Paddlewheel aviso Sphinx (1829) It is well known that Muhammad Ali Pascha, 64 years old now, Wali of Egypt for the Ottoman sultan, viceroy if one prefers, offered France the two obelisks flanking the gate of the temple of Luxor. It was three years ago. The operation consisting in extracting, moving, boarding, transporting, unloading and erecting the gift in Paris has been entrusted to Jean-Baptiste Apollinaire Lebas, a naval engineer aged 36 by now. A first obelisk is in Pa

Isambard Kingdom Brunel Famous Engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, 39, made William Patterson & Son build at Bristol the new vessel of the Great Western Steamship Company for the purpose of transatlantic packet service. She is named Great Britain. Her commissioning was delayed by the solution of high-level engineering issues. She displays two innovative, say bold, features : an iron hull and a screw propeller. She was launched two years ago, and has just started to operate h

Charles Napier Aaron Manby, named after the master of the Horseley Ironworks, Aaron Manby, 46, is a small 116-ton iron-hulled steamship. Jointly designed by Manby, by his son Charles, 18, and especially by Captain Charles Napier, 36, she was launched last year. She is up to date of innovation. She is obviously meant to prove validity of Napier's conceptions and of a Manby's invention. ¤ Manby is a talented civil engineer. In 1813, he patented a technique to form blocks o

Pierre Claude Pajot, known as Pajol, Count Pajol Last year, a shipowner, Pierre Andriel, 34 by now, purchased the small steamship Margery, built at Dumbarton by William Denny & Brothers for the purpose of navigation on the Clyde. A 120-tonner, she is 90-foot long and 15-foot broad. Her 14-hp machinery was made at Glasgow by John Robertson. It drives two paddle wheels which give the ship a speed of six knots. Andriel renamed it Elise after having required modifications whic

Steam Tugboat Hercules, first to be fitted with a two-stage steam machinery Gerhard Moritz Roentgen, 38 years old, a former naval officer and an engineer, who co-founded the Nederlandsche Stoomboot Maatschappij (NSM) in 1823, has invented a new compound steam engine and has decided to apply it to a sea-going vessel, a paddle wheel steam tug named Hercules, that he designed four years ago. ¤ Roentgen discovered steam machinery and iron industry through a long study voyage in

Moses Rogers It has been three years only since the steamship Elise crossed the English Channel. Thus it was extremely daring that somebody considered crossing the Atlantic ocean under steam so early after a short trip in comparison. His name is Moses Rogers, 40 years old now, born in the port of New London, Connecticut. Last year, Savannah, a 320-ton merchant packet sailing ship, was under construction at Fricket & Crockett Shipyards, in New York, on behalf of Mssrs Scarbo

John Stevens For the first time a 50-foot long steamboat, the Phoenix, has sailed the open ocean, over 120 miles from New York to the mouth of the Delaware river. Then she has gone upstream over extra 90 miles to Philadelphia. The journey has been done under steam solely since Phoenix is deprived of sail. As everybody knows, Robert Fulton's partner, Robert Livingston, 63, obtained the monopoly of navigation on the Hudson river as early as 1798. The success of the steamboat

Henry Wimshurt Henry Wimshurt, 34, designed and also built Archimedes, a 240-ton three-masted schooner launched last year, which this year has been fitted with a machinery supplied by Mssrs Rennie, consisting in a flue boiler feeding twin vertical 30-hp engines acting on the same crankshaft, itself extended by a shaft driving a whole 360° screw in a single thread. This propeller is retractable so as to reduce its drag when the ship intends to sail instead of steaming. It is

SS President President, the largest packet ship in the world, has disappeared with all 136 souls aboard in her third voyage. Last year, the British and American Steam Navigation Company, led by Junius Smith, 61, and Macgregor Laird, 43, famous for having made the Sirius cross the Atlantic ocean under steam for the first time three years ago, commissioned a second steamship for the line New York-Liverpool, after the successful 1850-ton British Queen (1838). She was the 2350-t

Samuel Cunard Last year, Samuel Cunard, 53 years old, was awarded the Mail Packet Service between Liverpool and Halifax, as he promised the British Admiralty to ensure a mail transport every fortnight all year long, what neither the Great Western Steamship Company nor the British and American Steam Navigation Company dared to propose. He has accordingly established the British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company in Glasgow with his associates, famous George Bu

Charlotte Dundas The duet composed of Thomas Laurence Dundas, Baron Dundas, 62, & William Symington, an engineer, 39, undeterred by the failure of a previous attempt in 1801, has renewed it with a stronger steamboat named Charlotte Dundas. ¤ The first steamboat built by Dundas & Symington steamed successfully on the Carron river in 1801 but was dismissed from navigating on the Forth & Clyde canal for fear of damaging the banks. She had a paddle on each side - a feature whi

Sumner's Manual Captain Thomas Hubbard Sumner publishes a New and Accurate Method of Finding a Ship’s Position at Sea . This is the fruit...

Captain Thomas Hubbard Sumner, 30 years old, commanding the sailing ship Cabot, travelling from Charleston, Virginia, to Greenock, Scotland, makes a practical discovery. Smalls Lighthouse where Sumner landed Due to constant bad weather all along his journey, he has navigated on a dead reckoning basis until he finally encounters a piece of blue sky which gives him sight of the sun. He uses the altitude of the sun to make a calculation of longitude based on his estimated latit

Charles Baudin Admiral Charles Baudin, 54 years old, achieves to silence the strong fortress which defends Vera Cruz, considered as impregnable, within five hours of fire on the 28th of November. Afterwards the citadel surrenders under the threat of a resumption of bombing. This feat is even more outstanding that it is the outcome of three frigates and two bomb vessels, with some help of a corvette and of two steam tugs. The battle takes place in the Pastry War between Mexi

SS Sirius Two steamships - SS in short -, Sirius and Great Western, simultaneously cross the Atlantic Ocean from Cork in Ireland for the first, from Bristol in England for the second, to New York, in 18½ and 15½ days respectively, the second departing 4 days after the first and arriving the day after, that is on the 23rd of April while Sirius arrived on the 22nd. Sirius has transported 45 passengers, Great Western only seven. ¤ Great Eastern caught fire in her machinery dur

Line Ticket The Wright, Thompson, Marshall & Thompson Line, founded last year, has opened the first regular service between New York and...