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George Heny Wyatt 297 retumed leaking, and disappeared on the third attempt.* To what extent Wyatt profited on this exchange is unclear. Meanwhile, there was the new steamboat under construction on Georgian Bay. Georgian was launched at the Severn River in December 1863 with the engines of Nicolet already on board. The vessel was somewhat larger than Nicolet, having been, like most of the Wyatt and Smith projects, built to the dimensions of the Welland Canal.5' Georgian seems to have been deployed in the summer of 1864 around Georgian Bay, towing and hauling local cargoes but had been expected to run during the season between the rail head at Collingwood and Chicago.” Controversy flared in November when news got out that Wyatt and his partners had sold the propeller to a “Mr. Bates of Detroit.” On 17 January 1865, the title was transferred to a Canadian, George T. Denison. The following April the Canadian government, through the collector of Customs at Collingwood, seized Georgian on the grounds of suspicion that it would be used in violation of the province’s neutrality.* Whether or not Wyatt was paid in gold by the Confederates as some alleged, he and the Smiths appear to have collected their money, handed over the boat, and carefully washed their hands of the affair. Wyatt and the Smiths were not interested in developing a fleet. Apart from the Queen of the North, by the spring of 1865 all of their acquisitions had been sold. In April, they picked up the Mary Roe, a Port Burwell barque, a vessel that had gone ashore at the entrance to Toronto harbour the previous fall. Like many of their previous sailing vessels, it was despatched to Halifax in the summer of 1865. Less lucky than the others, Mary Roe was wrecked on the return voyage.* One final sailing vessel was built for Wyatt and A.M. Smith, this time in conjunction with their investment in lumber operations on Georgian Bay. Where Silver Cloud and Georgian had been built on the Severn River at the 50 Evening Union (Washington, D. C.), 10 October 1863. Age (Philadelphia, PA), 4 December 1863. The loss at sea is documented on its Montreal registry. 51 Globe, 18 December 1863. 52 Globe, 28 March 1864, 10 May 1864 (quoting Collingwood Enterprise, 5 May). “In the Matter of the Propeller Georgian,” in Christopher Robinson, Report of Cases decided in the Court of Queens Bench, (Toronto: Carswell and Co., 1881), 319-23. Richard J. ‘Wright, “Stars and Bars Over Lake Erie (Conclusion),” Inland Seas, v. 20, n. 2 (Summer 1964): 110-12. The petition of George Taylor Denison, Jr. to the Honorable the House of Assembly, praying redress in the matter of the seizure of the steamer “Georgian”, together with copies of the petition and affidavits filed in the county court of the county of Simcoe. (Toronto, 1865). Correspondence relating to the Fenian Invasion and the Rebellion of the Southern States (Ottawa: Hunter, Rose & Company, 1869), 87-97 (esp. 88-89). 3 Globe, 5 November 1864; Daily British Whig, 8 April 1865. 58 Daily British Whig, 13 July 1865, 17 August 1865; Globe, 12 August 1865.