History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce, Volume 4 (of 4) by W. S. Lindsay

1843. She was considered a remarkably fine model, and of very unusual

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length in proportion to her beam, her dimensions being 195 feet extreme length, close upon 33 feet extreme breadth, and 18½ mean depth of hold. Her burden was 888 tons. The log of this vessel from 28th of March to 13th April, 1851, will be found in the Appendix to a Report of a Committee of the House of Commons, 1851, p. 565, where the merits of the screw are examined. [143] The “screw” which Mr. Stevens used in his boat cannot have been of a practical character, or the Americans would not have allowed so valuable an invention to lie dormant for 35 years. [144] Mr. Woodcroft patented, on the 18th of November, 1826, a mode “for propelling boats and vessels,” but no specification was enrolled; and on the 22nd of March, 1832, he “prolonged” his patent “increasing-pitch screw-propeller,” which he then fully described. (See “Specifications of Marine Propulsion,” Part XI. p. 112.)