A MILE A MINUTE.
“The express is to be quickened, my lord. Mr. Thompson, the general
manager, has given instructions to that effect.”
So spoke the station master at Carlisle, on the 17th of March, 1894, to
Lord Rosebery.
His lordship had very recently been appointed Prime Minister, and was
on his way to Edinburgh to deliver a great public speech. The train,
presumably, was late, or he, through stress of business probably, had
left too little margin of time. However, by the instructions of Mr.
Thompson, the general manager of the Caledonian Railway, the express
was accelerated, and it rushed over 101 miles in 105 minutes, one of
the quickest locomotive runs, we imagine, that have ever been recorded.
The train arrived fifteen minutes before it was due, and Lord Rosebery
was enabled to keep his engagement.
This run was approximately at the rate of a mile a minute, and
maintained for an hour and three-quarters. Only some two years or so
previously a somewhat similar run was made. An officer of the Guards
found that he had lost the south-going mail train at Stirling. He had
been on leave in Scotland, and was bound to report himself in London
next morning.
What was he to do? Did he sit down and moan, or fly to the telegraph
office and endeavour to excuse himself? Not he. He promptly engaged a
special train, which flying over the metals, actually caught the mail
at Carlisle, having covered 118 miles in 126 minutes; that is, again,
approximately a mile a minute, and maintained for slightly over two
hours.
Now, in order to attain high average speed, some parts of the journey,
say very easy inclines or levels, must be covered at a much higher
rate. Thus, to obtain an average of fifty-two miles an hour—which is
probably the regular average of our best English expresses—the pace
will most likely be sometimes at the rate of seventy, or it may be
seventy-six, miles per hour.
The United States have claimed to run the fastest regular train. This
is the “Empire State Express” of the New York Central, which bursts
away from New York to Buffalo, a trip of 140 miles, at the average rate
of 52-12/100 miles per hour, but running eighty miles at the rate of
56¾ miles an hour. It is also said that, in August, 1891, a train on
the New York portion of the Reading road ran a mile in less than forty
seconds, and covered a dozen miles at an average of barely 43½ seconds
per mile.
English expresses could certainly accomplish these average speeds,
but the fact is very high speeds do not pay. They wear everything
to pieces. Then there is the coal consumption. American railway
engineers—according to the _Engineer_ newspaper—“seem to be unable to
get on with less than 100 lbs. per square foot (of fire grate area) as
a minimum;” while, from the same paper, we learn that the average rate
of burning of Mr. Webb’s remarkable North-Western engine, the “Greater
Britain,” was but “a little over seventy-three lbs. per square foot per
hour,” or, altogether, 1500 lbs. per hour.
The rails also are greatly worn by continuous high speeds. Engineers
have been equal to this difficulty, and rails are now made of steel,
and even steel sleepers are constructed on which the rails repose. But
still the wear and tear, especially to engines, of continuous high
speeds, is very great. The reason why the famous “Race to Edinburgh”
was stopped was doubtless because of the needless wear and tear. Surely
an average of fifty to fifty-two miles an hour is fast enough for all
ordinary purposes. If greater speed can be obtained without too great a
cost, well and good; but if not, the public must be content.
Nevertheless, during that famous “Race” in the summer of 1888, some
magnificent engine work was accomplished. Thus, for instance, the
North-Western and their partners actually ran from Euston to Edinburgh,
400 miles, in 427 minutes. Then the Great Northern and their partners,
the East Coast route, next day covered 393 miles in 423 minutes, this
journey including 124½ miles from Newcastle to Edinburgh covered in 123
minutes. This speed is, of course, more than a mile a minute, and kept
up for slightly over two hours.
The third-class passenger was at the root of the matter. Companies are
finding out they must consult his convenience; and the beginning of the
“Race” was probably the announcement that the “Flying Scotchman”—the
10 o’clock morning train from King’s Cross—would carry third-class
passengers. Hitherto it had beaten its rival, the West Coast route (run
by the North-Western and its partner, the Caledonian), as to speed, but
had conveyed only first and second-class passengers.
Thereupon the West Coast announced that they would reach Edinburgh
in nine hours. As this route is harder for engines—for it climbs the
Cumbrian Hills, and is, moreover, seven miles longer—this would mean
faster running and harder work than its rivals. The Great Northern,
which according to its well-deserved reputation probably tops the world
for speed, could not brook this, so the East Coast route reduced its
time from nine hours to eight hours and a-half.
So the contest stood for about a month, when the West Coast calmly
announced the same time for its journey. Thenceforward the blows fell
thick and fast. It was a battle of giants, but fought with good temper
and gentlemanly honour on both sides.
The West Coast were arriving at Edinburgh at half-past six. “The Flying
Scotchman,” by the East Coast route, thereupon drew up in the Scotch
capital at six o’clock. Then the West Coast ran to Edinburgh in eight
hours, stretching away from Euston to Crewe, 158½ miles in 178 minutes,
without a stop—probably the longest run without a break ever made. The
Caledonian Company, the North-Western’s partner, then ran from Carlisle
to Edinburgh, 100¾ miles, in 104 minutes. The North-Western thereupon
actually ran from Preston to Carlisle, over the Cumberland Hills,
ninety miles in ninety minutes—a magnificent performance hard indeed
to beat, if, in fact, it ever has been really beaten; while, later
on, the same Company ran from Euston to Crewe in 167 minutes instead
of their remarkable 178 minutes a few days previously. This, with the
other accelerations, gave the West Coast their record run of 400 miles
in 427 minutes of running time, which took place on the 13th of August.
But the East Coast had also accelerated, the North-Eastern covering 205
miles in 235 minutes, and the Great Northern rendering an equally good,
if not better, performance, the whole 393 miles being covered in 423
minutes. Some of the miles on the East Coast route sped by at the rate
of seventy-six an hour.
To accomplish these runs the weight of trains was cut down, and the
times of stoppages reduced or abolished altogether. But the expense
was too great. It did not really “pay” in convenience or in money,
and to these judgments companies must bow. But considering that the
Great Northern reaches Grantham, 105¼ miles, in 115 minutes as a
daily occurrence, an approximate running of near a mile a minute, and
that the North-Western can run at an average of fifty-five miles an
hour, the locomotive has amply justified George Stephenson’s prophecy
when he made “Blucher,” that there was no limit to the speed of the
locomotive, provided the work could be made to stand.
Mr. C. R. Deacon also prophesied a few years since in an American
magazine that a hundred miles an hour would be the express speed of
the future, provided that passengers would give up luxurious cars and
dining and sleeping carriages. At present it seems questionable if they
will do so.
[Illustration: THE “FLYING DUTCHMAN.”]
But speed is by no means the monopoly of the North. Other companies
beside the owners of the East and West Coast routes to Scotland can run
expresses equally or almost as fast. There is the “Flying Dutchman,”
for instance, of the Great Western. It daily covers the 77¼ miles
from London to Swindon in 87 minutes. And the tale is told by Mr. W.
M. Acworth, on the authority of an inspector who was in charge of the
train, that a famous Great Western engine, the “Lord of the Isles,”
which was in the Exhibition of 1851, actually whirled a train from
Swindon to London, 77¼ miles in 72 minutes.
Some of those older engines could run bravely. Mr. Acworth reports that
“a Bristol and Exeter tank-engine with 9 feet driving wheels, a long
extinct species,” pelted down a steep incline at the speed of 80 miles
an hour, many years since, and it has never been surpassed. The fastest
speed during the Race to Edinburgh days seems to have been 76 miles,
but perhaps the weight of the trains may have accounted for this. Mr.
Acworth himself is believed to have accomplished the fastest bit of
advertised journeying in the world. He went down on the “Dutchman,”
and leaving Paddington at 11.46, he caught the return train at Swindon
and was back at 2.45, having covered 154½ miles, with five minutes for
refreshments, in 177 minutes. The line is easier on the up journey to
London, and mile after mile sped by at a rate of over 60 miles an hour.
From 56½ to 58 seconds was the chronograph’s record again and again,
while on the down journey to Swindon he records a burst of 34½ miles in
34 minutes.
The gradients of the railway form of course a most important factor
in the question of speed. The Midland has one of the hardest roads in
England for steep slopes, yet its magnificent engines bring its heavy
trains from Leicester, 99¾ miles in 122 minutes. Considering the high
levels the locomotives have to climb, only to sink again to low flats,
as about the Ouse at Bedford, this performance is really as fine as
some of the superb running of the Great Northern.
The Southern lines out of London have no long distances to cover as
the Northern, unless it may be the South-Western to Plymouth. The
South-Western to Bournemouth and Exeter, and the mail trains on the
South-Eastern, Chatham and Dover, and the Brighton trains can also show
some excellent work as regards speed.
The government of a large railway now has grown to something like the
rule of a small state. Sir George Findlay, the general manager of the
North-Western Company, in his evidence before the Labour Commission
in 1892, deposed that the capital raised for British railways amounted
to the vast sum of 897 millions of pounds; that the receipts were 80
millions yearly, that much more than half of this immense amount,
namely 43 millions, yearly was paid in wages, and that half-a-million
of men directly or indirectly were given employment.
