DEVELOPMENT OF IRON SHIPBUILDING
After the launching of the _Great Britain_ in 1845, steam-ship building
was carried on with great activity, though the change from wood to
iron and from paddles to the screw was gradual. Many wooden vessels,
both steamers and sailers, continued to be built, as the prejudice
against iron for ship construction died slowly. The screw propellers
were at first simply auxiliary to sail. This was due to three causes:
mistrust of the propeller, the cost of continually running it, and the
difficulty of carrying sufficient coal.
Describing the gradual evolution of the steam-ship in its early days,
Mr. John Ward, a director in Messrs. Denny’s famous firm, in his
Presidential Address to the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders
in Scotland, in 1907, said:
“The necessities of the screw propeller after its general adoption
demanded a much greater increase of engine revolution than constructors
in the early days, or for some years after, deemed it prudent to adopt.
Thus a great variety of design, including beam, steeple, oscillating,
and other forms of machines were used, all with gearing between the
engine and the propeller. But a few direct-acting engines appeared
very early, and gradually, as engineers gained confidence, the latter
type became universal, and assumed the form of the inverted cylinder
in the so-called steam-hammer engine which was the universal type for
mercantile purposes until the end of the century.
“John Elder we may look upon as the father of multiple-expansion
engines. He, together with his partner Charles Randolph, was trained
in the marine school of Mr. Robert Napier, Vulcan Foundry, Glasgow.
In 1852 they commenced business, and by 1856 had constructed several
four-cylinder compound engines. Randolph, Elder and Co. entered into
a contract for a set of engines, the coal for which, on trial, would
not exceed 3 lb. per indicated horse-power per hour. The trial ...
worked out at 2¹⁹⁄₂₀ lb.” In regard to coal consumption, the Pacific
Steam Navigation Company’s boats _Callao_, _Lima_, and _Bogota_, after
being brought home from the Pacific coast to be re-engined, all showed
a consumption of from 2 to 2¹⁄₂ lb. (per indicated horse-power) of
best Welsh coal. The _Bogota’s_ speed with the old engines was 9·75
knots and the coal consumption not less than 38 cwts. per hour. On her
outward voyage with new engines she “gave a mean speed of 10·47 knots
with 19 cwts. of coal per hour.” The steam-pressure was 22 lb. and the
horse-power was about 950 indicated.
“These early fathers seemed to see into the future. Walter N. Neilson,
in his Presidential Address (1859), refers to the ‘three grand
requirements (of marine engines) as--a safe and suitable boiler for 100
lb. and upwards; a good arrangement of engine to receive the initial
force of the steam without shock or liability to derangement, and
carry out expansion to the greatest practical limits; and, lastly, an
efficient surface condenser.
“John Elder was among the first to adopt the surface condenser and the
cylindrical boiler, and he thus in the ’fifties brought to a successful
issue these three grand requirements. We must go back to these early
days to realise what it meant to make a boiler which would be safe
for 100 lb.; steel plates of the present day weighing tons were then
represented by puddled iron plates weighing hundredweights. This led
John Elder to try a water-tube boiler, practically the modern Yarrow
boiler, also a spiral tube boiler, but probably none of these was
successful owing to the salt-water difficulty, evaporators not being
introduced till many years afterwards.”
As the adaptability of iron for constructional purposes became more
generally recognised, it led to the proposal that steamers should
be built on the longitudinal principle instead of with an ordinary
keel and a series of transverse ribs. The use of iron also enabled
shipbuilders to increase the safety of their vessels considerably by
means of transverse bulkheads, the number of these being increased
until, even as early as 1838, the iron steamers then being built for
the Glasgow and Liverpool line were each divided into five sections,
any three of which were estimated to be sufficient to keep the steamer
afloat if the other two should become waterlogged through collision.
Several vessels were constructed on modifications of the longitudinal
system, the chief among them being the _Great Eastern_. In 1853 James
Hodgson of Liverpool issued a circular on the advantages of iron
sailing ships, in which he pointed out not only the greater strength
obtained by using iron but the comparative cheapness of construction.
The circular stated that a wooden ship of 1000 tons would cost £16
10_s._ per ton, and an iron ship £13 10_s._ per ton, both fitted for
trade to the East. The wooden ship would not carry more than 1500 tons,
whereas an iron ship built from the same external lines would carry
1800 tons, and this difference at £5 per ton out and home, added to
allowances for insurance, depreciation, and interest, would make a
difference in favour of the iron ship of £2295.
[Illustration: THE “SARAH SANDS,” 1846.]
What was true of sailing ships was equally true of steamers, and
Hodgson had shown this some years before the publication of his
circular, when he built the _Sarah Sands_.
The _Sarah Sands_ afforded an excellent example of the strength of iron
ships if well and substantially built. She grounded on the Woodside
Bank in the Mersey when carrying 1000 tons dead weight, and remained
high and dry until the tide flowed again, during which time she did
not sustain the slightest damage. She experienced several mishaps at
one time and another, which demonstrated not only the superior manner
in which she was put together, but also the superiority of iron ships
over wooden ones, for it is difficult to suppose that a wooden vessel
would have withstood all these casualties without sustaining serious
damage. The _Sarah Sands_ was built in 1846 at Liverpool; she was 182
feet between perpendiculars, 33 feet beam, 32 feet deep, and of 1400
gross tonnage. Her engines were of 300 indicated horse-power and were
built by Messrs. Bury, Curtice, and Kennedy of Liverpool. She had two
oscillating cylinders of 50 inches diameter and a stroke of 3 feet,
working upwards to the crank shaft, and a still greater novelty was
the application of a direct coupling between the crank shaft and the
screw shaft. Her boilers were of the wet-bottomed type, and had six
furnaces besides return tubes, the steam pressure being 9 lb. She was
four-masted and heavily canvassed, carrying courses, topsails, and
topgallant sails on the main and mizzen masts, while she was fore and
aft rigged, including topsails, on the fore and jigger masts; her head
sails included a large fore staysail and two immense jibs.
She made her first voyage from Liverpool to New York in January 1847,
in connection with the Red Cross Line, and remained in this service
until the end of 1849, when she was transferred to the American coastal
route between Panama and San Francisco, being probably the first
iron screw vessel to go round South America. The discovery of gold in
Australia caused her to be sent to Sydney with a crowded passenger list
of gold-seekers, and she was thus the first iron screw steamer to cross
the Pacific to Australia; she afterwards came back to Liverpool and
was again placed on the New York trade, and in 1854 was sent to Canada
and was the first iron screw steamer in that trade also. On her return
passage she struck the rocks in the St. Lawrence, near Belle Isle, and
remained fast four days and nights. When she returned to Liverpool it
was found that she had not started so much as a rivet, which says a
good deal for the strength of her construction. This was destined to
have another unnecessary proof, for as she left the graving dock she
capsized owing to her ballast having been removed and not replaced, but
again she was none the worse. Next she was employed as a transport for
troops to India in 1857, and caught fire in her saloon, but as the hull
was of iron the fire was subdued and she put into Mauritius with the
whole after-part burnt out. This ended her career as a steamer, for she
returned to England under sail and was converted into a sailing ship,
and in the following year met with a disaster which even her tough
frame could not withstand; she struck on the rocks near Bombay and went
to pieces.
In 1850 several boats were designed for mail service in any weather for
a run not exceeding sixty miles and on which sleeping accommodation
was not required. One of the best of the type was _Her Majesty_, built
and engined by Robinson and Russell in 1850 for the Portsmouth and
Ryde station. She was an iron paddle-steamer. The engines had two
oscillating cylinders 27 inches in diameter with 30 inches stroke, and
made 58 revolutions per minute. Her tubular boiler, 9·75 feet long,
11·25 feet wide, and 6 feet high, developed steam at 20 lb. pressure.
The heating surface was 1234 square feet. Engines, boilers, and water
weighed 30·5 tons. The paddles were 11·16 feet in diameter and each
had nine fixed floats. There were three masts and the sail area was 64
square yards. Her speed was 12·8 knots; displacement, 93 tons; length,
127 feet; extreme beam, 26 feet.
The steamer _Crœsus_, for the Australian trade, launched at Mare’s
yard, Blackwall, in June 1853, for the General Screw Shipping Company,
was the largest vessel yet built for the firm. She was of 2500 tons,
with engines by Messrs. G. and J. Rennie, of 400 horse-power.
Messrs. Maudslay, like Messrs. Penn and other eminent engineers, had
been in the habit of having the ships for which they contracted built
by other firms, while they themselves supplied the engines. They
decided to do their own shipbuilding, and accordingly opened a yard at
East Greenwich. The first vessel launched there was the _Lady Derby_,
of 530 tons gross, built for the General Iron Screw-Collier Company.
Those were the days when Thames shipbuilding was at its zenith.
While trade was good, freights high, and shipowning was profitable,
shipowners did not mind paying high prices for their vessels; but as
the north-east coast, the Mersey, and the east and west coasts of
Scotland developed their iron shipbuilding facilities, and by reason of
their proximity to the coal and iron fields were able to obtain these
commodities at lower prices than the Thames shipbuilders could secure
them, they were able to underbid the Thames shipbuilders and secure
the industry, with the result that there is now but one shipbuilding
establishment of importance in the Thames equipped to turn out a large
warship or liner. Its competitors and neighbours of half a century
ago vanished one after another. Some have passed out of existence,
others have become merely repairing yards, and two or three have gone
elsewhere and prospered. The one survivor is the Thames Iron Works
and Shipbuilding Company, which, on the site made historic by Mr.
Penn’s enterprise, proudly endeavours to hold its own and maintain the
traditions of the river.
Mare’s shipbuilding yards on the shores of Bow Creek, near its entrance
to the Thames, started in a very small way, but within seventeen years
it extended until it was employing nearly 400 hands. In 1845, a large
portion of the Essex side of the yard was a marsh, covered with water
at high tide. By 1854 it was one of the principal shipbuilding yards in
the world. The wages of the workmen at Blackwall averaged for eighteen
months £5000 per week, and some weeks it was £1600 more. The yards
of Messrs. Green, Messrs. Scott Russell, Messrs. Dudgeon, Messrs.
