Heritage Launch Surveyor
The CHA/CB Heritage Hydrographic Launch Project
by Andrew E. Leyzack
Introduction
The start of the 1990's marks a number of significant anniversaries in Canadian history. The year 1991 was the 200th anniversary of the establishment of Upper Canada, which later became Ontario. The year 1992 marks the 125th anniversary of Canadian Confederation and 1993 will be the 200th anniversary of the founding of York, now Toronto. The Canadian Hydrographic Association Central Branch(CHA/CB), has deemed it appropriate to recognize this historic event by constructing a full scale replica of the vessel used by Joseph Bouchette to conduct the first hydrographic survey of Toronto Harbour in 1792. Bouchette's survey is recognized as one of the principle foundations of development of Toronto Harbour and the city itself.
The Heritage Launch concept was first introduced to the CHA Central Branch membership by Mr. Ian Morgan at the Branch AGM in December of 1990. It was introduced in hopes that the Branch would take the initiative and spearhead this adventurous and worthwhile undertaking. To research and verify the authenticity and feasibility of the proposed project, an Ad Hoc committee was formed under the direction of Mr. Jim Berry. With a positive report on the committee's findings, the Branch membership approved the project in October 1991.
The Project
The launch's construction will extend from March to October '92, taking place as a working display at Toronto Harbourfront starting this May. The construction site will be covered by an open air, structure complimented by text and graphic displays to provide an interpretive exhibit. It will be an integral part of Harbourfront's summer program which includes events such as the Tall Ships Parade, Children's Fest, Canada Day and Coast Guard Day. The exhibit will be manned by volunteer CHA members and associates who will field questions from the public on heritage boat construction and hydrography. A select few will be engaged in the ongoing construction of the launch under the direction of our consulting builder, Mr. Ian Morgan. It is anticipated that Harbourfront may see up to 100,000 visitors this summer.
A highlight of the following summer '93 will be the re-enactment of Bouchette's survey of Toronto Harbour with complete period costume and replicated hydrographic instruments. Taking place in May and June, the re-enactment will demonstrate 18th century hydrographic techniques and seamanship. Exhibitions committed to date are the CHS/CISM Conference at the Royal York hotel, Toronto, and the Simcoe Day Celebrations sponsored by the Toronto Historical Board, at the Marine Museum, in August 1993. Future events may include displays at Fort York, Toronto and the Toronto International Boatshow. Toward the end of 1993, it is the intention of the CHA Central Branch to transfer ownership of the launch to and institution or agency that will promote and maintain the launch in the fashion intended for the education of the general public.
A Historical Sketch
Joseph Bouchette was born May 14, 1774 at Quebec, second generation and the eldest son of Jean-Baptiste Bouchette and Marie Angelique Duhamel. What formal education he may have had remains only to speculation but it has been suggested that Joseph may have taken lessons from an English tutor or perhaps from his mother. Such practices were not uncommon in colonial times. Also plausible was Bouchette's apprenticeship aboard ship. This, and the fact his father was a distinguished sea officer(1) would explain his preparedness for the surveying profession and choice of a military career.
The earliest record of Bouchette's involvement in surveying comes from a resume of his dated 1817. He states he had assisted Deputy Surveyor, William Chewitt in surveys in the Montreal area in 1788 and from Vaudreuil to Long Sault in 1789. In March 1790, Bouchette's name appears on the list of employees of his uncle, Samuel Holland the Surveyor General of Quebec. It is here, as an assistant draughtsman, redrawing the survey plans of the province, he is said to have begun his formal surveying education. One year later, on March 25, 1791, Bouchette qualified as a deputy surveyor but chose not to continue his employment in the Surveyor General's office in favour of enlistment in the Provincial Marine.(2) That same year, Joseph Bouchette sailed to Toronto to serve aboard his father's flagship, the Onondaga.
At this time, the massive influx of United Empire Loyalists, settlers seeking land under crown rule in the aftermath of the American Revolution, exemplified the need for a more orderly settlement of Canada. On December 26, 1791, the Constitutional Act(3) dividing the province of Quebec into upper and Lower Canada went into effect. The newly formed province of Upper Canada, now Ontario, was to parallel Great Britain in the ways of legislature. Colonel John Graves Simcoe, Upper Canada's first lieutenant governor, was charged with the purpose of establishing a capital and the administration of land grants in the province. Simcoe proposed the establishment of three new settlements- Long Point, Toronto, and London, his proposed capital of the province in the southwest. He saw Newark (Niagara-on-the-Lake) and Kingston as being too close to the uneasy American border to be secure military establishments and thought Toronto to be the best location to command Lake Ontario's naval forces. He wrote to Major General Alured Clarke the lieutenant governor of Quebec and acting Governor-in-Chief:
"I found it [Toronto] to be without Comparison the mostproper situation for an Arsenal in every extent of that word that can be met with in this Province. The Spit ofSand which forms its entrance is capable of being so fortified with a few heavy Guns as to prevent any Vessel from entering the Harbour, or from remaining within it."(4)
Curiously, the Governor-in-Chief, Lord Dorchester, whom Clarke was acting for shared neither Simcoe's ideals for a capital nor an arsenal but wished Toronto as the future capital while maintaining Kingston as the Lake's main naval base. In preparation for his move to what he considered the province's temporary capital, Simcoe requested a hydrographic survey of Toronto Harbour. From a list of duly appointed Deputy Surveyors obtained from the Surveyor General, Simcoe commissioned eighteen year old Joseph Bouchette to conduct the survey.
