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George Heny Wyatt 309 Department of Marine and Fisheries. Wyatt’s final payments for services and expenses was $460.88 for fiscal year 1873-4, compared to $1,500 or more in previous years.’ Thus ended the Canadian government’s first, very closely hedged, venture into naval development. Under Wyatt’s management, the Toronto Globe commented in October 1866, “our navy, small though it is, is in as complete and efficient a state as it is possible to make it.”'"’ Of course the newspaper’s proprietor, George Brown, had supported Wyatt’s engagement. In 1870, however, Colonel Robertson-Ross, described Wyatt in similarly laudatory terms, “the able and intelligent gunboat agent.”!"* Wyatt’s goal, throughout his government service, was to obtain value for money. His efficiency enabled Canada to provide the minimum it the British found acceptable to support its much larger naval efforts at a cost the young country was willing to bear. He achieved these good results by operating as a one-person navy department, and always on a per-diem basis that brought his tenure to an end when the last vessel left military service. Disappointments in the Final Years Following Wyatt’ icehe leftasid fhis old ventures. The coal and wood wharf had already been passed on. His last association with that appeared in the city’s 1872 directory." His sole advertisements as a Great Lakes steamboat agent had been for the Beatty’s Lake Superior Line in 1874."° His last season as agent for the Inman Line was 1876." He did some work as a ship broker, although the last advertisement for that was also in 1876 (at least which has surfaced).'? Wyatt’s last venture with A.M. Smith may well have been the purchase of the burned wreck of the City of London." This they had towed to Owen Sound where Wyatt superintended the building of the City 1S PC 633/31 May 1873, RG2 Ala, vol. 310, reel C-3304, LAC; PC 535/11 May 1874, RG2 Ald, vol. 2754, LAC. 106 Sessional Papers, 1875, vol. I, no. 1, “Public Accounts of Canada for the fiscal year ended 30" June, 1874,” 131. 17 9 October 1866, 2. 108 Sessional Papers, 1871, vol. IV, no. 7, “Annual Report on the State of the Militia for 1870,” 49, 109 "Wm. Henry Irwin, ed. Toronto oy Directory for 1872-73 (Corrected to June 25") (Toronto: Telegraph Printing House, 1872), 326. 0 Globe, 22 June 1874, 27, June 1874, 8 August 1874, 13 October 1874. 11 Globe, 8 September 1876. His name appeared in the 1877 city directory in associated with ’s, but other names appeared in the newspaper advertisements. 2" Globe, 7 March 1874, 2 February 1875, 8 November 1876. 13 Globe, 9 November 1874.