|, H (). (!iawloy, of the ttoyal KiiKinevrM, wao emplt.yeil at Ihe joint ex)M>nHe of OHnadu, New Hi-uhmwIcIc, and Prince I'ldwanl lh<larul to rjporl on provinuH Hchi^int^N. lie said: '* It id unnecoHttary for mu '.u dwell up)n (he iinportanee of aa " ur *artakin which Heems to be tronnrally admitted." After thin date public attention wuh directed to liailwayn and it wan propoHL'd to utilize tlui Mteaninhip Linett now entabliithed ou either side of the iHthmuH by tranohipping tVai^hl ov'ei- a Line ol' Railway to be built between the Kend uf Petitcodiae on the Bay of Fundy, and Shediac on the Gulf of Ht. liawrenuu. In 1853, a Company wau formed and a contract made with MettHrn. Peto, BraxHey, UettH and Jackson, and work ooinnieticed on thirt Lino of Railway from .Moncton to Point uu ('bene, a .liKtanco of 18 miioH It wan, however, taken out of Ihe handn of that firm in 185(i and complete<l by tl e Government of New BrunHwicU in 185>^. This was the Hrst line cv/nHtructe<i by the Government of that Province. Car^^oein from the < >ulf porttj were transhipped at Point du (!hene, carried over the IwthmuH and ajjain put into steamers on the Bay ol' Fandy. In 1860, this liue was extended to St. John, New BrunHwick, a total distance of 108 miles, and freight f\'om the Gulf Ports and Prince Edwai-d Inland was then transhipped fr^ m steamers to the railway and from the "ailway to the steams, p lines plying between 8t, John, N. B., and Portland and Bosd n. A line fi-cm Pictou to Truro, a dist moo of 65 miles, was after- wards completed across another part of the Isthmus by the Gov- ernment of Nova Hcotia. Subsequently a line of railway from Saekville to Cape Tor- mentine, and branches from the Intercolonial Railway to Buctouehe, Richibucto, Chatham, ('araijuet, Dulhousie, N. B., have ail been completed, showing the great importance attached to the trade flowing from the Gulf of St. Lawrence towards St. John and the United States. " The business done on these lines att'ords evidence of the large " volume of traffic seeking transit between the Gulf and Bay, or •' between the Gulf and the Eastern States of the Republic." " Whore there is so large a railway tralHc it needs no argument " to show that there must be an enormous water bourne traffic " when once the Short Cut across the Isthmus of Chignecto is " possible." Notwithstanding these railway facilities there are many bulky articles of commerce which cannot, with economy and conven- ience, be carrieii any gr^at distance by rail, and when there is a necessity and expense of transhipment -nd rehandling, the railway carriage becomes sometimes too expensive to leave any protnt. Such is the case with lumber, coal, gypsum, plastei-, building stone, jwtatoes, deals, fish, Ac, Ac. In 1869 H Company was incorporated }>y the Legislature ttf Nova Scotia to build the canal, as a private work, and the intereet in it was accordingly revived. In 1869 the late John Page, C. R., Chief Engineer PuWic Works, was called upon to report upon all previous suiveys of the Baio Yerte Canal, which at this date had again become a live question, and further surveys were ordered b}' the Dominion Government. In 1871 a most thorough survey wae made of the whole Isthmus by Mr. F. Baillarg^, Assistant Chief Engineer of Public Works. In 1872 Sir Casimir Gzowski and the late Mr. Samuel Keefer, C. E., surveyed and recommended a line of Canal approximately on the route of the present Ship Railwaj-. 8amuel Keefer, C. B., observed that in the comparatively isol- ated condition of the Provinres before CoBfedei'ation tlie neoeg- 9 c sity foi- this short line of communication was not felt , but now that they tbim one united Dominion, bound toifother by ties, political and commercial, the trade growing up letweeii them must tend year by year to give greater importance to the ]tri)- posed shorter and safer line of navigation. The estimated cost of this line of canal by these engiuors was $5,317,000, but Mr. Page, on examination of the estimate, alleged that there had been undervaluations and omissions, and ho added to it 25 per cent, for undervalue placed on works, $1,329,250, and for omissions $450,000, making the probable actual cost of work, according to Mr. Page, $7,100,000. Mr. Page declared " that the construction of a navigable chan- " nel between the Bay of Fundy and the '"ulf of St. Lawrence, on " anj' line that can be selected, will be an undertaking attended " with unusual difficulty, not only from the nature of the worjj " to be done, but from the great difference in the elevation ot the " respective tides." The range of the tides in the Bay of Fundy has always been exaggerated in the school books and gazetteers. The most care- ful observationa taken by -Mr. Baillarg^ C. K., in 1870, resulted in establishing the range of tides to be 38 feet at Neaj) and 48 feet at Spring tides. The greatest tide ever known occurred on the 5th October, 1869, at new moon. The range was then tifty- seven feet, six inches. It is well known as the Saxby tide, so called from a pi'ediction made nearly a year before it happened, by Lieut. S. M. Saxby, K. N., which appeared in the London Times in December, 1868. The following reasons for the predic- tion were given in his own words ; " At 7 a. m., October 5th, the " moon will be at that part of her orbit nearest the earth. Her " attraction will therefore be at the maximum force. At noon of " same day the moon will be on the earth's equator, which never " occurs without marked atmospheric