The first steam-ship built in the United Kingdom (and so far as is known unnamed) was constructed on the River Carron in 1789 by William Symington, and the engines for it were made at the Carron Works at a cost of £363 10s. 10d. The following affidavits relating to this vessel are of interest, as they go far to prove that William Symington was the inventor of the marine steam-engine, the patent of which was taken out in 1786:

Scotland owes her pre-eminence in shipbuilding and marine engineering to Patrick Miller, an Edinburgh banker who, having retired with a large fortune to Dalswinton, among other things set himself to ascertain whether some better means of propelling vessels than sails or oars could not be obtained. He had exhibited at Leith a triple vessel “having rotatory paddles in the two interspaces driven by a crank,” which was turned by four men. This he matched against a fast-sailing Customs wherry between Incholm and Leith Harbour over a distance of six or seven miles, and was very well satisfied with the victory he secured. But his sons’ tutor, James Taylor of Cumnock, having taken his turn at the crank, was so convinced by the violence of the exertion that some more reliable power was needed, that he urged on Mr. Miller the propriety of employing a steam-engine. Mr. Miller had placed a new double boat on his lake at Dalswinton, and Taylor, with his permission, arranged with his friend William Symington to fit it with a steam-engine. Symington, who was then engaged as a mining engineer, at Wanlockhead, had constructed a model of a steam carriage in which he had converted the reciprocating motion of the pistons into a rotatory motion. Miller and Taylor were shown this model in December 1787. The engine had only four-inch brass cylinders, made, curiously enough, by George Watt of Edinburgh. The trial trip of Miller’s boat took place on October 14, 1788, in the presence of several hundreds of people, and was so successful that Miller resolved to repeat the experiment on a larger scale. In the next year a twin vessel, 60 feet long and fitted with an engine with 18-inch cylinders, attained a speed of seven miles an hour on the Forth and Clyde Canal. For some reason Miller became dissatisfied with Symington, and abandoned his project of making a sea trip with a third vessel from Leith to London. The cost of fitting up a second vessel, for one thing, was greater than he had anticipated, and he was further discouraged by a miscalculation through which the machinery was made too heavy for the hull. Symington’s original engine of 1788 is now at South Kensington, and a photograph of it is here reproduced.

Symington was the only one of the three who persevered.[27] He brought his design for a steam vessel under the notice of Lord Dundas, who was largely interested in the Forth and Clyde Canal, and suggested to him the advisability of towing barges by steam-power. The Charlotte Dundas was accordingly built in 1801 under the patronage of Lord Dundas, and made her appearance on the canal in 1802. The propelling machinery of the vessel was a long way in advance of the time, inasmuch as it consisted of a stern wheel driven by the first horizontal direct-acting engine that was ever constructed.[28] She was 56 feet in length by 18 feet beam and 8 feet depth, and towed two barges of 70 tons a distance of nineteen and a half miles in six hours against strong winds. But complaints were made that the swell she created damaged the canal banks, and her proprietors were forced to abandon the enterprise. Thus the Charlotte Dundas, though an unquestioned engineering success, was a commercial failure, and on being withdrawn from service was laid up in Lock No. 16 and allowed to rot, a monument to the genius of her constructor and the prejudice of those who were too ignorant to recognise the obvious. A photograph of the model at South Kensington Science Museum, and a section showing her machinery, are given here.

Symington also brought his steamboat to the notice of the Duke of Bridgewater, who became his patron and contemplated trying steam-towage upon the Bridgewater Canal; but on the Duke’s death his executors repudiated the verbal contract and dashed Symington’s hope to the ground. He was reduced to abject poverty, and died in the East End some years later.[29]

The next experiment of importance in steam navigation was made by Henry Bell of Helensburgh. He was a house carpenter at Glasgow for many years, and then, having opened a boarding-house at Helensburgh, he conceived the idea of inducing more visitors to go thither by providing for their convenience boats moved by paddles worked by manual labour. This failing, he determined upon a steamboat.

He was probably influenced in his decision by the correspondence he had with Fulton. The exact nature of the relations between Fulton and Bell has never been satisfactorily determined. The Caledonian Mercury in 1816 published a letter from Bell stating that Fulton wrote to him about Miller’s boats, and asked for a drawing and description of the machinery. Bell saw Miller and sent Fulton the required information. The date of this transaction is not given, though Fulton is said to have written afterwards to Bell that he had constructed a steamer from the drawings Bell sent.