Maudslay, Messrs. Samuda, Messrs. Yarrow, and Messrs. Thorneycroft, to
mention only a few, besides a host of smaller builders, employed their
thousands of hands; but never a keel is laid there now. The banks of
the river which rang to the stroke of the shipwrights’ hammers are
silent; the slips are unoccupied or devoted to other uses, the furnaces
are cold; the machinery is sold or dismantled, and fragments of it may
yet be seen rusting ingloriously on the scrap-heap. Dawn now brings
no activity to the shipbuilding yards of the Thames, and dusk adds
nothing to their stagnation. Steam-ship repairing work is nearly all
that London river sees now. If, as sailors say, ships have spirits that
return to the yards where the vessels were built, when those ships
are lost or broken up, there must be many homeless phantoms haunting
the banks of the historic stream, seeking rest and finding none, and
perchance, as did certain of the ships they represent, going down the
river with the tide never to return: a ghostly fleet bearing many
mysteries which shall not be solved till the day when the insatiable
sea is called upon to surrender all it has taken captive.
The general superiority of iron screw steamers over those of wood
led to the introduction of a number of types designed to meet the
requirements of special trades.
James Hodgson, who, in addition to the _Sarah Sands_, built the
_Antelope_, the first iron screw steamer to leave Liverpool for the
Brazils, introduced the tubular type of iron vessels. _The Carbon_,
a vessel of this type, was built by him for the Eastern Archipelago
Company in 1855. In the construction of this boat he proposed to
dispense with the ordinary side frames altogether.
He stated in his synopsis that calculations of the strength of thirty
frames, in a ship that had answered exceedingly well, showed that a
partial bulkhead or frame projected from the side of the vessel to the
extent of only 20 inches was more than equal in strength to the thirty
frames, if it were supported on two bearings at a given distance and
weighted on the upper side in the middle. This frame, of 20 inches
deep, would carry more than the whole of the thirty frames, and when
the bulkhead was extended across to the other side of the ship there
would be a great preponderance of strength in favour of the bulkhead.
But, in dispensing with frames, it might, in some cases, be necessary
to increase the plating for the sides, to give some additional
strength. Since the strength of the materials increased as the square
of the thickness, the addition of one-eighth to five-eighths of an
inch plate increased the strength to resist a blow sideways, or in a
lateral direction, by nearly 50 per cent. The strength of the vessel
was further increased by placing the bulkhead in the widest part of
the ship, amidships, and by other bulkheads placed midway between the
midship bulkhead and the bow and stern, should it be deemed advisable;
and also by the interposition of stiffening plates. Other strengthening
means were also recommended. The vessel would be, he contended,
“capable of sustaining a considerable pressure, either externally or
internally, having round, swelling, or convex sides, with a ridge or
rib on the lower side which answers the purpose of a keel.”
Vessels of this type were expected to be much more economical to
build, and no more expensive to run than those built on the ordinary
lines. It was disputed whether a tubular vessel being without frames,
floors, &c., would be strong enough for all purposes. An accident to
Mr. Hodgson’s tubular cargo vessel, _The Carbon_, however, seemed to
justify his contentions, for she stranded badly when being launched, so
that her stern was submerged at high water. She was towed up the slip
again, and refloated, and it was found that only two plates required
repairs. _The Carbon_ was running until quite recent years in the east
coast coal trade to London.
Another important development in construction was due to Mr. J. Scott
Russell, who has been described, like Sir I. K. Brunel, as a man before
his time. Mr. Russell’s services to steam navigation in his exposition
of the wave-line theory of ship construction were of incalculable
benefit to the science. His object was to diminish the resistance
offered by the water to the passage of the ship, and the modifications
he made in the lines of the hull not only effected this to a very
remarkable degree, but also increased the seaworthiness and speed of
the vessels. He designed a number of small vessels suitable for special
trades or to meet particular requirements.
One introduced about 1855, for North Sea work, was an iron screw
steamer with a long parallel middle body which made a capacious
ship, the fore and after parts being designed in accordance with his
wave-line theory. Another of his cargo vessels, having a greater length
of parallel middle body and wave-line ends, had the screw propeller
abaft the rudder, which was entirely below the propeller shaft, there
being a loop in the rudder stock through which the propeller shaft
passed. A second vessel of this type, but rather longer in proportion
to its beam, was designed for the Baltic trade, and had the peculiarity
that its forecastle extended as far as the midship deck-house.
[Illustration: THE “CITY OF GLASGOW” (INMAN LINE, 1850).]
The period from 1845 to 1880 is remarkable for the progress made in
steam-ship building prior to the general adoption of steel for the
construction of ocean vessels.
The early history of the Cunard Line has already been related. Before
the last wooden Cunarders were built, the Inman Line appeared on the
scene with a service of iron steamers with screw propellers, the first
being the _City of Glasgow_, launched in 1850 by Tod and McGregor on
the Clyde, for a transatlantic service they themselves intended to
establish with Glasgow as its headquarters. The side-lever engine of
the ordinary type was modified for this vessel, as it was fitted with
two beams working across the ship. The cylinders were on one side of
the ship, and on the other was a large wheel which geared three to one
with ordinary teeth into the propeller-shaft pinion. Her machinery
was placed low down in the hold so as to leave her decks as free of
encumbrances as possible.
She was a three-decked vessel of 1069 tons gross, 227 feet long by 33
feet beam and 25 feet depth; and her engines of 350 horse-power drove
a two-bladed screw of 13 feet in diameter and 18 feet pitch. She was
designed to carry 52 passengers in the first class; 85 in the second
class, and 400 in the steerage, and a crew of about 70. The hull was
divided by five water-tight bulkheads into six compartments, and as a
further provision for the safety of her passengers and crew she carried
six lifeboats. Her fresh-water tanks contained no less than 13,000
gallons. She was barque-rigged, of almost yacht-like lines, and had a
graceful clipper bow. The _City of Glasgow_ made a few voyages between
Glasgow and New York in the spring and summer of 1850.
Mr. William Inman of Liverpool had meanwhile been preparing for the
establishment of a line of steamers between Liverpool and America. His
idea was that modern iron vessels, equipped with screw propellers, were
bound to supersede paddle-wheel vessels, and also that there was money
to be made in the emigrant trade. His decision to place fast steamers
in this trade, however, was as much philanthropic as commercial,
for he was profoundly moved by the reports of the sufferings and
inconveniences experienced by emigrants in sailing ships, no less than
by the accounts of the fearful mortality among them. The carrying of
emigrants was, at that time, confined to sailing ships, many of which
were wholly unsuited to the purpose. The steamer companies catered
chiefly for those who could afford to pay well. Mr. Inman determined
to cater for the emigrant traffic also, and for forty-two years the
line bearing his name was pre-eminent in this branch of the work of the
Atlantic ferry.
Practically the only steamer which met the requirements he had in mind
was the _City of Glasgow_, and in the autumn of 1850 she was acquired
by the founders of the Inman Line.
“It was on December 10, 1850, that the Liverpool and Philadelphia
Steamship Company was established. Their agents were Messrs. Richardson
Bros. and Co., who had already a number of packet ships of their own.
They were the chief owners of the _City of Glasgow_, and their junior
partner was Mr. William Inman, who managed the shipping department of
the business.” This extract from the “Official Guide” of the Inman
and International Steamship Company Ltd., published about 1888, is
of interest in view of the various accounts of the inception of the
company which have been made public. The first sailing of the _City
of Glasgow_ for her new owners took place on December 17, 1850, from
Liverpool for Philadelphia. She was under the command of Captain
Matthews, who formerly had charge of the _Great Western_.
In June 1851, the _City of Manchester_, by the same builders and also
of iron, was purchased by the Inman organisation. She was of 2125 tons
and carried “overhead” or “steeple” geared engines of 350 horse-power.
Her cylinders and proportion of gearing, however, were identical with
those of the _City of Glasgow_.
In October 1851 the _City of Pittsburg_ was built at Philadelphia and
was the first American-built screw-propelled steamer in the North
Atlantic service. The _City of Philadelphia_ was delivered by Messrs.
Tod and McGregor in 1853, being of slightly greater tonnage than
her predecessor from the yard; but she was eclipsed by the _City of
Baltimore_ ordered the same year, the dimensions of the last named
being: 326 feet in length, 39 feet breadth, 26 feet depth, 2472 tons
gross and 1774 net.
This vessel took the place of the _City of Glasgow_, which in March
1854 disappeared in mid-ocean with 480 souls on board. In September of
the same year the _City of Philadelphia_ was wrecked off Cape Race, but
there was no loss of life.
“Inman’s iron screws,” as they were dubbed, were attracting attention,
and it was recognised as merely a question of time when steamers of
this type would prove successful rivals to the paddle-boats.
Mr. Inman became sole managing director in October 1854, as the result
of the offer of the British Government to charter certain of the
steamers as transports during the Crimean War, the use of the vessels
for this purpose being disapproved by Messrs. Richardson, who were
Quakers. About this time the company purchased the _Kangaroo_ from the
Pacific and Australasian Company, and ordered the _City of Washington_
from Messrs. Tod and McGregor. The _Kangaroo_ was 257 feet in length,
36 feet in breadth, 27 feet depth, and had a gross tonnage of 1719
tons. The _City of Washington_ was 358 feet in length, 40 feet in
breadth, and 26 feet depth, with a gross tonnage of 2870 tons.
The Crimean War saw a great demand by the Allies for transports,
and as the French Government offered better terms than the British
Government, the _City of Manchester_ was chartered to the French, and
was followed by the _City of Baltimore_, and six months later, when she
had concluded her trial trips, by the _City of Washington_. Upon the
termination of their engagement as transports these vessels returned to
the Liverpool and Philadelphia service.
For some time Mr. Inman had been considering the advisability of
making New York his American port instead of Philadelphia, and when
the _Kangaroo_, with all her passengers on board, was frozen up in
the Delaware and her departure for Liverpool was delayed for five
weeks, he inaugurated, in December 1856, a monthly service to New York
with the _City of Washington_. Two months later the Inman sailings
were increased to fortnightly, the sailings in the alternate weeks
being undertaken by the Collins liners. This arrangement was very
short-lived, for in the same month the Collins Line service was
withdrawn. In 1857 also, the title of the organisation was changed to
“The Liverpool, New York, and Philadelphia Steamship Company,” to mark
the extension of the service to New York.
