THE IRON AND STEEL AGE
In a very few years, then, the increasing success of the steamer,
together with the opening of the Suez Canal and firm establishment of
several steamship companies carrying mails east, west and south, gave
the glorious sailing ships a blow from which they have never since
recovered. Mechanically-propelled craft were now seen everywhere. In
1841 the Blackwall yard launched the 666-ton paddler _Princess Royal_
and the 875-ton paddler _Trident_ for the General Steam Navigation
Company. The latter craft was one of the fastest vessels afloat, and
on Queen Victoria’s first visit to Scotland this ship so far surpassed
the royal yacht in speed that _Trident_ was chartered for Her Majesty’s
party on the return voyage.
[Illustration:
[_By courtesy Messrs. T. H. Parker._
S.S. “TRIDENT.”
Of the General Steam Navigation Company, arriving at Woolwich on
September 13, 1842, with Queen Victoria on board after her visit to
Scotland. “Trident” was of 875 tons.]
From 1840 to about 1860 the Cunard ships had practically a monopoly of
the Atlantic steamship trade, though as long as they used paddle-wheels
they were not very serious competitors with the sailing craft. It was
the advent of iron and steel, of the high-pressure and compound engines
which was to give the steamships the virtues of economy and efficiency
and thus a superiority over the old-fashioned craft. From 1850 for the
next eight years there was in the North Atlantic a certain amount of
opposition from a steamship company called the Collins Line, which had
been subsidised by the United States Government. After a burst of
keen rivalry, the Collins Line withdrew from the contest. In 1850 came
the Inman Line, which kept up the running for many years until in 1893
it was reorganised and became merged in the American Line. In 1866 was
founded the Guion Line, which certainly had a great influence for a
time in accelerating the development of the big steamship. And then in
1870 came the White Star Line, which, excepting the Cunard Line and
a temporary influence of the two German lines, has done more for the
improvement in design and speed and comfort in regard to steamships
than all the other companies put together.
We must now see how this all came about. It depended really on two
things: first, the use of iron, and subsequently steel, for the
building of bigger hulls; and secondly, the invention of the screw
propeller to take the place of the old-fashioned paddle-wheel. Briefly
how this came to pass is as follows. As far back as 1821 a Mr. Aaron
Manby had built an iron craft 120 feet long and 18 feet wide, and she
steamed from London to Paris, being employed for the next twenty years
on the Seine. She was thus the first iron ship to put to sea, and was
called the _Aaron Manby_, after her builder. Then in 1832 Laird & Co.
of Birkenhead built the 148-ton paddler _Lady Lansdowne_ for the trade
between England and Ireland. But it was not until 1843 that the first
really large iron ship, the famous _Great Britain_, was built, intended
as an improvement on the _Great Western_.
But before we speak of the _Great Britain_ we must see something of
the way the propeller came in, for the two subjects are intimately
connected. At its best the paddle-wheel, except for excursion steamers
and certain kinds of tugs, is a very clumsy means of driving a ship
through the water. It is the most obvious, because historically it is
analogous to the action of the duck, of the first primitive man who
paddled his small craft, or of the later Egyptians who rowed with oars
down the Nile. But for open sea work the paddle-wheel is an awkward
encumbrance, and apart from tugs and pleasure steamers it was last
seen, in European waters at least, in the mail steamers running from
England to Flushing and Ostend comparatively recently.
[Illustration:
[_By courtesy Messrs. T. H. Parker._
THE “ROBERT F. STOCKTON.”
(Captain Ericsson, 1839.)]
[Illustration:
[_By courtesy Messrs. T. H. Parker._
AN EARLY CROSS-CHANNEL STEAMER.
This picture of 1855 shows the English and French Royal Mail Steam
Packets “Queen” and “Empress.”]
But for a long time there had been efforts made to introduce the
screw propeller. As far back as 1804 John Stevens crossed the Hudson
in a little vessel driven by a screw propeller, but it was not until
thirty-two years later that John Ericsson, a Swedish engineer,
reintroduced the screw and patented it. In 1837 his propeller was
successfully tried in the 45-foot _Francis B. Ogden_, and in the
following year the Lairds built at Birkenhead the 63-foot _Robert F.
Stockton_, which obtained the extraordinary speed of thirteen knots on
the Thames, going with the tide, and she afterwards went across the
Atlantic, where she was turned into a tug. But in England Francis Smith
was at work on the screw problem and obtained a patent in the same year
as Ericsson, and his invention was tried with success in a 6-ton boat.
