The former had already occupied himself with model steamboats, both at Paris and in London; and in 1805 he obtained from Boulton and Watt, of Birmingham, the steam-engine required for propelling his paddle steamboat on the Hudson.

The Clermont was first started in August, 1807, and attained a speed of nearly five miles an hour.

Five years later, Henry Bell constructed and tried his first steamer on the Clyde.
It was not until 1815 that the first steamboat was seen on the Thames.
This was the Richmond packet, which plied between London and Richmond.
The vessel was fitted with the first marine engine Henry Maudslay ever made.

During the same year, the Margery, formerly employed on the Firth of Forth, began plying between Gravesend and London; and the Thames, formerly the Argyll, came round from the Clyde, encountering rough seas, and making the voyage of 758 miles in five days and two hours.

This was thought extraordinarily rapid--though the voyage of about 3000 miles, from Liverpool to New York, can now be made in only about two days' more time.
In nearly all seagoing vessels, the Paddle has now almost entirely given place to the Screw.