Canadian Coast Guard

Hydrography

With the passing of the Naval Service Act, some of the portfolios of Marine and Fisheries changed hands. In particular, Hydrographic Survey, the Tidal and Current Survey and the Wireless Telegraph Service, which we have not so far discussed, were considered to be more appropriate to the naval administration. There they remained until 1922 when, on the formation of the Department of National Defence, they were once more returned to the responsibility of Marine and Fisheries.

Before 1883 all hydrographic work in Canada was carried out by the British Admiralty under an arrangement whereby, after Confederation, Canada was assessed with half the cost. We have already made a brief mention of Admiral Bayfield who, as Admiralty Surveyor, had spent forty years in the making of Canadian charts before his retirement in 1856. There were few sections along the principal shipping routes from Halifax to the Lakehead which had not been charted under his personal supervision, and "Bayfield Charts" were highly valued by the shipmasters of the day. In course of time, with the increase in numbers and size of steamer traffic on the Great Lakes, the Bayfield charts became inadequate and out of date and, in the late seventies, the Department of Marine and Fisheries began to receive complaints.

The steamer Asia
The Asia foundered in bad weather, off Byng Inlet, Georgian Bay, with the loss of 100 lives in 1882. At the subsequent enquiry it was stated that she was "an old canal propeller" not intended to run on the Great Lakes. Two survivors, Miss Morrison and Mr. Tinkiss, reached land in an exhausted condition and were saved by an Indian who took them to Parry Sound in his canoe. The Georgian Bay survey was commenced soon afterwards.

As sometimes happens, decision to take action in a new field of government endeavour was hastened by a tragic accident. In September 1882 the steamer Asia, on passage from Collingwood to Sault Ste. Marie, was lost in Georgian Bay in exceptionally bad weather. Over 100 people lost their lives in this disaster and, as the only two survivors were passengers who drifted ashore in exhausted condition before being rescued, it was never definitely established whether the Asia had foundered owing to stress of weather or by stranding on an uncharted rock. Either way, the government came in for criticism. A coroners jury at the subsequent inquest, as reported in the Toronto Daily Mail of October 13, 1882, condemned "gross culpable negligence" and a general laxity of safety precautions on board; the vessel was carrying more passengers than permitted by her certificate which, in any case, had lapsed. Apart from public criticism of the Board of Steamboat Inspection, the government was urged to resurvey the Georgian Bay area when it became apparent that the Asia might well have struck an uncharted rock.

As a result of these events, and on request from the Canadian Government, Staff Commander John G. Boulton RN was loaned by the British Admiralty to conduct a survey of Georgian Bay under the direction of the Department of Marine and Fisheries. Commander Boulton was no stranger to Canadian waters as, since 1871, he had been engaged in the Admiralty survey of Newfoundland and the Atlantic coast, and he lost no time in getting to work and in appointing an assistant. In the annual report for 1884, Boulton writes:

On the 22nd, March, Mr. W. J. Stewart, Lieutenant Canadian Militia, First Graduate and Gold Medallist of 1883 from the Royal Military Academy, Kingston, was appointed my assistant. The manner in which he was able to take up and duplicate my previous calculations showed the sound mathematical training his abilities had enabled him to take advantage of at the Royal Military Academy.

As it turned out, this first appreciation of a young graduate was very sound; W. J. Stewart would become the first Canadian Chief Hydrographer, holding that office from 1904 to 1925. He is remembered today in the surveying ship Wm. J. Stewart which was built at Collingwood in 1932.

Boulton and Stewart together formed a first class team and they were good leaders as well as being surveyors of the highest class. In those days, when virtually all sounding had to be taken from ships boats under oars or sail, surveying was more arduous than it is today. In this connection Boulton wrote:

". . . I think it advisable that the Department should know that, to the crew, hydrographical surveying is monotonous work, which is the hardest kind of all work that, unlike seafaring men in other employs on these waters, they do not see their homes from the beginning to the end of the season. . . . It is a responsible duty and can only be entrusted to intelligent and trustworthy men, I mention these circumstances."

Commander Boulton continued:

". . . to show you that, in order to induce first class men to join and stay in this work, good wages must be given, and every material comfort that the circumstances can afford."

One hopes that the Department was suitably impressed; certainly Boulton and Stewart were rewarded by the loyalty of their men, whose good service they never failed to bring to the attention of the authorities in Ottawa. When the long days boat work was over, the surveyors would work up their notes in the cabin of the little steamer Bayfield and prepare the survey for reproduction. There were as yet no facilities in Canada for the engraving of charts which, until 1904, were forwarded to the Admiralty Hydrographer in England for publication.

On the Pacific and Atlantic coasts, hydrography continued to be carried out by the Admiralty until long after the commencement of the Marine and Fisheries work of 1883 in Georgian Bay. Apart from the urgency of the Georgian Bay survey, it was inevitable, on the principle of self help, that Canadian inland waters would be the first to be charted by Canada. With the opening up of trade routes in poorly charted waters all over the world, the Admiralty surveying service had become increasingly unable to cope with the demand for new charts. By 1904 they were anxious to withdraw their surveying ships and staff from all Canadian work and, in that year, the Department of Marine and Fisheries formed a Hydrographic Branch to take over the coastal survey as well as the Great Lakes work.

With the formation of the Hydrographic Branch of the Department surveying became a service within a service. Hydrographic units from the Department of Railways and Canals, and from Public Works, were absorbed into the new branch and, apart from the continuing commitment in Newfoundland and Labrador, the Admiralty survey ships severed their long connection with Canadian hydrography which reached back to the days of Captain Cook. The Canadian Hydrographic Service, as has been related, was transferred to the Naval Service in 1910, returned to Marine and Fisheries in 1922 and eventually, on the formation of the Department of Transport in 1936, was again transferred to the Department of Mines and Resources, to whom successors it now belongs.