merican-built and
American-manned craft. This pioneer was the _Savannah_, built in New
York and bought for service between Savannah and Liverpool. She was a
full-rigged sailing-vessel, of 300 tons, with auxiliary steam power
furnished by an engine built in New Jersey. Her paddles were removable,
so fashioned that they could be folded fan-like when the ship was under
sail only.[S] She made the initial voyage, from Savannah to Liverpool,
in the Summer of 1819, and accomplished it in twenty-seven days,[T]
eighty hours of the time under steam. Afterwards she made a trip to St.
Petersburg, partly steaming and partly sailing, with calls at ports
along the way. Her gallant performance attracted wide attention, but
upon her return to America she finally brought up at New York, where her
machinery was removed and sold.

An English-built full-fledged steamer made the next venture, but not
until a decade after the _Savannah's_ feat. This was the _Curacoa_, 350
tons, and one hundred horsepower, built for Hollanders, and sent out
from England in 1829. The third was by a Canada-built ship--the _Royal
William_, 500 or more tons, and eighty horsepower, with English-built
engines, launched at Three Rivers. She crossed from Quebec to Gravesend
in 1833. The next were the convincing tests that settled for the
Admiralty the question of transatlantic mail service by steamship
instead of sailing packet. These were the voyages out and back of the
_Sirius_ and the _Great Western_ in 1838.

The _Sirius_ had been in service between London and Cork. The _Great
Western_ was new, and was the first steamship to be specially
constructed for the trade between England and the United States. Both
were much larger than their three predecessors in steam transatlantic
ventures, and better equipped. The _Sirius_ started out with ninety-four
passengers, on the fourth of April, 1838, and reached New York on the
twenty-first, a passage of seventeen days. The _Great Western_, also
with a full complement of passengers, left three days after the
_Sirius_, sailing from Bristol, and swung into New York harbor on the
twenty-third, making her passage in two days' less time than her rival.
Both were hailed in New York with "immense acclamation." They sailed on
their homeward voyage in May, six days apart, and made the return
passage respectively in sixteen and fourteen days. The _Great Western_
on her second homeward voyage beat all records, making the run in twelve