disturbance, and at 2 p. m. " name day linef. dra^vn from the earth's centre would cut the " moon and sun in the same arc of right ascension. The moon's " attraction and the sun's attraction will therefore be in the same " direction. In other words the new moon will bo on the earth's " equator and nothing more threatening can occur without " miracle." This prediction was verified by very high tides and terrible storm on the Bay of Fundy. The extreme range of tides in Bale Vei'to was observed to be 10 fieet 8 inches ; the oi'dinary range being only 5 feet 7 inches. Thus while the fluctuations above and below the mean sea level were only 2 feet 9 inches at Bale Vorte, they were at the same time 19 feet above and below mean sea level on the Bay of Fundy at Xeap tides, and 24 feet at Spring tides. A Koyal Commission composed of the most representative com- mercial men of Canada, selected from the dift'erent provinces, was appointed by the Government in 1871 :o investigate the whole canal system of Canada, with the late Sir Hugh Allan as Chair- man. The Bale Yerte Canal after full enquiry and examination, was placed by them in the lirst rank of all the canals of the Do- minion. The following is extracted from the report of the Canal Commission : " The growth of Intercolonial trade depends '' Oil chea]) transit, since the merchandise passing between the " Maritime Provinces and Ontario mu6t be of a bulky character, " requiring large vessels and rapid dispatch to be really protit- " able. When a propeller can go direct with a cargo c/f coal, or '' other produce of the Eastern Provinces, to Kingston and To- " ronto, and there get a return freight of flour, barley, ^.nd other " Western pi'oduce, Intercolonial trade will have entered on a ■' new era. " When No"a Scotia coal of the best djscription can be supplied '• abundantly and cheaply to western poits, a great impulse will " necessarily be given to the ti'ansfer of the trade of the St. Law. " rence and Lakes to screw steamers, a transfer already taking " place, as we have previously shtwn. 10 " With the canals enlarged, coal froiglitn would bo reduced to " the minimu.n point — a lake propeller would always bring back '• from the lower jioi'ts a cargo of coal, rather than come empty " — JU'*t iw the Kiiglirih timber shipn have been uccu«tomed to •' bring the same aitielo instead of" ballast. " Inseparably connected with the growth of Intercolonial trade " is the construction of the Male Verto Canal across the Isthmus, " connecting the Provinces of Nova Scotia and Now Brunswick. " The advantages that must accrue, not merely to the Dominion " ah a whole, but to the commerce of the Maritime Provinces, are " so clearly pointed out by the Boards of Trade of all the lead- •' ing cities of Canada, and by men interested in the development •■ of our commercial interests, not simply the merchants of St. '• John and other places in the locality of the pi'oposod (.'anal, but " merch.ints of Hamilton, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Que- •' bee, that it is superfluous for the Commissioners to do more •' than briefly refer to a few salient features of the scheme. " A steamai' laden with flour for St, John. N. B., now goes '' down the (Julf as far asShedi"e, where the cargo is transported " by rail to its destination. The total distance by water from " Shediac through the (Jut of Canso and around the coast of " Nova Scotia to the Bay of Fundy as far as the commercial " capital of Now Brunswick is about (JOO miles, and the conse- •' (^uence is that there is little or no direct communication be- •• iween the Bay of Fundy ports and those of the River St. Law- •• rence. By a Canal through the Isthmus the distance from " Shediac to St. John will not be much more than (jne hundi-ed Accordingly the Government of the day decided to proceed with the construction of the canal. His Excellency Lord Dutterin, at the opening of the session of 187:^, in his speech from the throne, used the following language : '' 1 am glad to inform you that phuis and specifications for the •• enlargement of the Welland, and the construction of the Bale " Verte Canal, have been completed, and that the worifs can now " be put under contract. The surveys for the St. Lawrence " Canals will, I am assured, be finished in time to commence the " works at the beginning of next year. This will insure the com- " plelion of all these great works at the same period," In accordance with the promise thus given, one million dollars was placed in the estimates for the construction of the Bale Verte Canal, which, according to the late Mr. Page's estimate of the line surveyed by Messrs. Gzowski and Keefer, was to cost «7,100,000. In 1875, under a change of Government, another commission was appointed, with the late lion. John Young as chairman. The report made by this Commission was unfavorable. Indeed, it is said the Commission was purposely appointed to defeat the pro- ject uud save the new Government the necessity of mr.king the outlay pledged by Parliament. The Hon. Joseph Lawrence, one of the ("ommissioiiors, pro- tested against the verdict of the majority, and ably defended the commercial prospots of the canal in a separate report. It was aflorwaids discovered that an error had been maile iji iheir computation of the distance to be saved by the Short Cut. The Commissioners had represented the distance saved from Montreal to St. John as only 225 miles, whereas it is actually COO' miles, making an error in their calculations of 