In October 1857 Mr. Inman’s Company bought up the Glasgow and New York
Steamship Company, and placed two of the vessels, the _Edinburgh_ and
the _Glasgow_, in the trade between Liverpool and New York. By 1860 the
demands upon the resources of the line were such that the first _City
of New York_ was ordered from Tod and McGregor. She was 336 feet in
length, by 40 feet beam, and 28 feet depth, and was of 2360 tons gross.
Her engines were of the horizontal, trunk type, and she was the first
vessel of this line in which engines of this design were installed.
The rivalry between the Inman and Cunard Lines was intense, and neither
company produced a steamer which the other did not seek to surpass,
but the Inman Company forged ahead both in the matter of speed and
passenger accommodation and became for a time the premier company on
the Atlantic. The White Star Line, however, entered the “ferry” with
vessels of a different type, and the competition between the three
great companies became keener than ever. The first _City of Paris_ was
added to the fleet in 1866. Her Cunard rival was the _Russia_. The
_City of Brussels_, of 3081 tons, began her sailings in October 1869.
She was the last of the Inman Line to be fitted with the long wooden
deck-house which was a conspicuous feature of so many ocean-going
steamers. Her average speed was between 14 and 15 knots, which was
slightly increased when she was re-engined in a few years’ time. In
December 1869 she made the voyage from New York to Queenstown in 7 days
20 hours 33 minutes, a record which remained unbeaten until September
1875, when the _City of Berlin_ made the westward passage in 7 days
18 hours and 2 minutes, and the homeward run in 7 days 15 hours 48
minutes. The _City of Brussels_ was the first vessel, apart from the
_Great Eastern_, in the North Atlantic trade, in which McFarlane Gray’s
steam-steering gear was introduced.
The dangers inseparable from the North Atlantic traffic led to the
adoption by the company in 1870 of the “lanes” or routes across the
ocean as suggested by Lieut. Maury of the United States Navy, a more
southerly course being taken during the months from January to August,
to avoid the icebergs from the northern regions. The Cunard and other
steam-ship companies adopted the system about the same time.
The _City of Berlin_ was contracted for by Messrs. Caird and Co. in
1873, and when she was launched the Inman fleet counted up thirty-one
vessels with a total of 76,766 tons. The rivalry between the builders
of the great ocean-going liners, no less than between the firms owning
the ships and the officers of the ships themselves, was very great, and
Messrs. Caird were successful in their endeavour to turn out a vessel
which should be admitted to be the finest ocean-going steamer afloat.
The rapid acquisition of one first-class vessel after another placed
the Inman Company in the front rank. This steamer was 489 feet long on
the keel, and 513 feet over all, by 45 feet beam and 36 feet depth. Her
speed was about 16 knots. She was of 5491 tons gross and 3139 tons net.
She had a pair of engines of the inverted direct-acting compound type,
with high- and low-pressure cylinders, and of 1000 nominal horse-power,
but on her trial trip the indicated horse-power was 5200, and this was
sometimes exceeded in her voyages. Her low-pressure cylinder was 120
inches in diameter, and the high-pressure was 72 inches. Her twelve
boilers were heated by thirty-six furnaces, the boilers being so
arranged that any number of them could be cut off.
It was pointed out by the _Nautical Times_ that while the nominal
horse-power of the _City of Bristol_, added to the fleet in 1860, was
as one to ten as regards the gross tonnage, that of the splendid _City
of Berlin_, put on the line in March 1875, was as one to five and a
half. She could accommodate 400 passengers, of whom 200 were in the
saloon, 100 in the second cabin, and the remainder in the steerage,
and her crew numbered 150. Electricity as a means of lighting was
introduced into the transatlantic trade on this steamer in November
1879.
All the Inman vessels hitherto launched were ship-rigged, and all had
the graceful clipper bows for which the line was famous, the Inman
fleet being unequalled for beauty. At times, as they were overhauled,
they were barque-rigged, and one or two were given a three-masted
schooner rig.
[Illustration: THE “CITY OF ROME” (INMAN LINE, 1881).]
In June 1881 the beautiful _City of Rome_ was launched at Barrow for
the company, and sailed on her maiden voyage in the following October.
She was constructed of iron throughout, and was 560 feet in length by
52¹⁄₂ beam and 37 feet depth, and was of 8144 tons gross. This was the
first of the company’s steamers to have three funnels, and being placed
between the main and mizzen masts at regular spaces they served to add
to the appearance of the vessel. Her machinery marked another important
innovation as, although the engine was on the three-crank system, it
had three high-pressure cylinders of 46 inches diameter each, and
three low-pressure cylinders of 86 inches diameter each, arranged on
the tandem method, and the piston had a stroke of six feet. The eight
boilers worked up to 90 lb. pressure, with forty-eight furnaces so
arranged that a water-tight bulkhead was fitted fore and aft and formed
the coal bunkers, but this arrangement was modified afterwards. This
splendid vessel did not come up to expectations in the matter of speed
and was returned to the builders.
In 1875 the company was converted into the Inman Steamship Company,
Ltd. The _City of Rome_ was the last steamer the founder of the line
ordered, and he died before her completion. No further additions were
made to the fleet of the Inman Company. After the company and fleet
were acquired by the International Navigation Company in 1886, the new
firm also bought the _City of Chicago_ while she was on the stocks for
the Dominion Line. This vessel was the only one under the Inman flag to
have a straight stem. She ran for several years, and was then lost on
the south coast of Ireland.
[Illustration: THE “CITY OF CHICAGO.”]
[Illustration: THE “PERSIA” AND “SCOTIA” (CUNARD, 1856 AND 1862).]
The first iron steamer built by the Cunard Company was the _Persia_,
and she deserves more than a passing mention because of the association
with her of David Kirkaldy, Napier’s draughtsman, to whom modern steel
shipbuilding owes the discovery of the way to toughen steel and remove
its brittleness. Kirkaldy’s drawings of the _Persia_ are stated to
have been the only steam-ship designs ever exhibited at the Royal
Academy. He was also the first on the Clyde to give the question of
trial performances the attention it deserved. The first trial trips
recorded by him, on the _Larriston_, on September 22 and October 18,
1852, were printed when the Admiralty asked for particulars of the
respective behaviour of a Smith’s and a Griffith’s propeller. But he
was not allowed to continue his researches in this direction, and
even the _Persia_ left the Clyde without a single diagram having been
taken, for although Kirkaldy was in the engine-room during the entire
trial, he had not permission to record her performances. He obtained
data concerning many vessels “so as to be able to deduce the variations
of behaviour and relative economy, and trace such to their respective
origins, _e.g._, whether any variation was due wholly or in part to
the difference in the shape of the vessels, in the propellers, in the
engines, or in the boilers. The utility of these investigations was
signally demonstrated in the case of two vessels, _Lady Eglinton_ and
_Malvina_ ... the former proved a great success on her trial trip, and
the latter a comparative failure. He was able to trace the cause of the
failure and in great measure to rectify it. He clearly foresaw that
the time was surely approaching when his employers would require to
estimate for and construct vessels to fixed requirements as to draught,
speed, and economy of working.”[87]
[87] “Illustrations of David Kirkaldy’s System of Mechanical
Testing,” by Wm. G. Kirkaldy.
The drawings of the _Persia_ were made for his own pleasure, and the
first intimation of their existence was the announcement in the papers
that they had been admitted to the Academy. By Napier’s instructions
they were exhibited at the Paris Exhibition of 1855 together with
drawings of the steam-ships _Europa_, _America_, _Niagara_, and
_Canada_. Napier received a gold medal and the Legion of Honour as
exhibitor, and Kirkaldy received a medal as draughtsman. The drawings
of these four ships were placed in the Louvre Museum after being
presented to the Emperor Napoleon.
The _Scotia_, the second and last of the Cunard iron paddle-steamers,
followed in 1862. She was 379 feet in length, of slightly greater
beam and depth than the _Persia_, and of 3671 tons, and her engines
of 4900 indicated horse-power gave her a speed of nearly 14¹⁄₂ knots.
The _Persia_ was sold in 1868, and was converted into a sailing ship.
The _Scotia_ was kept in the service as long as possible, as she was
a favourite with the public, but her very limited cargo space and her
immense consumption of coal made it impossible to run her except at
considerable loss. She was consequently withdrawn in 1875, and sold
to the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance company, which had her
re-engined and turned into a twin-screw boat. She remained in the
service of this company for many years, and was used for cable-laying
purposes. These were not, however, the Cunard Company’s first iron
steamers, as they had already had for some time two smaller vessels of
iron in their Liverpool and Continental service.
By this time the Cunard directors were convinced, by the success of the
Inman steamers, and by the advice of the engineers whom they consulted,
that the paddle-steamer had reached its utmost point of development.
Henceforth they built screw steamers, the first being the _China_,
launched in 1862, and followed by the _Java_ in 1865, and the _Russia_
in 1867.
[Illustration: THE “CHINA” (CUNARD, 1862).]
[Illustration: THE “RUSSIA” (CUNARD, 1867).]
The _Russia_, and the Inman steamer _City of Paris_, the finest
commercial vessels afloat, left New York on the same day in February
1869, within about an hour of each other and arrived at Liverpool with
only thirty-five minutes difference between them. They made the run
across the Atlantic, with the twenty minutes’ stop at Queenstown, in
about eight days, eighteen hours. The _City of Paris_ started first,
and got in at 3.45 A.M., and the _Russia_ at 4.20. The vessels were in
company for four days. Once the _Russia_ passed the _City of Paris_,
but the Inman liner took the lead again, and at another part of the
voyage the Cunarder recovered her lost ground. As racing, however, was
strictly forbidden by the rules of the two companies, and the ships’
logs showed that no extra pressure of steam was used, it is supposed
that in this, as in many other cases of supposed ocean racing, the race
existed mainly in the imagination of the passengers, who for lack of
anything else to do worked themselves up into a frenzy of excitement
about it. The captains, of course, merely concerned themselves with
putting in all the seamanship they knew. Pictures published at the time
show that both vessels were under full sail, and even carried stunsails.
The _China_, after some years’ service, was sold and converted into the
sailing ship _Theodor_, and proved as fast after the change as when a
steamer. She foundered at sea in 1908.
