23. The chief obstacle to the employment of steam, in long voyages, arises from the difficulty of generating a sufficient quantity of this agent, with the fuel which could be carried without overburdening the vessel; but a remedy for this inconvenience will probably be found, in improvements in the construction of steam-generators.
24. The power of confined steam acting by its expansive force, was discovered by the celebrated Marquis of Worcester, about the middle of the seventeenth century; but the first working steam-engine was constructed in 1705, by Thomas Newcomen, a blacksmith of Dartmouth, Devonshire, England. About the year 1769, James Watt, a native of Glasgow, added a great number of improvements of his own invention.
25. Steam navigation was first suggested in England, in 1736, by Jonathan Hulls. It was first tried in practice in France, in 1782, by the Marquis de Jouffroy, and nearly at the same time by James Rumsey, of Virginia, and John Fitch, of Philadelphia; but it was first rendered completely successful at New-York, in 1807, by Robert Fulton.
26. The sailors employed by the captain, to aid him in navigating his ship, are called a _crew_; and the individuals composing it are responsible to the captain, the captain to the owners, and the owners to the merchants, for all damages to goods, arising from negligence or bad management.
27. In England, ample provisions are made at Greenwich Hospital or by pensions, for seamen disabled by age or otherwise. These benefits, however, are extended only to those who have been engaged in the national service. This noble and politic institution is supported partly by public bounty, and in part by private donations, and a tax of sixpence per month, deducted from the wages of all the seamen of the nation. Marine Hospitals, for the temporary accommodation of seamen, suffering from disease, have been established in several cities of the continent of Europe, as well as of the United States.
28. Mariners have ever been a distinct class of men, and, in their general characters, very similar in every age of the world. Their superstitious regard of the many signs of good and bad luck, is nearly the same now, that it was two or three thousand years ago. In ancient times, they had their lucky and unlucky days; and now, very few sailors are willing to leave port on Friday, lest the circumstance bring upon them some disaster, before the conclusion of the proposed voyage.