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by Ken W. Watson It was the afternoon of Friday, July 16, 1869 when the steam tug Frances, with four barges in tow, arrived at the top of Jones Falls. These were local vessels, the tug and barges had been built on the Rideau and were specifically designed for the canal. Two of the barges, the Algoma and Mineral were each loaded with 45 cords of firewood, destined for Kingston. As was
Lockmaster Peter Sweeney looked on. He was only a couple of years away from retirement, having served as Lockmaster at Jones Falls since it was first opened in the spring of 1832. His stomach rumbled, it was almost dinner time. He watched as Michael Kelly, one of the barge hands on the Algoma, grabbed a set of lines and helped guide the barge into the lock. The barges were now being locked through, first the Algoma, through the upper lock, into the turning basin and on into the top lock in the flight of three lower locks. Michael Timblin, a local farmer, was standing at the head (top lock) of the flight of three locks. He had a load of wool he was taking to a mill for carding. He was going to hitch a ride on the barge. He waved to Michael Kelly who was manning the bow of the barge, and hopped onboard. They locked through into the middle lock, the gate closed behind them. The top lock was now refilled for the next barge, the Mineral, which was waiting in the basin. As the top lock was refilled, Timblin noticed an odd creaking noise from the closed set of gates. Timblin wasn’t bothered by the sound, he’d been around the locks many times, the gates always creaked a bit when the pressure of the water forced them closed. Water was squirting out from near the centre bottom of the two gates, which didn’t quite close. But this had been happening for the last couple of years, he remembered the lock staff complaining that they couldn’t get those gates to stay “true.” The top lock was now filled and the upper gate was being opened to allow the second barge, the Mineral, into the lock. As it was being led into the lock, there was a horrible cracking noise and the lower gates of the top lock burst apart. The lock gates, the barge Mineral and tons of water cascaded into the second lock. The force of this propelled the barge Algoma into the next set of gates which burst apart. The Algoma was swept through these gates and crashed into the lower lock. The Mineral ended up wedged across the lower gate sill of the middle lock. Poor Michael Timblin got caught up in the wreckage and was drowned in the water of the lower lock. Of the three barge hands aboard the Algoma, two men, White and Burns, made miraculous escapes. White had been with Kelly at the bow of the barge, both were swept off into the water of the lower lock. White managed to not only to save himself, but he was also able to grab hold of Kelly, and pull him out of the water. Although he'd been saved from death by drowning, Michael Kelly was badly injured and the men rushed to his aid. He was in a bad way, he’d been rammed against the gate when the barge was pushed through it into the lower lock, and his right leg was clearly broken. It was also apparent to the men that his injuries were much more serious than just a broken leg – professional help was needed. The closest hospital was in Kingston, he needed to be transported there as fast as possible. In addition to the Frances, the tug Elswood* was moored below the lock. It was deemed to be the faster of the two vessels, so Michael was brought aboard. Captain Michael Conelley had the boiler fired up and, with a full head of steam, the tug headed to Kingston as fast as it could go. It was still a long trip and it wasn’t until 2 a.m. on Saturday that the tug arrived in Kingston. Aid was immediately summoned and a Dr. Sullivan came out to attend to Michael. He immediately ordered that the unconscious man be transferred to Hotel Dieu Hospital. Once there, the doctor ascertained that there were fractures of the right leg, thigh, and pelvis, and it appeared to the doctor that Michael was also suffering internal injuries. On July 19th, the Kingston Daily News reported that "Michael Kelly, the man who was so severely injured at the accident at Jones's Falls, is now lying in a very low and critical state." Michael died a short time later, the doctor putting the cause of death to be a broken pelvis and ruptured bladder. In the meantime, there was consternation about the broken gates at Jones Falls. The Rideau Canal was effectively shut down until new gates could be constructed. By July 23rd, the damaged gates, the wrecked remains of the Algoma and the damaged barge, Mineral, had been removed from the locks. Timber for the new gates was arriving that day, but it was still anticipated that it could take up to four more weeks to build the two sets of gates. The local paper noted that the steamer "City of Ottawa" remained in moored at Kingston. That same paper also had an advertisement stating that the steamer "has been engaged to convey a picnic party to the delightful locality of Jones's Falls on Wednesday next." The owners of the steam ship had figured out how to make some money from this accident (see the picnic story at the end of this piece). There was much debate about what exactly happened. How had the gates failed? During the initial investigation, it was noted that the gates that had failed were of a design change made in 1850. The "river gates" (lower gates) on the bottom lock, which didn’t fail, were of a later 1864 design. The obvious conclusion, one agreed to by the Superintending Engineer J.D. Slater; the Clerk of the Works, Francis Abott; and Lockmaster Peter Sweeney; was that it was a flaw in the 1850 gate design that had led to the failure. They noted that one of the differences in the two designs was how the gates were joined to the hinge post, and this is exactly where the 1850 design gates had failed. It was the obvious conclusion; it was also the wrong conclusion.
