nvo more ships to the run, but this Hne was not 

 profitable and the ships were withdrawn. After the 

 Civil War, in 1866, a Boston to Liverpool line was 

 established with the Erie and Ontario, two large screw 

 steamers built at Newburyport, Massachusetts; how- 

 ever, the English operators soon lowered their freight 

 rates and after a few voyages this line also withdrew. 

 In 1873 the Pennsylvania Railroad Company began 

 operation from Philadelphia to Liverpool with four 

 iron steamers built by Cramp, at Philadelphia, and 

 in 1874-75 a number of iron steamers were built 

 at Chester, Pennsylvania, for the trans-Pacific trade 

 and two were built for a short-lived South American 

 trade run. Other individual ships were built for 

 ocean trade. Steel slowly replaced iron in United 

 States shipbuilding beginning about 1878. 



York. The next steamer was built on the Canadian 

 side, and the third steamer on the American side, 

 the Walk-in-the-Waler at Black Rock, New York, in 

 1818. These were followed by other steamers and 

 in the next 10 years about 20 steamers were afloat 

 on the Lakes. When the Welland Canal was opened, 

 soon after 1829, the width and length of its locks 

 fixed limits to the dimensions of steamers and sailing 

 vessels alike for many years, particularly after 1831. 

 The construction of large steamers began about 1 845, 

 when fast side-wheelers were built for the passenger 

 trade. After 1857 propellers rather than side paddle 

 wheels were used, the first being on the Vandalia, 

 built in 1841 at Oswego, New Y'ork. 



The growing trade in iron ore, grain, lumber, and 

 coal produced a special type of lake steamer whose 



Plan of a Small Hudson River Steamer of About 1838, Showing Diagonal Strapping and Sharp-Ended 

 Form. After plate 7, in L. M'Kay, Practical shipbuilder, New York, 1838. 



The American steamers of the 1840's and 1850's 

 were of a distinctive national character, but those 

 built of iron and steel, after the Civil War, of necessity 

 resembled English steamers, for Britain had taken 

 the lead in producing such ships. American pro- 

 duction of seagoing steamers was very limited until 

 the first World War when a large number of freighters 

 were built and a few passenger vessels as well. From 

 then to the second World War the mnnber of Ameri- 

 can-built ocean steamers steadily increased in all 

 classes. 



Inland and Coastal Steamers 



Coastal and inland steamers developed rapidly in 

 the L^nited States after Fulton had shown that serv- 

 iceable steamboats were possible. On the Great Lakes 

 steamboat construction began in 1816 with the 

 Ontario, of 232 tons, built at Sackett's Harl)or, New 



dimensions were controlled by the changes made in 

 the Welland Canal and by other restrictions. This 

 vessel had its machinery well aft; it was a flat-floored, 

 wall-sided, rather straight-sheered vessel with short, 

 full ends; the hull was long and narrow and was heav- 

 ily trussed to give longitudinal strength. The design 

 was largely established by the steam barge, which 

 had a long and narrow, full-ended hull of moderate 

 sheer with short counter, usually round or elliptical, 

 a vertical straight stem, and was schooner rigged with 

 two to four masts, but without a bowsprit. The en- 

 gine and boiler was right aft, where there was a 2-deck 

 superstructure. Many of the barges carried top- 

 masts and some of the 4-masters had no sail on the 

 after mast, it being employed as a derrick mast only. 

 About 1880 wooden shipbuilding became very ex- 

 pensi\e on the Lakes and there was a gradual shift to 

 iron and then to steel construction. Late in that 

 decade the use of sail on lake steamers went out of 



115 