Bouchette completed the survey in November 1792 for a sum of 15 pounds, 16 shillings and 8 pence. His "Remarks" accompanying the chart include a description and sailing directions into the harbour. His description reads as follows:
"Toronto Harbour is very Safe for the Shipping that can Enter into it. The Least Water at the Entrance being two Fathoms and a half. It is Sheltered from every wind except the SW which Blows directly into the Harbour, but it does not occasion much Sea, the said Harbour being perfectly Shut up by the Bar."(4)
While it predates the establishment of the Hydrographic Office of The British Admiralty(6), Bouchette's chart contains many of the symbols and conventions adapted by the International Hydrographic Organization as the standard for modern day hydrographic charts. For example, the sand foreshore is delineated by a buff tint and his symbols delineating marshes, rocks and suitable anchorages are consistent with todays standards. He includes his observations of prominent features which may be useful when fixing a position on approach to the harbour. These features include shoreline relief, St. John's House (the cabin of Jean-Baptiste Rousseau), the Blacksmith's House refered to in his sailing directions, Toronto Fort (better known as the ruins of the French Fort Rouille) and an Indian Hut, perhaps the residence of the natives described in Bouchette's following recollection:
"I still distinctly recollect the untamed aspect which thecountry exhibited when first I entered the beautiful basin, which thus became the scene of my early hydrographical operations. Dense and trackless forests lined the margin of the lake, and reflected their inverted images in its glassy surface. The wandering savage had constructed his ephemeral habitation beneath their luxuriant foliage- the group then consisting of two families of Messassagas [sic],- and the bay and neighbouring marshes were the hitherto uninvaded haunts of immense coveys of wild fowl: indeed they were so abundant as in some measure to annoy us during the night."(7)
Colonel John Graves Simcoe and his family arrived at Toronto aboard the schooner Mississaga in the early hours of July 30, 1793. Jean-Baptiste Rousseau, also known as St. John, a French Fur Trader whose house is shown at the mouth of the Humber River on Bouchette's chart, did rendezvous with the Simcoes to pilot their vessel into the harbour(8). Simcoe's regiment, the Queen's Rangers had already begun clearing an area for a camp near the west side of the mouth of the Don River. The Simcoe's first homestead was a large tent formerly used on Captain James Cook's expeditions to the South Pacific. On August 24, 1793, while the schooners Mississaga and Onondaga crashed out a 21 gun salute, Governor Simcoe officially changed the name of Toronto to York in commemoration of the Duke of York's recent victory over the French in Holland. Much to the dislike of certain locals who continued to call their home Toronto the act was consistent with Simcoe's policy of replacing Indian place names with English. Regardless of its name, it was the official founding of the city now called Toronto. Satisfied with Bouchette's work, Colonel Simcoe included the following recommendation in a letter to the acting Governor-in-Chief, Clarke:
"I beg in a particular manner to recommend to your Excellency's protection, and future favors, the Son of Captain [Jean Baptist] Bouchette. He is now in one of the Gun Boats [armed schooners]; and by employing him in Surveying the Coasts and Harbours I propose to render him a most useful servant to the Crown in that branch of Naval Duty, Pilotage, so essential to the navigation of the Lakes..."(9)
Early Maps
Although his Plan of Toronto was the first hydrographic survey of Toronto Harbour whose purpose was to produce a navigational chart, this sketch would not be complete without mention of the maps and plans depicting Toronto which preceded the work of Joseph Bouchette. The Seneca village of Teiaiagon and what appears to be Toronto island are depicted on Claude Bernou's map of 1680. Teiaiagon or "Teyeyagon" as it appears on the map was situated inland from Lake Ontario on the east side of the Humber River and was the stepping-off point of the Toronto Carrying Place, a well travelled portage to"Lac De Taronto", now called Lake Simcoe.
In 1757, nearing the end of the French Regime, naval officer Pierre Boucher de Labroquerie produced a southward view of Lake Ontario. Labroquerie's chart depicts the French Fort at Toronto (Fort Rouille),the "pres ille de Toronto" (the Toronto island as a peninsula) and the "R. de Toronto" (the Humber River). The chart includes a larger scale inset with soundings at the mouth of the Niagara River and a sketches of the ships of the English and French fleets, then occupying the lakes.
