of communication, whether by sea, by river, or canal, have been multiplied to an almost indefinite extent. At present there are upwards of 1000 steam-vessels of all sizes in the United Kingdom, and there are between 80 and 100 built annually: the actual number, however, is difficult to arrive at, because there are many which were never registered. But there is an official return, sufficiently near our date to illustrate its epoch. In the report of the Commissioners appointed by the Privy Council, in 1839, to inquire into the subject of steam-vessel accidents, we find information not comprised in any other public statement. In the course of their investigation of the subject, the Commissioners obtained detailed intelligence of 83 unregistered steam-vessels, nearly all of which were used to convey passengers. Of these vessels, some plied on the Mersey, on the Humber, on the Thames, and on the rivers of the east of Scotland; and the Commissioners observe that there are, no doubt, many others unregistered, at ports which they did not visit. The great number of such vessels may be conceived, from the statement of the Report, that while there were only 25 registered steamers in the Humber, Ouse, and Trent, there were 26 unregistered; and that at Liverpool there were 39 registered, and 37 unregistered. It is also difficult to ascertain to what place many vessels properly belong. “Two Liverpool companies alone," says the Report, "possess more vessels than the total number registered there. Of the large number of trading steamers between Ireland and Liverpool, some of which are registered in English, and some in Irish ports, we (the Commissioners) were informed that nineteen-twentieths are owned in Ireland." It further states, that of the 766 steam-vessels which they ascertained then to belong to Great Britain, Ireland, Guernsey, Jersey, and Man, 484 may be considered as river steamers and small coasters; and 282 as large coasters and sea-going ships. The annexed table, constructed from the Custom House returns, will show the approximate number, tonnage, and power of vessels belonging to the mercantile steam marine of the United Kingdom and its dependencies, at the end of the year 1838:

Here is abundant food for reflection, and a striking type of the times we live in. Our preceding decennial table, exhibited the extraordinary increase of vessels to 50,735 tons in 1834; and here we find that the tonnage more than tripled in the following four years! And both these returns are independent of the mail-packets, government craft, and steam men-of-war. But though the period of this advance was small, the progress was regulated with caution. Steamers were first brought into use in this country on the Clyde, and they were soon afterwards plying about England, Scotland, and Ireland, to the rapid increase of beneficial intercourse of the capital with all parts of the empire. The next step was to steam it across the British Channel, then to the coasts of Spain and Portugal, and soon afterwards to the Mediterranean and Baltic seas. At each advance, experience prompted improvement, and, emboldened by constant success, steam now looked to America and India; and might have assumed Vires acquirit eundo, as her motto.

Still the doctors differed as to the limits of this extension of steam navigation. Dionysius Lardner, a very triton among minnows, took the field with the magnanimous resolution either to burke the Great Western project, or so smite, as to cripple it. With this luminous fancy in view, he not only wielded the goosequill, but also sported his person in Bristol, where he held forth that, to attempt a voyage across the Atlantic by steam, was "as vain as would be one to the moon." Such was the dictum; but the Bristolians, who are no fools on a march, marvelled that such a question could be raised, knowing well that our steamers had not only navigated the Mediterranean and the Baltic, but that the Atlantic had already been crossed, and India visited by way of the Cape. They therefore flew in the face of the schoolman's temerarious prediction, and fitted out the Great Western. As all the world knows the gratifying result, it is needless to say more than that she performed the voyage with such celerity, safety, and punctuality, as floored all opposition. Since then, her arrivals and departures are as decidedly fixed as those of a mail-coach; and it was only a few short months after the learned Doctor's diatribe against the practicability of making the trip, that we saw, in the very same room where the spouting took place, this placard :—

The Great Western, Lieutenant Hosken, R.N., Commander, is intended to sail

FROM BRISTOL,

4th June,

25th July,

12th September,

7th November.

FROM NEW YORK,

9th May,
1st July,

18th August,

10th October,

8th December.

