Type Shipyard In use 1790s – 1813 Controlled by Royal Navy | Built 1793–1798 Battles/wars Battle of York 1813 Garrison Fort York | |
Naval Shipyards, York (Upper Canada) was one of the shipyards of the Royal Navy on Lake Ontario. The yards was called for by Lieutenant Governor John Graves Simcoe in 1793 and operated from 1798 long before the town of York was populated and up to the War of 1812. The yard was on the western edge of the town (east of the Fort Rouille) and located south of Front Street on the shores of Lake Ontario west of Bay Street (today the rail tracks south of Union Station). Ships were built along the sand shores using the trees from the forests inland and launched into Toronto Bay. While shipbuilding resumed in York (and later in Toronto), the naval yards did not build any other navy ships after 1813 and abandoned and likely moved to a safer and more protected location in Kingston Royal Naval Dockyard.
The yard built a few ships:
Shipbuilding in Toronto did re-emerge years later, but it was all in private hands: