The early river steamers were often overcrowded, which is not to be wondered at in those days of insufficient control, and a cartoon of the period represents the passengers as hanging on to the rigging, the bowsprit, the funnel, and anything else of which they could catch hold. Complaints of reckless speed and careless navigation were frequent, and the Worshipful Company of Watermen and Lightermen gave orders that the speed should not exceed five miles an hour: but the captains of the Thames steamers were often fined for breaking the rules, as they were in the habit of racing against boats belonging to rival companies. As to overcrowding, the _Times_ of April 16, 1838, thus delivered itself: “It would be as well if some measures be adopted to prevent steamers being overcrowded during the Easter holidays. During the last Easter and Whitsuntide holidays the steamers were crammed with passengers in a fearful manner, the small vessels carrying 500 and 600 passengers at one trip, and the larger ones 1000 and 1500 persons, as closely packed as negroes in the hold of a slave-ship.” By 1846 the rivalry among the companies on the river brought about the usual rate war. The steamers and the Watermen’s Company were often at loggerheads, and neither always agreed with the City Corporation. An attack of the City Corporation employees upon those of the Watermen’s Company was valiantly resisted, and the watermen went to gaol in consequence. _Punch_ commented on this as follows: “Considerable excitement has been occasioned by some experiments which have lately been tried in the Thames navy, on the same principle as that recently applied to the _Bellerophon_, which was got ready for sea in sixty hours, and got unready again with equal promptitude. The Waterman No. 6 took in coals and ginger-beer, manned her paddle-box, lit her fire, threw on a scuttle of coal, filled her boiler, blackleaded her funnel, tarred her taffrail, and pitched her stoker into her engine-room, all within twenty minutes, and sailed away from her moorings at Paul’s Wharf amidst the cheers of her checktaker. This manœuvre was accomplished for the purpose of striking terror into the minds of the civic forces at Blackfriars Pier, who are only tranquil at present in compliance with the terms of a recent armistice.” The modern development of the coastal steamer service has naturally been confined to a strict meeting of its own requirements, and it is not proposed to go at length into all the minutiæ of the differences between the steamers of the various lines. Some of the most famous companies have already been mentioned and their early struggles with competitors described. In connection with coastal and cross-channel traffic it will now be sufficient to sketch the careers of a few others which have helped to make steam-ship history. [Illustration: TRINITY YACHT MONARCH ROYAL GEORGE TRIDENT