During the winter of 1832-3, the Quebec and Halifax Steam Navigation Co. built at Quebec a steamer, which they named the ROYAL WILLIAM. She was a vessel of 1,370 tons B.M.; length over all, 176 feet; breadth, outside paddle-boxes, 43 feet 10 inches; inside, 27 feet; depth of hold, 17 feet 9 inches; draught laden, 13 feet. Her engines of 180 h.p., constructed in Birmingham by Boulton & Watt, were forwarded to Canada, and fitted on board the ROYAL WILLIAM at Montreal, whither she had been towed by the steamboat BRITISH AMERICA. After trading for several months between Quebec and Pictou, Nova Scotia, the station for which her owners had built her, she was advertised to sail for London. In accordance with this announcement she was despatched from Quebec on the 5th August, 1833, and after calling at Pictou, N.S., where she took on board a further supply of coal at 15s. per chaldron, she proceeded direct to Cowes, Isle of Wight, accomplishing the voyage of about 2,500 miles in seventeen days. This voyage is remarkable as being the first instance of a vessel crossing the Atlantic from America by the use of steam only. After the completion of her trans-Atlantic voyage, the ROYAL WILLIAM was sold to the Spanish Government, who changed her name to the YSABEL SECUNDA, and fitted her up as a man-of-war carrying six guns. She took part in the first Carlist war and, finally, was totally wrecked on the rocks off the harbour of Santander, Spain. After strenuous and prolonged efforts, Dr. Julius Smith succeeded in organising (1836) a Transatlantic Steamship Company, bearing the title of the British Queen Steam Navigation Co. The capital of the Company was fixed at £1,000,000 sterling, and its secretary was the celebrated Mr. MacGregor Laird. The shares were promptly subscribed for, and the Directors placed a contract with Messrs. Curling and Young, Blackwall, London, to build their pioneer steamship, the BRITISH QUEEN. The order for the engines was placed with a Glasgow firm, Messrs. Claude Girdwood & Co. This firm, however, before they had finished the work entrusted to them, became bankrupt, and a new contract was made with Mr. Robert Napier, the famous Clyde engineer, to supply the engines. It was at first the intention of the Directors (as stated in their prospectus) to build a vessel of 1,862 tons burthen, but before the completion of the ship they decided to increase her size to 2,400 tons. Although contracted for in the summer of 1836, it was not until 24th May, 1838, that the BRITISH QUEEN was launched. This unfortunate delay, caused by the bankruptcy of Messrs. Girdwood & Co., enabled a rival company at Bristol to build and equip their steamer, the GREAT WESTERN, before the BRITISH QUEEN could be got ready for her service. In order to save the prestige of their Company the Directors of the BRITISH QUEEN chartered from the St. George Steam-Packet Co. the steamer SIRIUS, and advertised that she “would leave London for New York on