This book presents an in-depth study of the impact of the steamship on Britain during its first forty years, roughly between 1810 and 1850. It relates the early steamship to several industrial themes including diffusion; construction; modernisation; the role of government - particularly the difficult attempt to align laissez-faire politics with the greater need for public safety measures due to technological advance; business and finance; plus public reaction and tourism. The aim is to establish the significance of the steamship as a conduit of modernisation and societal change. It consists of a foreword, introduction, and fourteen chapters devoted to specific themes, structured to ensure each chapters build on the preceding chapter’s progress. Collectively, they demonstrate that the development of both experience and enterprise with steam power both gained and refined during this period made the mid-century expansion of steamship technology across Britain possible. Ultimately, it establishes that steamship services began to adapt to oceanic routes, steam began to integrate into the world economy, and the age of sail began to draw to a close.
Table of Contents:
Series Editor’s Foreword / iii
About the Authors / v
Introduction / 1
Chapter 1: British Steam Navigation, 1812 to the 1850s: A Bibliographical and Historiographical Review / 7
Chapter 2: Some Official Listings of “Vessels Navigated by Steam” in Britain up to 1851: Evidence and Interpretation / 31
Chapter 3: The Steamboat, Safety and the State: Government Reaction to New Technology in a Period of Laissez-Faire / 51
Chapter 4: The Steamboat and Popular Tourism / 75
Chapter 5: The Thames and Recreation, 1815-1840 / 97
Chapter 6: Steam Shipping and the Beginnings of Overseas Tourism: British Travel to North Western Europe, 1820-1850 / 119
Chapter 7: Technological Advance and Innovation: The Diffusion of the Early Steamship in the United Kingdom, 1812-1834 / 139
Chapter 8: The Steamship as an Agent of Modernisation, 1812-1840 / 165
Chapter 9: “A New and Very Modern Business:” The Traffic and Operations of the Early Steamship / 183
Chapter 10: Promotion, Speculation and Their Outcome: The “Steamship Mania” of 1824-1825 / 205
Chapter 11: The Perception and Understanding of New Technology: A Failed Attempt to Establish Transatlantic Steamship Liner Services, 1824-1828 / 225
Chapter 12: The “Norwich Explosion” of 1817: A Local Tragedy of National Significance / 245
Chapter 13: Early Steamboat Services and Their Impact in North Wales, 1817-1840s / 259
Chapter 14: The Beginnings of a New Technology: The Constructors of Early Steamboats, 1812-1822 / 277
