THE BEGINNINGS OF STEAM NAVIGATION
It will help us to appreciate the work of the men who first experimented
with steam-driven ships if we recall the fact that James Watt, working at
Soho, near Birmingham, England, invented the engine which used steam on
both sides of the piston in 1782, and that it was for many years after
that date an enormously heavy and cumbersome machine. From this fact we
see the state of the mechanic arts in England at the end of the eighteenth
century, when practical experiments in steam navigation were first begun.
That the state of those arts was still lower in the United States would be
naturally inferred from the story of Bond's efforts to restrain progress
by reëxporting the machinery that had been imported at Philadelphia. As
a matter of fact, when one American inventor began to make experiments
in steam navigation, he was obliged first of all to train men in the work
of building engines; he was unable to find, anywhere in the country, men
with the necessary skill.
One of the most curious of the early experiments was that made by James
Rumsey, who was a bath tender at a pleasure resort in Virginia. He first
planned to mount an old-style, single-acting engine in a boat, connect
it with a pump, draw in water through a pipe at the bow, and then force
it out astern. When this plan was explained to Washington, he wrote a
testimonial, saying, "the discovery is of great importance." A boat built
on this plan was eventually driven at a speed of four miles an hour.
Rumsey also experimented with a screw propeller, but he was poor, and
could not carry the experiment to a conclusion. Finally he went to England
to get capital (a fact to be remembered), and there he died before he
could accomplish anything of real moment.
Another interesting experimenter was John Fitch, of Pennsylvania, a
man who was handy in the use of tools, and who was also a surveyor and
map-maker. On December 2, 1785, he presented to the American Philosophical
Society of Philadelphia a model, with drawings, of a steamboat. The New
Jersey legislature then gave him the exclusive right to navigate the
waters of the State with steamboats, and a company was organized to
develop the invention. The first engine built had a 3-inch cylinder.
It was mounted in a skiff and was connected at one time with a screw
propeller, at another with an endless chain dragging alongside, and
with a "screw and paddles," but neither device would drive the boat at a
practical speed. Then Fitch conceived the idea of driving with paddles
somewhat after the fashion of canoe men. This plan worked so well that
a boat forty feet long was built and furnished with an engine having a
12-inch cylinder. In spite of the fact that the cylinder of this engine
had wooden ends that leaked, and a piston that did not fit the bore, the
boat was driven at a speed of four knots an hour.
In 1788 Fitch built a boat sixty feet long with a larger engine, and
in October she carried thirty passengers to Burlington, New Jersey, a
distance of twenty miles, in three hours and ten minutes. The speed of
this boat being unsatisfactory, still another was built, and in May, 1790,
she covered a measured mile in seven and a half minutes, or at the rate
of eight miles an hour. She was then put on the river as a packet plying
between Philadelphia and Trenton, and made more than thirty trips of which
records remain. She was operated by paddles at the stern.
Though Fitch's plan was not the best conceivable, it is now admitted
that his boat was a mechanical success. He built a workable boat, but,
unhappily, he was far ahead of his day in his hopes and work. The people
were not yet ready for steam navigation, and the company failed to
pay dividends. Meantime another boat that he had built to run on the
Mississippi was wrecked, and that loss ended the enterprise. Fitch finally
went to the banks of the Ohio, where he continued his efforts without
success.
"The day will come," he wrote, "when some more powerful man will get fame
and fortune from _my_ invention, but nobody will believe that poor John
Fitch can do anything worthy of attention." Then he killed himself.
In 1786, Oliver Evans, a Philadelphia millwright, asked the legislature
of the State to give him the exclusive right to build steam gristmills
and road-wagons,--automobiles, in other words,--but his plans were not
treated seriously. In 1801, however, he built a steam plaster mill, and in
1804 he demonstrated, in a way that yet astonishes the reader, the entire
feasibility of steam navigation.
