AMERICAN PIONEERS IN STEAM NAVIGATION
Towards the end of the eighteenth century American inventors turned
their attention to the problem of navigation by steam, and to one
of them, Robert Fulton, the credit of having invented the steamboat
has usually been given. Livingston’s “Historical Account of the
Application of Steam for the Propelling of Boats” has been accepted
as an authority on the subject, but as he was Fulton’s friend and
backer, and Fulton married into the Livingston family, there is reason
to question the absolute accuracy of the circumstantial story told by
this most eloquent special pleader, though there is some excuse for his
partiality. A little investigation makes it apparent that Fulton was
not the first American to design a successful steamboat, nor even the
first to make the running of steamboats a satisfactory speculation.
In 1909 a Mr. John Moray of West Virginia presented a petition to
Congress in which he asked for the official recognition of James Rumsay
as the inventor of the steamboat, and the perpetuation of his memory by
the placing of an appropriate bust in the Statuary Hall at the Capitol.
According to the petition “The deed-books of Berkeley County, Va., for
the year 1782 record the fact that James Rumsay, a native of Maryland,
who was a millwright and Revolutionary soldier, purchased a farm,
and soon after a pond, for experimental purposes in the line of his
calling. On that pond, as the results of many experiments in steam and
hydrostatics by James Rumsay, the wonderful discovery of the principle
of steam navigation took place. Thoroughly satisfied by continuous
experiments that the newly discovered principle would become of
immense value in the world, Rumsay contracted with his brother-in-law,
Joseph Barnes, for the building of a boat for steam purposes at St.
John’s Run, on the Potomac River. The resulting steamboat was publicly
exhibited at Shepherdstown, Va., on the Potomac, on December 3 and 11,
1787. The great success and useful character of Rumsay’s steamboat were
established by sworn testimony of many notable witnesses, including
General Horatio Gates, conqueror of Burgoyne, and by a multitude of
astonished and delighted spectators. This practically successful trial
took place twenty years before the Hudson River trial in 1807, and the
speed of Rumsay’s boat was fully equal to that of the _Clermont_ in its
initial trip to Albany--four miles an hour--without sails, paddles, and
the complexities of the Hudson River boat.”
Rumsay afterwards launched on the Potomac a boat propelled by a
steam-engine and machinery, both of which were of his own construction.
His method of propelling the boat was to force out a stream of water
at the stern, a system known as the “Jet,” which has never commended
itself to engineers in general, owing to the friction caused in the
pipes by the water rushing through them. A trial trip, in December
1787, was successfully made in the presence of a great number of
spectators, and resulted in Rumsay being granted the right to navigate
the streams of New York, Maryland, and Virginia. His scheme was taken
up by an organisation formed in Philadelphia for that purpose, and
known as the Rumsay Society. Benjamin Franklin was among its members.
Rumsay also visited England and the Continent, and obtained patents for
his invention in Great Britain, France, and Holland, but he did not
live long enough to develop his schemes. He made a successful trip on
the Thames in 1792, and died in London the same year.
His great rival was John Fitch, who, in 1785, conceived the idea of
using steam-power for land carriages and afterwards for vessels. His
first model of a steamer carried large wheels at the sides, but these
were found to labour too much in the water, and in his experiments
in July 1786 upon a skiff with a steam-engine having a three-inch
cylinder, the wheels were replaced by paddles or oars supported by
a framework above the vessel. Convinced of the success which must
ultimately attend the use of steam-power, he petitioned Congress and
the State Legislature for a grant of money, but without avail. As a
result of his efforts to interest “the leading scientific and public
men of that day, everywhere and at all times,” and his bold advocacy
of the adoption of steam for purposes of navigation, he was generally
considered insane. But in 1786 he succeeded in persuading the State
of New Jersey to grant him for fourteen years the sole and exclusive
right to navigate its waters by steam, and this example was followed in
1787 by the States of New York, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.
He had earned some money by map-making, and now formed a company and
built a boat of 60 tons. She was 45 feet long with a beam of 12 feet,
had six oars or paddles on each side, and carried an engine with a
12-inch cylinder. She made a successful trial trip at Philadelphia in
1787. A still larger boat followed in 1788, and another in 1790. The
latter demonstrated “with their increased speed and facility the value
of Fitch’s invention,” and the last was run during the summer as a
passenger boat between Philadelphia and Burlington at a speed of about
eight miles an hour. She appears, from an illustration in Appleton’s
“Cyclopædia of American Biography,” to have had three large paddles
at the stern held in place by a projecting frame, a cross-beam at the
extreme end of the frame supporting the rudder, which was placed a
little distance behind the paddles. Consequent upon the Virginia patent
which gave him the exclusive right of navigating “the Ohio River and
its tributaries” he now designed a boat called the _Perseverance_, for
freight and passengers on the Mississippi. But as, owing to a storm,
she could not be got ready in time, the default clause in the patent
became operative. Fitch’s associates now left him and his own resources
were at an end, and after one or two other misfortunes he went to
France in 1793. Needless to say, that country was in no mood then to
entertain the idea of building steamboats. Finding no one ready to
listen to his schemes, Fitch departed for London, having deposited his
plans and specifications with the American Consul at Lorient.
[Illustration: JOHN FITCH’S OARED PADDLE BOAT, 1786.]
A rather curious thing then happened.
“During this absence his (Fitch’s) drawings and papers were loaned by
the Consul to Robert Fulton, then in Paris, in whose possession they
were for several months.”[14] Until now, it must be remembered, Fulton
had scarcely been heard of in connection with steamboats.
[14] Appleton’s “Cyclopædia.”
Meantime the ill-starred Fitch, unable to gain a hearing in England
either, worked his passage back to America as a common sailor. In 1796,
still determined to convince the public of the need for steamboats,
he obtained a ship’s yawl, and fitted her with an engine and
screw-propeller. With these he experimented in New York and, as usual,
no one took any interest in the boat except the proprietor. In 1798 he
made and tried upon a small stream near Bardstown a steamboat model
measuring three feet in length, but a few weeks later he committed
suicide by taking poison. His “Journal” contains the following passage:
“The day will come when some more powerful man will get fame and riches
from _my_ invention, but nobody will believe that poor John Fitch can
do anything worthy of attention.”
About twenty years later Fitch’s merits as an inventor were recognised
by a Committee of the New York Legislature, which reported that “the
steamboats built by Livingston and Fulton were in substance the
invention patented to John Fitch in 1791, and Fitch during the term
of his patent had the exclusive right to use the same in the United
States.”
Other inventors were at work. Fulton was in France thinking over the
Fitch drawings which had been left there in 1793, trying a submarine
boat on the Seine, and in 1801 making a variety of experiments under
the auspices of the French Government.
