632 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1890. 



interests of bis employers in making the crucial test of the vessel's 

 ability to cross tbe ocean. And after remaining at Tybee ligbt for 

 several bours, tbe log book states : "At 5 a. m, (Mouday, May 24J, got 

 under way of Tybee ligbt, and put to sea with steam and sails. At 6 

 a. m. left tbe pilot. At 8 a.m. took off the wheels in 20 minutes.'' 1 



Captain Rogers's care of tbe wheels may be explained from bis desire 

 that tbe vessel should reach Liverpool without damage to them or the 

 machinery, which had beeu constructed under bis supervision. 



The following is an extract from tbe " Georgian," Thursday, June 24, 

 1819: 



Captain Livingston, of the schooner Contract, who arrived a,t Newburyport on the 

 5th instant, sighted on the 29th of May, latitude 27.30, longitude 70, a vessel ahead 

 to eastward, from which he saw volumes of smoke issuing. Judging it to be a ves- 

 sel on lire, stood for her in order to afford relief; "but" (observes Captain Living- 

 ston) "found she went faster with fire and smoke than we possibly could with all 

 sail set." It was then discovered that what we supposed a vessel on fire was noth- 

 ing less than a steamboat crossing the western ocean, laying her course, as we judge, 

 for Europe ; a proud monument of Yankee skill and enterprise. Success to her. 



The log book of the Pluto contains the following passage: 



June 2, 1819. Clear weather, smooth sea, latitude 42 degrees, longitude 50 degrees.* 

 Spoke and passed the elegant steamship 8 days out from Savannah to Petersburg, by 

 way of Liverpool. She passed us at the rate of 9 or 10 knots, and the captain in- 

 formed us she worked remarkably well, and the greatest compliment we could 

 bestow was to give her three cheers, as the happiest effort of mechanical genius that 

 ever appeared on the western ocean. 



June 17th, at uoon, the Savannah was overhauled and boarded off 

 tbe coast of Ireland by the king's cutter, Kite, whose crew, seeing the 

 smoke rising from the stack of the Savannah, thought the vessel was 

 afire. The London "Times" of June 30, 1819, alluding to this event, 

 says : 



The Savannah, a steam vessel recently arrived at Liverpool from America — the first 

 vessel of the kind which ever crossed the Atlantic — was chased the whole day off the 

 coast of Ireland by the Kite, revenue cruiser, on the Cork station, which mistook her 

 for a ship on fire. 



Under date June 18 we find the melancholy announcement, at "4 

 p. m. Cork bore west b. S. 5 leagues distant." At "2 a. m. calm ; no 

 cole to git up steam." This must have been a great disappointment to 

 Captain Rogers, who doubtless wished to run up the English Channel 

 under steam. Under the circumstances, however, we find that " with 

 all sails set to the best advantage," at 2 p. m. (Sunday, June 20, 1819), 

 the Savannah " hove too off the bar for the tide to rise." At "5 p. m. 

 shiped the wheels, firld the sails, and running to the river Mercer at 6 

 p. m., came to anchor off Liverpool with the small bower anchor;" 

 twenty-nine days eleven hours from Savannah, during which time the 

 vessel had run under steam eighty hours. 



"About 60 miles due south from the southern point of the Grand Bank of New- 

 foundland. 