Having obtained a contract for dredging some of the slips along the
Philadelphia water front, he built a scow, 30 × 12 feet large, to carry
the dredge. The scow was put together at his shop, which was located a
mile from the Schuylkill. When done, he mounted a steam engine, (5 × 19
inches large), on its deck, placed temporary wooden axles with temporary
wooden wheels underneath, connected the axles and engine shaft, and then
steamed away to the river. There he removed the wheels and put a paddle
wheel at the stern for use afloat. Then he launched his scow, steamed
down the Schuylkill and up to the slips he was to dredge. The engine was
thereafter used in the work of dredging. Although that was in 1804, the
people were not yet ready for steam navigation. The only practical result
of the work of Evans was the adoption of the high-pressure engine, so
called. His engine had no condenser. It exhausted its steam into the open
air, and this style of engine was found to be best adapted for use on the
steamboats of the Western rivers, later on.
In the meantime Robert Fulton, who was to succeed, had been at work.
Fulton was a Pennsylvania artist who had shown so much talent that he
went to England to study under Benjamin West. In the meantime, however, he
had been greatly interested in mechanics, and had dreamed of steamboats.
In London his thoughts turned more and more to mechanics, and in 1793 he
abandoned art to take up his life-work.
In the popular view the most interesting chapter in Fulton's life is
that relating the story of the first voyage of his first steamship; but
for the encouragement of struggling inventors the most important facts
in his life are those showing how he went about his task. For Fulton
made a thorough study of his subject; while experimenting for himself
he took care to learn as much as possible about what others had already
done in the same line. In modern days, when every important invention is
known to be a development from crude ideas and appliances into a perfect
design, it seems not a little curious to read that in Fulton's time his
method of work--his determination to learn his subject thoroughly before
building--was considered not quite creditable. Invention, it was thought,
consisted in working out an inspiration in the dark!
Fulton's first effort to build a steamship was made in 1794, when he
went to Paris and tried to induce the National Convention to take up the
invention, and thus "deliver France and the whole world from British
oppression." Of course the chaotic conditions in Paris prevented the
realization of his hopes.
Returning to England, Fulton published a pamphlet on steam navigation
(1796), but failed to interest the people. Then he became interested
in marine torpedoes and submarine navigation. With these ideas he went
again to Paris (1802), where he made experiments in working a boat under
water, but failed to convince Napoleon, who was then the despotic ruler
of France. While thus engaged, however, he met Robert R. Livingston,
the American minister to France. In connection with John Stevens and
Nicholas J. Roosevelt, of New Jersey, Livingston had already made
experiments looking toward steam navigation on the Hudson, and in aid of
his enterprise had secured from the legislature of New York the exclusive
privilege of navigating New York waters with steamboats. This privilege
had expired by limitation, and the experiments had come to an end, so far
as he was concerned, but on meeting the enthusiastic Fulton he at once
became interested again, and furnished money for further experiments.
Thereupon Fulton built a steamboat that, when launched upon the Seine,
in 1803, instantly broke in two and sank. The frames were not strong
enough. Fishing up the engine, Fulton built a stronger hull, and this
time the engine worked, though the speed was so slow that only Fulton and
Livingston believed the experiment to be a success.
With the optimism that breeds success, Fulton, backed by Livingston, now
made drawings of an engine to be used in a boat which he purposed building
upon the Hudson, and these plans he carried to England, where he ordered
his engine of Watt, who was building the most efficient engines in use.
In the meantime, William Symington, a Scotch engine builder, had been
experimenting with steamboats. In 1789 he had installed an engine upon
a double-hulled yacht, with which one Patrick Millar navigated Lake
Dalwinston, in Scotland. Although Millar spent $150,000 in experiments
with steam, nothing came of them. In 1801 Symington induced Lord Dundas,
president of the Forth & Clyde Canal Company, to build a steam-tug for
towing barges.
This tug, named the _Charlotte Dundas_, had an engine with a 22-inch
cylinder (stroke four feet), and the piston was connected directly
with the shaft of a stern paddle-wheel by means of a piston rod and a
connecting rod--a plan of such simplicity that it came into universal use
later on. The rudder of the boat was handled by means of a wheel placed
near the bow, and this plan, too, received universal approval. In March,
1802, this tug towed two 70-ton barges nineteen miles and a half, against
a strong wind, in six hours. As a demonstration of the feasibility of
steam navigation on smooth water, that passage should have been entirely
convincing, but the fear that the wash from the wheel, or wheels (for
Symington thought to try side-wheels), would injure the banks of the
canal, prevented the adoption of the tug.
Fulton had learned about the experiments with this tug, and while in
England contracting for the engine mentioned, he went to Scotland and
visited Symington, who fired up the boat and showed Fulton how it worked.
