While the companies were struggling, passengers were even carried free between Liverpool and Waterford, and sometimes between Liverpool and Dublin. “A story is told of a passenger going into the Dublin Company’s office at Waterford, and inquiring the cabin fare to Liverpool. He was told he would be taken for nothing, to which he replied, ‘That is not good enough, you must feed me as well.’” There is a tradition also that when one of the rival companies of the Liverpool and Dublin service “advertised its willingness to carry passengers for nothing, and to give them a loaf of bread, the other company capped the offer by the addition of a bottle of Guinness’ stout.”[44] The fight continued for three years, until the City of Dublin and the Waterford Company came to terms. This settlement brought about peace between the Belfast and the British and Irish Companies, the former sharing the Liverpool and Belfast trade with the Cork Company, while the British and Irish Company shared the London and Dublin trade with the Waterford Company. This truce continued for several years, but the war had sent nearly all the Waterford trade to Liverpool, to the detriment of the line running between Waterford and Bristol. A dispute followed between the Waterford and Bristol Companies and was maintained until the Bristol Company bought off the Waterford Company with an annual subvention of one thousand pounds. [44] Kennedy’s “History of Steam Navigation.” The increase in the number of steamers from 1820 onwards was extraordinary. In 1825, forty-four steamers were building at London and Liverpool alone, with tonnages varying from 250 to 500. Most of these vessels were built for the coastal service, the only international voyages being between the British coast, France, and the Netherlands. In 1818, according to Dodd, steamers were employed on the Clyde in the conveyance of merchandise, though for the most part vessels propelled by the new invention, as it was generally called, were confined to passengers, the goods being sent by sailing boats. In 1820 and 1821 no steamers were employed in the foreign trade, but in 1822 it appears that the entrances inward of steamers engaged in the foreign trade numbered 159, with a tonnage of 14,497, while the clearances numbered 111 with a total of 12,388 tons. The coasting trade in that year for the United Kingdom was 215 vessels entered inward, with a tonnage of 31,596, and the clearances numbered 295 with an aggregate tonnage for the year of 42,743. The year 1823 saw a falling off in the entrances and clearances in the foreign trade, but in the following year there was a partial recovery which was continued in 1825; and in 1826 the number of entrances of steam vessels was 334, with an aggregate tonnage of 32,631, the clearances being 268 with a tonnage of 27,206. In that year also the coasting trade showed 2810 entrances of 452,995 tons, and 3833 clearances of 518,696 tons. By 1828 the coasting entrances rose to