In 1866 another competitor appeared on the North Atlantic. The fate
of the Collins and Galway Lines did not deter Mr. S. B. Guion from
inaugurating a rival service to that maintained by the Cunard and
Inman Lines, and for a time it seemed as if he would be successful
in wresting from the splendid vessels of these companies the premier
position on the Atlantic. The steamships which he placed on the service
between Liverpool and New York were at that period superior in size,
speed, and luxury to any of their competitors. He started the service
with the _Manhattan_, and thus inaugurated in 1866 what may be called
the great race of the greyhounds of the Atlantic. The _Manhattan_ was
built by the Palmer Company of Newcastle-on-Tyne, and was the first
of seven steamers comprising the line. Her length was 343 feet, her
beam 42 feet 6 inches, and her depth 28 feet, and her register was 2866
tons. She had accommodation for 72 passengers in the first class, and
800 in the second class, and besides taking 1000 tons of coal could
carry 1500 tons of cargo. A feature of this vessel was the attention
paid to the comfort of the second-class passengers, the cabins for
this class being on the main deck and thoroughly ventilated, wherein
they showed a marked improvement on the many other vessels carrying
emigrants. She was fitted with low-pressure inverted direct-acting
surface condensing engines, designed by Messrs. J. Jordan and Co. These
had cylinders of 60 inches in diameter, with a piston stroke of 42
inches. The _Chicago_ and the _Merrimac_, sister ships, followed from
the same builders. The _Chicago_ was wrecked in a fog on the rocks near
the entrance to Cork Harbour, and, a contrast to some of the disasters
to Atlantic liners, not a life was lost, the whole of the passengers
and crew, numbering 130, being landed by the ship’s boats within
an hour of the accident. The earlier Guion liners were brig-rigged
steamers, and some of them carried the new American double topsails on
both masts. Other boats which formed a part of the earlier fleet of
the Guion Line were the _Nebraska_, _Minnesota_, _Colorado_, _Idaho_,
and _Nevada_. In 1870 these were augmented by the _Wyoming_ and
_Wisconsin_, also built and engined by Messrs. Palmer. These were each
366 feet long, 43 feet broad, 34 feet deep, and of 3238 tons register.
Among other distinctive features they had the first compound engines
on the transatlantic route. These had one vertical high-pressure
cylinder of 60 inches in diameter, and one double-trunk horizontal
low-pressure cylinder of 120 inches in diameter, both working on the
same crank, and having a stroke of 42 inches. Great expectations as
to speed were entertained when the _Montana_ and _Dakota_, from the
Palmer yards, were brought into the service in 1872. They exhibited a
new design in hull and machinery as they had an abnormal slope of
side, flush steel plating, and water-tube boilers. These vessels each
had a length of a little over 400 feet, with a breadth of 43³⁄₄ feet
and a depth of 40³⁄₄ feet. Like the _Wyoming_ and _Wisconsin_, they had
compound engines, one high-pressure cylinder of 60 inches diameter,
working inverted on a forward crank, and two low-pressure cylinders
working horizontally on the after crank. The _Montana’s_ boilers were
constructed of a series of cross-tubes 15 inches in diameter and were
intended to carry a head of 100 lb. of steam, but in consequence of
an explosion when at 70 lb. pressure, they were replaced by ordinary
tubular boilers with a pressure of 80 lb. of steam. The _Dakota_ was
wrecked on the Welsh coast in May 1877, and a similar fate befell the
_Montana_ three years later. Seven years passed and then the _Arizona_
was brought into the Guion service. She was of iron and was built and
engined by Messrs. John Elder and Co. of Glasgow. Her dimensions were:
450 feet long, 45¹⁄₈ feet broad, 35³⁄₄ feet deep, with a register of
5147 tons. She differed from the earlier boats of the line by being
four-masted, carrying square sails on the fore and main masts, having
two funnels, and having her saloon accommodation amidships; in all
these particulars, as well as in the straight cutwater, she bore a
strong resemblance to her rivals of the White Star Line.
[Illustration: MODEL OF THE “CITY OF PARIS,” 1866.]
Although there was no deviation in her hull from the existing type,
her machinery displayed some novel features. Her engines were compound
with three crank shafts, each having one cylinder. The high-pressure
cylinder was 62 inches in diameter, and was placed in the centre,
between the low-pressure cylinders each of 90 inches, and all had
a piston stroke of 66 inches. Steam was generated in seven boilers
capable of withstanding 90 lb. pressure, and furnished with thirty-nine
furnaces, which had an average coal consumption of 125 tons per day,
or in round figures 25 per cent. in excess of her fastest rivals,
which were then in the White Star Line. On her homeward voyage from
New York in July 1879, the _Arizona_ succeeded in breaking the record,
and repeated the feat on her outward passage in May 1880, when she
made the passage from Queenstown to New York in 7 days, 10 hours, 47
minutes, thus proving herself for two years in succession the fastest
boat on the Atlantic. While on her homeward passage in November 1879,
the _Arizona_ collided at full speed with an iceberg. Although she gave
the berg a direct blow she is one of the few vessels that have managed
to survive after such an experience. It was stated at the time that
there was a projecting spur of ice from the berg under water, and on
this the ship slid. Her weight caused the berg to rock, and it was to
this circumstance alone that she owed her safety, for the rocking of
the huge mass of ice enabled her to slip off the spur into deep water
again. A tremendous quantity of ice, dislodged by the shock, crashed
down upon her deck, doing a considerable amount of damage, and she had
only drifted a few hundred yards from the berg, after the impact, when
an immense portion of it fell at the spot where only a few moments
previously the ship had rested. This is one of the narrowest escapes
recorded in the annals of the sea. Fortunately, her collision bulkhead
withstood the enormous strain, and the vessel received a magnificent,
though entirely undesired, testimonial to the soundness and stability
of her construction. She put into St. John’s, Newfoundland, and was
found to be so badly damaged that she had to have entirely new bows.
The success of the _Arizona_ led to the building of the _Alaska_, which
proved another triumph for Messrs. John Elder and Co., for the speed
she developed won her the title of the Atlantic Greyhound, her homeward
passage in June 1882 being less than seven days. This remarkable run
was, however, eclipsed by the _Oregon_, the last vessel added by the
Guion Company prior to its dissolution; she sailed from Liverpool
to New York on October 6, 1883, and accomplished the passage from
Queensland to Sandy Hook in 6 days 10 hours 9 minutes. The _Oregon_
was an iron vessel built and engined by Messrs. John Elder and Co., on
similar lines to, but of greater dimensions than, the _Arizona_ and
the _Alaska_. She was no less than 500 feet in length, 54 feet wide,
40 feet deep, and registered 7375 tons. Her engines were compound
and consisted of one 70-inch high-pressure cylinder placed in the
centre, and two low-pressure 104-inch cylinders, with a 6-foot stroke;
her boilers had a steam-pressure of 110 lb., and her average daily
consumption of coal was 310 tons.
[Illustration: THE “OREGON” (CUNARD AND GUION LINES, 1883).]
From about this time the passenger service across the Atlantic began
to assume proportions and a degree of importance to which it had never
before attained. Hitherto the steamers engaged on the transatlantic
route had depended considerably on their cargo capacity as a means
of meeting expenses, but with the demand for larger and faster
vessels--and faster vessels could only be made larger--there was
developed an express passenger boat which depended almost wholly on
its passenger accommodation and carried a much smaller amount of cargo
than some of the older and smaller vessels then engaged in the trade.
The Guion Line did not wholly meet these requirements, and on the death
of Mr. S. B. Guion, the line gradually dropped out of existence, the
remaining vessels of the famous fleet of steamers being dispersed in
various directions. Some years before this happened, however, the White
Star Line began to build steamers for the Atlantic.
The White Star Line has always been the line of big ships. In its
sailing-ship days it owned some of the finest wooden clippers afloat,
famous alike for their size and speed. When Mr. T. H. Ismay in 1867
took over the management of the line and formed with some friends
the Oceanic Steam Navigation Company, there were already in existence
the Cunard, Inman, Guion, and National Lines, which had secured such
control of the Atlantic trade that it seemed almost rashness for the
new line to venture to compete with them. “Nothing venture, nothing
win”; the line now holds a position second to none in the world for
the magnificence and size of its steamers. All its vessels have been
built by Messrs. Harland and Wolff at Belfast. The first of the fleet
was the _Oceanic_, launched on August 27, 1870, which started on her
maiden voyage and the inaugural voyage of the fleet on March 2, 1871.
Several vessels of the same type followed in rapid succession, all
having the straight stem, four masts, and single funnel which were the
distinguishing marks of the White Star steamers in those days. The
_Oceanic_ was 420 feet long, 41 feet beam, 31 feet deep, and had a
registered tonnage of 3707. These steamers were somewhat differently
designed from the other boats on the North Atlantic. The high bulwarks
and narrow wooden deck-houses were dispensed with, and instead another
iron deck was added with open iron railings round it, there being
thus nothing to hold any water that might come on board. The saloons
were amidships and extended the entire width of the vessel, and the
staterooms were placed before and after the saloon and were better
lighted and ventilated than those of any other steamers. The engines
also were of a novel type; they were compound, four-cylindered, and
arranged tandem, with two high-pressure cylinders each 41 inches
diameter and two low-pressure each 78 inches in diameter, working on
two cranks and having a stroke of five feet. The engines were arranged
fore and aft, and each formed a complete engine in itself, so that
either could be worked in case of accident to the other. The _Oceanic_
inaugurated the era of the modern type of express ocean liner. After
a few voyages some alterations were made in her, which added to her
efficiency, her masts being shortened, and a whaleback being built
over her stern. In 1875 she was transferred, together with her sisters
the _Belgic_ and _Gaelic_, to the Pacific to inaugurate the White Star
steam service between Hong-Kong, Yokohama, and San Francisco.
Two famous sister ships the White Star Line had were the _Germanic_
and _Britannic_, built in 1875 and 1874 respectively; they were each
455 feet long, 45 feet broad, 33 feet 9 inches deep, and of 5004 tons
register. The hulls were built at Belfast, but the engines were by
Maudslay, Sons and Field and similar to those of the _Oceanic_. With
a speed rather above 16 knots, they were the first to reduce the
passage to below seven days. Numerous experiments were made with a
lifting propeller in the _Britannic_, but they were not a success and
the principle was never tried in any more of the company’s boats. The
company sought also to improve the lighting of their steamers. The old
system of lighting a ship by candles was seldom more than enough to
make the darkness visible, and oil lamps were not always much better;
so an attempt was made to install a gas-lighting apparatus. It worked
very well while the vessel was in port, the experiment being made on
the _Adriatic_ in 1872, and the _Celtic_ in 1873; but there was a
certain amount of leakage through the working of the ship in a sea-way
and the experiment was abandoned. Oil lamps were then installed in
these steamers and remained in use until superseded by electric light.
