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Wednesday, 19 June, 1872, this account was published; "Lake & River Steamship Company - Launch of the LAKE ONTARIO - It is not perhaps generally known that Hamilton is the headquarters of a new steamship company which gives promise of being extensively heard of at no distant day. The company has been formed within the last few months, and has already put afloat two splendid propellers, the second of which was launched yesterday at Port Dalhousie. The morning train yesterday took down a large party from this city to witness the launch. Among those present were the following gentlemen; Adam Hope, pres. of the company, Aeneas D. MacKay, manager, John Harvey, secretary-treasurer, John Crerar, solicitor, John Brown, Thos. Saunders, Chas. J. Hope, Robert Osborne, Alex. Turner, John McPherson, Capt. John B. Fairgrieve, Hugh Fairgrieve, William Turnbull, William Muir, John McKeown, and others. A number of ladies also accompanied the party. The company's first-built propeller, the LAKE MICHIGAN was waiting at St. Catharines to receive the party and make her trial trip with them to Hamilton." The launch, originally scheduled for 2 p. m., was postponed until 5 p. m. so the party was conveyed to the Welland House for lunch, and were later given a tour of the city of St. Catharines. Shortly before 4 p. m., they boarded the LAKE MICHIGAN and within the hour, they disembarked at Andrews' shipyard at Port Dalhousie. The report continues; "The steamer about to be launched, and which, at the proper moment was christened LAKE ONTARIO, was gaily decorated with flags and streamers. The builder, Mr. Andrews, was busily engaged, attending to the preliminaries, and soon after the arrival of the company, the preparations were complete. Meanwhile, however, the visitors flocked on board the vessel and inspected, with pleasure, the substantial and beautiful workmanship. Though intended chiefly for freight, both vessels have upper cabins tastefully fitted out for the accommodation of a considerable number of passengers. " The reporter then went into some detail as to the method of preparing a hull for sidelaunching, and informed his readers that the honour of christening the vessel went to Eugenie Owen MacKay, the 10 year old daughter of the manager of the Line. Though his terminology was that of a land-lubber, he did succeed in giving a fairly graphic description of the actual launching, good enough, in fact, to bring back to this writer memories of such happy events at Collingwood and Midland in more recent times. He recalled to mind the chorus of the sledge hammers, the final rally before the hull was left to sit on the ways, restrained only by two stout lines, fore and aft, for the few seconds that it took the sponsor to get a firm grip on the bottle and to take aim at the stem of the vessel; then, as the bottle broke and glass tinkled down onto the timbers below came the shout from a hundred throats "There She Goes"; then that short rapid slide side-ways toward the water, the lazy outward roll as she came off the end and dropped with a resounding splash into her native element. And there she lay, rolling gently, the air filled with cheers and the hysterical shrieking of tug-boat whistles. The show was over. The crowds could make their way home while some of the chosen guests gathered in Mr. Andrews' office while that gentleman uncorked a couple of bottles, for a few quick toasts. The final ceremony of this memorable day took place on the Lake as the LAKE MICHIGAN steamed toward Hamilton. Capt. Larkin had seen to it that none of his passengers would go hungry or thirsty, and since the chief engineer had no intention of -13-