636 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1890. 



port, six months and eight days from the date she had sailed upon the 

 first transatlantic steamship voyage ; and thus by American mercantile 

 enterprise, mechanical ingenuity, and courageous seamanship, the first 

 step was successfully completed in the undertaking which marked an 

 important epoch in the world's progress, opened the way for more inti- 

 mate relations between distant countries, and inaugurated the revolu- 

 tion in methods of ocean transportation which followed within two 

 decades. 



The ship remained at Savannah until the 3d of December, when she 

 sailed for Washington. At 8 p. m. on the 14th of December she arrived 

 at the mouth of the Potomac River. The 15th and IGth were consumed 

 in comiug up the river under steam and " at 6 p. m. hald to the wharf 

 at Washington and made fast," the voyage closing with a perfor- 

 mance of Frank Smith (possibly a relation of John's), who, the log 

 states, •' darnd and swore at the captain and struck him two or three 

 times, and then Smith was put in irons." 



LOSS OF THE SAVANNAH. 



The remainder of the history of the Savannah can be briefly told. 



The great fire in Savannah in January, 1820, brought pecuniary em- 

 barrassment upon her owners, who, lading in their efforts to sell the 

 vessel to the Government, were compelled to dispose of her elsewhere. 

 Her engines were removed and sold to the Allaire Iron Works, of New 

 York City, for $1,600, and put to other uses. 



In the great Crystal Palace exhibition of 1856, the 40-inch cylinder 

 was exhibited as an historical relic in connection with the log book. 



After the vessel was divested of her engines, she ran between New 

 York and Savannah, as a sailing packet, for several years, under com- 

 mand of Capt. Nathan Holdredge. She ran ashore on Long Islaud and 

 went to pieces in 3 822, a few months after the death of her commander. 



Thus the first experiment (for it may be called an experiment, as the 

 Savannah never carried a single passenger or pound of freight for y&y 

 while she was a steamship) in transatlantic steam navigation ended like 

 many other experiments before and since, in financial disaster to the 

 original projectors. This failure postponed, but fortunately did not pre- 

 vent, the final success of the project. 



In justice the uames of those who furnished the means for this ex- 

 periment, and who suffered financial loss because its success did not 

 lead to the immediate fulfillment of their hopes, should not be forgotten. 



Thirty-seven years afterward (1856) the files of Congress show that 

 Mrs. Taylor, then almost three score and ten years old, filed a petition 

 in which she states : 



Your petitioner is the only surviving child of the late William Scarborough, of Sa- 

 vanuah, Georgia, who, being an energetic and enterprising niau of great mechanical 

 genius, caused to be constructed in the years 1818— '19, with his own means and those 

 of every friend he could enlist in the effort, the first steamer that ever crossed the 

 Atlantic, the Savannah, of Savannah, Georgia, Capt. Moses Rogers, of New London, 

 Connecticut, commanding. 



