[95] “On Saturday morning, at eight o’clock arrived here, from Montreal, being her first trip, the steam-boat _Accommodation_, with ten passengers. This is the first vessel of the kind that ever appeared in this harbour. She is continually crowded with visitants. She left Montreal on Wednesday, at two o’clock, so that her passage was sixty-six hours, thirty of which she was at anchor. She arrived at Three Rivers in twenty-four hours. She has at present berths for twenty passengers, which next year will be considerably augmented. No wind or tide can stop her. She has 75 feet keel, and 85 feet on deck. The price for a passage up is nine dollars, and eight down—the vessel supplying provisions. The great advantage attending a vessel so constructed is, that a passage may be calculated on to a degree of certainty, in point of time, which cannot be the case with any vessel propelled by sails only. The steam-boat receives her impulse from an open, double-spoked, perpendicular wheel, on each side, without any circular band or rim. To the end of each double spoke is fixed a square board, which enters the water, and, by the rotary motion of the wheel, acts like a paddle. The wheels are put and kept in motion by steam, operating within the vessel. A mast is to be fixed in her, for the purpose of using a sail when the wind is favourable, which will occasionally accelerate her headway.” CHAPTER II. Progress of steam navigation in Europe—Clyde mechanics take the lead—James Watt, 1766—Henry Bell, 1800—Correspondence between Bell and Fulton—Letter from Bell to Miller of Dalswinton—The _Comet_ steamer, 1811, plies between Glasgow and Greenock, and afterwards on the Forth—Extraordinary progress of ship-building on the Clyde—Great value and importance of the private building yards—J. Elder and Company; their extensive premises, _note_—Steam between Norwich and Yarmouth, 1813; between London and Margate, 1815—The _Glasgow_—Early opposition to the employment of steam-vessels—Barges on the Thames—First steamer between Liverpool and the Clyde—H. M. steam-ship _Comet_—The _Rob Roy_ and other vessels, 1818—The _United Kingdom_, 1826—First idea of iron ships, 1830—Proposals of Trevethick and Dickenson, 1809-1815—The _Vulcan_, 1818—The _Aaron Manby_, 1821—The Shannon Steam Packet Company, 1824—Mr. John Laird and Sir William Fairbairn—The _Elburkah_, 1832, and _Garry Owen_, 1834—The _Rainbow_, 1837—Messrs. Tod and MacGregor—The _Great Britain_, 1839-1843—Advantages of iron ships—Action of salt water on iron inconsiderable—Durability, strength, and safety of iron—Affords greater capacity for stowage—Admiralty slow to adopt iron for ships of war—Mr. Galloway’s feathering paddles, 1829—Story of the screw-propeller—Joseph Bramah, 1785—Mr. J. Stevens, 1804—Richard Trevethick, 1815—Robert Wilson, 1833—Captain Ericsson, 1836—The _Francis B. Ogden_, though