The well known writer M. de Gaspé, says of traveling between Montreal and Quebec at this period, 1818:
“This reminds me of a first voyage from Quebec to Montreal by steamer. It was in October of 1818, at 11 o’clock in the evening, when the Caledonia, in which I had taken passage, left the Queen’s wharf.
“Between 7 and 8 o’clock on the following morning my companion, the late Robert Christie, opened the windows of his stateroom and called out, ‘We are going famously.’
“We were really progressing well, for we were opposite Pointe Aux-Trembles: aided by a strong wind we had made seven leagues in nine hours.
“We arrived at the foot of the current below Montreal on the third day, congratulating ourselves on the rapidity of steamer trips, nor did we feel humiliated in the absence of favourable winds, which did not last more than twenty-four hours, to have recourse to the united strength of forty-two oxen to assist us in ascending the current.
“I acknowledge that the Caledonia deserved to be ranked as a first class steamer of that time, and it was with regret that we bade adieu to it, after the pleasant time we had on board.”
Among the names of those who were chiefly connected with the introduction and development of steam navigation in the Province of Quebec may be mentioned, besides the Hon. John Molson, the father of the steamboat enterprise in Canada, those of Messrs. John and David Torrance, who, in 1826, placed the steamboat Hercules on the Montreal-Quebec route, and who were also the first in Canada to branch out into direct trade with the East Indies and China; and George Bush, in 1834 manager of the Ottawa and Rideau Forwarding Company, and after 1840 the sole proprietor of the Eagle Foundry in Montreal.
THE EVOLUTION OF THE STEAMSHIP
Early steam vessel with auxiliary sails