S13 



STEAM-VESSEL. 



STEAM-VESSEL. 



814 



that history does not afford an instance of such rapid improvement in 

 commerce and civilisation as that which will be effected by steam- 

 vessels ; " and probably there are few at the present time who would 

 not fully acknowledge the truth of his prediction, but it may be 

 interesting to give, from Dodd, an enumeration of the principal steam- 

 vessels in use in Great Britain and Ireland at the date of his work 

 (1818). He states that there were then eighteen steam-boats on the 

 Clyde, two at Dundee, two on the Tay, two on the Trent, two on the 

 Tyne, four on the Humber, two on the Mersey, three on the Yare, one 

 on the Avon, one on the Severn, one -on the Orwell, six on the Forth, 

 two at Cork, and two intended to navigate from Dublin to Holyhead. 

 In another part of his work he describes the vessels then in use upon 

 the Thames, of which two, the Richmond and the London, plied 

 between London, Richmond, and Twickenham, and had, he says, 

 carried not less than ten thousand passengers within the last four 

 months. These were built under Dodd's superintendence ; and hi 

 consequence of having to pass under the bridges, they were made with 

 an apparatus of his invention for lowering their chimneys. These 

 boat* experienced much but ineffectual opposition from the watermen, 

 who deemed their use an invasion of their rights. A third steam- 

 vessel designed by Dodd, the Sons of Commerce, intended for use 

 between London and Gravesend, had been used, in the season pre- 

 ceding the publication of his work, between London and Margate, and 

 had once performed the journey, about eighty-eight miles, in seven 

 hours and thirty-five minutes. Her speed, when unassisted by wind or 

 tide, was ten miles an hour. Another boat, the Majestic, plied 

 between London and Margate in 1816. This vessel had been to Calais, 

 and had often towed vessels of seven hundred tons burden down the 

 river. The Regent, one of the early Thames steamers, was accidentally 

 burnt off Whitstable, in July, 1817. Besides these, Dodd mentions 

 the Caledonia, with two engines of fourteen-horse power, which had 

 been from Margate to Flushing, and also on the Rhine ; the Eagle, 

 which had a single paddle-wheel in the centre, and failed, he argues, 

 fur want of room for the escape of the water agitated by the paddles ; 

 the Hope, a small vessel, built at Bristol, which proved a failure : and 

 the Thames, the vessel which Dodd himself brought from the Clyde. 

 In addition to British steam-vessels, it is stated that there were at that 

 time steam-packets and steam luggage-vessels used in Russia, the 

 Netherlands, France, and Spain; and that one was building in the 

 East Indies. In order to give an approximate statement of the 

 progress of steam navigation in the United States about the same 

 period, a few facts may be quoted from the evidence of Seth Hunt, 

 Esq., formerly commandant of Upper Louisiana, before the select com- 

 mittee of the House of Owimons appointed hi 1817 to consider the 

 means of preventing the mischief of explosion on board steam boats. 

 This gentleman stated that there were then ten steam-vessels running 

 between New York and Albany, two between New York and the State 

 of Connecticut, and four or five to New Jersey, besides the ferry-boats, 

 of which there were four. On the river Delaware there were also a 

 number of boats, which plied between Philadelphia and Trenton in 

 New Jersey ; and others between Philadelphia and Newcastle, and 

 Philadelphia and Wilmington, besides ferry-boats. Some of these were 

 worked with high-pressure engines. There were steam-boats from 

 Baltimore to Norfolk, which passed a part of the Chesapeak, several 

 uiili-H in width ; and steam-vessels had been to New London, which is 

 still more exposed; and also up to New Hertford. The Powhatan 

 steam-boat, which was built at New York, had been exposed to a 

 severe gale of wind in the open ocean for three days, after which it 

 arrived at Norfolk, and thence proceeded up the James river to 

 Richmond. The largest steam-boats in America were those upon the 

 Mississippi, plying between New Orleansand Natchez. These vessels. 

 the Etna and Vesuvius, were of four hundred and fifty tons burden. 

 and carried two hundred and eighty tons of merchandise, one hundred 

 passengers, and seven hundred bales of cotton. 



The introduction of steam-packets upon the open sea was a favourite 

 object with Dodd. He observes particidarly the great importance of 

 their establishment between Dublin and Holyhead, as the intercourse 

 by sailing packets was liable to great delays. They were sometimes, it 

 is stated, more than seventy-six hours at sea, although the distance is 

 only about sixty miles. The use nf steam-vessels upon this station was 

 advocated for several years before they were regularly established ; and 

 Dodd had, on behalf of himself and friends, offered to bear the expense 

 of two packets for making the experiment, provided the Post-office 

 authorities would guarantee to him the conveyance of the mails, in the 

 event of those packets fully answering his representations ; but his 

 offer was not accepted. It has been shown that some sea-voyages 

 were performed at an earlier date ; but the regular establishment of 

 ocean steam navigation may be considered to have commenced with 

 the Rob Roy, a steamer of about thirty-horse power and ninety tons 

 bmdcn, which commenced running in 1818 between Greenock and 

 Belfast. This vessel was established by Mr. David Napier, who, says 

 Russell, from the year 1818 until about 1830, " effected more for the 

 improvement of steam navigation than any other man." This gentle- 

 man must be digtinipiixhed from his cousin, Mr. Robert Napier, of 

 Glasgow, who is also honourably known for improvements of the same 

 kind, but of a somewhat later date. David Napier, according to the 

 interesting narrative of the progress of steam navigation in Britain, 

 given by the above-mentioned writer, ventured at once to establish 



regular communication between Britain and the neighbouring countries, 

 Ireland and France, by steam-vessels plying even during the stormy 

 months of winter ; though, previous to the time of his improvements, 

 such vessels had scarcely ever ventured to sea except in fine weather. 

