THE TRIUMPH OF STEAM
The speed of life, the rate of progress, and the development of new
ideas have since the beginning of the nineteenth century been so rapid
that all the previous history of the Mercantile Marine, as in other
spheres of activity, seems ridiculously slow and unduly protracted
until we realise that a ship could not become efficient until she had
the right type of hull and the correct distribution of sails, nor be
able to steam until suitable engines had evolved by invention and long
practice.
It is a cliché to speak of the “wonderful” nineteenth century, and
yet in regard to its effects on the sea services it is but expressing
a literal truth. The amazing fact is, that just as the sailing ship
was becoming perfect the steamship was beginning to take its place;
and just as the clippers had definitely created the golden age of
sail, steamers had become reliable, indispensable and destined to make
sailing vessels out of date. If steam and iron, and then steel, had not
been introduced into marine progress for another hundred years, and
the clippers had been allowed to have the seas to themselves, it would
have seemed but fair and natural, having regard to the centuries and
centuries which had been necessary to bring about, at last, so perfect
a creation of man’s science, art and bitter experience.
[Illustration:
[_By courtesy Messrs. T. H. Parker._
LORD YARBOROUGH’S YACHT “FALCON.”
351 tons. Off Cowes. About 1829. Afterwards used as a merchant ship.]
But it was not to be. The story of the steamship, like that of the
sailing ship, is one of evolution; but compressed into a few years
instead of many centuries. As early as 1736 a steam vessel had been
patented by Jonathan Hulls, to be used as a steam tug. It is even said
that such a craft was built and experimented with in the following
year; but at any rate the experiment was not continued. The essential
idea was the use of a single paddle at the stern. Now follows the
trend of invention. In 1783 a two-paddle-wheel steam craft, turned
by a single horizontal steam cylinder, constructed by the Marquis de
Jouffroy, actually went ahead for some time against the current of the
Saône. For some time Patrick Miller had been experimenting with the old
idea of propelling craft by hand-worked paddle-wheels. In 1787 William
Symington had obtained a patent for a new steam-engine, and he was now
asked to design an engine that would turn these paddle-wheels. Thus in
the autumn of 1788 the engine was put into a double-hulled vessel, no
bigger than the smallest yacht, measuring 25 feet long, with 7 feet
beam, the engine being geared with chains and the two paddle-wheels
being placed between the two hulls, one wheel astern of the other. This
curious vessel was actually tried on Dalswinton Loch and was able to do
her five miles an hour.
Then in 1801 was built the stern-wheeler _Charlotte Dundas_ at
Grangemouth, having engines supplied by Symington. She also had a
double stern with two rudders controlled by a steering-wheel. She
proved her efficiency to the extent of towing a couple of 70-ton,
loaded vessels for nearly twenty miles along the Forth and Clyde canal;
but as the owners of this waterway feared for the damage done to the
banks of the canal, the ship was condemned. We have to look upon these
as hardly anything more than interesting experiments, but six years
later we see the first real steamship, not in England nor Scotland,
but in North America, yet produced by a combination of British and
American brains. This was the _Clermont_, measuring 133 feet long and
18 feet beam, and was produced by Robert Fulton, an American engineer,
born in Pennsylvania of Irish parentage. In 1797 he came to Paris,
where he devoted his attention to steam navigation, and in 1803 built
a small steamboat which went up the Seine. Three years later he went
back to America, having seen the trial trip of the _Charlotte Dundas_.
He arranged with the British firm Boulton & Watt to make for him the
principal portions of a suitable engine, and these were sent across the
Atlantic to him and fitted into the wooden ship _Clermont_. The result
was that in 1807 this craft travelled by steam power from New York to
Albany up the Hudson, a distance of 150 miles, in thirty-two hours.
This was a veritable triumph, and definitely settled the question as
to whether steam vessels would ever become of practical utility. It
is, indeed, one of the landmarks of history, and when we look on the
ocean to-day and see such mighty steamships as _Olympic_, _Aquitania_,
_Majestic_ and _Berengaria_, to say nothing of the many thousands of
smaller steamers all over the world, it is nothing short of remarkable
that in little more than a hundred years such a stupendous change
should have come about. The advancement of the ship seems suddenly to
have been telescoped.