In America, one Samuel Morey, in 1790, built a strange boat with a
paddle-wheel in the prow, constructed a steam-engine for her, and
presently was voyaging on the Connecticut River at the break-neck speed
of four miles an hour. A few years later he had another boat ready
which could do five miles an hour, this boat having a wheel at the
stern, and by request he took Chancellor R. Livingston and others for a
trip in New York waters. The Chancellor, who had made a trip in Morey’s
first boat at Orford, perceived two things, first, that the speed ought
to be increased, and, second, that there was money in steamboats. He
promised Morey 100,000 dollars, it is believed, if he could run a boat
at eight miles an hour, and offered him 7000 dollars for a patent for
the North River as far as Amboy for what had already been accomplished.
The latter offer was not accepted. Morey in 1795 took out a patent for
a steam-engine, in which the power was to be applied by crank motion,
to propel boats of any size. Two years later he built a steamer
which he placed on the Delaware, and propelled it by means of two
paddle-wheels, one on either side. These wheels gave better results
than any method which had yet been tried.
When, a little later, Livingston went to France and became associated
with Fulton as the financier of his enterprises, it is probable that
the knowledge the former had gained of Morey’s work and Roosevelt’s
experiments, and the latter of Fitch’s designs, proved extremely useful
to both of them. Nicholas J. Roosevelt had attracted some attention by
building a small wooden boat across which was an axle projecting over
the sides, and carrying paddles, the contrivance being made to revolve
by a light cord wound round the middle of the machine and attached to
hickory and whalebone springs. In 1798 he recommended to Livingston a
vertical wheel, and the Chancellor replied, “Vertical wheels are out of
the question.” As late as 1802 Fulton favoured chains and floats, and
it was not until after Livingston had communicated Roosevelt’s plan to
him that they applied vertical wheels on Roosevelt’s system to their
boat on the Seine.
About this time also Livingston was engaged with John Stevens, his
brother-in-law, and Nicholas J. Roosevelt on the construction of a
steamboat to be used on the Hudson, the New York State Legislature
having granted the necessary monopoly. The State required that the
boat should attain a speed of three miles an hour, but this was not
achieved. Livingston was appointed Minister to France in 1801, and was
thus cut off from his two partners and brought into communication with
Fulton. Another version is that the boat made three miles an hour, and
that the State stipulated for four miles an hour.
Robert Fulton, asserted to be an Irishman by descent, was born in
Pennsylvania in 1765. When a boy he had witnessed the experiments made
on the Delaware by John Fitch, but the problems of steam navigation
were only a few of those which occupied his versatile genius. He came
to England in 1786, and in 1794 invented a marble-sawing machine,
a flax-spinning machine, a machine for ropemaking and a mechanical
dredger. In 1795 he published a treatise on canal navigation in which
he suggested a number of improvements in lock construction.
In 1797 he went to France and was for some time occupied in designing
and experimenting with submarine boats. He suggested to the French
Government that his submarine would be useful in destroying the British
Fleet. The Directory would have nothing to do with his plans, but when
Napoleon became First Consul a Commission was appointed to investigate
and report upon them. Beyond agitating the British Government for some
time, however, while he experimented with torpedoes designed to destroy
their fleet, and trying unsuccessfully to sell his invention to the
French Government, nothing was accomplished. He came over to England in
1804 prepared to sell his invention to the British Government. From one
point of view Fulton appears as the inventor of a horrible engine of
destruction, ready to dispose of it to any country which would buy at a
remunerative price.
But there is another aspect of Fulton, and this is exhibited by his
enthusiastic biographer Cadwallader D. Colden. According to this
gentleman, Fulton took no interest “in the then existing contest”
between England and France. England and France were to him possible
torpedo buyers and their fleets possible torpedo victims. But his
ideals included universal free trade and the liberty of the seas, and
he looked upon the annihilation of naval armaments as a step in the
right direction, as it would destroy what he called the war system of
Europe. If this could be effected nations would engage in education,
science, and a rivalry of peaceful arts.
Fulton has been called a prophet and a statesman; but the doctrine
that warfare will be ended by elaborating a more deadly means of
destruction than has hitherto been known, coupled with the implied
assertion that each invention is the last word in destruction, suggests
at once conspicuous limitations in prophecy and statecraft. He never
thought of torpedo destroyers.
In 1793 Fulton corresponded with Lord Stanhope on the subject of steam
navigation. Lord Stanhope was fully aware that invention was knocking
at the door, for in a letter to Wilberforce he says: “This country is
vulnerable in so many ways, the picture is horrid.... I know, and in a
few weeks I shall prove, that ships of any size may be navigated so as
to go without wind and even directly against both wind and waves....
The most important consequence which I draw from this stupendous fact
is this. It will shortly render all the navies of the world (I mean
military navies) no better than lumber. For what can ships do that
are dependent on wind and weather against fleets that are wholly
independent of either? Therefore the boasted superiority of the British
Navy is no more. We must have a new one. The French and other nations
will for the same reasons have the same.”
He was himself an experimenter, and had been endeavouring to propel a
boat by means of an appliance resembling a mechanical duck’s foot. The
plans which Fulton submitted to him show a boat with an immense bow
or spring fastened to a stumpy mast amidships, operating on a large
paddle for which the rail at the extreme end of a raking stern acted as
a fulcrum; a second plan shows the boat with a three-paddle revolving
wheel at the side.
When Livingston went to France in 1801, an enthusiast for steam
navigation, and, what was more important, an enthusiast of considerable
means, Fulton, whom he there met and financed, was stimulated to fresh
exertions. By 1803 a boat to their joint account was built, 70 feet
long and 8 feet beam. With this it was proposed to experiment on the
Seine. But the machinery, which is said to have been made by Périer,
who opposed the Marquis de Jouffroy, was too heavy for the hull.
The night before the trial trip was to be made was stormy: the boat
broke in half and sank. Notwithstanding this blow to their hopes the
partners proceeded with their attempts. The machinery was recovered
and found to be practically uninjured, and the hull was rebuilt more
strongly. The trial trip took place in August 1803, when the boat made
four and a half miles an hour. This was a very moderate speed and was
disappointing to all concerned. Nevertheless a voyage by a steam-ship
had been made, and it is strange that very little notice was taken of
the event in France. Livingston wrote home to America and described
it enthusiastically, and he and Fulton determined to build a boat for
American waters as soon as Fulton should return thither.
Shortly after this experiment Fulton visited Symington, who, as will
be seen in the next chapter, had succeeded, with the assistance of
Lord Dundas, in starting a little steamer, the _Charlotte Dundas_,
on the Clyde as early as 1802. While this boat was being used on the
Forth and Clyde Canal, Fulton introduced himself to Symington, whom
he accompanied on a trip in the boat, the voyage being made solely on
Fulton’s account.[15] The American took copious notes in a memorandum
book and, to quote from Symington’s narrative, “after putting several
pointed questions respecting the general construction and effect of
the machine, which I answered in a most explicit manner, he jotted
down particularly everything then described, with his own remarks upon
the boat while moving with him on board along the canal; but he seems
to have been altogether forgetful of this, as notwithstanding his
fair promises, I never heard anything more of him until reading in a
newspaper an account of his death.”
[15] Knight’s “Cyclopædia.”
