“ROBERT GARRETT,” FERRY STEAMBOAT, NEW YORK.
CHAPTER II.
EARLY YEARS OF STEAM NAVIGATION.
The Accommodation—The Savannah—Enterprise —Royal William—Liverpool—Sirius and Great Western—Great Britain and Great Eastern—The Brunels—The screw propeller.
TWO years after the Clermont had commenced to ply on the Hudson, and three years before the Comet had disturbed the waters of the Clyde, the first steamboat appeared on the St. Lawrence. The Accommodation, built by the Hon. John Molson, of Montreal, made her maiden trip to Quebec on November 3rd, 1809, carrying ten passengers, in thirty-six hours’ running time. In accordance with the usual custom, which continued for many years, she anchored at night, so that the whole time occupied in the voyage was sixty-six hours. If she ascended the St. Mary’s current, she was towed up by oxen. The length of this vessel was eighty-five feet over all, her breadth sixteen feet, her engine was of six horse-power, and her speed five miles an hour. The Accommodation was built at the back of the Molson’s Brewery, and was launched broadside on. Her engine was made by Boulton & Watt, of Birmingham, England. The fare from Montreal to Quebec by this vessel was £2 10s.; children, half price; “servants with birth (sic), £1 13s. 4d.; without birth, £1 5s.” The Quebec Mercury, announcing her arrival, remarked: “She is incessantly crowded with visitors. This steamboat receives her impulse from an open-spoked perpendicular wheel on each side, without any circular band or rim. To the end of each double spoke is fixed a square board which enters the water, and by the rotatory motion of the wheels acts like a paddle. No wind or tide can stop her.”