NAVIGATION BY STEAM.

It may be doubted whether, among the various agents that have contributed during the last twenty-five years to the general improvement of mankind, there be one that has exercised a more powerful influence over the wellbeing of society, than the important discovery which led to the application of steam to the purposes of navigation. It would be difficult, perhaps impossible, to form any thing like an approximate estimate of the individual enjoyment to which this great developement of science has led. In this metropolis, there are few above the humblest ranks that have not occasionally availed themselves of a facility for locomotion entirely unknown to the generation that preceded them; and of those who have availed themselves of it, there are still fewer who must not have exulted in the comfort and enjoyment in which science thus enables them to become the easy participators.

Every one whose recollections of the Thames extend beyond a period of twenty years, must remember something of the wretched way in which the inhabitants of London were formerly accustomed to make their aquatic excursions to Margate and the other watering places near the mouth of the river. Yet the Margate hoy was once an object to which our watermen and other boating virtuosi would point with no little pride; they loved her for the smartness of her rig, doated on the fairy lightness of her form, and boundless were the marvels they would relate of the astonishing rapidity of her sailing. And where now is the once petted Sylph of the Thames? Like other beauties, she has seen Time strip her of her charms one by one, her admirers have deserted her she is forgotten by the old, while to the young the marvel is that she should ever have excited admiration, or should ever have become the object of enthusiastic encomiums. The steamer is the rival that has eclipsed her, and that rival now holds undisputed sway over the scene of her departed triumphs.

There are, probably, few of our readers who are not aware that the first practical introduction of steam navigation took place about thirty-four years ago (in 1807), when Mr. Fulton exhibited a small boat called the North River, as a passage-boat between New York and Albany. She was furnished with an engine of eighteen-horse power, and made the passage to Albany in thirty-three hours. Since that period, it is estimated, in an official Report presented last year to the American Congress, that at least 1300 steamvessels have been built in the United States, of which 260 are supposed to have been lost by various accidents, 240 to have been worn out in the service, and 800 to have been in active employment in 1839.

In the United Kingdom, the first steam-boat worked for hire "was the Comet, a small vessel of forty feet keel, and ten feet and a half beam, with an engine of three-horse power, which plied with passengers on the Clyde in 1811; two years later, the Elizabeth, of eight-horse power, and the Clyde, of fourteen-horse power, were placed on the same river. Since that time the progress of this invention has been rapid, to a degree that could never have been anticipated." (Vide "Porter's Progress of the Nation.") The following table will show the rapid growth of steam navigation in the United Kingdom:

"The number and tonnage of steam-vessels built and registered in the United Kingdom, and in the British Colonies in each year, from 1814 to 1836, have been as follow:

Steam-Vessels built and registered in the United Kingdom and the British Colonies.

If the above table is perfectly correct, an immense increase in the number and tonnage of British steam-vessels must since then have taken place, as may be seen by comparing the foregoing statement with the one we are about to give, and which we find in an official Report laid before Parliament about six months ago.

"A Statement of the approximate Number, Tonnage, and Power of Vessels belonging to the Mercantile Steam-marine of the United Kingdom and its Dependencies. End of Year 1838.

The Custom-house Return enumerates 678 steam-vessels; but the tonnage of one- burntis omitted.

†These are extracted from Mr. Porter's Returns, as we have not received them for :

"From a Return made by the Register-General of Shipping, it appears that, in the year 1836, there were employed at different ports in the United Kingdom, and her Colonies, 600 steam-vessels, the aggregate burden of which was 67,969 tons, viz. —

"These were exclusive of vessels belonging to Government."

"The total number of British and Irish steam-vessels, including those registered in Guernsey, Jersey, and Man, amounts to 766; of these, 484 may be considered as river steamers, and small coasters; and 282 as large coasters, and sea-going ships.

"The increase in 1837 over 1836, was 78; and that of 1838 over 1837, 59 registered vessels."

We must trouble our readers with one table more, to show the traffic that has been carried on by this splendid fleet of steamers.

