Steam Navigation. 301 



* Margery,' which was effected, the only stipulation made 

 by Mr. Anderson being that the name of the steamer 

 should at no future period be changed ; this Captain 

 Curtis agreed to, and the promise was faithfully kept. 

 Captain Curtis took the * Margery ' through the Forth 

 and Clyde Canal, and invited a large party of Mr. Ander- 

 son's friends to accompany him while passing through 

 the canal. There remain but two of this party now alive, 

 viz. the lady after whom the steamer was named, and a 

 clergyman, a friend of Mr. Anderson's. The writer of the 

 article in the '• Dumbarton Herald ' is quite correct in his 

 statement of the fear and wonder which the appearance of 

 the * Margery ' excited on the coast while on her passage 

 to England, as well as among the English fleet ; in most 

 cases she was supposed to be a vessel on fire. The 

 * Margery ' was the first steamship that ever sailed in 

 English waters, and made her first trip to Milton, below 

 Gravesend, on January 23, 1815.^ She was ultimately 

 taken to Paris, where not many years ago her timbers 

 were still lying on the banks of the Seine. Mr. Anderson 

 was therefore owner of the first steamer that was ever seen 

 in London, and also the first in Paris. He also owned the 

 first that ever crossed from Scotland to Ireland (namely 

 the ' Greenock,' built soon after the ' Margery '), which he 

 took to Belfast." 



* Considering that fifty-five years have passed since the 

 first successful application of steam power to navigation 

 was clearly established, and witnessed by myriads of people 

 at New York and on the Hudson River, we may reason- 



' Mr. Dyer seems to have forgotten Henry Bell, and his steamer ' Comet, ' 

 which plied on the Clyde, as is well known, in i8i i, and went at the rate of six 

 miles an hour. 



