Gradually the length of vessels increased without the beam being proportionately widened. The builders of those early boats did not at first realise the practicability and usefulness of altering the form of vessels for steamers. David Napier altered the bow, and gradually the vessels were lengthened. The idea came gradually to be grasped that as a steamer was forced forward along the line of its keel, and not by a power exerted upon it from without and in various quarters, its form might advantageously be changed. Moreover, it would seem that the best form for steamers is also the best for fast sailers. Russell is of opinion “that the fastest schooners, cutters, smugglers, yachts, and slavers” approach more nearly to the form of the best steamers than any other class of sailing vessels. However this may be, the shape of a steamer as well as its machinery has much to do with its speed, and David Napier appears to have contributed largely to these results in Britain. Steamers had now sped out from the rivers into the narrow seas around Great Britain. The next step would be into the wide and open ocean. Who would venture to take it? CHAPTER III. ON THE OPEN OCEAN. Why should not the Great Western end at New York? That was Brunel’s idea, and it had an immense effect on the establishment of transatlantic steamships. Brunel was the engineer of the Great Western Railway, and he audaciously desired his line to end, not at Bristol or Penzance, but, conquering the sea, he wished to plant his foot in the Empire city itself. Still he was not the first, nor the only one, in the field. To the _Savannah_ belongs the honour of being the first steamship to cross the Atlantic. Yet she was not altogether a steamship. Mr. Scarborough, of Savannah—a port of the state of Georgia—purchased a sailing ship of about 300 tons and 100 feet long, launched her at New York in 1818, intending her to ply between the two places, and had her fitted with machinery. Why he changed his mind and sent her to Europe, we cannot say. Apparently he could not trust to steam alone, for the paddle wheels were so constructed that they could be folded up on deck when not in use, and the shaft also was jointed for that purpose. Then in the following May she started forth for Liverpool—the precursor of a mighty fleet of magnificent ships which have followed since. She reached the Mersey in twenty-five days—vessels now perform the journey in about six. But she used steam on only eighteen days out of the twenty-five. Several times during the journey the paddle wheels were taken on deck, this operation occupying about half-an-hour. Possibly this was done when the wind was very favourable for sails, and so saved the fuel, which was pitch-pine.