sentences:  Already before the opening of the Suez Canal, industrial Britain had a rapidly expanding economy and needed improved communication with British India, with its raw materials and imperial requirements.Crucial in the development of the Red Sea route between the two countries was the harnessing of steam power, most notably in the form of the marine steam engine.A further vital factor in this revolution in trade and transport was the charting of the hazardous waterway commissioned by the British East India Company and carried out by Commander Thomas Elwon of the Bombay Marine in the ship "Benares", supported by his second-in-command, Lt Robert Moresby in the Bombay Marine's brig "Palinurus".