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Ship of the Month - cont'd. the Great L a k e s , lists BANSHEE as built in 1854 at Portsmouth, but this in formation would appear to refer to the second BANSHEE. Mansfield gave BAN SHEE'S tonnage as 400, but this apparently also was a reference to the sidewheel BANSHEE, whose tonnage usually was given as 294, or 402 "old tons". In respect of the tonnage reported for old steamboats, readers would do well to remember the words of the late marine historian, C. H . J. Snider, who re marked that "It should be said that tonnage discrepancies which may be noted need not worry anyone. Even in the same register, tonnage measurements for the same vessel often differ... Tonnage is a subject too deep for landsmen and over the hip-boot tops of many sailors. It should be approached with prayer and fasting, a sense of humour, and the knowledge that a ton is not a ton, but a unit about as definite as 'a heap, a lot, some, any, or ple n ty'... an arbitrary divisor of one product of certain measurements loosely related to the length, depth and width of a vessel's h u l l . " [5] BANSHEE was offered for sale in the Toronto "Globe" of January 14th, 1857, the advertisement describing her as "at Hamilton, with a new engine this year by Shepard, of Buffalo". There is no documentation available as to how long Browne & Co. actually owned the steamer. BANSHEE suffered serious damage on Thursday, October 13, 1859, when she ran on a rock at Whiskey Island, a few miles below Gananoque, in the St. Lawrence River. There was no loss of life, but the propellor went high and dry on the rocks, with her back broken. She had been laden with goods consigned to Upper Canada. Captain Andrew Dunlop, who began his career in 1854 aboard the Royal Mail Line propellor LORD ELGIN, was purser in BANSHEE at the time of her stranding. (He later went on to command the Royal Mail Line steamers CHAMPION, BAVARIAN, ALGERIAN, SPARTAN and C O RINTHIAN. ) [6] In 1860, BANSHEE (I) was listed in the "Board of Lake Underwriters: Lake Vessel Register" as 190 tons, built in Kingston in 1852, owned by H i g g in botham, with Toronto as her port of hail. BANSHEE was valued at $6, 400 and was classed B-2. It is not known to which BANSHEE the "Daily British Whig" was referring when on July 21, 1860, it reported the grounding of three steamers in Lake St. Peter on Wednesday night, the 18th. The steamer COLUMBIA, downbound for Quebec from Montreal, was the first to go ashore. The upbound steamer QUEBEC went to her assistance and touched bottom, but got off without damage. COLUMBIA was got off in six hours, not much damaged. BANSHEE, reportedly, then went aground, where she remained, taking on water. These strandings took place because a raft of logs had carried away the lighthouse. Two days later, the "Whig" proclaimed that the BANSHEE stranding report was untrue, and that she had arrived at Kingston "quite sound" at about 7 o'clock on Saturday evening, the 21st. [7] The "false" stranding report could have referred to either BANSHEE, for the propellor still bore this name when she was sold on September 20, 1860, "under a warrant of distress emanating from the Police Court". The purchaser was a Mr.Starnes, of Bath, Ontario, who paid $3, 000 for her. BANSHEE was lying in the canal at Bartley &Gilbert's foundry at the time of this sale. [8] She was resold by Starnes, presumably the same year. The Mills list (Supplement #2, 1983) gives a rename in 1860, with BANSHEE (I) going under the name HERO for the season, but reverting to BANSHEE in 1861. According to Mills, she ran on Lake Huron as HERO. If, in fact, this rename ever actually occurred, it must have happened late in the 1860 season, for we can find no newspaper advertisements for her under the name HERO. BANSHEE (I) cleared the Welland Canal, downbound, on Tuesday, August 20th, 1861, and sank the following night in a gale on Lake Ontario. Captain McCrea, an experienced seaman, was at her helm when she went down in the vicinity of Timber Island, off Point Traverse, Prince Edward County. BAN SHEE'S machinery reportedly failed and, becoming unmanageable, she foundered.