2-995-530 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Prince of Wales in Canada - the Lumberers' Regatta, Ottawa - from a sketch by our special artist, G. H. Andrews, 1860. The future King Edward VII visits North America. 'There they found themselves surrounded by a hundred birch canoes, manned by lumberers in scarlet shirts and white trousers. The Prince got into one alone - the rest of his suite and the newspaper writers into others, and all were paddled to a beautiful island in the centre of the lakelike expanse...Six canoes started for the first race, ten for the second, and nine for the third. The course was probably a mile each way. The lumberers paddled well, magnificently even. There must have been 2000 people in small boats on the water, 2000 more in the half dozen steamers which were playing about, 20,000 on the heights on each shore, and when the winners in each race came in, and the Prince clapped his hands, applauding, they all participated in his evident delight, and took up the applause in one tremendous chorus...In the centre of the Engraving...is represented a series of locks, eight in number, forming the means of communication for vessels between the Ottawa and the Rideau Canal'. From "Illustrated London News", 1860.