THE “MONARCH” AND “TRIDENT” (GENERAL STEAM NAVIGATION CO.) CONVOYING THE ROYAL YACHT WITH THE QUEEN AND PRINCE CONSORT TO EDINBURGH, 1842.] GENERAL STEAM NAVIGATION COMPANY To London shipowners belongs the credit of establishing one of the oldest steam-ship companies in the world, the General Steam Navigation Company. It was founded as far back as 1820 and its first steamer, the _City of Edinburgh_, was built expressly for trade between Edinburgh and London by Messrs. Wigram and Green at Blackwall, and was launched on March 31, 1821. Her engines were by Boulton and Watt, and were of 80 horse-power nominal. A steam-ship of any kind was a novelty at that time, and the launch of such a large vessel on the Thames attracted the attention of all classes. The Duke and Duchess of Clarence, who were afterwards William the Fourth and Queen Adelaide, accompanied by the Duchess of Kent and a large suite, paid a special visit to the wharf to see her. The royal party expressed themselves as much surprised by the magnificence of the accommodation provided for the passengers as by the noble and graceful proportion of the vessel in which such powerful machinery had been placed. The _City of Edinburgh_ was followed in June 1821 by the _James Watt_, launched by Messrs. Wood and Co. of Port Glasgow, and at that time described as “the largest vessel ever seen in Great Britain propelled by steam.” Her engines were of 100 nominal horse-power, and drove paddle-wheels 18 feet in diameter with sixteen floats, which were 9 feet in length by 2 feet broad. The company was incorporated in 1824 and then and for many years afterwards occupied a place second to none in the British mercantile marine as carrier of passengers, mails, goods, and cattle on the leading routes from London to the North, and to the principal commercial ports of Western Europe. The _Earl of Liverpool_, of 168 tons register and 80 horse-power, was built for the company at Wallis’s yard on the Thames in 1822. An early picture of this vessel shows her to have been two-masted, carrying on the foremast three jibs, two topsails, and a trysail, and on the mizzen two enormous flags, one several yards long bearing the name of the vessel, and the other, half the size of her spanker, being the company’s house flag, while at the stern she displayed an immense ensign, and at the bows a little Union Jack. Her paddle-boxes were rather forward of amidships, and a tall funnel with a spark-catcher above stood a short distance in front of the mizzen-mast. In 1833 this company built the _Monarch_, of which a contemporary newspaper says, under the heading “Gigantic Steamboat”: