A contest of a very remarkable kind is now going on, one which is
pregnant with important results in respect to commerce, to naval
architecture, to geographical discovery, to colonisation, to the
spread of intelligence, to the improvement of industrial art, and to
the balance of political power among nations. The nature of this
contest cannot be better made intelligible than by giving the words of
a challenge recently put forth: 'The American Navigation Company
challenge the ship-builders of Great Britain to a ship-race, with
cargo on board, from a port in England to a port in China and back.
One ship to be entered by each party, and to be named within a week of
the start. The ships to be modelled, commanded, and officered entirely
by citizens of the United States and Great Britain respectively; to be
entitled to rank "A 1" either at the American offices or at Lloyd's.
The stakes to be L.10,000, and satisfactorily secured by both parties;
to be paid without regard to accidents, or to any exceptions; the
whole amount forfeited by either party not appearing. Judges to be
mutually chosen. Reasonable time to be given after notice of
acceptance, to build the ships, if required, and also for discharging
and loading cargo in China. The challenged party may name the size of
the ships--not under 800 nor over 1200 American register tons; the
weight and measurement which may be carried each way; and the
allowance for short weight or oversize.'
There is a boldness, a straightforwardness, an honesty in this
challenge, which cannot be mistaken. It is difficult to be interpreted
in any other sense than that the challengers _mean_ what they say.
Brother Jonathan has fairly thrown down the gauntlet to the
Britishers, and it behoves the latter to take it up in a becoming
spirit. Our ship-builders, especially on the Dee, the Clyde, the Wear,
the Mersey, and the Thames, ought to feel that much is now expected
from them; for if once the Yankees obtain a reputation--a European
reputation it will then be--for outstripping British ships on the
broad seas, our ship-owners will assuredly feel the effects in a
commercial sense.
This question of the speed of ships is a very curious one. Empirical
rules, rather than scientific principles, have hitherto determined the
forms which shall be given to ships. Smith adopts a certain form
because Brown's ship sailed well, whereas Jones's differently shaped
vessel was a bad sailer; although Smith, Brown, and Jones collectively
may be little able to shew _why_ one of the vessels should sail better
than the other.
If opportunity should occur to the reader to visit a large
ship-building establishment, such as those on any one of the five
rivers named above, he will see something like the following routine
of operation going on:--
There is, first, the 'ship's draughtsman,' whose duties are somewhat
analogous to those of the architect of a house, or the engineer of a
railway, or the scientific cutter at a fashionable tailor's: he has to
shape the materials out of which the structure is to be built up, or
at least he has to shew others how it is to be done. When the
ship-builder has received an order, we will say, to construct a ship,
and has ascertained for what route, and for what purpose, and of what
size it is to be, he and his ship's draughtsman 'lay their heads
together' to devise such an arrangement of timbers as will meet the
requirements of the case. Here it is that a _science_ of ship-building
would be valuable; the practical rules followed are deductions not so
much from general principles as from accumulated facts which are
waiting to be systematised; and until this process has been carried
further, ship-building will be an _art_, but not a _science_. Well,
then; the draughtsman, gathering up all the crumbs of knowledge
obtainable from various quarters, puts his wisdom upon paper in the
form of drawings and diagrams, to represent not only the dimensions of
the vessel, but the sizes and shapes of the principal timbers which
are to form it, on the scale, perhaps, of a quarter of an inch to a
foot. Then this very responsible personage goes to his 'mould-loft,'
on the wide-spreading floor of which he chalks such a labyrinth of
lines as bewilder one even to look at. These lines represent the
actual sizes and shapes of the different parts of the ship, with
curvatures and taperings of singularly varied character. One floor of
one room thus contains full-sized contours of all the timbers for the
ship.
So far, then, the draughtsman. Next, under his supervision, thin
planks of deal are cut to the contours of all these chalk-lines; and
these thin pieces, called _moulds_, are intended to guide the sawyers
in cutting the timbers for the ship. A large East Indiaman requires
more than a hundred mould-pieces, chalked and marked in every
direction.
