Engineer Alex. R. Milne

Engineer Alexander R. Milne, chief engineer of the steamer Passport, was born in Kingston in 1842. Apprenticed to the Kingston Locomotive & Car Works at the age of fourteen, after serving four years he went to Montreal in the shops of E. E. Gilbert. After two years experience in this work he returned to Kingston and in 1860 passed his examination as engineer. Shortly after receiving his certificate, Mr. Milne took charge of the engines of the steamers Pierrepont and Gazelle, which ran between Kingston and Wolfe Island. From these boats he went on to the steamers Ottawa and Montreal for the Jaques & Tracy Line, running between Hamilton and Montreal, later on taking charge of the engines of the Rochester, afterward called the Hastings, and now the Eurydice.Mr. Milne returned to Kingston and built the present steamer Pierrepont. Then he took charge of the engines of the Bay of Quinte, a steamer owned by Mr. Charles F. Gildersleeve, the present General Manager of the Richelieu & Ontario Line. From that boat he went on the Norseman, now the North King, between Port Hope and Charlotte, and remained on her until he was sent for to fit up the new steamer Vanderbilt at Lindsay, a boat designed to ply on Scugog and Sturgeon Lakes. Then he went to St. Catharines and completed the steamer Lothair, which had the second compound engine on Lake Ontario. Following, six years were spent by him on the steamer Alexandria, on the run between Montreal and Charlotte. For fourteen years Engineer Milne was chief trade instructor in the Kingston Asylum.

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