An Account of the Number and Tonnage of Steam-Vessels which entered the Ports of the United Kingdom, and cleared from the same, in each Year, from 1820 to 1836; distinguishing the Vessels employed in the Coasting Trade from those engaged in Foreign Voyages, and separating Foreign from British Vessels.

By the two former tables it is shown that the greatest number of steamvessels were constructed in this country in 1826 and 1830; and by the last table a constantly increasing aggregate number of voyages performed by British steam-vessels is exhibited during a period of seventeen years.

The preceding statement, it must be remembered, refers only to those vessels that carried merchandise, and on that account had to be passed through the Custom-house; for those arriving or departing in ballast, or with passengers only, no authentic record exists. In 1835, however, it was ascertained by the collector of pier dues, that the number of passengers conveyed by steam, between London and Gravesend alone, was 670,452; and before a Committee of the House of Commons it was stated, in 1836, that at least 1,057,000 passengers passed Blackwall in steam-vessels every year. The number since that time must have increased very greatly, but we are not in possession of any authentic return to enable us to estimate the extent of the augmentation.

In the United States of America, which may fairly be looked on as the father-land of steam navigation, the progress was at first much more rapid than in Great Britain. The noble rivers of the Western. country presented a magnificent field for the developement of this splendid invention, and it may fairly be assumed that the number of steam-boats in America still surpasses the number of those in active employment in our own country. The American steamers, however, are, with few exceptions, river boats; and leaving altogether out of consideration the colossi that have lately been constructed for the trans-Atlantic service, we believe there is one company in London (the General Steam Navigation Company) that owns a larger number of sea-going steam-vessels than are at this moment employed by the whole of the United States. It was in 1839 that an official Report was presented to Congress, on the present state of steam navigation in that country, from which document we shall venture to make a brief extract.

"The whole number of steam-boats ascertained and estimated to be now in this country is 800. In England, in 1836, the whole number is computed to have been 600. On the western and south-western waters alone, near 400 are now supposed to be running, where none were used till 1811, and where, in 1834, the number was computed to be only 234. Of these 400, about 141 are estimated. On the Ohio river alone, in A. D. 1837, about 413 different steam-boats are reported to have passed through the Louisville and Portland canal, besides all below and above, which never passed through. But it deserves notice, that of those 413, near 60 went out of use by accidents, decay, &c. within that year; and several of the others, viz., 104, were new, and many of them, probably, were destined to run on other rivers. As an illustration of the rapid increase of business in steam-boats on the Ohio, the number of passages by them through the Louisville canal increased from 406, in A. D. 1831, to 1,501, in A.D. 1837, or nearly fourfold in six years. About 70 boats were running, the present year, on the north-western lakes, where, a few years since, the number was very small, having been in 1835 only 25. Of the 800 steam-boats now in the United States, the greatest number ascertained to be in any State is 140, in the State of New York.

"It is a matter of surprise that so few of these are sea-going vessels, considering that the first steam-boat which ever crossed the Atlantic was built in New York, as long ago as 1819, and went from Savannah (the place after which she was called) to Liverpool in 26 days; and that the 'Robert Fulton,' as early as 1822, made several trips to New Orleans and Havana. A similar remark applies to the circumstance that only one of the whole number is a public vessel of war, when the first steam-vessel of that kind ever launched was the Fulton,' and was built in this country as long ago as A. D. 1815. The government of the United States never owned but two steam-vessels of war- both called the Fulton.' The first one was lost by accident in 1829; and now there is only the other. It has, however, 13 other steam-vessels, employed by the War Department on the public works, and in transportation of troops and stores. * * * * *

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"The tonnage of all the steam-boats in the United States is computed to exceed 155,473. Of this, 137,473 is in boats ascertained or reported. By the official returns, the whole tonnage would now probably equal near 160,000 tons, having been, in A. D. 1837, equal to

