The sight of this fleet of eight steamers must have been impressive as with flying colours they made up the stream.
Judge Benson, of Port Hope, says that his father, Capt. Benson, of the 3rd Incorporated Militia, was then occupying the "Lang House" in Niagara, overlooking the river, and that he and his brother were lifted up to the window to see the flotilla pass by, a reminiscence of loyal fervor which has been vividly retained through a long life. Is it not a sufficient justification and an actual value resulting from special meetings and pageants that they not only serve to revivify the enthusiasm of the elders in annals of past days, but yet more to bring to the minds of youth actual and abiding touch with the historic events which are being celebrated?
The meeting was held upon the field of the battle, the memories of the struggle revived and honour done to the fallen.
The present monument was the result of the enterprise then begun.
Much rivalry existed between the steamers as to which would open the season first, as the boat which got into Niagara first before 1st March was free of port dues for the season. In this the "Transit" excelled and sometimes landed her passengers on the ice.
The Niagara Dock Company in 1842 turned out the "Chief Justice Robinson" commanded by Captain Hugh Richardson, Jr.
This steamer, largely owned by Captain Heron and the Richardsons, was specially designed to continue during the winter the daily connection by water to Toronto, and so avoid the long stage journey around the head of the lake. For this purpose her prow at and below the water line was projected forward like a double furrowed plough, to cut through the ice and throw it outwards on each side.
This winter service she maintained for ten seasons with commendable regularity between the outer end of the Queen's Wharf at Toronto (where she had sometimes to land passengers on the ice) and Niagara. On one occasion, in a snowstorm, she went ashore just outside the harbour at Toronto, and was also occasionally frozen in at both ends of the route, but each time managed to extricate herself. After refitting in the spring she divided the daily Lewiston-Toronto Route after 1850 with the second City of Toronto, a steamer with two separate engines, with two walking beams built at Toronto in 1840, which had been running in the Royal Mail Line, but in 1850 passed into the complete ownership of Captain Thomas Dick.
The steamer "Rochester" is also recorded as running between Lewiston and Hamilton in 1843 to 1849.