Smith’s patent was bought by a syndicate; and in 1838 was launched the
240-ton three-master _Archimedes_, fitted with Smith’s screw, and after
she had steamed round Great Britain and across the Bay of Biscay, the
prejudiced and “old-timers” began to believe in the new idea. Next
year was launched the much larger _Novelty_, which was the first
cargo ship to be fitted with a screw, and she proceeded from London to
Constantinople and back. She was also the first ship to be fitted with
an iron mast.
We have thus arrived at the stage when the iron ship and the screw
propeller had become practicable, and thus the future of the steamer
was moulded. Wood was all very well until the demand for increased
tonnage arrived, but when it was proposed to construct the 3618-ton
_Great Britain_ there was nothing for it but to use iron. Here was
a ship to be 822 feet long with 50½ feet beam, able to carry 260
passengers and 1200 tons of cargo. As no contractor could be found
willing to build such a ship, the Great Western Steamship Company at
Bristol constructed her themselves. She was designed by Brunel, but
she turned out to be an awkward, ill-fated monstrosity. Launched in
July 1843, she was unable to enter the river until December of the
following year, owing to delay in the alteration of the dock. It was
originally intended to fit her with the usual paddle-wheels, but the
arrival of the _Archimedes_ in the port caused Brunel to modify the
designs, so that his ship should be driven by a six-bladed propeller.
She was a curious, six-masted craft with a bowsprit and painted ports,
and in July 1845, after making a trip to London, left Liverpool with
sixty passengers and 600 tons of cargo, reaching New York after a
voyage of fifteen days. On the return journey her best day’s steaming
was 287 miles. One night during September of the following year, after
leaving the Mersey, she ran ashore off the Irish coast in Dundrum Bay,
where she remained for eleven months exposed to all weathers. Brunel
cleverly had a wooden breakwater, loaded with stones, built round her,
and she was eventually refloated and taken into Liverpool. She was now
sold for a quarter of her original cost of £100,000, was turned into a
full-rigged ship for the Australian trade, and eventually became a coal
hulk.
But in spite of her failure this ship showed that an iron hull and a
screw as propeller were a practicable combination. She was divided
into five water-tight compartments, she was fitted with bilge-keels to
minimise rolling, and instead of the heavy wooden bulwarks possessed
by contemporary ships and inherited from the time when the Tudor ships
mounted their cannon, _Great Britain_ had iron rails with netting, so
that any seas shipped could get away easily. Thus, this unfortunate
vessel, in spite of her ill-luck, did introduce new ideas into the
Mercantile Marine. It was in 1856 that the Cunard Company built the
_Persia_, of iron. She was a 3300-ton ship, but had paddle-wheels,
and then, six years later, came their _Scotia_, which was the last
and finest paddle-ship ever built for the Atlantic service. She had
seven water-tight compartments and a double bottom, thanks to the
influence of _Great Britain_, and she lowered the record of crossing
the Atlantic to just two hours under the nine days. The sailing ship
as a passenger-carrier across that ocean was now definitely beaten,
and the future simply consisted in the more thorough perfecting of the
steamships; there was no going back now, notwithstanding the fact that
in the Eastern trades the full-rigged ships were still making such
wonderful passages.
[Illustration:
[_By courtesy Messrs. T. H. Parker._
THE FAMOUS “GREAT EASTERN.”
After her launching in 1858.]
The advance of engineering and science, the amount of valuable data
which had been obtained during these years of steam propulsion, had
already brought steamship building to be no rule-of-thumb method,
but a highly technical art. About the middle of the century, John Scott
Russell, for instance, made some valuable researches regarding the
resistance of a ship’s hull passing through the water, and in 1860 Sir
Edward Harland, founder of the famous Belfast yard of Harland & Wolff,
introduced steamers into the Mediterranean with a length of ten times
their beam. This novel idea was so successful that when he came to
build the White Star steamships he carried out that same idea, which
was yet another important influence in the evolution of the modern
Atlantic liner. But even in 1852 a tremendous improvement was seen in
the hull of the _Victoria_, which was built of iron to the design of
Brunel & Scott Russell for the Australian Royal Mail Steam Navigation
Company. She was designed to embody the wave-line theory and for a
speed of ten knots, and instead of the clumsy, ponderous hulls, you
find in the _Victoria_ smoothness, gracefulness and sweet lines. It is
therefore not altogether surprising that she won the £500 prize offered
by the Colonies for the fastest voyage to Australia, her time from
Gravesend to Adelaide being sixty days, including two days’ delay at
St. Vincent. She was propelled by a two-bladed screw.
