The departure of these steamships from England to America in 1838 marks an important epoch in the history of steam navigation, inasmuch as the practicability of establishing a regular transatlantic steam service was now for the first time to be clearly demonstrated. As the _Sirius_ made only one round voyage, there is little to be said about her beyond admiring the pluck of her owners. She was a small vessel of about 700 tons and 320 horse-power, built at Leith for the St. George Steam-packet Company, and had plied successfully for some time between London and Cork. She was chartered by the then newly formed “British and American Steam Navigation Company,” of which the famous ship-builder, Laird, of Birkenhead, was the leading spirit. The _Sirius_ was despatched from London for New York, _via_ Cork, whence she sailed on April 4th, with ninety-four passengers. She arrived in New York on the 22nd, after a successful voyage of seventeen clear days, being commanded by Lieut. Roberts, R.N., who was afterwards lost at sea with the ill-fated SS. _President_, in 1841. The return voyage was made in about the same number of days as the outward trip. The _Great Western_, designed and built by Mr. William Patterson at Bristol, for the Great Western Steamship Company, sailed from Bristol, April 8th, 1838, in command of Lieut. James Hoskin, R.N., and reached New York on the 23rd, making the run in fifteen days with a consumption of 655 tons of coal and realizing an average speed of a little over eight knots an hour. She returned to Bristol in somewhat less than fifteen days. A fine ship she was, of 1,340 tons and 440 horse-power, 212 feet long, and 35½ feet beam. Her best run between New York and Bristol was made in 12½ days,[9] a remarkable record for that time. Altogether she was admitted to be a distinct success. She was sold in 1847 for £25,000, after which she sailed regularly for ten years to the West Indies. In the meantime the owners of the _Sirius_ had built a much larger boat, the _British Queen_, which made her maiden voyage from Portsmouth in 1839. After making a number of voyages to New York this fine ship was sold to the Belgians in 1841, chiefly owing to the collapse of the company occasioned by the loss of a sister-ship, the _President_, which sailed from New York, March 11th of that year, and was never afterwards heard of. THE “GREAT BRITAIN” AND “GREAT EASTERN.”