for the contract for carrying the mails to America resulted in putting
afloat, in 1840, the Acadia, Britannia, Columbia, and Caledonia. The
first vessels of the Cunard line were all wooden paddle-wheel steamers,
with engines by Napier, of Glasgow, of the usual side-lever class; the
return-flue boilers and jet-condensers were used, the latter holding
their place for many years to come, though surface condensation had
already appeared as an experiment. The company was to carry the mails
fortnightly between Liverpool, Halifax, and Boston, regular sailings to
be adhered to, and four vessels to be employed, for the sum of £81,000
($400,000) per annum. The contract was made for seven years, but was
continued from time to time for forty-six—no break occurring in this
nearly half-century’s service, when the Umbria—November 4, 1886—was
the first ship in the history of the company to leave Liverpool on the
regular day of sailing for America without mails. This break, however,
was but momentary, and the line almost at once resumed its ancient duty.
The Britannia was the first of the fleet to sail; and, strange to say
(from the usual seaman’s point of view), Friday, July 4, 1840, was the
day selected. She arrived at Boston in 14 days and 8 hours, a very
successful passage for the time.
It must have required considerable moral courage in the projectors to
inaugurate such an undertaking on a day of the week which has been so
long on the black-list of sailor superstition, notwithstanding it had
the advantage of being the anniversary of the Declaration of American
Independence. The success of this line ought certainly to rehabilitate
Friday to a position of equality among the more fortunate days, though
it will be observed that none of the transatlantic lines have yet
selected it as a day of sailing.
The Britannia, which was representative of the quartette, was of the
following dimensions: Length of keel and fore rake, 207 ft.; breadth
of beam, 34 ft. 2 in.; depth of hold, 22 ft. 4 in.; mean draught, 16
ft. 10 in.; displacement, 2,050 tons; diameter of cylinder, 72-1/2
in.; length of stroke, 82 in.; number of boilers, 4; pressure carried,
9 lbs. per sq. in.; number of furnaces, 12; fire-grate area, 222 ft.;
indicated horse-power, 740; coal consumption per indicated horse-power
per hour, 5.1 lbs.; coal consumption per day, 38 tons; bunker capacity,
640 tons; cargo capacity, 225 tons; cabin passengers carried, 90;
average speed, 8.5 knots.
It will thus be seen that these ships were not an advance upon the
Great Western, but were even slightly smaller, with about the same coal
consumption and with rather less speed.
[Illustration: Plan of the Hibernia and Cambria.
A, saloon; B, pantry; C, centre state-rooms; D, gentlemen’s cabin;
E, ladies’ cabin; S, stairs; F, wine cellar; G, G, G, goods; K,
stewards’ berths in centre; H, H, coal ho’d; P, P, fore-cabin; Q,
steerage; L, forecastle; R, store-room; M, mail-room; O, sail-room;
V, engineers and firemen.]
The Hibernia and Cambria followed in 1843 and 1845, 530 tons larger
in displacement, with 1,040 indicated horse-power, and steaming about
9-1/2 knots per hour. The plan gives an idea of these vessels which is
far from fulfilling the ideas of the present Atlantic traveller, who
considers himself a much-injured person if he has not electric lights
and bells, baths _ad libitum_, and a reasonable amount of cubic space
in which to bestow himself. None of the least of these existed in the
earlier passenger ships; a narrow berth to sleep in and a plentiful
supply of not over well prepared food were afforded, but beyond these
there was little—notwithstanding the whole of the ship was given up to
first-cabin passengers, emigrants not being carried in steamers until
1850, and it was not until 1853 that any steamer of the Cunard line was
fitted for their accommodation.
How little it was possible to do for the wanderer to Europe in those
days may be seen when comparison shows the Britannia to have been
but half the length of the Umbria, but two-thirds her breadth, but
six-tenths her depth, with much less than half her speed, and less than
one-twentieth her power.
The establishment of the Cunard line marked the setting of ocean steam
traffic firmly on its feet. What in 1835 had been stated by one of
the most trusted scientific men of that time as an impossibility, and
even in 1838 was in doubt, had become an accomplished fact; and while
the proof of the practicability of the American route was making,
preparations were in progress for the extension of steam lines which
were soon to reach the ends of the world. A detailed statement of
historic events is, of course, here out of place, but a mere mention of
other prominent landmarks in steam navigation is almost a necessity.
