Steamships have a long history on the River Thames

River Thames

The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...

. England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, being the birth place of the steam engine, was quick to put the engine to use by and on the river; a land-based Newcomen pumping engine

Newcomen steam engine

The atmospheric engine invented by Thomas Newcomen in 1712, today referred to as a Newcomen steam engine , was the first practical device to harness the power of steam to produce mechanical work. Newcomen engines were used throughout Britain and Europe, principally to pump water out of mines,...

 was located at Pimlico

Pimlico

Pimlico is a small area of central London in the City of Westminster. Like Belgravia, to which it was built as a southern extension, Pimlico is known for its grand garden squares and impressive Regency architecture....

 in 1726. Other pumps soon followed. With the perfection of the steam engine by James Watt

James Watt

James Watt, FRS, FRSE was a Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer whose improvements to the Newcomen steam engine were fundamental to the changes brought by the Industrial Revolution in both his native Great Britain and the rest of the world.While working as an instrument maker at the...

 by 1776, William Symington's Charlotte Dundas

Charlotte Dundas

The Charlotte Dundas is regarded as the world's "first practical steamboat", the first towing steamboat and the boat that demonstrated the practicality of steam power for ships....

 in 1803 and the building of the PS Comet

PS Comet

The paddle steamer PS Comet was built for Henry Bell, hotel and baths owner in Helensburgh, and began a passenger service in 1812 on the River Clyde between Glasgow and Greenock, the first commercially successful steamboat service in Europe.-History:...

steamship by Henry Bell in 1811 to service the Clyde

River Clyde

The River Clyde is a major river in Scotland. It is the ninth longest river in the United Kingdom, and the third longest in Scotland. Flowing through the major city of Glasgow, it was an important river for shipbuilding and trade in the British Empire....

, steamships were soon sailing the Thames.

One of the earliest records is of a vessel Margary in 1815 and others were soon put to work as coasters and tugs, to tow the larger sailing merchant and war vessels into the river and estuary. Other vessels of this time were the SS Thames

SS Thames

The Irish steamer, SS Thames, commanded by Captain Gray, was shipwrecked on the Cribewidden Rock in the Isles of Scilly in the early morning of 4 January 1841, on her way from Dublin to London.- Night-time Storm :...

, Majestic and Defiance

Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Isambard Kingdom Brunel

Isambard Kingdom Brunel, FRS , was a British civil engineer who built bridges and dockyards including the construction of the first major British railway, the Great Western Railway; a series of steamships, including the first propeller-driven transatlantic steamship; and numerous important bridges...

 designed a vessel, the Regent, in 1816 and it
was built by Henry Maudsley

Henry Maudsley

Henry Maudsley was a pioneering British psychiatrist.-Biographical sketch:Henry Maudsley was born on an isolated farm near Giggleswick in the North Riding of Yorkshire and educated at University College London. He was an outstandingly brilliant medical student, collecting ten Gold Medals and...

. The Hero of 1821 was built locally and put to work. The Thames has been a working river since Roman times and the use of the steamer as a tug to augment the tub fleet was important against both tide and current. One steam tug survives at St Katharine Docks

St Katharine Docks

St Katharine Docks, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, were one of the commercial docks serving London, on the north side of the river Thames just east of the Tower of London and Tower Bridge...

, the ST Challenge.

Cargo steamers and ferries

The Port of London was dependent on steamers. Timber and wheat came from Russia, tea from China to Butler's wharf, Sugar to Tate and Lyle, and refuse was taken downriver

Bovril Boats

Bovril Boat was a scatalogically descriptive slang term used to describe the specially designed sewerage dumping vessels, also known as "Sludge vessels", that operated on the River Thames from 1887 to 1998...

. Fish was hauled by trawler to Billingsgate Market; wine came from France and Portugal. Millions of tons of coal were hauled annually to London from the North East to provide electricity and town gas from plants at Deptford and Battersea. Vessels servicing the upper plants had to have telescoping funnels to clear London Bridge

London Bridge

London Bridge is a bridge over the River Thames, connecting the City of London and Southwark, in central London. Situated between Cannon Street Railway Bridge and Tower Bridge, it forms the western end of the Pool of London...

 and other crossings farther upriver. Parts and raw materials were hauled to the Ford Factory at Dagenham; beer was exported from Aldgate.

Steam ferries crossed the tidal Thames at Woolwich using Squires, Gordon, Benn and Will Crooks. Another at Tilbury used Catherine, Edith, Gertrude and Rose. Dartford had a car ferry serviced by Mimmie and Tessa.

Pleasure and passenger steamers

Summer cruising round the estuary became popular, and the Woolwich Steam Packet Company

Woolwich Steam Packet Company

The Woolwich Steam Packet Company , operated between 1834 and 1888 and offered steamer services from central London to Woolwich and later to the Kent, Essex and Suffolk...

 provided vessels dating to 1834. SS Princess Alice sank in 1878 with the loss of over 650 lives. The New Medway Steam Packet Company was a later arrival in 1924 and used the PS Medway Queen. The non-tidal upper Thames was served by among others, the Thames Steam Packet Boat Company and Salter Brothers and down the estuary Clacton, Margate and Southend became popular steamer outing locations. Humber Ferries have been used as restaurants on the river.

External Links

• Thames Tugs website http://thamestugs.co.uk
• Thames Paddlers website http://freespace.virgin.net/tom.lee/thames.htm