Turning now to locomotion by sea, or navigation, steam had been applied to the propulsion of vessels as early as 1802, and its use had been gradually extended till, in 1835, the first steamer with mails for Egypt and India was despatched from Falmouth; but it was not until the second year of the present reign, 1838, that the first vessel entirely propelled by steam crossed the Atlantic. Greatly as the appearance and strength of our mercantile marine fleet has been altered to meet the requirement of speed, a still greater contrast is presented in the construction of warships since the invention of rifled ordnance. When our Queen ascended the throne, the famous wooden walls of Old England were moved by sails alone. Greater speed was subsequently secured by the introduction of engine room to vessels of the old type, with paddles or screw-propellers. But experience proved how easily engines might be thrown out of gear by a single shot, a danger which grew more imminent with every fresh improvement in guns. Then began the long contest between armour-plating and projectiles: the armour had to be made thicker and ever thicker to resist the increasing weight and velocity of projectiles, until, by the reduction of masts and spars to the bare necessities of signalling, the submergence of the hull to reduce the vulnerable surface, the increase of engine space, and the reduction of the armament to a few pieces of great power, our battleships have lost almost all semblance of the fabrics which used to move in such stately manner under towers of canvas, and have acquired the character of floating forts. Still, Britannia rules the waves; her seamen, of whom it was predicted that the adoption of steam would deprive of their superiority, have no equals in the world; and her people have proved, by their enthusiasm in furnishing the necessary funds, that they will endure almost any sacrifice rather than suffer the British Navy to be second in power to any other. [Illustration: _J. C. Horsley, R.A._} {_National Portrait Gallery._ ISAMBARD K. BRUNEL, 1806-1859. Son of Sir Marc Isambard Brunel, engineer of the Thames Tunnel. Designed the Clifton Suspension Bridge, the _Great Western_ (the first great ocean steamer) and the _Great Eastern_ (see page 38), and was engineer of the Great Western Railway.] [Sidenote: The Telephone.]