78 THE SEA. 



the Roman army under Claudius Caudex was transported into Sicily, were propelled by 

 wheels moved by oxen. And in many old military treatises the substitution of wheels 

 for oars is mentioned."* "Although an old work on China/' says another authority,! 

 " contains a sketch of a vessel moved by four paddle-wheels, and used perhaps in the 

 seventh century, the earliest distinct notice of this means of propulsion appears to 

 be by Robertus Vulturius, in A.D. 1472, who gives several wood-cuts representing 

 paddle-wheels/' 



The first use of steam in connection with the propulsion of vessels is perhaps that 

 said to have been made by Blasco de Garay, in 1543. He had proposed to the Emperor 

 Charles V. the construction of an engine capable of moving large vessels in a calm, and 

 without the use of sails or oars. " In spite of the opposition this project encountered, 

 the emperor consented to witness the experiment, which was accordingly made in the 

 Trinity, a vessel of 200 tons, laden with corn, in the port of Barcelona, on the 

 17th June, 1543. Garay, however, would not uncover his machinery, or exhibit it 

 publicly, but it was evident that it consisted of a cauldron of boiling water (nna gran 

 caldera de aqua hirviendo], and of two wheels set in motion by that means, and applied 

 externally on each side (banda] of the vessel. 



"The persons commissioned by the emperor to report on the invention seem to have 

 approved it, commending especially the readiness with which the vessel tacked. The 

 Treasurer Ravage, however, observed that a ship with the proposed machinery could not 

 go faster than two leagues in three hours; that the apparatus was complex and expensive; 

 and that there was danger of the boiler bursting. The other commissioners maintained 

 that such a vessel might go at the rate of a league an hour, and would tack in half the 

 time required by an ordinary ship. When the exhibition was over, Garay removed the 

 apparatus from the Trinity, depositing the woodwork in the arsenal at Barcelona, but 

 retaining himself the rest of the machinery. Notwithstanding, however, the objections 

 urged by Ravago, the emperor was inclined to favour his project, but his attention at 

 the time was engrossed by other matters. Gai'ay was, however, promoted, and received a 

 sum of money, besides the expenses of the experiment made at Barcelona. " The above 

 account is from Spanish sources, supposed to be authentic, till Mr. MacGregor, in 1857, 

 made a journey into Spain for the express purpose of verifying them. The conclusions to 

 which he came were that the paddle-wheels were turned by men. 



About this epoch, however, frequent mention is made of means of propulsion other 

 than by sails or oars, and it is evident that men of learning in various places were 

 nearly simultaneously musing and thinking over the matter. J. C. Scaliger (who died 

 1558) published at Frankfort a short account of a vessel to be propelled without oars. 

 Another inventor J a few years later, says quaintly, " And furthermore you may make a 

 boat to goe without oares or sayle, by the placing of certain wheeles on the outside of the 

 boate, in that sort, that the armes of the wheeles may goe into the water, and so 



* Robert Stuart, " Historical and Descriptive Anecdotes of Steam-Engines." 



t John MacGregor, in a paper read before the Society of Arts, 14th of April, 1858. 



% William Bourne, "Inventions or Devises" (1578). 