[Illustration:
[_By courtesy Messrs. T. H. Parker._
CLIPPER SCREW S.S. “HELLENIS.”
755 tons, length 206 ft. Owned by the Anglo-Ionian Steam Navigation
Co., Ltd. Built at Stockton. In 1861.]
[Illustration:
[_By courtesy Messrs. T. H. Parker._
S.S. “ORINOCO.”
2,250 tons, 800 horse-power. Lieut. G. M. Chapman, R.N., Commander.
Owned by Royal West India Mail Company.]
But the successive stages were not easy, and there was much to be
learnt. In 1811 on the Clyde was launched the _Comet_, a clumsy
little thing of 40 feet length on the keel, and able to steam five
miles an hour by means of one paddle on each side, as in the case of
the _Clermont_. During the next few years paddle-steamers began to
be built and introduced on the Clyde, Thames and Mersey. By 1817 a
steamer called the _Caledonia_ had been taken from the Clyde to the
Thames, whence, after receiving new engines, she steamed to Rotterdam.
A year later came the 90-ton _Rob Roy_, constructed by William Denny
and engined by Napier with thirty nominal horse-power. After running
for some time between Greenock and Belfast, she was transferred to
the Dover-Calais route, but in the meantime steamer development was
proceeding in other parts of Europe. For in 1815 a small craft called
the _Elizabeth_ was running on the Neva, another steamer was carrying
passengers between Cronstadt and St. Petersburg, whilst in Germany the
first vessel of this kind to be built was the _Prinzessin Charlotte_, a
double-hulled thing with a single paddle-wheel between the hulls. She
was running on the Elbe and Spree as early as 1816.
Thus far small steamers had shown their utility for inland waters
and for short sea passages; but now comes another important event.
In the year 1818 there was built in New York the 350-ton full-rigged
ship _Savannah_, but she was also fitted with a low-pressure engine
of ninety horse-power, and a couple of paddle-wheels, one on each
side. These were so arranged that they could be hoisted on board. In
the following year she crossed the Atlantic to Liverpool in thirty
days, but this was largely a sailing passage, for she did not use her
engines except for eighty hours, and by the time she had reached the
Irish coast she had consumed all her fuel. On her return to America
her engines were removed and she became a sailing ship simply. Still,
for the first time in history a ship had been driven by steam in the
Atlantic, and it showed what could be expected presently.
And then came a surprise. In that yard which had been building nothing
else but sailing ships since the time of Elizabeth, in that yard where
the flower of the British merchant fleet had always been constructed,
there was now actually being made a steamer! It seemed incredible,
but it was true, and it caused a great sensation at the time. In 1820
had been formed the first steamship company, under the title of the
General Steam Navigation Company, and they gave the order for their
first steamer to the Blackwall yard of Wigram & Green. This ship was
the 401-ton paddler _City of Edinburgh_, for the Edinburgh trade, and
she was launched in 1821, the same year as the yard also launched the
1333-ton East Indiaman _Duchess of Atholl_, one of the finest sailing
ships of the time. It was significant of the big change that was coming
over the Mercantile Marine, though for many a year most of the officers
and men heartily despised any one who deserted sail for steam.
In the following year this same yard launched the 180-ton paddler _King
of the Netherlands_ for the same owners, and in 1823 they built three
more steamers of from 244 to 510 tons. The _City of Edinburgh_ had been
launched in March, and had caused so much interest that the future
William IV and Queen Adelaide went to look over her and were surprised
at the magnificence of her passenger accommodation. The engines were of
only 100 horse-power, yet the Press at the time referred to them as
“extremely powerful.” Then in the following June was launched at Port
Glasgow the 420-ton three-masted schooner _James Watt_, which had a
long, narrow funnel, about as tall as her mainmast, and a paddle-wheel
on either side of the ship driven by engines of the same horse-power as
those for the _City of Edinburgh_.
