--December 12, 2017.
Before modern roads, traveling by water was often more efficient than traveling by land. Steamers of various sizes and capacities played an important role on a number of lakes in the Eastern Townships. They carried supplies and mail, and hauled logs to local sawmills. They also carried passengers -- more often than not guests at lakeside hotels, cottagers and excursionists.
1) The Orford was the name of a luxurious 26-metre (86-foot) steam yacht privately owned by which shipping magnate (and part-time resident of Lake Memphremagog)?
a) Sir William Cornelius Van Horne
b) Sir Charles Tupper
c) Sir Hugh Allan
d) None of the above
2) The steamer Jubilee, seen here c.1905 in Victoria Bay, operated on which Eastern Townships lake?
a) Lake Massawippi
b) Lake Memphremagog
c) Lake Megantic
d) Lake Orford
3) Beginning in 1878, the steamer Enterprise transported passengers along the St. Francis River between which two towns?
a) Sherbrooke and Brompton
b) Sherbrooke and Windsor
c) Richmond and Drummondville
d) Richmond and Melbourne
4) This steamer was the second of three vessels that carried passengers, lumber, mail and goods between North Hatley and Ayer's Cliff on Lake Massawippi. Built for A. P. LeBaron of North Hatley, it sank off of Black Point in 1894, two years after this photograph was taken. What was the name of the steamer?
a) Pocahontas
b) Mayflower
c) Lady of the Lake
d) The Titanic
5) Some older Townships residents may still remember this steamer, which could carry as many as 300 passengers at a time between Newport, Vermont, and Magog, Quebec, on Lake Memphremagog. Name the steamer, which is pictured here in Georgeville, and which operated into the early 1950s.
a) Lady of the Lake
b) Diana Lisa
c) Anthemis
d) Maid of the Mist
6) This grand old paddle wheeler could carry hundreds of passengers at a time. Launched in Magog in 1867, the year of Confederation, it came to symbolize the glory days of Lake Memphremagog. In this photograph, the steamer is being towed out of Newport, Vermont, in 1917, on her way into Canada to be scrapped. What was the steamer called?
a) Mountain Maid
b) Empress of Ireland
c) Lady of the Lake
d) The Newport
7) The Pocahontas, seen here c.1905, carried passengers on which lake?
a) Brome Lake
b) Brompton Lake
c) Lake Megantic
d) Lake Massawippi
8) The little steamer Woburn, photographed here c.1910, may be seen approaching the wharf on what lake?
a) Lake Memphremagog
b) Lake Massawippi
c) Lake Aylmer
d) Lake Megantic
9) Name the steamship pictured on the left in this early photograph, taken at the Magog wharf in the 1860s.
a) Lady of the Lake
b) Mountain Maid
c) The Memphremagog
d) None of the above
10) How many lighthouses were built along the shoreline of Memphremagog as navigational aids for the steamers on the lake? This one was called Lead Mine Light, and was located on a sandbar on the lake's western shore.
a) Just the one
b) Five
c) Nine
d) Twenty-three
All photos courtesy of the Matthew Farfan Collection.
Click here for the answers....but NO peeking!!