From the same publication it appears that the floors are of great length and overrun each other. “They are firmly dowelled and bolted, first in pairs and then together by means of 1¹⁄₂-inch bolts about 24 feet in length, driven in four parallel rows. The scantling is equal in size to that of our line-of-battle ships; it is filled in solid and was caulked within and without up to the first futtock heads previously to planking, and all to above this height of English oak. She is most closely and firmly trussed with iron and wooden diagonals and shelf-pieces, which with the whole of her upper works are fastened with screws and nuts to a much greater extent than has hitherto been put in practice. Her engines are the largest marine engines yet made. The boilers are constructed with several adaptations for the economy of steam and fuel on an entirely new principle. There are four distinct and independent boilers, any number of which can be worked as circumstances require. The wheels have the cycloidal paddles. The figure-head is a demi-figure of Neptune with gilded trident, and on each side are dolphins in imitation bronze.”

The Sirius made two transatlantic voyages as advertised, and was utilised henceforward for the trade for which she was built, namely, carrying passengers and goods between ports on the coast. She traded chiefly between Liverpool, Cork, Glasgow, and London, and occasionally to St. Petersburg, and at last, in June 1847, she was wrecked in Ballycotten Bay.

While the Sirius and Great Western had been monopolising the attention of the public, the directors of the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company, who had already formed a company to join in the transatlantic traffic, determined upon making their start with the new paddle-steamer Royal William. This was not the Canadian Royal William, but a boat built in 1836 by Wilson of Liverpool, with engines by Fawcett and Preston, and one of a quartet intended to compete with the Government steamers carrying the mails between Liverpool and Kingstown. She was a faster vessel than any of the Government boats. One voyage, in which she created a record which stood for some time, was when she was engaged between London and Dublin, and did the 260 miles run from Falmouth to Kingstown in 23 hours. She was slightly shorter than the Sirius, but her capacity was 817 tons gross, and her engines of 276 horse-power. Although she had accommodation for eighty passengers, she had on board only thirty-two when she started from Liverpool on Thursday, July 5, 1838. She carried no cargo, all the space apparently being used for fuel.

“Coal filled her bunkers, her holds, and even her well-deck, so that her paddles were buried six feet, her sponsons were submerged, and it was possible, by leaning over the bulwarks, to wash one’s hands in the water that surged at the vessel’s sides.”[63] Her departure from Liverpool was celebrated in a manner befitting the occasion; the spectators gathered by thousands, and every cannon on either side of the river that could be used to fire a salute was requisitioned, while the steamers and large sailing ships anchored in the river, many of which carried guns, joined in the salute. The outward voyage lasted nineteen days, but she did the passage back in fourteen and a half days.

While she was being got ready, the directors accepted an offer from Sir John Tobin to run a steamer, which was built for him, alternately with the Royal William. She was named the Liverpool, and was of 1150 tons, carrying engines of 404 horse-power. She sailed on October 20, 1838, and had got about one-third of the way across the Atlantic when it was found necessary to turn back on account of bad weather. She accordingly took refuge at Cork. A stay of ten days was made there, and she eventually arrived at New York on November 23.

The British Queen, as befitted her name, was launched on the Queen’s birthday in 1838, and made her first voyage from London to New York in July 1839. She was commanded by Lieutenant Roberts, formerly of the Sirius, and was at that time the largest and fastest steam vessel afloat; and with Roberts in charge, it is not to be wondered at that she did some good work. Lieutenant Roberts, writing to a friend from New York, says in the course of a letter dated June 1, 1840: “I can only state there is not a faster seagoing vessel in the World, and time will tell. We have beat the Great Western every voyage this year and [word illegible] last year; therefore whoever gave you the idea of our Speed and Power were perfectly ignorant of Steam and Steam Vessels. I have made the passage from Portsmouth to New York shorter than ever performed, only 13 d. 11 h. from Pilot to Pilot. Let Great Western do that if she can, though she has ten hours’ shorter distance to run. I sail at 1 P.M. this day with full cargo and every berth taken, and sincerely do I wish to make a short passage.” He adds: “I intend trying for some shore berth ... but will not leave till I command the first iron vessel to steam across the Atlantic.” This was not to be, however, for he was in command of the President when that ill-fated vessel left New York with one hundred and thirty-six passengers on March 12, 1841. No trace of her has been found from that day to this.

The President was launched on December 7, 1839, on the Thames by the same builders, Messrs. Curling and Young. She was almost a sister ship to the British Queen, as far as appearance and general equipment went, but the engines of the second vessel were slightly more powerful.

The following comparative table, showing the dimensions of these vessels, was published in 1840:

They were square-sterned vessels, barque-rigged, and carried a long white funnel with a black top. The paddles were placed almost amidships, with the funnel abaft the paddle-boxes. The Great Western might be described as a four-masted barquentine. She had one funnel carried between the fore and main masts, and the paddles were set abaft the main-mast. All three vessels had engines of the side-lever type. Those of the British Queen were supplied by Napier from the Clyde, and those of the President by Fawcett and Preston of Liverpool. The Great Western’s engines were built by Maudslay, Son, and Field of London.

The President was built of oak with fir planking, her upper deck being flush from bows to stern. The stern was ornamented with the British and American arms, supported by the lion and eagle, appropriately painted. And for a figure-head she had a bust of Washington. The paddle-boxes were decorated with a five-point star. The first attempt to float the President was not a success owing to the tide not being high enough. A second attempt the following day also failed, but on the third day, Monday, December 9, 1839, she was floated, and towed out of the dock and down to Blackwall, where she was safely moored.

After the loss of the President in 1841, the British and American Steam Navigation Company sold the British Queen to the Belgians and retired from business altogether, leaving the Great Western practically in sole possession of the Atlantic. But, as the next chapter will show, this splendid isolation was not hers for long.