Samuel Cunard's first steamship was a wooden paddle-steamer, built in 1840 by R. Duncan & Co. of Greenock, and launched on February 5^th.  She was built for the British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Co. which was popularly known as Cunard's Line.  On her maiden voyage she left Liverpool on Saturday, 4^th July, 1840, at 2 o'clock, and arrived in Halifax 12 days 10 hours later.  Charles Dickens made his first journey to America in the Britannia in 1842, and later chronicled how un-impressed he had been with the accommodation.  This was largely because she ran into a series of westerly gales which caused Dickens to suffer from severe sea-sickness. When he was well enough to venture on deck, he found the lifeboats reduced to matchwood.  Part of the starboard paddle-box had been carried away and the naked paddles churned spray over the heaving decks.