Memorials of the lineage, early life, education and development of the genius of James Watt

JAMES WATT. 235
soon after built the Talbot of 120 tons, which was placed on the
station between Holyhead and Dublin. This was immediately followed
by that enterprise which brought upon the station between Greenock
and Liverpool an as yet unwitnessed class of steamers. Beginning
with the Robert Bruce of 150 tons, with two engines by Mr. Napier
of 30 horse-power each, this Scottish proprietary at Glasgow and
Liverpool has continued, year by year since then, to launch steam-
ships of increasing beauty and power, a class of vessels altogether
unrivalled, and which, in their representatives upon the Liverpool,
Halifax, and New York Mail Station — whose splendid line of ships
emanates from the same intelligent and spirited men — might be con-
sidered to have reached the highest perfection of which the art of
steam naval architecture is capable, did not the almost daily produc-
tion of something, in both mould and machinery, superior to its
predecessor, contradict such a belief. Of this magnificent fleet of
steamships, the entire number, with the exception of one or two fine
specimens from the building-yards of Messrs. "Wood, has been con-
structed at Greenock by Mr. Steele, from whose dockyard the first of
this leviathan class of vessels, intended for the conveyance of large
numbers of passengers as well as goods, was launched in 1826.
This was the United Kingdom, 160 feet in length, 26^ feet beam, with
engines of 200 horse-power, by Mr. Napier. This large vessel was
considered a prodigious step in advance, in her size, power, speed, and
the whole style of her furnishings and appointments. She started
from Greenock on her first trip on 29th July 1826, with a hundred
and fifty passengers on board, and circumnavigated the whole of the
North and part of the West coast of Scotland, on her way to Leitb,
performing the distance, 789 miles, in what was considered the
incredibly short space of sixty-five hours, deducting stoppages. The
cost of her construction was said to have been £40,000. So great
had been the increase of steam-vessels up to this time, that in this