The “William M. Mills.”
The Canadian-built lake steamers are similar to those from United States yards, and a typical specimen of colonial construction is the Midland Prince, launched in 1907 by the Collingwood Shipbuilding Company of Collingwood, Ontario, which, like the Collingwood, is an immense freighter.
One or two “whalebacks,” a type designed for the Lakes by Captain McDougall, have been seen on the Atlantic occasionally, but they were not a great success. A vessel of this type visited Liverpool some years ago, the Charles Wetmore, and having her engines placed aft, and being built with a perfectly flush whaleback, without hatchways, and with a “scow and pig-snout” bow, was a decided curiosity. The ingenuity of her design and the excellent workmanship displayed in her construction impressed naval architects favourably, but there was nothing to show that she was superior as a cargo vessel to the single-deck steamers on this side of the Atlantic. The whaleback steamer is less in favour than it was, even in America, but a good many of them are still to be seen on the Lakes and the Pacific coast.
CHAPTER III
THE PROGRESS OF STEAM-SHIP BUILDING IN GREAT BRITAIN
The first steam-ship built in the United Kingdom (and so far as is known unnamed) was constructed on the River Carron in 1789 by William Symington, and the engines for it were made at the Carron Works at a cost of £363 10s. 10d. The following affidavits relating to this vessel are of interest, as they go far to prove that William Symington was the inventor of the marine steam-engine, the patent of which was taken out in 1786:
“I, William Symington, civil engineer, now residing at Falkirk, in the County of Stirling, in that part of the United Kingdom called Scotland, produce herewith, and refers[25] to a memorial containing a narrative of his connection with the invention of steamboat navigation, each page of which memorial is subscribed by the deponent as his relative hereto, and he maketh oath and sayeth that the said memorial contains a true narrative of facts, as connected with the said invention; and he further sweareth that he did not receive any aid or assistance of any kind to enable him to invent and apply a steam-engine to the propelling of boats.
“Sworn at Woodburn, in the County of Stirling, upon the first day of December, in the year one thousand eight hundred and twenty-four, before me, one of His Majesty’s Justices of the Peace for the County of Stirling.
“(Signed) William Symington.
“(Signed) John Callander, J.P.”
[25] Sic in original.