To such enormous dimensions has the railway developed. And the
locomotive engine is the centre and soul of it all. Stephenson got
it, so to speak, on its right lines of working, and it has run along
them ever since, until in its great capacity for speed, its power for
drawing heavy loads, and its strength and beauty of construction it may
fairly be called one of the wonders of the world.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
THE STORY OF THE STEAMSHIP.
CHAPTER I.
THE “COMET” APPEARS.
“If only people could reach the place easier, I could do more business.”
So mused Henry Bell of Glasgow about the year 1810. He was an ingenious
and enterprising man, and he had established a hotel or bathing-house
at Helensburgh on the Clyde. But he wanted more visitors, and he
puzzled his brain to discover how he could offer facilities for them to
reach the place.
He tried boats, worked by paddles, propelled by hand; but these proved
a failure. They had been in use years before, though perhaps he knew it
not. Tradition says that boats fitted with paddle wheels and worked by
oxen in the boat, were known to the Egyptians, but perhaps tradition
is wrong. The Romans and the Chinese also are said to have known wheel
boats, the wheels worked by men or by animals—in the case of the
Chinese apparently by men alone. A similar kind of boat appears to have
been tried on the Thames in the seventeenth century; but whether Bell
knew of these things or not, his experiments of the same kind did not
answer. What was to be done?
He determined to build a steamboat. At first sight there does not seem
to be much connection between baths and steamboats, but apparently it
was the ownership of the one which led Henry Bell to build the other,
and to become the first man in Great Britain who used a steamboat for
what may be called public and commercial purposes.
She was a queer craft. Her funnel was bent and was used also as a mast,
and she poured forth quantities of thick smoke. But she was successful,
and laboured along at the rate of five miles an hour. Up and down the
river she plied, and whatever else she did, or did not, she made the
good folk of those days understand that steam could be applied to
navigation.
She was called the _Comet_, not because, even in the opinion of her
owner, she resembled a blazing meteor, but because, to use Bell’s own
words, “she was built and finished the same year that a comet appeared
in the north-west part of Scotland.”
“Whatever made you think of starting a steamship?” we can imagine a
friend asking him as they stood on the bank and watched the _Comet_
with her paddles shaped like malt shovels, splashing up the water.
“Partly it was Miller’s experiments, and partly it was a letter from
Fulton. You know, Fulton has put the _Clermont_ successfully on
American waters. He had been over here talking with Symington, who had
a steamer on the Forth and Clyde Canal you remember, and he wrote to me
also asking about machinery and requesting me to inquire about Miller’s
boats, and send him drawings.”
“And did you?”
“Oh ay, I did; but when he replied afterwards that he had made a
steamboat from the drawings though requiring some improvements, I
thought how absurd it was to send my opinions to other countries and
not put them into practice in our own.”
“So you made the _Comet_?”
“Well, I made a number of models before I was satisfied; but when I
was convinced the idea would work, I made a contract with John Wood &
Co., of Port-Glasgow, and they built me this boat, which I fitted up
with engine and paddles, as you see. John Robertson actually set up the
engine. We will go aboard presently, and you shall see her.”
[Illustration: BELL’S “COMET.”]
They did so, and this is something of what they saw. They found a
small vessel, forty feet long and ten and a-half wide, and only about
twenty-five tons burthen. The furnace was bricked round, and the
boiler, instead of being in the centre, was seated on one side of the
ship, with the engine beside it. But the funnel was bent and rose aloft
in the middle, and it answered the purpose of a mast—to carry sail.
“But look at the machinery,” we can imagine Bell saying to his friend.
“We have one single cylinder, you see. The piston is attached to a
crank on an axle. This axle carries a big cog wheel, which, working two
more placed on the paddle axles, causes them to revolve.”
“And the paddles?”
“Well, you see, we have now two sets on each side, and each paddle is
shaped something like a malt shovel; but I think I shall alter them,
and have paddle wheels soon.”
Bell carried out his improvement, and in a short time he did adopt the
better form of paddle wheel. The improved _Comet_, with a new engine,
attained six or seven miles an hour. But before this, Mr. Hutchison, a
brewer, built another boat, bigger than the _Comet_, and her engine was
of ten horse-power, while the _Comet’s_ was but three. She travelled
at an average of nine miles an hour, and her fares were but a-third of
those charged by coach.
The news of the steamers on the Clyde became noised abroad, and
steamboats began to appear on other British rivers. The success of the
new venture became assured.
But how had it been brought about? Bell had referred to the labours
of others, and, indeed, his was not the first steamboat, though,
doubtless, it was the first in Britain to ply for passengers.
The truth is, that as with the locomotive, several minds were working
towards the same object. And among those early steamboat seekers
Patrick Miller, of Dalswinton, and William Symington, of Wanlockhead
Mines, are entitled to high place.
Indeed, Symington is said to have built the “first practically
successful steamboat” in the world. She was called the _Charlotte
Dundas_, and, in 1802, she tugged two barges, together of about 140
tons, nineteen and a-half miles, in six hours, with a strong wind
against her.
She was built under the patronage of Lord Dundas, and was intended to
be used for towing on the Forth and Clyde Canal, but the proprietors of
the canal would not adopt this new method of propulsion; they feared
that the wash from the wheels would damage the canal banks. So the
_Charlotte Dundas_, successful though she was to a certain extent, had
to be beached and broken up. But Fulton and Bell both inspected her,
and we may infer that what they saw, influenced their subsequent action.
The engine of the _Charlotte Dundas_ was of the “double action”
character, introduced by Watt, and it turned a crank in the paddle
wheel shaft. The wheel was placed at the stern; and boats with their
wheels thus placed are still made for use in particular places. Thus
Messrs. Yarrow built one in 1892, to voyage in the shallow rivers
and lagoons on the west coast of Africa; the idea being that a
screw-propeller would have been likely to become fouled with weeds.
The _Charlotte Dundas_, we say, has been regarded as the “first
practically successful steamboat ever built.” No doubt it was so, and
the credit must be largely given to William Symington. But his success,
and that which crowned the labours of others, were rendered possible by
the inventions and improvements of James Watt.
Others had experimented before Symington. Thus, if royal records
in Spain may be trusted, a certain Blasco de Garay exhibited a
steam vessel, in 1543, at Barcelona. He placed a large cauldron of
boiling water in the ship, and a wheel on each side. Certain opinions
concerning it were favourable, and Blasco was rewarded; but the
invention was kept secret, and appears to have died.
Then, in 1655, the Marquis of Worcester is said to have invented
something like navigation by steam. Later on, Jonathan Hulls took out a
patent for a paddle steam vessel in 1736; and among others, in England,
France, and America, the Marquis de Jouffroy made a steamer which was
tried at Lyons, in 1783. Then, in 1787, Patrick Miller is said to have
patented paddle wheels in Britain.
Miller was a retired gentleman at Dalswinton, in Dumfriesshire, who
took much interest in mechanical affairs. He experimented with paddle
wheels, and he also endeavoured to improve naval building. At first the
wheels appear to have been turned by men, and there came a day when a
double boat of Miller’s, worked by a couple of wheels with two men to
turn each wheel, sailed with a Custom House boat, and the need of more
efficient motive power to revolve the wheels became very marked. Then
the idea of steam navigation was born, or re-born.
There was a gentleman named Taylor, living with Miller, as tutor to his
sons, and he often took part in the experiments with the boats. It is
said that Taylor suggested the use of steam to propel the vessel, and
that Miller doubted its practicability. However, he decided, at length,
to try it, and in those summer days of 1787 the subject was much talked
of at Dalswinton. Taylor mentioned the matter to Symington, who, it
seems, was a friend of his, but it is not quite clear whether he had
himself thought of this use of steam. However, in October, 1788, the
experiment was tried on Dalswinton lake.
A boy was there who afterwards became Lord Brougham, and Robert Burns
was also there; and, no doubt, the experiment was watched with much
interest.
It appears to have been successful, and next year a bigger boat was
tried on the Forth and Clyde Canal, again with some success. But
whether Mr. Miller thought he had now spent enough money on these
experiments—and Carlyle says Miller “spent his life and his estate
on that adventure, and died _quasi_-bankrupt and broken-hearted”—or
whether he was satisfied with the results attained, he abandoned all
further effort. Possibly he did not see any opportunity of utilising
the invention further. At all events, the development of the steamboat
made practically no progress until Symington commenced his experiments
under Lord Dundas.
Russell is of opinion that the invention of steam navigation was the
joint production of these three men. “The creation of the steamship,”
says he, “appears to have been an achievement too gigantic for any
single man. It was produced by one of those happy combinations in which
individuals are but tools, working out each his part in a great system,
of the whole of which no single one may have comprehended all the
workings.”
[Illustration: ROBERT FULTON.]
To these three, however, must be added Henry Bell, in Britain, and
Robert Fulton, in America. They carried the great enterprise further
on, to something like assured success.
Miller’s boats had two hulls, and the paddle wheels revolved between.
Symington placed his wheel astern. Bell placed his paddles on either
side.
“Ah, she will work!” we can imagine the spectators saying, as they
watched that strange craft, the _Charlotte Dundas_, with her double
rudder, tugging along her barges.
