Chapter XV: The Wonders of the Deep

The world’s literature in all the ages has much to say about the mystery and the wonder and the power of the sea. In ancient days Homer made frequent use of the expression, “the loud resounding sea,” and, in modern times, Byron apostrophizes the unconquerable ocean and seems glad to think that while

“Man marks the earth with ruin;
His control stops with the shore.”

But here, as elsewhere, the language of writers who have the Theistic view of things strongly developed is supreme for its vividness and power. Thus we find the Psalmist saying, “They that go down to the sea in ships and do business in great waters, these behold the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep.” No finer reflection of that saying has been seen in our day than the verses,

“There’s a schooner in the offing
And her topsail’s shot with fire
And my soul has gone aboard her
For the Isle of my desire.

“I must forth again at midnight,
And to-morrow I shall be
Hull down on the trail of rapture
Mid the wonders of the sea.”

“The Western Sea” beyond the sunset shore of British North America always had a romantic and fascinating attraction for explorers and navigators. As indicated in a previous chapter, the hope of discovering a north-west passage by a sea channel from the Atlantic to the Pacific had lured some of the most dauntless navigators to hardship and death a few centuries ago. There is a picture somewhere of an old sea-rover in uniform and decorations, studying a map of British North America on which his clenched, determined hand rests, and underneath he is represented as saying, in this regard, to his eager little grandson, “This must be done, and Britain must do it.” Well, Britain’s seamen discovered, after endless persistence, that there was no north-west passage by sea. But gallant British explorers who remembered the motto on a famous battle-axe, “I either find a way or make one,” rested not till they forced a pathway by land to the ocean of their dreams.

For nearly a century after Alexander Mackenzie, the indomitable Stornaway Scot, made the pioneer trail to the West Coast, “from Canada by land in 1793,” a limited trade was carried on laboriously, by trail and canoe and packhorse, in the mountain region. But when Canada was brought into a Confederation by linking together the old Provinces in the East, men of vision saw the vast possibilities of the Western seaboard. In 1851, as already noted, Joseph Howe, in Nova Scotia, had outlined the future in a vivid word-painting and caused others to see the ever expanding destiny of British America. He pictured the day when not only would “the whistle of the locomotive be heard in the heart of the Rocky Mountains,” but when Canadian enterprise would reach out to trade with the teeming millions of the Orient that lay facing the Pacific shore. Nor should we forget that Sir Hugh Allan, the master-trader on the Atlantic out of Montreal, long ago coveted for Canada a business not only trans-Atlantic and trans-continental, but trans-Pacific as well.

These visions of trans-Pacific trade and passenger traffic came to swift realization soon after the Canadian Pacific Railway reached tide-water at Port Moody, on the West Coast, on July 4th, 1886. Port Moody, as we have seen, was the legal terminus of the steel trail across Canada. The Company sent a live-wire agent to Port Moody to look after the freight and passenger traffic. This agent was a young man named David E. Brown, who now lives retired in a beautiful home in Vancouver, appropriately named “The Bunkers,” and appropriately situated in the locality called Shaughnessy Heights. Brown was born of Scottish parents in the County of Grey, in Ontario, and still retains, on occasion, the distinctive accent of his people. He learned the way of Western railroading under that soldierly man, Mr. Robert Kerr, a great handler of freight traffic at Winnipeg, and Brown made such a place for himself in the esteem of his chief that he was assigned to the farthest strategic point where the rails struck tide-water at Port Moody. It was a great chance for a young man, and Brown had the will and the ability to make the most of it. Accustomed to handling freight inland, he was now to tackle coast traffic all along British Columbia and up to Alaska, for his line. And, to add to his responsibilities, he was only three weeks at Port Moody when a sailing brig, the _W. B. Flint_, an 800-ton clipper with a “Blue-nose skipper,” tied up at the wharf with a cargo of tea from Yokohama, to be shipped over the new Canadian Pacific Railway to the East. In some places and at some periods in our day the arrival of a brig with 800 tons of cargo would seem a quite insignificant event, but the prow of that particular brig clove open a new doorway to world commerce. She did not belong to the Canadian Pacific Railway, but led the way from the Orient for the Company’s steel-clad coursers which now bridge the oceans and link four continents under the ensign of the greatest transportation system in the world. But all that was not done in one day.

Following the pathfinding _W. B. Flint_ to Port Moody in that July of 1886, came two other sailing vessels with similar cargo, only that the _Oroyo_, the last of the three, had its cargo so badly damaged by water, through imperfect hatches, that it was not worth much. Brown, the young agent, had some things to learn as to what constituted delivery and acceptance of cargo in such a case, but he met the situation so well that the Railway came out safely in the end. It was perhaps this resourceful handling of a new kind of business that so attracted the attention of headquarters at Montreal to the young agent at Port Moody that they sent Brown to the Antipodes and the Orient to work up business for the Railway from those regions.

