From River to Sea 43 



Highly suspicious of the stranger, the 

 cutter sent a shot or two across her bows, 

 and she was at last hove to. You will 

 say that the cutter's people ought to have 

 known that she was a steamer, having 

 regard to the fact that steam was fairly 

 extensively employed. But here we must 

 recollect that the greatest authorities of 

 that day were agreed that steam could 

 never be effectively employed for ocean- 

 going vessels. The Savannah, though not 

 a large vessel, was much bigger than any 

 craft on which steam had been previously 

 employed. 



Six years went by without any special 

 development, and then, vide our " family 

 tree ", we find an entry of the Falcon. 

 This was a tiny vessel of 176 tons a 

 tonnage reached by many a river boat 

 to-day. 



The Falcon made the voyage to India, 

 via the Cape of Good Hope, and thus 

 laid the foundation of a steamship ser- 

 vice to our great Eastern Empire. She 



