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

240 MEMORIALS OF
With reference to the importance and the value in an industrial
point of view of such a branch of trade to the Clyde, it may be stated,
that while the earliest of the first class of these splendid ocean steamers
started at a cost of from £40,000 to £50,000 for each ship, the last of
the same class sent afloat, owing to their increased size and power, as
well as the luxury and elegance of their arrangements, reach the sum
of £l 10,000 to £120,000. The most recent of this splendid line, the
Persia, the largest steamship afloat, built by Messrs. R. Napier & Sons,
has achieved a rate of speed hitherto unparalleled. One of the voyages
just accomplished by this magnificent vessel, gives the following as
the passage "out" and "home," respectively: — Liverpool to New
York, (adding difference of time,) 10 days, 1 hour, 1 min. ; New
York to Liverpool, (deducting difference of time,) 9 days, 5 hours,
46 min. !
Thus, in the present chapter, an attempt has been made to lay
before the reader some of the minor, yet most characteristic details,
not elsewhere to be met with, connected with the origin and progress
of Steam Navigation in the cradle of Watt's own practical genius and
invention, — than which details, nothing, surely, can be more significant
of the value of that genius and that invention, to the capitalist, to the
country, and to the World !