John Fitch (inventor)
The first successful trial run of his steamboat "Perseverance" was made on the Delaware River on August 22, 1787, in the presence of delegates from the Constitutional Convention. It was propelled by a bank of oars on either side of the boat. During the next few years, Fitch and Voigt worked to develop better designs, and in June 1790 launched a boat powered by a steam engine driving several stern-mounted oars. These oars paddled in a manner similar to the motion of a swimming duck's feet. With this boat, he carried up to 30 paying passengers on numerous round-trip voyages between Philadelphia and Burlington, New Jersey during the summer of 1790. Estimates of miles traveled that summer range from 1,300 to 3,000, and Fitch claimed that the boat often went for 500 miles without mechanical problems. Estimated speeds were of a minimum 6 miles per hour under unfavorable conditions, to a maximum of 7 or 8 miles per hour.
Fitch was granted a U.S. patent on August 26, 1791, after a battle with James Rumsey, who had also invented a steam-powered boat. The newly created federal Patent Commission did not award the broad monopoly patent that Fitch had asked for, but rather a patent of the modern kind, for the new design of Fitch's steamboat. It also awarded steam-engine-related patents dated that same day to Rumsey, Nathan Read, and John Stevens. The loss of a monopoly due to these same-day patent awards led many of Fitch's investors to leave his company. While his boats were mechanically successful, Fitch no longer had the financial resources to carry on.
Thames steamers
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 Marc Isambard 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".