Bell’s story was that these letters were left in Miller’s hands. Bell further states that the consideration of the absurdity of writing his opinion to other countries, and not putting it into practice himself, roused him to design a steamboat for which he made various models. The result was the Comet, built for him by John Wood and Co. She was 40 feet on the keel, 10¹⁄₂ feet beam, and about 25 tons burden. The vessel was inferior to Symington’s. The furnace was enclosed with brickwork and the fire was not wholly surrounded by water. The boiler was placed at one side of the vessel, and the funnel, bent so as to rise from the centre, also had to do duty as a mast.

Bell had previously witnessed the experiments made in 1789 at Carron with Miller’s second boat, and when Symington’s experiments came to an end in 1803 he continued to investigate on his own account.

He advertised that his vessel was for passengers only, and that he had “at much expense, fitted up a handsome vessel to ply upon the River Clyde, between Glasgow and Greenock, to sail by the power of wind, air, and steam.” The vessel was to go down to Helensburgh one day and return the next, thus making three trips each way in the week. Many of the sailing-boat owners regarded the Comet with undisguised hatred, and its invention as a device of the evil one. Thus, one Dougal Jamson, a Clyde skipper, whenever the steamboat passed his slow-going sloop,[30] invariably piped all hands—a man and a boy—and bade them “Kneel down and thank God that ye sail wi’ the A’michty’s ain win’, an’ no’ wi’ the deevil’s sunfire an’ brimstane, like that spluttery thing there.”

The Comet’s engine, which was built by John Robertson, was of four nominal horse-power with a single upright cylinder of 12¹⁄₂ inches diameter and 16 inches stroke, and drove a pair of half side-levers by means of two rods. A connecting-rod from the levers worked the crank shaft, which carried a heavy fly-wheel. The slide valve was driven by an eccentric on the main shaft through a rocking shaft, while the condenser was placed between the side-levers, which drove the vertical air-pump. Originally the engine was fitted with a smaller cylinder, but after being used for some months this was replaced by the one described. Steam was supplied by an internal flue boiler, built by David Napier. The vessel was originally propelled by two paddle-wheels on each side, driven by spur gear, with the paddles on detached arms, but this arrangement giving trouble, complete wheels were substituted, and subsequently, after the vessel had been lengthened about 20 feet, the number of wheels was reduced to two.[31]

They had considerable difficulty with the boiler. Its builder, David Napier, writes that they first tried to make the internal flues of cast iron, but finding that would not do they tried malleable iron, “and ultimately succeeded by various devices in getting the boiler fitted.” The Comet’s first master was William Mackenzie, originally a schoolmaster at Helensburgh, and the engineer was Robert Robertson. The crew numbered eight, not forgetting a piper. According to an advertisement, “the elegance, safety, comfort, and speed of this vessel require only to be seen to meet the approbation of the public.”[32] But her speed was unsatisfactory and Bell arranged with Robertson to make alterations in the engine and paddle-wheels. She then made six miles an hour, but even this was not sufficient to attract passengers. The boat was not a financial success, and it is believed that neither the builders’ nor Robertson’s accounts were ever settled. The career of the Comet, indeed, was not a long one. On December 13, 1820, she was wrecked outside Crinan. She parted amidships, and while the stern drifted away the remainder of the vessel, with Bell, his crew, passengers, and machinery, stuck fast. All scrambled ashore, and the machinery was afterwards recovered. Her original engine was put to some strange uses. A Glasgow coachbuilder took it as payment for a vehicle he had previously supplied to Bell, and used it to drive the machinery in his coach-works. It then went to Greenock and was installed in a brewery. Another purchaser brought it back to Glasgow, and it ultimately came into the possession of Messrs. R. Napier and Sons of Glasgow, and Messrs. R. and J. Napier in 1862 presented it to the South Kensington Museum.