Another skilful personage, called the 'converter,' then makes a tour
of the timber-yard, and looks about for all the odd, crooked, crabbed
trunks of oak and elm which he can find; well knowing that if the
natural curvature of a tree accords somewhat with the required
curvature of a ship's timber, the timber will be stronger than if cut
from a straight trunk. He has the mould-pieces for a guide, and
searches until he has ferreted out all the timbers wanted. Then he
sets the sawyers to work, who, with the mould-pieces always at hand,
shape the large trunks to the required form. And here it may be noted
as a remarkable fact, that although we live in such a steam-engine and
machine-working age, very few engines or machines afford aid in sawing
ships' timbers. The truth seems to be, that the curvatures are so
numerous and varied, that machine-sawing would scarcely be applicable.
Yet attempts are from time to time made to construct such machines. Mr
Cochran has invented one; and it is said that at the Earl of Rosse's
first soirée as president of the Royal Society, a model of this
timber-cutting machine was exhibited; that Prince Albert cut a
miniature timber with it; and that he thus began an apprenticeship to
the national art of ship-building.
Leaving the supposed visitor to a ship-yard to trace the timbers
through all their stages of progress, we will proceed with that which
is more directly the object of the present paper--namely, the relation
of _speed_ to _build_. Some sixteen or eighteen years ago, the British
Association rightly conceived that its Mechanical Section would be
worthily occupied in an inquiry concerning the forms of ships, and the
effect of form on the speed and steadiness. The inquiry was intrusted
to Mr Scott Russell and Mr (afterwards Sir John) Robison; and
admirably has it been carried out. Mr Scott Russell, especially, has
sought to establish something like a _science_ of form in
ship-building--precisely the thing which would supply a proper basis
for the artificers.
It is interesting to see how, year after year, this committee of two
persons narrated the result of their unbought and unpaid labours to
the Association. In 1838 and 1839, they shewed how a solid moving in
the water produced a particular kind of wave; how, at a certain
velocity, the solid might ride on the _top_ of the wave, without
sinking into the hollow; how, if the external form of a vessel bore a
certain resemblance to a section of this wave, the ship would
encounter less resistance in the water than any other form; and thus
originated the _wave principle_--so much talked of in connection with
ship-building. A ship built on that principle in that year (1839) was
believed to be the fastest ship in Britain. In 1840, the committee
stated that they had 'consulted the most eminent ship-builders as to
the points upon which they most wanted information, and requested them
to point out what were the forms of vessel which they would wish to
have tried. More than 100 models of vessels of various sizes, from 30
inches to 25 feet in length, were constructed,' and an immense mass of
experiments were made on them. In 1841, they described how they had
experimented on vessels of every size, from models of 30 inches in
length to vessels of 1300 tons. In the next following year, the
committee presented a report of no fewer than 20,000 experiments on
models and ships, some of which afforded remarkable confirmation of
the efficiency of the wave principle in ship-building. Thus the
committee went on, year after year, detailing to the Association the
results of their experiments, and pointing out how the ship-builders
were by degrees giving practical value to these results.
Now, a country in which a scientific society will spend a thousand
pounds on such an inquiry, and in which scientific men will give up
days and weeks of their time to it without fee or reward, _ought_ not
to be beaten on the broad seas by any competitor. It affords an
instructive confirmation of the results arrived at by the committee,
that when some of our swiftest yachts and clippers came to be
carefully examined, it was found that the wave principle had been to a
great extent adopted in their form, in cases even where the vessels
were built before the labours of the committee had commenced. The
_art_ had in this case preceded the _science_. And let it not be
considered that any absurdity is involved here: farmers manured their
fields long before chemists were able to explain the real nature of
manuring; and so in other arts, ingenious practical men often discover
useful processes before the men of science can give the rationale of
those processes.
It may be all very well to assert, that 'Britannia rules the waves,'
and that 'Britons never will be slaves,' and so forth; only let us
prove the assertions to be _true_, or not assert at all. We must
appeal to the 'Shipping Intelligence' which comes to hand from every
side, and determine, from actual facts, whether any one country really
outsails another.