[Illustration: JOHN STEVENS’ “PHŒNIX,” 1807.]
Meantime Stevens, left to himself, had, in 1804, built a vessel
propelled by twin screws which navigated the Hudson River. This vessel
was remarkable in many ways. The boiler was tubular, and the screw was
almost identical with the short four-threaded helix which many years
afterwards was generally adopted. It is interesting to note that the
screw propeller was tried so early, for it is generally believed that
it was not used at all until many years after the introduction of
paddles. The engine and boiler of Stevens’ boat are preserved at the
Stevens Institute at Hoboken. After his death his son tried the engine
and boiler in a boat, which, in the presence of a committee of the
American Institute of New York, attained a speed of about nine miles
an hour. Although the screw proved its suitability for propulsion, its
superiority was not acknowledged, and for many years afterwards marine
engineers confined their attention to the improvement of paddle-wheels
and the engines for driving them. In 1807, with the assistance of his
son Robert, Stevens built the paddle-wheel steamer _Phœnix_, which
plied for six years on the Delaware.
Dr. James Renwick of Columbia said that “the Stevenses were but a
few days later” than Fulton “in moving a boat with the required
velocity,” and that “being shut out of the waters of New York by the
monopoly of Livingston and Fulton, Stevens conceived the bold design
of conveying his boat, the _Phœnix_, to the Delaware by sea, and this
boat, which was so near reaping the honour of first success, was the
first to navigate the ocean by the power of steam.” The piston-rod of
the _Phœnix_ was guided by slides instead of the parallel motion of
the Watt engine, and the cylinder rested on the condenser. A point in
which the superiority of the _Phœnix_ over the _Clermont_ was shown,
was that the paddle-wheel of the _Phœnix_ had a guard beam, which the
_Clermont_ lacked. The _Phœnix_ was taken to Philadelphia by sea by
Robert Livingston Stevens, son of Robert Stevens. He was accompanied
on this voyage by Moses Rogers, to whom the title of “Pioneer Steam
Navigator” has been given by American historians, partly on account of
this voyage and partly because he was on board the auxiliary sailing
ship _Savannah_ on her memorable voyage to Europe.[16]
[16] See p. 122.
In 1806 Fulton returned to America, having ordered an engine to be made
by Messrs. Boulton and Watt at Birmingham. He did not tell them what he
proposed to do with it, but it was the engine for the first steamboat
constructed by him for American voyages--the famous _Clermont_. After
this engine was delivered in New York it remained in the Customs while
Brownne, a shipbuilder, constructed the hull. In 1807 the boat made her
first trip on the Hudson.
The original dimensions of the _Clermont_ have been variously stated,
the discrepancies being probably due to the alterations to which the
vessel was subjected, and also to methods of measurement. From a letter
which Fulton wrote it appears that the boat was 150 feet long and 13
feet wide, drawing 2 feet of water.[17] This was no doubt the over-all
figure, as other data give slightly less lengths which would be on the
water-line, or the inside measurements between stem and stern, both of
which raked.
[17] Reprinted in the _Nautical Gazette_, New York, August 22, 1907.
Messrs. Millard and Kirby, of New York, who made most exhaustive
researches into the history of the _Clermont_ with a view to the
reproduction of that historical vessel at the centenary celebration
at New York in September 1909, state that when Fulton worked out
his displacement and wetted surface and resistance, his results
corresponded with a boat of the dimensions just given, and no other
figures could have given those results.
On November 20, 1807, Fulton wrote to Livingston that the boat was
so weak that she must have additional knees and timbers, new side
timbers, deck beams and deck, new windows, and cabins altered; that
she, perhaps, must be sheathed, her boiler taken out and a new one put
in, her axles forged and ironwork strengthened. With all this work
the saving of the hull would be of little consequence, particularly
as many of her knees, bolts, timbers and planks could be used in the
construction of a new boat. His opinion, therefore, was that a new hull
should be built with knees and floor timbers of oak, bottom planks of
two-inch oak and side planks of two-inch oak for 3 feet high. “She is
to be 16 feet wide, 150 feet long; this will make her near twice as
stiff as at present and enable us to carry a much greater quantity of
sail. The 4 feet additional width will require 1146 lb. additional
purchase at the engine, moving 2 feet a second or 15 double strokes a
minute; this will be gained by raising the steam 5 lb. to the inch, as
24 inches the diameter of the cylinder gives 570 round inches at 3 lb.
to the inch--1710 lb. purchase gained. To accomplish this work a good
boiler and a commodious boat running our present speed, of a voyage in
30 hours, I think better and more productive to us than to gain one
mile on the present boat.”
The first _Clermont_ had a depth of hold of 7 feet. She had masts and
sails but no wheel enclosures, no bulwarks, no berths in the cabin,
and no covering over the boilers; this work being done, according to
Fulton’s letter of August 29, 1807, after his return from the first
trip. When she was altered on account of instability, in the winter
1807-8, she was widened to 16 feet on the bottom and 18 feet at the
deck, which made her much stiffer. It was then that her poop was built
up and various other improvements made.
Her fly-wheels were outside the hull, placed forward of the paddles,
and revolved the same way, and it is related that on a subsequent
voyage one of the paddle-wheels becoming disabled, paddles were affixed
to the fly-wheel and the voyage resumed.
The _American Citizen_ of August 17, 1807, announced that: “Mr.
Fulton’s ingenious Steamboat, invented with a View to the Navigation of
The Mississippi from New Orleans upwards, Sails to-day from the North
River near The State Prison to Albany, the Velosity of the Steamboat
is calculated at four miles an hour; it is said that it will make a
progress of two against The Current of The Mississippi, and if so it
will certainly be a very valuable acquisition to the Commerce of the
Western States.”
An immense crowd assembled to witness the fiasco which was expected
to mark the first experimental voyage of “Fulton’s Folly,” and jeered
Fulton and his steamer unmercifully. But when the vessel moved into
midstream under the power of her own engines, the crowd cheered as
energetically as only a crowd can when it has been agreeably surprised
and the appeal of facts to its chivalry is irresistible.
“Dense volumes of smoke began to pour forth from the smokestack. The
boiler began to hiss. At one o’clock the hawser was drawn in, the
throttle opened, and to the accompaniment of the stertorous exhaust,
the uncovered sidewheels began to quiver, then slowly to revolve. A
hush fell on the spectators. Fulton’s own hand at the helm turned the
bow. The _Clermont_ moved out into the stream, the steam connections
hissing at the joints, the crude machinery thumping and groaning, the
wheels splashing, and the smokestack belching like a volcano.... One
honest countryman, after beholding the unaccountable object from the
shore, ran home and told his wife he had ‘seen the devil on his way to
Albany in a sawmill.’”[18] A passenger, recording the voyage, says a
miller boarded the _Clermont_ at Haverstraw and said he “did not know
about a mill going up stream and came to inquire about it.”
[18] New York _Evening Sun_, July 1909.
