Between 1898 and 1900 Richard Grant collected and transported separate parts of the marine steamship SS William Mackinnon from the Mombasa area to Lake Victoria, on behalf of the administration of the Uganda Protectorate, which planned to run a steamboat service from the newly-established dockyards at Kisumu in conjunction with a railway between Kisumu and Nakuru. In 1903 responsibility for Uganda's railway and harbours passed from the Railway Construction Committee to the British East Africa Protectorate and the network opened to traffic. At the same time, Grant was officially confirmed as Superintendent Marine Engineer under the Railway Department at Kisumu, having already been engaged on the construction of the sister ships Winifred and Sybil.