Starboard broadside view of the ‘Elise’ (ex-Margery) with crew onboard; the walls of the Tuileries Palace in the background with many spectators alongside; section of the palace visible at top right; small cargo boat in right middle-ground. Aquatint.

The French description talks about the advantages of the steamboats’ lack of dependence on wind and weather and claims that the ‘Elise’ had made the first successful voyage between London and Paris.

Frank Burtt (Steamers of the Thames and Medway, 1949, pp.8-10) warns against confusing the ‘Marjory’ – built in 1814 by William Denny at Dumbarton, that ran a service between London and Gravesend in 1815 – with the ‘Margery’ built on the Thames in 1816 for service on the Seine and renamed ‘Elise’. The ‘Marjory’ was named after the owner’s eldest daughter and was sold to a French firm with the stipulation, which was observed by her French owners, that her name should not be changed (Frank Burtt, Cross-Channel and Coastal Paddle Steamers, 1934, pp.14-15). Burtt does not consider that either steamer ran a regular service between London and Paris. However, Bernard Dumpleton (The Story of the Paddle Steamer, 1973, p.16) gives the name of the steamer built on the Clyde in 1814 as ‘Margery’ says that she operated a service between London and Gravesend for one reason and then was sold to a French firm and renamed ‘Elise’; and also that her crossing from Newhaven to Havre was the first time that a steamer had crossed the Channel. He describes her as using her tall funnel as a mainmast.