The steamship had thus got a good start, though as regards ocean work
the engines were auxiliary rather than the main propelling power. In
1825 the 176-ton auxiliary _Falcon_ reached Calcutta via the Cape, and
the 470-ton _Enterprise_ made the same voyage in 113 days, but for 103
days she used steam. This was the biggest test which marine machinery
had so far endured. It proved a good deal, and therefore it is not
surprising that two years later there were eighty steamers classed
in Lloyd’s Register, and five years later there were 100. But the
Atlantic had not yet been conquered by steam, and when we realise that
_Aquitania_ was not in commission until 1914, we can well appreciate
the rate of progress that was afterwards made. In 1831 a vessel named
the _Royal William_, 176 feet long, was built in Quebec, and fitted
with engines made by Boulton & Watt that had been sent across the
Atlantic. Two years later this ship crossed the ocean to Cowes, having
done the 2500 miles in seventeen days, yet there is some doubt as to
whether she used her engines throughout the whole voyage.
But the year 1838 was to be remarkable in the story of the Atlantic,
for on April 4 there started from Cork the 703-ton paddler _Sirius_,
which reached New York on April 22. She had steamed all the way, but
it had been a near thing, for her fuel gave out and she had even to
burn some of her spars. At one stage of the voyage her captain had
to quell a mutiny, for the crew began to assume that the ship would
never get across. Twelve hours after her arrival came into New York the
four-masted paddler _Great Western_, which had left Bristol on April 7.
She was a much larger ship, of 1321 gross tons, and had been specially
designed by that engineering genius Brunel to withstand Atlantic
weather. On the return voyage she took fifteen days, and _Sirius_
seventeen. _Great Western_ was a most successful ship, both technically
and commercially. At the end of the first year she earned a dividend of
9 per cent., thirty-five guineas being the fare, and she carried 152
passengers. She was not broken up until 1847.
So far no steamer had crossed from Liverpool to New York, though the
sailing ships were still doing the voyage in about three weeks, but in
1838 a second _Royal William_ accomplished this. She was hardly the
kind of paddler to choose for Atlantic work, and had really been built
for the Liverpool-Kingstown route. Built and engined at Liverpool,
being 3 feet shorter but 2 feet wider than _Sirius_, she was thus
the first of those steamers to maintain the communication between
Liverpool and New York, which has meant so much to the mutual commerce
and development of ideas in the two countries. On April 2, 1839, the
three-masted paddler _British Queen_ left Portsmouth and reached New
York on April 16, or three days quicker than the first _Royal William_
had done the journey in the opposite direction under sail and steam.
Encouraged by the success of _Sirius_, which had been chartered
because the _British Queen_ was not yet ready, the British Queen Steam
Navigation Company had also built the sister ship _President_, 1863
tons and 700 horse-power; but after sailing from New York on March 11,
1841, with a few passengers, _President_ was never heard of again, and
thus the company came to an end.
We have now reached a stage when a change was coming over the
Mercantile Marine slowly but without a doubt. A new competition was
beginning, yet so far sail was ahead and improving all the time.
But from the number of new shipyards which were springing up, and
the interest which they and owners were taking in the steamship, it
was obvious even soon after Queen Victoria’s accession that in the
steamship lay the future of the trading and passenger ship. It is to be
noted that during the time of the Honourable East India Company their
ships were primarily and essentially freighters. They earned their
profits by carrying valuable exports and imports. The few passengers
who travelled were officials going out to India in the service of
the company, or returning home. To-day the finest merchant ships in
the world are not freighters, but passenger ships. It is the tramp
which has succeeded to the carrying trade of those pioneer ships; and
after the Indian monopoly had disappeared, and there came a need for
people to go out East, it was quite an innovation to provide more
accommodation for passengers. Then the same thing happened in regard
to China, but especially with the emigration to Australia. Gradually
this element increased, people began to travel all over the world, for
business, for administrative reasons, for pleasure; and as the number
of passengers increased so the amount of cargo space was encroached
upon. Especially was this the case in the transatlantic ships, so that
to-day the principal liners on that route carry practically no cargo
beyond mails and the passengers’ luggage. Thus, within a hundred years,
the needs of the public have entirely altered the characters of the
shipping.
