Since Watt had demonstrated the value of steam for driving machinery
(S563), a number of inventors had been experimenting with the new
power, in the hope that they might apply it to propelling vessels. In
1807 Robert Fulton, an American, built the first successful steamboat,
and made the voyage from New York to Albany in it. Shortly afterwards
his vessel began to make regular trips on the Hudson. A number of
years later a similar boat began to carry passengers on the Clyde, in
Scotland. Finally, in 1819, the bold undertaking was made of crossing
the Atlantic by steam. An American steamship, the Savannah, of about
three hundred tons, set the example by a voyage from the United States
to Liverpool. Dr. Lardner, an English scientist, had proved to his
own satisfaction that ocean steam navigation was impracticable. The
book containing the doctor's demonstration was brought to America by
the Savannah on her return.
Twenty-one years afterward, in 1840, the Cunard Company established
the first regular line of ocean steamers. They sailed between England
and the United States. Since then fleets of steamers ranging from two
thousand to more than forty thousand tons each have been built. They
now make passages from continent to continent with the regularity of
clockwork, and in fewer days than the ordinary sailing vessels
formerly required weeks. The fact that during a period of more than
seventy years one of these lines has never lost a passenger is
conclusive proof that Providence is on the side of steam, when steam
has men that know how to handle it.