to Dalswinton Lake. This, the first steamer that ever "trod the waters
like a thing of life," the herald of a new and mighty power, was tried
on the 14th of October 1788. The vessel steamed delightfully, at the
rate of from four to five miles an hour, though this was not her
extreme rate of speed. I give, on the next page, a copy of a sketch
made by my father of this the first actual steamboat, with her
remarkable crew.

[Image] The first steamboat. By Alexander Nasmyth*
[footnote...
The original drawing of the steamer was done by my father, and lent by
me to Mr. Woodcroft, Who inserted it in his Origin and Progress of
Steam Navigation. He omitted my father's name, and inserted only that
of the lithographer, although it is a document of almost national
importance in the history of Steam Navigation.

P.S.-- since the above paragraph was written for the first edition,
I have been enabled to find the drawing, with another remarkable pencil
sketch of my father's, in the Gallery of the Museum of Naval
Architecture at South Kensington. It will henceforward belong to that
interesting collection.

The remarkable pencil sketch to which I have referred, is that of a
screw propeller, drawn by my father, dated 1819. It was the result of
many discussions as to the proper mode of propelling a vessel. First,
he had drawn Watt's idea of a "spiral oar"; then, underneath, he has
drawn his own idea, of a disk of six. blades, like a screw-jack,
immediately behind the rudder. There is a crank shown on the screw
shaft, by which the propeller was driven direct, showing that he was
the first to indicate that method of propulsion of steamboats.