In December, 1806, Fulton came to New York, where he contracted with
Charles Brown, who had a shipyard on East River, between Stanton and
Third streets, for the hull of a new boat. The model of this hull is
memorable. In planning ships in those days it was customary to make them
approximately three and a half times as long as they were broad, and at
least half as deep as they were broad. But Fulton's plans called for a
keelless hull 140 feet long over all, by 13 feet wide, and only 7 feet
deep. One feels a certain sympathy, even now, for the sailors of that day
who, on learning the facts about this ship, named it _Fulton's Folly_.
The boiler for supplying the engine with steam was 20 feet long, 8 wide,
and 7 feet deep. It was set in masonry. The fuel used was dry pine. The
engine had a cylinder 24 inches in diameter with a 4-foot stroke. It was
not a typical Watt engine, however, for Watt's piston rods were kept in
line by a combination of levers and rods known as a "parallel motion,"
while Fulton had called for a cross-head on the end of the piston rod,
and the cross-head worked in guides in an A-frame. From each end of
the cross-head hung a connecting rod. These connecting rods were joined
to a "bell-crank," which was not unlike a "walking beam" in the modern
river-boat, but it was located down in the hull. Connecting rods led from
the bell-crank to cog-wheels on the inner ends of the two main shafts.
The cog-wheels served as cranks which turned with the vibrations of the
bell-crank. The paddle-wheels were on the outboard ends of the main
shafts, of course. Then cog-wheels on the inner ends of these shafts
geared into pinions on a smaller shaft which carried two fly-wheels,
placed outside the hull, which were provided to carry the engine over
the "dead centre" at each end of the stroke. The paddle-wheels were 14
feet in diameter. The main shafts were each of cast iron, and 4½ inches
in diameter. The A-frame and guides, the cross-head, the bell-crank and
connecting rods to the cross-head, and crank cog-wheels, the crank-wheels,
paddle-wheels, and shafts, and the fly-wheels and their driving gear were
all of Fulton's design.
According to Fulton's diary, he paid Watt £548 for the engine. The boiler,
built by Cave & Son, of London, cost "at 2_s_ 2_d_ the pound, £476 11_s_
2_d_." This was the first engine of the kind that Watt was allowed to
build for export, and Fulton writes on March 22, 1805:--
"Fee at the treasury on receiving permission to ship the engine to
America, £2 14_s_ 6_d_."
Fulton had no little trouble in raising the money for his boat. Livingston
contributed the larger share, while Joel Barlow and David Dunham gave the
next larger shares. The remainder of the sum was collected among personal
friends by personal solicitation, and that was work that tried the soul
of the man. The fact that the engine lay on the pier where it was landed
for a period of six months because Fulton could not raise the money to
pay the freight is significant.
[Illustration: Engines of the _CLERMONT_
By courtesy of _American Industries_]
The new ship was named _Clermont_, the name of Livingston's home on the
Hudson. At noon on Monday, August 17, 1807, she was lying near the old
State prison which stood on land now bounded by Washington, West Tenth,
West and Charles streets, and thousands of people gathered to gaze at
the remarkable vessel because it had been announced that she was to make
a trial trip some time during the day. They observed that Brown, the
builder, was working at some sails stretched to a mast standing at each
end of the hull, although the sails were not set. A man named Maxwell (he
had been brought from the shop of the London makers) was tinkering around
the boiler--stopping leaks with melted lead, very likely, as he did, at
any rate, later. Another man, Van Lea, was adjusting what is called a
harpoon gun in the records. Harpoon guns, as the American whalers know
them, were not yet invented, but swivels had previously been used for
throwing harpoons, and this was, perhaps, such a gun. What it was to be
used for is not recorded. The spectators were naturally cynical, and the
humorists of the class that in modern days write the jokes for newspapers,
shouted to Fulton: "God help you, Bobby!" "Bring us back a chip of the
north pole!" "A fool and his money are soon parted!" The small boys
whistled, and also yowled like cats. Fulton's correspondence shows that
his sensitive soul was cut to the quick.
