— 201 — 



The shriek of the railway whistle in 1853 scared 

 away, we think, forever, the Bed and Blue lines noble 

 steeds. The wayside stables and inns have been closed. 

 ]STo telegraphs, nor railways, nor ocean steamers in those 

 days, though our Royal William, in 1833, had, the 

 first shown how the ocean could be forded, with steam 

 alone (1). The model of the pioneer steamer can yet 



(1) As a Quebecer I felt proud when publishing in 1876, 

 Quebec Past and Present, to have an opportunity of giving 

 full particulars of the pioneer of Ocean Steam Navigation 

 built, within a few acres from my home, in 1831, 



Vide pp. 286-70 and p. 450, for its Custom House Eegister 

 and other details. 



The subject was subsequently ably taken up by Jas. Steven- 

 son, President Literary and Historical Society, Quebec ; one 

 of his successors, in the Presidential Chair, Archibald Camp- 

 bell, of Thornhill, prepared an elaborate lecture, on the 

 subject, which was published in the Transactions of the society 

 and which accompanied to England the model of the Royal 

 William, when it was honored, at the great Naval Exhibition, 

 at Chelsea, with a Diploma, bearing the signature of H. K. H. 

 the Prince of Wales. Capt. Frederick C. Wurtele, the active 

 librarian of the Literary and Historical Society, not only wrote 

 several excellent articles in the press, to vindicate Quebec's 

 claim to priority in ocean steam navigation, but also an 

 elaborate pamphlet, embodying the whole evidence in the 

 case ; others also took up the cudgels for Quebec. 



Laterly Mr. Sandford Fleming, the eminent scientist and 

 past-President of the Koyal Society of Canada, brought the 

 subject before the Canadian Institute of Toronto, and suc- 

 ceeded in procuring a bronze tablet, to be erected under the 

 auspices of the Government, in the Parliamentary Library, at 

 Ottawa, commemorating this glorious incident of Quebec 

 history. It bears the following inscription : 



(Miniature of the Ship.) 



In honour of the men by whose enterprise, courage and skill 

 the " Royal William, " the first vessel to cross the Atlantic by 

 steam power, was wholly constructed in Canada and navigated, 

 to England in 1833, the pioneer of those mighty fleets of ocean 

 steamers by which passengers and merchandise of all nations 

 are now conveyed on every sea throughout the world. 



" Ordered by the Parliament of Canada, June 13-15, 1894." 



