AMERICAN SOCIETY «f W/^tt ENGtNEEB.S,

t INSTITUTED 1862.

.■.,-•;;> TRA.N3AOTtO]SrS. , -

Nora.— This Society is not responsible, as a body, for the facts and opinions advanced In

. -.; ■ . , •• any of its publicatlonb. '^i*^'.'. ., -» '

CCLXVII.

(Vol. XII.— November, 1883.)

THE SHUBENACADIE CANAL.

By E.'h. Keating, M. Am. Soc. 0. E.
Read November 21st, 1883.

This undertaking, although it has so far proved an utter failure in
every lespect, was at its inception deemed of tlio utmost importance to
the trade and prosperity of the city of Halifax. Its promoters were
among the leading men of the country; and it is stated 'hat they were
supported in their sanguine views by the most prominent English engi-
neer of the past generation.

It is therefore thought that a brief account of this work may be of
interest, and that it should be a valuable lesson to engineers to be
extremely cautious as to how they endorse the opinions of other men
before making the fullest inquiry into the correctness of the data upon
which those opinions may have been founded.

The project was to open communication by water across the centime of
the province of Nova Scotia, from Halifax harbor to the Basin of Mines,
an arm of the Bay of Fundy.

437

The chief objects, as set forth by the company which undertook the
construction of the canal, were :

1. To estabHsh inland trade and develop the resournes of the interior.

2. To enable Halifax more fully to participate in the trade of the
ports and districts around the shores of the Bay of Fr.ndy and its
branches, by avoiding the long, and sometimes dangeroas, sea voyage
otherwise necessary.

3. To afford means for the expeditious transport of troops and
materials of war from Halifax to New Brunswick and Canada. It was
stated that this object would not be fully attained i at least m far as
Canada was concerned) until the completion of the Bay Verte Ouaal,
connecting the Bay of Fundy with Northumberland Strait, in the Gulf
of St. Lawrence.

4. It was also thought that the canal would, in some mysterious wiiy,
give an important impetus to the West India trade .

The works were commenced by the Shubenaoadie Canal Compjtny
in 1826 with a capital of *£60 000 (subject to be increased) and a dona-
tion from the local Legislature of £15 000. In 1829 the Government
granted a further concession to the company in the shape of an annuity
of £1 500 for ten years.

In a printed statement of the company, issued May 20th, 1829, the
total estimated cost was placed at £66 750 63. Od , although it sfiems
strange that in the same document appear the estimates of the engineer
(Mr. Francis Hall) for the different sections, which, if added cogdther,
amount to £90 818 168. 6d. ' '' , ;; ^ :^ 2

The design of the canal was as follows (see Plate):

Length of navigation from Halifax harbor to the mouth of tha Shu-
benacadie Biver, in the Basin of Mines, 53 miles 1 024 yards.

Fifteen locks, each 87 feet by 22 feet 6 inches, capable of taking
vessels drawing 8 feet of water.

The artificial works to occupy only 2 739 yards of the whole line ; the
remainder to be formed by lakes and the Shubenacadie Eiver.

The aggregate lockage from the tide-waters at 1 Ascending, 95' 10"
Halifax harbor to medium high tides in the Basin r Descending, 95' 4"
of Mines, ) Total, i91'~~2'

The navigation throughout was intended to accom nocate vessels

• The £ referred to is the late Nova Scotia pound cun-enoy, equal to ;our-flfth8 of a
pound sterling.

438

drawing 8 feet of water, and it was stated that the depth of water might
be increased, at comparatively small outlay, ao that vessels of 11 feet
draught could pass through.

It may be of interest to know that the consideration of "this under-
taking, with all its details," was submitted to Thomas Telford, the
founder of the Institution of Engineers ; and in the published state-
ment previously alluded to, it is asserted that " his report, founded
upon a minute investigation of the whole subject, pronounces his most
favorable opinion of the proceedings and objects of the company." That
Mr. Telford had confidence in the success of the scheme would appear
from the fact that his name appears on the list of shareholders for £450.
He did not, however, visit the country, and it must be presumed that he
had no means of forming an opinion other than the representations of
those deeply interested in the undertaking — his employers -whose cal-
culations ultimately proved falk cious.

