Other vessels also had appeared on the royal river. The _Majestic_ even had got as far as Margate, and had ventured across to Calais. The _Regent_ had been burned off Whitstable, and the _Caledonia_, which had actually two engines, had steamed across to Flushing. Dodd further designed a vessel which seems to have gone to Margate in about seven and a-half hours, speeding along at about ten or eleven miles an hour. No wonder that Bell could say—“I will venture to affirm that history does not afford an instance of such rapid improvement in commerce and civilisation as that which will be effected by steam vessels.” The _Richmond_ was a little boat of 50 tons, and 17 indicated horse-power. She was engined by Messrs. Maudslay & Field, of London, and presumably was the first steamer engined on the Thames. She ran from London to Richmond. In the next year Messrs. Maudslay engined the _Regent_ of 112 tons and 42 indicated horse-power, and intended to ply between London and Margate; while, in 1817, this famous firm engined three vessels, including the _Quebec_ of 500 tons and 100 indicated horse-power, intended for Quebec and Montreal. Since then they have engined hundreds of vessels, including screw-propeller ironclads of 20,000 horse-power. Dodd, alas, though he worked so hard for the establishment of the steamship, does not seem to have profited by his labour. Like some other ingenious men he unhappily fell into poverty. The next in order of succession, who apparently became the most prominent and among the most useful in the story of the steamship, was David Napier. Russell avers that from 1818 to about 1830 he “effected more for the improvement of steam navigation than any other man.” David Napier ran the _Rob Roy_, a steamer of 90 tons and 30 horse-power, fitted with his own engines, between Greenock and Belfast. It appears that at one of the worst seasons he sailed in a vessel plying between the two ports,—sometimes taking a week to cover the journey, afterwards made in nine hours by steam,—and eagerly watched the effect of the heaving waves on the ship as she was tossed by the storm. Then, assured that there was no overwhelming difficulty for steamers, he started the _Rob Roy_. He also experimented upon the best shape of hull, and, without apparently any communication with Stevens across the Atlantic, came to adopt a wedge-shaped bow, instead of a rounded fore front as common in sailing ships. In 1819 he put the _Talbot_ on the Channel between Dublin and Holyhead. She was built by Wood & Company, and was one of the most perfect vessels of the kind then constructed. She had two engines of 60 horse-power combined, and was 150 tons burthen. She was followed by the _Ivanhoe_, and in 1821 steam vessels were regularly used to carry the mails.