It was natural enough that the East should for so long have instigated
all the improvements in shipping, for the reason that travellers
went to the Orient long before America was discovered, and the East
India Company had a continuous need for the best ships. But since the
introduction of steam and the rapid progress of the United States,
it is the West, and not the East which has always seen the greatest
enterprise in shipping. Bigger and better vessels, compound engines,
twin screws, triple screws, quadruple screws, turbines, oil fuel,
increased speed, luxurious accommodation—all these most important and
progressive factors in the Mercantile Marine have come as a result of
the Atlantic, and not the Oriental trade.
In reality it is all traceable to the year 1840, though the
establishment of Lloyd’s Register in 1834,[5] the founding of the
Marine Department of the Board of Trade in 1846 and the repeal of the
Navigation Laws in 1849 have also to be reckoned as having powerfully
contributed to the improvement of British shipping. Some time since
I had in my hands the log of the sailing ship _Elizabeth_, which
sailed from the Thames in the spring of 1833, arrived in China the
following January, left there in March, called at St. Helena in June,
then crossed the Atlantic and reached Halifax in August. She was, I
believe, the last of the ships owned by the Honourable East India
Company to leave China before the monopoly ended. Now, as showing
the interlocking of human affairs, it is interesting to observe that
at Halifax she went alongside Mr. Cunard’s wharf, for he was the East
India Company’s agent in that port. Curiously, five years previously,
in reply to a letter sent to his firm by Messrs. Ross & Primrose,
Cunard had written: “We have received your letter of the 22nd inst.
We are entirely unacquainted with the cost of a steamboat, and would
not like to embark in a business of which we are quite ignorant. Must,
therefore, decline taking any part in the one you propose getting up.”
Now in those days the arrangements for postal contracts were in the
hands of the British Admiralty, who were so impressed by the wonderful
steamship achievements of 1838 that they proceeded to issue circulars
inviting tenders for the carrying of American mails by steamers. It
so happened that one of these circulars fell into the hands of Samuel
Cunard of Halifax, who owned a number of sailing ships trading between
Boston, Newfoundland and Bermuda. He had been one of the shareholders
of the first _Royal William_, which had crossed in 1833 from Nova
Scotia to Cowes. Having read the circular and made up his mind, he
came to London in order to raise the required money, but the merchants
would have nothing to do with the scheme. From the secretary of the
East India Company he obtained a letter of introduction to Mr. Robert
Napier, a Clyde shipbuilder and engineer, who in turn introduced
him to Mr. George Burns, and the latter introduced him to Mr. David
MacIver. Each of these two last mentioned was an expert in the shipping
business, and in a few days the necessary capital of £270,000 was
subscribed. A tender was then made to the Admiralty for the conveyance
of Her Majesty’s mails once a fortnight between Liverpool, Halifax and
Boston. This was accepted in competition, and a contract was signed for
seven years. It was agreed that the service was to be carried on by
four ships, that fixed dates of sailings should be adhered to, and that
the company should be subsidised to the extent of £81,000 a year.
Thus the famous Cunard Company was founded. Cunard came to London,
Burns to Glasgow and MacIver to Liverpool, and to these three men we
owe a great deal of the subsequent development of Atlantic shipping
and the progress of the Mercantile Marine. The company was at first
known as “The British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet
Company,” and in the year 1840 these four wooden ships were built on
the Clyde and supplied with engines by Robert Napier. The first was the
_Britannia_, followed by the _Acadia_, _Caledonia_ and _Columbia_. They
were propelled by paddle-wheels, carried 115 cabin passengers and 225
tons of cargo, and they were all approximately 1154 tons, and 207 feet
long. Regardless of superstition, _Britannia_ began her maiden voyage
on a Friday, which happened to be July 4, a day which commemorated
another kind of Independence. After a fine trip of eleven days and
four hours she reached Halifax, and thence proceeded to Boston, just a
fortnight plus eight hours out from Liverpool. The citizens of Boston
celebrated the historic event with banqueting and enthusiasm, and thus
was forged one of those links which have bound the two nations together
for so many years ever since.