But the Comet was not the only boat with which Robertson was concerned. Wood built the Clyde for him in 1813, and she began her work in June of that year. She was 72 feet long with a beam of 14 feet and depth of 7 feet 6 inches, and regularly went from Glasgow to Gourock and back in about 3¹⁄₂ hours each way, including a few stoppages, on a coal consumption of 24 cwt. The Tay was built for him at Dundee in 1814, but he had the engine built at Glasgow. She plied for some time between Perth and Dundee, and in 1818 was back at Glasgow, being then known as the Oscar. In 1814 Robertson had two other boats built at Dundee, for which he provided the engines. These were the Caledonia and the Humber, and are thought to have been the first steamers sent from Scotland to England.

Rivals quickly appeared on the scene, for the Comet had shown that what had hitherto been looked upon as an impossible undertaking could now be regarded as a commercial speculation. In 1813 the Elizabeth was built and was followed shortly afterwards by the Clyde. The Elizabeth was sent to Liverpool and was the first British steamer to make a sea voyage. The vessel was in charge of Colin Watson, his cousin, neither of them nineteen years of age, and a boy.[33] The engine of the Elizabeth was only 8 horse-power. The three adventurers brought the vessel in safety from Glasgow to Liverpool through a violent gale—a very remarkable performance. This voyage was made in 1815.

Watson left Glasgow for Grangemouth on May 8, and on the following day started from Grangemouth with the Elizabeth, bringing her along the canal. Obstacles of one sort or another caused detention in the canal, specially at Lock No. 27, and Bowling was not reached until May 12. The voyagers arrived at Port Glasgow on the 13th, where another stay was made while the damages sustained in navigating the canal were repaired, and preparations were made for the sea voyage.

The Clyde was left on June 2, but the little vessel had to be brought up in Lamlash, Isle of Arran, there being a “dreadful storm at night,” as the captain narrates. They sailed from Lamlash about one o’clock in the afternoon of the 4th, “and after undergoing great peril, reached Port Patrick the same night twelve o’clock.” A lengthy stay was made there, due partly to an accident, the nature of which is not stated, “but principally the want of money,” till Saturday 24th, when they left Port Patrick. The Elizabeth’s adventures were by no means over, for she was obliged to bring up in Ramsey Bay, Isle of Man, an accident throwing off one of her paddles. The financial difficulty having been further overcome to the extent of six guineas, the Elizabeth left the Isle of Man with a fine breeze, “day lovely, but, after working all day and night, we found on the morning of Wednesday 28th, we had been deceived by our compass and were off the coast of Wales.

“We again unshipped our paddles, and drifted nearly to Dublin ere we could again get them to work, but luckily did effect that and anchored off George’s Dock Pier, Liverpool.”[34]

Another famous vessel of this period was built in 1814 at Fairlie by William Fyfe. This was the Industry, known in later years as the Coffee Mill because of the grinding noise made by the cog-wheels in her machinery.[35] She is also remarkable as being the only trading steamer ever built at the Fairlie yard, for William Fyfe steadfastly refused to construct anything but yachts and smart fishing smacks.[36]

The year 1814 saw the building of the Princess Charlotte and Prince of Orange, the first British steamers with engines by Boulton and Watt. In the same year at Dumbarton, Archibald MacLachlan built the Marjory, the first steam vessel to enter the Thames. She was sent through the Forth and Clyde Canal and down the east coast, and as her beam was wider than the canal locks her wings had to be removed.

Steamship building now proceeded with great energy. In 1815 boats were built in Ireland at Cork, and the first voyage of a steamer from Glasgow to London was made by the Thames, while in England the London river steamboat service was opened.

The Thames, previously the Argyle, is described by the Times, July 8, 1815, as a steam yacht, and as a “rapid, capacious, and splendid vessel,” which “lately accomplished a voyage of 1500 miles, has twice crossed St. George’s Channel, and came round the Land’s End with a rapidity unknown before in naval history.... She has the peculiar advantage of proceeding either by sails or steam, separated or united, by which means the public have the pleasing certainty of never being detained on the water after dark, much less one or two nights, which has frequently occurred with the old packets.”

