The ship was built to ferry government officials from York to Upper Canada's former capital of Newark (Niagara on the Lake).

In the late 1790s, the Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada Peter Hunter made a request to his superiors for funds to construct a new vessel on Lake Ontario for the express purpose of shuttling government officials between meetings in Upper Canada.

Government business had been delayed by the lack of transportation and Hunter sought to remedy this by building a vessel for exclusive use by officials.

[2] Dennis used his personal holdings located by the Humber River at York, Upper Canada to construct the ship.

[5] Toronto was later broken up where it had been wrecked, with the iron fittings being used in other ship construction on the Great Lakes.