B—STEAM VESSELS
To a citizen of Montreal belongs the honour of launching the second steam vessel which navigated the waters of America, and the first on the river St. Lawrence.
In 1809 Hon. John Molson launched the Accommodation, a steam vessel of eighty-five feet length.
When eighteen years of age he had come to Montreal in 1782 and there he built the brewery. It was from the river bank at the back of his brewery that he launched his first vessel broadside into the river. The early history of steam navigation should always remember Molson’s name.
The inventor of the application of steam to a marine engine was William Symington who first constructed, in 1788, a vessel on Lake Delawater, Dumfrieshire. In 1801-2 he completed a tow-boat on the Forth and Clyde canal called the Lady Charlotte of Dundas.
Robert Fulton obtained drawings of the machinery and constructed his Clermont, the machinery being made by Boulton & Watts of Birmingham, England. The Clermont navigated the Hudson River in 1807.
John Molson now began to equip his Accommodation, fitting it with engines, also by Boulton & Watts, and launching it in November, 1809. Though it caused him a loss of £3,000 he persevered and his venture was followed by the Swiftsure in 1811; Lady Sherbrooke, the Car of Commerce, and other vessels. These steamboats were a powerful factor during the War of 1812 in forwarding troops and supplies up the St. Lawrence to Montreal. Mr. Molson died in 1836 in his seventy-third year.
The first trip, November 3, 1809, of the Accommodation was thus described by a contemporary writer:
“The Accommodation shot out into the current and after a voyage of some sixty-six hours, of which some thirty hours were spent at anchor in Lake St. Peter, reached Quebec. As might have been expected, this vessel created a great deal of excitement, and the Quebec Mercury chronicles its arrival thus: ‘On Saturday morning at 8 o’clock, arrived here from Montreal the steamboat Accommodation with ten passengers. This is the first vessel of the kind that ever appeared in this harbour.