SS Archimedes SS Archimedes SS "Archimedes" was a steamship built in Britain in 1839. She is notable for being the world's first steamship to be driven by a screw propeller. "Archimedes" had considerable influence on ship development, encouraging the adoption of screw propulsion by the Royal Navy, in addition to her influence on commercial vessels. She also had a direct influence on the design of another innovative vessel, Isambard Kingdom Brunel's , then the world's largest ship and the first screw-propelled steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean. The principle of moving water with a screw has been known since the invention of
SS Archimedes fitted with Smith's patented propeller, "Princess Royal", was built in the north of England, and in 1842, several more screw-propelled vessels were built or launched in Britain, including "Bedlington", built at South Shields, "Bee", launched at Chatham, and the largest ship built to that date in Ireland, "Great Northern", launched at Derry. From this point, screw-propelled merchant ships grew rapidly in number. By the time the Cunard Line built the paddle steamer "Persia" for transatlantic service in 1856, the paddlewheel was already becoming an anachronism. Though Smith's "Archimedes" had played an important role in the introduction of screw propulsion, Smith