THE TWIN STEAMERS MISSOURI AND MISSISSIPPI.
THE activity of American inventors kept equal pace at this period in the
two directions of artillery and steam appliances. In 1841 the sum of
fifty thousand dollars was appropriated by Congress for experiments in
ordnance, and a possible one million dollars for the “shot-and-shell
proof” iron-clad “Stevens Battery” then building at Hoboken, N. Y.
Perry was frequently called upon to pronounce upon the various methods
of harnessing, improving, and economizing the new motor. We find him in
April, 1842, testing three new appliances for cutting off steam, and, on
May 17, 1842, praying that the _Fulton_ may be kept in commission for
the numerous experiments which he was ordered to make. The Secretary of
the Navy gladly referred the numerous petitioners for governmental
approval to Captain Perry. In November the question is upon a
ventilator; again, it is on the comparative merits of Liverpool,
Pennsylvania, or Cumberland coal; anon, a score or so of minor
inventions claimed to be improvements. Perry sometimes tried the temper
of inventors who lived in the clouds and fed on azure, yet he strove to
give to all, however visionary, a fair chance, for he believed in
progress. He foresaw the necessity of rifled ordnance and armor, and of
steamers of the maximum power for swiftness and battery: perfection in
these, he knew could be obtained only by prolonged study and slow steps
of attainment.
The collaborator of Washington Irving in _Salmagundi_, James K.
Paulding, was at this time Secretary of the Navy. The position offered
to Irving and declined, was given, at Irving’s suggestion to his
partner. He was known more as a literary expert than as a statesman or
man for the naval portfolio, although as far back as 1814, he had been
appointed by President Madison one of a Board of Naval Commissioners. He
was not a warm friend to the new fashions which threatened to overthrow
naval traditions, denude the sea of its romance, and the sailing ships
of their glory. The ferment of ideas and the explosion of innovations
around him were little to his taste. To his mind, the engineers who were
beginning to invade the sacred precincts of the Department seemed little
better than iconoclasts. In the _Literary Life of J. K. Paulding_ are
some amusing references to his horror of the new fire-breathing
monsters; and the entries in his journal show how intensely bored he was
by the new ideas, and the persistency with which the advanced naval
officers held them. He wrote that he “never would consent to see our
grand old ships supplanted by these new and ugly sea-monsters.” He cries
out in his diary, “I am _steamed_ to death.”
For this metaphorical parboiling of “the literary Dutchman in Van
Buren’s cabinet,” Perry was largely responsible. Steam had come to stay,
and with it the engineer, despite the Rip Van Winkles in and out of the
service. Officers call Perry “the father of the steam navy.” An old
engineer says, “He certainly was, if any man may be entitled to be so
called.” Another writes “It was largely through his influence and
representations, that the _Mississippi_ and _Missouri_, then the most
splendid vessels of their class, were built.”
A beginning of two steam war vessels had been practically determined on,
soon after Perry’s return from Europe. He was summoned to Washington in
May 1839 to preside at the Board of Navy Commissioners to consult
concerning machinery for them. The sessions from 9 A. M. to 3.30 P. M.
were held from May 23d to 28th.
The practical wisdom of Captain Perry’s decision in regard to the
engines most suitable for our first steamers—the superb _Missouri_ and
the grand old _Mississippi_—is seen in the fact that when ready for
service, the _Mississippi_ had no superior on the sea for beauty, speed
and durability. Probably out of no vessel in the navy of the United
States, was so much genuinely good work obtained as out of the
_Mississippi_, during her twenty years of constant service in all the
waters. Had she not been burned off Port Hudson in the river whose name
she bore, in 1862, she might have lived a ship’s generation longer. Her
praises are generously sung in the writings of all who lived on board
her. Captain Parker speaks of “The good old steamship _Mississippi_, a
ship that did more hard work in her time than any steamer in the navy
has done since and she was built as far back as 1841.” What the
_Constitution_ was among the old heavy sailing frigates, the
_Mississippi_ was to our steam Navy. On the outside of Commodore Foxhall
Parker’s book on _Naval Tactics Under Steam_ is fitly stamped in gold a
representation of the _Mississippi_.[11]
To speak precisely, she was begun in 1839, and launched in 1841, at
Philadelphia. She was of 1692 tons burthen, and 225 feet long. She
carried two ten-inch, and eight eight-inch guns, and a crew of 525 men.