“Ay, she will work, but the canal folk won’t let her; they think the
wash from the wheels will wear away the bank!”
“Then I will take the idea where it won’t be so hindered,” said
another. “We are not afraid of our river banks in America.”
That man, whom we imagine said this, and who appears, without doubt, to
have inspected the _Charlotte Dundas_, was Robert Fulton, who, with his
companion, Livingstone, claim to have invented steamboats in the United
States.
This, then, in brief, seems to be the story. While bearing in mind the
efforts of others, yet it would seem that Miller, Taylor, and Symington
invented steam navigation, utilising improvements of Watt on the steam
engine; but Fulton, in America, and Bell, in Britain, seeing something
of these experiments, developed them to assured success.
What were Fulton’s adventures?
CHAPTER II.
TO THE NARROW SEAS.
“I should not like to risk my money in the thing.”
“Nor I, she will never pay.”
“I reckon she will burst up before the day is over.”
“Well, she is about to start now.” A few minutes more, and the smiles
on the faces of the speakers changed to expressions of astonishment.
The boat was actually “walking the waters like a thing of life,” and
gathering speed as she drew away from the pier.
“Why, stranger, this thing’s going to succeed.”
“It does look so.”
Still the speakers gazed, and still the vessel continued to glide
along. And shouts and applause burst from the thronging crowd around.
The “thing” was succeeding indeed.
They were watching the trial trip of the first practically successful
steamboat in America, the _Clermont_. Fulton had been successful, and
together with his companion, Livingstone—after whose residence the
vessel was named—had launched a satisfactory steamer in America, five
years before the _Comet_ appeared in Britain. Yet the _Clermont’s_
engines were made in Britain by Boulton & Watt, and men from their
works helped in mounting the machinery.
Colden, Fulton’s biographer, describing this trial trip, says:—
“The minds of the most incredulous were changed in a few minutes—before
the boat had made the progress of a quarter of a mile the greatest
unbeliever must have been converted. The man who, while he looked on
the expensive machine, thanked his stars that he had more wisdom than
to waste his money on such idle schemes, changed the expression of his
features as the boat moved from the wharf and gained her speed; his
complacent smile gradually stiffened into an expression of wonder;
the jeers of the ignorant, who had neither sense nor feeling enough
to repress their contemptuous ridicule and rude jokes, were silenced
for the 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 congratulations and applause.”
The scene of the vessel’s exploit was the famous river Hudson, and she
came to make several trips between New York and Albany as a passenger
boat. She performed the journey from Albany to New York in thirty-two
hours, and back in thirty hours; her average speed being five miles an
hour. Steamers now perform the passage in about eight hours.
The boat caused great astonishment at the time. Colden says she was
described by some who saw her but indistinctly at night as “a monster
moving on the water, defying the winds and tide, and breathing flames
and smoke.” He states:—“She had the most terrific appearance from
other vessels which were navigating the river when she was making her
passage. The first steamboats, as others yet do, used dry pine-wood for
fuel, which sends forth a column of ignited vapour, many feet above
the flue, and whenever the fire is stirred a galaxy of sparks fly off,
which, in the night, have an airy, brilliant, and beautiful appearance.
This uncommon light first attracted the attention of the crews of
other vessels. Notwithstanding the wind and tide were adverse to its
approach, they saw, with astonishment, that it was rapidly coming
towards them; and when it came so near that the noise of the machinery
and the paddles was heard, the crews in some instances shrunk beneath
their decks from the terrific sight; and others left their vessels to
go on shore; while others, again, prostrated themselves and besought
Providence to protect them from the approach of the horrible monster
which was marching on the tides, and lighting its path by the fires
which it vomited.”
Compare this with the stately passenger boats of the end of the
century, gliding along four or five times as fast, but with little
noise and less smoke, and beaming forth brilliant electric light from
every saloon window.
The _Clermont_ was 133 feet long, 18 feet wide, and 7 feet deep. The
cylinder of her engine was 24 inches in diameter, and her piston had a
stroke of four feet; her paddle wheels were at first too large, or at
all events dipped too deeply in the water. When improved they appear
to have been fifteen feet in diameter. Her engines were 18 horse-power,
and the tonnage was but 160.
Fulton was busily engaged in constructing steam vessels until he died
in 1815. One of his efforts was the building of a steam war vessel; and
so greatly were his efforts esteemed that both Houses of the United
States Legislature testified their respect for him by wearing mourning
apparel on the occasion of his death.
His work was developed by Mr. R. L. Stevens, whose father, indeed, had
a steamer ready, only a few weeks after the success of the _Clermont_.
Mr. R. L. Stevens came to grasp the idea that the form of the hull of
steamships could be much improved by giving them fine lines instead of
full round bows. Stevens, it is said, was able to obtain a speed of
thirteen miles an hour; and he also, it is stated, used a different
form of engine from that adopted by Fulton.
The engines of those early steamboats were, as a rule, a sort of beam
engine. The famous _Comet_ was engined in that manner. John Robertson,
who actually set up the _Comet’s_ engines, lived to place them
subsequently in South Kensington Museum. A beam, or lever, which worked
on a pivot at its centre, was placed between the piston on one side,
and the connecting rod—which was fastened to the crank—on the other.
Thus, one end of the beam, or lever, was attached to the piston rod,
and the other to the end of the connecting rod which drove the crank
and the wheel.
A development apparently of this beam-engine arrangement was the
side-lever engine—a form of which marine engineers were also fond. The
side lever seems, in fact, to have been a sort of double beam engine.
The cylinder was placed upright, and a cross-piece was fixed to the
end of the piston rod. From either end of this cross-piece a rod was
connected with a beam or lever on either side of the machinery below.
These levers worked on pivots at their centres, and their other ends
were joined by a cross-piece united by a rod to the crank-shaft above.
The idea in the side-lever engines appears to have been to obtain equal
strength on both sides for each paddle wheel. Marine engineers did
not apparently at first grasp the idea of a direct-acting engine—that
is, simply one connecting rod between the piston and the crank which
pulled round the wheel; perhaps the sizes and arrangements of those
early steamboats did not permit of this. But in the development of the
locomotive, the direct-acting engine did not appear at once. In any
case, even the first vessels of the celebrated Cunard Line were of the
cumbrous side-lever type.
Now, when Fulton had made his _Clermont_ in 1807, and Bell had put his
_Comet_ on the Clyde, some of the English speaking people on both sides
of the Atlantic began, we say, to see that there was a future before
the new invention. In 1809, the _Accommodation_ ploughed the waters
of the great St. Lawrence, and two years later a steamer startled the
dwellers on the mighty Mississippi. The _Elizabeth_ also followed the
_Comet_ on the Clyde in 1813.
She was bigger than her predecessor, but only of thirty-three tons;
she was fifty-eight feet long, and her engine of ten horse-power.
She was built by the constructors of the _Comet_, Wood & Company,
of Port-Glasgow, under the direction of Mr. Thompson, who had been
connected with some of Bell’s experiments.
The next step was the introduction of steamers on the Thames. All
things gravitate to London, steamboats among the rest. Passing by some
experiments, in which the names of a Mr. Dawson and a Mr. Lawrence
appear, we find that George Dodd brought a steamboat from the Clyde to
the Thames by sea, using both sails and steam, about the year 1813 or
1814. It is said that Dawson had a steamer plying between London and
Gravesend in 1813, and that Lawrence, of Bristol, after using a steamer
on the Severn brought her through the canals to the Thames, but was
obliged to take her back because of the antagonism of the watermen. It
is said also that the _Marjorie_, built by William Denny, of Dumbarton,
was brought to the Thames about 1815 in six days from Grangemouth,
having been purchased by some London merchants.
However this may be, the name of George Dodd should take a high place,
perhaps next to that of Bell, for the enterprise and effort he showed
in seeking to establish steam vessels. His sphere was chiefly the
Thames, though he appears to have been also animated with the idea of
using them upon the sea. The vessel he brought round from the Clyde
was named first the _Glasgow_ and afterwards the _Thames_, and was
of about seventy-five tons, with nine feet paddle-wheels, and some
fourteen or sixteen horse-power. He had some rough weather in the Irish
Sea, and an account of the voyage is given in his book on steamboats.
This, presumably in 1813, was the first steamship voyage at sea, as
distinguished from steamers’ voyages on rivers.
Such great progress had the introduction of steamboats made in 1818,
that according to Dodd there were in that year eighteen on the Clyde,
two on the Tay, two at Dundee, two at Cork, two on the Tyne, two on the
Trent, two on the Mersey, four on the Humber, three on the Yare, one on
the Avon, the Severn, the Orwell, six on the Forth, and actually two
intended to run from Dublin to Holyhead. There may have been more than
these, but they seem at all events to be the chief. Apparently there
were, or had been, several on the Thames. Two, the _London_ and the
_Richmond_, according to Dodd’s book, were plying between London and
Twickenham, and had carried 10,000 persons in four months. No wonder
the watermen were alarmed.
Other vessels also had appeared on the royal river. The _Majestic_
even had got as far as Margate, and had ventured across to Calais. The
_Regent_ had been burned off Whitstable, and the _Caledonia_, which
had actually two engines, had steamed across to Flushing. Dodd further
designed a vessel which seems to have gone to Margate in about seven
and a-half hours, speeding along at about ten or eleven miles an hour.