Another White Star experiment was with the oscillating saloon, intended
to keep berths and staterooms level while the ship was rolling, but
this was no more a success on the broad Atlantic than it was on the
English Channel when tried in the steamer _Bessemer_.
Other lines which have played a conspicuous part in the North Atlantic
trade are the State, the Beaver, and the National Lines, all of which
owned some very fine steamers. The last named was founded to run a line
between Liverpool and the ports of the Confederate States when the war
should terminate, but it proved a financial failure and the promoters
then decided to enter the Liverpool and New York trade. Its three
vessels, _Louisiana_, _Virginia_, and _Pennsylvania_, were the largest
cargo-carriers on the ocean, being of nearly 3500 tons gross. Three
larger steamers, _The Queen_, _Erin_, and _Helvetia_, were added in
1864, and three more in the next two years. The _Italy_, of 4300 tons,
was regarded as a wonderful ship on account of her size, and is stated
to have been the first of her type in which compound engines were
fitted. Other and larger steamers were added to the fleet to meet its
extensive requirements, until it sustained not only a weekly service
each way between Liverpool and New York, but also had regular sailings
from London to New York, calling at Havre. Its steamers were not
beautiful or fast, but were very steady, made cargo-carrying a feature,
and conveyed a great number of emigrants. Then the National Line
surprised every one by bringing out in 1884 one of the most beautiful
and graceful steamers ever seen on the Atlantic, and certainly the
fastest of her day--the _America_, which, as she was built of steel,
belongs properly to a later period of ship construction. She was 5528
tons gross, built and engined by Messrs. J. and G. Thomson, and was
sold in a few months to the Italian Government. Some years later the
line began to decline and it is now a part of the “Combine,” only two
or three vessels being under its flag.
[Illustration: THE “AMERICA” (NATIONAL LINE, 1884).]
The first mail steam-ship line between Liverpool and Canada was started
by McKean, McLarty, and Lamont of Liverpool in 1852 under contract
with the Government, but the effort was a failure, and in the next
year H. and A. Allan undertook the work. Their first steamer was the
_Canadian_ in 1853, followed by the _Indian_, _North American_,
and _Anglo-Saxon_, and as the Grand Trunk Railway was completed next
year to Portland, this town became the winter terminus of the line and
Montreal the summer terminus. Upon the completion of the intercolonial
railway in 1876, connecting Quebec with Halifax, the Nova Scotian port
became the winter terminus of the Allan Line. By 1882 the service had
increased to such an extent that the sailings were made weekly instead
of fortnightly. In 1862 the Allans established a line between Glasgow
and Montreal; a few years afterwards sailings were made between London
and Canada, and more recently still Continental calls were added.
The Donaldson Line, established in 1855, has for many years maintained
a service between Glasgow and Montreal, its vessels ranging from
sailers to some of the finest steamers entering the St. Lawrence
River. Its present service is performed with the twin-screw steamers
_Athenia_ and _Cassandra_, and nine single-screw boats; and another
twin-screw boat, the _Saturnia_, is shortly to be delivered, and will
be of about 8000 tons, the largest in the company’s fleet. The salient
feature of the Donaldson Line passenger steamers is the carriage of
one class of cabin passengers only, called second cabin. This enables
travellers to enjoy the best the ships afford, the accommodation being
equal to that on many long-distance steamers, such as those that go to
Australia. Its first steamer to Montreal was the _Astarte_ in 1874,
upon the withdrawal of the line from the South American trade in which
it had been engaged up to then; and its Canadian service, fortnightly
at first, became weekly in 1880. A line to Baltimore, Maryland, was
established in the winter of 1886-7, and the winter service to Canada
began with the Baltimore boats calling at Halifax on their west-bound
voyages.
No further attempt was made by the Americans to establish a line of
steamers across the Atlantic until 1871, but in that year Messrs.
Cramp of Philadelphia received orders for four large steamers of over
3000 tons each, and these with some English vessels maintained the
service of the American Line. In 1884 the Red Star Line took over the
line and ran the boats as cargo steamers. They were again transferred
in 1893 to another American Line which three years later sold them. In
the meantime, the later American Line ordered a number of vessels and,
besides buying up the Inman Line, absorbed the Inman and International,
which owned the steamers _City of Paris_ and _City of New York_. The
new owners dropped the words “City of,” and also had two steamers built
in America to comply with the Act of Congress under which the line was
formed.
The screw propeller was naturally not long in commending itself to the
builders of ships for the long voyages to India and Australia.
Mr. John Dudgeon, in an article published in 1856 on steam expansion
and the suitability of expansion engines for long voyages, was almost
prophetic in his remarks on the relative value of the screw propeller
and the paddle-wheel. In the article he said:
“The application of this property in steam to Australian screw steam
navigation, would, if adopted, effect a radical change in the whole
question. When we find that vessels of the magnitude of the _Great
Britain_ have to run thousands of miles out of their course to get
a fresh supply of coal, it becomes a question whether that state of
matters may not be amended. I therefore propose that vessels of, say,
2000 tons be built and fitted with engines working up to 1100 horses
actual power, which would ... consume 1609·5 lb. of coal per hour, and
with this power the vessel would steam at least 10 knots an hour ...
equal to 19 tons 4 cwt. per day and a speed of 240 knots; 500 tons of
coal would therefore be enough for a run of twenty-five days, and 6000
nautical miles. Should it be deemed prudent to carry a reserve stock,
coal for an additional 1500 miles would still not seriously interfere
with the carrying properties of a large vessel, while it would obviate
the necessity of having any stoppage but the Cape between Great Britain
and Port Phillip. A vessel of 2000 tons builders’ measurement will
carry at least 2000 tons dead weight, over and above her own weight
of ship and machinery. Presuming that she takes coal for 9000 miles,
or 750 tons, we still have a balance of 1250 tons for cargo and, in a
well-arranged vessel, room for 350 passengers. Now I apprehend that as
regularity and multiplied means of communication are the prime wants
in all commercial matters, we should do better to sail such ships as
these, with frequent departures, than if we were to build vessels of
double the size, and have double the time to wait for a full freight
and a full complement of passengers. No doubt that in a vessel double
the size we may manage to carry coal for the whole distance to Port
Phillip, but I apprehend that the delay of waiting for freight and
passengers would more than balance the delay of coaling at the Cape. It
must also be cheaper to send out coals in vessels adapted for the trade
of carrying coal, than to occupy the valuable room in even a large
vessel which ought to be appropriated to the carriage of that class of
goods which will pay for rapid steam communication. The sole question
at issue is: Can a vessel of from 2000 to 3000 tons be worked with an
economy equal to a vessel of from 4000 to 6000 tons? I contend that not
only is such the case, but that the balance of returns, and convenience
to the public, must be in favour of the moderate-sized vessel. With
such Leviathan vessels there is, first, the double outlay upon one ship
and corresponding interest of capital; secondly, there is a double
risk in case of losing the ship; a correspondingly higher premium of
insurance; additional risk of not having full cargo; additional time
required for procuring freight, stowing, and loading vessel, and the
almost impossible feat to be performed of finding a sufficiently large
body of passengers ready to go at the same time; the impossibility of
entering the ordinary docks in the kingdom necessitating the use of a
port of embarkation at a distance from the main channel of business.
The whole of these weighty objections then have to be balanced by
the economy theoretically presumed to be attainable by the increased
capacity of vessels for carrying coal, cargo, and passengers. It
appears obvious that coal-carrying can be done cheaper by auxiliary
vessels, where the station is in a direct line, than by the vessel
carrying them herself. It is only when the power of carrying coal is so
small or the consumption is so large, that the vessel is forced to make
a great number of stoppages, and make considerable detours to arrive at
coaling stations, that stopping to coal becomes so serious an evil.”
The writer goes on to contend that the propeller should be placed
outside the rudder, so that a coarse pitch may work with proper effect,
“as it is clearly proved that working the propeller in the deadwood
destroys a large portion of its useful effect, so much so that an
increase in the pitch of a propeller to the extent of one-third does
not show more slip (when used behind the rudder) than the two-thirds
when used before it.” He further contended that the proportion of
stroke to diameter should be greater in an engine that is to drive
a screw propeller direct than what is required for applying the
same power to a paddle-wheel, and it would soon be found that as an
instrument of propulsion, even for great speed, the screw would not be
inferior to the most approved patent paddle-wheel.
One has only to read a declaration of this character, by one of the
leading shipbuilders of his day, and then compare the situation,
the difficulties of which appeared to him wellnigh insuperable, but
every one of which has passed away, with the frequent sailings of the
enormous vessels which journey the whole of the way between England
and Australia under steam alone without stopping, and carry passengers
by the hundred, to realise the phenomenal developments which have
marked the progress of the last fifty years.
Races between steamers fitted with the rival modes of propulsion were
not uncommon, but did not always take place with official sanction,
though the results were carefully noted. One most exciting race was
held by arrangement in the Channel to test the relative capacities of
twin-screw and paddle boats in March 1865, the competitors being the
twin-screw steamer _Mary Augusta_ and the London, Chatham, and Dover
Railway Company’s new steamer _La France_, said to be the fastest boat
in the Channel service. The screw boat left Greenhithe early in the
morning and steamed down to Dover to wait the departure of the mail
steamer. The latter, when time was taken, was about three cables’
length ahead of and on the weather bow of the _Mary Augusta_. The
screw drew level, but a hot bearing developed in her starboard engine,
necessitating that engine making fewer revolutions and causing her to
steer badly. She continued to gain however, her rival, according to a
contemporary record, “emitting such immense volumes of steam and smoke
from her two funnels as satisfactorily proved that the engines were
having more steam than they could make use of, and that _La France_
could never at any time or under any circumstances during her yet short
career have been driven with more purpose to win than at the present.”
After the heated bearing was cooled the _Mary Augusta_ resumed her
full speed and the race was her own from that moment, and she reached
Calais Pier three and a half miles ahead. The _Mary Augusta_ returned
to England at full speed without entering Calais Harbour. The time
occupied by her in the double run from Dover to Calais and back was 2
hours 45 minutes 10 seconds, a rate of speed never equalled by any
screw steamer before. She went to the Thames at full speed in a violent
north-east gale and was back at Gravesend at a quarter-past nine the
same evening.