Following the Toronto Purchase of 1787, Deputy Surveyor Alexander Aitken by order of the Governor-in-Chief, Lord Dorchester, produced his Plan of Toronto a map showing the boundaries of Britain's purchase from the Mississaugas. Completed August 1788, Aitken's map show's boundary lines at the "Tobicoak River" (Etobicoke Creek) and the western edge of the "High Lands" (Scarborough Bluffs). On his large scale map, the island is depicted as a "Sandy Beach" peninsula with marshes to the east and the boundaries of a small town plot drawn from the north shore of the harbour.
That same year, during his military reconnaissance surveys of the Great Lakes, Captain Gother Mann, an officer of the Royal Engineers, produced a plan based on Aitken's entitled Plan of Proposed Torento[sic] Harbour, with the Proposed Town and Port by the Settlement. Dated at Quebec, 6th December, 1788, Mann's plan resembles a sectional township layout, with a public common at the centre and a reserved government ground fronting the bay. In the interest of constructing wharves, Mann took soundings off the ruins of fort Rouille(10) and near the shores of the bay. A report by Deputy Surveyor-General John Collins which accompanied the plan stated that due the shoalness of the north shore, the erecting of wharves or quays would be impractical and because of the nature of the prevailing west wind, ships would find difficulty in leaving the harbour.
Although Simcoe's method for laying out the settlement at Toronto coincidentally resembled that Gother Mann's plan, whether or not he read John Collins' report, it certainly did not deter him. Today, on most occasions, sailors will have to power up to make their way out of Toronto Harbour's Western Gap, but it is obvious that Bouchette's survey and Governor Simcoe's determination were to prove John Collins wrong.
The Survey Vessels
Joseph Bouchette, in draughting the Plan of Toronto Harbour gives evidence of a prevailing westerly not only in his remarks of the harbour but also in his illustration of a schooner at anchor at the northeast end of the bay. Upon close examination one can see the schooner's mainsail was partially hoisted, a technique used at an anchorage to maintain the ship's head to windward while maintaining an even strain on the ground tackle. Flying astern is the Red Ensign a British naval flag which saw service between the years 1707 and 1864. Flying from the truck of the main mast is a broad, "swallow-tailed" pennant. The broad pennant served not only as a means for vessel identification but as a symbol of the senior officer's rank. Unlike the Onondaga, the schooner depicted here is smaller, carrying no square sail on her mainmast. She is thought to be an armed schooner named the "Bear".
The schooner's coarsesail yard, a spar normally crossed at or below the fore-topmast appears to have been lowered. This may have been done to reduce windage or to be employed as a derrick. A boat which appears to be the survey launch itself is tethered astern of the schooner. Ian Morgan our consultant and builder has determined that an open launch of this nature would normally carry a spritsail schooner sailing rig, two or three sets of sweeps (large one-man oars) and would have to be quite seaworthy to tackle open water tasks. The launch depicted by Bouchette shows the latter two traits; two sets of oarlocks and a high stem are visible. The replica will be built to 7 metres (23 feet) in length (excluding the bowsprit), have a beam of 2.3 metres (7.5 feet) and its rig will stand 5.5 metres (18 feet).
In Conclusion
The period 1991-93 has been designated the `Heritage Years' in Ontario. We see this as an opportune time to provide the public with a greater appreciation of the role played by hydrography and cartography in Canadian history. The true value in this project is its ability to bring our Canadian History to life. For most people, especially our children, history is a textbook experience and in todays fast paced world of computers and futuristic trends our heritage is often overlooked. Most recently, the 200th anniversary of the establishment of Upper Canada, now Ontario came and went with little interest.
The launch will be an interpretive tool, used to address the events leading up to and after the founding of Toronto and their effect on the early development of Canada. We feel this Heritage Hydrographic Launch Project will be an educational and inspirational experience for our Members and the Canadian public, especially the generations to come.
Notes
- Jean-BaptisteBouchette is noted for saving the life of Sir GuyCarletonduring action in the American Revolution at Montreal, 1775.
- The Provincial Marine was a naval militia charged with the exclusive purpose of ship building and transportation for the province.
- Officially known as the CanadaAct,31 George III,cap. 31.
- Edith G.Firth,ed.,The Town of York 1793-1815,A Collection of Documents of Early Toronto. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press for the Champlain Society, 1962), p. 3.
- Joseph Bouchette,Plan of Toronto Harbour, City of Toronto Archives.
- The Hydrographic Office of The Admiralty was instituted in 1795 for the collection and production of navigational charts and sailing directions.
- Joseph Bouchette, The British Dominions in North America(London 1831), p.8
- Jean-Baptiste Rousseau, the son of coureur de bois Jean Bonaventure had residedat the mouth of the Humber River, for many years prior to Simcoe's arrival. Rousseau, as well as being a successful fur trader, worked for the British government as an interpreter and as the settlement at York began, operated a small mercantile.
- Richard A. Preston, ed., Kingston Before The War of 1812, A Collection of Documents. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press for the Champlain Society, 1959), p. 228.
- The surrender of Fort Niagara to British forces in July 1758 signalled the end of Fort Rouille. Before retreating to Montreal, the French garrison burned the Fort to the ground.