Unfortunately, little information as to this, the first ocean-steamer,
has been chronicled.
She was launched at New York on the 22nd of August 1818, and in the
following year made her first voyage to Savannah, from which she sailed
for Liverpool soon after, and crossed the Atlantic in twenty-five days--
during eighteen of which she used her engines.
The _Savannah_ was about 350 tons burden, and was on this occasion
commanded by Captain Moses Rodgers. She was fitted with machinery for
taking in her wheels in stormy weather, which was found to work
admirably; and she is mentioned as having been seen on the ocean going
at the rate of nine or ten knots.
From Liverpool this steamer went to Saint Petersburg, and afterwards
returned to Savannah in safety.
This was the insertion of the wedge. Our own country did not follow the
lead until 1838, when the good people of New York were thrown into a
state of excitement by the arrival of two steamers, the _Sirius_ and the
_Great Western_, from England. So long a time had elapsed since the
voyage of the _Savannah_ that men had well-nigh forgotten it, and were
disposed to regard these vessels as the _first_ ocean-steamers. Indeed,
some narrow-minded and ungenerous writers have asserted that they _were_
the first--totally ignoring the prior claim of the _Savannah_.
From that period ocean-steamers began to run frequently across the
Atlantic. They now do so regularly, as well as to nearly all other
parts of the world.