On 24 September 1951 Canada issued four stamps to commemorate the centennial of the transfer of the postal service from the control of Great Britain to the Province of Canada. Three of the stamps issued in honour of this event depicted the development of internal communications during the period 1851-1951. The fourth gave a reproduction of the 1851 3-pence (beaver) stamp Sandford Fleming helped to design.
All four stamps were designed and recess printed by the Canadian Bank Note Company Ltd., Ottawa.
The date of issues was planned to coincide with Canada’s first International Philatelic Exhibition
–CAPEX- held in Toronto from September 21st to 29th 1951. In issuing these stamps the Canada Post Office sought to place particular emphasis on the close relationship between the development of the postal service and the development of communications during the proceeding one hundred years.
One of the most historically interesting of these stamps was undoubtly the 5c showing the 1851-1951 contrast in water transportation. The 1851 vessel represent on the lower portion of the stamp is a portside view of the wooden paddle steamer CITY OF TORONTO, taken from a watercolour painting, ca 1930, by the Canadian marine artist George Adrian Cuthbertson (1898-1969). The 1951 vessel is taken from a photograph of the Canadian National Steamship PRINCE GEORGE.
The SS CITY OF TORONTO was one of the pioneer vessels of the Royal Mail Line of Lake Ontario steamships which later became one of the original group of companies that formed the Canada Steamship Lines. Her interesting career spanned a period of almost fifty years, in which she played an important role in the settlement of Upper Canada and the opening of the Canadian West.
Built as a wooden side-paddle wheeler by the Niagara Harbour and Dock Co., at Niagara-on-the-Lake, for the Royal Mail Line.
31 December1840 launched under the name CITY OF TORONTO.
Tonnage 350 ton, dim. 147 x 23 x 12ft.
Powered by two walking beams steamengines, manufactured by Ward & Brush, Montreal.
She did belong to the port of Toronto and was original constructed as a mail packet for passengers and freight service between Toronto, Kingston and Prescott, operating under a subsidy from the Canadian Post Office Department.
After a short period of service on the eastern Lake Ontario to St. Lawrence route, she was transferred in 1843 to the more lucrative Toronto-Queenston-Niagara services.
1842 Were her owners given as T. Dick & A. Heron.
After the completion of the Grand Trunk Railway from Montreal to Toronto in 1856, the CITY OF TORONTO was operated on a fast direct mail service between Toronto and Niagara, carrying mails and passengers to connect with the New York Central Railway at Lewiston. This provided a rapid and dependable service between Upper Canada and New York by way of Niagara falls and Buffalo.
She saw a continuous and uneventful service from 1840 until 1863 on Lake Ontario.
1850 Her owner given as T Maxwell & Co., and the ladies cabin enlarged with a new deck, and her wooden paddles replaced with iron ones.
1852 Abbey Bros., Port Robinson, given as owner
1863 Sold to R Gardner, Detroit, after sustaining considerable damage by fire one year before while lying at Niagara. The vessel subsequently underwent extensive dismantling in order to pass through the Welland Canal to Lake Erie, when she was towed to Detroit. There she was entirely rebuilt from the main deck up. Apart from some minor alternations her hull was left intact. After the overhaul her appearance was so altered as to be hardly recognizable. She now possessed a straight stem, additional cabins on her upper and lower decks and a new set of boilers. The original engines, were retained. Tonnage given as 758 gross, 624 net. Dim. 163 x 24 x 11.7ft.
Renamed the RACINE she operated for the better part of the season between Detroit and Lake Michigan ports under the American flag.
After a year sold to E M Carruthers, C. Perry and G Ewart, Toronto (Lake Superior Royal Mail Line), she was renamed ALGOMA.
She operated a through mail passenger and freight service between Collingwood, Sault Ste. Marie, and Port William at the head of Lake Superior. At Collingwood rail connections were made with the Ontario, Simcoe & Huron Union Railroad, whose lines connected at Toronto with the Grand Trunk and Great Western Railways. The Lake Superior Royal Mail Lines, in the same manner as its Lake Ontario counterpart, was granted a subsidy by the Post Office to carry the mails. This subsidy was continued after Confederation in 1867.
Later was she sold to A. Dudgeon, Collingwood, and thereafter to Frank Smith, Toronto, which was the last owner of the vessel.
1868 Was she modernized and the gentleman cabin enlarged in Detroit.
In the spring of 1870, following the outbreak of the first Riel Rebellion in Manitoba, the ALGOMA was chartered by the British War Office to transport men and supplies to the Lakehead for Colonel Garnet Wolseley’s Red River Expedition Force.
