=357. Steamers used at first chiefly for internal navigation.=—American inventors made a practical success of steam navigation soon after 1800; a brief notice of their work will be given later. The steamer was used at first, however, chiefly for internal navigation and for short coasting voyages. It was of immense importance in furthering the development of the Mississippi Valley in America; and it soon made a place for itself on the European rivers. About 1840 there was a rapid development of steam transportation on the German rivers, and this has not ceased to grow in volume and efficiency. Chains have been laid along some of the river beds; on the Elbe, for instance, a chain extends all the way across Germany and even into Bohemia; and by this means steamboats are enabled to haul their barges up-stream against a strong current. The application of steam to ocean navigation did not become of great importance until about the middle of the century. At that time only one fifth of the steam tonnage entering British ports came from foreign ports; the rest was employed still in the coasting trade. =358. Beginnings of steam navigation of the Atlantic.=—The credit for the first passage across the Atlantic by steam has often been ascribed to the American ship _Savannah_, which arrived at Liverpool in 1819 after a voyage of twenty-nine days. This boat, however, should be classed as a sailing ship with auxiliary engine, rather than as a steamer; the paddle-wheels were arranged to be removed and hoisted on deck when the wind was fair. It made most of the distance by sailing, and the scanty supply of coal gave out before it reached its port, so that, as the log reads, there was “no cole to git up steam.” A Canadian boat, the _Royal William_, actually did make the whole passage under steam in 1833, but stopped at Pictou for coal on the way; while the first regular steamship to cross without recoaling was the _Great Western_ in 1838. The considerable intervals between these trips show that navigation of the ocean by steam was still in its experimental stage. Indeed, in the very year 1838, in which the _Great Western_ and the _Sirius_ began the period of practical application, a leading English scientist set out to prove by arguments and statistics that the project of connecting Liverpool and New York by direct steamer trips was “perfectly chimerical.” The Cunard Company was founded the next year; and some measure of the appreciation of the American people is given by the fact that when Mr. Cunard arrived at Boston in 1840, on the first trip of the new line, he received (it is said) no less than 1,873 invitations to dinner within twenty-four hours!