Following the precedent of the Cunard Company, the Royal Mail Line
in March 1840, obtained a contract to carry the mails in at least
fourteen “good substantial and efficient steam vessels” to the West
Indies, whither previously the mails had been carried in gun-brigs. The
contract was for ten years from December 1841. All the ships were named
after British rivers, and they used to depart from Falmouth, the voyage
taking from seventeen to eighteen days. It is evidence of the great
spread of shipbuilding already that these fourteen ships were built at
Northfleet on the Thames, Greenock, Dumbarton, Leith and even Cowes.
The fleet cost about £1,000,000 sterling, but the Government gave them
a subsidy of £240,000 a year. The undertaking was very successful, and
presently Southampton took the place of Falmouth. Then in 1851 the
Royal Mail Line extended their service to South America. Gradually the
heavy subsidy dropped to £85,000 a year, and was finally abolished in
June 1905.
As further evidence of the solid belief which the steamship had now
won, it is only necessary to refer to the Pacific Steam Navigation
Company, which received its charter in 1840. It is now amalgamated with
the Royal Mail Line, but in those days, whilst the latter served the
east side of South America, the Pacific Steam Navigation Company served
the Pacific coast of that continent by going round through the Magellan
Straits. Their two ships the _Chile_ and _Peru_ were in fact the first
two steamers which ever passed through those straits. What a wonderful
change since the time of Drake’s ships!
But there is still one more important event which belongs to the year
1840, for this was the date when there was incorporated by royal
charter the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company. The
foundation of the Peninsular Company dates back to 1837, and a regular
service of mail packets was instituted from London to Lisbon and
Gibraltar, though even a little prior to this date its ships had begun
running to the Peninsula. The first steamship owned by the Peninsular
Company was the 209-ton paddler _William Fawcett_, built in the year
1829, and she ran from London to Lisbon and Gibraltar. In 1840 the
line was extended to Malta and Alexandria, and its title changed from
Peninsular to Peninsular and Oriental. There was as yet no Suez Canal,
so from Alexandria passengers and goods were sent by the Mahmoudieh
Canal to the Nile, whence they proceeded by steamer to Cairo, and from
there travelled through the desert on camels as far as Suez. It was
thus a laborious business, 3000 camels being employed for transporting
a single steamer’s loading, every package requiring three separate
transfers; and for nearly thirty years this continued until the Suez
Canal was opened in 1869.
[Illustration:
[_By courtesy Messrs. T. H. Parker._
TWO EARLY MAIL STEAMSHIPS.
This picture of 1842 shows two of the General Steam Navigation
Company’s vessels at Rotterdam. The 600-ton “Ocean” leaving, and the
500-ton “Giraffe” arriving.]
But this company first sent a steamer to India via the Cape in 1842.
This was the 1800-ton _Hindostan_, with 500-horse-power engines. In
1844 the P. & O. undertook the mail service from England to Alexandria,
and thus from Suez to Ceylon, Calcutta and China. The service between
Suez and Bombay was carried on by the East India Company, in order to
keep alive their navy, but in 1854 this service was absorbed by the
P. & O., who in 1852 had also started a branch line from Singapore
to Australia. Then in 1869 came the opening of the Suez Canal, and
thus was broken down the last barrier which separated India from the
trader. A tremendous impulse was given now to shipping; for the
first time vessels need not go round the Cape of Good Hope, and so once
again the Mediterranean ceased to be a backwater and the route to the
East was now more like what it was before the Portuguese, Dutch and
Elizabethan English had begun to undertake their Oriental voyages. It
is interesting to remark that in the same year which saw the opening
of the Suez Canal the two fastest clipper ships which ever sailed were
both afloat—_Thermopylae_ and _Cutty Sark_. The latter made her maiden
voyage in the following February. Thus, at a time when sailing ships
were passing the Cape at a record speed, the canal was being opened and
putting an end to the sail-driven vessel’s usefulness after so many
centuries, linking it up with Vasco da Gama and earlier.
FOOTNOTES:
[5] By the amalgamation of the Register of Shipping (1760) and the New
Register Book of Shipping (1799).