The boat itself was wedge-shaped at bow and stern, which were cut
sharp to an angle of 60 degrees. She was almost wall-sided. She was
flat-bottomed and keelless, leeway being prevented by two steering
boards. Her tiller was at the back end of the after cabin so that it
was difficult for the steersman to see ahead. The paddle-wheels, 15
feet in diameter, being uncovered, splashed tremendously, and drenched
the passengers. A paddle-wheel had to be disconnected when it was
desired to turn the vessel round.
The _Clermont_ reached Chancellor Livingston’s residence at Clermont,
110 miles from New York, in 24 hours, against the wind, the average
speed being 4·6 miles an hour. The running time for the whole journey
to Albany of 150 miles was 32 hours, or nearly five miles an hour; the
return trip was made in 32 hours, running time, the sails not being
used on either occasion. An eye-witness as she passed up the river thus
describes her:
“It was in the early autumn of the year 1807 that a knot of villagers
was gathered on a high bluff, just opposite Poughkeepsie, on the west
bank of the Hudson, attracted by the appearance of a strange-looking
craft, which was slowly making its way up the river. Some imagined it
to be a sea monster, whilst others did not hesitate to express their
belief that it was a sign of the approaching judgment. What seemed
strange in the vessel was the substitution of a lofty and strange black
smoke-pipe rising from the deck, instead of the gracefully tapered
masts that commonly stood on the vessels navigating the stream, and, in
place of the spars and rigging, the curious play of the working beam
and piston, and the slow turning and splashing of the huge and naked
paddle-wheels, met their astonished gaze. The dense clouds of smoke,
as they rose wave upon wave, added still more to the wonder of the
rustics. This strange-looking craft was the _Clermont_ on her trial
trip to Albany; and, of the little knot of villagers above mentioned,
the writer, then a boy in his eighth year, with his parents, formed
a part, and I well remember the scene, one so well fitted to impress
a lasting picture upon the mind of a child accustomed to watch the
vessels that passed up and down the river. On her return trip, the
curiosity she excited was scarcely less intense--the whole country
talked of nothing but the sea monster, belching forth fire and smoke.
“The fishermen became terrified and rowed homeward, and they saw
nothing but destruction devastating their fishing grounds; whilst the
wreaths of black vapours, and rushing noise of the paddle-wheels,
foaming with the stirred-up waters, produced great excitement amongst
the boatmen, until it was more intelligent than before; for the
character of that curious boat, and the nature of the enterprise she
was pioneering had been ascertained.”
According to Colden, those who saw the _Clermont_ at night described
her as “a monster moving on the water, defying the winds and the tide,
and breathing flames and smoke.” She had, he proceeds to say, “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 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 were 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.”
After the improvements had been made in the _Clermont_ she entered
in the spring of 1809 upon the regular work for which she was
intended--the day service between New York and Albany.
The guards and paddle-boxes, which were mere temporary structures, were
made substantial and permanent, and the cabins were rearranged and
refitted in the most beautiful manner. The _Clermont_, said Professor
Renwick, “thus converted into a floating palace, gay with ornamental
painting, gilding, and polished woods, commenced her course of passages
for the second year in the month of April.”[19]
[19] The “Master, Mate, and Pilot.”
When rebuilt she was christened the _North River_ and maintained the
service alone until October, when a second Fulton boat, the _Car of
Neptune_, was launched. She was a larger boat, and ran continuously
until 1817, and the other vessels which were added to the little fleet
also proved successful.
The complete list of Fulton’s steamboats would include also the
_Rariton_ (1809), _New Orleans_ (1811), _Paragon_, _Firefly_, a Jersey
ferryboat, and _Camden_ (1812), _Washington_ and a York ferryboat
(1813), _Richmond_, a Nassau ferryboat, _Fulton_, _Vesuvius_, and
_Demologos_, a warship (1814), _Aetna_, _Buffalo_, and _Mute_ (1815),
_Olive Branch_, _Empress of Russia_, and _Chancellor Livingston_ (1816).
Fulton and Livingston’s enterprise was a financial success almost
from the first, and naturally others thought to share in it; as they
could not join the pioneers they determined to rival them. One of
the chief of these was a Captain Elihu S. Bunker, who maintained a
line of sailing sloops between Hudson City and New York. The steamers
were taking the wind out of his sails in more senses than one, and not
liking the prospect of being becalmed, financially, he determined to
go in for steam. A syndicate of capitalists of Albany backed him. The
fact that Livingston and Fulton had been already granted an absolute
monopoly for navigating the waters of the State of New York by steam
deterred them not a whit. They ordered two boats, to be about the size
of the _Clermont_, and called them the _Hope_ and _Perseverance_. They
were each 149 feet in length, 25 feet beam inside the paddles, and had
a depth of 7 feet 7 inches.
[Illustration: ROBERT FULTON’S “CLERMONT,” 1807.]
Legal proceedings quickly followed, Livingston and Fulton having their
work cut out to defend their monopoly. How like these boats were to
the Fulton boats is evident from the affidavit of Charles Brownne, the
builder of the _Clermont_. He says that he has “examined the steamboats
_Hope_ and _Perseverance_ and they are not built like any vessels which
navigate by wind or oars on any of our waters, or any foreign waters
that he knows of. That said steamboats being more than Six the length
of their breadth[20] of beam and flat at bottom are not calculated to
navigate with sails only. And that the first boats of such make of the
said steamboats which he ever saw or heard of was built by him from
drawings and directions given to him by Robert Fulton and constructed
to be navigated by steam and wind, and which boats are now known by the
name of _North River_ and _Car of Neptune_ Steamboats: This deponent
also saith that the water wheels; the guards round the water wheels,
the covering to the water wheels; the steps from the wheel guards to
enter the row-boats, space on the guards for wood for the engine,
bins or lockers in the wheel guards and necessaries on the fore part
of the wheel guards, are exact copies from the Boats built by him
for Livingston and Fulton, and such water wheels, wheel guards and
conveniences he has never known or heard of to any other kind of boat
or vessel. This deponent further saith that in the said Steamboat
_Hope_ the manner of arranging the rudder with a perpendicular iron
bar on its after part, and leading from its wheel ropes, along the
sides of the boat to a steering wheel before the Chimney of the Boiler
and to a Station above the place of the engineer and fireman, is an
exact copy from the boats of Livingston and Fulton. This deponent
objected to this mode of steering at the time the said Fulton proposed
it, believing it to be impracticable, and he does not know of a like
mode of steering to any other kind of vessel. This deponent also says
that the mode of placing the main mast far forward, and the mizzen
mast so far aft, as to leave a convenient space between the two, which
shall not be incommoded by ropes, booms, or yards, and afford room for
spreading an awning for the comfort and convenience of passengers is
the same exactly in the said _Hope_ Steamboat as in the boats built by
him for Livingston and Fulton. That this mode of placing masts so far
apart, to the best of his knowledge, is not known in any other kind of
vessel, and would not answer for a vessel intended to work with wind
only, without the aid of steam, but in union with steam has been proved
by three years’ experience on the _North River_ Steamboat to succeed
perfectly well. This deponent further says that the form and make of
the said _Hope_ and _Perseverance_ steamboats, their wheels, wheel
guards, manner of steering, mode of placing the masts and rigging,
mode of arranging the awning, arrangements of the Cabins and kitchen,
suspending their row-boats from the sides instead of from the stern, as
is usual, are in his opinion in all these combinations and arrangement,
exact copies from the _Car of Neptune_ Steamboat, _and more like her
than she is like the_ North River _Steamboat_ which was first built,
and further this deponent saith not.”[21]
[20] _Sic_: probably means “their length was rather more than six
times their beam.”
