Mr. Kennedy’s “History of Steam Navigation,” however, states that Doctor Julius Smith organised in 1836 “a transatlantic steam-ship company bearing the title of the ‘British Queen Steam Navigation Company,’ with a capital of £1,000,000, and Mr. Macgregor Laird as secretary.” The most remarkable event in the annals of this company is the voyage of the Sirius from London to New York in 1838. “The _Sirius_! The _Sirius_! The _Sirius_! Nothing is talked of in New York but about the _Sirius_. She is the first steam vessel that has arrived here from England, and a glorious boat she is.... Lieutenant Roberts, R.N., Commander, is the first man that has navigated a steam-ship from Europe to America.”[59] The _Sirius_ was sent across the Atlantic really as a desperate remedy against competition. [59] New York _Weekly Herald_. The Transatlantic Company had placed a contract as early as 1836 with Messrs. Curling and Young of Blackwall, London, for the construction of the _British Queen_ steam-ship, but the bankruptcy of Messrs. Claude Girdwood and Co. of Glasgow, who had contracted to build the engines, caused considerable delay. Enterprising rivals at Bristol, seizing the opportunity, formed the Great Western Steamship Company to build and equip the _Great Western_, which they determined to put on the service before the _British Queen_ could be got ready. In this they were successful, and to save the honour of their own company the _British Queen_ directors hired the _Sirius_ from the Cork Steamship Company. It was known at the time that she was too small to be employed as a regular transoceanic trader, and even before she started on her first voyage the announcement was made that she would make two voyages only. She was 178 feet long, 25¹⁄₂ feet broad, 18¹⁄₄ feet deep, and of 703 tons register. Her engines, like those of all other vessels of her time, were of the side-lever type; their cylinders were of 60 inches diameter, and had a stroke of 6 feet, and she carried a surface condenser similar to those now in use. She was a two-masted vessel, carrying three square sails on the foremast, her aftermast being fore-and-aft rigged only. She had one funnel situated abaft the paddle-boxes, which were about amidships. A picture of the vessel is in existence which represents her as three-masted, and with her paddles rather far forward, but this is inaccurate. She was almost a new ship at this time, and it is not likely that a mast would have been taken out of her between her launch and her Atlantic voyage. Her schooner bows bore as figurehead a dog with a star between his front paws.