Thus in the fewest possible years a remarkable change had come over
the Mercantile Marine, and though the old die-hards—those fine artists
of the marlin-spike—still heartily despised every kind of steamship,
yet others could see well enough that an entirely new order of things
had begun owing to the advance in engineering. The ship, as in
regard to other creatures, had to advance with the times. The first
settlement in Australia had taken place as far back as 1788, and now
required better lines of communication. So, too, with the East and
the great strides which North and South America were making. Pioneers,
emigrants, business men were exercising a pressure which could be met
only in bigger and faster ships. Thanks to the peace and prosperity
of the mid-Victorian era, new ideas were emerging. Gone were the
days of monopolies and worn-out rules: the last trace of mediævalism
in shipping had been severed, and men were thinking out freely and
unfettered the problems of transport.
[Illustration:
[_By courtesy Messrs. T. H. Parker._
THE FAMOUS “GREAT EASTERN.”
Also known as the “Leviathan.” Length 680 ft., beam 83 ft.; beam across
paddle-boxes 120 ft.; depth (deck to keel) 58ft.; 22,500 tons; draught
(laden) 30 ft.; paddle engines 1,200 horse-power; screw engines 1,800
horse-power. Accommodation for 4,000 passengers.]
It was quite a remarkable achievement that in 1853 the _Himalaya_ was
built at Blackwall for the P. & O. line. Here was an iron vessel of
4690 tons, which succeeded in making a record run to Gibraltar at an
average speed of thirteen and a half knots. No wonder that the year
after she was built she was purchased by the British Government. And
then came that wonder of the world, the historic _Great Eastern_,
which was the biggest ship ever built for nearly fifty years, until
the White Star _Baltic_ came out in 1905. The _Great Eastern_ is best
described as a costly freak, but she shows the marvellous courage and
enterprise of the Victorian age. It was Brunel’s idea that a ship
should be built so as to carry a very large number of passengers and an
enormous cargo all the way to Australia without having to coal anywhere
on the voyage. She was to be 679 feet 6 inches long, with 82 feet 8
inches beam, of 18,915 tons, and driven by both paddles and a screw.
This five-funnelled, six-masted giantess was built by Scott Russell
on the Thames. She began to be built on May 1, 1854, but she was not
launched at Millwall until the last day of January 1858, the first
attempt to persuade her to enter the water being unsuccessful. As a
financial speculation she was a failure. The attempts to launch her and
the ensuing delay ran into thousands of pounds, and the company which
owned her had to be wound up, but she was sold to a new company for
£160,000. She was unfortunately now put on the Atlantic route, where
she was a financial failure also; then from 1865 to 1873 she was used
in laying the Atlantic submarine telegraph cables, for which she was
found suitable, and finally in 1888 she was beached and then broken
up. Though in a commercial sense she had never succeeded, the _Great
Eastern_ did prove that she was perfectly sound structurally, and never
exhibited any signs of weakness in spite of her enormous length. But
she was really years before her time.
To have built this, or indeed any big ship, of wood could not have been
possible. What rendered practicable the increased length of ships,
able to carry high-powered engines with much space for passengers and
cargo, was the invention of the rolling-mill, which had been brought
about by Henry Cort, who died in 1800. Before this was introduced,
the iron after leaving the furnace had to be hammered into shape. But
nowadays iron and steel can be turned out into suitable plates, so that
shipbuilding really consists in riveting together so many plates as to
form a steel box with shaped ends. Instead of the soft sounds of the
adze and caulking chisel and the wholesome smell of tar, the shipyard
of to-day is a pandemonium of monotonous, buzzing pneumatic riveting
hammers. There is no loving selection of timbers and planking: the
steel plates and girders are just there ready to be put into position.
It is highly unsentimental, but inevitable that development should
proceed along these lines. During the ’seventies steel had been used
for shipbuilding more or less tentatively, but it was not until the
Allan liner _Buenos Ayrean_ that a steel ship was seen in the Atlantic.
Mild steel, because of its ductility and strength and lightness, became
much more suitable than iron, and opened up another era in the story
of the steamship. With the exception of yachts, lifeboats and certain
fishing craft, this is now used universally for constructing hulls.
In 1873 the French had employed steel in building their warships, and
in 1881 the Cunard _Servia_ came out thus constructed. She was the
largest and most powerful ship then built with the exception of _Great
Eastern_, her measurements being 515 feet long, 52 feet beam and 7392
tons gross. She lowered the Atlantic voyage to seven days, one hour,
thirty-eight minutes.
[Illustration:
[_By courtesy the White Star Line._
S.S. “OCEANIC.”
The first White Star Line steamship. Launched 1870. She measured 420
ft. over all. She was the first of the modern steamship era.]
