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A more particular description of Jordan and his wife. Edward
Jordan, and Margaret Crock, his wife, were both born in the County
of Wexford, in Ireland. They have four children; William, about
ten years old, Sally, eight, Mary five, and Helen three years.
Edward Jordan is about five feet seven inches high, and thirty
eight years of age, or thereabouts. His shoulders are rather
round. His complexion is ruddy. His hair and eyebrows are dark,
and his eyes large and of a deep blue colour. He has a remarkable
short upper lip, fine teeth, and shows them very much. His chin is
large, and covered with a very black beard. His paces are short,
and in walking he shakes his arms much. He speaks with a broad
Irish accent, and understands a little of the French language.
His wife Margaret is about thirty four years of age, and may be
about five feet four inches in stature. She has an oval face, dark
hair, good teeth, and fine complexion. In person she is inclined
to be corpulent. She has an appearance of great simplicity and
innocence, and is remarkable for being absent when spoken to.
There is reason to suspect that both Jordan and his wife have
committed other enormities than the above piracy and murder. |
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On Saturday morning, at eight o'clock, arrived here, from
Montreal, being her first trip, the steam boat Accommodation, with
ten passengers. This is the first vessel of the kind that ever
appeared in this harbour. She is continually crowded by visitants.
She left Montreal on Wednesday, at two o'clock, so that her passage
was sixty six hours; thirty of which she was at anchor. She
arrived at Three Rivers in twenty four hours. She has, at present,
berths for twenty passengers; which, next year, will be
considerably augmented. No wind or tide can stop her. She has 75
feet keel, and 85 feet on deck. The price for a passage up is nine
dollars, and eight down; the vessel supplying provisions. The
great advantage attending a vessel so constructed is, that a
passage may be calculated on, to a degree of certainty, in point of
time; which cannot be the case with any vessel propelled by sails
only. The steam boat receives her impulse from an open, double-spoked,
perpendicular wheel, on each side, without any circular
band or rim. To the end of each double spoke is fixed a square
board, which enters the water, and by the rotary motion of the
wheel, acts like a paddle. The wheels are put and kept in motion
by steam, operating within the vessel. A mast is to be fixed in
her, for the purpose of using a sail when the wind is favourable,
which will occasionally accelerate her headway.
Note: Special credit goes to Marine History Information Exchange
Group for supplementing the following details on the Accommodation.
From "Steam Navigation" by James Croil, 1898, reprinted in "Coles
Canadiana Collection" of 1973, we learn the Accommodation was
built behind the Molson brewery in Montreal by John Molson, and
launched broadside-to, August 19th, 1809, being the first
successful steamboat built entirely in North America. However, she
experienced considerable problems with her home-made engine, built
at the Forges Saint-Maurice in Trois-Rivière, using wooden boilers.
Withdrawn from service before the six horsepower Boulton & Watt
engine arrived from Birmingham, England, it was installed in a new
hull. Being underpowered, she couldn't surmount the current of St.
Mary's; oxen were used as a tow. By 1810, even with a stronger
engine, she fared little better. Costing John Molson and his
partners £2000 to build, she was scrapped in 1810 after losing an
additional £4000.
The best, if undocumented, printed source is Merrill Denison's,
"The Barley and the Stream: The Molson Story", (Toronto; McClelland
and Stewart Ltd., 1955).
The best unpublished source is George H. Wilson's "The
application of Steam to St. Lawrence Valley Navigation, 1809-1840",
(McGill University, M.A. Thesis, 1961).
Supplementary reading:
1) "Sternwheelers and Sidewheelers; The Romance of Steamdriven
Paddleboats in Canada", by Dr. Peter Charlesbois (1978)
2) Molson archives.
3) "The Birth of the Steamboat", by Philip Spratt.
4) "Canada upon the Seas", by James Bonar, Montreal, 1949.
5) "The Molson Family", by Bernard Sandwell, Montreal, 1933.
6) "Memoires de Pierre de Sales Laterriere et de ses
Traversées", Quebec, 1873.
7) "The St. Maurice Forges", F.C. Wurtele, Trans Literary &
Historical Society, Quebec. Vol. IV, 1886.
8) "Canada Courant" Montreal, June 4, 1810.
9) Two archive sources:
a) Molson steamboat partnership agreement, June 5, 1809 in
Provincial judicial archives.
b) Molson Brewery account, Montreal 1808-1810.
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