SS Royal William



SS Royal William was a Canadian side-wheel paddle steamship that is sometimes credited with achieving the first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean to be made almost entirely under steam power, using sails only during periods of boiler maintenance, though the British-built Dutch-owned Curaçao crossed in 1827, and the sail-steam hybrid SS Savannah used some steam power when crossing in 1819. She was the largest passenger ship in the world from 1831 to 1837.

The 1,370-ton SS Royal William (named after the ruling monarch, William IV) was 160 ft long and 44 ft, a large steamship for the time.

She was commissioned by brewer John Molson and a group of investors from various colonies in British North America, built in Cape Blanc, Quebec by John Saxton Campbell and George Black and was launched on 27 April 1831 by Lady and Lord Aylmer at Cape Cove, Quebec. Her steam engines were made and installed in Montreal. She made several trips between Quebec and the Atlantic colonies in 1831, but travel became restricted because of the cholera epidemic in 1832. The owners lost some £16,000 on the venture.

Her owners decided to sail her to Europe and find a buyer. She departed from Pictou, Nova Scotia on 18 August 1833 with seven passengers, a small amount of freight and a load of coal and arrived at Gravesend on the River Thames after a 25-day passage. Royal William was eventually sold to the Spanish Navy where she served for many years and earned the distinction of being the first steamship to fire in anger in a minor Spanish rebellion.

One of Royal William's co-owners was Samuel Cunard a merchant from Halifax, Nova Scotia who drew important lessons from the ship which he applied when he founded the Cunard Steamship Company a few years later.

In the town of Pictou there is a Royal Canadian Sea Cadet Corps named after this vessel. A large wooden model of Royal William is on display at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax.