STEAM NAVIGATION. 



have for its object the removal of the paddle-wheels now generally 

 used, and the substitution of some description of subaqueous pro- 

 peller. A great reduction in the dimensions of the machinery, 

 and the surrender to the uses of commerce of that invaluable space 

 which it now occupies within the vessel, are also essential. It is 

 incumbent on the engineer who assumes the high responsibility of 

 the superintendence of such a project, to leave the ship in the full 

 and unimpaired enjoyment of its functions as a sailing-vessel.. 

 Let him combine, in short, the agency of steam with the undi- 

 minished nautical power of the ship. Let him celebrate the 

 marriage of the steam-engine with the sailing-vessel. If he 

 accomplish this with the skill and success of which the project is 

 susceptible, he may fairly hope that his name will go down to 

 posterity as a benefactor of mankind, united with those of Fulton 

 and Watt. 



The actual progress of mechanical science encourages us to hope, 

 that the day is fast approaching when such ideas will be realised 

 when we shall behold a great highway cut across the wide 

 Atlantic, not as now, subserving to those limited ends, the 

 attainment of which will bear a high expense, but answering all 

 the vast and varied demands of general commerce. Ships which 

 would serve the purposes we have here shadowed out, can never 

 compete in mere speed with vessels in which cargo is nothing, 

 expense disregarded, and expedition everything. Be it so. 

 Leave to such vessels their proper functions ; let them still enjoy 

 to some extent the monopoly of the most costly branches of 

 traffic, subsidised as they are by the British treasury. Let the 

 commercial steam-ships, securing equal regularity and punctu- 

 ality, and probably more frequent despatch, be content with 

 somewhat less expedition. This is consistent with all the analo- 

 gies of commerce. 



There is another consideration which ought not to be omitted. 

 In all great advances in the arts of life, extensive improvements - 

 are at first attended with individual loss of greater or less amount. 

 The displacement of capital is almost inevitably attended with 

 this disadvantage. It is the duty, therefore, of the scientific 

 engineer, in the arrangement and adoption of his measures, to 

 consider how these objects may be best attained with the least 

 possible injury to existing interests. To accomplish this will not 

 only be a benefit to the public, but will materially facilitate the 

 realisation of his own objects, by conciliating in their favour those 

 large and powerful interests, whose destruction would be other- 

 wise menaced by them. If, then, in the present case, it is found 

 practicable with advantage to introduce into the present sailing- 

 ships, more especially into those most recently constructed, the 

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