SS Royal William

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SS Royal William was a Canadian steamship that achieved the first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean to be made almost entirely under steam power, using sails only during periods of boiler maintenance.

She was commissioned by brewer John Molson and built by Messrs Black and Campbell, launched on 27 April 1831 by Lady and Lord Aylmer at Quebec. The steam engines were made and installed in Montreal. She made several trips between Quebec and the Atlantic colonies in 1831, but was quarantined because of the cholera epidemic in 1832 and the owners lost some £16,000 on the venture.

She departed from Pictou, Nova Scotia on 18 August 1833 with seven passengers and a load of coal and arrived at Gravesend on the River Thames after a 25-day passage. Royal William was eventually sold to the Spanish Navy. In the town of Pictou there is now a Royal Canadian Sea Cadet Corps named after this vessel.