We will now continue the history of the steam-ship services to the
East, Africa, and South America. The P. & O. steamer _Himalaya_ has
already been mentioned. She was built of iron, was launched at Mare’s
shipyard at Blackwall in May 1853, and was originally intended to carry
paddle-wheels driven by engines of 1200 horse-power, but at an early
stage in her construction it was decided that she should be a screw
boat. Her engines, by John Penn and Son, were of 700 horse-power. This
steamer was 340 feet between perpendiculars and 46 feet 2 inches beam,
and of 3550 tons.
One notable steamer the company had was the _Delta_, launched in 1859
by the Thames Iron Works and Shipbuilding Company, and described
as the handsomest of her class yet built on the Thames. She was a
clipper-bowed vessel, carrying stump bowsprit, had two masts, and was
fore and aft schooner-rigged. Her masts and her two funnels raked aft
considerably, and gave her the appearance of possessing great speed.
She was 350 feet in length over all, with a beam of 35 feet 3 inches.
The engines, by Penn of Greenwich, were previously in the _Valetta_,
from which they were taken to make room for machinery of less power.
The change was of benefit to the _Valetta_, as she did equally well
with her new engines. At her trial in Stokes Bay the _Delta_ averaged
rather more than 14¹⁄₂ knots an hour, stated to be a greater speed than
had been attained there by any previous vessel. She was double the
tonnage of the _Valetta_ and carried 300 tons more coal, and had 1200
tons more displacement. Her engines, of 400 nominal horse-power, gave
an indicated horse-power of over 1600.
[Illustration: THE “DELTA” LEAVING MARSEILLES FOR THE OPENING OF THE
SUEZ CANAL.]
The company kept abreast of the times in its steam-ships, and without
displaying any recklessness was not behind in adopting innovations
likely to be advantageous. Its experiences with the compound engine
were not such, however, as to encourage it to take the lead with new
inventions. Its first essay in this direction was in the _Mooltan_,
built in 1860, and by 1864 several steamers had been constructed with
the new and costly engines.
“But the result was a grave disappointment. The economy was undoubted;
but the machinery, although it had been fitted by one of the most
eminent firms in the country, regardless of cost, was found to be
unreliable. The accidents were numerous, and although comparatively
slight, they occurred so frequently that the efficiency of the mail
service was in danger of being impaired. The result was that several of
the ships thus fitted had these costly engines replaced by less complex
machinery, involving the company in serious loss. The _Mooltan_ was
an example of a vessel fitted with appliances in advance of the age.
Not only were her engines of the new type, but she was likewise fitted
with hydraulic steering gear and refrigerating machinery; and all
these appliances had eventually to be removed, because they could not
be relied on to work satisfactorily throughout a long voyage. It was
not until 1869 that the company succeeded in building a steamer with
high and low pressure machinery which could be considered thoroughly
successful.”[88]
[88] P. & O. Company’s Handbook.
The African Steamship Company was incorporated in 1852 to carry out a
contract with the British Government for conveying the mails monthly
to the principal ports of the west coast of Africa and to Madeira and
Teneriffe, and also to establish a line of steamers between Sierra
Leone and the West Indies. The contract for the mails was entered into
by Mr. Macgregor Laird in December 1851, and was for ten years from the
ensuing December, commencing with an annual payment of £23,250 and
diminishing by £500 a year during the continuance of the contract, thus
averaging £21,500 per annum.
Five steamers were built for this service by Laird of Birkenhead; they
were of iron and were screw-propelled vessels. By 1860 the company was
in difficulties and it was proposed to wind it up, but the directors
were persuaded to try a service between Liverpool and the west coast
of Africa, with excellent results to all concerned for a time, but
the control of the company was not too efficient in London and the
concern dwindled until, in 1891, it passed into the possession of Elder
Dempster and Co., and then progressed even more rapidly than it had
previously declined.
The Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, who it will be remembered launched
their first steamers in 1841, adopted the screw propeller in 1849 when
they launched the _Esk_. They were the first to adopt screw propulsion
for the conveyance of mails. The company assisted the Panama Railroad
Company in 1850 by lending them 125,000 dollars towards the completion
of the railroad across the isthmus, and in January 1851 opened a mail
service from Southampton to Brazil and the River Plate. Several of
their steamers were chartered as transports during the Crimean War.
The _Dee_ was chartered in 1860 to the French Government to convey the
“Irish Brigade,” which had been raised in Ireland to fight for Pope
Pius IX. against Garibaldi, from Havre to Cork on their return from
Italy.
In the following year the Confederate States commissioners, Messrs.
Slidell and Mason, were taken by force in West Indian waters by the
Federals from the R.M.S.P. _Trent_. The “_Trent_ affair,” as the
ensuing international crisis was called, ended in January 1862,
when the company’s _La Plata_ arrived at Southampton with the two
commissioners on board.
The _Shannon_, one of their steamers, arrived at Southampton in
August 1864 from the West Indies with a record consignment of specie,
consisting of gold and silver to the value of £1,511,426 in 2207
packages, which was transferred to the Bank of England in forty-one
waggons. In 1869 the R.M.S.P. transatlantic steamers extended their
voyage from Rio de Janeiro to Buenos Ayres, thus avoiding transfer
to smaller vessels at Rio de Janeiro; the _Douro_ being the steamer
inaugurating this extension.
The steam-ship _Victoria_, built of iron in 1852 for the Australian
Royal Mail Steam Navigation Company, gained the prize of £500 offered
by the colonies for the fastest voyage to Australia. Her time from
Gravesend to Adelaide was sixty days, including two days’ stay at
St. Vincent. She was designed by Messrs. I. K. Brunel and J. Scott
Russell for a speed of ten knots under full steam, and to provide as
much passenger accommodation and space for high-priced cargo as her
coal requirements would permit. She was 261 feet on the water-line and
registered 1350 tons. The entrance and run of the ship were of the
wave-like form, while the central 45 feet were parallel; the bilges
were round, the topsides tumbled home, and there was no external
keel, so that she was very heavy in a seaway. The hull was in twelve
water-tight compartments, and longitudinal bulkheads were carried
through from the engine and boiler rooms so as to separate the coal
from the machinery. The engines were of the oscillating type. The ship
had four masts and a sail area of 1540 square yards. Under steam alone
the engines at full power made 59 revolutions per minute and gave a
speed of 11 knots, with a coal consumption of 37 tons per 24 hours.
Under sail alone, with the screw held vertically, the speed was 5¹⁄₂
knots, but when the screw was allowed to run freely the speed increased
to 7¹⁄₂ knots. Her average speed was nearly 11³⁄₄ knots.
The Pacific Steam Navigation Company’s operations were confined to
the west coast of South America until 1865, when, in pursuance of
a supplemental charter, it extended its sphere to the River Plate.
Steamers were specially built for the service, and in 1868, the
_Pacific_, after being about three years on the coast, sailed for
Liverpool from Valparaiso to inaugurate the new mail service. Six other
iron screw vessels were added and the venture proved so profitable that
it was determined to make the sailings fortnightly, and the steamers
_Chimborazo_, _Aconcagua_, _Garonne_, _Cuzco_, and _Lusitania_ were
built. All these steamers were afterwards in the Orient Line’s service
to Australia, together with the _John Elder_, which was one of the
earlier batch of boats on the Liverpool-Valparaiso route. Seven more
steamers were added in 1871, and by 1873 the number of new vessels
totalled eighteen. They were all clipper-bowed barque-rigged steamers
and were very handsome craft. After this the company went in for the
straight stem and pole-masted type of steamer.
The rivalry in the various over-sea trades was very great, and
no sooner did one shipowner secure a vessel which surpassed its
competitors than other owners sought to improve upon it. The sailing
ships were soon obliged to give way to the steam auxiliary vessels,
especially when craft like the _Lightning_ appeared. The _Lightning_
was built by the Hendersons of Glasgow, and so pleased were her owners,
Messrs. Apcar of Calcutta, and their representative, Captain Durham,
with her, that he ordered the _Thunder_. The _Thunder_ was built by Mr.
Lungley at his yard on the Thames and engined by Messrs. Dudgeon, and
was an improved edition of her predecessor.
The _Thunder_ was launched in December 1859, and soon demonstrated
that she was the fastest steamer yet provided with a screw propeller.
She was a handsome vessel, ship-rigged, with clipper bows, and her
masts and funnels had a slight rake which gave her a very attractive
appearance. Her length was 240 feet between perpendiculars, beam 30
feet, depth 22¹⁄₂ feet, and her tonnage, builder’s measurement, was
1062. The engines were of 210 nominal horse-power with cylinders of 55
inches diameter, and a piston stroke of three feet. A peculiarity in
her boilers was that they consumed the fuel and heat in furnaces and
tubes to the point that the remainder escaped up the chimney and heated
the superheater to a temperature of 300 degrees, without regulation. On
her trial trip she travelled at the rate of at least seventeen statute
miles per hour, and afterwards did even better. Her coal consumption
also was the lowest then attained, being about one pound per indicated
horse-power per hour. Her screw was of the ordinary type and was
placed outside the rudder. The _Lightning_ and the _Thunder_ were both
employed in the China trade.
[Illustration: THE “THUNDER.”]
The first ocean-going screw steam-ship of her class to which the modern
double or twin-screw system was applied was the iron vessel _Far
East_, which was launched from Dudgeon’s yard, Millwall, towards the
close of 1863. She was intended for the China tea trade of the owners
of the _Lightning_ and _Thunder_. The _Far East_ was 227 feet between
perpendiculars and 210 feet on the keel; 34 feet beam, 22 feet moulded
depth, and 20 feet 6 inches depth of hold; her depth at load water-line
was 17 feet, her displacement 2200 tons, and her builder’s measurement
tonnage 1258 tons. On her upper deck she had a capacious poop and
forecastle, and there were deck-house and cabins amidships. Her engines
were of 150 nominal horse-power, driving a two-bladed lifting screw
under each quarter. The engines had annular combined cylinders, the
diameter of the high-pressure cylinder being 24 inches and of the
expansive cylinder 50 inches, with a piston stroke of 24 inches. The
screws were 8 feet 2 inches in diameter, with a pitch of 16 feet. Each
of the two boilers had six furnaces with 109 square feet of firebar
surface, and a tube surface of 1883 feet. The shafting of the screws
projected through a wrought-iron tube of great strength bolted to a
false iron bulkhead clear of the ship’s frame. The tube at its outer
end was connected with a wrought-iron slide, which guided the screw to
the well when being lifted, or to the shafting when being lowered. The
screws were raised by a worm and barrel apparatus. The lower and top
masts were of iron bolted together through flanges, and the topgallant
masts fitted closely into the topmast heads, so that the masts from
deck to button looked like immense slender poles. There were no tops,
but light iron cross-trees spread the rigging, and preventive top and
topgallant backstays were carried far aft of the lower rigging. Her
funnel was placed well abaft the main-mast. She was given a full rig on
all three masts, and in addition carried fore and main try-sails.
