1838 – 1856 / Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s Great Western proved the feasibility of steam-powered ships on the high seas.
paddle steamer
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1840 – 1880 / Samuel Cunard’s pioneering vessel, the Britannia was the very first ship of the Cunard Line.
1850 – 1854 / A ship of the ill-fated Collins Line, the Arctic sank after a collision in foggy weather in 1854, with great loss of life.
1856 – 1872 / Although her career was not very dramatic, the Persia is noteworthy for being Cunard’s first iron-hulled ship.
1860 – 1888 / Unique in almost every respect, the brainchild of Isambard Kingdom Brunel was too far ahead of her time, and never quite found success.
1862 – 1904 / An unusually long-lived vessel, Cunard’s Scotia was a speed queen of her age and saw a second life as a cable-laying ship.
1864 – 1899 / Originally a paddle-steamer, the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique’s Washington was refitted in 1868 and became the first twin-screw liner on the North Atlantic run.
1865 – 1895 / Also known as Atlantique and Amerique / An early vessel of the CGT, this French paddle-wheeler was eventually refitted with a single propeller.