The founding of the Peninsular Company, in 1837, soon to extend its
operations, under the name of the Peninsular and Oriental, to India,
and the establishment, in 1840, of the Pacific Steam Navigation
Company, are dates not to be passed by. The establishment of the
latter line was due to one of our own countrymen—William Wheelwright,
of Newburyport, who, when consul at Guayaquil, grasped the conditions
of the coast, and through his foresight became one of its greatest
benefactors, and at the same time one of its most successful men. He
failed in interesting our own people in the venture, and turned to
London, where his success was greater. The Chili and Peru, the first
vessels of this now great fleet, despatched in 1840, were but 198 feet
long and of 700 tons. It was not until 1868 that the line was brought
into direct communication with England by the establishment of monthly
steamers from Liverpool to Valparaiso, _via_ the Straits of Magellan.
They had to await the diminished fuel consumption, which the company
itself did so much to bring about through compound engines and surface
condensation.
In the following years we ourselves were not idle. In 1843 the
celebrated screw steamer Princeton—whose name is connected in so
melancholy a manner with the bursting of the “Peacemaker” and the
death of the then Secretary of the Navy, when he and a number of other
high officials were visiting the ship—was built for the navy after
Ericsson’s designs, and fitted with one of his propellers. She was
164 feet long, with 30 feet 6 inches beam, and a displacement, at 18
feet draught, of 1,046 tons. She had a very flat floor, with great
sharpness forward and excessive leanness aft. She may almost be taken
as representative of the later type in model. She had three boilers,
each 26 feet long, 9 feet 4 inches high, and 7 feet wide, with a grate
surface of 134 square feet. In 1845, Mr. R. B. Forbes, of Boston, so
long known for his intimate and successful connection with shipping
interests, built the auxiliary screw steamers Massachusetts and Edith
for transatlantic trade. The former was somewhat the larger, and was
178 feet long and 32 broad. Her machinery was designed by Ericsson, and
had 2 cylinders, 25 inches diameter, working nearly at right angles
to each other. The machinery was built by Hogg & Delamater, of New
York, and had the peculiarity of having the shaft pass through the
stern at the side of the stern-post, under a patent of Ericsson’s. The
propeller, on Ericsson’s principle, was 9-1/2 feet diameter, and could
be hoisted when the ship was under sail. She made but one voyage to
Liverpool, and was then chartered by our Government to carry troops to
Mexico, in 1846; but was later bought into the naval service and known
as the Farralones.
In June, 1847, the same year which witnessed the establishment of the
Pacific Mail Company, the Washington, of 4,000 tons displacement, and
of 2,000 indicated horse-power, was the pioneer of a line between New
York and Bremen, touching at Southampton. The Hermann followed a little
later, but was somewhat larger, the dimensions of the two ships being:
Washington. Hermann.
Total length 236 241
Beam 39 40
Depth 31 31
Their displacement was about 4,000 tons. The Franklin followed in 1848,
and the Humboldt in 1850, both being a good deal larger than the two
preceding. The latter two were, however, employed only between New York
and Havre.
In 1850 the Collins line was formed, with a large Government subsidy.
In the same year the Inman line was established, with screw steamers
built of iron—two differences from the prevailing construction, which
were to bear so powerful an influence in a few years against the
success of steamers of the type brought out by the Collins company. In
1858 came the North German Lloyd, with the modest beginnings of its now
great fleet, and in 1861 the French Compagnie Transatlantique. In 1863
the National line was established; in 1866 the Williams & Guion (now
the Guion), which had previously existed as a line of sailing-packets;
and in 1870 the White Star.
These are those in which we are most interested, as they touch our
shores; but in the interval other lines were directed to all parts of
the world, few seaports remaining, of however little importance, or
lying however far from civilization, that cannot now be reached by
regular steam communication.
The establishment of the Collins line was one of the great events of
steamship history. We had been so successful upon our coasts, rivers,
and lakes, that it was but natural we should make some effort to do our
part with steam upon the greater field of international trade. It was
impossible that the monopoly which had existed for ten years in the
hands of the Cunard company should not be combated by some one, and
with the advent of the Collins line came a strife for supremacy, the
memories of which are still vivid in the minds of thousands on both
sides of the Atlantic.
