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310 The Northern Mariner / Le marin du nord of Owen Sound by John Simpson, John Potter’s nephew, in early 1875."* In the city directories of 1875 and 1876, he was identified as one of the Toronto agents of the Royal Insurance Company of Liverpool, a firm that dealt in fire and life insurance."5 Shortly after that he gave up his office on Front Street 6 Wyatt had been associated with Toronto’s Board of Trade since at least 1860, serving on its council on occasion."” The board had the power to nominate two members of the Toronto Harbour Commission, and for years one of those members had been his father-in-law, Thomas D. Harris, who also briefly served as Harbour Master in the early 1870s."* In the wake of Harris’ death in January 1873, Wyatt’s name was proposed for the Harbour Commission, on which he served from 1874 to 1878. By 1878 there was a rising concem that when finished the enlargement of the Welland Canal would yield a generation of new canallers with drafts too deep for much of the existing harbour, including its entrances.""” Much of the commission’s inaction has been laid at the feet of its chair, the other board appointee, J.G. Worts.! When a long list of Toronto captains and vessel owners presented a petition demanding action on the eastern gap to city council that November, Wyatt and two others broke ranks with the rest of the Harbour Commission and added their signatures." He would not be re-appointed. With his departure from the commission, Wyatt appears to have broken his last ties to Toronto’s waterfront and its businesses. What remained of his life would be spent promoting tourism to and settlement of northem Ontario and western Canada. While his family remained in Toronto, he spent much of 14 Globe, 8 March 1875. Ronald F. Beaupre, “Ship of the Month No. 153, CITY OF OWEN sun amen, vol. 19, no, 6 (March 1987). One of Wyatt’s daughters was given the honour naming the vessel (Owen Sound Advertiser, 17 June 1875). i Toronto Directory for 1875... (Toronto: Fisher & Taylor, 1875), 5. Toronto Directory for 1875... (Toronto: Fisher & Taylor, 1876), 367. 46 Toronto Directory for 1878... (Toronto: Might & Taylor, 1878), 105 lists Front St. East without his office. "7 Globe, 25 Jan 1860, 30 January 1862. us DCB, 10: 335-36. "9 Globe, 26 February 1878. 120 Michael Moir, “Planning for Change: Harbour Commissions, Civil Engineers, and Large- scale Manipulation of Nature,” in Gene Desfor and Jennefer Laidley, Reshaping Toronto’ Waterfront (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2011), 34. The concern in the Globe article was for a twelve-foot draft, which was the original intent of the Welland enlargement, but between 1882 and 1887 this was extended to fourteen feet which represented an even greater threat to the harbour. 11 Globe, 19 November 1878. Wyatt would later justify breaking ranks with the rest of the Commission because the petition had been intended to secure a grant from the federal government. Globe, 1 February 1879.