flanges were two fixed arms with blades. To keep 

 the pivoted arms open, a chain was secured to the 

 arms near the blades, from arm to arm. Thus the 

 paddle wheel could be folded fanwise in two sections, 

 one on each side of the hub and parallel to the load 

 line. In addition, the folded wheels could be un- 

 coupled and lifted on deck. The stack had a movable 

 hood or elbow which was intended to be rotated to 

 prevent sparks reaching the rigging. 



This ship was named the Savannah; when complete 

 she was taken to Savannah, Georgia, and she sailed 

 from there May 22, 1819, for Liverpool, England, 

 where she arrived on June 20. She did not steam the 

 whole distance, sailing most of the way. Under 

 steam, in smooth water, she could make but 5 or 6 

 knots and had insufficient fuel capacity. The vessel 

 visited Sweden and Russia and then returned to 

 Savannah. The venture was unsuccessful financially, 

 and therefore the engine and boilers were removed 

 and the ship employed as a sailing packet between 

 Savannah and New York until her loss by stranding 

 on Fire Island, off Bellport, Long Island, in 1821. 

 She was apparently a typical packet ship and quite 

 fast under sail; her low-powered engine was rather 

 ineffective so far as speed was concerned. 



The only drawings of the ship that have been found 

 are of the engine and wheels, and of the ship's profile 

 above the waterline: these are contained in the 

 Memoire sitr les Bateaux a Vapeur dcs Elats-Unis d' A)nerique, 

 \)Y the French naval constructor Marestier, who in 

 1824 made a report on American steamers. The 

 Marestier drawings show that an existing rigged 

 model of this ship in the Watercraft Collection, of the 

 U. S. National Museum, and also a picture accom- 

 panying it, do not represent correctly the ship or her 

 details. 



The next attempt to build a commercial steamer 

 for ocean trade in the L'nited States was in 1843, 

 when the Massachusetts, of 751 tons, was fitted as an 

 auxiliary packet ship for service between Boston and 

 Europe. This ship was fitted with an Ericsson screw 

 (abaft the rudder) which pivoted on a strut that 

 allowed the wheel to be swung sidewise and upward 

 to above the load line for sailing, the propeller shaft 

 being off center and alongside the sternpost. The 

 ship was a regular packet model of good form, 157 

 feet 5 inches between perpendiculars, 32 feet moulded 

 beam, and 20 feet depth of hold, built by Hall, at 

 Boston, Massachusetts. Her stack was between the 

 main and mizzen mast on a long quarterdeck that 

 reached almost to the mainmast. The ship was not 



a financial success, for auxiliary steamers were usually 

 unable to compete with sailing vessels in ocean trade, 

 not only because of their higher initial cost btit also 

 because the auxiliary cost more to operate. The 

 Massachusetts was sold to the U. S. Government and 

 became a storeship, with her engine removed, under 

 the name Farralones. Later she became a merchant 

 ship under the name Alaska, in the wheat trade. 



In 1847 two ocean-going steamers, the Washington 

 and Hermann, of 230 and 241 feet length on deck 

 respectively; side-wheel auxiliary steamers; were built 

 at New York for the New York and Europe packet 

 run. These were subsidized by mail contracts. Two 

 more steamers, the Franklin and Humbolt, side-wheel 

 auxiliaries 263 and 292 feet long on deck, respectively, 

 were built in New York in 1850 for the New York to 

 Bremen run. They were employed in the Le Havre 

 nm, however. In 1847 the Webb-built steamer 

 United States entered the trans-Atlantic service also. 

 With the establishment of these projects, a steam packet 

 line to Liverpool was set up by Edward K. Collins. 



With mail contracts available and with the intent 

 of producing steamers that could serve as men-of-war 

 when necessary, Collins built four side-wheel steamers; 

 the Arctic, Atlantic, Baltic, and Pacific. These ships, 

 of over 2700 tons and larger than competing English 

 steamers then in the North- Atlantic service, were 

 all about 280 feet or more on the main deck and made 

 the run to Europe, or the return voyage, on an average 

 of 1 1 days 3 hours. The ships were built at New 

 York, the Arctic and Atlantic by William H. Brown 

 under the supervision of Henry and George Steers, 

 who probably designed them, and the Baltic and 

 Pacific by Brown and Bell. 



The Arctic was lost, with heavy loss of life, through 

 a collision at sea in 1854 and the Pacific disappeared 

 in 1856 on the way home from Liverpool. Collins 

 in 1855 replaced the Arctic with the Adriatic, a huge 

 wooden sidewheeler, designed by the Steers brothers, 

 of over 4000 tons, 345 feet long, and 50 feet beam. 

 She once ran from St. Johns, Newfoundland, to 

 Galway, Ireland, in 5 days, 19^^ hours and would 

 have been capable of making the New York to Liver- 

 pool run in a few hours over 8 days. The with- 

 drawal of the mail contracts by the U. S. Government 

 in 1857, a year of great economic depression, put the 

 American steamship lines out of business, for the 

 British continued to subsidize their steamer lines. 



Commodore W. K. V'anderbilt for a short time 

 beginning in 1856 operated a single steamer, the 

 Vanderbilt, in the European run and afterwards added 



114 



