(An amusing note on ferry control. In San Francisco, at the Hyde Street Pier, there is a large steam powered car ferry boat, the Eureka, from 1890. That boat is powered by a double-acting one-cylinder engine driving both side paddlewheels. It's reversible, with some difficulty. It cannot get itself started at top dead center or bottom dead center. So there's a giant pry bar, about eight feet long, which can be used to get it started. You can see this hanging on a bulkhead near the engine.

Think about operating this turkey. This car ferry docks nose into the dock, not parallel to it. You're coming into the dock, and have to stop and reverse the engine to slow. If the stopping and reversing operation results in the engine stopped at dead center, there's no power until the crew frantically gets the pry bar and levers the engine into a position where a power stroke is possible. Screw up and you crash into the dock. It's a ferry boat, so it docks a dozen times a day.

Now that's a control problem.

The Eureka is the last surviving example of this design. Other paddlewheel ferries were built, but usually with multiple engines or multiple cylinders.)