The first voyage of the Great Western was one of the highest steam interest, on account of certain misgivings occasioned by the doubting of the Gothamites. It is true, that the Atlantic Ocean had been crossed in 1819 by the Savannah, in 1828 by the Curaçoa, and that the Sirius had started, in 1838, for that purpose; but it was considered, by the loudest arguficators, that the dependence of those vessels upon steampower was incomplete. The voyage of the Great Western practically settled the problem of steaming over the Herring Pond, and is therefore considered as having founded a permanent mode of transportation between two noble countries. Dr. Lardner, indeed, in his work on the steam-engine, 1836, had pronounced the projected intercourse between

London and New York by steam to be utterly impracticable; and thereupon betook himself to figures, which are admirable materials for raising a fog. So, by the aid of the said figures, he stated that the extreme limit of a practicable steam-passage across the Atlantic would be from the western coast of Ireland to Halifax, a distance of about 2200 miles; to perform which, by his assurance, would require an average time of 19 days. In April, 1838, however, the Great Western left Bristol for New York, a distance of 3500 miles, and in 15 days landed her passengers on the Broadway. She has since performed the homeward passage in 12 days, a rate equal to 280 miles per diem; and she has logged 8 knots with a fresh breeze right in her teeth. Well might the graphic historian of this voyage say,- "An appropriate figure-head for our ship would be, Vulcan with Neptune by the beard, and old olus fairly under foot."

At her departure on the first voyage, the Great Western had on board 660 tons of coal, of which only 452 tons were used on the pas sage and in several of her subsequent voyages the average consumption of fuel has been 27 tons a day. The experiments of Capt. Hosken upon the engines, to ascertain the speed of the vessel relatively with the degree of power applied, and the required consumption of coal, yielded these results:

These gradations were arrived at by the cramm, a part of the engine adapted to "cut off the stroke," to any desired proportion, which is done by its action on one of the principal valves, in such a manner as partially to close it. The proof of the amount of pressure was shown by an instrument called the indicator, which was screwed upon the cylinder -communicating with it from within for the purpose, and which, by the action of the engine, most ingeniously given to it, described with a lead pencil upon paper a parallelogram, cutting off one corner, showing the precise vacuum in the cylinder, and by this the proportion of power applied. The engines were computed at 225 horses' power each; and their whole number of revolutions during the voyage was 287,324.

Upon these grounds, it is probable that this ship will be cited by the future historian of ocean-steamers; she therefore demands especial record on our pages. She was built pursuant to order from the Steam Navigation Company, who spared no expense in turning her out a perfect union of stability, power, and magnificence. She is 1340 tons registered admeasurement. The floors are upwards of 200 feet in length, firmly dowelled and bolted; and she has stowage for 800 tons of coal, or coal and cargo combined, without encroaching upon the space of her provisions and water for 300 people. The state-rooms and other accommodations for passengers are roomy and excellent, with every attribute of comfort. The saloon is 75 feet long, by a breadth of 21 feet, exclusive of the recesses on each side, where the breadth is 34 feet, and the height is 9 feet clear of the beam. This superb saloon is

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tastefully decorated, and fifty of the panels are adorned with paintings from the well-known pencil of Mr. Parris. Such being the secondaries, it is hardly necessary to add, that the more essential parts of the vessel, and all her machinery, are examples of mechanical skill and ingenuity, which cannot, at this day, be surpassed. When we visited this "pink' of steamers, we were rather disappointed with her outward appearance, since the lightness of her spars and gear rendered her bearing so inferior to the imposing grandeur of a man-of-war, as to present the difference between a canoe and a launch. But the splendour of this floating palace's interior is truly striking; and the tastefulness of her decorations has been ascribed to a cause somewhat similar to that, which notoriously influences those fine vessels, the American liners, a cause thus shown by a Transatlantic writer:-"The ladies of the ships'-captains of New York form a body, if they could be seen in the group, of the most beautiful and splendid women in existence. To this we have long since, philosophically, attributed the splendour and beauty of the packet-ships. Elegant women naturally communicate their taste and style-a portion of their very soul and being--to their husbands; their husbands, in this state of charming magnetism, infuse a portion of the same taste into their ships; and thus we are indebted to lovely women for our lovely ships."