The Thames always did her journey, a trip to Margate, in one day. “Her cabins,” says the Times eulogist, “are spacious and are fitted up with all that elegance could suggest or all that personal comfort requires, presenting a choice library, backgammon boards, draught tables, and other means of amusement. For the express purpose of combining delicacy with comfort a female servant tends upon the ladies.” The Thames was of 70 tons register, 79 feet on the keel, 16 feet beam, and carried engines of 14 horse-power. Her funnel did duty as a mast, and carried a large square sail. “A gallery upon which the cabin windows opened projected so as to form a continuous deck, interrupted only by the paddle-boxes, an arrangement which had the further effect of making the vessel appear larger than she really was.”[37] She also displayed on her sides eighteen large painted ports, besides two on her stern, which gave her such a formidable appearance that several naval officers stated in evidence before a Parliamentary Committee that they would have attempted to reconnoitre her before bringing her to. For in those days merchant vessels carried cannons and did not hesitate to show their noses through the ports if need were.

Her voyage to London was made under the command of a former naval officer named Dodd. She sailed from Glasgow about the middle of May, carrying, besides Dodd, a mate, engineer, stoker, four seamen, and a boy. The first night out they met a heavy gale, and instead of being off the Irish coast as Dodd intended, they found themselves in the morning perilously near Port Patrick, its rock-bound coast being less than half a league on their lee. Dodd saw that his only hope of safety was to run the engine for all it was worth, and the little steamer managed to fight her way against the wind and a tempestuous sea, gaining at the rate of about three miles an hour. Two passengers, a Mr. and Mrs. Weld, joined the ship at Dublin.[38] Weld’s journal records that he went to see the vessel “and found her on the point of starting with a number of curious visitors upon an experimental trip in the Bay.” He was so pleased that he asked Captain Dodd, who at once consented, to take him as a passenger to London, and Mrs. Weld “resolved on sharing the dangers of the voyage.”

When the adventurous journey was resumed several persons went with them as far as Dunleary, now Kingstown, where they landed after being violently sea-sick owing to the rough water. Some naval officers on board prophesied that the vessel could not live long in heavy seas. Kingstown was left, and the steamer soon found herself in as rough a sea as ever. The next morning they arrived off Wexford. The smoke led the people to suppose the vessel was on fire, and all the pilots in the place put off to her help, but their dreams of salvage were disappointed. The weather becoming worse, Dodd sought safety in Wexford Bay. They sailed again for St. David’s Head. Both paddle-wheels met with an accident and had to have a blade cut away, the vessel’s progress, however, suffering but slightly in consequence. Milford Haven was safely reached, but when nearing the port they met the Government mail packet from Milford to Waterford under full sail. They had passed the packet about a quarter of a mile when Dodd thought he would send some letters by her to Ireland; accordingly the Thames was put about, overhauled the packet, and sailed round her. The letters having been put aboard, Dodd took his boat again round the packet, although the latter was under way, and then continued his journey. At Milford the engine and boiler were cleaned. But after leaving Milford the pilot declined to attempt to round the Land’s End that night. Dodd put into St. Ives, where the Thames was again mistaken for a ship on fire. There being no shelter at St. Ives he went on to Hayle. Off Cornwall Head a tremendous swell from the Atlantic met the steamer, and the waves were of such a height as to render her position most alarming. Dodd battled on, and after a night’s struggle rounded the Land’s End. At Plymouth and Portsmouth officials and thousands of sightseers went to see her, and at Portsmouth the Port Admiral was asked to grant the voyagers a guard that order might be preserved.

The Thames steamed up the harbour with wind and tide at nearly fourteen miles an hour. A court-martial which was being held at the time on one of the warships hurriedly adjourned to witness the wonderful sight. Margate and London were reached in due course, the ninety miles’ run from Margate to Limehouse being done in ten hours.

Sir Richard Phillips, in his “Million of Facts,” published in 1839, writes: “In her first voyage to Margate none would trust themselves, and the editor and three of his family with five or six more were the first hardy adventurers. To allay alarm he published a letter in the newspapers, and the end of that summer he saw the same packet depart with three hundred and fifty passengers!” They must have been packed as tightly as herrings in a barrel.

