H.M. 'Toronto Yacht', 1799 and How She Got Here: Schooner Days CMIX (909)

by C. H. J. Snider

THE TORONTO YACHT, whose ancient wreck seems to be identified by a cannon ball found recently by Mrs. W. M. Hardy on the Island shore, was built for the Provincial Marine in the Humber River in 1799. She cost £981 one shilling and 10 pence, of which Joseph Dennis received £306 12 6 for his labor, and £675 9 4 was for the wood and iron and oakum used. Her master builder was an ancestor of the Mount Dennis family. She was built at the Humber. His brother John was master builder at the Kingston royal dockyard, and Joseph may have been at the earlier arsenal at Carleton Island. Between them they built many naval vessels in the War of 1812.

The Toronto Yacht did not take part in that war, although she was rated by the enemy, exaggeratedly, as having 14 guns and 80 men. She ran ashore on Gibraltar Point at the end of 1811, on a very late passage, and was cut down to the ice level to secure all the iron possible from her. This was used to build and equip the schooner Prince Regent of 12 guns, the first man-of-war built in the arsenal newly established in York harbor.

QUESTIONS ANSWERED

One of the later day arguments against accepting the ancient wreck on Gibraltar Point, from which a cannonball has recently been found, as the Toronto Yacht's, of 1799, was the size of the wreck and its scantling — two-inch oak plank, six-inch frames, twelve-inch keel, seven-inch spikes, and so on. The wreckage left was 53 feet long and 19 feet six inches wide when measured sixteen years ago, and it had evidently extended for another 20 feet at least, for the keel was cracked short across, and the after half of it missing. Too big for a lake yacht even now, it was objected, for she would be as long as Commodore Hahn's Nonchalant, and wider than Oriole IV, and her timbers were twice as big as theirs.

This overlooked the fact that in 1799 the admiralty and Trinity House did not build yachts for pleasure sailing, but for strenuous service at sea, as liaison craft, scouts, despatch ships and lighthouse supply vessels. This called for "large" vessels, heavily timbered. Moreover, the Toronto Yacht's ironwork was enough for the Prince Regent, which carried twelve 12-pounders and two heavier guns in war; and her remains, still in Kingston harbor, stretch the tape to 79 feet.

Another question arose from the fact that files of the Montreal Herald held a despatch dated July 5, 1817, stating that "H.M. schooner Toronto was wrecked at York, June 2, 1817, with a cargo of Indian stores." This was a reprint, and the original was not available, but the date could only apply to a successor to the Toronto Yacht, because the fate of the original was definitely established in correspondence collected by Brig. Gen. Cruikshank and preserved in the Dominion Archives.

BROKEN UP IN 1812

Capt. Andrew Gray, Assistant Deputy Quartermaster General, (to which department the Provincial Marine belonged) had written to Sir George Prevost from York on Jan. 29, 1812 — remember this date — five months before the war was declared, and five years and five months before this newspaper despatch could be written:

"There is every inducement to build the new schooner (Prince Regent, later Beresford, later Netley) at York, as exclusive of the argument already adduced in favor of establishing the naval yard at this place there are the following considerations ...

"The Toronto having been broken up here furnishes an immediate supply of ironwork and a variety of other articles that may be worked up in the new vessel . . .

"The General (Sir Isaac Brock) favors putting the superintendence of the work into the hands of the person who commanded the Toronto, who seems to be every way qualified for the task of building and commanding the new schooner."

HAD THREE CAPTAINS

Poor Gray! He lived to see the new schooner Prince Regent go into service from York in the war of 1812, but when he wrote this despatch his name was on a bullet which found him leading a charge with the cry, "Little York is avenged!" as British redcoats leapt ashore at Sackets Harbor in 1813. He seems to refer to Capt. Hugh Earl, RN, in his eulogy of 'the person who commanded the Toronto'. The Toronto Yacht was commanded by Capt. Baker in her first season, 1799, then by Capt. Earl for ten years, and last by Capt. Fish. Dr. Scadding says: "It had been the fate of the Toronto Yacht while under the command of Capt. Fish, to run on the sands of Gibraltar Point through a mistake as to the position of the light. Her skeleton was long a conspicuous object, visited by ramblers on the Island."

This picture of the TORONTO YACHT, from the J. Ross Robertson Collection of Canadian Historical in the Toronto Public Library, was framed in wood from her wreck and the wreck of H.M. Schooner PRINCE REGENT, first man-of-war built in Toronto Harbor, was presented to the wardroom of H.M. Frigate TORONTO, Lieut.-Ccmmander Henry Hill of Toronto commanding, 1944. Below is the wreck of the Toronto Yacht in 1932.