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
When the adventurous journey was resumed several persons went with
them as far as Dunleary, now Kingstown, where they landed after being
violently sea-sick owing to the rough water. Some naval officers on
board prophesied that the vessel could not live long in heavy seas.
Kingstown was left, and the steamer soon found herself in as rough
a sea as ever. The next morning they arrived off Wexford. The smoke
led the people to suppose the vessel was on fire, and all the pilots
in the place put off to her help, but their dreams of salvage were
disappointed. The weather becoming worse, Dodd sought safety in Wexford
Bay. They sailed again for St. David’s Head. Both paddle-wheels met
with an accident and had to have a blade cut away, the vessel’s
progress, however, suffering but slightly in consequence. Milford Haven
was safely reached, but when nearing the port they met the Government
mail packet from Milford to Waterford under full sail. They had passed
the packet about a quarter of a mile when Dodd thought he would send
some letters by her to Ireland; accordingly the _Thames_ was put about,
overhauled the packet, and sailed round her. The letters having been
put aboard, Dodd took his boat again round the packet, although the
latter was under way, and then continued his journey. At Milford the
engine and boiler were cleaned. But after leaving Milford the pilot
declined to attempt to round the Land’s End that night. Dodd put into
St. Ives, where the _Thames_ was again mistaken for a ship on fire.
There being no shelter at St. Ives he went on to Hayle. Off Cornwall
Head a tremendous swell from the Atlantic met the steamer, and the
waves were of such a height as to render her position most alarming.
Dodd battled on, and after a night’s struggle rounded the Land’s End.
At Plymouth and Portsmouth officials and thousands of sightseers went
to see her, and at Portsmouth the Port Admiral was asked to grant the
voyagers a guard that order might be preserved.
[Illustration: THE “INDUSTRY,” 1814.]
The _Thames_ steamed up the harbour with wind and tide at nearly
fourteen miles an hour. A court-martial which was being held at
the time on one of the warships hurriedly adjourned to witness the
wonderful sight. Margate and London were reached in due course, the
ninety miles’ run from Margate to Limehouse being done in ten hours.
Sir Richard Phillips, in his “Million of Facts,” published in 1839,
writes: “In her first voyage to Margate none would trust themselves,
and the editor and three of his family with five or six more were the
first hardy adventurers. To allay alarm he published a letter in the
newspapers, and the end of that summer he saw the same packet depart
with three hundred and fifty passengers!” They must have been packed as
tightly as herrings in a barrel.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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