No wonder that Bell could say—“I will venture to affirm that history
does not afford an instance of such rapid improvement in commerce and
civilisation as that which will be effected by steam vessels.” The
_Richmond_ was a little boat of 50 tons, and 17 indicated horse-power.
She was engined by Messrs. Maudslay & Field, of London, and presumably
was the first steamer engined on the Thames. She ran from London to
Richmond. In the next year Messrs. Maudslay engined the _Regent_ of 112
tons and 42 indicated horse-power, and intended to ply between London
and Margate; while, in 1817, this famous firm engined three vessels,
including the _Quebec_ of 500 tons and 100 indicated horse-power,
intended for Quebec and Montreal. Since then they have engined hundreds
of vessels, including screw-propeller ironclads of 20,000 horse-power.
Dodd, alas, though he worked so hard for the establishment of the
steamship, does not seem to have profited by his labour. Like some
other ingenious men he unhappily fell into poverty.
The next in order of succession, who apparently became the most
prominent and among the most useful in the story of the steamship, was
David Napier. Russell avers that from 1818 to about 1830 he “effected
more for the improvement of steam navigation than any other man.” David
Napier ran the _Rob Roy_, a steamer of 90 tons and 30 horse-power,
fitted with his own engines, between Greenock and Belfast. It appears
that at one of the worst seasons he sailed in a vessel plying between
the two ports,—sometimes taking a week to cover the journey, afterwards
made in nine hours by steam,—and eagerly watched the effect of the
heaving waves on the ship as she was tossed by the storm. Then, assured
that there was no overwhelming difficulty for steamers, he started the
_Rob Roy_. He also experimented upon the best shape of hull, and,
without apparently any communication with Stevens across the Atlantic,
came to adopt a wedge-shaped bow, instead of a rounded fore front as
common in sailing ships.
In 1819 he put the _Talbot_ on the Channel between Dublin and Holyhead.
She was built by Wood & Company, and was one of the most perfect
vessels of the kind then constructed. She had two engines of 60
horse-power combined, and was 150 tons burthen. She was followed by the
_Ivanhoe_, and in 1821 steam vessels were regularly used to carry the
mails.
Gradually the length of vessels increased without the beam being
proportionately widened. The builders of those early boats did not at
first realise the practicability and usefulness of altering the form
of vessels for steamers. David Napier altered the bow, and gradually
the vessels were lengthened. The idea came gradually to be grasped
that as a steamer was forced forward along the line of its keel, and
not by a power exerted upon it from without and in various quarters,
its form might advantageously be changed. Moreover, it would seem that
the best form for steamers is also the best for fast sailers. Russell
is of opinion “that the fastest schooners, cutters, smugglers, yachts,
and slavers” approach more nearly to the form of the best steamers than
any other class of sailing vessels. However this may be, the shape of
a steamer as well as its machinery has much to do with its speed, and
David Napier appears to have contributed largely to these results in
Britain.
Steamers had now sped out from the rivers into the narrow seas around
Great Britain. The next step would be into the wide and open ocean. Who
would venture to take it?
CHAPTER III.
ON THE OPEN OCEAN.
Why should not the Great Western end at New York?
That was Brunel’s idea, and it had an immense effect on the
establishment of transatlantic steamships.
Brunel was the engineer of the Great Western Railway, and he
audaciously desired his line to end, not at Bristol or Penzance, but,
conquering the sea, he wished to plant his foot in the Empire city
itself.
Still he was not the first, nor the only one, in the field. To the
_Savannah_ belongs the honour of being the first steamship to cross the
Atlantic. Yet she was not altogether a steamship.
Mr. Scarborough, of Savannah—a port of the state of Georgia—purchased a
sailing ship of about 300 tons and 100 feet long, launched her at New
York in 1818, intending her to ply between the two places, and had her
fitted with machinery.
Why he changed his mind and sent her to Europe, we cannot say.
Apparently he could not trust to steam alone, for the paddle wheels
were so constructed that they could be folded up on deck when not in
use, and the shaft also was jointed for that purpose. Then in the
following May she started forth for Liverpool—the precursor of a mighty
fleet of magnificent ships which have followed since.
She reached the Mersey in twenty-five days—vessels now perform the
journey in about six. But she used steam on only eighteen days out of
the twenty-five. Several times during the journey the paddle wheels
were taken on deck, this operation occupying about half-an-hour.
Possibly this was done when the wind was very favourable for sails, and
so saved the fuel, which was pitch-pine.
Apparently Mr. Scarborough was not satisfied with the venture, for,
after failing to sell the ship in Russia, whither she voyaged, she
touched at different ports and returned home. The machinery was taken
out, and she winged her way henceforth by sails alone.
England next did something of the same kind. The _Falcon_ steam yacht,
a little vessel of 175 tons, voyaged to India in 1824, mostly, however,
by the power of sails. In the next year the _Enterprize_, engined by
Messrs. Maudslay & Field, made the passage by steam to Calcutta from
London in the net time of 103 days—ten being used in stoppages, and
the entire voyage thus occupying 113 days. She was a vessel of 500
tons, 122 feet keel, and 27 feet broad, while her engines were of 240
indicated power. Then the _Royal William_, hailing from Quebec, made
the transatlantic passage in 1831, principally by steam, in twenty-six
days. In 1835 Messrs. Willcox & Anderson began to run steamships to
Peninsular ports—an undertaking which blossomed out afterwards into the
celebrated Peninsular and Oriental Steamship Company.
Then in 1838 two steamships, the _Sirius_ and the _Great Western_,
crossed the Atlantic, the latter in fourteen and a-half days. Brunel
had had his wish, and in 1836 he had formed the Great Western Steamship
Company, and the vessel of the same name had been commenced. Others
also were in the field, notably Messrs. Laird of Birkenhead, and
the British and American Steam Navigation Company was founded. The
_Sirius_, which had been built on the Thames, was purchased by them and
prepared for her voyage.
The prime mover in this matter is said to have been Mr. Macgregor
Laird. He had witnessed the work of steamships in the Niger Expedition
of 1832-33 both on sea and river, and from the time of his return he
advocated the establishment of steamships between Great Britain and
America.
The _Sirius_ left Cork on the 5th of April, and arrived at New York
eighteen days afterwards. She carried seven passengers, and close at
her heels followed Brunel’s _Great Western_, which had left Bristol
three days later. The two ships were received with loud acclaim, a vast
crowd of spectators beholding their arrival. The vessels proved beyond
possibility of doubt that the transatlantic voyage by steamships was
possible, and, at a stroke, the duration of the passage was reduced by
almost one-half. It has since been reduced to less than a quarter.
The _Sirius_ made on an average about 161 miles a-day, or slightly less
than seven miles an hour. She apparently, however, had been originally
built for plying between London and Cork; while the _Great Western_,
which had presumably been especially built for the transatlantic
traffic, was both larger and more powerful. Her average speed was about
208 miles a-day, that is between eight and nine miles an hour; while
returning, the speed was a little better, averaging about 213 miles per
day. The return voyage of the _Sirius_ was also better than her outward
passage.
The engines of the _Great Western_ were side-lever, and were built by
Messrs. Maudslay & Field, of London. The cylinders were 73½ inches
diameter, and the pistons had a big stroke of seven feet. The wheels’
diameter was no less than 28¾ feet, while the steam was generated in
four boilers. Her tonnage was 1340—the largest Maudslay’s had yet
engined, with 750 indicated horse-power. She voyaged many times across
the Atlantic, her fastest eastward passage being 12 days, 7½ hours.
The variation in her coal consumption was very remarkable. Thus, on
her first voyage 655 tons were burnt, but on her return journey she
consumed 263 tons less. No doubt this was owing to the greater use she
was able to make of the wind.
The proprietors of the two vessels soon began to build others. The
owners of the _Great Western_ laid down the _Great Britain_, and the
proprietors of the _Sirius_ began the _British Queen_. She had paddle
wheels of 31 feet diameter, and her piston stroke was the same as the
_Great Western_, 7 feet. Her engines were 500 horse-power, and her
cylinders 77½ inches in diameter. She was 275 feet long, 40 feet wide,
and 27 feet deep. From Portsmouth to New York she crossed in 14 days, 8
hours.
Satisfactory as these results were, the pecuniary returns unfortunately
were not so favourable. The _Great Western_, it is said, continued
running at a loss, but others were withdrawn. Something seemed wanting
to make the venture a commercial success. What was it?
Meantime Willcox & Anderson’s steamers plied with remarkable regularity
to the Peninsula, and this regularity aroused some attention. The
Government of the day applied to the proprietors to submit a scheme for
carrying the mails. It seems that previously Willcox & Anderson had
proposed this, but it had come to nothing. The end of the matter was,
however, that the first mail contract was signed with them, the 22nd
of August, 1837. To carry out their bargain, Captain Richard Bourne
and Messrs. Willcox & Anderson founded the Peninsula Company, and
three years later it was expanded to the Peninsular and Oriental Steam
Navigation Company—popularly known as the P. & O.—and incorporated by
Royal Charter. The mail service was the keystone of the enterprise.
