The Canadian

paddlewheel A paddle wheel is a form of waterwheel or impeller in which a number of paddles are set around the periphery of the wheel. It has several uses, of which some are: * Very low-lift water pumping, such as flooding paddy fields at no more than about ...

er ''Accommodation'' was the first successful

steamboat A steamboat is a boat that is marine propulsion, propelled primarily by marine steam engine, steam power, typically driving propellers or Paddle steamer, paddlewheels. Steamboats sometimes use the ship prefix, prefix designation SS, S.S. or S/S ...

built entirely in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

.Marsh, John
"Accommodation"
in ''The Canadian Encyclopedia''. Volume 1, p.10. Edmonton: Hurtig Publishers, 1988 Financed by brewer

John Molson John Molson (December 28, 1763 – January 11, 1836) was an English-born brewer and entrepreneur in colonial Quebec, which during his lifetime became Lower Canada. In addition to founding Molson Brewery, he built the first steamship and the firs ...

, she was constructed by John Jackson and John Bruce in

Montréal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-p ...

in 1809, using engines built in

Forges du Saint-Maurice The Forges du Saint-Maurice ''("St. Maurice Ironworks")'' was the first successful ironworking industry in New France. At the time of the initial formation of the forges in 1730, the Saint Maurice region near Trois-Rivières had long been known fo ...

Trois-Rivières Trois-Rivières (, – 'Three Rivers') is a city in the Mauricie administrative region of Quebec, Canada, at the confluence of the Saint-Maurice River, Saint-Maurice and Saint Lawrence River, Saint Lawrence rivers, on the north shore of the Sain ...

(long known for ironmongery). At a cost of £2000 she had two open-faced paddle wheels and an optional sail. Her maiden voyage was a thirty-six-hour run from Montréal to

Québec City Quebec City ( or ; french: Ville de Québec), officially Québec (), is the capital city of the Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the metropolitan area had a population of 839,311. It is the ...

on November 3, 1809. She was not a commercial success; by 1810, Molson had lost £4000 on her, and she was broken up for scrap. She nevertheless pioneered steam

packet Packet may refer to: * A small container or pouch ** Packet (container), a small single use container ** Cigarette packet ** Sugar packet * Network packet, a formatted unit of data carried by a packet-mode computer network * Packet radio, a form ...

s on the

St. Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connecting ...

and

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...

; by 1819, there were seven in regular service on the river, while the lakes featured ''Frontenac'' on

Lake Ontario Lake Ontario is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is bounded on the north, west, and southwest by the Canadian province of Ontario, and on the south and east by the U.S. state of New York. The Canada–United States border sp ...

, ''General Stacey Smyth'' on the Saint John River, and ''Royal William'' (famous for making the first transatlantic crossing under steam in 1831) on the Québec City- Halifax run.Barris, Ted. "Steamboats and Paddle Wheelers" in ''The Canadian Encyclopedia''. Volume 4, p.2075. Edmonton: Hurtig Publishers, 1988

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