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Steamboat services started on the Thames in around 1815 and for nearly 25 years were the main use of steam to carry passengers before the emergence of railways in the south of England. During this time at least 80 steamers are recorded in the Thames and the ''Steamboat Act'' of 1819 became the first statute to regulate the safety of the new technology for the public. Wooden boats driven by paddle-wheels, they managed during this time to establish themselves as faster and more reliable than the earlier use of sailing and rowing boats for passenger transport within the Thames estuary. The early lead in practical steamboats established by William Symington in 1803 with the Charlotte Dundas in Scotland was not maintained, and the first steamboat passenger service was established in the United States in 1807 by Robert Fulton with his North River Steamboat on the Hudson River, using an engine manufactured in Birmingham. The first service on the Thames that can be established properly is the ''Margery'' in 1815, though the Richmond may have started taking passengers in 1813. ==Early paddle steamers== England, being the birthplace of the steam engine, was quick to put the engine to use by and on the river; a land-based Newcomen pumping engine was located at Pimlico in 1742.〔 〕 Other pumps soon followed. With the improvements of the steam engine by James Watt by 1776, William Symington's Charlotte Dundas in 1803 and the building of the ''PS Comet'' steamship by Henry Bell in 1812 to service the Clyde, steamships were soon sailing the Thames. One of the earliest records is of a vessel ''Margery'' which was launched at Dumbarton in June 1814 and having run for a few months on the Clyde was purchased by the London firm of Cortis & Co. She steamed down the east coast and arrived at Gravesend in January 1815, entering service on the ''Long Ferry'' route from Gravesend to London on 23 January.〔 〕 Another contender for the first steamboat on the Thames was the ''Richmond'' which was brought from Bristol by a Mr. Dawson in 1813, but this was not a success. Civil engineer George Dodd placed an order for a steam paddle boat, also called ''Richmond'', with Lepinghall & Co of Yarmouth in 1814 and this may have gone into service the same year, or possibly the next, on the route from London to Richmond. Dodd next bought the steamboat ''Duke of Argyll'' in Scotland, which reached London on 12 June 1815 having covered 756 miles at sea. She was put into service as ''Thames'' between London and Margate, the third major route in the Thames estuary, much used by passengers from the continent as well as for pleasure trips to the Kent coast by Londoners. The first steam passenger boat to have been built on the Thames, the ''Regent'', designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel built by Henry Maudsley and at 112 feet long larger than previous boats, was put into service in 1816 on the Margate run and served as a mail boat. Brunel's attempt to interest the Admiralty in steam-powered tugs for getting naval vessels in and out of harbour was met by the rebuff that they "consider the introduction of steam is calculated to strike a fatal blow at the naval superiority of the empire". These three major Thames routes had been established since at least the seventeenth century, using a mixture of sailing boats (''hoys'') and rowing boats (''tilt-boats''), the latter being large boats (minimum 15 tons) which carried up to 40 passengers. From 1802 there were 8 or 9 ''passage packets'' (80-100 tons) running daily during the summer season and carrying some 20,000 people between London and Margate. Both sailing and rowing boats reacted strongly to the new competition and improved their facilities or provided extra crews on the ''Long Ferry''. By 1826 it was clear that the steamers were winning as new jetties were constructed alongside the river to service them, although it took the Watermen's Company, which had tried to hold on to their traditional monopoly, until 1841 to establish the ''Watermen's Steam Packet Company'' to operate their own steam service. The ''Margate Steam Packet Company'' was the first new company to set up to exploit the new technology in 1815, followed by the ''Gravesend Steam Packet Company'' in 1817. But major accidents were soon being recorded. The ''Regent'' caught fire near Whitstable on 2 July 1817 and was totally destroyed, mercifully with no loss of life. The cause was a lack of fireproof lining between the funnel and the wooden deck beams. Boiler explosions were not uncommon, happening, for example, on the ''Richmond'' in 1817. Consequently, in 1817 a Select Committee was established to enquire into the matter, leading to the ''Steamboat Act'' of 1819, which made it compulsory for all passenger-carrying steam vessels to be registered and inspected annually by a competent engineer. The General Steam Navigation Company, initially established in 1821 and incorporated in 1824, was founded by a syndicate of London businessmen including William J Hall, a shipowner, and brothers Thomas and John Brockelbank, who had timber and shipyard interests in Deptford. The Brockelbanks' paddle steamer ''Eagle'' provided a service between London and Margate.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/General_Steam_Navigation_Co )〕〔Burtt, Frank (1949) ''Steamers of the Thames and Medway'', London, pp.82-83.〕 By 1825 the GSNC was operating a fleet of 15 Deptford-built steamers, maintained from a yard at the Stowage, Deptford (a former East India Company depot).〔〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.poheritage.com/our-history/company-guides/general-steam-navigation-company )〕 Other vessels of this time were the Majestic and Defiance. The Hero of 1821 was built locally and put to work. By 1822, the Margate SP Co. alone carried over 27,000 passengers to and from Margate and competition was brisk. The biggest boom came in the 1830s with the creation of the ''Star'', ''Diamond'' and ''Woolwich'' SP Companies which added many more new boats. By 1834, when they were fighting the establishment of the Great Western Railway, the Thames Commissioners boasted that they "had made the Thames navigation one of the most perfect in the Kingdom". In 1835, the Diamond SP Company reported that it had carried over 250,000 passengers in the year. Iron boats were introduced in 1845 by the City Steamboat Company with their Citizen boats built by the Thames Ironworks. The Westminster Company also had iron boats specializing in taking gentlemen from the City to Waterloo Station which opened in 1848 on the south bank - a route that was eventually taken over by the Waterloo and City Line underground. They were known as 'penny boats' from their standard fare. A competing 'ha'penny boat', the ''Cricket'' was short-lived, retiring after its boiler burst causing loss of life.〔 〕 The first steam ferry to cross the tidal Thames was the Woolwich Free Ferry which opened on 23 March 1889. The original fleet was three side-loading paddle steamers, ''Duncan'', ''Gordon'' and ''Hutton''. In the early 1900s they were 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''. Further up the river many bridges and several tunnels (the first, the Thames Tunnel, opened in 1843) were constructed to take cross-river traffic. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Thames steamers」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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