The first steamer, built in 1829, was the _William Fawcett_, a small
vessel of 206 gross tonnage, and but 60 horse-power. In 1842 the
proprietors owned the _Hindostan_, of 2017 gross tonnage, and 520
horse-power. She was a paddle-wheel vessel, and opened the Indian Mail
Service. The commencement of this service marks another stage in the
history of steam navigation. About fifty years later the Company owned
about half-a-hundred ships, two being of 8000 horse-power and 7000
tonnage.
Some two years after the _Hindostan_ first steamed to India, Brunel’s
_Great Britain_ was finished. She was a very remarkable vessel, and the
wonder of her time. In the first place, she was built of iron, and,
secondly, she was propelled by a screw, though at first it was intended
that she should have paddle-wheels, and the engines for these wheels
had been partly made.
Barges and light vessels had been built of iron since about 1790, or
earlier, and the Lairds of Birkenhead, among others, had built an iron
vessel about 1829. It is said that the _Aglaia_ was the first iron
steamer built on the Clyde in 1832. As for the screw-propeller, John
Ericsson was successful with the _Francis B. Ogden_ in 1836, and three
years later Sir Francis Pettit Smith clearly showed, in the vessel
appropriately called the _Archimedes_, the value and the feasibility of
the new system.
Brunel, therefore, ever open to improvements, combined these two
alterations in the _Great Britain_. It was in 1839, probably after
Sir Pettit Smith’s success, that the change was made as regards the
screw for this vessel, though the paddle-wheel engines had been begun.
The superiority of the screw-propeller over the paddle-wheels are
said to be these:—the engines occupy less room, and are lighter—two
very important considerations. Then there is greater wear and tear on
paddle-wheels, and consequently the screw vessels are less expensive.
But most important of all, the screw being deep in the water, the
vessel is much more suitable for ocean traffic. In the heaving billows
of the sea one wheel may be buried deep on one side of the ship, and
the other whirling round high in the air, and not propelling the
vessel; whereas the screw, being always immersed, except possibly in
severe pitching, is more constantly efficient for the whole of the
vessel.
Nevertheless, paddle-boats have their advantages. They need less water
to work in, are started more easily, and stopped sooner. Further, it is
said they are less liable to cause sea-sickness, as they do not roll so
much. In a word, the difference seems to be this: paddle vessels are
better suited as passenger boats on the shallower waters; screw vessels
for deep sea and long distance voyages, though whether the adoption
of twin-screws,—which it appears need not be immersed so deeply in the
water as one screw,—will bring screw vessels into use on shallower
waters remains to be seen.
But when the _Great Britain_ was being built the greater efficiency of
the screw-propeller for ocean voyages was not widely understood. She
was a fine vessel, over 320 feet long, 51 feet wide, and 32½ feet deep.
Her screw was successful; but on her fourth voyage to New York she
became stranded in Dundrum Bay, and lay aground for nearly a year.
Incidentally, however, this catastrophe seems to have given great
impetus to iron shipbuilding; for after being floated, she was
discovered to have suffered but comparatively slight damage. She
was seen in dock by many persons interested in shipping, and they
became impressed with the practicability and usefulness of iron for
shipbuilding.
Unfortunate _Great Britain_! She passed through many vicissitudes. Her
owners got into difficulties, and after some alterations, she ran to
Australia, and at length she wheezed her way to the Falkland Islands,
where, it is said, she served as a hulk—a sorry end to a successful
beginning.
The engines of the early screw vessels appear to have very much
resembled those for paddle-wheels ships. Thus the _Rattler_, engined
by Messrs. Maudslay for the Admiralty about the year 1841, had upright
cylinders, with a crank-shaft overhead and wheels to give speed to the
screw.
In the meantime, however, the commercial difficulty of transatlantic
steam traffic was being solved. The something lacking had been
supplied. What was it?
CHAPTER IV.
THE OCEAN RACE.
“This is the very opportunity I have been wanting!”
The speaker was looking at a paper setting forth that the British
Government were open to consider contracts for the carrying of the
letters by steamships between Great Britain and America. Encouraged, no
doubt, by the success attending the conveyance of the mails by similar
means to the Peninsula, the Government were now going farther afield.
The practicability of ocean steam traffic had been amply demonstrated;
but some of those early steamships did not “pay,” and to that test,
after all, such undertakings must come. Now, the man into whose hands
the circular had fallen was of great intelligence and remarkable
energy. He was a merchant and owner of ships, and agent for the East
India Company at Halifax, Nova Scotia. His name has since become known
the wide world over. It was Samuel Cunard.
Apparently he had cherished the idea of establishing transatlantic
steam traffic for some years—since 1830 it is said—and now, here was
the opportunity. The British Government would, of course, give a
handsome sum for carrying the mails, and that sum would form a backbone
to the enterprise.
Over came Cunard to London in 1838. Mr. Melvill, the secretary of
the East India Company, gave him a letter of introduction to Mr.
Robert Napier, the eminent engineer at Glasgow. Thither then went the
indomitable merchant, and was heartily welcomed. Napier knew Mr. George
Burns, who was partner with Mr. David MacIver in a coasting trade,
and the upshot of the matter was that capital of considerably over
a quarter of a million (£270,000) was subscribed through Mr. Burns’s
influence.
The first great step thus taken, Mr. Cunard made a good offer to the
Government, and although another offer was made by the owners of the
_Great Western_, Cunard got the contract, the tender being regarded as
much more favourable. The subsidy was eventually £81,000 per annum. The
contract was for seven years, and was signed by the three gentlemen
mentioned—Cunard, Burns, and MacIver.
These three divided the labour. Cunard ruled at London, MacIver at
Liverpool, and Burns at Glasgow. Napier was to engine the new vessels.
It was decided that their names were all to end in “ia,” and nearly
every one of the now historic fleet has rejoiced in a title of that
ending. There is a sailor’s superstition that it is unlucky if the
vessels of a fleet are not named with some uniformity; but we doubt if
the superstition influenced the Cunard Company. In any case, they broke
another superstition by starting their first ship on a Friday! She was
a mail ship, and she had to go. The Cunard Company meant business.
But about their fleet. Their first order was for four vessels, all
of about the same size and power. The _Britannia_ was the first, and
her sisters were the _Caledonia_, the _Columbia_, and the _Acadia_.
They were paddle steamers, the value of the screw not having then
been clearly and widely demonstrated, all of them about 207 feet
long, 35⅓ feet broad, 22½ feet deep, and 1154 tons burthen. The
engines—side-lever, of course, in those days—were of 740 horse-power.
The boilers had return-flues, and were heated by a dozen furnaces.
They would look now quite out of fashion, like a lady’s dress of a past
age. They appeared something like sailing ships, with the straight
funnels added.
The _Britannia_ began the service by starting from Liverpool on the 4th
of July, 1840, and, attaining a speed of about 8½ knots per hour, she
made the passage to Halifax in 12 days, 10 hours, and returned in 10
days. Her average consumption of fuel was about thirty-eight tons daily.
The Bostonians gave the _Britannia_ quite an ovation. A grand banquet,
followed by speeches, celebrated the great occasion. But they gave even
more practical appreciation of their favour subsequently, for when, in
the winter season, the vessel became ice-bound in the harbour, they cut
a seven-mile passage for her through the ice, at their own cost.
The Cunarders were successful, and the conveyance of the mails by
steamship became quite established. The white-winged clipper ships
fought hard against the Cunarders, but they had to yield. Three years
later the Company put another vessel on the route—the _Hibernia_—and in
1845 the _Cambria_. These were of greater size and developed a little
better speed than their forerunners. It has always been the policy of
the owners to improve their ships as they went on building, and even
thus early that policy ruled.
The establishment of the Cunard Company marks a most important step
in ocean steam navigation. Further, in the same year, 1840, in which
the Cunarders began to run, the Pacific Steam Navigation Company was
established. Ten years later saw the foundation of the Collins and the
Inman Lines. The Collins, an American Line, boasted that they would
run “the Cunarders off the Atlantic.” They were very fine vessels, and
they were the first fleet to fully adopt the upright stem and discard
the bowsprit. But the Cunarders were ready for the fierce competition.
They had actually put on six new vessels, and their new postal contract
of 1847 had stipulated for a weekly, instead of a fortnightly service;
while the subsidy was much increased. It was to be £173,340 annually
instead of £81,000.
[Illustration: THE ICE-BOUND “BRITANNIA” AT BOSTON. _By permission of
The Cunard Steamship Co._ ]
The echoes of that fierce struggle between the Cunarders’ and the
Collins’ boats have now died away, or have been quite lost in the other
clamorous cries of that wonder of the world, the development of
the transatlantic steamship traffic; but apparently partisanship ran
very high. The Collins’ seem to have been slightly the faster vessels,
coming from America in 9 days 17 hours, but occupying nearly two more
days to return. Alas, disaster overtook them. The _Arctic_ perished by
collision; the _Pacific_ was lost at sea, and no one knows the story
of her death, for she was never heard of more. Bad management, and
extravagance surged over the remaining vessels, and the fine ships went
as old iron!
