2-970-045 - /Heritage Images

Mr. Francis Pettit Smith, First Practical Introducer of the Screw-Propeller - from a photograph by Lawrence, 1856. 'The magnificent spectacle presented by our screw fleet at the naval review just concluded at Portsmouth naturally directs public attention to the history of the screw propeller - an instrument which though proposed centuries ago for the propulsion of vessels has only lately been reduced to successful practice. Although many persons have aided in the introduction of this imortant improvement it is mainly to the talent and persistency of one man that we are indebted for its practical realisation; and rarely has it fallen to the lot of any one man within his own lifetime to confer upon his country benefits more timely or more momentous. That man is Mr. Francis Pettit Smith...whose merits are only exceeded by his singlemindedness and very unpretending manners'. From "Illustrated London News", 1856.