Her cost was $567,408. The cost of the iron-clad “Steven’s Battery,” as
limited by Congress, was not to exceed that of the twin wooden steamers.
Hence, its construction languished, while the _Mississippi_ and
_Missouri_ were soon built. Perry, from the first, strenuously urged
that the greatest care should be used, the best materials selected, and
the most trustworthy contractors be chosen. “In the first ocean steamers
to be put forth by the government, no cost should be spared to make them
perfect in all respects.” As there was then no lack of harmony and union
among the bureaus, there was no danger of constructing different parts
of the ship on incompatible plans, with the consequent peril of failure
of the whole. The various constructive departments wrought in unison.
These two steam war vessels were built before naval architecture and the
sea alike were robbed of their poetry. The _Missouri_ beside her
machinery, carried 19,000 square feet of canvass, and the _Mississippi_
about as much, so that they looked beautiful to the eye as well as
excelled in power.
On her trip of March 5, starting at eight pounds pressure and rising to
sixteen, the _Missouri_ made twelve and a half statute miles per hour.
Her motion was quiet and graceful, the tremor slight, while at her bow,
above the cutwater, rose a _boa_ of water five feet high. A trial at sea
with her heavy spars was made on the 24th of March. In pointing out her
merits and the defects, Perry emphasized the necessity of having in the
persons, in charge of the equipment of war steamers, a combined
knowledge of engineering and seamanship. In the men who presided over
the machinery, this was noticeably lacking. Most engine-builders and
engineers in 1841 had never been at sea; hence a knowledge of all the
details necessary for safety and efficiency was not common.
[Illustration: THE UNITED STATES STEAM FRIGATE MISSISSIPPI.]
During the month of October, the twin vessels were made ready, and on
the 9th of November, proceeded to Washington. On her return, the
_Mississippi_ made the time from the Potomac Navy Yard to the Wallabout
in fifty-one hours.
Commander A. S. Mackenzie having applied December 16th for the second in
command, the Naval Commissioners asked Perry in regard to the number and
arrangements of the crew of the _Missouri_. He recommended that there
should be on each of the large steamers a captain, and a commander; so
that, after some experience, the latter could take command of the medium
or smaller steamers to be hereafter built. From the first Perry urged
that all our naval officers should learn engineering as well as
seamanship, so as not to be at the mercy of their engineers. In the
beginning, from the habits, education, and manners of engineers taken
from land or the merchant service, one must not look for those official
proprieties derivable only from a long course of education and
discipline in the navy. Hence there would be a natural disposition to
exercise more authority than belonged to them, and to be chary of
communicating the little knowledge they possessed. A purely naval
officer in such condition would be like a lieutenant at the mercy of the
boatswain. The captain must not carry sail without reference to the
engines, and so the steam power must not be exerted when mast, spars or
sails would be strained. Harmony between quarter-deck and engine-room
was absolutely necessary.
The British Government encouraged officers to take charge of private
steamers so as to acquire experience, and no man unused to the nature of
machinery could command a British war steamer. In our navy no one should
be appointed to command in sea steamers unless he had a decided
inclination to acquire the experience.
Even while the _Missouri_ was building, Perry wrote a letter concerning
her complement, and after speaking a good word for the coal heavers and
firemen, and praying that their number might be increased, he again
proposed a scheme for the supply of naval apprentices for steamers. He
suggested also that a class of Third Assistant Engineer should be
formed. This would create emulation and an _esprit du corps_ highly
favorable for high professional character and abilities among the
engineers. The grade would be good as a probationary position, besides
reducing to a minimum, jeopardy to the ship and crew.
In a word, Perry foresaw that, if the splendid new steam frigate
_Missouri_ were left to incompetent hands, she would fall a prey by fire
or wreck, to carelessness and ignorance.
“He was proud of these two vessels, and no one had a better right to be
proud of them than he. He imagined them and created them, while others
did the details and claimed most of the credit of their superiority over
men-of-war of that day of other nations;” for down to 1850, our policy
was to build better vessels than were built in any part of the world.
