In 1820 the General Steam Navigation Company was formed in England, and this, the first steamship company, may be considered, properly enough, a highly important influence in the development of steamships, for the merchant ships of the world are almost exclusively in the hands of lines of greater or lesser strength, and it is these lines that make possible the building and operation, and consequently the perfection, of such vessels. In the next few years a number of steamships were built in America, in Great Britain, and on the continent, and in 1825 a 470-ton ship—the _Enterprise_—made a voyage from England to India, 11,450 miles, around Good Hope, in 103 days during but 39 days of which she was under sail exclusively. This accomplishment, together with others less spectacular, added impetus to the growing popularity of steam, and by 1830 Lloyd’s Register listed 100 steamers, and there were others, particularly in America, not included in that list. The Register published in 1841 announced that in 1839, 720 steamers were owned in England, Scotland, and Ireland. In the ’thirties steam navigation went ahead by leaps and bounds, and before the ’forties came, a steam-driven vessel—the _Great Western_—had crossed the Atlantic in 15 days, which was well under the fastest time for sailing ships of her day, and only 2 days over the fastest crossing ever made by a sailing ship. The _Red Jacket_, a clipper, crossed in 1854 from Sandy Hook to Rock Light in 13 days, 1 hour. But with the rapid increase of steamships arose a condition due to the change in economic conditions and the widening power of Great Britain that was of the greatest value in the development of shipping and consequently of steamships. Steam had been applied to machinery on land no less than to the propulsion of ships. Factories sprang up, railroads slowly spread their tentacles over Great Britain, the continent, and the American seaboard, and commerce consequently became more rapid. Goods were shipped in ever-increasing amounts, and the widening field of business called men here and there who formerly had done what overseas business they had had through the captains of ships, or through supercargoes and agents. [Illustration: THE _GREAT BRITAIN_ _An awkward and unsuccessful ship. She proved, however, when she was wrecked, that for ship construction iron is stronger than wood, and proved, too, that double bottoms, bulkheads, and bilge keels, which were new departures when she was built, were most desirable in ships of her size._ ]