But the year 1838 was to be remarkable in the story of the Atlantic, for on April 4 there started from Cork the 703-ton paddler _Sirius_, which reached New York on April 22. She had steamed all the way, but it had been a near thing, for her fuel gave out and she had even to burn some of her spars. At one stage of the voyage her captain had to quell a mutiny, for the crew began to assume that the ship would never get across. Twelve hours after her arrival came into New York the four-masted paddler _Great Western_, which had left Bristol on April 7. She was a much larger ship, of 1321 gross tons, and had been specially designed by that engineering genius Brunel to withstand Atlantic weather. On the return voyage she took fifteen days, and _Sirius_ seventeen. _Great Western_ was a most successful ship, both technically and commercially. At the end of the first year she earned a dividend of 9 per cent., thirty-five guineas being the fare, and she carried 152 passengers. She was not broken up until 1847. So far no steamer had crossed from Liverpool to New York, though the sailing ships were still doing the voyage in about three weeks, but in 1838 a second _Royal William_ accomplished this. She was hardly the kind of paddler to choose for Atlantic work, and had really been built for the Liverpool-Kingstown route. Built and engined at Liverpool, being 3 feet shorter but 2 feet wider than _Sirius_, she was thus the first of those steamers to maintain the communication between Liverpool and New York, which has meant so much to the mutual commerce and development of ideas in the two countries. On April 2, 1839, the three-masted paddler _British Queen_ left Portsmouth and reached New York on April 16, or three days quicker than the first _Royal William_ had done the journey in the opposite direction under sail and steam. Encouraged by the success of _Sirius_, which had been chartered because the _British Queen_ was not yet ready, the British Queen Steam Navigation Company had also built the sister ship _President_, 1863 tons and 700 horse-power; but after sailing from New York on March 11, 1841, with a few passengers, _President_ was never heard of again, and thus the company came to an end.