275. Their opi nion was, that the small distance to be saved would not warrant the expenditure. The prejudice produced in some quarters by the misrepresentation of distance (and hence the erroneous con- slusions of the report) endures to this day. The following ad- missions were however made : "The evidence taken, and the observations which the Gommis- "fiionorn have had the opportunity of making, have impressed " them deeply with the vast resources of New Brunswick, Novft 11 " Scotia and Prince Edward Island, and the lame increa8e which " may be reasonably looked tor in their trade and commerce." It was, however, most fortunate for the Dominion that the yei-dict of this Commission, incorrect an it was, delayed for a while the public expectation. It gave time for a new idea to be developed which was happily destined to prevent the connt.y from falling into a most irretrievable error of judgment and from an expenditure counted by millions of dollars,— a better mode of oammmication betivcen the two seas was possible. 1875 the author of this paper submitted his opinion to the public through the Press that a Ship Railway would net only tVilfil all the requirement.'., but in many respects would be pi-efer- able to a canal ; that there was no engineering difficulty .either in the construction or opei-ation of such a line; and that vessels in full cargo could be transported over the Isthmus in perfect safety and at small expense. That the transport would take less time, and the maintenance, repairs and operating would be no greatei- than by canal. This bold suggestion arrested all further discus- sions of a canal, and for six years there was no further move made tending to solve the problem of the Isthmian Transit. The Dominion Government had entered upon a policy of fostering its own manufactures and relying upon its own productions for its prosperity. The result soon showed itself in a marked increase in the raising of coal and lumber, which was followed by a corresponding increase in the coasting trade and com- mercial marine of the Maritime Provinces. At length, in 1881, the author carried out, at his own expense, a survey and location for a Ship Railway, and having found a good line, submitted a proposal to the Hon. Sir Charles Tupper, Minister of Railways and Canals, offering to form a company to carry out the work, provided the Government would subsidize the work, for iibout one-third the cost of a canal. The proposed subsidy took the form of an annual contribution by the Government to the Company of $150,000 per annum for twenty-five yeai-s, which, if capitalized at four per cent., would be equal to the sum of $2,343,312. The proposal, therefore, if adopted, would save to the country the cost of the Canal, to which it was pledged, as before stated, estimated at $7,100,01(0, less the sum of 82,343,312, the capitaliz- ed value of the subsidy, or a saving of no less than $4,756,688. Hon. Sir Charles Tupper, Minister of Railways and Canals, re- ferred the whole question to the Chief Engineer of his Depart- ment, and Mr. CoUingwood Schrieber reported as follows:— 1. " That the prqjeci is quite practicable of execution." 2. "That the Ship Railway as proposed would be u good sul- " stitute for the Canal originally contem))lated." 3. " That the advantage in respect of cost as compared with " that of a Canal would bo greatly in favour of the Ship Railway, '• the co.« of a half-tide caniil being calculatoil by the Govern- " ment Engineers at from $5,050,000 to $8,217,849 : whereas the " subsidy aeked f'oi' by the (Company, namely, $150,000 for 25 •' years, if cajjitalized at 4 per cent, would be equal to the sum of " $2,343,312 only." The Commissioners in their Report on page 51 state: "The "distance fi'om Shcdiac to St. John by the present route, via the " Gut of Canso, to ho 600 miles. I'his distance would bo reduced " by the construction of the Bale Verte Canal to about 100 miles. "and freights would, in their opinion, be diminished by 25 per "cent,, greatly Iwnefiting the coal trade and fisheries, and in- " creasing the volume of general business," They state furtli(!r (page 53) : " Ti-.is canal cannot bo consider- " ed apart frimi the canals of the St. Lawrence Canal as a Cana- " dian canMl, as Sault Stc. Marie is the natural commencement of "the improvement!^ of the inland navigation of the Dominion, -■• " the work through the Isthmus of Chignecto is the inevitable " oonclueion necessary to give unity and completeness to the IB "whole system. It is Canadian in design and must prove " national in its results." On page 79 the CommisHioner* say : " The evidence submitted " points out with ••omarkalilo force and unanimity che necessity " of opening a Highway for commerce between the Gulf of St. " Lawrence and the head waters of the Hay ot Pundy through " the Isthmus of Ohignecto d'viding them." The above statements are now twenty years old, and the ton- nage of the port;* adjacent to the Isthmian Transit has more than doubled itself since those words were written. The Chief Engineer further said, that " Assuming that the " importance of a Ship Highway over the Isthmus was, at the " time of the Commissioners' Report so great us therein stated, "it must be much greater now considering the large increase " since that date in the trade of the country affected by the pro- " posed work." The proposal of the author was accepted by the Goverumeat, approved by Parliament, and a company incorporated to carry out the undertaking. The provisional