The origins of steam navigation

Abstract

The present work contains twelve papers, with the text of the subsequent discussions, given at a symposium held in Paris in 1960 on the initiative of the Comite de Documentation historique de la Marine. The subject of the symposium was the technical, political, economic and social consequences of the change from sail to steam navigation. The point of view is largely French, especially since only one foreigner, the head of the Marine Navigation Department of the Science Museum, London, H. Philip Spratt, was present. The balance is, however, partly redressed by the fact that his contribution, on the development of the steamship up to 1870, is by far the most comprehensive.