The Cunard company at this time had increased their fleet by the
addition of the America, Niagara, Europa, and Columbia, all built
in 1848. Their machinery did not differ materially from that of the
preceding ships, in general design, but there had, in the course of
practice, come better workmanship and design of parts, and the boiler
pressure had been increased to 13 pounds, bringing the expenditure per
horse-power down to 3.8 pounds per hour. In these ships the freight
capacity had been nearly doubled, fifty per cent. had been added to
their passenger accommodation, and the company was altogether pursuing
the successful career which was due a line which could command $35 a
ton for freight from Liverpool to New York—a reminiscence which must
make it appear the Golden Age to the unfortunate steamship-owner of
to-day, who is now most happy with a seventh of such earnings.
The Collins steamers were a new departure in model and arrangement;
they were built by William H. Brown, a famous builder of the time;
exceeded in size and speed anything then afloat, and reduced the
journey in 1851 and 1852 to about 11 days—though some voyages were made
in less than 10 days. The Cunard line put afloat the Asia and Africa
as competitors, but they neither equalled the American steamers in
size nor speed. The former were of 3,620 tons displacement, with 1,000
indicated horse-power. The comparison of size between them and the
Collins steamers is as follows:
Length. Depth. Beam. Draught.
ft. ft. in. ft. ft. in.
Arctic 282 32 45 20
Asia 266 27 2 40 18 9
The three other vessels of the Collins line were the Baltic, Atlantic,
and Pacific. They formed a notable fleet, and fixed for many years to
come the type of the American steamship in model and arrangement. They
were the work of a man of genius who had the courage to cast aside
tradition where it interfered with practical purposes. The bowsprit was
dispensed with; the vertical stem, now so general, was adopted, and
everything subordinated to the use of the ships as steamers.
But great disaster was in store for these fine ships. The Arctic, on
September 21, 1854, while on her voyage out, was struck by the French
steamer Vesta, in a fog off Cape Race, and but 46 out of the 268
persons on board were saved. The Pacific left Liverpool on June 23,
1856, and was never heard of after. The Adriatic, a much finer ship
than any of her predecessors, was put afloat; but the line was doomed.
Extravagance in construction and management, combined with the losses
of two of their ships and a refusal of further aid from the Government,
were too much for the line to bear, and in 1858 the end came. Ever
since, the European companies, with the exception of the time during
which the line from Philadelphia has been running and the time during
which some desultory efforts have been put forth, have had to compete
among themselves. The sworn statement of the Collins company had shown
the first four ships to have cost $2,944,142.71. The actual average
cost of each of the first 28 voyages was $65,215.64; and the average
receipts, $48,286.85—showing a loss on each voyage of $16,928.79.
To discuss the causes of our failure to hold our own in the carrying
trade of the world may seem somewhat out of place, but the subject is
so interesting in many ways that a few words may not be amiss.
The following is a comparative table showing the steam tonnage of the
United States and of the British Empire, beginning with the year in
which ocean steam navigation may be said to have been put fairly on its
feet. Our own is divided into “oversea,” or that which can trade beyond
United States waters, and “enrolled,” which includes all in home waters:
-----+-------+--------+-------+----------
Years| United States | |British
| | Total |Empire
-----+-------+--------| |(including
|Oversea|Enrolled| | Colonies)
-----+-------+--------+-------+----------
1838|2,791 |190,632 |193,423| 82,716
1840|4,155 |198,184 |202,339| 95,807
1842|4,701 |224,960 |229,681| 118,930
1844|6,909 |265,270 |272,179| 125,675
1846|6,287 |341,606 |347,893| 144,784
1848|16,068 |411,823 |427,891| 168,087
1850|44,942 |481,005 |525,947| 187,631
1852|79,704 |563,536 |643,240| 227,306
1854|95,036 |581,571 |676,607| 326,484
1855|115,045| ... | ... | ...
