were spent in exploration. Then the coast of Oregon was visited and the
_Peacock_ suffered wreck at the mouth of the Columbia. Doubling the Cape
of Good Hope, the expedition reached New York in June, 1842, having been
gone nearly four years and having sailed more than 30,000 miles.




THE WAR FOR THE UNION.

CHAPTER XXIII.

A New Era for the United States Navy--Opening of the Great Civil
War--John Lorimer Worden--Battle Between the _Monitor_ and
_Merrimac_--Death of Worden.


The War for the Union ushered in a new era for the American navy. Steam
navigation had been fully established some years before. As all my
readers no doubt know, the first successful steamboat in this country
was the _Clermont_, made by Robert Fulton, which ascended the Hudson in
the summer of 1807. The average speed of the pioneer boat was about five
miles an hour, so that the trip occupied more than thirty hours. This
great invention was a novelty, and, like many others of a similar
nature, it required considerable time for it to come into use. The first
western steamboat was built at Pittsburg in 1811. It gave an impetus to
river navigation by steam, and before long the boats were ploughing the
principal streams of the country. The first steamer to cross the
Atlantic was the _Savannah_, which made the voyage in 1819, but ocean
navigation was not fairly begun until 1838, when the _Sirius_ and _Great