Franklin Bates Polson

Polson's firm built the CGS Vigilant, the first armed vessel to be built in Canada. Franklin Bates Polson was a Canadian machinist and engineer, and co-founder with his father of the prominent Canadian shipbuilding firm the Polson Iron Works.

Like his father William Polson, Franklin Bates Polson became a machinist and engineer, working for several Canadian railroads, until he and his father founded their shipbuilding firm in 1883. William Polson was the first President, and Franklin Bates Polson was the Secretary-Treasurer. Their firm built more than one hundred vessels, and built steam engines including for river boats constructed from local wood for service on rivers in Canada's then undeveloped west. Their firm built the Manitoba, said to be the first steel-hulled ship built in Canada, and the largest ship to sail on fresh-water.