[21] “Steamboats on the Hudson,” in the “Master, Mate, and Pilot,”
October 1909.
The _Hope_ and _Perseverance_ ran throughout the season of 1811 with
passengers and freight, between New York and Albany, and met with
as much of the public patronage as did the other boats. The courts,
however, decided that Captain Bunker and his supporters were acting
illegally, and gave the drastic order that their steamers should be
confiscated and handed over to Livingston and Fulton, who did not run
them but had them broken up.
Writing in 1838, in regard to his early experiments, to the Secretary
of the Treasury at Washington, Captain Bunker described an incident
which unfortunately for American steamship records does not stand
alone. The Captain was undoubtedly fortunate that matters were no worse.
“In 1811,” he says, “I had command of the steamboat _Hope_ plying
between New York and Albany. The engine and boilers were made and put
in by Robert McQueen. On the second trip from New York, while Mr.
McQueen’s foreman had still charge of the works on board (they not
having been delivered as completed), this man had a gang of his own men
from the shop, and, while proving the machinery, had a man that he was
instructing to become engineer of the boat. While on the passage, off
Esopus meadows, something appeared to be wrong in the fire-room (which
was in charge of a miserable drunken fireman) and the engine moving
very slowly. I found on examination, that there was not a drop of water
in either of the boilers, and that both of them were red-hot, as well
as the flues, and must have been so for at least half an hour. The heat
was great enough to melt down five solder-joints of steam-pipe, which
was made of copper. I immediately started the forcing pump myself, not
thinking that there could be any danger in the operation; the effect of
which was a crackling in the boiler as the water met the hot iron, the
sound of which was like that often heard in a blacksmith’s shop when
water is thrown upon a piece of hot iron. I cannot, therefore, believe
for a single moment that explosions are produced, to such a degree as
I have before recited, by throwing cold water into a red-hot boiler.
In the way above described, I cooled down both of the boilers, during
which time neither of them jumped out of its place; nor do I see how it
could be possible for such an effect to be produced, having always been
of opinion that there could be no other cause for a boiler to burst
than the pressure of steam inside, and not gas produced by letting
cold water or lukewarm water into it; for I deem it impossible for a
red-hot boiler to contain heat enough to explode with any quantity
of water that might be suddenly thrown into it. Besides, it must be
remembered that the supply-pipes are connected with the bottom of all
steam-boilers, or are very near to the bottom; therefore, instead of
producing explosion, the forcing of cold or lukewarm water into hot
water must have the tendency to cool it. For instance, I have known
engineers to keep off their feed as long as they possibly dared, when
running with another boat, knowing that as soon as they began to feed,
the steam would fall, especially if they could not get a full supply of
steam for the engine.”[22]
[22] The “Master, Mate, and Pilot,” Vol. II. No. 5.
So far as the Hudson was concerned the decision of the courts crushed
Captain Bunker, and frightened off any other possible trespassers on
the monopoly. But Bunker had determined to become a steamship owner,
and being crowded out of the Hudson he started a line of steamers as
near New York City as he could, the Long Island Sound Line. The
first of his vessels he named after his late opponent Fulton. She was
built in 1813 and plied for the whole of her first season in 1814 on
the Hudson River, as, the United States being then at war with England,
it was feared that she would be captured if she ventured up the Sound.
[Illustration: THE “PARAGON.” BUILT 1811.]
At the time the Fulton boats had to meet Bunker’s opposition, the
third Fulton steamboat, the _Paragon_, made its first appearance on
the river. She was both faster and larger than her predecessors. She
was fitted with two masts, one stepped very far forward, and the other
very far aft. The foremast carried an immense square foresail with a
little square topsail above it, and there was also a large triangular
sail carried on the stay from the end of the bowsprit to the cap of the
lower mast. The aftermast carried an ordinary trysail or mizzen. The
vessel had a large rudder and was steered from amidships, according to
a contemporary print.
The following year another Fulton steamer, the _Firefly_, came on the
scene. She was a small vessel, only 81 feet in length, and though
designed for the lower river service, was used elsewhere as occasion
demanded. Fulton by this time was himself planning the placing of
steamers on other rivers, and in 1814 the _Richmond_ was launched from
his designs for the James River in Virginia. The British-American War
at this time rendered it unsafe to send her south, and as the _North
River_, late _Clermont_, was about worn out by now, the _Richmond_
took her place. Fulton seems to have been associated to some extent
with Bunker, for the latter’s boat, _Fulton_, was designed by Fulton
himself. She was a sloop-rigged vessel with a single mast stepped well
forward, and made considerable use of sails. She was 134 feet in length
and 26 feet beam, and had a large square engine-house that extended
rather above the sides of her paddle-boxes. Hitherto all the American
steamers had been of the wall-sided, flat-bottomed type inaugurated by
the _Clermont_. The _Fulton_ was the first steamer to be constructed
with a round bottom like a sailing ship.
Fulton was also interested in steamboats on the Mississippi and other
western waters. He and Nicholas Roosevelt were associated in 1809 in
this project, and in 1811 the steamer _New Orleans_ was built. It was
the pioneer boat of the service, and descended the Ohio and Mississippi
Rivers from Pittsburg to New Orleans in fourteen days. In 1817 the
_Chancellor Livingston_ appeared on the Hudson and in her general
equipment marked a decided improvement in every respect upon anything
that had gone before. She was the finest vessel without exception that
Fulton and Livingston ever possessed. Her designer was Henry Eckford,
one of the leading naval architects in America. She was, moreover, the
biggest steamboat which had been built in the world, as she was of over
500 tons burden. The building of this boat was supervised at first by
Fulton himself, but he died before it was completed. The _Chancellor
Livingston_ was three-masted, and fore-and-aft rigged throughout, and
carried in addition a large square sail on the foremast. She had three
funnels which were placed forward of the paddle-boxes and between
the fore and main masts. Her engines were of the steeple type. She
was square-sterned, and not only carried a deck-house, but the roof
of the deck-house was extended to form a square deck or gallery, and
above this again were a smaller deck-house and a large awning, so
that passengers on either deck were amply protected from the weather.
The gallery, at the stern, was the same shape as the stern itself.
It was supported by stanchions, and carried as far forward as the
paddle-boxes. Early pictures of this vessel represent her as having
portholes along the sides of the hull abaft the paddles, from which
it would appear that in the body of the ship itself there was also
passenger accommodation. She was therefore the first vessel to have
three decks devoted to passengers.
