In 1805 the number of
vessels frequenting the port was 840; whereas in 1883 the number
had been increased to 7508, with about a million and a-half of
tonnage; while the gross value of the exports from Belfast
exceeded twenty millions sterling annually. In 1819 the first
steamboat of 100 tons was used to tug the vessels up the windings
of the Lough, which it did at the rate of three miles an hour, to
the astonishment of everybody. Seven years later, the steamboat
Rob Roy was put on between Glasgow and Belfast. But these
vessels had been built in Scotland. It was not until 1826 that
the first steamboat, the chieftain, was built in Belfast, by the
same William Ritchie. Then, in 1838, the first iron boat was
built in the Lagan foundry, by Messrs. Coates and Young, though
it was but a mere cockle-shell compared with the mighty ocean
steamers which are now regularly launched from Queen's Island.
In the year 1883 the largest shipbuilding firm in the town
launched thirteen vessels, of over 30,000 tons gross, while two
other firms launched twelve ships, of about 10,000 tons gross.
I do not propose to enter into details respecting the progress of
the trades of Belfast. The most important is the spinning of
fine linen yarn, which is for the most part concentrated in that
town, over 25,000,000 of pounds weight being exported annually.
Towards the end of the seventeenth century the linen manufacture
had made but little progress.
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