284 MR. J. C. DYER ON STEAM NAVIGATION. 



XX. — Notes on the Introduction of Steam Navigation. 

 By J. C. Dyer, Esq. 



Read February loth, 1863. 



" Whatever saves labour, rewards labour." — Governor Morris. 



The application of steam power to propel boats and ships 

 being a subject of great public interest _, has from time to 

 time been treated by many able writers advocating "the 

 claims of the different parties alleged to have been the 

 first inventors of the means of using this power to super- 

 sede that of the wind for propelling ships. Some of these 

 writers have given a national importance to the questions 

 of originality among the experimenters who claimed priority 

 in the different parts of Europe and America, where 

 trials had been made of their several schemes with various 

 results. On these results, and their subsequent influence 

 on steam navigation, many sharp controversies formerly 

 appeared ; but of late years these seem to have subsided 

 into the quiet assumption, on behalf of each nation, 

 that its claimants were fairly entitled to the honour of 

 having been the first discoverers of steam navigation. 

 According with this impression, two letters have appeared 

 in ^ The Times ^ respecting the " first introduction of 

 steamers into the English waters /^ the first of which was 

 copied from the ^ Dumbarton Herald,^ and the second, in 

 reply thereto, is signed " Investigator," whose statements 

 of the facts of the case are given in ' The Engineer ' of 

 December 12th, 1862, thus : — " Seeing that there has been 

 a discussion, and that there still remains an uncertainty 

 as to who has the right to claim the honour of placing the 

 first steam-ship in English waters, I beg to submit the 

 following statement of authentic facts for settling the 



