But for a long time there had been efforts made to introduce the screw propeller. As far back as 1804 John Stevens crossed the Hudson in a little vessel driven by a screw propeller, but it was not until thirty-two years later that John Ericsson, a Swedish engineer, reintroduced the screw and patented it. In 1837 his propeller was successfully tried in the 45-foot _Francis B. Ogden_, and in the following year the Lairds built at Birkenhead the 63-foot _Robert F. Stockton_, which obtained the extraordinary speed of thirteen knots on the Thames, going with the tide, and she afterwards went across the Atlantic, where she was turned into a tug. But in England Francis Smith was at work on the screw problem and obtained a patent in the same year as Ericsson, and his invention was tried with success in a 6-ton boat. Smith’s patent was bought by a syndicate; and in 1838 was launched the 240-ton three-master _Archimedes_, fitted with Smith’s screw, and after she had steamed round Great Britain and across the Bay of Biscay, the prejudiced and “old-timers” began to believe in the new idea. Next year was launched the much larger _Novelty_, which was the first cargo ship to be fitted with a screw, and she proceeded from London to Constantinople and back. She was also the first ship to be fitted with an iron mast. We have thus arrived at the stage when the iron ship and the screw propeller had become practicable, and thus the future of the steamer was moulded. Wood was all very well until the demand for increased tonnage arrived, but when it was proposed to construct the 3618-ton _Great Britain_ there was nothing for it but to use iron. Here was a ship to be 822 feet long with 50½ feet beam, able to carry 260 passengers and 1200 tons of cargo. As no contractor could be found willing to build such a ship, the Great Western Steamship Company at Bristol constructed her themselves. She was designed by Brunel, but she turned out to be an awkward, ill-fated monstrosity. Launched in July 1843, she was unable to enter the river until December of the following year, owing to delay in the alteration of the dock. It was originally intended to fit her with the usual paddle-wheels, but the arrival of the _Archimedes_ in the port caused Brunel to modify the designs, so that his ship should be driven by a six-bladed propeller. She was a curious, six-masted craft with a bowsprit and painted ports, and in July 1845, after making a trip to London, left Liverpool with sixty passengers and 600 tons of cargo, reaching New York after a voyage of fifteen days. On the return journey her best day’s steaming was 287 miles. One night during September of the following year, after leaving the Mersey, she ran ashore off the Irish coast in Dundrum Bay, where she remained for eleven months exposed to all weathers. Brunel cleverly had a wooden breakwater, loaded with stones, built round her, and she was eventually refloated and taken into Liverpool. She was now