Vide. Hansard reference Screw Propellers In The Royal Navy (Volume 134: debated on Monday 10 July 1854):
https://hansard.parliament.uk/lords/185 ... eRoyalNavy
Early propeller days...A recent blog told the story of the invention and initial testing of screw-propellers for ships, building on principles established two millennia previously. In the late 1830s the practicality of this concept was proven in a series of exhaustive tests by the experimental steamship SS Archimedes, as detailed in that earlier article (Click here to read if you missed the earlier blog). These tests included evaluation against the Royal Navy’s fast paddle-driven mail-packets and indicated that “as regards power-to-weight ratio, the screw propeller had proven equal, if not superior, to that of the ordinary paddle-wheel.” The practicality of the finding was to proved in service thereafter by a Royal Navy sloop, HMS Rattler.
Read on here if this history interests you...