Another steamer on the Thames in 1815 was the Defiance. She was possibly the first steamer to be built on the banks of the Thames, but as there is no discoverable record of the fact, it is equally possible she was built as a sailer, and was fitted with engines. The Majestic appeared in 1816, and is thought to have been the first steamer employed in towing ships. On August 28, 1816, she towed the Hope, an Indiaman, from Deptford to Woolwich at a rate of three miles an hour against the wind.[39]

It is recorded that prior to the appearance on the Thames of the Marjory, Defiance, and Thames, a man named Dawson in 1813 had a steamer on the river plying between Gravesend and London. This Dawson is stated to have made steamship experiments in Ireland, and according to his own account he built a steamboat of 50 tons burden, worked by a high-pressure steam-engine as early as 1811, which, by one of those singular coincidences frequently met with in the history of inventions, he named the Comet.[40]

The first steam vessel known with certainty to have been built on the Thames was the Regent, designed by Isambard Brunel, and built in 1816 by Maudslay, the founder of one of the most famous shipbuilding firms London river has known. She was of 112 tons, with engines of 24 horse-power, and her machinery and paddles together were so light that they only weighed five tons. She was placed on the London and Margate passenger service, and in July 1817 was burnt off Whitstable. Fortunately no lives were lost.

An apparently insignificant incident which occurred in 1818 resulted in one of the most important discoveries in the history of the marine engine. James Watt the younger happened to be on the steamer Dumbarton Castle, built a year earlier, when the engineer told him that the vessel had grounded the previous evening, and that the rising tide, turning the paddles the wrong way, had caused the engines to reverse. Watt explained to the engineer the importance of this, and at last took off his coat and showed what could be done with the engines. Before that date the reversing of machinery on steamers was either unknown or not generally practised. Watt’s discovery enabled the steamer to take its position at Rothesay Quay with precision and promptitude, the custom previously having been to stop the engine some distance from the point of mooring and allow the vessel to drift alongside.[41]

After the experimental voyages described above it was not long before owners of steam vessels and enterprising shippers generally recognised the benefits to be derived from the establishment of regular coastal steamship services. The year 1816 saw steam communication established between Great Britain and Ireland with the Hibernia of 112 tons register, which enjoyed the distinction of being the first boat employed in cross-channel service in the British Islands. She was built for the Holyhead and Howth service, was lugger-rigged, nearly 80 feet in length, and about 9 feet draught, and her passages averaged about seven hours.

David Napier now introduced a great change in the shape of the fore part of steamers’ hulls, which added to the superiority of their speed over sailing ships. Hitherto steamers had been built with the bluff bows which characterised the sailers. Napier observed that the obstruction caused to a ship’s progress by bows of this shape was very great, especially in dirty weather. He was crossing from Glasgow to Belfast on one of the sailing packets which then did the journey in anything up to a week, and perched himself on the bows, where he remained, heedless of the waves and spray which continually dashed over him. He was engaged in watching the bows and the waves, and thinking. Occasionally he turned to the captain and asked if the sea was rough. The captain said it could not yet be called very rough. The weather grew worse, and at last a tremendous wave, breaking over the vessel, swept her from stem to stern. Napier went back to the captain and asked, “Do you call it rough now?” The captain replied that he could not remember a worse night in his experience. To his astonishment Napier was delighted with this answer, and went down to his cabin remarking, “I think I can manage if that is all.”[42]

Subsequently he made a series of tank experiments with models, and these resulted in the adoption of the fine wedge-shaped bows which distinguished the steamships he afterwards built. This was the origin of the first great departure from sailing-ship models in steamboat construction.

In 1820 regular communication between Dover and Calais was established by the Rob Roy, a Scotch-built boat. In the previous year the Talbot had been built by Wood for the Holyhead and Dublin service. She was 92 feet long by 18 feet beam with a tonnage of 150. For this boat D. Napier provided the engines, while the first steamer engined by Robert Napier was the Leven, built in 1823. The Leven’s engine, of the side-lever type, is still preserved on Dumbarton pier.

In 1822 the St. George Steam Packet Company launched two large and powerful steamers, the St. Patrick and St. George, for the trade between Liverpool and Dublin, and a few years later their Sea-Horse sailed weekly between Hull and Rotterdam. The Original Steam Packet Company also ran the Waterloo and the Belfast on this route. A third company was now projected. Mr. C. W. Williams of Dublin came over to Liverpool to seek financial support for his project of building steamers for the same route. Failing at Liverpool, he returned to Dublin and met with such encouragement that in the following February he came back to Liverpool, and placed an order with Wilson, popularly called “Frigate Wilson,” the leading shipbuilder of his time on the Mersey, for the first steamer of what was destined to become one of the most famous steamship companies in the world, the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company. This vessel, the City of Dublin, was to be constructed to carry general cargo besides livestock and passengers, and to maintain the service throughout the year. She was probably the first steamer designed to carry both passengers and cargo. Williams saw that it was as much to the interest of merchants to have their goods delivered with regularity as it was to the interest of passengers to reach their destinations punctually.