The probable annual revenue, "on the lowest estimate," which the
company considered would be forthcoming shortly after opening the
canal to traffic, was as follows : , .

"Fob Descending Fbeight. ' .

"Timber and spars, plank, boards, &c., shingles, laths, staves,
wharf logs, wood for fuel, tanner's bark, &c., of the value of
."20 000, at 15 per cent. £3 000

" Gypsum and freestone, building materials, lime and bricks, of

the value of £12 500, at 10 per cent 1 250

"Hay and straw, salted provisions, flour and meal, grain, fruit,
roots, cattle, and other agricultural produce, of the value of
£40 000, at 5 per cent 2 000

, "Fob Ascending Freight.
"Pickled and salted fish. West India produce, British and East
India merchandise, &c., of the value of £74 000, at 2 J per
cent 1 850

"Amount of annual income £8 100

" It thus appears that, under a very low rate on the value of the above
articles alone, a revenue equal to 10 per cent, on the capital of the com-
pany (£60 000) may be soon anticipated, after making a large allowance
for repairs, additions, and the expense of management.

439

" Yet, in the above estimate, neither vessels or passengers, coal, nor a
variety of other articles are included. Slate alone, it is believed, will,
when the quarries are fully worked, be productive of tolls to the extent
of between £2 000 and £3 000 per annum."

The above quotations from the company's statement will give some
idea of the nature and extent of the anticipated traffic through the canKl,
which, however, was never realized in the smallest degree.

Up to the close of 1831, £72 000 had been expended upo?i the works.
Some of the locks near Halifax had not then been commenced, and
much expensive work remained to be done elsewhere on the line. All
the available capital being exhausted, the works were abandoned for the
time and rapidly fell into ruin. They never were completed on the
origical plans.

The canal was sold under a foreclosure of mortgage, in 1851, for a
debt of £20 000— money advanced to the company by the British Govern-
ment, under certain conditions, which were not fulfilled — and passed
into the hands of the Provincial Government. After havj-ng kept the
property idle upon their hands for three years, the Government sold it
in June, 1854, to the "Inland Navigation Company." In 1856, this
company employed an American engineer, Mr, W. H. Talcott, to report
upon a scheme for completing the works on a very much smaller scale
than was at first proposed. The project now entered upon was to make
a canal for boats, 66 feet in length by 16i feet in width, drawing 4
feet of water ; to disperse with five continuous locks at Dartmouth, at
the Halifax end, and to substitute an inclined plane with a lift of 55 feet,
and a similar plane of 33 feet lift at Porto Bello, each to be worked by
hydraulic machinery .

Mr. Talcott's estimate for completing the works on this plan was
$69 000. His report, strongly iu favor of the scheme, was adopted, and
the canal was opened for traific on this basis in 1862. The cost, how-
ever, proved to be about $200 000.

This company, known in 1863 and subsequently as "The Lake
and River Navigation Company," undertook the operation of the traffic.

As a commercit.1 enterprise, the diminished canal proved a dreadful
failure. Things were no better under the administration of the new com-
pany than they had been with others. The canal was not of sufficient
capacity to accommodate coasting vessels, or to draw that trade which it
otherwise might have taken. The endeavor was made to keep it open

440

until the year 1870, when the whole of the works, lands and privileges
were sold to a private iudividual for $50 000. Since that date no trade
of any kind has been carried on through the canal.

The greatest receipts in tolls for any one year never exceeded $3 000,
»nd in 1870 they had fallen off to S900. The opening up of railways
throughout the Province undoubtedly contributed to this result, and to
the failure of the scheme.

This communication is accompanied with a lithographed plan and
plate profile of the works (Plate XXIX).

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PLATE XXIX

TRANS. AM. SOC. CIV. ENG'RS

VOL.XII NO. CCLXVII

KEATING ON
SHUBENACAOIE CANAL.

>W««BY F.H^LU.tNO*

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MAP and CLEIVATION of^^e SHUBCNACADIE M

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AVlCAT:ONfrom HALIFAX HARBOUR. Uthc BAS6 N oPMI

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