Steam-ships : The story of their development to the present day by R. A. Fletcher

only. On going down the river she overtook the _Great Western_ “with a respectable pleasure party on board,” and a trial of speed was the consequence. When the _Sirius_ had reached Gravesend she was upwards of a mile ahead of her rival. She had made the distance from Greenwich to Gravesend against a strong tide in one hour and fifty-six minutes. Both ships had their colours hoisted, and the banks of the river were thronged with spectators. Soon after the departure of the _Sirius_ the American Line packet-ship _Quebec_ came down the river in tow, and wagers were freely laid that the _Quebec_ would arrive before the _Sirius_ at New York. But those who backed the _Quebec_ lost their money. The _Ocean_, a vessel belonging to the Irish Company, acted as tender to the _Sirius_ when the latter called at Cork, and arrived there from Liverpool on April 3, with mails and passengers for the venturesome little craft. At a few minutes after ten o’clock on the morning of the 4th, the _Sirius_ proceeded on her voyage. The day was beautifully fine, every vessel in the harbour was decked with flags in honour of the event, a salute was fired from the battery on shore, and every boat which could be pressed into service was crowded with enthusiastic sightseers when, accompanied by the _Ocean_, the vessel left the harbour. The _Ocean_ went with her as far as the entrance to the bay. The _Watt_, which arrived at Liverpool on April 8, reported having sighted on April 5, in latitude 51° N. and longitude 12° W., the _Sirius_ bound for New York, bravely encountering a westerly gale. “When it is considered,” the Liverpool _Standard_ of the day naively remarked, “that this is the first steam vessel to cross the Atlantic, this information may not be altogether unimportant.” New York was reached at ten o’clock in the evening of April 22, not without some adventure. Lieutenant Roberts, her commander, was determined to carry the voyage through, but it was only “thanks to stern discipline and the persuasive arguments of loaded firearms” that he brought the crew round to his way of thinking, as they became somewhat demoralised by continuous head-winds and declared that it was utter madness to proceed in so small a vessel. There were 94 passengers on board, of whom 30 were in the state-cabin, 29 in the fore-cabin, and 35 were steerage passengers.[60] [60] It has been said the _Sirius_ carried no passengers. According to _Notes and Queries_, the New York _Herald_, of April 28, 1838, in reporting the arrival of the _Sirius_, says that forty-two passengers were on board, of whom eleven were females, for whose accommodation a stewardess was carried. A contributor to _Notes and Queries_ quotes the authority of the Registrar-General of Shipping and Seamen for the statement that the stewards’ department consisted of three stewards, one assistant, two cooks, and a boy, and he asks whether this staff would have been required in an ordinary boat of 412 tons if there were no passengers. [Illustration: THE “SIRIUS,” FROM A PRINT OF 1837.] The passage occupied sixteen and a half days, and the average speed was 8¹⁄₂ knots per hour; about twenty-four tons of coal per day being consumed. Her arrival at New York was hailed with delirious enthusiasm, and the excitement was yet further intensified when it became known on the morning of the 23rd, only a few hours after the _Sirius_ had anchored off the Battery, that another steam-ship was sighted making its way to the port, and that the approaching vessel was greater than any steam-ship ever seen in American waters. This was the _Great Western_, and New York celebrated the double arrival with that strenuous abandon attainable only in the Empire City. The _Great Western_ was built at Bristol by Patterson. She was brought round to London and left London again for the western port on March