Editing Upper Canada (section)

===Lake traffic: steamships===

{{main|Great Lakes passenger steamers}}
There is disagreement as to whether the Canadian-built {{ship|PS|Frontenac||2}} ({{convert|170|ft|m|disp=semicolon}}), launched on 7 September 1816, at Ernestown, Ontario or the US-built ''Ontario'' ({{convert|110|ft|m|disp=semicolon}}), launched in the spring of 1817 at Sacketts Harbor, New York, was the first steamboat on the Great Lakes. While ''Frontenac'' was launched first, ''Ontario'' began active service first.<ref>The debate is addressed by Barlow Cumberland in Chapter 2 of [http://www.maritimehistoryofthegreatlakes.ca/documents/Cumberland/default.asp?ID=c008 A Century of Sail and Steam on the Niagara River]. Retrieved 26 March 2011</ref> The first steamboat on the upper Great Lakes was the passenger-carrying ''Walk-In-The-Water'', built in 1818 to navigate [[Lake Erie]].

In the years between 1809 and 1837 just over 100 steamboats were launched by Upper and Lower Canadians for the St. Lawrence River and Great Lakes trade, of which ten operated on Lake Ontario.<ref>{{harvp|McCalla|1993|p=119}}</ref> The single largest engine foundry in British North America before 1838 was the Eagle Foundry of Montreal, founded by John Dod Ward in the fall of 1819 which manufactured 33 of the steam engines. The largest Upper Canadian engine manufacturer was Sheldon & Dutcher of Toronto, who made three engines in the 1830s before being driven to Bankruptcy by the Bank of Upper Canada in 1837.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Lewis|first=Walter|title=The First Generation of Marine Engines in Central Canadian Steamers, 1809–1837|journal=The Northern Mariner|year=1997|volume=VII|issue=2|pages=II|url=http://www.maritimehistoryofthegreatlakes.ca/Documents/Engines/default.asp}}</ref>

The major owner-operators of steamships on Lake Ontario were [[Donald Bethune]], [[John Hamilton (Ontario politician)|John Hamilton]], [[Hugh Richardson (shipowner)|Hugh Richardson]], and Henry Gildersleeve, each of whom would have invested a substantial fortune.<ref>{{harvp|McCalla|1993|p=120}}</ref>