Directoi-s were : Mr. Thomas C. Keefer, C.M.G., the founder of the Canadian Society of Engineers; Mr. Edwin Clark, the eminent engineer and inventor of tiie Hydraulic Ship Lift; Mr. C. R. Coker, Lloyds Surveyor of Shipping; Mr. E. (i. Lnnt, the well known Steam- boat Manager ; and the author. The Board of Trade of St. John, New Brunswick, passed the following resolutions on the 20th October, 1883 : " Whereas, Means of communication between the waters of the " Bay of Fundy and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, whe."eby products " of the several Provinces bordering thereon m:;y be inter- " changed without encountering the dangerous navigation of the " Atlantic Coast of Nova Scotia, whereby steamers and sailing '' vessels, adapted as well for inland as for ocean navigation, may " be safely conveyed across the Isthmus of Chignec' 3 without the " cost and delay of transhipment or breaking bulk, and whereby " the sailing distance between this port and all ports north and " west of said Isthmus may be reduced abouL 600 miles, would " increase the volume of trade and benefit the shipping interests " of this port and other porta in the Bay of Pundy and Gulf of St. " Lawrence ; and " Whereas, By means of a Ship Railway across the isthmus, '• the objects aforesaid may be accomplished, and thus stimulate " the development of the agricultural, mining, lumbering and " lishing resources of the district contiguous to the aforesaid '■ ports ; and " Whereas, A company has been formed for the construction " and operation of a Ship Railway, witli commodious Docks and " Hydraulic Lifts for raising and transporting over its line laden " vessels of 1.000 tons register; therefore " Resolved, That this Board is of opinion that the undertaking of said company would " greatly facilitate trade and commerce between the Eastern and Western Provinces ; and further " Resolved, That this Board cordially approves the project tor •' building the said ship railway, believing that this is a movement " which will commend itself to all classes, and prove to be of " great convenience and iienefit to our trade ana commerce gen- " erally." In March, 1886, a formal contract was entered into by the Company with the Government which made a change in the annual pr v-nvnts of the subsidy, but reduced the time ovei-- which it extended from 26 years to 20 years. The company was not to call upon the lioveriimont for any portion of the subsidy except what might be required to make up the net earnings of 7 per cent, on the authorized capitnl of ^5,500,O0n, and the com- pany agreed to pay over to the Government one-half the surplus protits beyond the 7 per cent, until the whole of the subsidy 18 d which may then have been paid to the company Bhall have been ranaid to the Government, . „„ aC various unHUCcensful attempts by the author to get par^ tietTo undertake this novel and difficult work -a «d th money at last, in the early part of the year 1888 M. John TMelggs, th^ eminent contractor of South American fame 11 th rough the author to form a company .n London o IZ out the undertaking, provided an extension of t.me could bl ml to the contract already entered into w.th the Govern "" Application was accordingly made and the extension of time granted by the Dominion Government and Parhament m the HDring of 1888. The plans were prepared and submitted to the Chie Engmeer of the department of Railway, and Cai.als, and forma approval Kiven by the Governor General in Council m. May, 1888. The line of railway and docks were then tinally located under the instructions of the author by Mr. J. 9^^-^'-'-^- f ^^^^ - So. C. B., and tenders invited for the grading, masonry, and the various works. . ,. • „ The Company was re-organized in London, the prohminary stock subscribed, and the directors appointed. . , ^ p . The Board consists of Mr. Thomas Wood. President; Co. Pa.rot Moslcy, Vice-President; Mr, A. D. Provand, M.P.., Mi. W.'h. Camptll, Mr. A. R. Robertson, and Mr. Arthur Serena, "" Sr/ohn Fowler, Sir B. Baker, and H. G. C. Ketchum were appointed Engineers. A contract was then entered into between the Company and Messrs. John G. Meiggs & Son for the execution of the work and subsequently £650,000 of the capital was raised lu ^J^-^^X subscription ; £,^00,000 being in preferred shares and £350,000 in first mortgage Bonds. Under this contract, work was commenced by the Company in October, 1888. tessrs. Meiggs & Son contracted with Messrs. Dawson, Symmes and Ussher, of Niagara Falls, lor the eailh- work and ma.onry, for the line of railway and docks, the d.edg- ing of the entrance channels, and the platelaying and ballasting ; Zi for the erection of the moles at Tidnish. With Messrs. Baston & Anderson for the supply of the hydraulic l.ft machinery, its erection and working. With Messrs. Rhodes, Curry & Co., of Amherst, for buildings containing the pumping machinery. They also supplied the heavy pine sleepers for account of Messrs^ Dawson & Co Messrs. Cammell & Co., of Sheffield, supplied the steel rails, which are 110 lbs. to the yard of toughened s eel. Messrs. Handyside & Co., of Derby, supplied the ship cradles, which are made entirely of steel. Messrs. Harris & Co., of St, John, contracted for the cradle wheels, and the Canadian Loco- motive and Engine Co., of Kingston, are buildinj,. the heavy tank locomotives, „ rr ^ u The engineering staff, under Messrs. Fowler, Baker & Ketchum, consisted of Mr. F. F. S. Kelsey, resident engineer; Mr. J. S Armstrong, principal