P&O steamship Bentinck 1844 Desk Mat

Edward James Duncan after William John Huggins Bentinck passing Aden 1st voyage to India 1844 The P&O steamship Bentinck passes Aden on January 3, 1844 during its first voyage in the Indian Seas. The ship was on its way to India. The Bentinck was a sister ship to the "Aden - Ceylon - Madras - Calcutta" route. The ships took almost six months to sail from England to India. Steamships were water vessels propelled by steam. They started to appear on western rivers in 1807. Robert Fulton built a steamboat using John Fitch's patented version of the steam engine and became known as the “Father of Steam Navigation”. The first steamboat on the Mississippi was called the New Orleans, built in Pittsburgh, Pa. in 1811. Steamships could travel at speeds of up to five miles per hour. They revolutionized river travel and trade