Merchants were equally quick to see the advantages of punctual delivery, and the Williams enterprise prospered. The following month he contracted with Wilson for the building of the Town of Liverpool, there being some delay in placing this contract as Wilson had just contracted to build the steamer Henry Bell for the Liverpool and Glasgow trade. The City of Dublin’s maiden voyage was made on March 20, 1824.

Meanwhile the Dublin and Liverpool Steam Navigation Company had been founded, and started trading operations in September 1824 with the steamer Liffey. In December of the same year the Mersey was added, and in 1825 the Commerce. The last named was the largest vessel so far employed in cross-channel traffic. She was built at Liverpool by Messrs. Grayson and Leadley.

The competition among the companies was exceedingly keen, and increased as they added to their respective fleets. The City of Dublin Company paid little heed to what was known as the Original Company, but found its work cut out in competing with the other two. The first really serious rate war broke out, and seems to have spread to the steamer companies in the Scottish and North of Ireland passenger trade.

Not content with cutting rates to vanishing-point, the northern rivals indulged in lively newspaper polemics in the shape of advertisements, which praised their own boats and gave the lie direct to the manifestos of their opponents. The owners of the Swift, sailing from Glasgow, advertised the “great superiority” of their vessel “over the cock boat that is puffed off as sailing direct from the Bromielaw.” “For the sake of strangers coming from a distance it may be proper to state that her power and size are double, and her speed so much greater, that when the two vessels start together the Swift runs the other out of sight in five or six hours.”

The George Canning was the vessel referred to in this contemptuous manner and her owners retorted in kind. Their advertisement referred to the “contemptible article in the Swift’s advertisement” as “stating a gross falsehood knowing it to be such.” The Swift is challenged to produce a single instance of ever having accomplished her passage from Belfast in so short a time as the George Canning, and the public are informed that the two have never yet sailed together either from Belfast or Glasgow, and the Swift is asked when and where she ran the other out of sight.[43] So matters went on until the Swift was sold to the London, Leith, and Edinburgh Shipping Company in 1826. The companies actually carried saloon passengers from Belfast to Glasgow for 2s. a head; second cabin passengers went for 6d., and deck passengers went free.

The war on the Liverpool and Dublin route ended in the Liverpool Companies carrying saloon passengers for 5s. and steerage passengers for 6d. each, one of the vessels conveying on one voyage seven hundred steerage passengers at that fare.

Negotiations between the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company and the Dublin and Liverpool Steam Navigation Company followed, by which the former purchased the Navigation Company’s steamers. They had then a fleet of fourteen vessels and entered upon a long career of prosperity, chequered by occasional battles with rival companies. A rate war with the Langtry Company of Belfast ended in the steerage fare between Liverpool and Belfast being reduced to 3d., including bread and meat. For a time, too, there was rivalry between the Dublin Company and the Waterford Commercial Steam Navigation Company, which in 1837 joined in the trade between that city and Liverpool with the iron paddle-steamer Duncannon, of 200 tons, built by Laird of Birkenhead. This was probably the first iron steamer built for the cross-channel service, but by no means the first to be seen in Irish waters.

While the companies were struggling, passengers were even carried free between Liverpool and Waterford, and sometimes between Liverpool and Dublin. “A story is told of a passenger going into the Dublin Company’s office at Waterford, and inquiring the cabin fare to Liverpool. He was told he would be taken for nothing, to which he replied, ‘That is not good enough, you must feed me as well.’” There is a tradition also that when one of the rival companies of the Liverpool and Dublin service “advertised its willingness to carry passengers for nothing, and to give them a loaf of bread, the other company capped the offer by the addition of a bottle of Guinness’ stout.”[44] The fight continued for three years, until the City of Dublin and the Waterford Company came to terms. This settlement brought about peace between the Belfast and the British and Irish Companies, the former sharing the Liverpool and Belfast trade with the Cork Company, while the British and Irish Company shared the London and Dublin trade with the Waterford Company. This truce continued for several years, but the war had sent nearly all the Waterford trade to Liverpool, to the detriment of the line running between Waterford and Bristol. A dispute followed between the Waterford and Bristol Companies and was maintained until the Bristol Company bought off the Waterford Company with an annual subvention of one thousand pounds.