1856|89,715 |583,362 |673,077| 417,717
1858|78,027 |651,363 |729,390| 488,415
1860|97,269 |770,641 |500,144| 500,144
-----+-------+--------+-------+----------
It will be seen from this table how great the extension of the use of
the steamboat had been in the United States in these earlier years, as
compared with that elsewhere. In 1852 our enrolled tonnage had grown to
more than half a million tons, or well on to three times the whole of
that of the British Empire, and our oversea tonnage was about one-third
of that of Great Britain and her dependencies.
One reason for this very rapid increase in the enrolled tonnage was,
of course, the fact that railroads had not yet begun to seam the West,
as they were shortly to do: the steamboat was the great and absolutely
necessary means of transport, and was to hold its prominence in this
regard for some years yet to come. When this change came, there came
with it a change in circumstances which went far beyond all other
causes in removing our shipping from the great place it had occupied
in the first half of this century. But great as was the effect worked
by this change, there were certain minor causes which have to be taken
into account. We had grown in maritime power through the events of
the Napoleonic wars—which, though they worked ruin to many an unlucky
owner, enriched many more—as we were for some years almost the only
neutral bottoms afloat; we had rapidly increased this power during
the succeeding forty years, during which time our ships were notably
the finest models and the most ably commanded on the seas; the best
blood of New England went into the service, and one has but to read
the reports of the English parliamentary commissions upon the shipping
subject to realize the proud position which our ships and, above all,
our ships’ captains held in the carrying trade. We had entered the
steam competition with an energy and ability that promised much, but
we gave little or no heed to changes in construction until long after
they had been accepted by the rest of the world; and it is to this
conservatism, paradoxical as the expression may seem applied to our
countrymen, that part of our misfortune was due.
The first of the changes we were so unwilling to accept was that from
wood to iron; the other was that from paddle to screw. Even so late as
the end of the decade 1860-70, while all the world else was building
ships of iron, propelled by screws, some of which were driven by
compound engines, our last remaining great company, the Pacific Mail,
put afloat four magnificent failures (from the commercial point of
view), differing scarcely in any point, except in size, from those of
1850-56. They were of wood, and had the typically national over-head
beam engine. They were most comfortable and luxurious boats; but the
sending them into the battle of commerce at such a date, was like
pitting the old wooden three-decker with her sixty-four pounders
against the active steel cruiser of to-day and her modern guns. Many of
the iron screws built at the same time are still in active service; but
the fine old China, America, Alaska, and Japan are long since gone, and
with them much of the company’s success and fortune.
Of course, one great reason for this non-acceptance was the fact that,
with us, wood for ship-building was still plentiful, and that it was
cheaper so to build than to build in iron, to which material English
builders were driven by an exact reversal of these conditions; and the
retention of the paddle over the screw was due in a certain degree to
the more frequent necessity of repair of wooden screw ships, to which
it is not possible to give the necessary structural strength at the
stern to withstand successfully the jarring action of the screw at high
speeds.
The part in advancing the British commercial fleet played by the
abrogation of the navigation laws, in 1849, which had their birth in
the time of Cromwell (and to which we have held with such tenacity, as
ours were modelled upon theirs), need only be barely mentioned. British
ship-owners were in despair at the change, and many sold off their ship
property to avoid what they expected to be the ruin of the shipping
trade, but the change was only to remove the fetters which they had
worn so long that they did not know them as such.
But the great and overwhelming cause, to which the effect of our
navigation laws were even secondary, was the opening up of the vast
region lying west of the earlier formed States; the building of our
gigantic system of railways; the exploitation, in a word, of the great
interior domain, of the possibilities of which, preceding 1850, we were
only dimly conscious, and so much of which had only just been added by
the results of the Mexican War. It is so difficult, from the present
standpoint, to realize the mighty work which has been done on the
American continent in this short space of forty years, that its true
bearings on this subject are sometimes disregarded. The fact that the
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, at this date, was not running its trains
beyond Cumberland, Md., will give an impression of the vastness of the
work which was done later.
The period 1850-60 cannot be passed over without a mention of the Great
Eastern, though she can hardly be said to have been in the line of
practical development, which was not so much in enlargement of hull as
in change in character of machinery. Brunel’s son, in his “Life” of his
father, says: “It was no doubt his connection with the Australian Mail
Company (1851-53) that led Mr. Brunel to work out into practical shape
the idea of a great ship for the Indian or Australian service, which
had long occupied his mind.”
