Ships of Canada - 1976 10c

Date of Issue: November 19, 1976

Scott #: 700 - 703

This is the second set of four stamps in the series - Ships of Canada. These are mentioned as Inland vessels.

Northcote - In 1874, above Grand Rapids, on the Saskatchewan River, the Hudson's Bay Company launched the Northcote, a Mississippi style river vessel. The Northcote acted as a Canadian gunboat and hospital ship during the Saskatchewan rebellion.

Passport - The Passport was built in England in 1846 and reassembled at Kingston, Ontario. She plied the Hamilton-Montreal passenger route and was described in 1850 as being "fitted up in the most modern style". Shooting the rapids of the St. Lawrence was the greatest thrill of the voyage. The ship attained speeds of 20 miles an hour with her engines shut down.

Chicora - The Chicora was built at Liverpool, by Miller, in 1864, and was an iron paddle steamer. In 1870 she helped carry the military expedition heading for Manitoba in the aftermath of the Riel affair. She ended her career as the coal barge Warrenko, in Kingston, Ontario harbour, where she eventually sank in 1942.

Athabasca - The Canadian Pacific Railway entered the Upper Great Lakes shipping business with three steel sister ships, the Alberta, Algoma and Athabasca, the latter vessel being the ship depicted on the stamp. She was built by Aitken and Mansel at Glasgow, in 1883, and was a steel screw steamer. The three ships steamed to Montreal M1883 and had to be sliced in half to fit the lock system. Reassembled at Buffalo, they arrived at Owen Sound in May 1884 ready for the lakehead run. They were the first "lakers" to be equipped with electric light and were so well constructed that people believed "that 20ft. could have been ripped off the bow of the ships without endangering their seaworthiness". Besides normal passenger traffic, they transported troops returning from the 1885 Riel Rebellion and carried grain. She was only scrapped after the Second World War.

Text Source: Ships of Canada, by Thomas Appleton, and shipstamps.co.uk