Steam-ships : $b The story of their development to the present dayFletcher, R. A.
History
Steam-ships : $b The story of their development to the present day
Fletcher, R. A.
Shipbuilding; Steamboats
Another famous vessel of this period was built in 1814 at Fairlie by
William Fyfe. This was the _Industry_, known in later years as the
_Coffee Mill_ because of the grinding noise made by the cog-wheels in
her machinery.[35] She is also remarkable as being the only trading
steamer ever built at the Fairlie yard, for William Fyfe steadfastly
refused to construct anything but yachts and smart fishing smacks.[36]
[35] Mr. John Hastie’s Address to the Institute of Engineers and
Shipbuilders in Scotland, December 2, 1880.
[36] “The Clyde Passenger Steamers.”
The year 1814 saw the building of the _Princess Charlotte_ and _Prince
of Orange_, the first British steamers with engines by Boulton and
Watt. In the same year at Dumbarton, Archibald MacLachlan built the
_Marjory_, the first steam vessel to enter the Thames. She was sent
through the Forth and Clyde Canal and down the east coast, and as her
beam was wider than the canal locks her wings had to be removed.
Steamship building now proceeded with great energy. In 1815 boats
were built in Ireland at Cork, and the first voyage of a steamer from
Glasgow to London was made by the _Thames_, while in England the London
river steamboat service was opened.
The _Thames_, previously the _Argyle_, is described by the _Times_,
July 8, 1815, as a steam yacht, and as a “rapid, capacious, and
splendid vessel,” which “lately accomplished a voyage of 1500 miles,
has twice crossed St. George’s Channel, and came round the Land’s
End with a rapidity unknown before in naval history.... She has the
peculiar advantage of proceeding either by sails or steam, separated or
united, by which means the public have the pleasing certainty of never
being detained on the water after dark, much less one or two nights,
which has frequently occurred with the old packets.”
[Illustration: THE “COMET,” 1812.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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