2-888-272 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The New Steam-Packet, "Her Majesty", 1850. Steamship '...built for the mail service between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight...launched from the building-yard of Messrs. Robinson and Russell, the eminent engineer of Mill Wall, Poplar [London]. The expedition with which she has been constructed is the greatest feat in shipbuilding that has hitherto been accomplished; she having been laid and entirely finished in the short space of two months and seven days. The vessel is built on the wave-line principle of Mr. Scott Russell, and on Saturday week was tried in the river, in the "Long Reach" and attained, at the measured distance, a speed of nearly fifteen knots an hour, the wheels making sixty revolutions per minute, and beating with ease many of the fastest boats on the river'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.