assistant; Mr. M. Fitzmaurice, assistan engineer; Mr. S. J. Symonds, inspector, and others, on bohaf of tbeC . «pany Mr. George Buchanan, engineer, and Mr. Arthur W Bateson, agent, for the Chief Contractor-^ : Mr. J^. Den.son and Mr. G, F. May. engineers for the Hydraulic Works ; and Mr P J O'Rourke, engineer for the Sub-Contractors. The land required for the line of railway and docks was pre- sented aa agift by the Munclpality of the County of Cumberland, The works were prosecuted vigorously from the date of com- mencement to the end of July, 1891, when they were unfortu- nately stopped because of the impossibility of floating the re- 14 maining bonds which the compaay had in hand (viz., £350,000) in the present critcal Htate of the money market. Up to the time of Hunponsion, the onirineo'-'s cortitioatea for worit done ami materials f'lirnirthed by the contractorH, amounted to £670,894 f' , paid in earth, bonds and Hhares, and the enj^ineer- ing and administration expenses of the Company amounted to about £30,000 in addition. Prom a careful estimate made of the cost to finish the worka, to equip with rolling stock, to provide interest on capital, to finance the remaining debentures, and to |)rovide for further engineering and administrative expense-, it is calculated that $1,500,000 will fully cover all expenses. The whole work may be said to bo three-fourths done, and it would take but one summer season's work to entirely finish the Shi}) Railway and Docks tit for opening to the public. The principal excavation yet to be done is that for the en- trance channels at each end of the line, which have been com- menced and are considerably advanced, but can not be entirely finished until the hydraulic machinery for lifting the vessels is erected. All the hydraulic machinery has been manufactured and de- livered. All the rails, sleepers, and permanent way materials have been delivered. The whole of the line of railway has been graded with the exception of about a mile of broken work. Twelve miles of track have been laid, and the greater part of the bottom has been ballasted with broken stone. The costly work remaining to be done is the maaonry and gate of the basin at the Bay of Fundy end of the line, and the masonry of the two lifting docks. The buildings containing the hydraulic pumping machinery have been nearly finished and the machinery in them erected. The ships' cradles, manufactured of steel, and the locomotives, are nearly ready for delivery. The moles protecting the Basin on Northumberland Straits, have been entirely finished and ac- cepted. The firm of Easton & Anderson, who undercook the supply and erection of hydraulic machinery, as well as the traversers for shunting vessels, has agreed for a specified sum to work and maintain this machinery in good order for one year from the date of the opening of the line, the Company being required to provide the coal. The size of vessel provided for is 1,000 tons register; the maximum length would be 235 feet,breadth 56 feet.draught 16 feet, with a displacement of 2,000 tons. Accommodation space for six vessels of this size has been provided in the Basins at each ter- minus of the Ship Railway. This is the only instance in the history of Canada where a wet dock and harbor basins and dredg- ed entrance channels have been provided at the expense of a private company. The cost to the Company of these entrance channels, dock gates, sea walls, basins and moles will be, when finished, about one million dollars, exclusive of the hydraulic- lifts. , , . ,. The following extract from Sir Benjamin Baker's description of the Chignecto Ship Railway, as published in the Nineteenth Century Magazine for March, 1891, cannot be improved upon, and it is, therefore, embodied in this paper : " The hydraulic lifts, when raised, form a part of the main railway as regards line and level ; and when lowered with the cradle the depth of water over the keel-blocks on the latter is that requisite for floating the vessel on the blocks. Walls of massive masonry, 56 feet in height from foundation to quay-level, surround the hydraulic lifts. The latter each consist of twenty hydraulic rams of 25 inches diameter and 40 feet stroke, enclosed in 26-inch diameter cylinders provided with stuffing-boxes at the upper ends, and with inlot pipes for the admission of water at a "^ ,. - «„n ,, ^ -_ „ :.,«u f\r\ tVio tnn nf anon ressurc test pr( ram is a cross i-head, from which hang two lifting links, con- 16 iwKSted at the lower ends with the gridiron upon which the ship and cradle rest when heing lifted. The gridiron, 235 feet in length and 60 feet in width, consists of a very stiff combination of longitudinal and cross girders made of steel and firmly riveled together. When lifted to the level of the railway the ends of the cross girders are suppoi-tod on the quay walls by iron chock- blocks worked by hydraulic power, so that the gridiron then in elfect constitutes a solid part, as bef .re said, of the main line. Hydraulic pumping machinery is provided of sufficient power to raise a vessel weighing 2,000 tons, or, including the gridiron and cradle, a total weight of H,500 tons, the required height ot forty feet in twenty minutes. Hydraulic power is also provided for capstans and winches for raanceuvring the vessels, and air-coin. prp.Hers are furnished for clearing the pipes and cylinders quick- ly of water— a precaution specially necessary in a northern climate. Special arrangements are made in the engine-house