But the Inman line had also begun to run, about 1850. These ships, like
the _Great Britain_, were built of iron and propelled by a screw. The
first was the _City of Glasgow_, and several famous “Cities” followed;
though years afterwards the Inman line became the “American,” and
the appellation “City” was dropped, the ships being simply known as
_Paris_, _New York_, _Berlin_, etc. The Inman line had the distinction
of being the first, apart from the _Great Britain_, to use iron screw
steamers regularly on the Atlantic. Other lines soon followed, the
Anchor, the Allan, and the Guion, while the Cunarders, not to be
beaten, came along in due course with iron and screw steamers.
But great changes were at hand. To mark these changes let us look at
what may be called the culminating ship of the old type of steamers—the
_Great Eastern_.
This historical vessel was the largest ever built. She was 680 feet
long, by 83 feet broad, and her hull was 60 feet high, 70 feet
including bulwarks. But the steam pressure of her engines was only
from 15 to 25 lbs. She was fitted with both screw-propeller and paddle
wheels. Her screw-propeller engines were of 4000 indicated horse-power,
and paddle of 2600, but they could together work up to 11,000
horse-power.
Commenced at Millwall early in 1854, she was not launched until near
upon four years later. The launching itself was a difficult and
expensive business, costing £60,000, and only effected after various
attempts extending over nearly three months. The total cost of the
vessel has been estimated at £732,000.
[Illustration:
ISAMBARD KINGDOM BRUNEL. _By permission of Messrs. Graves & Co._ ]
It will be seen at once that so large an outlay required an immense
business to yield a satisfactory return, and indeed, financial
difficulties hampered her success almost from the very commencement,
even before she was launched.
She was planned, in 1852, by the great engineer, I. K. Brunel, and by
Scott Russell. In the life of Brunel by his son, it is stated:—“It was,
no doubt, his connection with the Australian Mail Company that led Mr.
Brunel to work out into practical shape the idea of a great ship for
the Indian or Australian service.”
The Eastern Steam Navigation Company desired a vessel to trade to
Australia and back, large enough to carry a sufficiency of coal for the
outward and homeward journey, and yet to have space for a goodly number
of passengers and a bulky amount of cargo.
That was the idea, and we perhaps can hardly realise what a difficulty
this question of coal carrying capacity was in those days, before
the problem had been solved by high-pressure steam boilers, triple
expansion engines, improved condensation, and quick passages. Even so
great a philosopher as Dr. Lardner could not believe in 1835 that a
steamship could voyage from Liverpool to New York without stopping—we
presume for fresh fuel.
The _Great Eastern_, therefore, was planned to carry 15,000 tons of
coal; whereas now the large Atlantic liner _Paris_ needs only 2700 tons
for her Atlantic trip. The difference is most striking, for the _Paris_
is one of the largest steamships afloat, but her working steam pressure
is 150 lbs. instead of the 15 or 25 lbs. of the _Great Eastern_.
This immense vessel was also planned to carry some 5000 persons, or
about 500 less if any large number were to require state-rooms, and
finally she was to convey 5000 tons of cargo. The idea of water-tight
compartments was anticipated in her case, even to the extent of
longitudinal ones, and she had half-a-dozen masts of which five were of
iron.
When at length she was launched, the directors’ minds misgave them
as to an Australian trip, and they determined to cross the Atlantic
instead, for a trial voyage. She started on the 8th of September,
1859, but alas! when off Hastings some steam pipes burst. Several
persons were killed and wounded, and the voyage ended at Portland.
Next year she tried again and crossed in eleven days, after which she
made several voyages with success—on one occasion conveying soldiers to
Canada. Unfortunately for the owners, however, she did not pay.
Then in 1865 she began to be engaged in submarine telegraph work, by
which she will most likely be best remembered, and two years later she
was chartered to convey passengers from America to Havre for the French
Exhibition, but this scheme failed.
Then for some years from 1869 she was successfully engaged in
cable-laying, in the Red Sea, the Atlantic, and the Mediterranean,
etc., after which she came down to be a coal hulk in 1884, stationed at
Gibraltar.
At length she was sold for £26,200 at London, by auction, and was on
view in the Thames, and also in the Mersey. At this latter river her
huge sides were used as an advertising “board” for a Liverpool business
house. Again in November, 1888, she was sold by auction, this time for
breaking up, and it is said that the total proceeds of the sale which
lasted five days was £58,000, more than double what she had previously
brought!
“A ship before her time,” says some one, thinking of the huge vessels
of the last decade of the nineteenth century. That is true, but the
immense space required for coal, and her low-pressure engines, had
also something to do with her comparative failure. The problem which
the _Great Eastern_ failed to solve has been met in other ways—viz.,
by the use of high-pressure steam and compound, triple-expansion and
even quadruple-expansion engines. That is, the steam, working at 150 or
160 lbs. pressure, instead of the 25 lbs. of the _Great Eastern_, is
passed through two, three, and even four cylinders respectively, and
the economy in coal consumption is astounding. Thus the use of triple
expansion engines has brought the saving in coal down from 4 lbs. per
indicated horse-power to less than 1½ lbs.
There have been many other improvements also, such as the use of steel
instead of iron, the parts being thus stronger and yet lighter; the
circular tubular boiler enabling high-pressure steam to be economically
produced and maintained; the use of surface condensers, by which the
exhaust steam is quickly reduced to water and returned to a “hot well”
ready for the boilers, to be speedily again raised to high pressure
steam; and a forced draught by which the furnaces are made to roar
furiously and heat the water in the boilers speedily.
[Illustration: THE “GREAT EASTERN.”]
But these things were not all attained in a day. The introduction of
the compound marine engines in 1854-56 by John Elder, marks the first
great step of the new departure. In 1856 he engined vessels for the
Pacific Steam Navigation Company, on the compound principle, which
proved very satisfactory.
Again in 1870, the appearance of the White Star liner _Oceanic_, marked
a new development. Her yacht-like shape, great length, and general
symmetry of form commenced a marked change in Atlantic liners.
It was in 1867 that Mr. T. H. Ismay bought the interest of the managing
owner of the White Star line—a set of sailing clippers, dating from
the rush to the Australian gold diggings—and began to introduce iron
vessels instead of wooden clipper ships. In 1869 he established the
Oceanic Steam Navigation Company—popularly known as the White Star—and
was later on joined by Mr. William Imrie. The Company was started with
so much wisdom and boldness that the £1000 shares were privately taken
up at once. The order for the new steamers was given to Harland &
Wolff, of Belfast, because, it is said, an influential share-holder had
had satisfactory dealings with them before.
The _Oceanic_ was of 3600 tons burthen, and with engines of 3000
horse-power. The accommodation for first-class passengers was placed
amidships, where the motion of the vessel is said to be felt the least,
and altogether she embodied improvements which made her the type of
many of the Atlantic passenger ships since. The earlier White Stars
were fitted with compound engines, and reduced the passage to about 8½
days.
But when the White Stars _Germanic_ and _Britannic_ appeared in 1877,
then a marked advance indeed was made in the Atlantic record. The
_Britannic_ astonished the world by speeding from Queenstown to New
York in 7 days, 10 hours, and 50 minutes, and since then she has beaten
her own record. Her sister ship _Germanic_ also did as well, and the
fierce race for the blue ribbon of the Atlantic may be said to have
begun.
It was even prophesied that the time across the water might be reduced
to six days. How has that been fulfilled?
CHAPTER V.
BEFORE THE FURNACE.
“The record’s broken again, Jemmy! The White Star has come home a
couple of hours earlier!”
“She has, has she? Well, it will be the Cunard’s turn next week. It’s
wonderful what they get out of the Cunard’s engines.”
“They do; but I’m thinking the American’s _New York_ will be doin’ the
fastest bit.”
“Well, well, it may be. They’re all main powerful vessels. Do you mind
when the Guion’s _Alaska_ came home in 6 days, 18 hours, 37 minutes?”
“I do, and about ten years later, I suppose, some ships were doing it
in about a day less time!”
“Ay, ay, and I see they’re goin’ ahead down south too.”
“Yes, there’s fast steaming all over the world, Jemmy!”
“I told you what would happen when the compound engine came into use. I
said, ‘Mark my words, now they’ve got the compound engine, they will go
ahead’—and they have.”
Jemmy’s prediction has been amply verified, for almost every year since
the compound engine came largely into use, has witnessed a greater
speed in ocean steamers.
And the speed has not been obtained at sacrifice of comfort. On the
contrary, an ocean passenger steamer belonging to any of the great
passenger lines is something like a floating palace.
After the _Britannic_ and _Germanic_ appeared, line after line put
forth fine vessels; and in 1889 was launched the White Star steamer
_Teutonic_, which for some time held the proud position of the
fastest ship on the Atlantic. She had crossed in 5 days, 16 hours,
31 minutes. The average of several trips, both for herself and her
sister _Majestic_, was 5 days, 18 hours, 6 minutes. And they were run
very close by the American liners, _Paris_ and _New York_. These four
vessels were among the first propelled by twin-screws. Engineers began
to see that it was better to use great power in two shafts and two
propellers than in one.
