So far, then, new methods of propulsion had not been greeted with enthusiasm. Yet to the First Lord himself was due the utilization of steam for minor purposes in the navy. In spite of the non-success of Lord Stanhope’s experimental “ambi-navigator” ship in 1795, Lord Melville in 1815 caused the three-masted schooner _Congo_, designed for a surveying expedition to the river of that name, to be fitted with paddlewheels and machinery by Boulton and Watt, expressly to try it in a ship-of-war. This machinery was so large and ponderous that, not only did it usurp one-third of the space aboard the ship, but brought her down so deep as only to give four knots through the water. It was all removed again before she sailed, and sent to Chatham for use in the dockyard. In the following year we find Mr. Brunel in correspondence with his lordship on the question of steam navigation. Brunel wrote quoting evidence to the effect that paddlewheels could be made of sufficient strength and stiffness to withstand the violence of seas and gales; to which Lord Melville replied that the Board deemed it unnecessary to enter, at that time, into the question of steam navigation generally, but desired his views on the application of steam to the towing of ships-of-war out of harbour against contrary winds and tides: which would be a matter of great advantage to his Majesty’s service. Brunel answered recommending that the steamer _Regent_, plying between Margate and London, be chartered during the winter and employed on this work, as a particular experiment. “From this period may be dated the introduction of steam navigation into the English navy. Lord Melville was now so fully convinced of the great utility which the naval service would derive from it, that he ordered a small vessel to be built at Deptford, by Mr. Oliver Lang, to be called the _Comet_, of the burthen of 238 tons, and to have engines of 80 horse-power. She was built accordingly and ready for sea in 1822.”[146] As a matter of fact, the first steamer actually brought into H.M. service was the _Monkey_, built at Rotherhithe in 1821; and she was followed by the more powerful _Sprightly_, built at Blackwall by Messrs. Wigram and Green in ’23. Gradually the use of these paddlewheel tugs extended, their tonnage and horse-power increased, and the Surveyor of the Navy and his master shipwrights began to divert their talents to a consideration of the small steamers. For the reason stated by Lord Melville, steamers were at this time tolerated only for towing and other subsidiary duties; authority poured cold water on the idea of utilizing them as ships-of-war; and if steam could have been dispensed with altogether, everyone would have been the better pleased.