Among the facts which thus present themselves to notice, is one
relating to _clippers_. Who first gave the name of clipper to a ship,
or what the name means, we do not know; but a clipper is understood to
be a vessel so shaped as to sail faster than other vessels of equal
tonnage. It is said that these swift sailers originated in the wants
of the salmon shippers, and others at our eastern ports. A bulky,
slow-moving ship may suffice for the conveyance to London of the
minerals and manufactures of Northumberland and Durham; but salmon and
other perishable articles become seriously deteriorated by a long
voyage; and hence it is profitable in such case to sacrifice bulk to
speed. Leith, Dundee, and especially Aberdeen, are distinguished for
the speed of their vessels above those of the Tyne and the Wear; and
the above facts probably explain the cause of the difference. The
Aberdeen clipper is narrow, very keen and penetrating in front,
gracefully tapering at the stern, and altogether calculated to 'go
ahead' through the water in rapid style. As compared with one of the
ordinary old-fashioned English coasting brigs of equal tonnage, an
Aberdeen clipper will attain nearly double the speed. One of these
fine vessels, the _Chrysolite_, in a recent voyage from China,
traversed 320 nautical miles (nearly 370 English statute miles) in
twenty-four hours: this was a great performance. But it must not be
forgotten, that the United States claim to have attained a high
ship-speed before England had thought much on the matter; the
Baltimore clippers have long been known on the other side of the
Atlantic as dashing, rapid, little vessels, mostly either single or
double-masted.
It is to the opening of the China trade the present wonderful rivalry
may in great part be attributed. So long as European vessels were
cooped up stagnantly in Canton river, and allowed to trade only under
circumstances of great restriction and annoyance, little was effected
except by the tea-drinking denizens of Great Britain; but when, by the
treaty of Nankin in 1842, Sir Henry Pottinger obtained the opening of
the four ports of Amoy, Foo-tchow-foo, Ning-po, and Shang-hae, and
stipulated that foreign vessels should be allowed to share with those
of England the liberty of trading at those ports, there was a great
impetus given to ship-builders and ship-owners: those who had goods to
sell, thus found a new market for them; and those who could perform
the voyage most quickly, would have a quicker return for their
capital. This, following at an interval of seven or eight years the
changes made in the India trade by the East India Company's charter of
1834, brought the Americans and the French and others into the Indian
seas in great numbers. Then came the wonders of 1847, in the discovery
of Californian gold; and those of 1851, in the similar discoveries in
Australia.
Now, these four dates--1834, 1842, 1847, 1851--may be considered as
four starting-points, each marked by a renewed conquest of man over
the waves, and a strengthened but not hostile rivalry on the seas
between nation and nation. So many inducements are now afforded to
merchants to transact their dealings rapidly, that the ship-builders
are beset on all sides with demands for more speed--more speed; and it
is significant to observe that, in almost every recent newspaper
account of a ship-launch, we are told how many knots an hour she is
expected to attain when fitted. Every ship seems to beat every other
ship, in the glowing language employed; but after making a little
allowance for local vanity, there is a substratum of correctness which
shews strongly how we are advancing in rate of speed.
It will really now become useful to collect and preserve records of
speed at sea, in connection with particular ships of particular build,
as a guide to future construction. Mr Henry Wise published a volume
about 1840, containing an analysis of one hundred voyages, made by
ships belonging to the East India Company, extracted from the ships'
logs preserved by the Company. It appears that an average gave 112
days as the duration of a voyage from London to Bombay. Now, within
the last few months we have seen that the _Chrysolite_, a small
clipper, built at Aberdeen for a Liverpool firm, has made the run from
England to China in 104 days; and the _Stornoway_, built at the same
place for a London firm, has accomplished the distance in 103 days.
Let the reader open his map, and compare the relative distances of
Bombay and China from England, and he will then see what a wonderful
increase of speed is implied in the above numbers. Three American
clippers were sighted during the out and home voyages of the two
vessels, and, if newspaper reports tell truly, were distanced by them.
We must not expect that the vast and unprecedented emigration to
California and Australia now going on, will be designedly and
materially connected with high speed, because most of the emigrants go
in roomy ships, at fares as low as are attainable; but goods-traffic,
and the higher class of passenger-traffic, are every month coming more
and more within the domain of high speed. Let us take two instances
which 1852 has afforded, one furnished by England, and one by
America--one connected with the Australian trade, and one with the
Chinese. The Aberdeen clipper-built barque, _Phoenician_, arrived at
Plymouth on February 3, having left Sydney on November 12, and
performed the voyage in 83 days! Her previous voyages had varied from
88 to 103 days. The other instance is that of the American clipper,
_Witch of the Wave_, a fine vessel of 1400 tons burden, which left
Canton on 5th January, and arrived in the Downs on 4th April, a period
of 90 days. Her greatest speed is said to have been 338 nautical
miles--equivalent to about 389 English miles--in 24 hours.
