Introduction

It would be wrong to label the collapse of John Hamilton's business interests a classic tragedy, with the protagonist succumbing in the end to the overwhelming power of the forces aligned against him. The finality implicit in such an interpretation would be a dangerous oversimplification. Indeed, the elements of continuity are striking In 1861 and for years thereafter the same personnel ran the same fleet on the same routes.

Despite the startling news of Hamilton's insolvency, some cautious optimism seemed justified in the spring of 1861 Other steamboat proprietors were finding solutions to the problems which had beset them over the previous few years. The Ontario Steamboat Company was repairing its aging steamboats rather than replacing them.(1) This strategy succeeded because its American rival had gone out of business.(2) A few, like Capt. Thomas Dick, were shifting their steamboat investments out of the lower Lakes and away from their railway competitors.(3) For those remaining in the lower lake and upper St. Lawrence a new market was emerging: the excursion and 'pic-nic' trades. In the maturing Upper Canadian economy, twenty years aft a the development of the New York-centred 'Northern Tour, a similar phenomenon was appearing. The Canadian objectives were the bathing beaches of the lower St.. Lawrence and the sporting grounds of the Saguenay River.(4) Not only was the passenger trade resurgent by 1861, so too were the traditional freight trades, with one experienced observer exclaiming that 'Kingston was never so full of shipping and produce ... even in the great forwarding days of John Macpherson."(5)

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Chapter 5 appeared in FreshWater.