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The St. Lawrence was known to many people long before it was said to have been
"discovered" by French explorer Jacques Cartier. Canada's Aboriginal
peoples were the first humans to travel its waters, but other
peoples had visited the North American continent before French explorer Jacques
Cartier sailed along the banks of the St. Lawrence
River and Gulf. Many immigrants settled near the St. Lawrence, earning their
livelihood by working on or near the river. The St. Lawrence River is a storybook
of human history and treasure trove of fun
facts.
The St. Lawrence River and Gulf have a lot of secrets hidden in the depths of
their turbulent waters, where hundreds of ships lay in watery graves, some containing
lost treasure. Along the shore, you can see little-known territory where stand
old, abandoned lighthouses. Despite the number of shipwrecks at the bottom of
the St. Lawrence, sailors have not turned their backs on her. Instead, they simply
built wharves and ships better adapted to her fickle nature.
Wharves and boats
Tadoussac, site of the first French settlement
in North America
Did you know that Tadoussac was founded in 1600, eight years before
Quebec City? After Jacques Cartier's last voyage in 1541 and his failed
attempt at establishing a colony near the site of modern-day Quebec
City, European fishermen, whale hunters and merchants would trade
with the Aboriginal peoples at Tadoussac. They would exchange objects
of little monetary value for furs they would sell at very high prices
in Europe.
When Samuel de Champlain came to found a colony in 1608, he used Tadoussac
as his deep water port for his larger ships, as sailing up to the
site of modern-day Quebec City was a risky affair. He was prudent,
only travelling upriver beyond this point with smaller, more manoeuvrable
vessels. With its protective cliffs, fairly deep waters and strong
winds, Quebec City soon became the colony's main port.
A forest of masts
In the middle of the 19th century, Quebec City was one of the world's
largest ports! Local inhabitants used to have trouble seeing the opposite
shore through the "forest of masts" of the ships anchored
in the open waters or tied at the docks near the city!
At the time, England needed wood to build its ships to fight Napoleon
in Europe. For years, England would load the wood harvested from its
North American colonies in the port of Quebec City. Logs from lumber
camps in the Outaouais region and along the St. Lawrence Valley were
lashed together to form rafts, which were then guided to Quebec City
by log drivers or raftsmen. Log drivers, immortalized in the song
"The Log Driver's Waltz" by Wade Hemsworth, were intrepid
souls who would steer the log rafts with long hooked poles and ride
them all the way down the river. Once in Quebec City, the log rafts
were untied and loaded onto ships headed to England.
Travelling down the river on a flat-bottomed
schooner
The first highway in New France, called the King's Way, dates back
to 1730. It started in Quebec City, passed through Trois-Rivières
and ended in Montreal. A trip between its two end destinations would
take about two days if you travelled by buggy! The other communities
did not have any other roadway but the St. Lawrence River. For three
hundred years, passengers and goods were transported in rowboats,
canoes or sailboats.
In the 1800s, many of the villages between Quebec City and Gaspé
had shipyards, where flat-bottomed schooners called goélettes
were built. Goélettes were specially designed for sailing along
the shore of the St. Lawrence River. Made entirely of wood (usually
red pine), a goélette's flat hull allowed it to float in shallow
water. This sturdy ship could easily slip among the islands and over
shoals, even at low tide or when the waters were rough.
Goélettes went from village to village along the coast. Some
transported only passengers, while others only carried trade goods
or logs to bring to saw mills. This economical and ecological means
of transportation disappeared about 50 years ago, replaced by tractor
trailers.
Climb aboard a real goélette
You can climb aboard a real goélette preserved by the Centre
d’observation des voitures d’eau at Isle-aux-Coudres,
a small inhabited island in Charlevoix, a region whose shipyards were
renown for their expertly crafted goélettes. Your guide will
be an old sea wolf who has many years' experience piloting one of
these ships.
Wharf for sale, river to give away
For hundreds of years, every small village had its own wharf because
the St. Lawrence River was often the only way to transport merchandise.
More than simply a place for ships to load or unload goods, wharves
were often one of the busiest spots in town. People talked to the
sailors for news, waited for letters or greeted arriving friends or
family members coming to visit. The arrival of rich tourists in resort
villages aboard cruise ships would attract crowds eager to see the
latest fashions and the new arrivals.
As cars have long since replaced boats as a favoured means of transportation,
most wharves have fallen into disuse. But over the past few years,
some villages and tourist organizations have been buying the wharves
from the government in order to renovate them and transform them into
popular attractions. Now, many years after the heyday of the cruise
ship, people are once again admiring the beauty of the St. Lawrence
by boat!
The world's largest ocean liner sailed up the
St. Lawrence River in 2004
In September 2004, the world's largest ocean liner, the Queen Mary
II, sailed up the St. Lawrence River to Quebec City, coming to port
at the foot of Château Frontenac. Thousands of people from all
over the city came to admire this impressive ship, causing enormous
traffic jams around the port district! Did you know that more and
more people are taking cruises on the St. Lawrence River to see the
gorgeous view?
Container freighters
The new freighters travelling on the St. Lawrence River have doubled
in size over the past 20 years! These ships are built especially to
travel to Montreal, where cranes rapidly load and unload their enormous
holds. The containers of merchandise are piled up and secured because
they stick out over the edge of the deck by several metres. It may
happen that a container breaks free and tumbles into the sea. Some
sink like a rock, while others drift towards the shore, posing a navigational
hazard! Luckily, such incidents usually only occur in the open sea.
These freighters may be larger, but they are safer because they have
a double hull. If one of these ships strikes an obstacle that pierces
the first hull, the second hull will prevent it from sinking. |
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