At 1 o'clock, as the start was described by the _Evening Post_, everything
seemed ready, and Fulton told Captain Moses Rogers[6] to cast off the
lines. The order was given to the engineer, Stevens Rogers, a relative
of the captain, to start the machinery. A long blast was blown on a big
tin horn as a warning to near-by boats, and then there was a "strange
creaking, whirring, churning sound, a hiss of the escaping steam; the
awkward-looking wheels, towering full seven feet above the deck on either
side, began to turn, and we were really started on the first steamboat
voyage on the Hudson." The next moment, however, the spectators saw the
machine come to a sudden stop, and, supposing it had failed, they gave a
derisive shout. The captain of a passing river-sailing packet sheered his
boat close in to the pier line, and "made a sarcastic offer" to "throw us
a line and tow us to Albany."
Perhaps the jeering at this time did not hurt Fulton so much as that
previously mentioned, for he had ordered the engine stopped in order to
readjust the boards or floats on the paddle-wheels. He had noted that they
dipped too far into the water. An hour or more passed while the crew did
this work. When it was done and the throttle was again opened, there was
less strain on the machinery, and the _Clermont_ moved smoothly away from
the landing.
"The jeers of the ignorant, who had neither sense nor feeling enough
to suppress their contemptuous ridicule and rude jokes, were silenced
for a moment by a vulgar astonishment which deprived them of the power
of utterance till the triumph of genius extorted from the incredulous
multitude which crowded the shores shouts and acclamations of
congratulation and applause." (Colden's _Life of Robert Fulton_.)
Heading across to the west side of the river to escape the main current
of the tide, the _Clermont_ passed the sloop whose captain had jeered her
(the passengers on the _Clermont_ yelled ecstatically at him when they
saw his look of wonder), and then steamed along under the shadows of the
Palisades. Night came on as she entered the Tappan Zee, and because it was
a dark night the crews of a number of river-sloops saw a vision that they
remembered vividly the remainder of their lives. For while they gazed down
the river, knowing nothing of an experiment in steam navigation, they saw
far away through the darkness the flame and sparks that poured from the
smokestack of the _Clermont_--a cloud of fire moving along between heaven
and earth like that which had guided the Children of Israel in the desert.
Then, as it drew near, a hoarse growling was heard and a frightful form
was seen coming up the river directly against the tide. In abject terror
many crews jumped into small boats and fled ashore. Others sought shelter
in the holds of their boats and drew the hatches tight, while others still
fell upon their knees "and besought Providence to protect them from the
horrible monster."
In the meantime the guests on the _Clermont_ (she carried invited guests
only on this trip), finding the river air somewhat chilly, gathered in the
cabin, where, by the flickering light of a "candle in its high protecting
glass," they discussed "the popular Salmagundi papers," speculated "on Mr.
Irving's forthcoming Knickerbocker's _History of New York_," and finally
"began to ply Mr. Fulton with questions about the steamboat and what
had led up to it." They also sang "Ye Banks and Braes o' Bonny Doon," a
favorite song with Fulton.
Twice on the way up the river the _Clermont_ stopped for fuel, one of the
deck hands awakening the echoes with the big tin horn on each occasion
to let the wood-yard men know that she was about to land. Then, just
twenty-four hours after leaving New York, she cast anchor before the home
of Livingston. The distance she had covered was 110 miles. She remained
here until the next day, and it is noted in the histories that during the
evening Livingston and a party of friends boarded the _Clermont_, where,
in a congratulatory speech, he announced the engagement of his niece, Miss
Harriet Livingston, to Robert Fulton.
Leaving the next morning at 9 o'clock, the _Clermont_ reached Albany at
five in the afternoon. In her run to that city the _Clermont_ had averaged
just under five miles an hour, regardless of wind and tide.
While neither freight nor paying passengers had been carried on the trip
up, the boat was now advertised as a packet. Thereupon a number of men
came on board for a passage to New York, and when one of these tendered
the money for the trip, tears came into Fulton's eyes. For more than
twenty years he had hoped against hope, and now he saw the fruition of
his work.
"Although the prospect of personal emolument has been some inducement to
me," he wrote to an intimate friend, "yet I feel infinitely more pleasure
in reflecting on the immense advantages my country will derive from the
invention."
