'All Afloat: A Chronicle of Craft and Waterways' by William Wood is an account of Canadian navigation history prior to the 1910s. Canada's unique relationship with its waterways is explored, with the St. Lawrence basin taking center stage due to its size and importance in the country's development. Wood details the use of canoes by the indigenous population long before the arrival of European settlers, and the subsequent construction of sailing vessels and steamers that allowed for the expansion of trade and transportation. The book also covers the fishing industry and the role of waterways in Canadian administration and navy.

Excerpt from All Afloat: A Chronicle of Craft and Waterways Canada is the child of the sea. Her infancy was cradled by her waterways; and the life blood oi her youth was drawn from oceans, lakes, and rivers. No other land of equal area has ever been so intimately bound up with the changing fortunes of all its different waters, coast and inland, salt and fresh. The St Lawrence basin by itself is a thing to marvel at, for its mere stupendous size alone. Its mouth and estuary are both so vast that their salt waters far exceed those of all other river systems put together. Its tide runs farther in from the Atlantic than any other tide from this or any other ocean. And its Great Lakes are appropriately known by their proud name because they contain more fresh water than all the world beside. Size for size, this one river system is so pre-eminently first in the sum of these three attributes that there is no competing second to be found elsewhere. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.