The barge Rob Roy (1897)

General

Port of Picton Registry, Number 1 of 1897 (18 May)

See also the entry for the barge Rob Roy in our ships Database.

NOTATIONS: subsequent registry details:

1. 1897 Registry : Arthur William Hepburn as owner of 64 shares; probably doing business as Lake Ontario Navigation Co.
2. 1907 Registry : 2 August 1907 :
   – at 10.25 a.m., by Bill of Sale dated 2 March 1905, A.W. Hepburn transferred 64 shares to B.R. Hepburn and Jas. DeC Hepburn (joint owners) of Picton, Ont.
   – at 10.30 a.m., by Bill of Sale dated 17 April 1905, B.R. Hepburn and Jas. DeC Hepburn transferred 64 shares to the Ontario and Quebec Navigation Co. Ltd. of Picton, Ont.
   – at 10.35 a.m., mortgage "A" of $8,000 at 5% granted by Ontario and Quebec Navigation Co. Ltd. to B.R. Hepburn and Jas. DeC Hepburn, mortgagees.
3. 1911 Registry (Folio 90) : 15 May 1911, B.R. Hepburn and Jas. DeC Hepburn discharged mortgage "A".
   – Same date, the Ontario and Quebec Navigation Company transferred from the Ontario Companies Act to the Dominion Companies Act.
   – Same folio continues with 17 May 1912, mortgage "B" of $125,000 at 6% granted 16 May 1912 to National Trust Company, Toronto; and 12 May 1914, mortgage "B" discharged as of 7 May 2014.
4. 1916 Registry (Folio 128) : 27 May 1916, by Bill of Sale dated 28 April 1916, 64 shares sold by the Ontario and Quebec Navigation Company to Canada Steamship Lines, Montreal.
   – Same date, mortgage "C" granted by Canada Steamship Lines to Prudential Trust Company, Montreal and Royal Exchange Assurance, London (UK) for $8,000,000. [Note: this was corporate financing, unrelated to the value of this barge.]
   – Continues with later annotations: "Vessel lost in Lake Erie 17 September 1916. Certificate of Registry lost with barge. Registry closed this 30 December 1916." and "June 10th 1921. Certificate of Registry since turned up and sent Registrar General, Ottawa."

Newspaper and other transcriptions

5. Inland Lloyds Lake Vessel Register : ROB ROY New Tonnage; 470 [dubious, not apparent in registry]; Where Built, Picton; By Whom, Hepburn; Built When, 1897; Owners, Hepburn; Port of Hail, Picton; Value, $13,000; Class A2.
6. Marine Record, (Cleveland, OH), 13 March 1902. P.9 : Lake Ontario Navigation Co. Ltd., Picton, Ontario.

   Vessel	Master	Engineer
   ALEXANDRIA	E.B.Smith	Thos. Milne
   ARGYLE	G. O’Brien	John Hazelett
   ABERDEEN	M. Hicks	Frank Thenault
   L.S. PORTER	M. Heffernan	Geo. Hazelett
   WATER LILY	Wm. Dulmage	Geo. Sauve
   NIAGARA	not appointed	Fred Conkey
   ISABELLA REID	H. Borun(?)	----
   ROB ROY	T. Brunette	----
   DRAKE	A. Durocher	----

