From the same publication it appears that the floors are of great length and overrun each other. “They are firmly dowelled and bolted, first in pairs and then together by means of 1¹⁄₂-inch bolts about 24 feet in length, driven in four parallel rows. The scantling is equal in size to that of our line-of-battle ships; it is filled in solid and was caulked within and without up to the first futtock heads previously to planking, and all to above this height of English oak. She is most closely and firmly trussed with iron and wooden diagonals and shelf-pieces, which with the whole of her upper works are fastened with screws and nuts to a much greater extent than has hitherto been put in practice. Her engines are the largest marine engines yet made. The boilers are constructed with several adaptations for the economy of steam and fuel on an entirely new principle. There are four distinct and independent boilers, any number of which can be worked as circumstances require. The wheels have the cycloidal paddles. The figure-head is a demi-figure of Neptune with gilded trident, and on each side are dolphins in imitation bronze.” The _Sirius_ made two transatlantic voyages as advertised, and was utilised henceforward for the trade for which she was built, namely, carrying passengers and goods between ports on the coast. She traded chiefly between Liverpool, Cork, Glasgow, and London, and occasionally to St. Petersburg, and at last, in June 1847, she was wrecked in Ballycotten Bay. While the _Sirius_ and _Great Western_ had been monopolising the attention of the public, the directors of the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company, who had already formed a company to join in the transatlantic traffic, determined upon making their start with the new paddle-steamer _Royal William_. This was not the Canadian _Royal William_, but a boat built in 1836 by Wilson of Liverpool, with engines by Fawcett and Preston, and one of a quartet intended to compete with the Government steamers carrying the mails between Liverpool and Kingstown. She was a faster vessel than any of the Government boats. One voyage, in which she created a record which stood for some time, was when she was engaged between London and Dublin, and did the 260 miles run from Falmouth to Kingstown in 23 hours. She was slightly shorter than the _Sirius_, but her capacity was 817 tons gross, and her engines of 276 horse-power. Although she had accommodation for eighty passengers, she had on board only thirty-two when she started from Liverpool on Thursday, July 5, 1838. She carried no cargo, all the space apparently being used for fuel.