SHIPBUILDING 



405 



the screw be well immersed to start with, even the 

 pitching oscillation i.e. the rising of the stern and 

 dipping of the stem does not entail any great loss 

 of efficiency in large vessels. Again, considerable 

 variations in a ship's draught of water may take 

 place and yet leave the screw moderately efficient ; 

 whereas in the case of the paddle a small decrease 

 or increase in the amount of 'dip' of the floats, 

 whether caused by draught of water or by wave- 

 hollows, makes a very material difference. 



The virtual monopoly of the Atlantic steamship 

 service which had existed for ten years in the 

 hands of the Cunard Company was first seriously 

 assailed by opposition in 1850. In that year the 

 celebrated 'Collins' Line of paddle-steamships, four 

 in number, American built, of superior power and 

 speed, and backed by a substantial subsidy from 

 the United States government, was established, 

 and the competing In man Line also sprang into 

 existence. The ultimate issues were greatly in 

 favour of the Cunard Line, the Collins opposi- 

 tion ceasing in 1858 after the loss of two 

 of the vessels and the refusal of the American 

 government of further financial aid. Misfortune 

 and mismanagement were chiefly the causes of 

 this failure, but probably it was also partly 

 determined by the evident and inevitable success 

 of screw-propulsion and iron liulU. It was with 

 iron ships propelled by screws that the Inman 

 Company entered on Atlantic competion. Their 

 first vessel was the City of Glasgow, built by 

 Messrs Tod & M'Gregor on the Clyde, their 

 second being the City of Manchester by the same 

 builders. Committed to a certain line of develop- 

 ment, the Cnnard Company in 1852 sent forth the 

 Arabia, a wooden paddle-steamer of 2480 tons and 

 938 h.p. This was followed in 1855 by the Persia, 

 the first iron vessel the company owned, and with 

 which they still maintained first place as regards 

 speed. The next addition to the fleet referred 

 to at the time as the ' champion and model of a 

 mercantile ocean steamship ' was the Scotia, built 

 of iron, but ntill with paddle-wheels as the pro- 

 pulsive agent. She measured 366 feet long, 47-, 

 feet beam, 30J feet deep, her gross tonnage 

 being 3870. Her engines, by Napier, were 475 h.p. 

 nominal, but she indicated at sea as much as 4200 h. p. 

 Notwithstanding that her early performances sur- 

 passed those of any previous vessel, she was destined 

 to be the last of the paddle-steamers built for the 

 Atlantic by the Cunard Company. In the same 

 year which gave her birth the government sanc- 

 tioned the use of the screw-propeller in the mail- 

 steamers of the company, and the screw-steamer 

 China was at once the result. This vessel was 

 followed during the next two years by four others, 

 the result of whose performances finally established 

 the fact that the screw-steamer in pointof efficiency 

 and economy, especially with the improvements 

 whirh had concurrently taken place in the marine- 

 engine, far surpassed the paddle-steamer for deep- 

 sea traffic. 



Sinn' the triumph of metallic construction and 

 screw-propulsion was thus assured, no further 

 very radical change has taken place in steam- 

 ship, but the agents supplying motive power 

 have undergone many important modifications (see 

 STEAM-EXOINE). Development in size and power 

 proceeded more swiftly than ever, and steam- 

 navigation grew and flourished amazingly. Addi- 

 tional ron>|i!iriies were formed, and new steamships 

 produced with rapidity not only for the Atlantic 

 traffic, but for services having the widest ramifica- 

 tions. The year 1858 witnessed the completion of the 

 Kattern (q.v.) Brunei's and Scott Russell's 

 inpendotu creation and also saw the modest 

 beginning of the now great fleet of the North Ger- 

 Uoyd ; and 1861 saw the start of the French 



Compagnie Transatlantique. The first mercantile 

 steamship company to develop the trade of Eng- 

 land with her Indian possessions by way of the 

 Isthmus of Suez was the Peninsular Company, after- 

 wards developed into the more renowned Peninsular 

 and Oriental Company, their first services dating 

 from 1837. The Pacific Steam-navigation Company 

 was established in 1847, and it was in vessels built 

 for it in 1856, engined by John Elder, that the com- 

 pound principle, destined to prepare the way for 

 the marvellous improvement which has since 

 been gradually effected in the marine steam- 

 engine, received its first satisfactory credentials. 

 The subsequent general adoption of the surface- 

 condenser and the circular multitubular boiler 

 enabled higher pressures of steam to be safely 

 carried and economically produced and used. The 

 employment of steamers on the longest of voyages 

 and at high rates of speed was fairly established 

 about 1877 ; the Orient Steam-navigation Com- 

 pany then instituted a fortnightly service to Aus- 

 tralia, and in 1879 added the Orient, and in 1882 the 

 Austral, to their fleet, both from the stocks of the 

 Fairfield Company, Glasgow. The Orient on trial 

 attained 17 knots, and afterwards made the pass- 

 age from Plymouth to Adelaide via Suez Canal in 

 35 days 16 hours, and the same voyage viA the 

 Cape in 34 days 1 hour, steaming time. It was in 

 a steamer specially built for the Australian ser- 

 vice in 1881 by Messrs Napier & Sons the Aber- 

 deen, for Messrs G. Thomson & Co., Aberdeen and 

 London that the merits of the triple-expansion 

 type of engine, now so universally approvea, were 

 first decisively shown, the machinery of this vessel 

 being from the designs of Mr A. C. Kirk, of Messrs 

 Napier. The engines of the Aberdeen work with 

 steam having a toiler pressure of 125 Ib. per 

 square inch, and expansion takes place in three 

 cylinders. On her first voyage from Plymouth to 

 Melbourne, which occupied 42 days, her average 

 i. h. p. was about 1800 and consumpt of fuel less than 

 34 tons per day, or at the rate of 1 '69 Ib. per i.h.p. 

 per hour. In 1883 the New Zealand Shipping Com- 

 pany instituted direct steamship service to New 

 Zealand, and steamers of their fleet, together with 

 those of another company, are now making regular 

 passages averaging from 37 to 40 days. In vessels 

 employed in this sen-ice a further extension of the 

 principle of higher pressures and increased measure 

 of expansion quadruple has been carried out, 

 with corresponding economic results. 



With the year 1874, which saw the production 

 of the Britannic and Germanic, of the White Star 

 fleet, by Messrs Harland and Wolff, BelfasWeach 

 a considerable advance on anything then existing 

 began what has since proved a practically un- 

 broken and hotly sustained contest for the leading 

 place in the race across the Atlantic. Steamship 

 after steamship has proved more or less an advance 

 on its predecessor in respect of length of keel, splen- 

 dour of appointment, stupendousness of propulsive 

 power, and consequent shortening of the passage 

 time. Events have been marvellously crowded into 

 a comparatively short period, but, perfection having 

 been so nearly approached, advancement in each case 

 is now less conspicuous than formerly for outstand- 

 ing improvements in either the shape of the hull or 

 the essential character of the propulsive agents. 

 Each increase in the speed of the present-day 

 high-speed Atlantic steamer represents the result- 

 ant of innumerable modifications some minor, 

 others radical which engineering experience and 

 skill and the constant improvement in contributory 

 branches of art and manufacture suggest and 

 render possible. For these reasons, and in view 

 of the table on page 406 of speed, dimensions, &c. 

 of Atlantic steamers from the Britannic onwards, 

 the references to individual competitors in the race 



