Editing Lachine Rapids (section)

== History ==
[[File:Rapides de lachine 1890.png|thumbnail|left|Boat crossing the rapids, ca. 1890]]
The first European to see the rapids was [[Jacques Cartier]], who sailed up the [[St. Lawrence River]] in 1535, believing he had found the [[Northwest Passage]]. In 1611, [[Samuel de Champlain]] named the rapids Sault Saint-Louis, after a teenaged crewman named Louis who drowned here; the name later extended to [[Lac Saint-Louis]]. This name remained in use until the mid-19th century, but later came to be replaced by the name of the adjacent town of Lachine.<ref>[http://www.toponymie.gouv.qc.ca/ct/topos/carto.asp?Speci=33166&Latitude=45,41805&Longitude=-73,59055&Zoom=1700 Commission de toponymie du Québec - Rapides de Lachine] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222132547/http://www.toponymie.gouv.qc.ca/ct/topos/carto.asp?Speci=33166&Latitude=45,41805&Longitude=-73,59055&Zoom=1700 |date=2015-12-22 }}</ref> The name "Lachine" itself is derived from the French name for China - La Chine.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://canadaehx.com/2020/06/27/the-lacine-canal/ |title=The Lacine Rapids |website=Canadian History Ehx |accessdate=January 17, 2025}}</ref>

The first Europeans known to have traveled above these rapids were Champlain and [[Étienne Brûlé]] on 13 June 1611. Brûlé continued upriver to live among the [[Algonquin people|Algonquin]], while Champlain himself would not travel further up the [[Ottawa River]] until May 1613.  [[Louis Jolliet]]'s July 1674 canoe accident in the rapids destroyed his official report on the existence of the [[Mississippi River]], and raised the standing of his fellow explorer [[Jacques Marquette]].<ref>"[https://archive.org/details/newcolumbiaencyc00harr/page/1428/mode/2up?q=Anticosti&view=theate Jolliet or Joliet, Louis]" in ''The New Columbia Encyclopedia''. Columbia University, 1975.</ref>  

The first person to design a ship capable of shooting the Lachine Rapids was shipbuilder and carpenter John McQuaid, a native of [[County Armagh]], Ireland who later settled in [[Kingston, Ontario]] with his family.{{citation needed|date=November 2017}}