onor of being the
first steam-propelled vessel that ever crossed the Atlantic ocean. She
was three hundred and eighty tons burden, ship-rigged, and was equipped
with a horizontal engine, placed between decks, with boilers in the
hold. She was built through the agency of Captain Moses Rogers, by a
company of gentlemen, with a view of selling her to the emperor of
Russia. She sailed from New York in 1819, and went first to Savannah;
thence she proceeded direct to Liverpool, where she arrived after a
passage of eighteen days, during seven of which she was under steam. As
it was nearly or quite impossible to carry sufficient fuel for the
voyage, during pleasant weather the wheels were removed, and canvas
substituted. At Liverpool she was visited by many persons of
distinction, and afterward departed for Elsinore, on her way to St.
Petersburg. She was not, however, sold as expected, and next touched at
Copenhagen, where Captain Rogers was offered one hundred thousand
dollars for her by the king of Sweden; but the offer was declined. She
then sailed for home, putting into Elsington, on the coast of Norway.
From the latter place she was twenty-two days in reaching Savannah. On
account of the high price of fuel, she carried no steam on the return
passage, and the wheels were taken off. Upon the completion of the
voyage, she was purchased by Captain Nathaniel Holdredge, divested of
her steam apparatus, and run as a packet between Savannah and New York.
She subsequently went ashore on Long Island, and broke up. Sixty
thousand dollars were sunk in the transaction. Captain Rogers died a few
years ago on the Pee Dee river, North Carolina. He is believed to be the
first man that ran a steamboat to Philadelphia or Baltimore. The mate
was named Stephen Rogers, and was living a few years ago at New London,
Connecticut.

The first railway in England was between Stockton and Darlington; and
the first locomotive built in the world was used upon that road, and is
still in existence, being preserved at Darlington depot, upon a platform
erected for the purpose; the date 1825 is engraved upon its plate. The
first railway charter in the United States was granted March 4th, 1826,
to Thomas H. Perkins and others, 'to convey granite from the ledges in
Quincy to tidewater in that town.' The first railway in the United
States upon which passengers were conveyed, was the Baltimore and Ohio,
which was opened December 28, 1829, to Ellicott's Mills, thi