No sooner was she afloat than the double-screw steamer _Pallas_ was
sent into the water from the adjoining slipway; this being the first
time on record that two iron twin-screw vessels were launched from the
same yard on the same day.
In January 1865 the double twin-screw steam-ship, _Louisa Ann Fanny_,
was launched, and as it was thought she might possibly be acquired
by the Confederates, the bunkers were so arranged as to afford ample
protection for her engines from hostile shot. Her machinery consisted
of horizontal direct-acting engines with cylinders of 40 inches
diameter, and 22¹⁄₂ inch stroke, driving two three-bladed screws of 9
feet 3 inches diameter and a pitch of 17 feet 3 inches, the distance
from centre to centre of the screws being 10 feet 10 inches. She
attained, when loaded, a speed estimated at 15³⁄₄ miles an hour after
allowing for the tide.
Want of space has prevented the relation of further details of the
steam-ship history of the period, though a few from the long list
of steam-ship companies of other countries may be mentioned. The
Messageries Maritimes de France grew out of a company formed to carry
inland mails. In 1851 they contracted to carry some of the oversea
mails, and extending their operations as the years went on are now
the largest steam-ship company in France. The next largest French
company is the Compagnie Générale Transatlantique, which was formed in
1862 and is also a mail carrier. To this company belong the largest
steamers ever constructed in France. The Hamburg-America Company of
Germany launched its first steamer, the _Borussia_, in 1855 for the
Atlantic service, and the Norddeutscher Lloyd followed in 1856 with the
_Bremen_. These boats were, however, built in Great Britain, as all
large German steam-ships were until comparatively modern times. The
Austrian Lloyd Steam Navigation Company, which belongs to Trieste, was
founded as far back as 1836 for the Mediterranean service.
This chapter may be fitly brought to a conclusion with a reference to
the _Great Eastern_--the wonder and the failure of her age in popular
estimation. To the general public she appeared as an extraordinarily
large ship which was a complete failure as a commercial undertaking. To
a few she was the embodiment of all that skill and scientific genius
had conceived in construction up to that time. She was the great
illustration of the longitudinal system of construction invented by
Scott Russell, and of the use of longitudinal and transverse bulkheads.
Scott Russell’s invention of the longitudinal frame was due to
his perception of the fact that as vessels increased in size the
longitudinal strain would become greater, especially when they were
carrying heavy machinery amidships or nearly so. In the vessels of the
size then constructed the longitudinal strain experienced by small
iron ships was comparatively small. One method adopted to strengthen
hulls longitudinally was to give them a number of floor-plates, forming
a strong continuous keelson. Other keelsons were also constructed to
run fore and aft near the bilges; a bilge stringer was added, while
on the outside, bilge keels were sometimes fixed. Russell introduced
the system in 1835, but the registration societies did not look with
approval on the innovation and nothing came of it at the time.
As ships were made larger, however, the nature of the stresses they
had to bear became better understood, and precautions had to be taken
to prevent the hogging and sagging to which they are subjected by
the motion of the sea, besides the lateral and other stresses. In
1835-6 Mr. Russell built three small iron vessels, one of which had
a longitudinal middle-line bulkhead and four transverse bulkheads
connected by longitudinal stringers and without transverse frames.
The other two had no longitudinal bulkheads but were fitted with a
greater number of transverse partitions and stringers. He applied
the latter method in 1850 to a small iron screw boat on the Humber,
and in her some deep web plates were fastened by angle irons to the
shell-plating and were also stiffened with angle irons along the
inner edge. The inventor described this arrangement as being ordinary
transverse bulkheads with the whole of the centre portion removed. The
same year he built an iron paddle-steamer, 145 feet in length by 15
feet beam, and 7 feet 6 inches depth, on the longitudinal principle.
Notwithstanding its extraordinary length in proportion to its beam
and depth the vessel was a perfect success. One notable vessel
constructed on this principle was the _Rhenus_, 197 feet over all, by
25 feet extreme breadth, and 9 feet depth, and drawing only 3 feet of
water. These vessels, which were almost experimental in character,
were followed by several others of a more highly developed type, such
as the _Baron Osy_, a fine and fast paddle-steamer launched in 1855
for the London and Antwerp service. She was strengthened with the
partial or open bulkheads of the type already described, which acted
as frames, and had broad top stringers under the deck. This vessel
had an oscillating condensing engine with two cylinders, and her
paddles gave her a speed above that of other vessels on the route. The
success achieved by her, both in regard to constructional strength and
seaworthiness, had not a little to do with the designing of the _Great
Eastern_. Before this, however, in 1852, Scott Russell designed with
Brunel, who was consulting engineer to the Australian Royal Mail Steam
Navigation Company, two steamers, the _Victoria_ and _Adelaide_, on
the wave-line principle, but they were not on his longitudinal system
though including some of its features. In these vessels he introduced
for the first time fore and aft bulkheads amidships combined with a
part iron deck. They had an important influence on the adoption of the
longitudinal system, as the constructional strength of the vessels
was provided for by the addition of a flat keelson extending almost to
the bilges and connected at either side with a longitudinal bulkhead
which formed the coal bunkers and rose as high as the main deck,
the hull thereby being transformed into a powerful box-girder. The
experience derived from these vessels caused them to be the forerunners
of the _Great Eastern_, and like her they were a financial failure.
They could not carry enough fuel for the voyage, and this and other
considerations led Brunel to design the great ship in an attempt to
solve the difficulties to which these vessels had directed attention.
He estimated that the vessel would be able to attain a speed of 15
knots at a less coal consumption per ton than any steamer in existence.
The Eastern Navigation Company was formed in 1851 and decided on the
construction of a steamer in accordance with his views. It was proposed
to run a line of big steamers to the East, via the Cape of Good Hope,
and as the vessels were referred to as Leviathans the name _Leviathan_
was chosen for the first (and, as it happened, the last) vessel the
company ever owned. This was the _Great Eastern_. The lines of the
vessel were designed by Russell, who also built the hull. The details
of the ship’s construction were settled by Russell and Brunel; the
longitudinal system was adopted, together with the bulkhead system, to
which Russell attached such importance.
The _Great Eastern_ was built with an inner skin from the keel to
the water-line, thus being a double-hulled vessel. The inner and
outer skins were of the same thickness of iron plates, the bottom
plates being one inch thick and the other plates three-quarters of
an inch. The space between the two hulls was 34 to 36 inches, and
this was estimated to hold 2500 tons of water-ballast if required.
The transverse iron bulkheads divided the ship into a number of
compartments, each sixty feet long, and in order to add to the strength
of the ship and increase her safety in case of collision, there was no
opening in these bulkheads lower than the level of the second deck. For
350 feet of her length the vessel had two longitudinal bulkheads 36
feet apart, beside which there was a second intermediate bulkhead up
to the main deck, forming a coal bunker. Five of her six masts were of
iron and hollow, and the sixth of wood.
[Illustration: MODEL OF THE “GREAT EASTERN.”]
The project of building this enormous ship was received with enthusiasm
by the public. Every item of news, correct or otherwise, was welcomed
eagerly, and the newspapers vied with each other in the extravagance
of their assertions. She had both paddle-wheels and a screw propeller,
and it was confidently stated that she would attain a speed of even
twenty-five miles an hour, and this, it was thought, might be exceeded
if she had a strong favourable wind and used both her mechanical aids.
Her size was expected to make her indifferent to the storms of the
ocean, and her behaviour at sea was confidently prophesied under all
sorts of conditions.
_Chambers’ Journal_ published an article in which the powers of the
vessel were set forth, and in which it said:
“It has generally been conceived that the ill-fated _President_
steam-ship snapped across some Atlantic wave, as a match might
be snapped between the fingers; the still more gigantic _Great
Western_, _Himalaya_, _Atrato_, and _Persia_ have, however, since
that unfortunate accident, continued to plough their ways in safety
through the ocean storms. The _Great Britain_ lay for months among the
breakers of the rock-bound coast of Ireland, and yet finally floated
off unscathed, to render good service to the British Government as a
transport in time of need. The grand experiment of the cyclopean order
of naval architecture is, however, in preparation, and shortly to be
put to the test. The Great Eastern Steam Navigation Company have for
some time been engaged in building an iron ship upon a scale, both as
regards absolute dimensions and strength of material, that will at
once change all its leviathan predecessors into pigmies.
“The upper deck runs flush and clear from stem to stern for a breadth
of about twenty feet on either side, thus affording two magnificent
promenades for the passengers just within the bulwarks. These
promenades will be each rather more than the eighth part of a mile
long. Four turns up and down either of them would exceed a mile by 256
feet. The vessel when launched will be more than as long again as the
steam-ship _Great Britain_; it will be nearly three times as long as
the line-of-battle ship the _Duke of Wellington_, and nearly as long
again as the _Himalaya_; eighty-eight feet more would make it as long
again as the _Persia_, at present the longest vessel afloat upon the
ocean.
“It is anticipated that this multiplication of internal braces and
supports will be sufficient to enable the hollow hull to resist, as
a whole, very much more violence and much heavier strains than the
elements can ever inflict upon it.
“It is calculated that a sharp long wedge of this kind, impelled by
the force of nearly 4000 horses, and extending its length on the water
along a distance of nearly 700 feet, will pass through it with the
speed of twenty miles an hour. This would be amply sufficient to enable
it to make the voyage to India, round the Cape of Good Hope, in thirty
days, or to Australia in thirty-three days.
