much importance. As far as the British navy is concerned, Mr F. P. Smith, who succeeded in rousing the Government to action after that splendid inventor Captain Ericsson had failed, is indisputably the father of screw propulsion. Mr Smith brought out with success in 1840 the 'Archimedes,' a vessel of 232 tons and 80 horse power. The Admiralty thereupon ordered the 'Rattler' to be built on the same lines as the paddle-wheel steamer 'Alecto,' with screw engines of the same nominal horse power by Messrs Maudslay, and very soon several more men-of-war were ordered to be fitted with screws. An early example of a successful screw vessel was the Royal yacht 'Fairy,' built of iron in 1845, and engined by Messrs Penn. She had oscillating cylinders driving a cogged wheel geared into a pinion on the screw shaft, so that the screw made five revolutions for every one of the engines. She was kept running for many years between Portsmouth and Cowes, till at last her plating was worn so thin that a bluejacket alongside sent his boathook right through it. She was then replaced by the 'Alberta.'
The 'Duke of Wellington,' Sir Charles Napier’s flag-ship in the Baltic during the Russian War, was probably the last screw ship in the Royal Navy fitted with geared engines. For it was about this time that a change came over the design of machinery for the propulsion of war vessels, so complete and radical as to mark a distinct epoch in its history. When once the fact had been grasped that all men-of-war for the future would be propelled by the screw, the immense advantage
