Even at this period the idea of using manual labour, applied in an effective manner, for towing and bringing into position sailing warships had not been altogether abandoned. In 1802 the transport _Doncaster_ had been propelled at a slow speed in Malta harbour by the invention of a Mr. Shorter: a screw propeller rigged over the stern. In 1820 experiments were made at Portsmouth with paddlewheels manually worked, and in ’29 Captain C. Napier took his ship _Galatea_ out of Portsmouth Harbour by use of paddlewheels geared to winches which were worked by the crew. One hundred and thirty men were able to give her a speed of 2½ knots, while the full crew of a hundred and ninety produced a speed of three. After this doubtful success another trial was held--a race between the _Galatea_, propelled by paddles, and the _Briton_, towed by boats--which _Galatea_ won. Captain Napier’s paddlewheels afterwards did good work for his ship in other quarters of the world.[147] Nothing resulted, however, from his initiative in this connection; only was emphasized the enormous superiority of steam-propelled vessels as tugs, in which capacity they had already made their appearance, and from which they were destined to evolve, in the next decade, into fighting vessels of considerable force. By 1830 steam navigation had made significant strides along the lines of commercial development. In that year a service of steam mail boats started to run at regular intervals between Falmouth and Corfu, covering the distance in about one-fourth of the time which had been taken by the sailing packets; a Dutch government steamer, the _Curaçoa_, built in England, had since ’27 been running between Holland and the East Indies; and already the Indian Government had built an armed steamer, designed as the forerunner of others which were to connect Bombay with Suez and thus to place India in more direct communication with England. The navy was still represented only by paddle-tugs. With a change of administration, however, came a change in Admiralty policy. The new Board took a distinctly progressive view. It was agreed that, if foreign powers initiated the building of steam war-vessels, this country must build as well, and not only as well but better: a policy tersely summed up by Admiral Sir T. M. Hardy in his saying, “Happen what will, England must take the lead.” Certain objections to steam vessels as naval units which had hitherto held a vogue were now seen to be ill-founded or baseless. In particular it was discovered, not without surprise to many, that steamers could be manœuvred without difficulty. A paddlewheel steamer, the _Medea_, gained her commander considerable credit from the skill with which she was navigated from the Thames into the basin at Woolwich dockyard, which proved that steamers could be steered and manœuvred better than sailing ships. In ’33 the construction of steamers was placed in the hands of the Surveyor.[148]