"Sir,—Yesterday I saw Mr. George Rennie, and he requested me to write to the Admiralty, a copy of which I send both to you and to him, for your inspection. Mr. Rennie said there was a great deal contained in what I had stated to him, and that he would with pleasure forward my views, as far as he could with consistency.
"I remain, Sir,
"Your very humble servant,
"Richard. Trevithick.
"To the Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, &c., &c., &c.
"My Lords,
"About one year since I had the honour of attending your honourable Board, with proposed plans for the improvement of steam navigation; and as you expressed a wish to see it accomplished, I immediately made an engine of considerable power, for the express purpose of proving by practice what I then advanced in theory. The result has fully answered my expectations; therefore I now make the following propositions to your honourable Board, that this entirely new principle and new mode may be fully demonstrated, on a sufficient scale for the use of the public.
"I humbly request that your Lordships will grant me the loan of a vessel of about two or three hundred tons burthen, in which I will fix, at my own expense and risk, an engine of suitable power to propel the same at the speed required. No alteration in the vessel will be necessary, and the whole apparatus required to receive its propelling force from the water can be removed and again replaced with the same facility as the sails, thus leaving the ship without any apparatus beyond its sides when propelled by wind alone, and when propelled by steam alone the apparatus outside the ship will receive scarcely any shock from the sea.
"This new invention entirely removes the great objection of feeding the boiler with salt and foul water, and not one-sixth part of the room for fuel, or of weight of machinery now used, will be required; it is also much more simple and safe, not only for navigation, but for all other purposes where locomotive power is required, and will supersede all animal power, as the objections of weight, room, and difficulty of getting and of carrying water in locomotive engines is entirely removed. It will therefore prove an investigation of greater utility to the public than anything yet introduced.
"I have to beg the great favour of your Lordships appointing not only scientific but practical engineers to inspect my plans, that you may be perfectly satisfied of their utility, not only in theory, but also as to the practicability of carrying the same into full effect."
The petition in June, 1830, for the loan of a Government hulk, hung fire up to January 1832, when an attempt was made to move the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty by the force of numbers.
"We, whose names are hereunto subscribed, have known Mr. Richard Trevithick, of Hale, in the county of Cornwall, for a period of years, and during which time his conduct has merited our unqualified approbation. As an engineer of experience and eminence few, if any, can surpass him, and his present improvement of the steam-engine seems to outvie all others. We therefore, in justice to his talent, strongly recommend to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty that he may be permitted, at his own costs and charges, to fit and make trial of his engine in one of His Majesty's vessels.