A lock gate, although simple in concept, is actually quite a complex design. It has to be able to hold a great pressure of water, yet be able to freely swing open and closed. It is known as a mitre gate on account of the shape of the gates when closed. They form a V shape (mitre shape) and the pressure of the water actually helps the seal. The gates, when closed, come up against a stone ledge at the bottom of the lock called the gate (or mitre) sill. The gates come up against this sill just at the two gates come together, and this forms a watertight seal. A gate consists of several components. It starts with two vertical posts. The inside post (closest to the lock wall) is known as the heel post or quoin post. The latter name is for the hollow stone pier, the quoin, from which the gate is hung. The outer post is known as the mitre post. It is cut at an angle (mitred) so that the flat surface of this post meets exactly flush with the flat surface of the adjoining gate’s mitre post. The quoin post is 16” square (rounded on its inside to match the hollow groove in the masonry of the quoin) and the mitre post is 13.5” square.
These two vertical posts are tied together with heavy timber cross rails. The cross rails are locked into the vertical posts with mortise and tendon joints and braced with metal plates. Vertical braces, called munions, are placed between the rails. In the original design, diagonal braces were also used to strengthen the gate. The gates are quite heavy, today, these large gates at Jones Falls, which have 8 cross rails, weight about 11 tons (10 tonnes). The gates are currently made using Douglas Fir, so the original gates, made of oak, may have weighed a bit more.
In the initial design, there was worry about the gate sagging under its own weight. In addition to the cross bracing put in place to prevent this, a wheel (a truck) was placed near the middle bottom of the gate to help support it. This wheel ran along a metal track in the bottom of the lock. The gates have undergone several design changes over the years. A change made in 1850 was initially blamed for the gate failure. In that change, the tendons in the cross rails, which originally went completely through quoin post, now went only halfway through. The upshot of that change is that bolt holes in the reinforcing plates for the timber cross rails, as well as draw bar holes in the tendons, were now all in line. So, for each cross rail, there were five holes in line, as opposed to 3 closely spaced together (for the reinforcing plate) in the original design. With the high lift gates at Jones Falls, this resulted in 40 holes, all in line, in the quoin posts. When the gates broke, the gates sheared on this line of holes, and the conclusion was naturally made that this was the cause of the failure. Closer examination revealed that the wood was sound where the gates had sheared, and that the shearing was a result of the gate failure, not the cause. The gates in question were only 11 years old and should have been good for another 4 to 9 years (the early gates, made of oak, lasted from 15 to 20 years. The longest lasting gate made it to 27 years). A second theory was advanced that a piece of wood had got caught in the bottom of the gate, preventing it from closing, and that water pressure twisted the gate, causing it to fail. This actually happened a few years previously (1860) at Kingston Mills. This theory was much closer to the truth. The gates that failed had been constructed by a Mr. Edward Dufton in the spring of 1858. When the Rideau Canal was built in 1827-1832, the gates were built on-site at each lockstation, to the exacting specifications of the Royal Engineers, and under the supervision of Mr. Fitzgibbon, the Master Carpenter. So all the original gates fully met the Royal Engineer’s demanding standards. But after the canal was opened, new gates were built under contract, and quality control suffered. The gates built at Jones Falls in 1858 were poorly done. Over time they started to sag. This caused the top of the gates to seal before the bottom. Water pushed through the partially open bottom, eroding the top edge of the sill. The bottom of the mitre post was also wearing down due to the sag. This eventually reduced the bearing surface of the mitre post from 5 inches down to about 3 inches. This meant that more water pressure was being applied against a smaller portion of the top of the gate sill. On the evening of July 16, 1869, as the water was raised in the top lock, putting pressure on the gates and on the top edge of the gate sill, the sill broke (sheared) in the centre. This allowed water pressure to push the mitre post up and over the sill, twisting the gates, ripping them off (ripping the quoin post in two). The second set of gates was simply broken by the water pressure and weight of the barge Algoma slamming against them. Where the gates broke is in fact testament to the strength of the anchor collar and foot box – neither of which broke. They held the quoin post in place, and the gates ripped apart at the next point of weakness, the line of bolt holes. But, it is to be noted that the gates had already failed, the ripping at the bolt holes a result, not a cause, of the failure.
During the inquest held into the death of Michael Kelly, a carpenter, Archibald Goodfellow, who cut up the gates stated "I have examined the gates which gave way. I cut them up to get off the iron. They are the soundest I ever cut up. They were perfectly sound, and I cannot account for their giving away." [Daily News, July 27, 1869] Significant changes didn’t have to be made as a result of the accident since the solution to the problem of poor construction had already been solved in the mid-1860s. Superintending Engineer J.D. Slater re-designed the lock gates in 1864 and by 1866 had fully implemented a policy that all gates would be built by Rideau Canal staff, ensuring quality control on the construction of the gates. More vigilant lock inspections were implemented, to prevent any similar problem happening at another lock.
