ling-vessel in other respects, was
provided with a screw and a steam-engine powerful enough to keep the
ship moving when winds and tides were adverse; the screw was capable
of being lifted out of the water when not in use. In her first voyage
from Liverpool to America, this ship gained from five to thirteen days
as compared with five other ships which sailed either on the same or
the following day. This experiment was deemed so far successful, that
the Admiralty ordered, in 1846, an auxiliary screw to be fitted to the
_Amphion_ frigate, then building at Woolwich. Another example was the
_Sarah Sands_, an iron ship of 1300 tons; she had engines of 180
horse-power, much below that requisite for an ordinary steamer of the
same size. She could carry three classes of passengers, coal for the
whole voyage, and 900 tons of merchandise. She made four voyages in
1847, two out and two home; and in 1848 she made five: her average
time was about nineteen days out, and seventeen days home, and she
usually passed about six liners on the voyage.

The speed here mentioned is not quite equal to that of the truly
remarkable clippers noticed above, but it far exceeded that of any
liner at work in 1848. The example was followed in other vessels; and
then men began to cherish the vision of a propeller screwing its way
through the broad ocean to our distant colonies. From this humble
beginning as an auxiliary, the screw has obtained a place of more and
more dignity, until at length we see the mails for the Cape and for
Australia intrusted confidently to its safe-keeping.

The icy regions of the north are braved by the auxiliary screw. The
little _Isabel_, fitted out almost entirely at the expense of Lady
Franklin to aid in the search for her gallant husband, is a brigantine
of 180 tons, with an auxiliary screw to ship and unship. The
_Intrepid_ and the _Pioneer_, the two screw-steamers which form part
of Sir Edward Belcher's arctic expedition--lately started from
England--are to work with or without their auxiliary appendage as
circumstances may determine.

The present article, however, will shew that sailing is not less alive
and busy than steaming; and that the yachts and clippers of both
nations are probably destined to a continuous series of improvements.
When these improvements--whether by aid of scientific societies and
laborious experiments, or by the watchful eye and the shrewd
intelligence of ship-builders, or by both combined--h