This series documents the activities of the company's marine transportation subsidiaries. While the records of company's marine activities are not as complete as those for its other operations they are suggestive of the key role paid by waterborne transportation in the company's history. The Ontario Transportation and Pulp Company was formed in 1914 to own and operate vessels that would deliver pulpwood to the Thorold mill (for the Letters Patent see vol. 25818 file 6). The name was subsequently changed to the Chicago Tribune Transportation Company in 1923 and again in 1928 to the Quebec and Ontario Transportation Company (Q&O), vol. 25817 files 8-9. Detailed documentation survived for the amount of cargo carried and the costs involved for 1917 to 1966, in vol. 25698 to 25700 file 6. Income tax records also survived for the period of 1936-1975, vol. 25656 file 9 to 25657 file 13. From the early 1950s, tax regulations allowed write offs for cargo handling gear onboard the Q&O's ships, from which the company attempted to benefit, 1952-1959 (vol. 25661 file 10 to vol. 25662 file 4). J. S. Forrester's files and Q&O's materials handling and transportation engineer files from 1950 to1974 can be found on microfilm reels 204-213. Documentation on shipping pulpwood can also be seen on reel 269.
From the 1920s, freight rates to and from the company's communities on the Lower North Shore were of prime importance to Colonel McCormick and Schmon. After suffering from ad hoc service in the early years, the company developed a more coherent transportation policy by the mid-1920s (see vol. 25421 file 32, 35 and 40-41). The company and Captain J. E. Heppell set up the Heppell Transportation Co. (HTC) to handle freight and passengers from Rimouski and Matane to the north shore. Note particularly the Memorandum of Agreement between the HTC and the Ontario Paper Co. that not only set freight rates, but also allowed the HTC to act as purchaser for the paper company, 20 Apr. 1928, vol. 25512 file 11. More data on 1920s freight rates can be found in vol. 25512 file 10. By the late 1920s, it was obvious to Schmon, that if the company was to proceed with the Baie Comeau development, a better service was required than Capt. Heppell could provide. Therefore, the company entered into negotiations with the Clarke Steamship Co. to set a new shipping line that became known as La Compagnie de Transport du Bas St Laurent Ltée, see vol. 25512 file 6 and particularly "Sale & Conveyance by Heppell Transportation Company Limited to La Compagnie de Transport du Bas St Laurent Ltée", 24 Jan. 1930, in file 11. Given the significance of the pulp and paper industry in Canada during the interwar period, a document that lists of all the commodities required for a winter's logging operations is remarkable. Everything from axe handles to food is enumerated on a typescript sheet of two metres long (see vol. 25832 file 1).
Before the company began planning Baie Comeau, its timber limits on Lower North Shore existed to supply Thorold with pulpwood. Much of that wood was carried in by outside shipping firms. Indeed the carriage of pulpwood from St. Lawrence River ports in Quebec to paper mills in Ontario and New York was the only significant back haul cargo available to Canadian canallers that regularly delivered grain to Montréal in the interwar period. As such ship-owners competed fiercely for the pulpwood contracts offered. Schmon played one shipping firm off against another with considerable success (see Schmon to Elbert M. Antrim, 14 Jan. 1928, vol. 25513 file 9). There are also draft contracts between the Ontario Paper Co. and Keystone Transports Ltd in vol. 25513 files 9-10 and the draft Memorandum of Agreement with initials changed, 7 Feb. 1928, vol. 25513 file 10. For shipments of pulpwood during the 1927 season, see vol. 25827 files 6-8. Similar detailed records on the shipment of pulpwood do not exist in any of the archival collections of Canadian Great Lakes shipping companies.
The series reveals that the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1959 led the company to do a reappraisal of its shipping requirements. The Seaway made traditional canal vessels obsolete by allowing lakers to transit from the Great Lakes to the lower St. Lawrence. The series holds studies initiated by Q&O into what type of vessel would be best suited for its requirements. It shows that in the Seaway era, the Q&O had gradually diversified away from the transportation of pulpwood and paper solely for the Tribune Company. It carried more grain and coal cargoes, but by the 1980s it found itself in a difficult competitive position (see the files entitled "Strategic Review" in vol. 25515 files 2-4). Without the funds to replace its old obsolete lakers, the Q&O found that it could no longer compete with the larger Canadian shipping companies. Finally in 1983, the decision was made to discontinue operations. The remaining ships were shopped to virtually every Canadian Great Lakes shipping company see "Project River" vol. 25515 file 5 before being sold to Groupe Desgagnes in 1984 (vol. 25518 files 1-5 and vol. 25536 files 2-6). The only surviving log books for the Q&O vessels cover its last years of operations, a total of 112 log books for 1977 to 1983, vols. 25520-25548.