Subsequently, during the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway along the north shore of Lake Superior, the ALGOMA was kept operating to full capacity transporting railway supplies from Collingwood to the various construction sites along the lake.
23 May 1874 she had a machine break.
She sank at Collingwood in the winter of 1877-78 and was abandoned.
She was later refloated and used as hulk till 1888 at Collingwood, then dismantled.
No contemporary paintings of the ship as the s.s. CITY OF TORONTO are known to exist. The records of the Canada Steamship Lines reveal that Cuthbertson prepared his watercolour painting from research into twenty-five different sources of information, which he unfortunately did not record. Of these the most important was probably a contemporary pencil sketch in the Van Cleve Papers at the Buffalo Historical Society. In the case of the ALGOMA there is better documentation. In 1870/71 William Armstrong, an accomplished Canadian watercolorist and civil engineer, accompanied Colonel Wolseley’s expedition as chief engineer, with the rank of Captain, in the 63rd Regiment. And he painted the ALGOMA in the Thunder Bay area prior to his departure for the west.
The places of call on the north shore of Lake Superior were mostly Hudson Bay trading post at Batchewana, Michipicoten Harbour, Michipicoten Island, Pic River, Pic Island, St. Ignace Island, Red Rock (Nipigon) and Fort William and at a later date, Prince Arthur’s Landing and Silver Island.
The more modern PRINCE GEORGE depict on the stamp was built in 1948 by Yarrows, Esquimalt, Canada under yard No 105 for the Canadian National S.S. Co., Prince Rupert.
1946 Ordered.
1947 Launched under the name PRINCE GEORGE.
Tonnage 5.812 gross, 3.273 net, dim. 335.1 (between pp.) x 52.1 x 32.3ft (draught).
Powered by two 6-cyl. Canadian Vickers Uniflow steam engines, 7.000 bhp., speed 15.5 knots. Twin screws.
Passenger accommodation 290 first, 24 second and 84 third class passengers.
Did have 12 luxurious cabins.
1948 Delivered. She was the largest and most luxurious passenger liner built in British Columbia.
Built for the passenger service between Vancouver through the inside passage to her most northerly destination Skagway, during the summer season, and in winter laid up.
Early 1975 Canadian National S.S. Co., announced, that this was her last season in the coastal route, but before the start of the season she got on fire in which 20 passenger staterooms were destroyed, and no repairs were made.
She was put on the sales list and bought by the Canadian Government who intended to use her in the same service, but after political powers had changed the plan was shelved.
1976 Sold to Wong Bros., Nanaimo, and the PRINCE GEORGE was shifted from one place to an other, while the owners were negotiating a berth with the town Nanaomo, after they planned to rebuild her in a floating hotel and conference center.
1978 Chartered by Rayonier Limber Mill, Port Angeles, there used as accommodation ship during a strike.
January 1979 sold to Deyong Mgt., Vancouver B.C. After the charter ended with the paper mill she sailed to Victoria, and in April of that year to Portland Ore.
Again put on the sale list.
1985 Sold to Ponderosa Ventures Inc., with the intention to use her as a floating hotel in Vancouver during the Port Expo 1986 there.
1987 Sold to a group of local businessmen in Vancouver which formed the Canadian Cruise Holding Ltd., later altered in Pacific Cruise Ship Hotels Inc.
After spending 5 million Canadian dollars she was ready to take her first cruise passengers, for a weeklong cruise from Vancouver. Due to engine problems the first season was a failure.
After spending more money to refit her, the next season went better.
Sailed to Valdez, Alaska and used there berthed on the Central pier as accommodation ship during the cleanup of the oil spill of the American tanker EXXON VALDEZ in 1989.
After the cleanup she sailed back to Vancouver, and again laid up.
There were plans to rebuild her to a floating restaurant in Vancouver, but due to that the vessel was arrested for dept this plans did not materialized.
1995 Was she owned by Fairport Investment Ltd.
14 October 1995 she got on fire in the lounge, when she was alongside in Britannia Beach about 30 mile north of Vancouver.
25 October 1996 while under tow in tandem together with the tanker VICKY RAY by the tug PACIFIC CHALLENGE from Vancouver for the breakers in China, she took on water in the Unimak Pass and sank around 13.00 in position 53 58N 166 30W.
Canada 1951 5c sg 437, scott 312.
Sources: CITY OF TORONTO, mostly copied from Log Book Vol. 10/28, additional info from the Mills List, but this dates did not always agree with the article in Log Book.
PRINCE GEORGE Marine News, some web-sites, and the info I have on the vessel in my files, but lost the source.