to enable the engineman to ensure the equable and simultaneous motion of the ten lifting rams on each side of the deck, so that DO straining of the gridiron may occur. " A double line of railway of the ordinary 4 feet 8^ inches gauge is laid along the t. p of the gridiron, upon which the ship- cradles are run. These cradles are provided in sectional lengths (»f 75 feet and 57 to accommodate vessels of ranging dimensions- For a ship of 2,000 tons dead weight three sections would be used. The cradles, like the gridirons, are formed of a rigid combination of steel girders carrying keel-blocks and sliding biige-blocks of the usual lifting-dock type. Each 75 feet section of cradle is supported on sixty-four solid wheels of three feet diameter, having double bearings and fbur spiral springs of ex- ceptional streneth. Unlike ordinary ship cradles, therefore, a considerable amount of elasticity is provided in the present case. It need hai-dly be lemarked that many interesting p-oblems have had to be worked out in connection with those cr;idles which it is impossible to refer to here. " The order of procedure in raising a vessel and transporting it seventeen miles across this isthmus to the sea on the other side would be as follows : A vessel coming up the Bay of Fundy on the flood tide would pass through the gate entrance into the dock and ^rait its turn to be lifted. If the vessel were a ' trader ' on this route, its dimensions would have been recorded, and the keel and bilge blocks would have been got ready on the cradle, telegraphie notice having been received of the probable arrival of the ship. If she were a ' tramp,' a ship's carpenter would have to go on board and take some leading measurements for the aiTangement of the blocking on the cradle. The blocking being arranged, the cradle and gridiron would be lowered by the hydrau- lic rams into the water and the vessel would be hauled over it by capstans and winches in 'he usual way. The gridiron would then be slowly raised until the vessel rested on the keel-blocks through- out her whole length, after which the sliding bilge-blocks would be pulled tight against the ship's bilge by chains attached to the blocks and carried up to the quay on either side. Lifting would then proceed until the rails on the gridiron attained the same level as those on the main line of railway, when, as before ex- plained, the ends of the'girders would be securely blocked. The ship and cradle would then bo hauled otf the gridiron on to the railway by powerful hydranlic winches, and after a final adjust- ment of the blocking, the vessel would be taken in hand by two of the giant locomotives already referred to, and be transported across the isthmus on to the hydraulic lift on the otber side, whore the converse operations would be eitected to enable the vessel to resume her ocean voyage. « Yarious pinna have been proposed fmm time to time for the (luick and efficient blocking of the curvetl surface of a ship' shull to the flat top of the cradle. Hinge J)ilge blocks, hydraulic rams, elastic bags filled with air or water, and many other contrivances 16 have been sugj^eated, but the present universal practice in dockr ing or in launching a Hhip is to use Himpio wumlcn ^col and bilge blockn. In docking a vossci, nearly tlio whole of the weight coniCM on the koel bioi'k)-, and the bilge blocks sue few in numbov and extend only for about the middle third of the nhip's length. In launching a vessel, tlie weight is traimfori'ed from the koei- bloi'kH on to ihc lauiu'liiiig-ways on each wide of the same by means) of a couple of nuri'ow cradles or bilge-logs, of hard wood packed up to the hull of the vessel by soft wood filling. These cradles carry the ships down the too often iinporfectly bedded inclined launcbing-ways at a speed of some twelve miles an hour. As the vessel is leaving the launchinn-ways her stern is water- borne whilst the bow is pressing hard on the shore, but yet it in the rarest thing for any mishap to occur to a vessel even under this singularly rough treatment. The best way of blocking a ship on a railway cradle will he quiclciy determined utter a few weeks' experience, but at Chignocto the method adopted in the tii-st instance will certainly bo the well-tried one of timlier keel and bilge-blocks. " Nothing calls for special notice as regards the line of railway. It is, as before stated, a double line of ordinary gauge, but the space between the two lines is five feet wider than usual. Very strong steel rails, weighing 110 lbs. j)er yard, and e.xceptionally large sleepers, spaced very closely togethoi', give the required support on the ballast to the heavily laden shij) craille. Near the Amherst end a long anil deep moss or bog had to be crossed, and, as the floating system adopted by Siepheti.son for the original Manchester and Liverpool Eailway across (.'hat Moss would ob- viously be inappropriate for the heavy IojkIs of a ship railway, there was no alternate but to form a solid rock embankment across the bog, and this has now been succe.ssfull)' completed. On other parts of the line there is a heavy rock cutting and a river bridge, but beyond these matters there are no works of importance on the line." During the construe ,ion of the railway Mr. E. L. Corthell, C. E., a distinguished American engineer of Chicago, paid a visit to the Ship Railway for the purpose of ascertaining its merits and' to examine into the facilities which Canada could provide for the carrying trade of the West, and, in