 In order to make himself well acquainted with the difficulties to be 

 overcome, he took passage, at the worst season of the year, in one of 

 the sailing vessels which formerly plied between Glasgow and Belfast, 

 and which often required a week to perform a journey that is now 

 done by steam in nine hours. After anxiously watching the effect of 

 the waves when the vessel was tossed in a storm, and satisfying him- 

 self that there was no insuperable difficulty, he retired contentedly to 

 his cabin, leaving the captain of the vessel puzzled at his strange 

 curiosity respecting the effect of rough weather. He subsequently 

 tried experiments upon the best form of hull for getting through the 

 water with the minimum of resistance ; and these led him to adopt a 

 fine wedge-like form for the fore part of his vessels, instead of the 

 round full bow common in those propelled by sails. The Rob Roy, 

 after plying two winters between Greenock and Belfast, was removed 

 from that line, and employed as a packet between Dover and Calais. 

 In 1819 he employed the Messrs. Wood to build the Talbot, of one 

 hundred and fifty tons burden, into which he fitted two engines of 

 thirty horse-power each. This fine vessel, the most perfect of her 

 time in all respects, plied between Holyhead and Dublin ; and she was 

 soon followed, on the same line, by another excellent vessel, called the 

 Ivanhoe. In 1821 steam-vessels were regularly established as Post- 

 office packets on that important station. They had been intended 

 merely as auxiliaries to the sailing packets ; but they soon superseded 

 them. From the evidence given before the Holyhead Roads Com- 

 mittee in 1822, it appears that even then the intercourse between the 

 two countries had been reduced almost to a certainty ; and that while, 

 in the year preceding their adoption, exactly one hundred mails 

 arrived in London after the proper time, there were only twenty-two 

 cases of delay in the first nine months in which the steam-packets 

 were used, although this period included the winter season, during the 

 early part of which the weather was worse than had been known for 

 more than sixty years. The vessels which were built expressly for 

 this purpose were strengthened by diagonal framing upon the plan of 

 Sir Robert Seppings. 



The next important stage may be considered to be the build- 

 ing of the " Great Western" at Bristol in 1838, a larger steamer 

 than had then been built, being nearly 1400 tons; and the first 

 voyage by steam across the Atlantic. The tonnage of the Great 

 Western equalled that of the largest sailing merchant ships which 

 had been constructed. She left Bristol, and entered New York 

 harbour under full steam in the extraordinary period of 15 days 

 having on board a surplus of 148 tons of coal. It is true that the 

 Sinus, a smaller steamer, had sailed from Cork before the Great 

 Western left England, and had arrived in safety at New York just 

 before her ; but there was this important difference between the two 

 voyages, the Sinus had performed much of her's under sail, while the 

 Great Western had been propelled by steam only. Fourteen years 

 later a large ship called the Australian, built of iron, on the Clyde, 

 left Plymouth (June, 1852) for Melbourne touching for coals at 

 St. Vincent, St. Helena, and the Cape, and anchored safely in King 

 George's Sound, West Australia, on the 20th of August, having per- 

 formed the whole voyage (including stoppages for fuel) in 16 days. 

 This was the first attempt to reach Australia by steam, and led to the 

 construction of such ships as the celebrated Great Britain, the ill-fated 

 Royal Charter, and other ships of greater perfection. In 1854 a line 

 American paddle-wheel ship called the Golden Age, astonished our 

 Liverpool builders by her size and power, and gave the first intima- 

 tion of a change in form likely to become general among ocean 

 steamers. The total omission of a bowsprit and the relief afforded thu 

 fore part of the ship as a floating bulk, by the removal of the usual 

 dead wood about the stem and figure-head, was a change deduced from 

 scientific experiments becoming more and more followed. The Golden 

 Age had taken in at one port alone (Tahiti) about 1200 tons of coal, 

 an enormous weight, double that which only 15 years before had been 

 the supply to the Great Western. 



Another memorable event in the history of ocean steamers was the 

 voyage of the steam screw ship Argo of 1850 tons, which at about this 

 period circumnavigated the globe, the duration of her actual voyage 

 being only 124 days. 



Since this period a number of gigantic ocean steamers have been 

 built for the companies known as the Peninsular and Oriental, the 

 Royal West India Mail, the Cunard, &c. Among these the Persia 

 is the largest of paddle steamers. Some of these magnificent vessels 

 are of about 3500 tons, fitted with exquisite taste and elegance. But 

 the greatest triumph of naval architecture, and the most extraordinary 

 as to size is the Great Eastern, built in 1859 by Mr. John Scott 

 Russell, on the Thames, from the joint designs of himself and Mr. 

 Brunei. This stupendous vessel is of the length of 691 feet on 

 deck, has a breadth of 83 feet and depth of 58 feet, having a gross 

 registered tonnage of 18,914, but said to be capable of carrying 

 25,000 tons ! 



The most prominent events in the history of steam vessels having 

 been thus mentioned, a few general remarks will show the actual 

 position of this important subject. 