The Great Eastern was to attempt to solve by her bulk the problem
of coal capacity which was later to be solved by high pressures and
surface condensation. The ship finally determined on was 680 feet long,
83 feet broad, with a mean draught of 25 feet, with screw engines of
4,000 indicated horse-power and paddle-engines of 2,600, to work with
steam from 15 to 25 pounds pressure—thus curiously uniting in herself
at this transition period the two rival systems of propulsion. She
was begun at Millwall, London, in the spring of 1854, and was finally
launched, after many difficulties, on January 30, 1858. Her history
is too well known to be dwelt upon here. She has experienced many
vicissitudes and misfortunes, and it is well that her great projector
(who paid for her with his life, as he died the year after her
launching) did not live to see her used as an exhibit, in 1886, in the
River Mersey, her great sides serving to blazon the name and fame of a
Liverpool clothing establishment. She was sold the next year for the
pitiful sum of £8,000 and broken up.
The year 1855 marks the high-water mark of the paddle-steamer era. In
that year were built the Adriatic, by the Collins line, and the Persia,
as a competitor (and the twenty-eighth ship of the company), by the
Cunard. But the former was of wood, the latter of iron. She was among
the earlier ships of this material to be built by the Cunard company,
and, with the slightly larger Scotia, built in 1862, was, for some
years after the cessation of the Collins line, the favorite and most
successful steamer upon the Atlantic. She was 376 feet long, 45 feet 3
inches broad, and of about 5,500 tons displacement. Her cylinders were
100-1/2 inches diameter, with 120 inches stroke, and she had—as also
the preceding ship, the Arabia—tubular boilers instead of the old flue.
[Illustration: Model of the Persia and Scotia.]
1830 +------------------------------------ 9 lbs.
|
1840 +---------------------- 5-1/2 „
|
1850 +---------------- 4 „
|
1860 +------------ 3.1 „
|
1870 +---------- 2.6 „
|
1880 +-------- 2.2 „
|
1886 +------ 1.5 „
and |
since|
Diagram showing Decrease in Expediture of Coal per indicated
Horse-power per hour based on Good Average Practice
1830— 2 @ 3 lbs. +--
1835— 5 lbs. +--
1840— 8 „ +--
1845—10 „ +--
1850—14 „ +---
1855—21 „ +----
1860—30 „ +-----
1865—40 „ +-------
1870—50 „ +---------
1875—60 „ +-----------
1880—70 „ +-------------
1882—80 „ +---------------
1885-6—150 @ 180 lbs. +--------------------------------
and
since
Diagram showing increase in Steam-pressures based on good average
Practice
How great an advantage she was upon their first ship will be seen by
the following comparison:
Britannia. Persia.
Coal necessary to steam to
New York 570 tons 1,400 tons
Cargo carried 224 „ 750 „
Passengers 90 250
Indicated power 710 3,600
Pressure per square inch 9 lbs. 33 lbs.
Coal per indicated horse-power
per hour 5.1 „ 3.8 „
Speed 8.5 knots 13.1 knots
Thus, for two and a half times the quantity of coal nearly three and
a half times the cargo was carried, and nearly three times the number
of passengers. This result was due partially to increased engine
efficiency, and partially to increased size of ship; and thus to a
relative reduction of the power necessary to drive a given amount of
displacement.
The Scotia was almost a sister ship to the Persia, slightly exceeding
her in size, but with no radical differences which would mark her
as an advance upon the latter. She was the last of the old régime
in the Atlantic trade, and the same year in which she was built saw
the complete acceptance by the Cunard company of the newer order of
things, in the building of the iron screw steamer China, of 4,000 tons
displacement, with oscillating geared screw engines of 2,200 indicated
horse-power, with an average speed of 12.9 knots on a daily expenditure
of 82 tons of coal. She was the first of their ships to be fitted with
a surface condenser. The Scotia had been built as a paddle steamer
rather in deference to the prejudices of passengers than in conformity
to the judgment of the company, which had put afloat iron screw ships
for their Mediterranean trade as early as 1852 and 1853.
* * * * *