On her return to New York the _Clermont_ began her career as an Albany
packet, with regular dates for leaving each end of the route. She was
advertised in the _Evening Post_, of New York, on September 2, 1807, as
follows:--
"The North River steamboat will leave Paulus Hook Ferry on Friday the
fourth of September, at six in the morning, and arrive at Albany on
Saturday at six in the afternoon.
"Provisions, good berths, and accommodations are provided.
"The charge to each passenger is as follows:--
Time
To Newburgh $3 14 hours
To Poughkeepsie 4 17 "
To Esopus 4½ 20 "
To Hudson 5 30 "
To Albany 7 36 "
"For places, apply to Wm. Vandervoort, No. 48 Cortlandt Street, on the
corner of Greenwich Street.
"Way passengers to Tarry Town, etc., will apply to the captain on board.
"The steamboat will leave Albany on Monday the seventh of September at six
in the morning, and arrive at New York on Tuesday at six in the evening."
Meals were served without extra charge, and baggage weighing sixty pounds
was carried free with each adult passenger. The freight rate to Albany
was three cents a pound. The _Clermont_ left New York on her first trip as
packet at 6 o'clock in the morning on September 4, 1807, carrying twelve
through and three way passengers. It was noted in the papers of the period
that people were very much incensed because the steamer left her pier
promptly at the hour advertised. They had been accustomed to having the
river-sloops wait for them.
Morrison points out, in his _American Steam Navigation_, that no single
detail of the _Clermont_ was invented by Fulton. As the _North American
Review_ of July, 1838, says, the "great and surpassing merit of Fulton
consisted not so much in absolute originality as in the skill with which
he availed himself of all the theoretic knowledge of the day, and applied
it to practical purposes." His choice of location for the inauguration
of steam navigation is to be noted, for New York and the Hudson afforded
an amount of traffic perhaps more valuable than could have been found
elsewhere for such a vessel. Moreover, he was fortunate in making
the trial at a time when the public were sufficiently enlightened to
appreciate the value of steam.
The number of passengers and the amount of freight carried by the
_Clermont_ in the fall of 1807 led Fulton to rebuild her during the
winter, in order to give her greater capacity. Having a monopoly of
the waters by act of the legislature (the monopoly was contrary to the
Constitution of the United States, but the courts did not decide the
matter until 1824), Fulton had no trouble in raising capital, and with
the growth of traffic a new steamer, the _Car of Neptune_, was placed on
the river in 1808. The _Paragon_ was built in 1811, and in 1812 the _Fire
Fly_ was built for way traffic. On the whole, however, the evolution of
steam navigation on the Hudson was slow, at least so far as improvement
in the vessels employed was concerned, until the monopoly was broken.
For Fulton died in 1815, and his associates were not progressive. In 1825
an opposition line put on two steamers that were much superior to those
of the old line, and in 1827 they added a third. In this year Robert L.
Stevens, a son of John Stevens, put a third line of steamers on the river,
and in 1828 some Albany capitalists sought a share of the traffic with
a steamer called the _De Witt Clinton_ that made a record of more than
fourteen miles an hour between Albany and New York.
In 1832 the companies on the river consolidated, and used the superfluous
boats in a night line that was successful from the first.
Two notable improvements were made in the engines in the meantime. Robert
L. Stevens designed a light wrought-iron "walking beam" to replace the
heavy cast-iron beam that was previously used. Then in 1824 James P.
Allaire, who had made a reputation as an engine builder, brought out
a "compound" engine. A compound engine has two or more cylinders of
different diameters coupled to the one shaft. In the Watt engines the
steam was conducted from the boiler to one end of the cylinder and allowed
to flow in until the piston was driven almost to the opposite end. Then it
was shut off and the way to the condenser was opened. Later it was found
that if the flow of steam was cut off at half the length of stroke and
the steam already in the cylinder was allowed to work by expansion, the
total power of the engine was reduced only a little, while the saving of
coal was very great. While thinking of this fact, it occurred to Allaire
that the principle involved might be used to better advantage if the steam
was taken at full pressure into a small cylinder and exhausted thence
into a second and larger one to work by its expansive power. The _Henry
Eckford_, the _Sun_, and a number of others were supplied with engines on
this principle. The _Eckford_ had a small cylinder 12 inches in diameter
and a large one of 24. Both had the same stroke, of course. But, curiously
enough, it was not until about 1870 that compound engines became the
fashion.
