the difficulties that have been overcome so splendidly by the skill and enterprise of others, both past and present. If he talks to the professional sailor or marine engineer, they may not, even if they have the inclination to unbend, be able easily to separate their explanation from the vesture of technicality, and the inquirer is scarcely less satisfied than before. It is, then, with a view of supplying this want that I have aimed to write such a book as will interest without, I trust, wearying, the general reader. The plan on which I have worked has been to give the historical continuity of the steamship from the most reliable and authoritative material obtainable, and to supplement and correct a number of false statements by comparison with the latest researches. At the same time, my object has been not merely to ensure absolute historical accuracy, but to show how in a special manner and peculiar to itself the steamship is every bit as romantic, and equally deserving of our affectionate regard, as her predecessor the sailing ship, whose sphere of utility she has succeeded so materially in limiting. After having been brought safe and sound through gales of wind, across many thousands of miles of ocean, past cruel coast, and through treacherous channels, until at last the fairway and the harbour of safety have been reached, no one who has any heart at all can step ashore without feeling that he is parting from one of the noblest and best friends that a man ever had. True, there are some people, as an officer on one of the crack liners once remarked to me, who, as soon as ever the big ship is tied up alongside the landing-stage, hurry ashore from her as if she were a plague-ship. But such, let us hope, are the few rather than representative of the majority who have been brought into intimate relationship with the steamship. Nor only to the history and the glamour of the great steam-driven vessel have I confined myself. The sea is not merely a wide ocean, but contains within its mighty bosom many smaller areas such as channels and bays wherein the steamboat is able to ply as well for pleasure as for profit; and besides the big, brave sisters with their enormous displacement and their powerful engines, there are other children which run across smaller sea-ways, and these, too, are not to be passed over lightly. Then there are fleets of special steamships which in a quiet, unostentatious manner do their noble work, and are none the less efficient, even if they escape the limelight of general publicity. I shall seek to show in the following pages not merely the conditions which in the past have hindered or helped the ship-maker, but to indicate the modern problems which have still to be faced and overcome.