a letter published in the Toronto Globe, he reports as follows respecting the Ship Railway: " The entire W(U'k, in all its general features, as well as in its' " details, has been very carefully studied out, and the material " has been properly arranged and well put together for all of the " mechanical work. I also made careful inquiries and obtained " reliable data in re^vrd to the commercial features of this pro- " ject. There is no question, in my opinion, about the entii'e' " success of this work from a commercial and financial point of " view. There is a largo commerce now existing which will "certainly seek this shorter and more economical route. The " opening of a line of communication for ships across the isthmus " will develope new commerce, and I do not hesitate to predict, " in view of all that 1 heard and saw in regard to the commercial " featm-es, that within throe years from the opening of the line for " business it will have all it can handle. A Company allied tO; " the Ship Railway Company has been formed in Kngland for the> " pui-pose of building for this new route several side-wheel steam- " boats adapted to the trade between Prince Edward Island and " the New Brunswick and Maine coasr, which, I have no doubt, " will have all the business they can attend to." Mr. Corthell also in a paper read before this Society in Febru- ary, 1890, referring to the Chignecto Ship Railway, repeated that, " There is no doubt in his mind of the entire success in the " construction, operation and economy of this railway. There is " iiothing novel la the method only in the combination of " methods. Vessels are at present raised out of the water con- " tinually, whether loaded or unloaded, on hydraulic lifts either " by Marine Railways or by Floating Docks. 17 « "Tho increasing size of rolling stock, both motive power and •' fVeight caPH, on ordinary railroads, haw proven the great ad. " vantage in carrying greater and greater loads at one time. A " few years ago 10-ton cars were the rule in this countiy. Now * 30 tons are becoming more and moie numerous. Cars lor still " larger loads for special purposes are becoming more and more " common, and the locomotives have increased in weight and " power from 30 and 40 tons to 90 and 100 tons, and the cost of " transportation has been reduced from 2J cents to J cent per ton " mile. " A Ship Railway is the logical result of the continual im- " provements in railroad methods from the time of the first rail- " road to the present. If it is possible to raise vessels and " tiunsport them overland with safety and economy, why should " they be compelled to make great detouis costing time and " money ? " If the immense business between the St. Lawrence and the " coast of New Brunswick and New England can save 500 to 700 " miles by operating a railway 17 mile-i long across the Chig- " necto Isthmus, why should it continue to take this long and " dangerous voyage around Nova Scotia ?" According to the official returns from tho Report on Trade and Navigation for the year ending 30th June, 1890, the tonnage arriving and departing at the various ports contiguous to the Ship Railway was as follows : — Vessels. Tons. Gulf of St. Lawrence 28,787 6,422,976 Prince Edward Island 8,703 1,362,861 Bay of Fundy 33,345 3,855,932 Grand Total 70,925 11,641,769 Thf rate of inciease for several years has been half a million tons per annum according to official Blue Books. This tonnage does not include any port west of Quebec or on the Atlantic coant of the Peninsula of Nova Scotia. Although the Ports of Portland and Boston might come within the sphere of trade, they, like Montreal, Toronto, and ports west of Quebec, are omitted in the above table. The Comprny's estimate of traffic is based on only seven per cent, of the tonnage of the Gulf and Bay, or 800,000 tons. Should the Ship Railway draw this moderate proporoion of the tonnage it is estimated that there would be a revenue nearly sufficient to pay a dividend of seven per cent, on the capital of the Company without calling on the Government for any portion of the guarantee, as appears from the following figures : — 800,000 tons freight at an average of 50 cents per ton. ...$400,000 800,000 tons vessels' hulls at an average of 12^ cts. per ton. 100,000 Estimated Receipts $500,000 Working expenses and administration as per estimate of Sir B. Baker, being 30 per cent, of the receipts 150,000 Net Revenue «340,000 Setting apart the subsidy to provide intere>t on the bonds for 20 years, a traffic of only 320,000 tons at the above rates, would provide 7 per cent, on the preferred share capital, and 7 per cent, on the ordinary share capital, thus : 320,000 tons at the average rate of 50 cents per ton $160,000 320,000 tons vessels' hulls at the average rate of 12i cents per ton 40,000 Receipts $200,000 Working expenses, 30 per cent 60,000 Net Revenue $140,000 7 per cent, on $1,150,000 preferred shares $105,000 7 percent, on $500,000 preferred shares 35,0ft0 Total dividend $140,000 18 The working oxpenHes of the Shij) Railway, hh comparod witii a railway of tho ordinary type, should bo very Mmali indeed. The lino in i)orfectly utrait^'ht. Ono iialf of it is absolutely level. The othor half has gradients not exceeding 10 feet to the mile. The workH are solidly built, the rails heavy ; tho sloeperH of un- usual si/e; the ballant, broken rock, it is believed the cost of maintenan(!o of way will be reduced to a minimum. It may be considered a freight line, without tho