The first steam vessel known with certainty to have been built on the Thames was the Regent, designed by Isambard Brunel, and built in 1816 by Maudslay, the founder of one of the most famous shipbuilding firms London river has known. She was of 112 tons, with engines of 24 horse-power, and her machinery and paddles together were so light that they only weighed five tons. She was placed on the London and Margate passenger service, and in July 1817 was burnt off Whitstable. Fortunately no lives were lost.
An apparently insignificant incident which occurred in 1818 resulted in one of the most important discoveries in the history of the marine engine. James Watt the younger happened to be on the steamer Dumbarton Castle, built a year earlier, when the engineer told him that the vessel had grounded the previous evening, and that the rising tide, turning the paddles the wrong way, had caused the engines to reverse. Watt explained to the engineer the importance of this, and at last took off his coat and showed what could be done with the engines. Before that date the reversing of machinery on steamers was either unknown or not generally practised. Watt’s discovery enabled the steamer to take its position at Rothesay Quay with precision and promptitude, the custom previously having been to stop the engine some distance from the point of mooring and allow the vessel to drift alongside.[41]
[41] “The Clyde Passenger Steamers,” by Captain J. Williamson.
Plan and Lines of the “Comet.”
The Engine of the “Leven.”
After the experimental voyages described above it was not long before owners of steam vessels and enterprising shippers generally recognised the benefits to be derived from the establishment of regular coastal steamship services. The year 1816 saw steam communication established between Great Britain and Ireland with the Hibernia of 112 tons register, which enjoyed the distinction of being the first boat employed in cross-channel service in the British Islands. She was built for the Holyhead and Howth service, was lugger-rigged, nearly 80 feet in length, and about 9 feet draught, and her passages averaged about seven hours.
David Napier now introduced a great change in the shape of the fore part of steamers’ hulls, which added to the superiority of their speed over sailing ships. Hitherto steamers had been built with the bluff bows which characterised the sailers. Napier observed that the obstruction caused to a ship’s progress by bows of this shape was very great, especially in dirty weather. He was crossing from Glasgow to Belfast on one of the sailing packets which then did the journey in anything up to a week, and perched himself on the bows, where he remained, heedless of the waves and spray which continually dashed over him. He was engaged in watching the bows and the waves, and thinking. Occasionally he turned to the captain and asked if the sea was rough. The captain said it could not yet be called very rough. The weather grew worse, and at last a tremendous wave, breaking over the vessel, swept her from stem to stern. Napier went back to the captain and asked, “Do you call it rough now?” The captain replied that he could not remember a worse night in his experience. To his astonishment Napier was delighted with this answer, and went down to his cabin remarking, “I think I can manage if that is all.”[42]
[42] An account of this voyage by Napier is given in the American Admiral Preble’s “History of Steam Navigation.”