The difficulty that awaits an author who writes on a technical subject for the benefit of the non-technical, average reader, is always to make himself intelligible without being allowed the full use of the customary but technical terms. In order that, as far as possible, the present volume may be both a full and accurate account of the steamship, in all times and in all the phases of her development, whilst yet being capable of appreciation by those to whom technicalities do not usually appeal, I have endeavoured whensoever possible to explain the terms employed. The story of the steamship may at the first mention seem to be bereft of any interest beyond that which appeals to an expert in marine engineering. Pipes and boilers and engines, you are told, are not suggestive of romance. To this one might reply that neither were sails and spars during the first stages of their history; and I shall hope that after he has been so kind as to read the following pages, the reader may feel disposed to withdraw the suggestion that the steamship is a mere inanimate mass of metal. On the contrary, she is as nearly human as it is possible to made a steel shell, actuated by ingenious machinery; and, after all, it is the human mind and hand which have brought her into being, and under which she is kept continuously in control. It would be surprising, therefore, since she has been and continues to be related so closely to humanity, if she should not exhibit some of the characteristics which a human possesses.