Steam-Ships

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. The story of the Steam-ship, and of its development up to the present time, covers little more than a hundred years. In the companion volume, the evolution of the sailing ship necessitated a comprehensive survey of some eight centuries; but that we need vessels, not only faster than the sailing ship, but also more independent of the weather conditions, is shown by the fact that in the world''s shipping tonnage of to-day (omitting small vessels) the proportion of steam to sail is as nine to one.