The racing era, as one may call it, began on the Hudson about 1835, the
year that Daniel Drew became interested in the Hudson River steamers.
Racing had been done before the consolidation of 1832, but it was mild
in comparison with that under Drew's initiation. An unreasoning mania for
speed took possession of the public as well as of the owners of steamers.
Though no practical end was to be served by the saving of an hour in
the time required in the trip from New York to Albany, every sacrifice
was made and every risk was taken to secure it. Instead of going to a
pier or dock to land way-passengers at the towns along the river, the
unfortunates were dumped into a small skiff that was towed at the end of
a long rope. Then, as the steamer ran in close, but not too close, to the
landing, the man in charge of the skiff, using a steering oar, sheered it
within a few feet of the landing, and the passengers were told to jump.
And jump they did. Of course a few fell into the water at every trip;
perhaps some were drowned thereby. But the steamer's reputation for making
quick passages was maintained, and for a long time the public protested
in vain. When legislation was invoked (1842) the act was opposed as an
unwarranted attempt to interfere with private business which could much
better regulate itself!
It is an interesting fact that while the racing on the Mississippi
resulted in the explosion of many boilers and the consequent loss of
hundreds of lives, no such disasters occurred on the Hudson. The Hudson
immunity was due to a difference in machinery. On the Mississippi
"high-pressure" engines were used--there was no condenser, and the steam,
which was sometimes carried at a pressure of 150 pounds to the square
inch, was exhausted, after use, into the open air. When the safety-valve
on such a boiler was tied down and the fire was urged until an explosion
followed, the whole boat was ripped to pieces. On the Hudson condensers
were used because the water was deeper and the extra weight was not
of quite so much importance. Moreover, fuel was more expensive, and
the low-pressure engine was more economical. Hudson River boats often
reached the end of the run with boiler-plates bulging and ruined, but the
heartrending disasters of the Mississippi were unknown in the East.
From the Hudson the use of steam spread first to the Delaware. John
Stevens, who had been associated with Livingston and Roosevelt at the
end of the eighteenth century, continued his experiments after Livingston
went to France as American minister. He could not find any mechanics fit
to help him carry out his ideas, but he built a machine shop and trained
young men for the work. In 1804 he made a number of trips on the Hudson
with a 25-foot boat that was propelled by screws. He also invented the
tubular boiler "which at least has been the means of working wonders, for
in a boiler six feet long, four feet wide and two feet deep he exposed
four hundred feet of surface, in the most advantageous manner, to the
action of fire." (Macfarlane, _History of Propellers_.)
In 1807, while Fulton was bringing out the _Clermont_, Stevens had a
smaller, but none the less practical, boat, almost ready. He missed the
honor of leading by no more than two weeks. Being unable to use her on
the Hudson, Stevens, in June, 1808, sent her to the Delaware, under the
command of Captain Moses Rogers, who had commanded the _Clermont_ on
her first voyages, and his son, Robert L., served as engineer. Thus this
vessel--she was named the _Phœnix_--was the first steamer that ever went
to sea. On the Delaware the _Phœnix_ proved a commercial success.
The next step in the expansion of steam navigation was taken when Nicholas
J. Roosevelt built the steamer _New Orleans_ at Pittsburg (1811), and
demonstrated to the incredulous frontiersmen of the region--especially to
the "half horse, half alligator" keel boatmen--that a steam-driven boat
could overcome the current of the swiftest part of the Mississippi.
In 1813 Fulton and his associates reached out for alongshore trade by
building the _Fulton_ for use between New York and New Haven, but because
of the activity of the British war-ships on the blockade, she did not make
her first trip until March 21, 1815, when she carried thirty passengers
to New Haven in eleven hours.
The _Massachusetts_ was the first steamer in use at Boston. She began
plying to Salem in 1817. In the same year the _Fire Fly_ was sent from New
York to Rhode Island, where she was used between Providence and Newport.
Rounding Point Judith in this vessel was considered a feat showing
extraordinary courage, and this, too, among sailors who thought nothing
of a voyage around the world in a ship less than a hundred feet long.
