Isolated voyages by vessels fitted with steam engines had been made by the Savannah from the United States in 1819, and by the first Royal William from Canada in 1833, and the desirability of seriously attacking the problem of ocean navigation was apparent to shipping men in the three great British ports of London, Liverpool and Bristol.
Thus, to speak roughly, the 1850s saw the iron screw replacing the wooden paddle steamer; the later 1860s brought the compound engine, which effected so great an economy in fuel that the steamship, previously the conveyance of mails and passengers, began to compete with the sailing vessel in the carriage of cargo for long voyages; the 1870s brought better accommodation for the passenger, with the midship saloon, improved staterooms, and covered access to smoke-rooms and ladies' cabins.
[1] The early 1880s saw steel replacing iron as the material for shipbuilding and before the close of that decade the introduction of the twin-screw rendered breakdowns at sea more remote than they had previously been, at the same time giving increased safety in another direction, from the fact that the duplication of machinery facilitated further subdivision of hulls.
Now the masts of the huge liners in vogue were no longer useful for their primary purposes, and degenerated first into derrick props and finally into mere signal poles, while the introduction of boat decks gave more shelter to the promenades of the passengers and removed the navigators from the distractions of the social side.
The experience of many years has enabled the owners of some of these lines to exhibit a wonderfully low record of loss, the percentage of deaths at sea to numbers carried being small beyond the dreams of, say, the 1870s.