“The anchors alone will weigh 55 tons, and there will be 200
tons of capstans, cables, and warps connected with them. These
ponderous implements obviously could not be wielded by human hands,
and accordingly steam-sailors will be prepared to do what the
flesh-and-blood sailors would not be able to accomplish. There will
be journeymen steam-engines stationed conveniently for effecting
the anchoring and weighing, and, indeed, for performing many other
services ordinarily carried out by the crew. Possibly there will be
steam-steersmen for the guidance of the mass. It is on account of this
supplementary and subsidiary steam-service that only 400 men will be
needed to work so vast a ship.
[Illustration: LONGITUDINAL SECTION OF THE “GREAT EASTERN.”]
“Once again, how will the winds and the waves affect this leviathan
mass, when they chance to be in their surly and ungenial moods? A
connected mass of 27,000 tons is not as easily heaved as a cork or a
cockle-shell; but the storm-winds and the storm-waves of the open ocean
have a tremendous power. What will they do then, with this stupendous
morsel, when they have it fairly within their clutches? The heaviest
hurricane-wind blows with a force that would act upon a square foot
of resisting surface with a pressure equivalent to a weight of 40 lb.
Such a wind could only heel the leviathan with its full load out of the
perpendicular to the extent of six inches even if it struck it quite on
the side! The waves of a fresh sea run about 100 feet long. Those of a
moderate sea are 300 feet long. Of such the leviathan would take two
at once, and would preserve the while almost an even keel. The highest
storm-waves ever seen on the wide and deep ocean are only 28 feet high
from trough to crest, and 600 feet long from trough to trough. Of
course the leviathan would still take two at a time, when the crest of
one was near to the bow, and the crest of the other near to the stern.
Under the most unfavourable circumstances such waves would not disturb
the horizontal equilibrium of the deck line to the extent of more than
five degrees.... The captain of the leviathan will have a cabin for
himself, situated conveniently near the centre of his domains, on the
mid-deck, and between the huge paddle-boxes. But placed here like a
spider lurking in the centre of its web with outstretched attentive
feelers, he will have to use his telescope to see what is going on at
the bows and stern; and the old contrivance for issuing orders, the
speaking trumpet, will be altogether out of date and valueless in his
hands. His voice, even with this aid, would hardly be heard half-way
to the stern. He will have to signal his directions to his officers
by semaphore arms by day and by coloured lamps by night. He will also
have electric-telegraphs ramifying to the engine-rooms, and to other
places to which it may be necessary that his instructions should be
instantaneously communicated. The compasses will be placed aloft
on a staging reared forty feet above the deck, to remove them from
disturbing influences inherent in the vast masses of iron below; and
it is proposed that strong shadows of the needles shall be cast from
a tube, so that the steersman may at once watch these shadows, and so
follow exactly the movements of the compasses as they traverse. It is
also proposed to carry a perpetual moonlight diffused around the ship,
emanated from an electric light planted on the foremast head.
“Up to the present time £350,000 has been expended upon this wonderful
construction, and by the time the vessel is ready for sea, this sum
will have been augmented into nearly £800,000. It will, however,
be understood that there is a fair capacity in the vast vessel for
yielding a revenue ample enough to render the undertaking a commercial
success, notwithstanding this great cost, when it is borne in mind
that if the fares for a single outward or homeward passage to India
or Australia for the three classes be fixed only at £65, £35, and £25
respectively, the passage-money alone for the voyage out and home
would amount collectively to something beyond £300,000 if all the
berths were occupied. It is an interesting fact that naval engineers
fix the amount of tonnage required in a steam vessel designed for any
particular voyage by a very simple standard; they consider that one ton
of burden is needed for every mile to be traversed; hence it is that
this vast steam-ship has been made capable of carrying 25,000 tons. It
is intended to go in every voyage 25,000 miles: it is a distance equal
in extent to the circumference of the world.
[Illustration: CARICATURE OF THE “GREAT EASTERN,” FROM A CONTEMPORARY
PRINT.]
“It is estimated that this great vessel with 5000 tons of merchandise
and her complement of 4400 living beings would still be able to store
enough coal for her consumption during a complete circumnavigation or a
voyage out and home.”
The iron plates used in the construction of her hull weighed 10,000
tons and to fasten them together required three million rivets.
Her length was 680 feet, breadth 82¹⁄₂ feet, depth 58 feet, and
displacement 27,384 tons. The paddle-engines were of 1000 nominal
horse-power and worked up to 3411; and weighed no less than 836 tons.
The four cylinders weighed when finished 28 tons each, they were
74 inches in diameter and had a stroke of 14 feet. Each of the two
right-angle cranks was driven by two cylinders, inclined at a mean
angle of 22¹⁄₂ degrees from the vertical. Each paddle-wheel was worked
by a complete double-cylinder engine and could be revolved without the
other if necessary. Four double-ended tubular box boilers supplied
steam for the paddle-engines at 24 lb. pressure. They were each 17¹⁄₂
feet long by 17 feet 9 inches wide, and 13 feet 9 inches high, and had
forty furnaces and 4500 square feet of heating surface. Each boiler
weighed fifty tons and contained about forty tons of water. Her first
paddle-wheels were 56 feet in diameter, but these were damaged in some
rough weather, and the next pair, only 50 feet in diameter, were much
stronger and equally serviceable in the matter of speed and lasted
out the ship. Her calculated speed under both screw and paddles was
15 knots and under the wheels alone seven knots. She certainly never
approached the fanciful speeds predicted for her by the newspaper
enthusiasts, and it is only fair to her builders and designers to say
that these prophecies did not originate with them.
The engines for the screw propeller by James Watt and Co. were
horizontal and direct-acting, and were of 1800 nominal horse-power and
4886 horse-power indicated. They weighed 500 tons. Six double-ended
tubular rectangular boilers gave steam at 25 lb. pressure. The
propeller was a four-bladed cast-iron screw 36 tons in weight, and of
24 feet diameter and 44 feet pitch. The shaft of the propeller weighed
60 tons and was 150 feet in length. So as not to interfere with her
speed when the screw should not be working, two small auxiliary engines
were fitted to keep it revolving when disconnected from the main
engines. Her speed under the screw alone was about nine knots.
Her longitudinal bulkheads were carried to the uppermost deck, which
was perfectly flush and extended from one end of the ship to the other.
An iron deck connected the head of each longitudinal bulkhead with the
ship’s sides and this, being at the greatest possible distance from
the bottom of the girder, was in a position to contribute most to the
longitudinal strength. The Britannia Bridge over the Menai Straits
has its top and bottom flanges of cellular construction, and Brunel
practically repeated this formation in the _Great Eastern_, by making
both the bottom and the upper deck cellular.
The launch of the _Great Eastern_ was arranged for November 3, 1857,
and it was not till then that it became known that this was to be the
vessel’s name and not _Leviathan_. The vessel moved only a few feet and
then stuck. One of the causes of the hitch was that the ship was being
launched sideways, thereby greatly adding to the difficulties of the
operation. Another attempt a few days later did not move her an inch.
On January 11 she was got a little nearer the water and the next day
was moved a little farther; she was finally launched at the next spring
tides at the end of the month.
[Illustration: MODEL OF THE PADDLE-ENGINES OF THE “GREAT EASTERN.”]
“It is incomprehensible how so eminent an engineer as Brunel should
have made such a mistake as to attempt to force so huge a fabric
broadside-on into the river. The costly experiment added £120,000 to
the cost of the ship, and practically ruined the company.”[89]
[89] Kennedy’s “History of Steam Navigation.”
As the company had not the money to finish her, it was wound up and the
ship was sold to another company, formed to take her over, the price
being £160,000. It was necessary to raise another £300,000, and as the
financiers would not find the money, the public was appealed to and
responded to the extent of £50,000 from some of the humblest classes in
the community, “without any expectation of profit, but solely that they
might hear of the great ship, which they looked upon as the pride of
England, being fairly afloat on the deep waters.”[90]
[90] _Illustrated London News_, August 13, 1859.
Her first trial trip took place in September 1859 and was marred by an
explosion which killed six men, wounded several others, and wrecked
the saloon. She was designed to carry 800 first-class passengers, 2000
second-class, and 800 third-class, or 10,000 troops, it being expected
that the Government would utilise her as a troopship. Her first voyage
was made, not to India, to which she never went, but to New York, to
which she took 36 passengers. She left Southampton on June 17, 1860,
and arrived on June 28, all New York turning out to see her. Her best
day’s run was 333 miles, and at no time did she exceed 14¹⁄₂ knots an
hour. On her homeward voyage she did rather better, as she carried
212 passengers and a large cargo in a passage of 9 days 11 hours. Her
one experience as a trooper was when she took 2125 soldiers to Canada
at the time of the _Trent_ affair. On her next outward voyage she met
with a gale in which her steering gear was rendered useless and she was
nearly lost. In 1865 she was engaged in laying the Atlantic cables. She
was employed in this kind of work for some years, off and on, until in
1886 she was acquired by an enterprising drapery and tea firm and used
as a show-place and advertisement. In 1890 she was sold to be broken
up, and thus disposed of in small lots at little better than old iron
prices. The _Great Eastern_ was an unlucky ship from start to finish.
From the bankruptcy of Mr. Scott Russell some time before she was
launched until she was left to rust on a Mersey mud-bank, almost every
one concerned with her had a share of her misfortune. The one task in
which she acquitted herself well was the Atlantic cable-laying.
But her significance in the history of steam-ship construction must
not be under-estimated. Sir William H. White’s opinion on this point
was given in his address to the Institution of Civil Engineers, in
1903, as follows; “Having recently gone again most carefully through
Brunel’s notes and reports, my admiration for the remarkable grasp and
foresight therein displayed has been greatly increased. In regard to
the provision of ample structural strength with a minimum of weight;
the increase of safety by water-tight subdivision and cellular double
bottom; the design of propelling machinery and boilers, with a view to
economy of coal and great endurance for long-distance steaming; the
selection of forms and dimensions likely to minimise resistance and
favour good behaviour at sea; and to other features of the design which
need not be specified, Brunel displayed a knowledge of principles such
as no other ship-designer of that time seems to have possessed, and
in most of these features his intentions were realised. To him large
dimensions caused no fear. ‘The use of iron,’ he remarks, ‘removes
all difficulty in the construction,’ and experience of several years
has proved that size in a ship is an element of speed, strength, and
safety, and of greater relative economy, instead of a disadvantage, and
that it is limited only by the extent of demand for freight, and by the
circumstances of the ports to be frequented.”