The increase in the number of steamers from 1820 onwards was extraordinary. In 1825, forty-four steamers were building at London and Liverpool alone, with tonnages varying from 250 to 500. Most of these vessels were built for the coastal service, the only international voyages being between the British coast, France, and the Netherlands. In 1818, according to Dodd, steamers were employed on the Clyde in the conveyance of merchandise, though for the most part vessels propelled by the new invention, as it was generally called, were confined to passengers, the goods being sent by sailing boats. In 1820 and 1821 no steamers were employed in the foreign trade, but in 1822 it appears that the entrances inward of steamers engaged in the foreign trade numbered 159, with a tonnage of 14,497, while the clearances numbered 111 with a total of 12,388 tons. The coasting trade in that year for the United Kingdom was 215 vessels entered inward, with a tonnage of 31,596, and the clearances numbered 295 with an aggregate tonnage for the year of 42,743. The year 1823 saw a falling off in the entrances and clearances in the foreign trade, but in the following year there was a partial recovery which was continued in 1825; and in 1826 the number of entrances of steam vessels was 334, with an aggregate tonnage of 32,631, the clearances being 268 with a tonnage of 27,206. In that year also the coasting trade showed 2810 entrances of 452,995 tons, and 3833 clearances of 518,696 tons. By 1828 the coasting entrances rose to 5591, with an aggregate of 914,414 tons, with 6893 clearances and an aggregate tonnage of 1,009,834. French-owned steamers first appeared in the United Kingdom records in 1822, when there were ten entrances of 520 tons altogether. In 1823 the entrances from France had shrunk to seven, of a total of 364 tons, and the clearances were the same; but by 1827, 74 entrances of French steamers are recorded, and 43 clearances.

In 1829 Holland appears for the first time in the list with one steamer entered and cleared. But in 1830 the steamer traffic between the two countries had grown so that the entries of Dutch steamers numbered twenty-three, with an aggregate of 6463 tons, and the clearances thirty-two with 8992 tons. By 1836 the entries in the United Kingdom coastal trade were 13,003, with an aggregate tonnage of 2,238,137, and the clearances 12,649 with an aggregate of 2,178,248 tons. In 1837 Belgium, France, and Spain figured in the returns, and in 1838 Portugal and Brazil. Russia and Turkey were added to the list in 1839. In that year the United Kingdom coastal entries numbered 15,556 of 2,926,521 tons, and the clearances 15,498 of 2,894,995 tons. These figures do not include vessels in ballast nor those with passengers only.

The report of the Commissioners appointed by the Privy Council in 1839 to inquire into steamship accidents, shows that some laxness prevailed in regard to registration, no fewer than 83 unregistered steam vessels being discovered, most of which were in the passenger trade; thirty-seven of these were on the Mersey, sixteen on the Thames, twenty-six on the Humber, and four on the rivers on the east coast of Scotland. The Commissioners added that there were probably many others unregistered, as they did not visit all the ports.

On the other hand, there were only twenty-five registered steamers on the Humber, Ouse, and Trent, and thirty-nine at Liverpool. Two Liverpool companies owned more vessels than the total number registered there. The Commissioners found that nineteen-twentieths of the large number of trading steamers between Ireland and Liverpool, some of which were registered in English and some in Irish ports, were owned in Ireland. The report further stated that of the 766 steam vessels tabulated as belonging to Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, Guernsey, and Jersey, 484 might be considered as river steamers and small coasters, and 282 as large coasters and sea-going ships.

The total number of registered vessels at the end of 1838 was 677, with a total registered tonnage of 74,510, a total computed tonnage of 131,080, and estimated horse-power 54,361. Unregistered vessels numbered 83 of 9638 tons gross, and 2129 estimated horse-power. The foregoing particulars show how rapidly the number of steamers increased for some years.

Services seem to have been started between almost every two or three ports of the United Kingdom. The little wooden vessels were long-lived, and had some unique experiences owing to the venturesome characters of their captains, owners, or charterers. Provided the vessel would float and get along it seemed to be the opinion of its owners that it could go anywhere and carry anything. Thus a vessel built for river traffic was thought suitable for deep-sea work also. It is not surprising to find that many of the steamers changed hands frequently. They were renamed at every change, and the resulting confusion makes it difficult to trace their history.

