106 THE SEA. 



of employing 1 steam power for the most difficult and dangerous voyages. The Sardinia It's 

 horse-power was too small for her size, and although she arrived safely, the experiment 

 was not regarded by men of science as particularly successful. Dr. Lardner in particular, 

 and other scientists, expressed their belief that no vessel could carry coal enough to 

 steam the whole distance, and their discussions greatly retarded the progress of Trans- 

 atlantic steam navigation. The voyage of the Savannah was made in 1819; ten 

 years elapsed before the Atlantic traffic was renewed, so far as steam was concerned, 

 by the dispatch of an English-built steam-ship, the Curaqoa, which made several trips 

 from Holland to the West Indies. In 1833 a steam-ship, named the lloijal WiU'nnn, 

 sailed from Quebec, and arrived safely at Gravesend. But it was not till 1838 that the 

 practicability of profitably employing steam-ships on the Atlantic was demonstrated by 

 the voyages of the Sinus and Great, Western, the latter one of the finest vessels of the 

 day. Their arrival at New York is thus described by one of the journals of that 

 city : 



" At three o'clock p.m., on Sunday the 22nd of April, the Sirin* first descried the 

 land, and early on Monday morning, the 23rd, anchored in the North River immediately 

 off: the battery. The moment the intelligence was made known, hundreds and thousands 

 rushed, early in the morning, to the battery. Nothing could exceed the excitement. 

 The river was covered during the whole day with row-boats, skiffs, and yawls, carrying 

 the wondering people out to get a close view of this extraordinary vessel. While people 

 were yet wondering how the Sirins macje out to cross the rude Atlantic, it was announced, 

 about eleven a.m. on Monday, from the telegraph, that a huge steam-ship was in the 

 offing. ' The Great Western! The Great Western! 3 was on everybody's tongue. 

 About two o'clock p.m., the first curl of her ascending smoke fell on the eyes of the 

 thousands of anxious spectators. A shout of enthusiasm rose in the air." The move- 

 ments of a great steam-ship in and out of port arc always watched with interest why, 

 even the arrival of the " husbands' boat " at Margate or Ramsgate is an event ! One can, 

 then, well imagine and understand the excitement caused in New York by the arrival oC 

 two fine vessels almost simultaneously from England. It meant, in some branches of com- 

 merce, a complete revolution. These first passages were made in seventeen and fifteen days 

 respectively. Almost immediately after this, the great Cunard Company commenced 

 operations, the Admiralty awarding them the mail contract. Then came the great contest 

 for the maritime supremacy, commercially regarded, of the Atlantic Ocean, when American 

 enterprise came into the field, and organised a formidable rival to the English company 

 in the Collins Line. The history of this contest would fill a volume. 



The national pride of the Americans had been touched by the commercial 

 success of British steam-ships frequenting their ports, and they determined, vulgarly 

 speaking, " to have a piece of the pie." American genius and enterprise had sent 

 forth a fleet of steamers to trade on their coasts, lakes, and rivers, which a leading 

 English authority considers "were marvels of naval architecture, unsurpassed in speed, 

 and in the splendour of their equipment." Their clipper-sailing ships " were the finest 

 the world had then produced, while their perfection in the art of ship-building had 

 even reached so high a point that they constructed steamers to ascend rivers where 