This was an eventful commission, but before we follow Mr. Brown on the trip let us go back and see how the traffic from the Orient began with the three sailing vessels that came to Port Moody in 1886. It was through the New York firm of Everett, Frazar & Co., who had some connection in Yokohama, that Montreal headquarters of the Canadian Pacific Railway brought this about. It looks like the work of the persistent, courageous and far-seeing Van Horne. He used to say that he was “going to make it possible to send a traveller around the world on one ticket over one system.” And, no doubt, he also determined that as much as they could secure of the world’s freight traffic would be routed over the same far-flung lines of travel. He must have planned with his usual daring, because the tea clipper reached Port Moody on July 20th, 1886, and the first through train from Montreal had only arrived there on July 4th. It would have been awkward if the cargo of tea from Japan had to be dumped on the primitive wharf with no train in sight to carry that cargo to its destination in Eastern Canada. Perhaps, too, it was Mr. Van Horne who, through Mr. George Olds, of the traffic department, sent Brown to the Orient. Anyway, I have had the privilege of seeing a sheaf of personal, intimate autograph letters from Van Horne to Brown, extending over many years and discussing in the most delightful and self-revealing way, such artistic subjects as Chinese vases, pottery, antiques and curios, in which both were interested. Mr. Van Horne did not throw money away by any means, but here and there in the letters he asks Brown to purchase some special rarity at what looks to most of us very generous figures.

Mr. Brown established connection for the Canadian Pacific Railway with New Zealand and Australia also. Australia was rather hesitant, though interested, but Brown appealed to them on grounds of Empire loyalty—“hands across the sea and let the kangaroo shake hands with the beaver.” Brown waited in Australia and took part in a celebration that gave a hearty send-off to the first steamer on the way to Vancouver.

Mr. Brown made his headquarters at Hong-Kong for fourteen years, and in that time combed the Orient for traffic for his line. He made successful visits as far as Bombay and Calcutta, to establish connections, and called at the Island of Ceylon in the same connection.

A typical case was that of his call at Ceylon. He ascertained that the authorities were contemplating sending a large exhibit to the World’s Fair in Chicago in 1894. They did not know just how best to ship to points beyond New York. But Mr. Brown went to the Commissioner in charge and said “I represent the Canadian Pacific Railway, and I can give you transportation right into the exhibition grounds at Chicago.” They thought this was daring for so young a man, but they talked it over and finally Brown got the business, shipping over a P. & O. steamer to Hong-Kong, thence on his own line to Vancouver and on to Chicago by rail. It looks simple now, but it was a bold venture at the time. It was beginning to fulfil Mr. Van Horne’s expectations of sending people around the world on one ticket.

One great thing which makes travel desirable is the opportunity of meeting with interesting and famous people. During one of his trips in the South Seas Mr. Brown met and travelled with Robert Louis Stevenson, his wife and daughter. And what could be more interesting than to meet and talk with “R. L. S., of Scotland and Samoa,” and visit him in his own island home under the hill, where the dust of the great writer now reposes on the summit?

Incidentally, I might add, “R. L. S.” made special reference to Mr. Brown, as appears in one of his books, saying characteristically, “I am the general provider for my household (wife and daughter). I have just supplied them on deck with the company of the Canadian Pacific Railway agent, and so left them in good hands.”

Mr. Brown, as mentioned above, remained fourteen years in the Orient with headquarters in Hong-Kong, but after having had three serious illnesses there he was ordered by doctors to leave that climate. So he returned to Vancouver, where the Company gave him the position of General Superintendent of Trans-Pacific Steamships, a position he retained till his retirement on pension in 1906.

Mr. Allan Cameron, who has had very wide experience in several departments of railway service in different parts of the world, is now in charge of the Oriental end of the Canadian Pacific Steamship Service, with headquarters at Hong-Kong, and is making special study of inter-trade relations between Canada and the Far East. At the Vancouver end of the business no one of the old-timers is better known and better liked than the highly competent ships-husband, Mr. James A. Fullerton. He is now retired, but still haunts the waterfront and takes great interest in the fleet that he has seen grow from very small beginnings. Captain Beetham, a practical sea-faring man himself, is in control of the Pacific shipping, with headquarters at Vancouver, while Captain Troup, who knows the coast-wise and inland lake and river business like a book, is in general charge of that important department. With efficient help in the offices and special agents at home and abroad, the business in a generation has kept constantly expanding, as the next paragraph specially notes.

In the meanwhile, as the years passed from the arrival at Port Moody of the first “tea clipper” from Japan, the Company’s trans-Pacific business had grown by leaps and bounds. Following the “tea clippers” from the Orient to Port Moody, the Company in 1887 chartered three steamships, the _Batavia_, _Parthia_ and _Abyssinia_, from Glasgow ship-builders, to go on a regular trans-Pacific run from Vancouver; and the latter’s first outbound cargo was only forty tons of freight. In 1890 the British Government contracted to give the Company a subsidy annually, on condition that three twin-screw steamers were put on the route between Vancouver, Japan and China. It was to fulfil this contract that the famous _Empresses_ first made their appearance from the Glasgow shipyards, specially built for the Canadian Pacific, namely the _Empress of India_, the _Empress of China_, the _Empress of Japan_, and they began their work in 1891.

