Built as a wooden side-paddle-wheel passenger steamer by the Black & Campbell yard at Wolf Cove, Quebec for the Quebec & Halifax Steam Navigation Co. (One of the shareholders in the company was Samuel Cunard.)
02 September 1830 laid down
29 April 1831 launched under the name ROYAL WILLIAM, named after King William IV.
Tonnage 830 tons (other sources 1.370 ton), dim. 53.6 x 8.35 x 4.3m., length of keel 44.50m, over paddle boxes 13.14m.
Powered by side-lever steam engines 300 ihp., installed by Bennett & Henderson, Montreal.
Accommodation for 50 passengers and 80 steerages, crew 36.
Did have a large dinning room in the upper deck and sleeping cabins below.
She was built for the service between Quebec and the Maritime Provinces.
02 May 1831 Arrived at Montreal to install her engines.
24 August 1831 sailed for her maiden voyage from Quebec for Miramichi, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Halifax, Nova Scotia, where she arrived on 31 August.
After a successful first season in which she completed three roundtrips between Quebec and Halifax, the next season was not so successful when she was quarantined in 1832 because of a cholera epidemic.
Her last voyage took 52 days in August to September 1832.
This ended the service; the ROYAL WILLIAM was seized by the sheriff.
03 April 1833 sold to the mortgagor W. Stevenson, thereafter used intermittently around Quebec.
04 August 1833 under command of Capt. McDougall she sailed from Quebec at 05.00 a.m. bound for London.
08 August made a call at Pictou for repairs, sailed from there on 18 August, carrying 7 passengers paying each £20, 253 chaldrons bunker coal (324 ton) and a little general cargo.
She was running in a severe gale off Newfoundland, which disabled her starboard engine, and for some days she ran on 1 engine.
09 September 1833 she reached Cowes, Isle of Wight after a passage of 22 days. Her engines been in regular use except for a spell of approximately 24 hours every 4 days, when the boilers were cleared of salt.
12 September she reached Gravesend near London.
There she was sold for £10.000 not a new owner given, and chartered by the Portuguese Government to carry troops for Dom Pedro’s service.
Capt. McDougall still in command of the steamer, returned to London with invalid and disbanded Portuguese sailors.
After arrival she was laid up at Deptford Victualling Office.
July 1834 orders came to fit the ROYAL WILLIAM out to run between Oporto and Lisbon. One voyage was made between these ports, and also a trip to Cadiz for specie for the Portuguese Government.
After the return of the ROYAL WILLIAM in Lisbon, Capt McDougall received orders to sell the steamer to the Spanish Government, through Don Evanston Castor da Perez, at that time the Spanish ambassador in Portugal.
10 September 1834 the transaction was completed, and she was renamed YSABEL SEGUNDA. (sometimes given as ISABEL SEGUNDA.)
She was the first war steamer of the Spanish Navy.
Still under command of Capt. McDougall who had accepted the pay and rank of a commander in the Spanish navy, and by special proviso, was guaranteed six hundreds pounds sterling per annum, and the contract to supply the squadron with provision from Lisbon.
He received orders to steam to the North coast of Spain.
End 1834 she arrived again in Gravesend, to be converted into a war steamer at the Imperial Dockyard at Sheerness.
Got an armament of 6 long – 32pdrs.
When completed she took out General Alava, the Spanish Ambassador, and General Evans and his staff officers, to Saint Andero and afterwards to St. Sebastian, Spain, at that time there was a civil war (Carlist War 1835-1837) in Spain.
Having hoisted the Commodore’s bread pennant again at Saint Andero; and was afterwards employed in cruising between the port and Fuente Arabia and acting in concert with the Legion against Don Carlos until the time of their service expired in 1837.
Then sent to Portsmouth a part of those discharged from the service, and from there taken to London and detained in the City Canal by Commodore Henry. There were still claims of the discharging men to be settled with the Spanish Government. And when everything was settled in the end of 1837, the vessel was handed over to Spanish Ambassador.
After her engines were repaired she sailed for Spain, then for repair on her hull she was sent to Bordeaux.
During a survey it was found that her timbers were so rotten, that it was cheaper to build a new vessel.
A new ship was built in Bordeaux, which received her engines, and her name.
1840 The old YSABEL SEGUNDA was hulked in Bordeaux.
Central African Republic 1984 400f sg1015, scott?
Canada 1933 5c sg 331, scott204.
Source: North Atlantic Seaway by Bonsor. Mills List. Wikipedia
http://www.theshiplist.com/ships/Arrivals/RoyWil33.htm
