From Portsmouth the steamer proceeded to Margate, which was reached on Sunday morning. She remained at Margate until the following day, when she started on the final portion of her voyage at half-past eight in the morning, and reached her destination (Limehouse), about six o’clock the same evening, having accomplished the ninety miles run from Margate in about nine hours. The THAMES carried fifteen tons of coal, her consumption being, on the average, a ton for every hundred miles. So ended this memorable voyage, practically the first ever attempted by a steamboat on the open sea. Dodd’s after career was a most melancholy one. Talented, enterprising and courageous though he undoubtedly was, yet he never succeeded in his enterprises. And in his later years, instead of seeking that divine help which would have enabled him to meet his disappointments with fortitude, he sought to forget them in intemperance, and almost literally died a beggar in the streets. FOOTNOTES: [10] “Chambers’ Journal,” 25th April, 1857. Chapter V. 1816 to 1818.—Rivals to the THAMES, the DEFIANCE (1815), MAJESTIC and REGENT (1816).—Loss of the REGENT (1817).—Liverpool Steam-boats: the RUNCORN PACKET, the PRINCESS CHARLOTTE, Liverpool to Eastham (1816). REGULATOR and ETNA, Liverpool to Tranmere (1817).—Parkgate to Bagillt, N.W., the ANCIENT BRITON (1817).—First Spanish Steamer, ROYAL FERDINAND (1817).—Siberian Steam-boats (1817).—Loss of the REGULATOR (1818).—David Napier.—Greenock and Belfast Steamer, ROB ROY.—First Steamer between England and Ireland, the HIBERNIA (1816). The successful voyage from the Clyde to the Thames achieved by Captain Dodd, and the less-known one by the Runcorn Packet from the Clyde to the Mersey, gave a great impetus to steam-packet building, and created active opposition, especially on the London and Margate service. The THAMES, after being refitted, opened the service in July, 1815. She had a monopoly of the station for about three months, when the DEFIANCE was put on in opposition. The following year saw the MAJESTIC placed on the River Thames, and this vessel was probably the first steamer employed in towing ships. She towed, on Wednesday, 28th August, 1816, the large Indiaman, the HOPE, from Deptford to Woolwich at the rate of three miles per hour against the wind.