But a most important influence on the future of the Mercantile Marine
was created when the White Star Line began their competition in the
Atlantic trade. Previously their flag had flown at the masthead of
a fine fleet of sailing clippers. In 1867 the managing owner of the
White Star Line retired, and Mr. T. H. Ismay took over control. He
began by using iron for his Australian clippers instead of wood, and
two years later gave an order to Harland & Wolff, Belfast, to build
steamships for the Atlantic. In August 1870 was launched the first of
the fleet. This was the _Oceanic_, 420 feet long, her beam being only
one-tenth of her length. That proportion was a radical departure in
shipbuilding, and very different from the beamy old “waggons,” as the
old sailing ships were sometimes called. This _Oceanic_ is really the
first of the modern steamships, and contained so many new ideas
as to make all the other steamships old-fashioned. For instance, she
introduced the practice of having the saloon extending the entire width
and placed in the middle of the ship instead of aft. The state-rooms
were placed forward and abaft the saloon, instead of opening out on to
it, which had been the custom derived from the sailing ships. Moreover,
the introduction of glass side-lights on a much larger scale made the
interior of the ship lighter and more pleasant. In fact, what with
this, the revolving chairs instead of the hard seats, the oil-lamps
instead of the spluttering candles, and other details of comfort, the
passenger saw that he was so well looked after that the White Star
became at once a popular line. Ever since that time one company has
vied with another to give the Atlantic passenger the maximum amount of
pleasure and luxury. How little do many of them appreciate the contrast
between the crack steamships of to-day and of fifty or sixty years ago,
when everything had to be learned by hard and costly experience!
The _Oceanic_ was a 3808-ton vessel, and became the fastest steamship
afloat, her four-cylinder compound engines enabling her to average
fourteen and a quarter knots. The first Atlantic line to build all
its steamers of iron had been the Inman Line, which from 1850 to 1892
was one of the chief competitors in that ocean. Founded by William
Inman, its successful policy was to capture the emigration trade which
had been carried on by the sailing ships. Their first ships had been
the _City of Glasgow_ and _City of Manchester_, built of iron and
propelled by a single screw. They inaugurated the custom of calling at
Queenstown, and began running to New York instead of Philadelphia. The
first so-called Atlantic “greyhound” was built by the Guion Line. In
1879 came their _Arizona_, which unfortunately ran at full speed into
an iceberg, but her water-tight bulkhead enabled her to get into St.
John’s, Newfoundland. Her advent was followed by the _Oregon_, built
in 1882, and she created a sensation by making the run from Queenstown
to New York in six days, fourteen hours. This was a 7375-ton ship,
which, with her speed of nineteen knots, made her the fastest vessel
afloat, and was purchased by the Cunard Company; but she in turn was
eclipsed by the two famous Cunarders, _Umbria_ in 1884 and _Etruria_ in
the following year. These two wonderful craft were to be used as armed
cruisers if required, and never were more satisfactory ships built to
give their owners so little trouble. In respect of speed, also, they
broke all records, _Etruria_ crossing from Queenstown to New York
in six days, six hours and thirty-six minutes in 1885, while seven
years later _Umbria_ surpassed this by maintaining an average of over
nineteen and a half knots.
And whilst all this activity was proceeding in the Atlantic, ships
driven by steam were running regularly to the East, though the
competition in this sphere was not keen. In 1877 the Orient Line was
founded. One of their ships, the _Austral_, launched in 1881, was lying
in Sydney Harbour with her scuttles open, but owing to a heavy list
caused through unequal coaling the water poured in and she sank in
fifty feet of water. She was, however, refloated several months later.
[Illustration:
[_By courtesy Messrs. T. H. Parker._
S.S. “SULTAN.”
2,225 tons, 240 horse-power. J. Maddison, R.N.R., Commander. About
1873.]
[Illustration:
[_By courtesy Messrs. T. H. Parker._
S.S. “ORIENT.”
About 1879. Owned by Orient Steam Navigation Company. 5,386 tons, 5,400
horse-power, length 460 ft., beam 46 ft. 6 in.]
Up till the ’eighties it was customary for the crack liners to carry
three and even four masts with yards and both a fore staysail and
square-sails. It was a practice which exhibited the last suspicion of
steam, for it was argued that if the propeller should become damaged,
or the shaft break there would at least be canvas enough for her to
get along. But, with the introduction and general adoption of the
twin-screw, masts became fewer, yards and canvas disappeared, and
the seaman who had been brought up to go aloft and lay-out along a
yard found himself a mere deckhand. He had seen the golden age of the
full-rigged pass away, and the last resemblance in the steamship to the
Blackwall frigates and the clippers remained only in the clipper bows
of the Inman Line, who for so long kept up the useless but ornamental
bowsprit even as late as the ’nineties. It is with the launch of their
_City of New York_ and _City of Paris_, the latter in 1888, that twin
screws of a large size were introduced into the Mercantile Marine, and
here begins the final chapter in the steamship’s development, for it
gave her an independence and increase of efficiency which never before
has she possessed nor since lost.