The first trip of this boat was made towards the end of March 1817,
between New York and Newburgh, the 65 miles being covered in less than
nine hours, in only three of which was the tide running with the ship.
Coming back she did the distance in eight hours fifteen minutes, for
the most part against wind and tide. Her cost complete was 110,000
dollars.
This boat was not allowed to lie idle, and a statement was published in
December 1821 that the _Chancellor Livingston_ made during the season
of that year “170 trips from New York to Albany. Allowing the distance
to be 150 miles the aggregate will exceed 25,000 miles, which would
more than have carried her round the globe. We presume the _Richmond_
has performed the same number of trips, and when it is considered that
these boats are generally filled with passengers, some idea may be
formed of the extent of travel on the North River.”
Already excursions were very popular. The _Chancellor Livingston_ took
excursionists once a week during July and August as far as Sandy Hook.
The same year, 1821, the steamer _Franklin_ took passengers to the
fishing banks twice weekly, and the _Olive Branch_ of the Philadelphia
Line gave its patrons what its owners called “a sail around Staten
Island and turtle feast,” and it was added that “a fine green turtle
will be cooked, and a band of music provided,” all for one dollar
seventy-five cents. Captain Bunker, who had the _Enterprise_ built in
1818 at Hartford, Connecticut, brought her into the New York service in
1821, for an excursion starting at half-past four in the morning from
the East River for Sands Point. This is one of the earliest records of
a steamer built elsewhere coming to New York waters to enter upon the
local trade.
Henry Eckford also planned the steamer _Robert Fulton_, which in 1822
made the first successful steam voyage from New York to New Orleans,
and thence to Havana, in which trade she was afterwards engaged
regularly. The _Robert Fulton_ then passed into the possession of the
Brazilian naval authorities, who turned her into a sailing ship and she
became the fastest warsloop in the Brazilian navy.
The _Firefly_ was the first steamer to get round Point Judith, on the
Rhode Island shore, and reach Newport from New York. This was May 26,
1817, and the voyage lasted twenty-eight hours. The sailing packets
on the route, as usual, resented her incursion, and when the wind was
favourable they usually outsailed her. The competition grew so great
between the steamer and the sailers that the latter made the typical
American sporting proposal not to charge passengers for the voyage
between New York and Newport if they did not reach port before the
steamer.
Although the size of the American river steamers had been steadily
increasing, there had not been a great acceleration in the matter of
speed. Even at the time of Fulton’s death few, if any, American river
steamers exceeded an average of seven miles an hour for the trip.
Robert Livingston Stevens, son of John Stevens, built about that
time (1813) the _Philadelphia_, which attained an average speed of
eight miles. Speed was a question to which he devoted considerable
attention, for he realised its importance, and nearly every vessel he
turned out was an improvement upon its predecessor. The inventions and
improvements which he introduced inaugurated a new era of steamboat
construction. Of the fate which overtook some of these early vessels,
it may be noted that the _Clermont_ died of premature old age, the
_Car of Neptune_ was broken up, the _Paragon_ went to the bottom, and
the _Hope_, the _Perseverance_, the _Firefly_, and the _Richmond_ were
broken up.
[Illustration: THE “PHILADELPHIA.” BUILT 1826.]
According to evidence given before a Select Committee of the House of
Commons in 1817 by Mr. Seth Hunt of Louisiana, there were then ten
steam vessels running between New York and Albany, two between New
York and Connecticut ports, four or five between New York and New
Jersey ports, besides ferryboats on the Hudson and East Rivers. There
were also steamers on the Delaware, between Philadelphia and Trenton,
Newcastle, and Wilmington; also steamers from Baltimore to Norfolk,
Virginia, which crossed the estuary of the Chesapeake. Steamers had
been to New London and New Hartford. The _Powhatan_ steamer of New
York was three days exposed to a gale in the open sea, after which it
arrived at Norfolk, Virginia, and thence steamed up the James River to
Richmond. At that time, according to this witness, there were on the
Mississippi two steamers, the _Etna_ and _Vesuvius_, which were each
of 450 tons, carried 280 tons of merchandise, 100 passengers, and 700
bales of cotton.
Towards the middle of the last century numbers of steamboats were
placed on the coastal and river services from New York. The Fulton
ferryboats _Union_ and _William Cutting_ were both built in 1827; and
in the following year the _De Witt Clinton_ was built in Albany for the
passenger service between New York and Albany; she was 571 tons gross,
more than any of her contemporaries. A notable vessel, then the fastest
steamboat ever built, was the _Lexington_, which began to run in 1835
between Providence and New York. As the railway companies were formed
about the same time, the competition between the steamboat companies
and the railways was lively and fares were reduced with American
thoroughness. The _Narragansett_ arrived at Providence in October 1836.
She was fitted with a 300-horse-power horizontal engine, which was too
heavy for her, for on her trial trip she rolled over with the directors
of the company and their guests on board. Fortunately no lives were
lost. In 1838, the _John W. Richmond_ appeared as the rival of the
_Lexington_ and there were many exciting races between the two, but
two years later the _Richmond_ was sold for employment elsewhere. The
_Lexington_ was burnt in 1840, and the _Richmond_ met with a similar
fate three years later. The Fall River Line was established in 1847 and
has maintained the service to the present day.
All these steamers were built of wood, and as they increased in size
they developed a marked tendency to “sag,” that is, drop in the middle,
or to “hog,” that is, drop at the ends. This tendency was overcome by
an ingenious system of stump-masts and strutts, and iron ties, invented
by Colonel Stevens. There are various methods of applying these
stiffeners, and the peculiar framework of wooden arches and stump-masts
which appears on so many American river steamers is due to the
necessity of employing one or other of these systems for strengthening
purposes. In some of the later vessels (as in the _De Witt Clinton_)
these ties are put into the framework of the superstructure.
In construction, the development of American steamers on inland waters
since Fulton’s time has proceeded on entirely different lines from
those which marked the progress of river navigation in Great Britain.
American river steamers were designed not only to cope with the
traffic in narrower and shallower places, but to carry whatever was
necessary in deeper waters, and at the same time get through the more
difficult places somehow. The great distances to be travelled on the
American rivers rendered necessary the provision of vessels carrying
large quantities of cargo and extensive accommodation for passengers,
whilst the bars occurring at intervals in the beds of the rivers
made it compulsory that the vessels should be of light draught. The
construction of English river steamers, on the other hand, has been
conditioned by the comparative narrowness of the English rivers and the
lowness of the many bridges which span them.
[Illustration: THE “DE WITT CLINTON.” BUILT 1828.]