Thus it is, we find, that in one voyage we beat the Americans--in
another, they outstrip us; and there seems at present no reason why
either country should fail in making still further advances. The
Liverpool and New York packet-trade affords another example of the
same principle which we have been considering; gradually these truly
noble vessels are acquiring an increased rate of speed. Not only does
the general desire for high speed impel their owners to this, but
there is a more direct incentive in the increased rivalry of
steam-vessels. The American 'liners,' as the sailing-packets on this
route are usually called, have had in past years an average of about
36 days outward passage, and 24 days homeward; but they are now
shooting ahead unmistakably. The _Racer_, built at New York in 1851,
and placed upon the Liverpool station, is a magnificent clipper of
1700 tons register; it made its first voyage from New York to
Liverpool in 14 days--a quickness not only exceeding that of its
predecessors, but leaving nearly all of them many days in arrear. Even
this, however, was shortly afterwards excelled; for another new
clipper, the _Washington_, accomplished the distance in a little over
13-1/2 days.
The pleasure-vessels which are so numerous in the south of England,
belonging to the several yacht-clubs, are sharing in the modern
speed-producing improvements observable in other vessels. Every one
has heard of the yacht _America_, which arrived at Cowes from the
United States in July 1851, and of the challenge which her owners
threw out against English yacht-owners. Every one knows that the
_America_ beat the yachts which were fitted against her. This victory
has led to an immense activity on the part of yacht-builders in
England; they are studying all the peculiarities in the build and the
trim of the yachts belonging to the different ports and different
countries; and we are justified by every analogy in expecting, that
good results will spring out of wits thus sharpened.
Although we have not deemed it necessary in the present paper to touch
on the national struggle between steam-ships, we must not forget that
one of the most promising and valuable features in steam navigation
arose as an appendage to sailing. The _auxiliary screw_ will deserve
the blessings of our colonists, for reasons which may be soon told.
When it was yet uncertain what result would mark the contest _Screw_
v. _Paddle_, it was suggested that the screw-propeller might probably
be used as an auxiliary power, for occasional use during calms and
contrary winds; the vessel to be a sailing-vessel under ordinary
circumstances; but to have a marine engine and a screw for exigencies
at times when the ship would be brought to a stand-still or even
driven backwards. About seven years ago, an American packet-ship, the
_Massachusetts_, a complete sailing-vessel in other respects, was
provided with a screw and a steam-engine powerful enough to keep the
ship moving when winds and tides were adverse; the screw was capable
of being lifted out of the water when not in use. In her first voyage
from Liverpool to America, this ship gained from five to thirteen days
as compared with five other ships which sailed either on the same or
the following day. This experiment was deemed so far successful, that
the Admiralty ordered, in 1846, an auxiliary screw to be fitted to the
_Amphion_ frigate, then building at Woolwich. Another example was the
_Sarah Sands_, an iron ship of 1300 tons; she had engines of 180
horse-power, much below that requisite for an ordinary steamer of the
same size. She could carry three classes of passengers, coal for the
whole voyage, and 900 tons of merchandise. She made four voyages in
1847, two out and two home; and in 1848 she made five: her average
time was about nineteen days out, and seventeen days home, and she
usually passed about six liners on the voyage.
The speed here mentioned is not quite equal to that of the truly
remarkable clippers noticed above, but it far exceeded that of any
liner at work in 1848. The example was followed in other vessels; and
then men began to cherish the vision of a propeller screwing its way
through the broad ocean to our distant colonies. From this humble
beginning as an auxiliary, the screw has obtained a place of more and
more dignity, until at length we see the mails for the Cape and for
Australia intrusted confidently to its safe-keeping.
The icy regions of the north are braved by the auxiliary screw. The
little _Isabel_, fitted out almost entirely at the expense of Lady
Franklin to aid in the search for her gallant husband, is a brigantine
of 180 tons, with an auxiliary screw to ship and unship. The
_Intrepid_ and the _Pioneer_, the two screw-steamers which form part
of Sir Edward Belcher's arctic expedition--lately started from
England--are to work with or without their auxiliary appendage as
circumstances may determine.
The present article, however, will shew that sailing is not less alive
and busy than steaming; and that the yachts and clippers of both
nations are probably destined to a continuous series of improvements.
When these improvements--whether by aid of scientific societies and
laborious experiments, or by the watchful eye and the shrewd
intelligence of ship-builders, or by both combined--have advanced
steadily to a point perhaps far beyond that which we have yet
attained, then, if at all, may we trouble ourselves about the
question--'Who shall rule the waves?'