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The Northern Mariner / Le marin du nord It was as a ship broker that Wyatt was nearly unique on the Canadian Great Lakes in the 1850s and 1860s. As noted, he had been involved with the Ogdensburgh railroad interests which were actively chartering steam and sailing vessels between 1853 and 1855. We can only speculate about the extent 294 GEORGE H. WYATT, * COMMISSION axp SHIPPING AGENT, ‘TORONTO, 0. W., Acer sauce ieee = Mem ts sonore OF HAMILTON, i Stearseas WELLAND for ®, Catherines, aa ee AGW OOD tr taal WO. Wate; 86, nd OGUENSSURG. AND VERMONT CENTRAL to which Wyatt engaged in this activity on their behalf. His first public offerings were made in the spring of 1856, when he advertised on behalf of unnamed parties who were looking to charter one or more schooners capable of carrying 7,000 to 8,000 bushels, with those Paseoge Ufice for Liverpool and Londoa | “4 ‘ated Al preferred.” While Voustls always on hand to charter ox sull, Wyatt’s advertising was OFFIOR, 21 ¥ RE usually targeted, that fall he Torcaic, September 0, 1060 seni | issued a general one, listing An advertisement featuring Wyatt. (Globe, 9 Sept. 1856) ll the various agencies he held but concluding with “Vessels always on hand to charter or sell.”** His offers ranged from sail and steam for sale, to vessels wanted or available for charter? An 1862 ad stands alone for the offer of “Insurance on Hulls and Cargoes taken at the lowest rates.”*° In expanding his range of activities from agent and ship broker to shipowner, Wyatt developed another strong relationship within the Toronto mercantile community. A.M. (Alexander Mortimer) Smith was ten years older than Wyatt. Despite poor beginnings and a limited education in his native Scotland, by the late 1850s Smith was a leading retail and wholesale grocer in partnership with John Smith (no relation). A.M. Smith had served on city council, the Toronto Board of Trade, and from 1863 served a term as the Reform Member of Provincial Parliament for Toronto East where he supported the Confederation movement! Wyatt, in partnership with the Smiths, became a ship owner. In 1859, he had acted as broker in offering for sale “a large vessel, now on the Stocks” 27 Globe, 17 March 1855, 8 Globe, 9 September 1856. 2° Globe, 26 Jamary 1857, 10 February 1857, 9 April 1857, 15 February 1861, 16 April 1861, 4 April 1862, 7 March 1874, 2 February 1875, 8 November 1876. 30 Globe, 29 March 1862. 31 DCB, XII: 975-76.