153,660. Many boats included in those returns have been lost or worn out, and several new ones built since. In England, the tonnage is estimated to have been 67,969 in A. D. 1836. The tonnage to each boat here averages about 200; and the estimates, where the returns have been defective, were made on that basis. The power employed in all steam-engines in the United States is ascertained and estimated at 100,318-horse power; of this, 12,140 only is in engines, estimated and not returned. In the aggregate, all this new mechanical force would be equal to the power of 601,808 men. Of this force, 57,019-horse power is computed to be in steam-boats, 6,980 in railroads, and the rest, being 36,319, in other engines. This averages about 70-horse power to each boat, or one horse to between two and three tons, and less than 20-horse power to each of the other engines. It is a striking fact, that the steam-power employed, in only standing engines, is equal to about two thirds of all that is used in steam-boats. The largest boat in the United States is supposed to be the Natchez,' of 860 tons, and near 300-horse power, destined to run between New York and Mississippi; the Illinois' and the Madison,' on Lake Erie, are the next in size, the former being 755, and the latter 700 tons; the 'Massachusetts,' in Long Island Sound, is the next largest, being 626 tons; and the Buffalo,' on Lake Erie, next, being of 613 tons. The largest boats passing Louisville in 1837 were, the Uncle Sam,' of 447 tons, and the 'Mogul,' of 414 tons; though below Louisville the Mediterranean,' of 490 tons, and the North America,' of 445 tons, on the Ohio, and the St. Louis,' of 550 tons, on the Mississippi, are running. The greatest loss of life, well authenticated, on any one occasion, in a steam-boat, appears to have been by collision, and consequent sinking, in the case of the Monmouth,' in a. D. 1837, on the Mississippi river, by which 300 lives were lost. The next greatest were by explosions: of the Oronoka,' in 1838, on the same river, by which 130 or more lives were lost; and of the ' Moselle,' at Cincinnati, Ohio, by which 100 to 120 persons were destroyed. The greatest injury to life by accidents to boats from snags and sawyers appears to have been 13 lost in 1834, in the case of the 'St. Louis,' on the Mississippi river. The greatest by shipwreck was in the case of the 'Home,' in 1837, on the coast of North Carolina, where 100 persons were lost. The greatest by fire happened in the 'Ben Sherrod,' on the Mississippi river, in 1837, where near 130 perished. The number of steam-boats built in the United States in A.D. 1834 was 88; but in 1837 it was 134, or, had increased over 50 per cent. in three years. The places where the greatest number of steam-boats and other steam-machines appear to have been constructed in this country, are Pittsburg, Cincinnati, and Louisville, on the western waters; and New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, on the Atlantic. At Louisville alone, from 1819 to 1838, there appeared to have been built 244 steam-engines, of which 62 were for boats. The fuel originally used in steam-boats in the United States was wood; but of late years bituminous coal has, in many instances, been substituted, and in several anthracite coal. The latter, from the small space it occupies, would seem to possess a decided advantage, in sea-going vessels as well as in locomotives.

"Some steam-boats made of iron are believed to be used in Georgia, if not in other parts of this country, though none of that material have been manufactured here; but it is computed that their cost is less than those of wood, and, as they draw less water with the same freight, they are more useful on shallow streams.'

Such has been the astonishing developement of steam navigation in England and in America; and not the least remarkable fact connected with its rapid growth has been the undiminished activity of the foreign and coasting trades carried on by the regular shipping of both countries. Of the extent of our own coasting trade, we have no authentic record of an earlier date than 1824; but since that period there has been a steady increase in the number and tonnage of vessels employed; and the aggregate amount of British shipping engaged in the foreign, colonial, and coasting trades, is at this moment greater than during the most active year of the last war.

The extent to which the trade and intercourse between England and Ireland have been augmented since the introduction of steam, it is difficult to calculate; but a statement was furnished a few years ago to the House of Commons, by the manager of a company trading with steam-vessels between Ireland and Liverpool, from which it appeared that the agricultural produce imported from Ireland into that one port, amounted in 1831 and 1832 to about 4,500,000l. annually, and a great part of this trade was made up of articles, such as live cattle, horses, sheep, and pigs, that could not have been carried across the sea with the same profit to the merchant by any other conveyance than steam. The value of the live cattle, &c., thus im