3. Management and Operations

In dramatic contrast to Hamilton's line of the previous three seasons, the new group of Royal Mail Steam Packets, its first label, absorbed an increasing number of actively interested proprietors. Whereas in the upheaval of the rebellion period many steamboat investors were eager to abrogate their managerial functions, the trend did not persist into the prosperous early 1840s. But, instead of a centralized bureaucracy co-ordinating line operations, the pre-eminent unit of management remained the steamboat.

St. Lawrence Waterway, 1857

Despite the apparent unity of the initial set of contracts, from the opening of navigation in 1841 the participating vessels were deployed in two distinct lines. The first, composed of three vessels, plied the north shore of Lake Ontario between Toronto and Kingston. At the close of the decade the western terminal port would become Hamilton.(23) When the vessels of the lake line reached Kingston the mail, and any passengers and freight which chose to accompany it, would be transferred to the river mail boats. This line contained the minimum number of vessels required to provide daily departures to the low point of return navigation. Until 1843 steamboats could only descend to Dickenson's Landing and still return upriver. With the completion of the Cornwall Canal that season, the Beauharnois late in 1845 and the Lachine in 1848, the river line was gradually extended to Montreal.(24) A corresponding expansion in the size of the line took place from two vessels working above Cornwall, to three above the Beauharnois, to four above Lachine.(25) Although locating the transhipment point at Kingston was a natural decision given that city's military importance and the passage of so many immigrants through the Ottawa-Rideau system, the Post Office did not recognize this until the renegotiation of the mail contract in 1846.(26)

In the organization of the two mail lines the contracts played a central, but limited role. The postal contract precisely delineated what days and hours the lines would have to operate and provided fines if vessels failed to maintain this schedule.(27) Other important details, however, were at the discretion of those proprietors participating in either of the two lines. On this level consensus had to be reached concerning replacement vessels, the days on which particular vessels were to run, and a common rate policy. Passenger rates were set by the opening of navigation and reviewed, and if necessary slashed, in the face of opposition from other vessels. A critical test of line solidarity was always the response of those parties whose vessels were not directly confronted by an opposition boat because they were running on different days.(28)

Depending upon the degree of co-operation between vessel owners in a given season, advertising would be placed by individual vessels, lines or by the two lines combined. The appearance of the seasonal notice during the first three years of operation reflects the gradual polarization of the principal river and lake proprietors. While the advertisement for the 1841 mail line was issued from Hamilton's Kingston office, the following season saw a joint notice co-signed by the Toronto office. From 1843 the ads for the lake line ran separately from those of the river.(29)

Despite the growing distance between the two lines, there remains some evidence of co-operation. A disgruntled captain, while still in Bethune's service, informed the Attorney General West that a strong combination, including the principal forwarders on the St. Lawrence as well as the Lake and River Mail line proprietors, had developed a joint reserve fund for the purpose of eliminating opposition.(30) How extensive or effective this was is difficult to measure but only two months previous to this charge Bethune and the forwarders had been involved in a brief but bitter confrontation.(31) Despite this rift, throughout most of the decade the three groups, the lake mail proprietors, the river mail proprietors, and the principal forwarding firms managed to avoid serious competition amongst themselves. Bethune and his associates in the lake line, with that one exception, kept their boats out of the river trade and the forwarders and Hamilton reciprocated. On the St. Lawrence Hamilton downplayed his freight carrying capacities, while the forwarders limited their solicitation of passengers. This carefully balanced policy of co-existence was probably more important to the trade throughout the period than any shadowy reserve fund.

The one set of financial transactions which for many years did involve all the proprietors of the lines was the redistribution of the monies received from the three principal contracts. The postal accounts, for example, were rendered after the close of the season to the principal contractor. Any fines owed by a particular vessel were deducted from this sum.(32) The balance was then apportioned among the participants in the line according to some previously agreed formula. Fines were almost certainly passed on to the owners of the vessels which incurred them. Evidence from only one set of negotiations has survived, and that concentrated on the concerns of the sub-contractors about the financial position of Bethune as principal contractor after his 1848 bankruptcy. Were this to reoccur the sub- contractors would simply be another of Bethune's long list of creditors and might receive only a fraction of the contract's true worth.(33)

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Chapter 5 appeared in FreshWater.