After 1918 the improvement of highways and the 

 use of automobile trucks and, later, of prime-movers 

 and trailers, not only gave serious competition to 

 the railroads but also to the remaining small-vessel 

 coasting trades. By 1935 the trucking operators had 

 eliminated the small-vessel coasters in nearly all 

 areas, and the American coasting trades were prac- 

 tically extinct. All that now remains of these once 

 prosperous operations are some small coastal tanker 

 runs and a moderate amount of barge transportation 

 on the intercoastal waterways. Highway competition 

 with door-to-door delivery on the one hand and 

 controlled freight rates on the other have prevented 

 any rebirth of the coasting trades, even at times when 

 governmental stimulus is being given the ocean 

 freight trades. 



Special Types 



Several of the many special types of steamers devel- 

 oped in various parts of the United States require 

 particular mention. Tugboats in great numbers were 

 built in the United States after steamboat construction 

 started. The earliest steamers built for towing were 

 small side- wheelers built in the 1830's and employed 

 to do harbor towing and to supply ships with fresh 

 water; two of these were in service at New York in 

 1839. In the 1840's a large number of side-wheel 

 steamers were built as towboats and the hull form and 

 fittings of such boats became somewhat standardized. 

 The early side-wheel tug usually had a low-sided hull 

 with sharp ends; the wheels were abaft midlength and 

 the boat was fitted with a deckhouse extending from 

 about a quarter the length of the hull abaft the stem 

 to a little more than that short of the stern. The 

 pilothouse might be either part of this superstructure 

 but somewhat raised or a small house atop the deck- 

 house. The boats usually had one stack and the 

 hulls had heavy guards. Some old river steamers 

 were cut down in their old age and converted to tow- 

 boats, with reduced superstructures. Screw tugs were 

 built in the late 1840's but powerful paddle-wheel 

 tugs remained quite numerous until after the Civil 

 War. 



The first vessel to have Ericsson screw propellers 

 in America was the small iron steamer Robert F. 

 Stockton, built at Lairds, Birkenhead, Liverpool, Eng- 

 land, in 1838 for the private account of Captain 

 Robert F. Stockton, LI. S.N. This vessel had twin 

 screws. After running her trials she was fitted as a 

 topsail schooner and was brought to the United States 



where, in 1840, she was sold to the Delaware and 

 Raritan Canal Company and, shorn of her sailing 

 rig, was employed as a tug on the canal and on the 

 Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers. She was capable 

 of 11 to 12 miles per hour running free and could tow 

 four scow coal-barges at SY-, miles per hour. The 

 success of this boat as a tug undoubtedly influenced 

 many to build screw tugs, and soon after the end of 

 the Civil War the standard American harbor tug 

 had been developed. This had a rather narrow 

 deep-draft hull, having drag to the keel, a more or 

 less upright stem with rounded forefoot, a nearly 

 vertical post, round or elliptical counter, strong sheer, 

 sharp ends, a rising straight floor at the midsection, 

 with a firm round bilge and a slight tumble-home 

 in the topside. A long deckhouse was placed on the 

 main deck; the pilothouse might be part of this or be 

 mounted on the deckhouse roof. Usually the boats 

 had a single stack and two pole masts, but a few large 

 tugs used in coastal towing had two stacks and some 

 had a schooner rig without a bowsprit. American 

 builders of tugs had developed great skill in the 

 design of these craft and by 1875 there were many 

 fine wooden tugs at Boston, New York, and elsewhere 

 on the coast. 



\''arious attempts to build high-speed passenger 

 steamers in the United States were made in the 1850's. 

 George Steers and John W. Griffiths each prepared 

 designs for "7-day steamers" intended to cross the 

 Atlantic either way in less than a full week. A 

 vessel was started from Griffith's design but was not 

 completed as planned and so was not suitable for 

 such a run. In appearance the two designs were 

 somewhat similar to the cross-channel express steamers 

 the British had begun building, but the American ships 

 were to have been larger, more powerful and faster 

 than any channel steamer then afloat. However, 

 the high speed reached in river steamers led to the 

 construction of some fast coastal passenger ships as 

 early as the 1830's. In the 1880's and 1890's some 

 very large and fast Long Island Sound steamers 

 were built as well as some express boats for the 

 Chesapeake. 



On the Lakes, in the 1890's the curious "whale- 

 back" freighters were built; their hulls were rather 

 cigarshaped \vith a pilothouse and deckhouse for- 

 ward and another deckhouse aft, over the engine 

 and boilers. These boats were intended to cheat 

 the tonnage laws and had a short vogue; they all 

 were built of steel, and all but one of these ships were 

 bulk carriers. 



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