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Loretta reports:
Though most of my books are set in early 19th century England, now and again I send my characters abroad. Writing Silk is for Seduction, I needed to become familiar with the steamship packets that carried travelers and mail across the English Channel. It was easy enough to find information and images about steam vessels from the Victorian era. But before that, things online are a little sparse. So of course I was thrilled to find recently, in the 1819 Ackermann’s Repository, this image. I was even more delighted with what the description conveys about the
entrepreneurs “zealous to promote the success of the application of steam as the
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3 comments:
"The Comet" built in Port Glasgow in 1812 was the first commercial steamship in Europe. Many of the early steamships were built on the Clyde.
1819 is very early for a steamship. It's very interesting how the article describes it as such a novel conveyance. It wasn't until 1822 that a steamship crossed the Channel to France (at least according to Wikipedia).
It is very early, which is why this was so interesting. I'm starting to think that Ackermann's liked to be in the forefront of advances like this, although I do notice that the magazines liked to feature new technology. By the time of my Dressmakers stories (1835)steam packets were traveling regularly across the Channel, and the guidebooks provided detailed information. Here's an example:
http://books.google.com/books?id=29dG-bihfokC&pg=PA526#v=onepage&q&f=false
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