The Lake Ontario was built to the order of the Canada Shipping Company, Ltd., the owners of the Beaver Line. She differed from the earlier vessels of this company in that she was constructed of steel and was built away from Clydeside. Her principal dimensions were :-392 ft. length overall 43 ft. 4 in. beam ; 32 ft. 8½ in. depth ; 4,520 tons gross about 8,300 tons displacement ; length, between perpendiculars, 374 ft. 5 in. breadth, extreme, 43 ft. 6 in. ; depth moulded, 32.7 ft. She had water ballast. Her triple-expansion engines were constructed by Messrs. George Clark, of Sunderland, and had cylinder dimensions of 31 in., 51 in., and 83 in., with a stroke of 54 in., her boilers working at a pressure of 150 lb. per square inch. The Lake Ontario had the traditional Beaver Line clipper stem, and in view of the possibility of the vessel sailing among floating ice, the plating of the bows was doubled and strengthened with extra keelsons and stringers.

In August, 1896 she collided end-on with the Dominion liner Vancouver in the River St. Lawrence. The Dominion vessel with her straight stem, had her bows concertinaed for 25 ft., while the Beaver's fiddle head saved her, and she escaped practically without injury.