This study aims to provide an overall account of the early steamboat, and more especially its impact, in the North Wales context. The emphasis is on “overall” for, to our knowledge, while considerable research has been undertaken, there has been no attempt to draw this together in a unified fashion. Such studies as do exist are somewhat dated and certainly limited in their coverage of the early steamboat. Frank C. Thornley's admirable Past and Present Steamers of North Wales was published in 1952. This, however, offers only a chapter of four pages on “the Early Steamers” - taking the story up to the 1840s - and another of similar length on the tragedy of Rothsay Castle of 1831. Thornley's prime concern was very much on the second half of the nineteenth century. The same is true of a later study, that of Roy Fenton, in a paper on North and mid-Wales steamers, that appeared in Maritime Wales some twenty years ago. He offered “A Chronological survey” of steamboat services but covered the steamboat's first three decades in a single paragraph before embarking on a detailed survey of operators and services post-1850. Fenton, moreover, describes the period 1856-1873 as “Pioneering Years,” which implies that little of consequence had preceded mid-century. This is to underestimate the level of activity in Welsh waters during the early decades of the steamboat and the impact of what was a revolutionary technological advance.

Since these studies, much has been written that serves to enhance our appreciation of the early steamboat. There has been work focussing on the technology and economics of early steam and its revolutionary impact; additionally, and of special relevance, in the late 1980s and 1990s a generation of scholars produced a range of books and papers in the field of North Wales maritime and port history. Also, in a nearby local context, early Irish Sea steam shipping has been the subject of new and highly perceptive research. Apart from its geographical proximity, Ireland was especially significant in the development of steam navigation. Steamboat operation was a relatively costly business. Ireland's different legal system made it easier to promote and capitalize joint-stock companies; hence, Irish companies were to the fore in the pioneering of steamboat services. The present authors draw on all this wealth of fresh material.