nd
captains that the future of the sea power lay with the "tea-kettle ships."

In the days of the long peace that followed Waterloo, and the great
industrial development that came with it, the steam-engine and the
paddle-steamer made their way into the commercial fleets of the world,
slowly and timidly at first, for it was a long time before a steamship
could be provided with enough efficient engine power to enable her to show
the way to a smart clipper-built sailing-ship, and the early marine engines
were fearfully uneconomical. Steam had obtained a recognized position in
small ships for short voyages, ferry-boats, river steamers, and coasting
craft, but on the open ocean the sailing-ship still held its own. An
eminent scientist proved to demonstration that no steamship would ever be
able to cross the Atlantic under steam alone. He showed that to do so it
would be necessary for her to carry a quantity of coal exceeding her entire
tonnage capacity, and he expressed his readiness to eat the first steamer
that made the voyage from Liverpool to New York. But he lived to regret his
offer.

In 1838 the "Great Western" and the "Sirius" inaugurated the steam
passenger service across the Atlantic, and the days of the liner began. By
this time paddle-wheel gunboats were finding their way into the British
navy, and other powers were beginning to follow the example of England.
Steamships were first in action in 1840, when Sir Charles Napier employed
them side by side with sailing-ships that had shared the triumphs of
Nelson. This was in the attack on Acre, when England intervened to check
the revolt of the Pasha of Egypt, Ibrahim, against his suzerain, the
Sultan.

But still the steamship was regarded as an auxiliary. The great
three-decker battleships, the smart sailing frigates, were the main
strength of navies. The paddle-steamer was a defective type of warship,
because her paddle-boxes and paddle-wheels, and her high-placed engines,
presented a huge target singularly vulnerable. A couple of shots might
disable in a minute her means of propulsion. True she had masts and sails,
but if she could not use her engines, the paddles would prove a drag upon
all her movements.

It was the invention of the screw-propeller that made steam propulsion for
warships really practical. Brunel was one of the great advocates of the
change. He was a man who was in many ways before his time, and he had to
encounter a more than usual amount of o