_STEAM NAVIGATION._ _INTRODUCTION OF THE SCREW PROPELLER INTO THE ROYAL
NAVY._
A.D. 1841--1844. ÆTATIS 36--39.
APPOINTMENT OF MR. BRUNEL TO CONDUCT EXPERIMENTS FOR THE ADMIRALTY
WITH VARIOUS FORMS OF THE SCREW PROPELLER, APRIL 1841--TRIALS WITH
THE ‘POLYPHEMUS’--OPPOSITION TO MR. BRUNEL’S EXPERIMENTS--TRIALS
WITH THE ‘RATTLER,’ OCTOBER 1843-OCTOBER 1844.
Soon after Mr. Brunel had taken the bold step of recommending the
adoption of the screw propeller in the ‘Great Britain,’ he was asked to
send a copy of his report to the Admiralty. He did so; and in the course
of a few months was invited to attend the Board on the subject of some
experiments their Lordships proposed to make.
An interview took place on April 27, 1841; of which Mr. Brunel gives the
following account:--
I attended the Board: Lord Minto stated that he wished a complete
experiment to be made on the applicability of the screw to
Government boats, and he proposed to place the conduct of the
experiments in my hands as a professional man. I stated that I
should have great pleasure in doing it, and should take great
interest in it, provided they intended to make a good experiment
and would place it entirely in my hands, without the intervention
of any Government officers, but that I should communicate direct
with the Lords, and of course with Sir E. Parry.[135] He said he
proposed to build a vessel and engines on purpose, and that he
particularly wished it to be left entirely in my hands, and took me
apart to the window to impress this last condition on me.
Within a fortnight of his appointment, Mr. Brunel invited Messrs.
Maudslay and Field and Messrs. Seaward to send him designs for the
engines: they were to have been of 200-horse power, with a stroke of 4
feet. The engines were to make a smaller number of revolutions than the
screw, the motion being communicated from the engine shaft to the screw
shaft by drums and straps. This arrangement was adopted in preference to
tooth-gearing, in order to facilitate the variation of the number of
revolutions, in the experiments with different screws.
The designs ultimately sent to Mr. Brunel for his approval were those of
Messrs. Maudslay and Messrs. Forrester. He reported to the Admiralty in
favour of Messrs. Maudslay’s engines.
Before drawing up the detailed specifications, Mr. Brunel was desirous
of procuring data for estimating the surface of the screw required to
obtain the same resistance as that offered by the paddles of a ship
similar to the new vessel. With this object he applied to the Admiralty
for permission to make an accurate trial of the performances of the
paddle steamer ‘Polyphemus’ at various speeds. This permission was
granted; the trial, however, was fixed for such an early day that Mr.
Brunel had barely time to make the preliminary arrangements, with the
assistance of his friend Captain Claxton.
When Captain Claxton arrived at Southampton, the day before the trial,
he found that there was no measured mile set out. He immediately hired
men, got chains, staffs, and flags, and set out both a nautical mile and
a statute mile. They made half a dozen runs each way with the
‘Polyphemus,’ noting carefully all particulars of speed, revolutions,
&c.; and the results obtained were considered very satisfactory.
On October 1, Mr. Brunel received information from the Admiralty (now
under the administration of the Earl of Haddington) that Messrs.
Maudslay and Field’s tender was accepted. The engines were immediately
put in hand, under Mr. Brunel’s supervision.
When they were approaching completion, he became anxious to learn
something about the progress of the ship which was to have been built
for them. Nowhere could she be found. The minutes were searched at the
Admiralty, and it was ascertained that the ship was ordered, but that no
ship had been laid down. This discovery, as might be supposed, excited
considerable surprise. Mr. Brunel was sent for to the Admiralty to see
Sir George Cockburn, the First Naval Lord. Almost the first words to him
were: ‘Do you mean to suppose that we shall cut up Her Majesty’s ships
after this fashion, sir?’--Sir George at the same time pointing to a
model of the stern of an old-fashioned three-decker, in which large
slices were taken off to give room for the screw, and the whole of the
lower deck exposed to view, thus making the application of the screw
look very ridiculous. On the model was written, ‘Mr. Brunel’s mode of
applying the screw to Her Majesty’s ships.’ Mr. Brunel smiled, and
denied its being his idea at all; he had never seen it before, and knew
nothing about it. ‘Why, sir, you sent it to the Admiralty.’ This also
Mr. Brunel denied having done. While an enquiry was being made as to
where the model came from, Mr. Brunel employed himself in effacing the
inscription with his knife. When the messenger returned, he reported
that the model had come from the office of the Surveyor of the Navy. He
was sent for, but did not appear. Mr. Brunel, to terminate this awkward
interview, pleaded business, and bowed himself out.
