Montreal can claim some share in the success of the first ship that ever crossed the Atlantic under steam. The Royal William was built in the yards of Campbell and Black in Quebec in 1830-1, the designer being Mr. John Gondie.
The ship was launched in the spring of 1831 and towed to Montreal to receive her machinery, and on being fitted out for sea her first voyage was to Halifax, thence to Boston, being the first British steamer to arrive at that port.
Her dimensions were: Length, 176 feet; hold, 17 feet, 9 inches; breadth outside, 44 feet; breadth between paddle boxes, 28 feet. She had three masts, schooner rigged; builders’ measurement, 1,370 tons; with accommodations for sixty passengers. She left Quebec for London on August 5, 1833, via Picton, Nova Scotia. Thence her voyage was twenty-five days.
Ten days after her arrival she was chartered by the Portuguese Government to enter the service of Dom Pedro. In 1834 she was sold to the Spanish Government and was converted into a war steamer under the name of the Ysabel Segunda and was employed against Don Carlos.
She was undoubtedly the pioneer of the great Atlantic liners.
The connection of Montreal and the Atlantic Service is now to be told.
The origin of the Montreal steamboat mail service is indicated from an article by Thomas C. Keeffer, civil engineer, 1863. “On the 13th of August, 1852, a contract was entered into between the Commissions of Works of Canada and Messrs. McKean, McLarty & Company, a Liverpool firm, for a term of seven years, by which a line of screw steamers of not less than 1,200 tons, carpenter’s measurements, 300 horsepower and capable of carrying 1,000 tons of cargo, besides coal, for twenty-two days, were to commence running between Liverpool, Quebec and Montreal in the spring of 1853, one every fortnight during the season of navigation, and to Portland once a month; the outward passage not to exceed fourteen days and the homeward passage thirteen days. The maximum rate of freight to be charged was 60 shillings per ton. Fourteen trips were to be made from Liverpool to the St. Lawrence and back, for which at least five steamers were to be provided; and five trips to Portland and back, for which three steamers were required. The vessels were all to be ready and to commence their fortnightly service on or before the 1st of May, 1854, and a sufficient number to be ready and to commence the monthly trips in the spring of 1853. The price to be paid by the province was for fourteen fortnightly trips to the St. Lawrence, £1,238—1—11 sterling. The Grand Trunk Railway was to pay £388—6—8 sterling for each monthly trip to Portland. In October, 1852, Messrs. McKean, McLarty & Company formed a provisional company under the title of the Liverpool & North American Screw Steamship Company, and petitioned the Board of Trade for a Royal Charter with limited liabilities. In this they were vigorously and successfully opposed by the Cunard Steamship Company (already magnificently subsidized by the British government) and generally by ship owners not protected by a limited liability, and were compelled to attempt the formation of their company under a Canadian charter.
“Under this contract the Genova, a small steamer of 700 tons and 160 horsepower, was sent out in 1853, the first trans-Atlantic steamer which entered the St. Lawrence proper.”
It reached Montreal carrying the royal mail on Friday, May 13, 1853, amidst great rejoicing. She was an iron boat from Liverpool, commanded by Captain Paton.
On the evening of her arrival a dinner was given in the Donegani Hotel, the following being the text of the address presented to Capt. Walter Paton, who with Mayor Wilson and the others sat at the banquet: