No further advance of a sensational character was announced until the _Star_ was launched from Palmer’s yards, and she was surpassed very shortly afterwards by the performance of the little steamer _Turbinia_. This vessel was only 100 feet in length, and of 44½ tons displacement. The engines of the Parsons type of turbines, with which it was fitted experimentally, received the cold shoulder, which seems to be the fate of all innovations that do not come into the world through official channels. But the owners of this vessel and the proprietors and inventors of the engines adopted a method of compelling recognition as daring as it was successful. The occasion chosen was the naval review held in honour of the diamond jubilee of the late Queen Victoria, and shortly before the Royal Yacht arrived to pass between the rows of warships, this turbine steamer shot into the fairway and went at her utmost speed from one end to the other of the lines of steamships and the finest assemblage of warships the world had ever seen, and there was not in the whole British Navy one destroyer or torpedo boat present that she could not outdistance. Thousands of spectators witnessed the exploit, and the success of the turbine engine was assured from that moment. The remarkable development in steamship propulsion this vessel heralded was represented in less than ten years by the fastest and largest steamships in the world, and the largest and fastest and most powerful battleships afloat. The builders’ estimate of the power of her rotary engines was that for every ton of the machinery 72 h.p. should be developed, and though this seems to have been accomplished in the _Turbinia_, equally satisfactory results have not been attained in the large seagoing destroyers fitted with turbine engines, but the results were in advance of those obtainable with reciprocating engines. It was not, however, until 1900 that the first turbine-driven war vessel was added to the fighting force of the Navy. The Admiralty had not been idle, and as the result of numerous tests and inquiries made the great experiment which brought about the revolution in the propulsion of the world’s fighting ships. The mercantile marine led the way, the Allan line being the first to have Atlantic liners equipped with turbines. The Government watched the experiment carefully, and in spite of opposition from some influential quarters decided to try how turbines would act in a destroyer. This was the _Viper_, of 390 tons displacement. The hull and boilers were by Hawthorn, Leslie and Co., and the engines were by the Parsons Turbine Company. She astonished everyone by attaining a speed of 36.6 knots when running light, and from that time onward the development of turbines for warships has been one long series of progress.