The Coming of Steam and Steel : 309 



horsepower barely able to move a shallow barge. It wound up before 

 the century closed, driving great ships to new transatlantic records, 

 with two new forms of propulsion pushing abreast for a race in the 

 twentieth century. Also in the nineteenth century, iron, composite 

 and steel construction appeared first in sailing vessels and then in 

 steamers. In the beginning forests were abundant and wood construc- 

 tion was cheaper than metal, in the end forests were being depleted, 

 wood construction was relatively more expensive and metal more 

 plentiful, cheaper, lighter and safer. 



It is strange that with so many technical changes crowding each 

 one on the heels of the one ahead, the coming of steel and steam did 

 not in some emphatic way open up new territories or dramatically 

 alter the course of travel and commerce. Looking at the record it is 

 hard to detect any way in which the mechanical ships in the first 

 seventy-five years of their existence altered the direction of transporta- 

 tion and travel at sea. The reason seems to lie in the fact that the 

 sailing ships came along at a time when the need for world-wide 

 communication was most acute. They did their job well. The packets 

 regularized commerce across and about the Atlantic. The whalers 

 pushed into new territory in the Arctic and Antarctic and ranged the 

 Pacific. Following the packets, the clippers speeded up and consoli- 

 dated travel to California, China, Australia and South Africa. 



The first engined ships simply followed in the tracks of the sailing 

 vessels. To be sure the Savannah, on her maiden voyage, made one 

 bold effort to establish direct contact between the southern port and 

 Europe. The steamers were soon running the same courses as the 

 packets and clippers — New York to Liverpool, Boston to Liverpool, 

 New York to Le Havre, London to Australia, etc. The need for traffic 

 at sea was between the large ports and dense areas of population in 

 Europe and the growing cities in the rest of the world. Maury laid 

 down the courses between centers in accordance with the structure 

 of the ocean's currents and the ocean's winds. The wise clipper cap- 

 tains followed Maury and the wise steam captain followed the clip- 

 pers. Gradually steam grew strong enough to avoid tacking and to 

 battle head winds direct. This saved time, but the general courses 

 were still the same. Those who appreciated time and who could afford 

 the high cost of steam service still lived in the big ports. 



The first service of steam to ocean history was not to open new 

 channels of travel but to speed up and intensify the routes that already 

 had been established by sail. The second service was gradually to 

 decrease costs of freight and passenger service. Finally, in the last 



