Almost immediately after the Frontenac was launched a second steamboat was commenced. The material which had been collected while building the Frontenac had not all been used, and went far in the construction of the “Queen Charlotte,” which was destined to be the pioneer steamer upon the Bay Quinté and River St. Lawrence, in its upper waters. She was built by shares of £50 each. Johns and Finkle had nine shares. She was built, (Gilderslieve being the principal shipwright,) launched, and commenced running in the early part of 1818. The engine was furnished by Brothers Wards of Montreal, being made at their foundry. She was not long launched before she was ready to run. She made trips twice a week from Wilkins’ wharf, at the Carrying Place, to Prescott. She was commanded a few of the first trips by an old veteran captain named Richardson, who lived then near Picton, and afterward to the close of the season, by a young man named Mosier. Of the number of passengers on the first trip we have no knowledge, but suppose them to be few, for Belleville, then the largest place above Kingston, was a mere hamlet—​Trent, Hallowell, Adolphustown and Bath were the only stopping places from the head of the Bay to Kingston. They were regulated in their course, the first summer by frequently heaving the lead, an old man-of-war’s-man being on board for the purpose. (Collins reported in 1788 that vessels drawing only from eight to ten feet of water can go into the Bay Quinté). For two seasons she was commanded by Capt. Dennis; Mr. Gilderslieve was purser the second and third seasons; and the fourth commenced his captaincy, which lasted as long as the boat was seaworthy, a period of nearly twenty years; he was, at the building, a master shipwright, and became a stockholder.

Says Mrs. Carroll, “of the fare from place to place I have no knowledge, but from the head of the bay to Kingston, the first season it was five dollars, meals included.”

The good old Charlotte was a very acceptable improvement in the navigation of the Bay. A few of the owners of sailing crafts, perhaps, suffered for a time; but the settlers regarded her as an unmixed blessing. During the first years she was so accommodating as to stop any where to pick up a passenger from a small boat, or let one off.

The old inhabitants of to-day speak of her with words of kindness. But the Queen Charlotte has passed away. The last remembered of her was her hull rotting away in the Cataraqui Bay above the bridge.

The steamer did not prove remunerative to the stockholders until Gilderslieve became the commander. Of the second Captain, we produce the subjoined from a Toronto daily of 1867:

Death of Mr. Dennis.—​“We observe with much regret the death of Joseph Dennis, Esq., of Weston, and with it the severance of another link connecting us with the early history of this country. Mr. Dennis was born in New Brunswick in 1789, his father, the late John Dennis, having settled there after being driven out of the United States as a U. E. Loyalist. The family removed to Canada some three years later, Mr. John Dennis receiving a grant of land for his services and losses as a Loyalist. This land was selected on the Humber river, and on it he then settled and lived, till having been appointed Superintendent of the dock-yard, he removed to Kingston.

“Our recently deceased friend, Mr. Joseph Dennis, was brought up in the dock-yard to a thorough knowledge of ship-building, which occupation, however, he soon exchanged for a more congenial one—​that of sailing. Owning a vessel on the lake at the outbreak of the American war of 1812, he placed himself and his vessel at the disposal of the Government, and was attached to the Provincial Marine. In one of the actions on Lake Ontario he lost his vessel, was captured, and retained a prisoner in the hands of the enemy for some fifteen months. He subsequently commanded, we believe, the first steamer on the waters of Lake Ontario, the Princess Charlotte, which plied, as regularly as could be expected from a steamer of fifty years back, between the Bay of Quinté, Kingston, and Prescott. For the last six and thirty years Mr. Dennis had retired from active pursuits, retaining, till within the last year, remarkable vigour, which, however, he taxed but little excepting to indulge his taste in fishing, of which he was an enthusiastic disciple. A man of genial and happy temperament, of unbending integrity, of simple tastes and methodical habits, he was a type of man fast passing out of this country.”

The successor of the “Charlotte” was built by John G. Parker, called the “Kingston” commanded for a time by John Grass. She did not prove so serviceable as the “Charlotte.” Then followed the “Sir James Kemp,” which was built also at Finkle’s Point.

A history of the first steamboats of the bay would be incomplete without particular reference to one individual, whose name is even yet associated with one of the steamboats which ply up and down the Bay.

Henry Gilderslieve came into Canada about a month before the Frontenac was launched, in August, 1816. He was the son of a ship-builder, who owned yards on the Connecticut river, and built vessels for the New York market. Being a skilful shipwright he assisted to finish off the Frontenac, and then as master ship-builder, assisted at the Charlotte. During this time Mr. Gilderslieve himself built a packet named the Minerva. In building this vessel he brought to his assistance the knowledge he had acquired in his father’s yard. The result was, that when she was taken to Kingston to receive her fittings out, Capt. Murney examined her inside and out, and particularly her mould, which exceeded anything he had seen, and declared her to be the best craft that ever floated in the harbour of Kingston, which afterward she proved herself to be, when plying two years as a packet between Toronto and Niagara.—​(Finkle).