usual terminal exponsos. The freight, that is the vessel with its car^'o, loads and unlcadH itself automaiically on and otf the railway. Tho speed will be slow, not exceeding Ion miles an hour. Fuel is cheap in the coal producing county of Cumberland, Nova Scotia. Besides the cost of lifting vessels to the level of the railway and .lopositing thorn afterwards into the .sea, which is very small, tho principal cost will be the locomotive power, which on ordinary railways bears the proportion of about ]^h per cent, to the gross earnings, [t is believed, therefore, that tho estimate of 30 poi' cent, for working expenses is full. The estimate of working expenses was based on the usual cost of maintenance and repairs on a double track railway for the whole year. Without any especial effort to economize, the Ship liaihvay might be worked (or «50,000 per annum, which would, of course, permit of the same profits with very much loss tonnage. A regular daily lino of steamers between St. John and Charlottetown over the line of Ship Rail- way would contribute largely to the business expected. The Chignecto Steamship Company has boon formed in London, with a capital of £60,000. for this purpose ; the untoward financial crisis so far has prevented this object from being consummated, but it is steadily kept in view. The tolls to be charged on the Ship Railway must be sanction- ed by the Governor-General in Council before being levied and collected by the Company. The estimated average rate of fifty cents per ton is therefore only suggested as the probable rate that tho Government would be inclined to sanction for the freight cari'ied, for it is, in fact, very similar to the charges prevalent on the Wolland Canal] which have been levied by the Government itself. The proposed rates, which, although tliey amount in tho average to half a dollar a ton, will scarcely be felt when levied on the bushel or barrel by the shipper, who is accustojned to the I>igh freights levied by the foreign steam lines running through tho Straits of Canso to Boston. At this rate one dollar will bo saved on all freight going round to St. John by water, and more than that by rail. The freight from St. John to Bale Verte being $2.50 per ton, while that to the head of the Bay of Pundy is one dollar per ton, there is a difference of $1.50 per ton, and deducting 50 cents per ton for the transport across the Isthmu.s, there is one dollar saved in the freight, not to count tho saving of time and insurance. The charges on freight cargoes would be at the same rate, no matter by what description of vessel carried, but the rates on the hull wonld probably be required to be on a sliding scale accoi-d- ing to the size of the vessel, the highest rate being on the smallest vessels, becau«e a small-sized vessel vvould occupy the railway as long us a large sized one, and the revenue otherwise obtainable from small vessels would not bring a protit to the Company. The estimated proposed average rate of 12^ cents per ton would be a fair rate to charge on hulls as compared with that on Canals where the cost of towage is considered ; the latter being done on the Ship Railw-.v by locomotives and on the Canals by steam tug-boats. Respecting the time to be saved and the safety of vessels on the Ship Railway, no less than twenty-four prominent firms of shipowners in London and Liverpool, having experience of the coast of Kova Scotia, have certitied that a saving of ten days would generally be made by sailing vessels clearing from ports 19 on the Gnlf, ami making for St. John, Portland and Boston, by uninfi the Ship Riiilway, and so avoiding the weathering of Cape North and Capo Curmo, as by piesent route. They have corliliod almi that loaded vohselM would not be injuiod on the Uailway, if supported ou a cradle such as is used on all marini' Hllpn. The most prominent naval anhitectM of the day, Sir K J. Ui'od, the late Sir William Peaice, Sir Nathaniel Baiiiaby, and Mi . William John, all cerufy to there l>eing no danger to the ship nor cargo during tranH|K)rtation from sea to wea. Mr. Bindon B. Stoney, the authority on "strains," say-t, " A ship resembles a tubular structure, more or less rectangular in section, underneath whith the points of suppo-t are continually moving, so that when the waves are high and far apart the dock and bottom of the vessel are alternat'»ly exton led and compressed, ir the same way that the rtanges of a continuous girder are, near the points of inflection, when traversed by a passing train." No 8i!ch strain as this is possible on the Shi|) Railway. There is reason to believe, therefore, that the Ship Railway, when completed, will be an undoubted success in every way, and become the pioneer of many works of like cli lacter. In conclusion, the author would allude to the assiduous care and attention bestowed on this work by his colleagues. Sir John Fowler and Sir Benjamin Baker, the engineoi-s who designed and carried to a successful completion the equally novel enter- prise of the F(U'th Bridge. Without their powerful aid and co- operation tho work could hardly have reached its pre:jent ad- vanced state of progress. Should it be the success we anticipate Mr. Moiggsalso, who undertook to raise the capital in I'Ingland, as well as to contract for the execution of all the works, will be entitled to a principal share of the credit which should attach U> the inauguration of a new and economic system of transportation for the benefit alike of Canada and the whole world.