In 1818 the _Walk-in-the-water_ was built at Black Rock, (now a part of
Buffalo), on the Niagara River, for use on the Great Lakes. When ready
for her trial trip, she was unable to stem the river current until eight
yoke of oxen were brought to her assistance, but once on the lake she did
well. She made her first trip to Detroit, starting on August 20, 1818, and
covered the distance in about forty hours, using a cord of wood an hour.
By the annual report of the Commissioner of Navigation it appears that
four steamboats, aggregation 457 tons, were built in the United States
in 1812, the first year for which there is a record. In 1813 seven of
an aggregate tonnage of 1430 were built, and in 1819 the number was
twenty-eight, with a tonnage of 7291. More than a hundred had been built
in all. This expansion was almost but not quite all made upon inland or
sheltered waters. Fulton had looked toward the high seas. He had built a
steamship, which he named the _Emperor Alexander_, to sell to the Russian
government, but the War of 1812 prevented his trying to navigate her
across the ocean, and she was eventually worn out at home. During the war
he built the huge war steamer _Demologos_, a vessel fit to go along the
coast, and crude as she was, she would have changed the manner of war at
sea had she been set afloat a year sooner.
The year 1819 is especially memorable because a transatlantic steam
passage was then made. It appears that Captain Moses Rogers was the
originator of the venture. In 1818 Francis Fickett built a common sailing
ship at New York that was 100 feet long by 28 broad and 14 deep. Rogers
had had the honor of first navigating the sea with a steamer, and he had
been selected in 1816, because of his reputation for courage and skill, to
take the steamer _New Jersey_ from New York to the Chesapeake, a voyage
thought to be full of danger for such a vessel. He was now inspired with
the ambition to be the first to drive a steamship across the Atlantic,
and after a look at the ship that Fickett was building, he persuaded
Scarborough & Isaacs, ship merchants of Savannah, to buy and fit her with
a steam engine for use between Savannah and Liverpool.
The engine for this ship was built by Stephen Vail, of Speedwell, New
Jersey, and the boiler by David Dod, of Elizabethtown, New Jersey. It is
worth while to interrupt the narrative to consider these two facts. At the
beginning of the century mechanics had been so scarce in the nation that
Stevens had to train men for his work. But in 1819 mechanics and shops
fitted for engine building were found not only in the larger cities but
in some of the smaller towns close to navigable waters. That these shops
had been brought into existence through the mechanical progress--perhaps
it may be called the mechanical awakening--that was due to the success of
steam navigation is beyond question. Many machine shops had been built,
and were profitably employed. They not only built engines, but other tools
for many kinds of work. The day when a British consul like Bond could
hamper the progress of American manufactures by reëxporting tools made in
England was passing.
The paddle-wheels fitted to the new ship for use on the Atlantic were
made of iron. They had eight radial arms, each so arranged (according to
Preble) that they could be folded up like a fan and laid inboard when the
ship was under sail; for her sailing rig was retained.
Leaving New York on March 28, 1819, under Captain Rogers, this ship (she
was named _Savannah_) ran to her home port in eight days and fifteen
hours, during which she used steam for forty-one and a half hours. On
May 24 she sailed for Liverpool, and made the passage in twenty-seven
days, during which she used steam for eighty hours. While off the coast
of Ireland the crew of a revenue cutter that saw her supposed she was on
fire, and made haste to go to her assistance. In a trip from Liverpool
to St. Petersburg, Russia, occupying, with stops at ports on the way,
thirty-three days, she was under steam ten days. She finally arrived back
at Savannah on November 30, and then went to New York, where her machinery
was removed and sold.
The Savannah was what would now be called an auxiliary steamer; steam was
used when the wind did not serve. She failed to inaugurate steam traffic
across the Atlantic chiefly because of the space occupied by fuel--wood.
Although Captain R. B. Forbes, one of the ablest seamen the nation ever
produced, built an auxiliary steamer (the _Massachusetts_) in 1845, that
made profitable voyages, and there were features of the system that make
it seem very attractive for certain trades, few vessels of the class have
ever been used.
The year 1819 is also memorable because of an effort to establish a
line of steamers running from New York to New Orleans, with stops at
Charleston, South Carolina, and Havana, Cuba, on the way. The line was
maintained for five years, and then withdrawn because it could not be made
to pay.
In 1819, too, a ship was put on the route between Mobile and New Orleans,
but this was also a failure.
