SHIPBUILDING 



403 



Clermont was undoubtedly the first steamboat pro- 

 fltably employed at least continuously in useful 

 service, and Fulton is accordingly entitled to the 

 distinction of having been ' the first to make 

 steam-navigation an everyday commercial success." 

 (For the history of American shipbuilding, see 

 p. 410.) 



America, with its enterprise and its great natural 

 field for inland-navigation, was infinitely better 

 prepared for the innovation than the old country, 

 with its traditional achievements, conservatism, and 

 prejudices. Yet Henry Bell's venture in 1811-12 

 is, tor various reasons, worthy of note and admira- 

 tion. Henry Bell, by training a millwright, was pro- 

 prietor of a hotel at Helensburgh on the Clyde. He 

 had long had convictions as to the high place which 

 the steam-engine would take in ocean-naviga- 

 tion, and hud knocked at the door of both the 

 British and American governments for encourage- 

 ment to prosecute hi- ideas. The ultimate result 

 of his own financially unaided efforts was the re- 

 nowned Comet, which was launched from the yard 

 of John Wood of Port-Glasgow in January 1812. 

 She was 42 feet long, 11 feet broad, 5J feet 

 draught of water, and ner engine, fitted by John 

 Robertson of Glasgow, was of 3 horse-power. 

 She plied on the Clyde from Glasgow to Helens- 

 burgh, and thence across the river to Greenock, 

 her speed being about 5 miles per hour. After a 

 time, when her immediate successor, the Elisabeth, 

 and other steamers had been built and were run- 

 ning successfully, the Comet was lengthened to 

 60 feet, and fitted with a new engine and a 

 single pair of paddles (at first there were two 

 paddles a side), and attained a speed of 6 miles 

 an hour. 



The building of steamships was soon fairly estab- 

 lished, and the Clyde took the lead in their 

 construction. While most of them were intended 

 for home river or coasting trade, not a few were 

 built for service at distant ports. Of the four 

 steamers produced in 1814, one, the Marjory, was 

 the first steamer to ply upon the Thames, having 

 been bought by a company of London merchants 

 soon after her launch from the yard of William 

 Denny ef Dumbarton. She passed through the 

 Forth and Clyde Camil from Itowling to Grange- 

 month, and reached the Thames six days after 

 leaving the Forth. Soon after the industry received 

 a forward impetus from the energetic genius of 

 David Napier, already a well-known marine 

 engineer, of Glasgow. H thoroughly grasped the 

 possibilities of steam-navigation in connection with 

 coasting and over-sea traffic. In 1818 he estab- 

 lished regular steam-service l>etween Glasgow and 

 Belfast with the Rob Roy, built by William 

 Denny, and fitted with engines of his own 

 make. In 1819 he established the first line of 

 steamers between Glasgow and Liverpool, and 

 during the subsequent twenty years he engined 

 most of the notable steamers produced by Clyde 

 builders. Meantime, largely owing to the success 

 of the Rob Roy, steamers had begun to l>e built 

 and employed in service at other ports. On the 

 Thames steamers began to ply between London 

 ami .Margate in 1815-16 ; and in 1817 James Watt, 

 whose double-acting side-lever type of engine (see 

 > i K \\i-f.vii\M had played such an essential part 

 in the movement, crossed over to the Scheldt in a 

 steamer named the Caledonia, afterwards ascending 

 the Rhine to Coblentz. 



< i' ran voyages by steamers were at first per- 

 formed by vessels in which sail almost as much as 

 *team was the power relied on. In this way the 

 Atlantic was crossed in 1819 by the Savannah, a 

 vessel 100 feet long and of about 300 tons burden, 

 >age from Savannah to Liverpool occupying 

 twenty-five days. In 1824 the steam-yacht Falcon, 



of about 175 tons, proceeded from England to 

 India, for the most part relying on sails. In 1825 

 the Enterprise, 122 feet length of keel by 27 feet 

 beam, and of about 470 tons burden, made a 

 passage from London to Calcutta in 113 days, 

 ten of which were occupied by stoppages. The 

 successful inauguration of transatlantic steaming 

 is due to the Great Western, built for the Great 

 \Vestern Steamship Company by I. K. Brunei, 

 whose bold genius controlled the affairs of the 

 company, and gave to the maritime world several 

 of its most notable steamships. She was 212 feet 

 long, 35 feet 4 inches beam, 23 feet 2 inches depth 

 of hold, and registered 1340 tons. Her engines, on 

 the side-lever principle, were made by Messrs 

 Maudslay, Sons, and Field of London, and were of 

 440 horse-power. On Sunday, April 8, 1838, the 

 Great Western started from Bristol on her voyage 

 across the Atlantic, her completion and despatch 

 being hastened on account of the fact that, four 

 days before, a vessel named the Sirius (taken 

 from the service between London and Cork) 

 had been despatched on the same voyage. The 

 Sirius was smaller and less powerful than the 

 Great Western, and both vessels arrived at New 

 York on the same day, Monday, April 23 the 

 Sirius in the morning and the Great Western in 

 the afternoon the passage thus taking eighteen 

 days and fourteen days respectively. Their arrival 

 was hailed with immense acclamation by a vast 

 concourse of spectators ; the event represented a 

 triumph in steam-navigation, regarding the possi- 

 bility of which much popular unbelief and some 

 scientific doubt had been expressed, and virtually 

 reduced the distance between the Old World and 

 the New by about one-half. 



A historical survey of the transatlantic service 

 affords in itself a more complete and connected 

 epitome of steamship development in all its essen- 

 tial aspects than any other single service that can 

 be instanced. The reader may at the outset be 

 referred to the profiles of typical Atlantic steamers 

 from the Sirius onwards (fig 4), reproduced here 

 through the courtesy of the proprietors of Engineer- 

 ing. The return passages of the Great Western 

 and Sirius were even more successful than their 

 outward, both as regards time occupied and 

 fuel consumed, but the undertaking commercially 

 was far from satisfactory. Other pioneer steamers 

 follftwed, but, with the exception of the Great 

 Western, which was kept running at a loss, they 

 were gradually withdrawn from service. Yet in 

 1839 Mr Samuel Cunard (q.v.) came over to Eng- 

 land from Halifax, determined to establish on a 

 secure and satisfactory basis a line of transatlantic 

 steamships. He was brought into contact with Mr 

 George Burns of Glasgow and Mr David M'lver of 

 Liverpool, the necessary capital was soon raised, 

 and the celebrated ' Cunard Company, backed by a 

 handsome government subsidy for prospective mail 

 services, was the result. Their first vessels were 

 the paddle-steamers Britannia, Acadia, Columbia, 

 and Caledonia, all of about the same dimensions 

 viz. 207 feet long, 35 feet 4 inches broad, 224 feet 

 deep, 1 154 tons burden, and 740 h.p. Their engines 

 were of the side-lever type, by Robert Napier of 

 Glasgow, return-flue boilers and jet-condensers 

 being used. The Britannia inaugurated the mail 

 service by sailing from Liverpool on Friday 4th 

 July 1840, and arriving safely at Halifax after a 

 voyage of twelve days, ten hours. Her return 

 passage was made in ten days ; and the mail service 

 thus instituted was thenceforth carried on by these 

 four vessels with great regularity. The average 

 speed then attained was about 8J knots, and in 

 1848, when longer and more powerful vessels were 

 running, the average speed had been increased to 

 10| knots. 