But, notwithstanding the undeniable handsomeness of the Great Western, there were not wanting those who considered beauty but as "skin-deep;" and, while some whispered that she was over-lively at sea, others predicted that she would soon be a coffin for her passengers; while a third part declared that she was already sadly strained in some parts, and bedevilled in others. To meet these unfounded allegations, a serutiny was instituted, and the following report was made to Capt. Claxton, the Steam Navigation Agent:

Lloyd's Register of British and Foreign Shipping,
London, 11th January, 1840.

DEAR SIR,-In reply to yours of the 9th instant, requesting my opinion of the "Great Western" steam-ship, as to her condition and signs of working after having performed twenty-two voyages across the Atlantic, amounting in the aggregate to 75,000 nautical miles, I have much; pleasure in stating, that on examining her in the dry dock at Bristol, on the 7th and 8th instant, I found her to be in perfectly good condition, free from any indication of defect inside; the copper smooth, and without any appearance of straining outside.

My attention was particularly directed to the trusses immediately before and abaft the engine-room, where the first indications of straining and movement in steam-vessels are invariably given, and I found even less straining and yielding there than is commonly seen in much smaller vessels at the same age, and after so much service; in fact, I found the abutments there to be in the same state as when I examined them whilst receiving her machinery on board in London.

The fact of the copper being smooth and free from wrinkle, the bottom and keel fair and regular under the engines and along her entire length, the abutments of the trusses close, and the butts aloft perfect and unbroken, are in my opinion conclusive proofs of her freedom from any straining which ean by possibility affect either her safety or durability; and I heartily congratulate you upon the successful result of this magnificent experiment in steam navigation.-I am, dear Sir, your obedient servant,

GEORGE BAYLEY,

Surveyor of Shipping for Lloyd's

Experience had already shown the great advantage of large over small steamers, because the capacity and buoyancy of the vessel increase in so much larger a ratio than the resistance: but, in order to obtain: sufficient room for carrying the enormous supply of fuel required for a voyage across the Atlantic, and at the same time to allow accommodation for passengers and cargo to a remunerative amount, it was necessary to build vessels of extraordinary size. The following table shows the dimensions of the hull and machinery of three of these ocean-going vessels :

Vessels of iron, which had now begun to be constructed both for rivers and for navigation in the open sea, were found to have many advantages over ships of wood; being lighter, more buoyant, stronger, cleanlier, less liable to hogg, and more capable of stranding or beating on rocks, without imminent injury. The Tigris, Euphrates, Alburkha, Quorra, Albert, Wilberforce, and other iron vessels, were built for the grand river explorations recently undertaken: and the facility with which the materials may be moulded into any shape, proved the advan tage of iron for such purpose. The vessels are formed with rib-frames at intervals, and with longitudinal hoops of iron; and they are covered: with iron plates, which are fastened to the ribs by bolts or rivets. The lower part of the interior may be divided into compartments, and strengthened, by means of water-tight bulkheads, and thereby confine the effect of an accident (from collision, striking on a reef, or from any other cause) to the particular division of the vessel in which it originates. In this case, the expense and labour of large pumps is unnecessary, as the compartment can only fill to the level of the external water, and then may be emptied at leisure; or, if the leak be greater than the discharge of a small hand-pump, that compartment may remain filled until a port is reached.

It is matter of dispute among our savans, whether this useful adoption was first suggested by Dodd, in 1818, or Mr. C. W. Williams, of the Dublin Steam-packet Company, who fitted the Garry Owen with them. Inventions are most difficult to track. Large editions of the Dance of