The first steamboat built in England was constructed in a yard off Wincolmlee, Hull, and was launched in the river Hull. This was in the year 1787, and the engine was patented the next year. The makers, Messrs. Furness & Ashton, afterwards built a larger steam-boat, which was put together in London and bought by the Prince Regent, who rewarded them with a pension of £70 each. The _Kingston_ was, of course, looked upon as a wonderful vessel. Its owners proudly announced to the public:— In the construction of this elegant vessel, which will be propelled by an engine of sixty horse power every attention has been paid to render the conveyance expeditious, commodious, and safe. ‘Expeditious’, however, it did not prove to be—at any rate on its first voyage. For when twenty miles from the Humber, the axis of the paddles broke; and instead of reaching London in thirty hours, as the passengers had expected, the _Kingston_ found its way back to Hull some forty-eight hours after its triumphant start. These early steam packets were somewhat different from the ocean liners of our own day. Compare the portrait of the _Rockingham_ on page 295 with that of the _Bayardo_ on page 299. Launched in 1910 from Earle’s Shipbuilding Yard, at a cost of £67,000, the latter was for its short life the ‘Queen of the Wilson Line.’ The fate of the _Diana_ and the _Bayardo_ illustrates the dangers of the Humber. The latter vessel left Gothenburg on a Friday evening in January, 1912, with a cargo worth £30,000 and a small number of passengers. On the Saturday evening she was making her way up the Humber in a dense fog when she ran hard aground on a sandbank almost opposite the dock which was her destination. By the following evening her back was broken, and the ‘Queen of the Wilson Line’ was a hopeless wreck. [Illustration: The ‘Southampton.’] [Illustration: The ‘Bayardo.’ SHIPS OLD AND NEW. ] * * * * * [Illustration: _Photo by_] [_C.W. Mason_ The Entrance to the ‘Old Harbour.’ ] Stand on the Victoria Pier at Hull on a clear day, and watch the ships of the Humber. Of all sizes and shapes and speeds they are. There we see the keel, with its one square sail, making its way slowly along, the peaceful descendant of the square-sailed long-ship of Viking days. There are the schooners and barques that are survivals from the days when all ships depended on the wind for their motive power. There is a tug-boat taking out to its moorings the light-ship on which the safety of many other ships will depend.