[Illustration: THE CLERMONT The replica of Robert Fulton's first steamboat which took part in the Hudson-Fulton celebration in September, 1909. The small picture shows one of the paddle-wheels in detail. The original _Clermont_, the first commercially successful steamboat, was put in commission for the New York-Albany service in 1807.] While acknowledging fully Fulton's right to the claim of being "the father of steam navigation," as he has been called, there is no evidence to show that he introduced any new principle or discovery in his application of steam to the _Clermont_. The boiler, engine, paddle-wheel--every part of the boat had been known for years. Yet this does not detract from the glory of Fulton, who first combined this scattered knowledge in a practical way, and demonstrated the practicality beyond question. SEA-GOING STEAMSHIPS The first war steamer and ocean steamer ever attempted was built by Fulton, in 1813. It was called the _Demolgos_, and was not a practical success, and made no attempts to take protracted ocean voyages. The first steamship to cross was the _Savannah_ in 1819. She made the voyage from Savannah to Liverpool in twenty-five days, using her paddle-wheels part of the time, but at other times depending entirely upon her sails. She was a boat of three hundred and fifty tons, and her paddle-wheels were arranged so that they could be hauled in upon the deck and stowed away in bad weather. Following the _Savannah_ several similar combination sailing and steam-propelled boats were constructed, the navigators coming to have more and more faith in the possibilities of steam, so that less sail was carried. These vessels continued to reduce the time of the passage between Europe and America, until the voyage had been made in about seventeen days. Then, in 1838, two vessels, the _Sirius_ and the _Great Western_, for the first time using steam alone as motive power, made record voyages, the _Great Western_ crossing in twelve days, seven and a half hours. This was considered remarkable time--an average speed of over two hundred miles a day. Something like four hundred and fifty tons of coal were consumed on the voyage, which impressed many as a great extravagance of fuel. Some of the ocean liners at present consume more than twice this amount in a single day. On July 4, 1840, the _Britannia_, the first steamer of the Cunard Line, started on its maiden voyage from Liverpool to Boston. The voyage was made in fourteen days, among the passengers being Samuel Cunard, a Quaker of Halifax, who was the founder of the enterprise. The population of Boston went mad on the arrival of this boat; streets and buildings were decorated, and the day was given over to the regular holiday amusements. Cunard received upward of eighteen hundred invitations to dinner that evening.