In 1822 the steamer _New York_ began to ply between New York and Norfolk,
but she was unable to compete with the sailing packets. The steamer
_Patent_, that began making regular voyages between Boston and Maine ports
in 1823, also failed to pay dividends.
Not to add details of this kind, it may be said that while fortunes were
made in steamboats plying on inland waters of the United States, almost
every venture made with American steamers upon the ocean during the
thirty years following the _Clermont's_ first trip on the Hudson proved
unprofitable. In connection with this dismal record the story of the
steamer _Home_, built for the trade between New York and Charleston, South
Carolina, is instructive. Keeping in mind the fact that this steamer was
designed to round Cape Hatteras, where the worst storms on the coast were
known to rage, consider these facts: the _Home_ was 212 feet long by 22
wide and 12 deep. She was nearly 18 times as long as she was deep, and she
was built of wood, at that. The engine, which was placed near the centre,
as usual, had a cylinder 56 inches in diameter, with a stroke of 9 feet,
and that is to say it was enormously heavy for a hull of such proportions.
A set of iron braces was provided on each side to strengthen the hull, but
on the first trip they "broke loose from their sockets on deck at their
forward ends, by the elastic movement of the vessel in a heavy sea," as
W. C. Redfield, a New York engineer, said in describing the vessel.
Two voyages were made with no greater visible injury than the breaking,
on each voyage, of the worthless braces. On November 9, 1837, as the
_Home_ was bound on her third voyage, she was overtaken by a northeast
gale, and shortly after passing the Hatteras shoals, it was found that the
"elastic movement" of the hull, which, according to Engineer Redfield,
was "necessarily and properly manifested," had opened an uncontrollable
leak. The _Home_ was then driven on the beach, where she at once went to
pieces. About a hundred lives were lost.
It is important to note here that Engineer Redfield, in writing his
defence of the _Home_ (1842), was entirely sincere. Further than that,
the owners of the vessel were so confident that she was of a proper model
in all respects that the only insurance they carried upon her was for a
small sum to secure a creditor.
From this story, and others of the kind to be found in the records,
it appears that, while American designers were then building sailing
ships and inland-water steamers that were highly profitable, they were
astonishingly ignorant of the requirements of a steamship for deep-sea
navigation.
In a search for the reasons for this curious condition of affairs it
is found that the success of the inland-water steamers was the primary
cause of the American failure at sea. The men who designed the sea-going
steamers had been trained in their art by designing, first of all,
steamers for inland waters. Because these inland-water steamers succeeded
so well, it was entirely natural that similar proportions should be given
to the engines that were to be used upon deep water. It was also natural
to model the hulls as nearly as possible like the hulls on smooth waters.
At the same time it was believed, incredible as the statement may seem
now, that an "elastic" hull--one that bends to the lift of the waves as
a rope does--was not only swifter but safer than a stiff one.
A paragraph as to the durability of the inland-water steamers will now
prove instructive. In the report of Israel D. Andrews on "Colonial and
Lake Trade" (Sen. Ex. Doc. 112, 32 Cong. 1 Sess.), it is said (p. 665)
that "the period of the natural life of a steamboat" in use on the inland
waters of the United States at that time (1851) was only "three and a half
to four years." This statement included the steamers in use on the Great
Lakes, which had much longer lives than those on the rivers.
With all these facts in mind, one sees why the deep-water American
steamers failed. Led on by the success of the river steamers, the
designers turned out engines of the lightest possible weight consistent
with the greatest power, and then bolted them fast to the frames of hulls
that were "elastic"--would yield to the waves like a rope. Not many of
these steamers went to pieces as the _Home_ did; good seamanship saved
them from that fate; but neither good seamanship nor any economy practised
afloat or ashore could make them pay dividends in the face of the enormous
expense due to the wear and tear of machinery. Machinery built for speed
could pay dividends on the inland waters because the steamers had no
competition except that which they created among themselves, and that
lasted for short periods only. The only competitors on the river-banks
were stage-coaches and big wagons that were driven over the worst roads in
the civilized world. The inland-water steamers charged what prices they
pleased. At sea the steamers with their unfit machinery had to compete
with the swiftest, most comfortable, and in every way the most economical
sailing packets in the world. And until the designers had learned the
requirements of a sea-going steamship, the sailing packets won.