Another steamer on the Thames in 1815 was the _Defiance_. She was possibly the first steamer to be built on the banks of the Thames, but as there is no discoverable record of the fact, it is equally possible she was built as a sailer, and was fitted with engines. The _Majestic_ appeared in 1816, and is thought to have been the first steamer employed in towing ships. On August 28, 1816, she towed the _Hope_, an Indiaman, from Deptford to Woolwich at a rate of three miles an hour against the wind.[39] [39] Kennedy’s “History of Steam Navigation.” It is recorded that prior to the appearance on the Thames of the _Marjory_, _Defiance_, and _Thames_, a man named Dawson in 1813 had a steamer on the river plying between Gravesend and London. This Dawson is stated to have made steamship experiments in Ireland, and according to his own account he built a steamboat of 50 tons burden, worked by a high-pressure steam-engine as early as 1811, which, by one of those singular coincidences frequently met with in the history of inventions, he named the _Comet_.[40] [40] Stuart’s “History” and Knight’s “Cyclopædia.” The first steam vessel known with certainty to have been built on the Thames was the _Regent_, designed by Isambard Brunel, and built in 1816 by Maudslay, the founder of one of the most famous shipbuilding firms London river has known. She was of 112 tons, with engines of 24 horse-power, and her machinery and paddles together were so light that they only weighed five tons. She was placed on the London and Margate passenger service, and in July 1817 was burnt off Whitstable. Fortunately no lives were lost. An apparently insignificant incident which occurred in 1818 resulted in one of the most important discoveries in the history of the marine engine. James Watt the younger happened to be on the steamer _Dumbarton Castle_, built a year earlier, when the engineer told him that the vessel had grounded the previous evening, and that the rising tide, turning the paddles the wrong way, had caused the engines to reverse. Watt explained to the engineer the importance of this, and at last took off his coat and showed what could be done with the engines. Before that date the reversing of machinery on steamers was either unknown or not generally practised. Watt’s discovery enabled the steamer to take its position at Rothesay Quay with precision and promptitude, the custom previously having been to stop the engine some distance from the point of mooring and allow the vessel to drift alongside.[41] [41] “The Clyde Passenger Steamers,” by Captain J. Williamson. [Illustration: PLAN AND LINES OF THE “COMET.”] [Illustration: THE ENGINE OF THE “LEVEN.”]