Mr. Brunel often told this anecdote, and spoke of the adverse influence
which had been exerted in some department of the Admiralty to prevent
the successful issue of these experiments.
Soon afterwards Mr. Brunel was informed that the ‘Acheron’ would be
prepared for the screw. He thereupon represented to their Lordships that
the ‘Acheron’ could not, from her full after-body and other defects, be
converted into such a ship as the Board had originally determined to
construct for trying the screw; and, indeed, her unfitness was admitted
by the authorities themselves.
To a letter on this subject, in which he stated that the attempt to
apply the screw propeller to the ‘Acheron’ would not answer any of the
objects which their Lordships had in view, Mr. Brunel received no reply,
and for the next four months was kept quite in the dark as to what was
going on. At length he made enquiries as to the cause of a treatment
which, he said, he had never before experienced from any public body.
These enquiries proving fruitless, he at last wrote to the Admiralty,
declining further interference, as it had appeared on investigation that
the condition on which he had accepted his position from Lord
Minto--namely, that he should have the entire superintendence of the
experiments--had not been observed.
On the receipt of his resignation, Mr. Brunel was summoned to the
Admiralty. He thus described his interview in a letter to a friend:--
Not a word was said about my complaint of the past, but they said
they wished me to continue the experiments, and that my screw was
to be tried first. I said that was not at all what would suit me;
that I would, if they wished it, conduct an experiment as
originally proposed; that I had no screw, that I was no competitor,
but an arbitrator in whom the Admiralty had perfect confidence;
that I was this or nothing. Then commenced a tedious fencing....
However, it ended in all parties being written to, and told that
they were to follow my directions, and that I was to proceed to
give such instructions as should enable a full experiment to be
made of all screws generally. I then requested that this time I
might have my instructions in writing.
In a few days Mr. Brunel received an official intimation that the
‘Rattler’ was to be adapted for the screw, under his directions.
The ‘Rattler’ was a vessel of 888 tons burden, 176 feet 6 inches between
the perpendiculars, and 32 feet 8½ inches beam.[136] She had been
commenced for a paddle-wheel steamer shortly before, and was of nearly
the same tonnage and midship section as the ‘Polyphemus,’ but she had
not the fine lines aft which were so important for the use of the screw.
She was not launched until April 13, 1843, just two years after Mr.
Brunel’s first interview with Lord Minto; and she was then delivered to
Messrs. Maudslay in the roughest possible state.
Except during the time that Mr. Brunel was prevented from attending to
business by the half-sovereign accident, he was in constant
communication with the dockyard authorities on matters relating to the
construction of the ship, with Messrs. Maudslay as to the
multiplying-gear and engines, and with Mr. F. P. Smith as to the forms
of the various screws to be tried.
The engines and screw were fitted in the ship, after considerable delay;
and, on October 24, 1843, Mr. Brunel reported on them in their completed
state. On the 30th, the experiments were commenced.
More than twenty trials were made between that date and the following
October, when the ‘Rattler’ went to sea, and Mr. Brunel could not of
course any longer personally superintend the experiments; but, except
on one or two occasions when his place was supplied by an assistant, all
the trials that were made during the first year were conducted in his
presence, and he transmitted the results from time to time to the
Admiralty.[137]
The performance of the ‘Rattler’ was found to be satisfactory; and the
position of the engines and screw being below the water line was so
pre-eminent an advantage, that in 1845 the Lords of the Admiralty
ordered more than twenty vessels to be fitted with the screw;[138] and
since that time it has gradually superseded the paddlewheel for ships of
war.
The services which Mr. Brunel rendered to the country during the whole
of these proceedings were given entirely without pecuniary recompense,
and in the face of opposition and discouragement; but he had the
satisfaction of knowing that he had been mainly instrumental, not only
in introducing the screw propeller into the mercantile navy, but also in
securing its adoption in Her Majesty’s fleet.