The Fall River Line boats were the pioneers of the modern type of
Hudson River steamers, the first of them being the famous _Bay
State_, plying between New York and Fall River. She was 315 feet long
and 40 feet beam and of 1500 tons burden. Her engines were of 1500
horse-power. The _Bay State_, being intended for Long Island Sound
work, was much more strongly built than those boats which were confined
to the Hudson River Line. This vessel was both the largest and fastest
craft of her day. She ran the distance from Fall River to New York in
nine hours fifteen minutes, including a stop at Newport. In 1864 she
was dismantled, and her hull was converted into a barge, her machinery
being placed in a new steamer named _Old Colony_. Vessels followed each
other in rapid succession, but although rival companies sprang up with
considerable frequency, few of them lasted very long and their boats,
if good enough, were sometimes acquired by the Fall River Company.
One of the most dangerous competitors was the Merchants’ Shipping
Company, which controlled fifteen steamers, and for which William H.
Webb, the famous American shipbuilder, constructed those two historic
boats, the _Bristol_ and the _Providence_. The line lost two or three
of its steamers in rapid succession, and had to suspend payment. The
_Bristol_ and _Providence_ had each two hundred and twenty-three
state-rooms. They were lighted by gas throughout, and were afterwards
steam-heated. Each boat carried a band of music, and for the first time
on an American merchant vessel the officers and crew were in uniform.
In 1883 the first iron steamboat in Long Island Sound, the _Pilgrim_,
was built. She had a double hull divided into ninety-six water-tight
compartments. The _Puritan_ followed her. The _Plymouth_ was launched
in 1890, and was burnt in dock ten years later, and in August of the
following year the present _Plymouth_ was launched. All these vessels
were side-wheelers, the later ones being of steel, and having a speed
of twenty miles an hour.
One of the finest vessels now afloat is the _Commonwealth_. She is
456 feet in length, 35 feet moulded breadth, 96 feet breadth over
the guards, and has a depth of hull of 22 feet. She has sleeping
accommodation for 2000 persons.
Like all steamers on the Fall River Line, the _Commonwealth_ is built
of steel. Seven doorless bulkheads extend to the main deck. The hull is
double, and the space between the bottoms is divided into a great many
water-tight compartments. She has also collision bulkheads on each side
at the guards and a bulkhead athwart ship. Her engine is of the double
inclined compound type, with two high-pressure cylinders 96 inches in
diameter, all having a common stroke of piston of 9 feet 6 inches. The
wheels are of the feathering type with curved steel buckets. Besides
the usual auxiliary steam pumps, there is a large pump for use only on
the fire-sprinkler system. Her speed is twenty-two miles an hour.
During the nineteenth century there was an equally striking development
among the steamers of the various lines on the Hudson River. The
_Empire of Troy_, to distinguish her from another steamer called the
_Empire_ built in the ’forties and belonging to a rival line, was then
the largest river steamer in the world, being 307 feet over all and of
936 tons register. She was quickly superseded by the _Hendrick Hudson_
of the Albany Line, which was the first Hudson River steamer to exceed
a thousand tons. This in turn was eclipsed by the _Oregon_. The _St.
John_, of 2645 tons, built in 1863, was the first to exceed 2000 tons,
The _Adirondack_, of 3644 tons, was placed on the river in 1896, and in
1904 the _C. W. Morse_, of 4307 tons, appeared.
[Illustration: THE “WILLIAM CUTTING.” BUILT 1827.]
The Hudson River boats, after the first or experimental types of
vessel, have always been famous for their speed and beauty no less than
their comfort. One of the most famous of them all was the _Alida_.
Two others, which raced occasionally, were the _Oregon_ and the _C.
Vanderbilt_, one notable contest in which they engaged being in 1847,
for a stake of 1000 dollars. On the way back the _Oregon_ ran short
of fuel, whereupon the owners threw into the furnaces the furniture
and everything else that would burn which they could lay hands on. The
time of the run was 3 hours 15 minutes, which gave an average speed of
20 miles an hour. After the heroic sacrifice made by the Oregonians,
it is satisfactory to learn that the _Oregon_ won by 400 yards. The
_Alida_ and the _Hendrick Hudson_ raced from New York to Albany, the
former doing the voyage in 7 hours 55 minutes, the latter boat being 15
minutes longer on the voyage. The scheduled time of the present Hudson
River Day Line steamers over the same water is 9 hours 30 minutes, from
which it would appear that the boats of sixty years ago were as capable
of fast travelling as are their palatial successors of the present day.
One of these, a second _Hendrick Hudson_, was launched on the Hudson in
1907, a hundred years from the day of the _Clermont’s_ first voyage up
the river.
[Illustration: THE “MARY POWELL.”]
The decade from 1840 to 1850 was the golden age for steamboat
proprietors on the Hudson River, as there was then no railroad
competition, though there were several competitive steam-ship
companies. In 1849 there were no less than twenty steamers on the
route between New York and Albany, and the fares were cut as low as
12¹⁄₂ cents for the 145 miles. One of the steamers on the river in the
’forties was the _Norwich_. A few years later she was converted into a
tug-boat, and up to the end of 1909 was still in active service. She
has been repaired so often, however, that not much of her original
hull is left, but her first engine is still in use. A steamer which
is still held in affectionate memory by all frequenters of the Hudson
River, the celebrated _Mary Powell_, was launched in 1861, and was
never eclipsed in speed by any vessel until the modern torpedo-boats
were built. She frequently covered 27 miles an hour. This remarkable
boat came from the New Jersey yards of Messrs M. A. Allison. Originally
she was 260 feet in length, but in 1874 she was increased to 286
feet, and again in 1897 to 300 feet. Her paddle-wheels were 31 feet
in diameter, with 26 floats to the wheel, each float being 10¹⁄₂ feet
long by 1 foot 9 inches wide and dipping 3¹⁄₂ feet. One vessel, the
_Glen Cove_, attained notoriety if not fame by being the first to carry
that novel musical instrument known as the calliope. Fortunately for
New Yorkers, the innovation was not popular. The machine consisted of
a large steam chest, on the top of which were arranged a number of
valves according to the number of whistles to be blown. As a powerful
calliope could be heard for a distance of some miles, and as the
instrument frequently consisted of from eight to twelve whistles, and
the selection performed upon it was of the “Shall we gather at the
river” variety, it cannot be said that the English have been the only
people to take their pleasures sadly. Three boats plying in New York
Bay carried these excruciating instruments. The _Glen Cove_ was sold
with her calliope to ply on the James River in Virginia, and was sunk
by the Confederates during the Civil War. The most aggressive calliope
was carried on the _Armenia_. It had thirty-four powerful whistles.
[Illustration: THE “HENDRICK HUDSON” (HUDSON RIVER DAY LINE), 1906.]
In 1860, the _Daniel Drew_, a long and very narrow boat, reduced the
time of the voyage to Albany to seven hours twenty minutes. It is
impossible for the heavy steamers of the present day to travel on the
up-river stages as fast as the lightly built boats of that time, but in
the deeper waters of the lower river they are faster than the lighter
vessels. A steamer of the latest type is the _Robert Fulton_, built
for the Day Line by the New York Shipbuilding Company of Camden, N.J.,
and the W. and A. Fletcher Company of Hoboken. Her trials took place
exactly 116 days after her keel was laid, and she began to run in 1909.