It was not until 1903, under direction of Lord Shaughnessy, that the Canadian Pacific went into the shipping business on the Atlantic. The business on the Atlantic did not have to be created by the C. P. R. in the same sense as the Pacific trade, and I dwell less upon it for that reason. The Company purchased fifteen ships from a going concern, the Elder Dempster Line. This was a good beginning, but more ships soon became necessary, and the _Empress of Britain_ and the _Empress of Ireland_ were added in 1906, when the _Monteagle_ joined the Pacific fleet. Then, in 1914, the _Metagama_ and _Missanabie_ were added on the Atlantic, the latter being later torpedoed in war time. The _Melita_ and _Minnedosa_ came on in 1917 and 1918. More recently the largest ship of all in the Canadian Pacific service, the _Empress of Scotland_, has been added on the Atlantic, and the _Empress of Canada_ and the _Empress of Australia_ began the run on the Pacific. These last-named three are, literally and without exaggeration, floating palaces. There are single, double and family rooms, suites and special rooms with every possible convenience, reception rooms, gymnasium, nursery, swimming pool, concert and motion picture halls, and practically everything necessary to the comfort of travel. At the date of this writing the _Empress of Canada_, the _Empress of Scotland_ and the _Empress of Britain_ are just returning from trips around the world with special parties who have been six months visiting the chief places of interest under special guidance. The _Empress of Australia_, built in Germany and coming to the Canadian Pacific as a result of the War, is most ornately and beautifully finished and furnished throughout. The directions on the taps and such like appear in German and English, representing the before and the after period of the War. This superb vessel, under command of Captain S. Robinson and a gallant crew, in 1923 was just casting off from the wharf at Yokohama when the terrific earthquake upheaved that city and overwhelmed it with tidal waves and fire. The _Australia_ became voluntarily a refugee vessel, saved many hundreds of lives and, cancelling her trip to Vancouver, took the refugees to Kobe, besides giving practically all her stores of food and clothing to the destitute. For this gallant act, which involved the Company in very heavy financial loss, I heard the Captain and crew specially thanked by President Beatty and other officials of the organization. In so doing these officials showed not only their pride in their men, but their desire to magnify the human side of business. More recently Captain Robinson has been decorated by His Majesty King George V with the Order of the Commandership of the British Empire, and has been lionized and decorated at many points on the world tour of the _Empress of Canada_, to which he was transferred. The Captain has said little to the public about the fearful incident of the earthquake and the sea blazing with burning oil around his vessel. But he had to make his official report to the Department of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and despite his efforts to minimize the greatness of the exploit of himself and his gallant crew, the incident is fully abreast of the noblest traditions of British seamanship.

In order to indicate in a brief way the wide ramifications of the Canadian Pacific Steamship service, we add that a few years ago this Company took over the old-established Allan Line, out of Montreal, and thus added eighteen more ships to her fleet. There is a score of vessels exclusively for freight on the high seas in all parts of the world, and there are many vessels, some of them palatial, doing business on the coasts and inland lakes of Canada, in some cases as links to the rail services, in others as extensions or feeders of the same. On the Great Lakes of Canada are five splendid steamships; on the coasts of British Columbia, and from Seattle to Alaska, there are twenty-five more staunch vessels, while on the lakes and rivers of British Columbia there is nearly another score. There is steamship service also between St. John, New Brunswick, and Digby, Nova Scotia, while the Canadian-Australasian Line, one result of Mr. Brown’s pioneer efforts, operates between Vancouver, Victoria and the Antipodes.

All this sounds like a formal list of facts, but it is an amazing record of achievement in the course of less than two score years. From the tea-laden clipper of eight hundred tons that tied up to the wharf at Port Moody in 1886, the tonnage has rolled up to the vast total of considerably over half-a-million. The Railway Company which in 1886 chartered three tramp steamers for the Pacific Ocean trade, now has an immense fleet of its own on the great oceans, on the Mediterranean, Carribbean, Adriatic and South China Seas, as well as upon the wide coasts and inland waters of this broad Dominion of Canada. From the small beginning the Canadian Pacific has become the world’s greatest transportation system under one management by sea as well as by land.

Back of all that material and visible result is the astonishing story of the thought and action of strong men which is difficult to put down on paper. There have been master minds as well as courageous hearts and willing hands at work during all these years, thinking, planning and executing daring things for the expansion and extension of this vast enterprise. It has been my privilege to know many of these men in almost all branches of the service. My judgment is that, on the whole, these men were singularly free from any desire for personal gain. They had the far mightier stimulus of being engaged in a world business for the development of hitherto unrealized natural resources in many lands, and, subconsciously perhaps, they felt that the main object of their endeavours was the ultimate advantage of all mankind. In that frame of mind giants toiled in the early days, and there is no reason to think that their type is not reproduced in the men of to-day.