<P> Apparently aware of the Navy's view that screw propellers would prove unsuitable for seagoing service, Smith determined to prove this assumption wrong . In September 1837, he took his small vessel (now fitted with an iron propeller of a single turn) to sea, steaming from Blackwall, London to Hythe, Kent, with stops at Ramsgate, Dover and Folkestone . On the way back to London on the 25th, Smith's craft was observed making headway in stormy seas by officers of the Royal Navy . The Admiralty's interest in the technology was revived, and Smith was encouraged to build a full size ship to more conclusively demonstrate the technology's effectiveness . </P> <P> SS Archimedes was built in 1838 by Henry Wimshurst of London, as the world's first steamship to be driven by a screw propeller </P> <P> Archimedes had considerable influence on ship development, encouraging the adoption of screw propulsion by the Royal Navy, in addition to her influence on commercial vessels . Trials with Smith's SS Archimedes led to the famous tug - of - war competition in 1845 between the screw - driven HMS Rattler and the paddle steamer HMS Alecto; the former pulling the latter backward at 2.5 knots (4.6 km / h). </P> <P> She also had a direct influence on the design of another innovative vessel, Isambard Kingdom Brunel's SS Great Britain, then the world's largest ship and the first screw - propelled steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean in 1845 . Propeller design stabilized in the 1880s . </P>

What is the theory behind the working of a ship