310 : The Atlantic 



quarter of the century, engine and hull settled into more or less con- 

 ventional patterns and ships of convenient size designed for special 

 purposes emerged, such as the small steamer to combine freight and 

 passenger services to the smaller ports and the ocean tramp freighter. 

 They never broke records, they seldom made the headlines, but they 

 did provide useful and economical services. They carried their spe- 

 cial services to many new small ports, and because of them many new 

 areas opened up and were linked more or less directly with the grow- 

 ing fabric of world-wide trade and travel and communication. 



The part that the development of the steamship played in immigra- 

 tion and settlement is often exaggerated. As we have seen already, a 

 great exodus of many peoples from Europe was already taking place 

 by the middle of the last century. Immigration into the United States 

 had hit a high level in the decade 1845-1855 and it continued till the 

 Civil War. Because migration and settlement in large volume came at 

 about the same time that steamers were first reported as crossing the 

 ocean, it is often supposed that the steamers carried the migrants. 

 This was not true of any of the early steamers. Their accommodations 

 were limited and expensive — too expensive, at least, for volume 

 migration. Of the millions who came to America each year in the 

 50's, 6o's, and 70's, the greatest volume came in sail. This was true 

 also of the trek to California, Australia, New Zealand and other parts 

 of the world. 



The steam vessel came into its own in the last decades of the nine- 

 teenth century. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 greatly 

 increased the growing advantages of power over sail for the steamers 

 could traverse the canal under their own power whereas the towing 

 of a sailing ship would involve management problems, delay and large 

 sums of money. By this time, boilers had improved in strength and 

 efficiency; effective condensers had also been developed; increasingly 

 high steam pressure had brought about a more efficient use of fuel; 

 the triple-expansion engine had become the recognized form of pro- 

 pulsion. In large vessels like the ocean liners, multiple engines and 

 propellers began to appear. 



Improvements in the power plant gradually brought about not only 

 an increase in the size of the vessels but also changes in their form 

 and appearance. The early steamers that had to depend quite as much 

 on sail as they did on their engines were compromises and, like many 

 other compromises in life, they were necessary but often grotesque. 

 Smoke from the boilers dirtied the white canvas and clung to the 

 running rigging and often made the operation of sailing a nightmare. 



