George Blaxland, Senior

1858 Chief Engineer, Steam-engine Factory, Sheerness

Father of George Blaxland

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. . . an engineer, and for a time was in charge of the engineering department at Sheerness Dockyard. He claimed to be one of the numerous inventors of the screw propeller, and it seems certain that the Government rewarded him along with others on this count. It is on record that he and Francis Pettit Smith, another inventor of the propeller, and, like himself, a recipient of the Government's reward, soon after drifted into litigation. Blaxland won his case, but both spent the bigger part of their rewards on lawyers' fees. Soon after taking up his duties at Sheerness, Mr. George Blaxland, senior, converted a lifeboat into a small screw-propelled steamer, the engine and boiler of which he constructed himself in his spare time. This little vessel succeeded in crossing to Boulogne and back, and was probably tho first screw steamer to cross the channel . . . .

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