FIRST STEAM WAR SHIP

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Apr 30, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 26.

FIRST STEAM WAR SHIP.

The facts in the case are stated in "Johnson's Alphabet of First Things in Canada." The ship was the Royal William. She was built at the Cove, Quebec, in the winter of 1830-31, and during the season of 1832-33 plied between Quebec and Halifax.

In the latter season she was sent to London, and there chartered by the Portuguese Government to transport troops intended for the late Dom Pedro to Brazil. Returning to London, she was sold to the Spanish Government, by the latter converted into a cruiser, and employed against Don Carlos in the civil war of 1836, thus being the first steamer to fire a hostile shot.

There is still another curious fact that may have been overlooked—the troops withdrawn from Canada upon the close of the American war of 1812-15, for the purpose of joining the army intended to crush Napoleon after his return from Elba, were transported down the St. Lawrence by a Canadian steamer. This was probably the first occasion on which a steam vessel was used for purposes of military transport.

Canada, therefore, not only furnished the world with the first steam war vessel, but she almost certainly provided the first steam troop ship as well.—New York World.