The paddle-wheel steamship QUEEN was built at William Henry (now Sorel), Quebec, in 1840, and was registered at Montreal on 30 April 1841. Original tonnage: 728/357 (gross/net). Original dimensions: 209 x 26 ft (length x beam). 1 deck, carvel build, square stern. Rebuilt at Quebec City, Quebec, in 1842, and re-registered at Montreal on 29 September 1843: 854 tons (gross); 235 x 26 ft (length x beam).

The QUEEN sailed between Quebec and Montreal. Retired in 1850.

Sources: Maritime Museum of The Great Lakes at Kingston, New Mills' List: Registered Canadian Steamships 1817-1930 over 75 feet, Mills #4480 (original #3629); Canadian Ship Information Database, Nos. 9025250 [quoting Public Archives of Canada, RG 42, Vol. 1386 (original Vol. 175 = microfilm reel C-2465), page 35], 9034192, 9035650, and 9035669.

The side-wheel steamship QUEEN OF THE PACIFIC was built at New Yorkby Stephen G. Bogert (who had leased part of the yard of Jacob A. Westervelt & Co for the job), and was launched in April 1857. 2,801 tons; 315/327 feet x 42 feet x 22 feet6 inches/30 feet (length on keel/overall x breadth x depth of hold tothe second deck/to the spar deck); clipper stem (eagle figurehead), roundstern, 3 decks, 2 funnels (one 85 inches in diameter, the other 77 inches in diameter), 2 masts (brig rig); wood construction, walking beam engine(Morgan Iron Works, New York), 90 inch bore by 12 foot stroke; paddlewheels 38 feet in diameter with 32 floats, turning at 15 rpm; servicespeed 12 knots.

The QUEEN OF THE PACIFIC was originally laid down for Charles Morgan & Sons, and was intended for Morgan & Garrison's San Francisco-Nicaragua line. As originally built, she had overhanging decks extending out to the guards, and large ports for ventilation in tropical waters. 8 April 1857, launching aborted when her stern plowed into the muddy river bottom; finally pulled off on 11 April. Laid up unfinished. 1858, acquired from Morgan by Cornelius Vanderbilt as part of his agreement to abandon the Nicaragua-San Francisco route; vessel renamed OCEAN QUEEN; completed by Jeremiah Simonson, who cut away the overhanging guards and closed up the tropical ports; total cost $450,000.

Vanderbilt placed the OCEAN QUEEN in his European Line. 21 May 1859, maiden voyage (Capt. Charles P. Seabury), New York - Southampton - Havre, with 249 passengers and $1.5 million in specie. 23 November 1859, last voyage, Havre - Southampton - New York (5 roundtrip voyages). December 1859-October 1861, laid up. October 1861, chartered by the Quartermaster's Department, War Department, at $2,000 per day to transport troops to capture Port Royal. May 1862, single voyage, Yorktown, Virginia - New York, transporting sick and wounded soldiers for the Sanitary Commission (a voluntary organization which provided doctors, nurses, supplies, and hospitals to augment those established by the Army); then troop transport. October 1862, returned to Vanderbilt, who placed her in the New York-Panama service. 11 October 1862, first voyage, New York-Aspinwall (Colon). 16 October 1865, last voyage for Vanderbilt, New York-Aspinwall. 1865, purchased by the Pacific Mail Steamship Co, who withdrew her from service for a year to refit her to their standards (Vanderbilt, whom the popular press once called the "Nero of the Seas", was notorious for the terrible conditions aboard his ships; the Pacific Mail, on the other hand, was known for its very high standards). 1 October 1866, first voyage, New York-Aspinwall, for the Pacific Mail (3 roundtrip voyages in 1866, 6 in 1867, and 8 in 1868); 8 October 1866, rescued the crew of the disabled brig JOHN HASTINGS. 17 April 1869, single voyage, New York - Cowes - Bremen - Copenhagen - New York (returned 31 May), chartered to Ruger Brothers. 1869-1870, laid up. 3 March 1870, single voyage, New York - Havre - Brouwershaven, Holland - Bremen - Swinemünde (arrived 1 April, sailed 7 April) - Christiansand, Norway - New York (arrived 1 May, with 1,137 passengers), chartered to Ruger Brothers. June 1870, returned to New York-Aspinwall service. 20 August 1873, last regular voyage, New York - Aspinwall - New York (arrived 16 September), then became a spare steamer. 1876, broken up (believed to have been turned over to the shipbuilder John Roach, of Chester, Pennsylvania, her scrap value being credited toward the cost of the iron steamships he built for the Pacific Mail).

Sources: Cedric Ridgely-Nevitt, American Steamships on the Atlantic (Newark: University of Delaware Press, c1981), pp. 235-237, 241, 312-313; John Haskell Kemble, The Panama Route, 1848-1869, University of California Publications in History, 29 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1943), pp. 238-239; Noel Reginald Pixell Bonsor, North Atlantic Seaway; An Illustrated History of the Passenger Services Linking the Old World with the New (2nd ed.; Jersey, Channel Islands: Brookside Publications), vol. 1 (1975), p. 333.