Thus our navy was small but very effective.
“Perry’s two vessels were without question not only successes, but far
beyond the most sanguine hopes and expectations of friendly critics of
the time. It is a remarkable fact that the _Susquehanna_ (and some
others of smaller size) built after the _Mississippi_ and the _Missouri_
had proved themselves successes, were not successes. With these latter,
Commodore Perry had nothing to do, as to plans, designs or
construction.”
No sketch of the early history of the steam navy of the United States
could be justly made without honorable mention of Captain Robert F.
Stockton. Nor was the paddle-wheel of the _Mississippi_ to remain the
emblem upon the engineer’s shoulder-strap. The propeller screw was soon
to supersede the paddle-wheel as motor of the ship and emblem of the
engineer’s profession. The screw is one of the many discoveries located,
by uncritical readers, in China. The French claim its invention, and
have erected at Boulogne a monument to Frederick Sauvage its reputed
inventor. Ericsson demonstrated its value in 1836, by towing the
_Admiralty_ up the Thames at the rate of ten miles an hour; yet the
British naval officers reported against its possibility of use on ships
of war. Eight years afterward, the man-of-war, _Rattler_, was built as a
propeller, and a successful one it was. Ericsson, after constructing the
engines of the propeller steamer, _Robert F. Stockton_, was invited to
Philadelphia, where he built the first screw steamer of the United
States Navy, and of the world, planned as such. After the name of his
native town, it was called by the Commodore, the _Princeton_.
At the end of ten years of shore service, devoted to the mastery of the
science and art of war as illustrated in the applications of steam,
chambered and rifled ordnance, hollow shot and explosive shells, iron
armor and rams, the building and handling of new types of ships, Perry
was beginning to see clearly, in outline at least, the typical American
wooden man-of-war of the future. Such a ship, we may perhaps declare the
_Kearsarge_ to have been. In her build, motor and battery, she
epitomized all the points of American naval architecture and ordnance,
to which Perry’s faith and works led. Yet these very features were
severely criticized by the English press, in the days before the
British-built _Alabama_ was sunk. These were, in construction, stoutness
of frame, narrowness of beam, heaviness of scantling, all possible
protection of machinery, lightness of draught, and a model calculated
for a maximum of speed; in battery, the heaviest shell-guns mounted as
pivots and firing the largest shells, accuracy of aim combined with
rapidity of fire; in movement, the utmost skill with sail, steam and
rudder, and celerity in obtaining the raking position. In such a ship
and with such guns, were the right executive officer, and commander,
when the first great naval duel fought with steam and shells took place
on Sunday June 19, 1864, at sea, outside of Cherbourg. Historic and
poetic justice to the memory of Matthew Perry was then done with
glorious results, that will ever live in history. When the _Alabama_
sank from the sight of the sun with her wandering stars and the bars of
slavery after her into the ocean’s grave, the guns that sent her down
were directed by James S. Thornton,[12] the efficient executive officer
of the _Kearsarge_, and by his own boast and testimony, the favorite
pupil of Commodore Matthew C. Perry.
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[11] The _Mississippi_ made six long cruises, two in the Gulf of Mexico,
one in the Mediterranean, two to Japan, and one in the Gulf and
Mississippi under Farragut. She twice circumnavigated the globe.
Thoroughly repaired, she left Boston, May 23, 1861, for service in the
Civil War. In passing Forts Jackson and Philip, April 24, 1862, and in
the capture of New Orleans which gave the Confederacy its first blow in
the vitals, the _Mississippi_ took foremost part under command of
Captain Melancthon Smith. Her guns sunk two steamers, and her prow sunk
the ram _Manassas_. Passing safely the fire rafts, and the Challmette
batteries, she was the first vessel to display the stars and stripes
before the city. In the attack on Port Hudson, March 14, 1863, this old
side-wheeler formed the rear guard of Farragut’s line. In the dark night
and dense smoke, the pilot lost his way. The _Mississippi_ grounded, and
was for forty minutes under steady fire of the rifled cannon of the
batteries, and was burned to prevent her use by the Confederates.
[12] See his portrait, p. 926, _Century Magazine_, 1885.