In July, 1892, the fine Inman (now called American) liner _Paris_
crossed the Atlantic in 5 days, 15 hours, and 58 minutes, and in
October of the same year the same vessel steamed from Liverpool,
touching as usual at Queenstown, in 6 days, 2 hours, and 24
minutes—including the time at the Irish port. This was then the
quickest time on record for the entire journey. From Queenstown to
Sandy Hook the time was 5 days, 14 hours, and 24 minutes, a gain of 1
hour and 34 minutes on her voyage in the previous July. Her best day’s
run was 530 knots.
The contest, therefore, between the two White Stars and the two Inmans
has been very close, the record time resting now with the one and then
with the other.
But the Cunard Company, not to be beaten, put on the _Campania_ in
1893, and in April of that year she made the fastest maiden trip then
on record, one day indeed compassing 545 knots in the 24 hours.
The _Campania_ is 625 feet long by 65¼ feet broad, and 43 feet deep
from the upper deck. Her gross tonnage is 12,950. She is fitted with a
cellular double bottom extending fore and aft, and also with sixteen
bulkheads, so arranged that the vessel would float even if two, or in
some cases three, compartments were open to the ocean.
She is a twin-screw vessel, fitted with two sets of very powerful
triple-expansion engines. They are seated in two separate engine-rooms
with a dividing bulkhead and water-tight doors.
Each set of engines has five inverted cylinders—viz., two
high-pressure, one intermediate, and two low-pressure—all arranged to
work on three cranks set at an angle of 120 degrees to each other. Her
indicated horse-power is 30,000. The boiler-rooms are doubly cased, the
space between being fitted with nonconducting material for sound and
heat.
[Illustration: HIGH AND LOW PRESSURE CYLINDERS OF THE “CAMPANIA’S”
ENGINES.]
In this huge vessel four decks rise tier above tier, beside erections
on the upper deck, known as promenade and shade decks. These four
principal decks are the orlop, the lowest of all, used for cargo,
stores, and machinery; the lower, the main, and the upper decks, the
last three being devoted entirely to passengers.
Imagine yourself on the upper deck. Before you stretches the long
vista of its length, like some far-reaching walk ashore; a circuit of
the vessel four times makes a mile. Above rises the shade deck with
the navigating apparatus, and surrounded by the twenty lifeboats of
the vessel; above again is the captain’s bridge, where are placed the
telegraph and wheel house, while higher still is perched the crow’s
nest or look-out box, on the foremast, and about 100 feet from the
water-level. Give a glance, too, at the huge funnels, 120 feet high,
and so large that when in the builder’s yard a coach full of passengers
was driven with four horses through one of them.
Descending then, the grand staircase, which is sufficiently wide for
six persons to walk down abreast, and admiring the polished panelling,
the rich Japanese paper, and the lounges on the landings, we enter the
superb dining-saloon 100 feet long by 62 feet broad. Four huge tables
run almost along its length, with smaller tables in the corners, while
the wood-carving, carpeting, gold decorated roof, costly mirrors, and
upholstering in rich red velvet are of the most sumptuous description.
From this magnificent hall you can wander on through other apartments
of great splendour, drawing-room, library, smoking, music room,
bath-rooms, and numbers of state-rooms. There are single berth, double
berth, and three and four berth cabins—the old wooden benches for beds,
however, being replaced by iron bed-steads throughout the ship. The
electric light glows everywhere, being distributed by some fifty miles
of wire.
[Illustration:
THE “CAMPANIA.” _By permission of The Cunard Steamship Co._ ]
The second-class accommodation differs but in degree from the
magnificence of the saloon, while the steerage passengers are berthed
on the lower deck, but have the privilege of walking on the upper deck.
An additional idea of the size of the ship may be gained when we learn
that the crew consists of over 420 persons—viz., 190 engineers, 179
stewards, and 54 sailing hands, while the vessel’s full complement
of passengers brings up the total number of persons aboard to 1600
souls—quite a floating town indeed.
About five years after the birth of the _Teutonic_ the newspapers
recorded, in May, 1894, that the _Lucania_, sister ship to the
_Campania_, and one of the newest Cunarders, had performed the journey
across the Atlantic in 5 days, 13 hours, and 28 minutes. Her average
speed was 22¼ knots, or 25·7 land miles per hour, marking one of the
quickest runs then ever recorded; and about the same time came the news
that the P. & O. steamer _Himalaya_ had completed a mail transit from
Bombay of 12½ days, and as her voyage to Bombay had been just over 13
days—the best outward passage—she had completed a round mail transit to
Bombay and back, excluding stoppages, of 25½ days.
A little later, in the same year, the torpedo-boat destroyer, _Hornet_,
built by Messrs. Yarrow & Co., of Poplar, for the British Navy,
achieved, it is said, about 27 knots; that is, roughly speaking, near
to 29 or 30 miles an hour, which speed proclaimed her to be then
one of the fastest steamships in the world. She was fitted with the
Yarrow water-tube boilers, which are both light and strong, while the
consumption of coal was said to be remarkably small. She has two sets
of triple-expansion inverted engines.
Again, a short time later, Messrs. Thorneycroft, of Chiswick, obtained
similar results with the _Daring_, another boat of the same kind built
for the British Government, and fitted with the Thorneycroft improved
water-tube boilers. These, it is claimed, will raise steam from cold
water in fifteen minutes. She passed the measured mile on the Maplin at
the high speed of 29¼ miles an hour.
In the same summer a Company put on a fine steamer for service on
the Thames and the English Channel, called _La Marguerite_, which
developed, it is said, a speed of 25 miles an hour, which would make
her one of the fastest passenger vessels then afloat.
Another Company has also a noteworthy vessel running on the Estuary
of the Thames—viz., the _London Belle_, plying from London Bridge to
Clacton-on-Sea. She is a triple-expansion paddle boat, and the first
river steamer fitted with three crank triple-expansion paddle engines.
She was built by Denny of Dumbarton, and can develop a speed of 19½
knots—_i.e._, twenty-three statute miles per hour, and is worked with
great economy of coal consumption.
An example of a quadruple-expansion engine steamer may be found in the
_Tantallon Castle_, one of the newest vessels for voyaging to South
Africa. She is 456 feet long, over 50 broad, with a gross tonnage
of 5636. She is fitted with quadruple-expansion engines of 7500
horse-power, and the stoke holes are well ventilated by large fans
speeding round with great swiftness.
Improvements in steamship building had gone steadily on; and it is safe
to say that a pound of coal, after the compounding principle came fully
into use, did four or five times the work it accomplished before high
pressure engines were fully utilised.
Let us enter the engine-room of a big liner, and see for ourselves. It
is a triumph of engineering. Still, at first, you cannot understand
anything of the complicated mass of machinery. Then you notice three
large cylinders—for these are triple-expansion engines—with pistons
shooting in and out downwards, and attached by connecting rods to the
cranks of the propeller shaft below. The cranks are bent at different
angles so that they can never all be in the same position at once.
There is a maze of machinery and shining rods, bewildering to the
uninitiated eye. But you gradually notice how absolutely regular every
part is in its action, and how beautifully one part fits with another.
Then go before the furnace; you find yourself in front of a huge
structure, at the bottom of which is the long fire box; above rises the
heat box communicating with tubes over the furnaces, with the water
circulating between. The water, indeed, is beneath the furnace, about
parts of the heat box, between and above the tubes. The object is,
of course, to obtain as great heating surface as possible. The tubes
communicate with the funnel at their other end. Boilers are made of
a “mild” steel which has, it is said, a most remarkable tenacity of
28 tons to the square inch. Consequently they are able to bear great
pressure of steam.
[Illustration: STOKE HOLE.]
Hot distilled water is admitted to the boiler from the surface
condenser. This is a “box,” riddled with tubes, through which cold
sea water is pumped. The waste steam, having done its work in the
cylinders, is passed into this “box,” is condensed by touching the
chilly tubes of sea water, and can be run off or pumped to a hot
cistern, whence it is used to feed the boiler and be turned once more
to steam. About 4000 tons of water an hour pass through the surface
condensers of a large liner when she is at full work.
The largest steamers require over 150 men to work the furnaces and
machinery, and the attention given is hard and unremitting. In some of
the fast Atlantic greyhounds the strain is terribly severe, especially
when the sea is beginning to run high. The rollers may be but 20 feet,
yet these are quite high enough even for a splendid ocean racer to
contend with and yet maintain her speed.
Now her bows are pointing sky high, and her stern is deeply submerged;
now she takes a header plump into the trough of the sea, and the
engines race round; the propeller is suddenly raised out of water.
But blow high, or blow low, on she goes, and the engineers are always
busy. The furnaces roar with ceaseless rage. For days and nights the
fires are kept at glowing heat. A forced blast maintains the draught;
the steam condensed back into warm water is supplied to the boilers;
half-naked men work hour after hour to rake the fires, clean them, pile
on the fuel, and keep the most powerful head of steam the boilers can
stand.
When the furnace doors are opened tongues of flame leap forth, and
the heat is enough to make a man sick. But with head turned away, the
stoker stirs up the fire with his huge “slice” or fire rake, and cleans
out the clinker clogging the bars.
Then on go the coals! One layer, shot in from the shovel with unerring
precision and skilful experience, right at the back; then another just
in front of the first, and so on till the long furnace is filled.