The development of the steam-ships on the lakes was no less remarkable
than on the sea-coasts. At the outset the boats were of wood, which
was gradually superseded first by iron and then by steel, and with the
introduction of the latter has come also their greatest development
in carrying capacity. The first steamer placed in service on the
Great Lakes, above Niagara Falls, was launched in 1818, and bore the
picturesque Indian name _Walk in the Water_, after a noted Wyandotte
chief. She was of 338 tons gross and built at a spot which is now a
part of the City of Buffalo. The machinery was furnished by Robert
McQueen of New York, one of her owners.
By 1844 there were three large steamers of over 1000 tons each on the
lakes, built wholly for the American passenger service from Buffalo.
The first screw-propelled boat on the lakes was the _Vandalia_, built
at Oswego in 1841. She was one of the earliest vessels to have her
machinery placed right aft. By 1849 there were enrolled at Buffalo,
which was the chief lake port, 29 side-wheelers, 18 of which were of
from 500 to 1500 tons, and 10 screw-propelled boats of under 500 tons,
but by 1862 the number of steamers had increased to 147 side-wheelers
and 203 screw-propelled boats. The construction of the Welland Canal
and the Sault Ste. Marie Canal with larger locks than hitherto had a
most stimulating effect on lake shipping. American ingenuity devised
freight-carrying steamers peculiarly adapted for work on the lakes.
The largest boat on the Great Lakes is the _William M. Mills_, a
“bulk-freighter.” She is virtually an immense box girder 607 feet in
length, 585 feet length of keel, 60 feet beam, and 32 feet in depth,
with triple-expansion engines. She is built on the hopper and girder
system, and has a cargo hold 447 feet long without obstruction other
than three screen bulkheads fitted for convenience in carrying grain;
her cargo capacity is 514,505 bushels of wheat. She and her two sister
ships can each carry 12,380 tons of ore. Her water-ballast tanks will
take 7000 tons, and her pumps are so powerful that the whole of this
quantity can be discharged overboard in three hours. The officers and
crew are accommodated in a deck-house situated on the forecastle. Above
this deck-house are the navigating bridge and steering-house. The
engines are placed at the extreme end of the vessel, so that the whole
space between the engine bulkhead and the forecastle is devoted to the
cargo. The scantlings of the hull throughout are the heaviest on fresh
water.
[Illustration: THE “ROBERT FULTON” (HUDSON RIVER DAY LINE), 1909.]
On the Mississippi River and its tributaries a type of large shallow
steamers, propelled by immense side or stern paddle-wheels, was
developed. These vessels were noted for their high superstructures and
towering funnels. Racing was frequent among them.
In April 1838 the Mississippi River steamer _Moselle_, crowded from
stem to stern with passengers for St. Louis, blew up. She had gone a
little way up the river from Cincinnati for the purpose of exhibiting
herself and of coming back past the city “a-flying.” As she stopped
to turn, the boilers exploded, blowing the ship to fragments. The
captain, who was in the pilot-house, was blown about eighty yards away;
a boy on board was found dead on the roof of a house on shore. It was
never known exactly how many perished, but the number is estimated
at anything from one hundred to two hundred. One of the boilers was
thrown ashore by the explosion, and in falling made a large hole in the
pavement.[23]
[23] Cincinnati _Evening Post_, April 25, 1838.
Another accident of that year befell the steamer _Oroonoko_ on the
Mississippi. Her boilers blew up and, the wreck taking fire, about one
hundred lives were lost, most of the victims being burnt to death. The
engineer, before he died, said the boilers were full of water, and that
his department was not in fault, but that the boilers were old and worn
out and not fit for such a boat.[24]
[24] Vicksburg _Register_.
About the same time two other steamers, the _Pioneer_ and _Ontario_,
were racing on the river near Cincinnati and collided. The _Ontario_
ran purposely into the _Pioneer_, which returned the compliment by
deliberately ramming the _Ontario_, killing one passenger, dangerously
wounding two others, and smashing the _Ontario’s_ guards. The _Pioneer_
won that race, but intentional collisions were too much even for
the sensation-loving public which patronised the racing Mississippi
steamers and used to bet heavily on the result, and dangerous racing of
this character was for a time tabooed.
One of the most famous races on record was that between the _Eclipse_
and the _Natchez_, two magnificent vessels which were very evenly
matched. It is recorded that the immense funnels of these two boats, as
they tore along almost on a level with only a few feet between them,
were red-hot, and that the blaze from their pine-fed furnaces made the
dwellers on either side of the bank think that the vessels were on fire.
The finest passenger steamer which has ever been placed on the Lakes
is, without exception, the _City of Cleveland_. The hull, built of
mild steel, is divided into ten compartments by water-tight cross
bulkheads extending from the keel to the main deck. The double bottom,
which reaches nearly the entire length of the ship, is also divided
into ten compartments, which can be used for water-ballast, and she
has a steadying tank holding 100 tons of water and situated amidships
to check the rolling in a heavy sea. The _City of Cleveland_ is 400
feet over all, 390 feet keel, 54 feet across the hull, and has a depth
of 22 feet. Like nearly all American paddle-steamers she is decked
to the full width of the guards. She has seven decks, the main deck,
which is of steel, being sheathed with wood to deaden the noise of the
handling of cargo. Her electric plant provides 1500 lights, as well
as a search-light of 50,000 candle-power. Her engine was constructed
by the American Shipbuilding Company and consists of an inclined
three-cylinder compound engine, the high pressure being arranged
between the two low-pressure cylinders. The high-pressure cylinder is
54 inches in diameter and the low-pressure cylinders are each 82 inches
and the stroke of piston is 8 feet. The paddle-wheels are 29 feet in
diameter and are fitted with feathering blades, each of which is 14
feet long and 4 feet wide. This steamer makes two trips a day between
Detroit and Cleveland, and is credited with having attained to a speed
of twenty-four miles an hour.
[Illustration: THE “CITY OF CLEVELAND.”]
[Illustration: THE “WILLIAM M. MILLS.”]
The Canadian-built lake steamers are similar to those from United
States yards, and a typical specimen of colonial construction is the
_Midland Prince_, launched in 1907 by the Collingwood Shipbuilding
Company of Collingwood, Ontario, which, like the _Collingwood_, is an
immense freighter.
One or two “whalebacks,” a type designed for the Lakes by Captain
McDougall, have been seen on the Atlantic occasionally, but they were
not a great success. A vessel of this type visited Liverpool some
years ago, the _Charles Wetmore_, and having her engines placed aft,
and being built with a perfectly flush whaleback, without hatchways,
and with a “scow and pig-snout” bow, was a decided curiosity. The
ingenuity of her design and the excellent workmanship displayed in
her construction impressed naval architects favourably, but there
was nothing to show that she was superior as a cargo vessel to the
single-deck steamers on this side of the Atlantic. The whaleback
steamer is less in favour than it was, even in America, but a good many
of them are still to be seen on the Lakes and the Pacific coast.