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.