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296 The Northern Mariner / Le marin du nord to Chicago to load cargo, this one quickly followed Queen of the North to sea, being registered in Quebec on 13 November 1863. Unlike Queen, however, the Smiths and Wyatt sold the vessel the following June, and it remained at sea. Among the other marine investments of Wyatt and the Smiths was the propeller Nicolet, a 100-foot steamer originally operated on the St. Lawrence, before being sold to Collingwood owners in the summer of 1861. On 26 February 1862, Wyatt and the Smiths bought the steamer for a reported £1,000 ($4,000).* They used it, in part, to tow sailing vessels out of the awkward harbours of south-eastern Georgian Bay. In August 1863 Nicolet was laid up, and Wyatt reported that the machinery would be removed for a new hull then under construction. Meanwhile, Wyatt became involved with a distinctly more controversial purchase and sale. Since 1855, he had been the agent for the independent freight steamboat Bowmanville. In early 1863, the vessel had been put up for sale by the owners and bought by its captain, Charles Perry, for $15,000. Failing to make much profit that spring, in early July, Perry offered the steamer to the Quartermaster General of the Union army as a transport, for “$25,000 in Canada money.”*’ With no positive response from Washington, Perry sold Bowmanville to Wyatt, who sent the steamer down to Montreal to be registered and fitted up to go to sea.** Reports that Wyatt had acquired the vessel “for a New York gentleman” failed to suppress the rumours it had been sold to parties who wanted it to run the Union blockade of Confederate ports. On 7 August 1863, the registered title was transferred to Bonifacio Jimenez, a Cuban merchant for $30,000. Attached to the registry was a note that Jimenez had been empowered to sell the ship “for a sum not less than Thirty Thousand dollars ($30,0000.00) at any place out of the Province of Canada, within Three Months.” As a blockade runner, B roved icularly inept. The steamer put into New York in mid-October leaking, set out a second time and " rey 3 July 1863 auoting ¢ Cnicago Tribune, RG 42, v. 268, p. 156, LAC (https://heritage. cana id Re 12, Al, v. 203, p. a “LAC i canadians i ihm.lac_reel ¢2064/626?1=0&s=5)., It is interesting that the vessel appears to have wintered on Lake Ontario at Kingston, from where it was reported bound for Georgian Bay in April 1862. (Daily News (Kingston), 16 April 1862). Globe, 26 August 1863. 4 Daily British Whig (Kingston), 10 February 1863, 24 February 1863. 47 Army and Navy Official Gazette (Washington, D. C.), 7 July 1863, 15. 8 Globe, 17 July 1863; RG 12, A1, v. 177, p. 122, LAC availabe at i di .lac_reel_< . Milwaukee Sentinel, 12 September 1863. Evening Courier and Republic (Buffalo), 12 September 1863.