7. List of Canadian Sailing Vessels on the Registry : ROY ROY Barge; Official No. 94925; Of 341 tons. Reg; Built at Picton, Ont.; In 1897; Home Port, Picton, Ont; 144 x 31 x 10.3; Owned by, A.W. Hepburn of Picton, Ont.
8. Lake Insurers 1907 : LAKE BARGES ROB ROY Built Of: wood; Gross Tons: 341; Where Built: Picton; When Built: 1897; Bottom Caulked: 1905; Last in DryDock: 1905 Owner: A.W. Hepburn; Port of Hail: Picton; Value: $7,000; Class: A2 Lumber Deckload: 11’ Remarks: S.P.W. Rec. C1. & Re ’05, Re’06
9. The Marine Review, (Cleveland, OH) February 1916. ROB ROY, barge, ran aground on Long Point, Lake Erie, in August 1915. Crew taken off by tug HOME RULE. Released on August 29th.
10. The Marine Review, February 1916. ROB ROY, barge, sunk November 20, 1915 at Erie Harbour, Lake Erie with 6 feet of water over her. To be refloated.
11. Toronto Star, Saturday November 20, 1915 CANADIAN BARGE SANK IN LAKE ERIE STORM. The Crew Of Seven Of The ROB ROY Caught in Blizzard This Morning, Erie, Pa., Nov 20:- Seven men were rescued when the Canadian barge ROB ROY sank in Erie Harbour this morning in a blinding snowstorm. The barge had been loaded too heavily with coal to stand the rough weather, but the Harbour Tug managed to draw it into more shallow water before it went to the bottom. It will be unloaded and raised. The ROB ROY is an old vessel.
    Later The ROB ROY is a coal barge belonging to the Canada Steamship Lines, and she sailed on November 7th, from Toronto to Erie to get a cargo of coal. She registers about 500 tons. She is well known in Toronto Harbour, having plied between this city and the Lower Lakes ports all summer. The local office of the Canada Steamship Lines had had no word today of her foundering. Yesterday they received a wire saying that she was lying in Erie Harbour and would not sail until the storm was over.
12. Buffalo Daily Courier, September 18, 1916. BARGE ROB ROY FOUNDERS FIVE MILES OFF ERIE. Port Colborne, Sept 17. - The old wooden barge ROB ROY, in tow of the tug HOME RULE, foundered about 5 miles off Erie this morning in the strong southeast wind. There was no loss of life reported. The ROB ROY was loaded with coal for Port Colborne.
13. Buffalo Daily Courier, September 19, 1916 WRECK OF BARGE ROB ROY TO BE LIGHTED BY OWNERS. Maj. Frazier of the U.S. Corps of Engineers stated yesterday that the wreck of the barge ROB ROY, which foundered and sank off Erie Harbour Sunday morning will be lighted by the owners and soundings will be taken over it as soon as the prevailing storm abates. The ROB ROY was loaded with 600 tons of coal for Port Colborne. She is owned by Canada Steamship Lines Ltd. Her entire crew of ten men was rescued with considerable difficulty after she had sprung a leak and started to settle. Her mast remains sticking out of the water several feet and she will be a menace to navigation until lighted. (9)
14. Buffalo Daily Courier, October 25, 1916 WRECK OF ROB ROY IS NO LONGER DANGEROUS. The United States lake survey is notified by Maj. L.V. Frazier, district engineer officer at Buffalo, that the wreck of the barge ROB ROY, which foundered and sank in Lake Erie off Erie Harbour on September 17 at a point afterward determined by observations to be 28 degrees (NNE 1-2E) 2.84 miles from the fog bell on the outer end of the north pier, is no longer a menace to navigation. The upper works have been destroyed by storms, the mast and boom were removed on October 20, and the wreck now has at least thirty feet of water over it. A fixed white light maintained to mark it has been discontinued.
15. No 51, Canada Steamship Lines Ltd., J.W. Norcross, Managing Director; Montreal, Canada. H.W. Cowan, Operating Supt. Toronto, Ont. Bge. ROB ROY
16. ROB ROY Other names: none. Official No: C94925 Type at loss: schooner-barge, wood, bulk freight. Build Info: 1897, A. Hepburn, Picton, Ont. Specs: 144x31x10, 470t Date of Loss: at Erie, Pa. Lake: Erie. Type of Loss: storm loss of life: ? (none). Carrying: ? (coal). Detail: Wrecked, no detail. mmgl gives close of her file as 9/17/15 Also wrecked in a storm 4 mi off Erie on Sept 17, 1912 Built for Hepburn fleet. Sources: ns2, csqw, mmgl, nsp.
17. First Registation ROB ROY, Picton, Ontario, Canada. Official No: 94925 Date Record Closed:1916/12/30; Date of Reason Closed: 1916/09/17; Reason Closed: LOST; Place Closed: Lake Erie
18. Many references to the barge Rob Roy appear in C.H.J Snider's work:
    Schooner Days CCLXVII (267) "From Grocery Scow To Great Eastern: More Ships That Jack Built - Jack Tait Of Prince Edward, 21 Nov 1936"
    Schooner Days DCLXXV (675) "20,000,000 Out Of Picton, 13 Jan 1945"
    Schooner Days CMLXXVI (976) "Famine Made Strange Bedfellows, 04 Nov 1950"

References and source notes

(5) Inland Lloyds Lake Vessel Register, Canadian Hulls, May 1,1897. Supplement No 2, Donor, (late) Mr. Alan Mann, Wallaceburg, Ont, recipient, Mr. Ken Crichton, Newcastle, Ont.
(7) Marine History of the Great Lakes Online Resource, List of Canadian Sailing Vessels on the Registry Books of the Dominion of Canada on December 31, 1905; Donor, Mr. W. McNeil, Toronto.
(8) 1907 Inland Lloyds Vessel Register, page 44
(5-10) Donor, Mr. W. McNeil, Toronto.
(15) IBID, Green’s Marine Directory of the Great Lakes, 1916, Page 66.
(16) The Great Lakes Shipwreck File: Total Losses of Great Lakes ships, 1679-1999. By Dave Swayze, ©1998-2001 – David D. Swayze, Lake Isabella, MI.
(17) Marine Museum of the Great Lakes, Kingston, Online Resource. Canadian Registry List. Registry Record 3 of 4.
(18) Our transcriptions of C.H.J Snider's "Schooner Days".