INTRODUCTION TO THE CHAPTERS ON STEAM NAVIGATION--FORMATION OF THE GREAT WESTERN STEAM-SHIP COMPANY--COMMENCEMENT OF THE BUILDING OF THE ‘GREAT WESTERN’--REPORT ON SELECTION OF THE BUILDERS OF THE ENGINES (JUNE 18, 1836)--STATEMENTS OF DR. LARDNER ON THE PROBABLE FAILURE OF A LINE OF STEAM-SHIPS BETWEEN ENGLAND AND AMERICA--VOYAGE OF THE ‘GREAT WESTERN’ TO LONDON--COMPLETION OF THE ENGINES--HER RETURN TO BRISTOL--FIRE ON BOARD AND ACCIDENT TO MR. BRUNEL--VOYAGE TO NEW YORK--COMPARISON BETWEEN THE PERFORMANCES OF THE ‘GREAT WESTERN’ AND THE ‘SIRIUS’--SUBSEQUENT HISTORY OF THE ‘GREAT WESTERN’--NOTE: DIMENSIONS OF THE SHIP AND ENGINES. It will readily be conceded that Mr. Brunel’s railway works, which have formed the subject of the five preceding chapters, would have given him ample employment for the thirty years of his professional life. Nevertheless, during almost the whole of that period--namely, from 1835, the year of the passing of the Great Western Railway Bill, to his death in 1859--he was also engaged in the accomplishment of undertakings which had for their object the systematic development of Ocean Steam Navigation.[116] The ‘Great Western,’ the first steam-ship which made regular voyages across the Atlantic, the ‘Great Britain,’ the first large iron steam-ship, and the first large ship in which the screw propeller was used, and, lastly, the ‘Great Eastern,’ were Mr. Brunel’s works, built under his direction, in the midst of his other engrossing occupations, and at the sacrifice of his health and life. The history of these projects will contain records of many disappointments as well as of success; for no great and novel undertaking can be perfected at once and without changes of plan and arrangement. As engineer to the Companies which built these steam-ships, Mr. Brunel advised the adoption of measures strongly in opposition to current popular opinion, and far bolder and more daring than even his recommendation of the broad gauge and the atmospheric system. The results obtained have verified his calculations, and the conclusions he sought to establish are now so generally accepted that it is difficult to believe that they were ever questioned. No one now has any doubt that large vessels can with safety be built of iron, or that the screw propeller can be advantageously employed in ships of war and the mercantile navy; no one can now deny that it is practicable for steam-ships to make long voyages across the ocean with regularity and speed. * * * * * A detailed account will now be given of the ships whose performances first demonstrated the truth of these propositions.