Bang! the furnace door clangs, and the man reels away, sick and
exhausted, with tingling eyes and heaving chest. Then coal has to be
brought from the bunkers to the furnaces, tons of it per day, and if
the ship rolls too much for the barrows to be used, the fuel must be
carried in baskets.
There is an engineer in charge of each stoke hole, and two on the
platform in each engine room; as a rule, the staff are on duty in
turns—four hours out of every twelve. But if the weather be bad they
may have harder times.
No matter how hot the machinery becomes, the engineers must not
reduce speed, except it be to prevent disaster. Oil is swabbed on in
bucketfuls, so to speak, but at every thrust the polished steel may
gleam dry and smoking. Then on goes the water, as if there actually was
a conflagration, and meantime a mixture of oil and sulphur is dabbed
on. The water flies off in steam, so hot are the bearings, so terrific
the friction of the incessant speed; and at last, down comes the
reluctant order, wrung out of the chief like gold from a miser—“Slow
her down.”
It is done—dampers are clapped on furnaces, steam pressure dropped a
little, and engines reduced to half speed; the three great cranks of
the high, intermediate, and low pressure cylinders move round easily,
and the tremendous noise gradually sinks to a murmur, compared with the
previous rush and roar. The machinery cools. But when quite safe, on
is piled the speed once more, and again the cranks fly round, and the
mighty engines work their hardest to drive the mammoth ship through the
surging green rollers.
So superbly are these marine engines built, and so excellently are they
maintained, being continually overhauled, so as to be kept in the pink
of perfection, that, as years go on, they seem to “warm to their work”
and do even better than at first.
On the completion of the 200th round voyage of the celebrated “White
Stars,” _Germanic_ and _Britannic_, about January, 1894, they seemed
steaming as regularly and as fast, or faster than ever. Thus, on the
198th outward trip of the _Germanic_, in September, 1893, she made the
fastest westward passage, but one, she had ever accomplished. During
their lives, it was said these vessels had maintained remarkable
uniformity in speed, and each vessel had steamed 200 times 6200
nautical miles, that is nearly a million and a-half statute miles, with
the original engines and boilers—a performance, in all probability,
without parallel in the world.
Those people who care for figures may be interested in knowing that
the _Britannic_ had been 91,741 hours under steam, and 85,812 hours
actually under weigh. Her engines had made 280 million revolutions, and
maintained an average speed of 15 knots, or 17¼ statute miles an hour,
while she had burnt 406,000 tons of coal. During their nineteen years
of life the two vessels had carried 100,000 saloon, and over 260,000
steerage passengers, in safety and in comfort.
This is a record of which all concerned, builders, owners, and working
staff, may well be proud. It augurs first-class, honest work, and
superb engineering skill. Since the construction of these ships,
however, vessels surpassing them in speed have, of course, been built,
among which may be mentioned the same line’s _Teutonic_ and _Majestic_.
The well-known Cunarders, _Umbria_ and _Etruria_, have also done some
very fine work, indicating great excellence of construction. Thus,
on her eighty-second voyage, the _Umbria_ steamed from Queenstown to
Sandy Hook in 5 days, 22 hours; or, allowing for detention through fog,
5 days, 18½ hours, which is within three or four hours of the White
Stars’ and American’s time.
The story of the British warship _Calliope_, at Samoa, will also show
how marvellously well ships’ engines can be built. Some difficulties
had arisen between the United States and Germany as to Samoa, and
several warships had gathered there. Some weeks of bad weather had
occurred, and then, on the 15th of March, 1889, the wind began to blow
with tremendous force. Down came the top masts from the warships—taken
down as a precaution; steam was raised in the boilers in case anchors
should not hold, and spars were made secure. But no man among the
sailors expected such a hurricane as ensued.
Rain fell at midnight, and the wind increased. Huge waves rolled in
from the South Pacific, and the vessels tugged madly at their anchor
chains and pitched fearfully up and down, like corks. Then the _Eber_,
one of the German ships, began to drag her anchors; and the _Vandalia_,
one of the Americans, followed suit. But by their steam power they kept
off a dangerous reef, and also prevented themselves from colliding with
their neighbours.
Still higher and higher blew the hurricane, and the rain fell with
tropic severity. Three hours after midnight the situation had become
terrible. Almost every vessel was dragging her anchors, and the danger
of collision was constant.
The scene of the occurrence was a small bay before Apia, the capital
of Samoa. But there is a coral reef extending in front of the bay
for about two miles, and in the centre of the reef an opening about
a quarter of a mile wide. The ships, therefore, were shut up in a
comparatively small space, from which the way of escape was this
gateway through the reef. The tide rushed in with great rapidity,
swamping the land a hundred feet or so above high-water mark.
As morning dawned and wore on to-day, the _Eber_ collided with the
_Nipsic_ and then with the _Olga_, and, finally, was dashed by the huge
waves, like a toy, upon the reef, and rolled over into deep water.
Only five men struggled to shore and were saved. Other sad disasters
occurred; and then, shortly before noon, the _Vandalia_ and the
_Calliope_ were tossed perilously near together, and also toward the
dangerous reef. In endeavouring to steam away, the _Vandalia_ collided
with the _Calliope_, and was much damaged. Then, with splendid courage,
Captain Kane determined to steam right away to sea—to remain would but
risk another collision, or a wreck on the reef. Sea-room he must have
at any cost!
“Lift all anchors!” was the thrilling order, and then—“Full speed
ahead!” Round swung the vessel’s head to the wind, and though the
powerful engines were working “all they knew” to force the ship along,
the steamer stood still, as if aghast at being asked to break through
these tremendous waves.
But she stood for a moment only. The superb engines began to tell;
the quickly-whirling screw churned up the heavy water at the stern,
and slowly the good ship made headway through the huge billows. They
crashed over her stern and poured over her decks, as if in anger at her
defiance. But on went the coal to her furnaces, and the thick smoke
reeled off from the funnel in volumes. The strain quivered through
every limb of the ship, but her captain kept her at it, and inch by
inch she forced her way through the pounding seas.
“This manœuvre of the gallant British ship,” says an eye-witness, Mr.
John P. Dunning, of the Associated U.S. Press, “is regarded as one
of the most daring in naval annals. It was the one desperate chance
offered her commander to save his vessel and the three hundred lives
aboard. An accident to the machinery at this critical moment would have
meant certain death to all. Every pound of steam which the _Calliope_
could possibly carry was crowded on, and down in the fire-rooms the
men worked as they never had worked before. To clear the harbour, the
_Calliope_ had to pass between the _Trenton_ (an American warship)
and the reef, and it required the most skilful seamanship to avoid a
collision with the _Trenton_, on the one hand, or total destruction
upon the reef, on the other. The _Trenton’s_ fires had gone out by that
time, and she lay helpless almost in the path of the _Calliope_.”
[Illustration: PROMENADE DECK OF THE “PARIS.”]
But the dreaded collision did not take place. And as the _Calliope_
passed near to the _Trenton_, a great shout was given for the British
vessel, and the Englishmen responded with a noble cheer. Captain Kane,
who subsequently was appointed to the _Inflexible_, said afterwards:
“Those ringing cheers of the American flag-ship pierced deep into my
heart, and I shall ever remember that mighty outburst of fellow-feeling
which, I felt, came from the bottom of the hearts of the gallant
Admiral and his men. Every man on board the _Calliope_ felt as I did;
it made us work to win. I can only say, ‘God bless America and her
noble sailors!’”
The _Calliope_ did win. Her superb machinery and the fine seamanship
with which she was handled were successful, and she returned to the
harbour when the storm had subsided. Happily the brave men of the
_Trenton_ also survived, though fourteen vessels were wrecked and
nearly 150 lives were lost.
Strongly and staunchly as are built the Government ships, many of the
great liners are their equals in these respects. Indeed, several of
them are now retained by the Government to be used as armed cruisers
should occasion require. The fittings and accommodation on many a
large liner are also luxurious in the extreme. There are library
and smoking-room, superb saloons and state-rooms, drawing-rooms,
music-rooms, and tea-rooms, bath-rooms, etc. In short, they are
floating hotels of a most sumptuous character.
A modern steamship, with its multitude of comforts and conveniences
for passengers and its complexities of machinery for fast and safe
steaming, is a great triumph of engineering skill. Patience and
forethought, the persevering development of sound principles, and
the application of new ideas, have all contributed to this great
achievement.
From the _Comet_ to the _Campania_ is a marvellous development within
a century. And it has not been accomplished along one line, but upon
many. The use of steel, of many-tubed and strong boilers, of high
pressure steam, which would have frightened Henry Bell out of his
senses, the forced draught and the surface condensers, the screw
propeller, the direct-acting and the triple and quadruple expansion
engines, have all contributed to the noble results. Steamships, with
their complex, beautiful, and powerful machinery, may rank among the
most wonderful things that mankind has ever made.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
FAMOUS BRIDGES AND THEIR BUILDERS.
CHAPTER I.
“THE BRIDGE BY THE EARTHEN HOUSE.”
“You will not try again, surely?”
“Ay, I shall indeed!”
“What! after two failures?”