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The Steamer Toronto of 1825 WALTER LEWIS None of the early Great Lakes steamboats has been as strongly vilified by historians as the first Toronto (launched 1825): "peculiar", "unfortunate",1 a "failure",2 "not of much use", a "freak" 3 Their adjectives, however, pale before the contempt of the York Observer, which at the close of her first season described the Toronto as the "drivelling plan of a penny wise and a pound foolish"." The historical assessments are each accompanied by a description of the Toronto's hull based on that of Canon Henry Scadding. "She was constructed without any dif ference of shape at the bow and stem, and without any ribs. She was a shell of successive layers of rather thin boards placed alternately lengthwise and athwart, with coatings, between of stout brown paper pitched ." 5 On the strength of this description, H.A. Musham condemned her as "structurally weak, difficult to keep dry and hard to keep on a course by her cut-away profile".6 These same historians have little to say of the Toronto after she was put up for auction in Kingston in 1830. The conclusion readily drawn from these accounts is that the Toronto was built of a "peculiar" design which contributed to a short, unsuccessful career. These brief, inadequate accounts leave a num ber of questions unanswered. How and when did the "unfor tunate" career of the Toronto end? Was this "peculiar" hull really to blame for her "failure"? And was this "drivelling plan" ever used for other steamers? Before casually dismissing the Toronto, we should take account of a comment made several years later by the editor of the Kingston Chronicle and Gazette. "The venerable Toronto or Perseverance (we do not know which) like the Wandering Jew, we presume, is doomed never to die. She has recently undergone another metamorphosis - from the caterpillar into the butterfly."7 The comments were made after major renovations, to a brief flirtation with the name Perseverance in 1832-3, and the transfer of the vessel to work towing barges on the Rideau Canal. Somehow, Musham's condemnation does not ring true to this description. 26 Financial success does not seem to have been found by the Toronto. She had been built for a group of York merchants to run between York and Niagara. Launched in the spring of 1825, by the fall of that same season the Toronto was put up for sale "for cash only".8 The Baldwin brothers (uncles of the Hon. Robert Baldwin of "Respon sible G overnm ent" fame) bought ou t her other shareholders and shifted her down to a route between Prescott and the Bay of Quinte. This move took them out of the path of Capt. Hugh Richardson's new steamer, the S T E A M B O A T TORONTO. P U B L I C N O T I C E IS H E R E B Y G I V E N , that t h is S t ea m Boat w it h h e r E n g i n e , T a c k l e , a n d F u r n i t u r e , as sh e now lies at t he M e r c h a n t s W h a r f i n t h e T o w n o f Yo rk , will b e sold at P ub lic Au ct i on at t h e M a r k e t Place in the said T o w n, a t 12 o 'c l o c k a t noon on T u e s d a y t h e 8th d a y o f N o v e m b e r n ex t, to t h e h i g h e st b i d de r for c ash only . A n d all p e r so n s having claims against t h e said B o a t -- an d w h o h a v e not a l r e a d y se nt t h e m in, a r e h e r e b y notified to do so to t h e S ub sc r i b e r , on o r b e f o r e t h e 4 th day o f N o v e m b e r n ext , o r t h e y will n o t b e a t t en de d to. By o r d e r o f a g e n e r a l Me et i ng o f t h e S t o c k h o l d e r s h el d on b o a r d t h e Bo a t t h e 10th O c t o b e r 1 82 5. S. WASHBURN, Secretary. T h e E d i to r s o f t he N i a g a r a G l e a n e r , -- K i n g st o n H e r a l d , -- a nd Br oc kv i ll e R e c o r d e r , a r e r e q u e st e d to i n se r t t he a b o v e unti l t he d a y o f S al e, and se n d in t h e ir a c c ou n t s. STUMP MACHINE. ad. re au ction . "U pper C anada G azette, 20 O ct. 1825. C o n stru ctio n o f th e C a n a d a for a group of York an d Niagara investors led by C apt. Hugh Richardson was already u n derw ay w h en th e T o ro nto 's ow ners decided to c u t th eir losses."