It seems fairly certain, however, that accidents were frequent, and it became necessary to devise means of carrying boats which would accommodate at least a considerable number of the passengers if necessary. Regulations as to the compulsory carriage of life-buoys, life-belts, rafts, floating seats, and other contrivances for supporting people in the water did not come into force until many years after. The sole means of safety in the early days of steam navigation were the boats and such wreckage as happened to float if the vessel sank or went to pieces. But most of the steamers were so small, and on their voyages so crowded, that they could not carry nearly as many boats as were required.

The boats were generally carried on the tops of the paddle-boxes. A suggestion which was carried into effect, especially in some of the larger ocean-going steamers, was that the paddle-boxes should be built square and be detachable from the guards, so that if a disaster should befall the vessel they could be used as boats. This contrivance had numerous disadvantages, not the least of them being the unwieldiness of the paddle-boxes, and the difficulty of managing them when afloat. Another suggestion was that each steamer should carry two large boats of equal dimensions which could be used as the tops of the paddle-boxes. The main advantage claimed for this idea was that it would not add materially to the weight of the vessel. Captain George Smith, in the ’thirties, contrived a peculiarly shaped lifeboat which would fit over the paddle-wheels and take the place of the paddle-boxes, and might when occasion required be turned right side uppermost and launched outside the paddle-wheel. He tried this experiment on the steamer Carron. “The upper section,” he wrote, “of her paddle-wheel is covered by a lifeboat 25 feet long, 9 feet beam, and having four air-tight cases which may be removed if required on particular occasions. This lifeboat is capable of containing between forty and fifty persons. When in her place over the paddle-wheel the midship thwarts are unshipped, which admits of the wheel revolving within 6 inches of her keelson; she lies bottom upwards on two iron davits, which enable her to be turned over and lowered by six men in two or three minutes.”

The early river steamers were often overcrowded, which is not to be wondered at in those days of insufficient control, and a cartoon of the period represents the passengers as hanging on to the rigging, the bowsprit, the funnel, and anything else of which they could catch hold. Complaints of reckless speed and careless navigation were frequent, and the Worshipful Company of Watermen and Lightermen gave orders that the speed should not exceed five miles an hour: but the captains of the Thames steamers were often fined for breaking the rules, as they were in the habit of racing against boats belonging to rival companies. As to overcrowding, the Times of April 16, 1838, thus delivered itself: “It would be as well if some measures be adopted to prevent steamers being overcrowded during the Easter holidays. During the last Easter and Whitsuntide holidays the steamers were crammed with passengers in a fearful manner, the small vessels carrying 500 and 600 passengers at one trip, and the larger ones 1000 and 1500 persons, as closely packed as negroes in the hold of a slave-ship.”

By 1846 the rivalry among the companies on the river brought about the usual rate war. The steamers and the Watermen’s Company were often at loggerheads, and neither always agreed with the City Corporation. An attack of the City Corporation employees upon those of the Watermen’s Company was valiantly resisted, and the watermen went to gaol in consequence. Punch commented on this as follows: “Considerable excitement has been occasioned by some experiments which have lately been tried in the Thames navy, on the same principle as that recently applied to the Bellerophon, which was got ready for sea in sixty hours, and got unready again with equal promptitude. The Waterman No. 6 took in coals and ginger-beer, manned her paddle-box, lit her fire, threw on a scuttle of coal, filled her boiler, blackleaded her funnel, tarred her taffrail, and pitched her stoker into her engine-room, all within twenty minutes, and sailed away from her moorings at Paul’s Wharf amidst the cheers of her checktaker. This manœuvre was accomplished for the purpose of striking terror into the minds of the civic forces at Blackfriars Pier, who are only tranquil at present in compliance with the terms of a recent armistice.”

The modern development of the coastal steamer service has naturally been confined to a strict meeting of its own requirements, and it is not proposed to go at length into all the minutiæ of the differences between the steamers of the various lines. Some of the most famous companies have already been mentioned and their early struggles with competitors described. In connection with coastal and cross-channel traffic it will now be sufficient to sketch the careers of a few others which have helped to make steam-ship history.