_Charlotte Dundas_. It
was intended to work her on the Forth and Clyde Canal, but the
proprietors having objected that she would damage the banks, she was
laid up, as was a second boat.

In 1804, John Stephens of Hoboken, near New York, built a small vessel
22 feet in length, which ran at the rate of seven or eight miles an
hour, and Fulton soon afterwards introduced steamers on the Hudson. In
the year 1812 the _Comet_ was launched by Henry Bell, a ship carpenter
of Helensburgh, and began to ply on the Clyde, being the first British
steamer that ran regularly with passengers. The _Comet_ was of 40 feet
keel, 25 tons burthen, and 3 horse-power. The second steamer launched
on the Clyde was the _Elizabeth_, in 1813, and the year following, Mr
Fife of Fairlie launched the _Industry_, which was in use for upwards of
fifty years. After this, steam navigation rapidly increased, steamers
being introduced on the Thames in 1815.

The first war steamer ever built, was constructed by Fulton during the
war between the United States and Great Britain in 1814, It was a large
vessel after the plan of the first experimental steamer, two vessels
with the paddles between them, evidently to protect them from the
enemy's shot. This vessel was intended to carry 30 guns, and was fitted
with machinery to discharge hot water through the port-holes, by which
the ammunition of the enemy would be rendered useless, and her crew
scalded to death, if they attempted to come to close quarters. She was
also said to be armed with numerous cutlasses and pikes moved to and fro
by machinery, so that the boarding would be impossible, while it was
supposed that her paddles would enable her to keep ahead or astern of
her enemy, so that the broadside guns could not be trained on her. It
is doubtful, however, if this marvellous production was ever actually
completed, and as her machinery could only have been imperfectly
protected, she might have been disabled and left at her enemy's mercy.

Some years later the Americans had the honour of performing the first
Atlantic voyage under steam, with the _Savannah_, which arrived at
Liverpool on July 15th 1819, after a voyage of 26 days from New York.
Six years later the _Enterprise_, an English vessel, made the longer
voyage to India.

Some years passed before it occurred to the Admiralty that steamers
could be of any use to the Navy, and it was not till 1823 that they
purchased the _Monkey_ tug, which, no