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George Heny Wyatt 305 the Canadian steamers,” but heavily armed, each with a 110-pounder and a 40-pounder Armstrong rifled breech-loading gun. The heaviest guns carried by e Canadian vessels were 20-pounder Amnstrong rifled breech-loaders.” The British gunboats, with a best speed of nine knots (about ten statute miles per hour) were slower than the Canadian steamers, which could make as much as fourteen statute miles per hour and were thus better able to navigate the strong currents often found in the inland waters.” This was why British defence planning for the lakes had long noted the importance of taking up fast civilian steamers. The crew of each gunboat was about forty personnel. The Canadian vessels each had crews of some fifty to seventy personnel, which included the Royal Navy fighting crew and perhaps a half dozen civilian personnel, the only crew provided by Canada, to assist with navigation and to operate the engines.* Wyatt kept up a frenetic pace, regularly travelling from Toronto to Ottawa, and to ports from Montreal to Windsor. Aside from dealings with ship owners, B-2358, LAC includes de Horsey’s plan for the which Monck Napier had approved. %! The Britomart class were 120 feet in length with a 20-foot beam. The largest Canadian vessels were Michigan (later renamed Prince Alfred), 160 feet length and 26-foot beam, and Royal, 150 feet length and 38-foot beam. On the Britomart class see J.J. Colledge and Ben Warlow, Ships of the Royal Navy: The Complete Record of all Fighting Ships of the Royal Navy Srom the 15" Century to the Present (London: Chatham, 2006), xii and MacDonald, Gunboats on the Great Lakes, 97. On the Canadian steamers see Wyatt, “Rescue,” 5 July 1866, RG9 IC8, vol. 8, file numbers 1-20, LAC (with coal Rescue could do “10-12 miles”), Wyatt, “Michigan,” 5 July 1866, RG9 IC8, vol. 8, file numbers 1-20, LAC. (Michigan best speed “13-14 miles”). Hood, “Report of Steamers hired and fitted as Gun Boats for Service in St. Lawrence,” 8 June 1866, ADM 128/25, f. 522, TNA, reel B-2359, LAC. *® Wyatt to minister of Militia and Defence, 23 September 1868, forwarding “Statement respecting the Government of Canada or by the British Government in Canadian waters,” RG9 IAI, vol. 2, file 908, LAC. This gives the armament for each of Prince Alfred and Rescue as two “14 Armstrong” and one “10 Brass,” which may refer to the weights in hundredweights of the 20-pounder Armstrong gun and the 24-pounder smooth-bore brass howitzer that earlier correspondence shows were the heaviest guns fitted in the Canadian vessels; see, ¢.g., de Horsey to Hope, “Report of Proceedings,” 4 June 1866, ADM 128/24, ff. 365-368, TNA, reel B-2358, LAC; Hood, “Report of Steamers hired and fitted as Gun Boats,” 8 Tune 1866, ADM 128/25, f. 522, TNA, reel B-2359, LAC; Hood, “Guns belonging to the [Royal Navy] Ships [at Montreal and Quebec] now in use in steamers on the St. Lawrence,” [June 1866], £, 533, ADM 128/25, f. 522, TNA, reel B-2359, LAC. % A point de Horsey underscored in advocating the purchase of Michigan and Rescue: de Horsey to Monck, 30 June 1866, RG9 IC8, vol. 8, file nos. 1-20, LAC. Wyatt, 23 September 1868, “Statement respecting the armed vessels...” gives Rescue’s crew as fifty-five, and Prince Alfred’s as seventy. De Horsey, “Civilian Crews of the hired gunboats ‘Michigan’ and ‘Rescue’ ...,” 22 July 1866, RG9 1C8, vol. 8, file nos. 1-20, LAC recommended trimming the larger civilian crews that had initially sailed on the Canadian steamers to six personnel each.