August on the Bay and the Beach - 1893

“Nowhere in Canada is there a more beautiful sheet of water than our Hamilton bay. There is no weary sameness – each day and each hour brings a change of beauty. Now it is clear shining with a winning with a winning silver sheen in the bright noonday sun: a few minutes and the wind comes down upon the waters, darkening the color and flecking the angry with flakes of snow white purity.”¹

          “Camping at the Beach : The Gloriousness and the Drawbacks of Dwelling Under Canvas” Hamilton Spectator. August 7, 1893

          Hamiltonians in the mid-1890s did not have to travel very far to have a delightful summer experience.

          A beautiful, sheltered bay was at the city’s doorstep, and across that bay was a sandstrip which provided ample space and accommodation for campers and cottagers in the warm times of the year.

          Some of the glories of Hamilton bay were lovingly described by a Spectator reporter in the August 7, 1893 edition of that newspaper:

          “Yachts skim here and there like white-winged gulls, or lean beneath the rising wind till the spectator holds his breath to see them rise again. The majestic steamships carry to-and-fro their loads of holidaymakers, and as they cleave the waters of our bay, she folds them in her snow-white bosom.

          “Everywhere are sights and sounds of happiness.”¹

                However, a sudden change of weather could drastically alter conditions on the bay, and on the Beach.

          The man from the Spectator wrote about the effects of a sudden storm both at first on the bay, and later on the campers at the Beach.

          First, the abrupt arrival of a storm and its effects on the bay:

          “A thunderstorm, accompanied or followed by a hurricane is serious. Darkness creeps over the scene, nearer and nearer swoops the angry cloud heralding its approach with sonorous thunder and rendering by vivid flashes the growing gloom more dense.

          “The storm is on us. Sheets of water rush along the surface and down upon the waters of the bay, bending flat the waves, which the wind had raised until a seething mass of foam and hissing rain mingle together and the spectator can no longer tell the surface of the bay from the rushing water above it.

          “Cloud and bay and rain are all comingled in one mighty deluge. A few minutes ago, white sails were flying before the coming storm. Then every sail disappeared as if by magic.

“Happy is the yachtsman who is near enough to shore to drop his anchor. He will be snug enough and may go below and listen to the angry strife without. Those who are in deep water must needs drift and watch.

“The storm is passing, the rain no longer falls in solid masses; a rift in the sky begins to fill behind the passing storm. White-winged birds which have been chased and made to fold their wings in turn, start off in hot pursuit of the great enemy who is fast flying to the horizon with parting volleys and more distant flashes.”¹

The Spectator reporter finally arrived safely at the sandstrip separating the bay and Lake Ontario, Hamilton Beach.

The wild weather had a significant impact on the campers as the young man observed as follows:

“The storm wind has struck full upon the canvas houses. Down they have gone – one, two, a dozen, pegs torn from the ground, and hurled clean above the tents.

“Inside, confusion – beds, bedding and clothing soaked – no comfortable shelter like the cabin of our yacht. All seems chaos. It appears as though nothing can ever be dry again, but the dear sun chases the gloom from the sky and land and human faces, warms and dries the draggled camper, kisses his wet clothes and brightens his damped heart, and in half an hour, all is as if a storm had never passed.

“The tents are raised, the pegs are driven home, the clothes are dried and the storm is but a memory of the past, breaking what would otherwise be monotony in the camper’s life and leaving pabulum with which to build those famous stories of camp life which carry the happy remembrance of the camp this summer through the winter months and draw next year the merry campers in increasing numbers to the many shores of Hamilton bay.”¹