The locks at Jones Falls were re-opened (for partial traffic) on August 17, 1869, just over a month from the day the gates failed. The inquest jury found "that Michael Kelly died of injuries received on Friday, the 16th day of July, by the breaking of the lock gates at Jones's Falls, caused by the negligence of the government officials." [Daily News, July 27, 1869]. 
Sources: Note: most of the technical information about the lock gates and the 1869 failure was taken from Robert Passfield's highly detailed "Lock Design and Construction" Bush, Edward Forbes, Commercial Navigation on the Rideau Canal, 1832-1961, History and Archaeology Series 54, Parks Canada, 1981 Daily News (Kingston) articles. From transcriptions by Rick Neilson on www.hhpl.on.ca/GreatLakes/Scripts/News/ (July 13, 17, 19, 23, 26, 27, 29 and August 16, 1869) McLeod, Ken, per comm., 2008 [Rideau vessel information] Osborne, Brian, Byways #6 - Drama at the Locks, Rideau Reflections (Friends of the Rideau newsletter), Winter/Spring 2001. Passfield, Robert W., Canal Lock Design and Construction: The Rideau Canal Experience, 1826-1982, Microfiche Report Series 57, Parks Canada, Ottawa, 1983. Plousos, Suzanne, Working with Tools, Work, Identity and Perception Communicated through the Material Culture of Work in the Context of the Rideau Canal Construction, 1826-1832, MA Thesis, College of William and Mary in Virginia, 1996. The Vessels: Barge "Algoma": built at Dog Lake by Absalom Campbell in 1866 [McLeod, 2008] Barge "Mineral": built at Bedford Mills by William Gorrell in 1868. [McLeod, 2008]. Bush notes that John Chaffey built a barge “Mineral” (102 feet long) at Bedford Mills in 1871 [Bush p.205]. Was this a replacement or repair for the original Mineral, damaged in the accident at Jones Falls in 1869? Steam Tug "Frances": built at Bedford Mills by John Chaffey in 1864. It was 55.2 feet long by 11.4 feet wide. [Bush p.184] Steam Tug "Elswood": built at Bedford Mills by John Chaffey in 1865. It was 49.1 feet long by 11.8 feet wide. It may have been powered by a high pressure 40 hp steam engine. [Bush p.183] Steamer "City of Ottawa" built at Montreal by Peter G. Water in 1864. It was built for Moss K. Dickinson. It was a paddle wheel steam ship, 107.5 feet long and 16.4 feet wide. It was powered by a 35 hp low pressure steam engine and could make 12 knots. At the time of the accident at Jones Falls it was owned by the Montreal & Ottawa Forwarding Company [Bush p.175] There is some conflict in the records regarding the tugs "Elsworth" and "Elswood." The former is mentioned in several of the newspaper clippings as being the tug that brought Michael Kelly to Kingston. However it was the Chaffey Brother's tug "Elswood" and its companion tug "Frances", that appear to have been bringing barges up and down the Rideau at that time. So although there apparently was a tug named "Elsworth" it is assumed that it was in fact the "Elswood" that was used. The Daily News on July 13, 1869 reported : "tug Francis [sic] with four barges for the Rideau Canal; and tug Ellswood [sic] and four barges for the same destination."  During the time the lock was shut down, the paddle wheel steamer, City of Ottawa, had been tied up at a wharf in Kingston. Turning loss into opportunity, the ship owners arranged for a cruise to Jones Falls on July 28, 1869. The City of Ottawa was a precursor to the "Palace Steamers" that would ply the Rideau in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Almost 108 feet long, it had 10 state rooms, a ladies' cabin and a 90 foot long saloon. It was described as having the most recent and improved appointments. Passengers travelled in style and comfort. The ship left Kingston with Captain John Burrowes at the helm and the passengers apparently had a lovely day, enjoying the cruise from Kingston to Jones Falls and back. The Daily News of July 29, 1869 describes the voyage: The Excursion To Jones's Falls - The excursion by the steamer City of Ottawa to Jones's Falls on the Rideau Canal on Wednesday proved a remarkably successful and pleasant affair. The boat had quite as many passengers as it could well accommodate, and the party was made up of a very desirable company. Colonel Paton and the officers of the battalion had among the patrons of this excursion (got up in behalf of the band fund) the Mayor, the County Judge, the Sheriff, the Brigade Major, the Police Magistrate, the City Clerk, and a large number of gentlemen and ladies attracted by the interest of the novelty of an excursion on the Rideau Canal, and the desire to see the locality of the recent disaster.
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