information on the cabin arrangement and the metiiod 

 of folding the wheels was also obtained from this 

 Russian source. 



In spite of a very extensive bibliography on the 

 Savannah, the basic sources for reliable technical 

 description are Marestier's report on American 

 steamers, the logbook of the ship, Watkins' extracts 

 from the Speedwell Iron Works account book, the 

 customhouse records, and some of the statements 

 made by Stevens Rogers between 1836 and 1856. 

 Plans of the ship, or a builder's half-model, have not 

 been found. Marestier's sketch of the Savannah, which 

 is not a scale drawing, and his drawings of the engine 

 and paddle wheels were the only available illustrations 

 upon which reconstruction could be based. 



Through the efforts of Malcolm Bell, Jr., of Savan- 

 nah, Georgia, and Frank Braynard, a search was made 

 by Russian authorities at Leningrad for contemporary 

 references to the ship. This work resulted in informa- 

 tion as to how the side wheels were folded, the 

 dimensions of the boilers, and some description of the 

 cabins and fittings 



As to the ship itself, the customhouse registered 

 dimensions are of prime importance; they fix the 

 over-all hull dimensions within reasonable limits. 

 A vessel of 1818 measuring 98 feet 6 inches between 

 perpendiculars would have been 100 to 104 feet long 

 at rail. The type of ship represented by the Savannah 

 is well established. All references are in agreement 

 that she was built as a packet ship — a Havre or 

 transatlantic packet in most accounts. 



The packet ships listed by Albion '" show that all 

 the pioneer ships of the transatlantic Black Ball 

 Line — which began operation with the sailing of 

 the 424-ton James Monroe on January 5, 1818 — 

 measured at least 103 feet 6 inches between perpen- 

 diculars. Two of the pioneer ships of the first Havre 

 Line — which did not begin operation until 1822 — 

 were under 98 feet between perpendiculars. The 

 second Havre Line began operation in 1823; of its 

 four pioneer packets, two were purchased general 

 traders measuring under 98 feet between perpendic- 

 ulars. The coastal packets built between 1817 and 

 1823 were all under 100 feet between perpendiculars. 

 It is apparent, then, that the size of the early packets 

 did not indicate, with any degree of certainty, the 

 trade in which they might be employed. 



Belief that the Savannah was built as a Havre packet 

 is based upon Stevens Rogers' statements, and her 



size obviously does not make this impossible; never- 

 theless, it seems highly improbable that she was built 

 for the Havre service because no Havre line of packets 

 had been organized as early as 1818 out of New York 

 or Savannah so far as can be found. However, the 

 matter is not of very great concern as it is probably 

 true that the models of coastal and transatlantic 

 packet ships were quite similar at the period of the 

 Savannah. This statement is supported by the plan of 

 a coastal packet built seven years after the Savannah. 



The hull-type of these early packets can be estab- 

 lished. While no half-models or plans of packets 

 built before 1832 could be found, offset tables of a 

 Philadelphia-New Orleans packet of 1824-1825 were 

 obtained through the courtesy of W'illiam Salisbury, 

 an English marine historian who had been studying 

 the British mail packets. These offset tables had been 

 sent from Washington on March 25, 1831, by John 

 Lenthall, LT.S. naval constructor, to William Morgan 

 and Augustin Creuze, London editors, for publica- 

 tion.'* The offset tables were for a packet ship 103 

 feet between the perpendiculars of the builder (rather 

 than between those of the cvistomhouse) and 27 

 feet moulded beam. An examination of the files on 

 American packet vessels in the collection of Carl C. 

 Cutler, curator emeritus of the Mystic Marine Mu- 

 seum, showed with certainty that the offsets were for 

 the Ohio, built at Philadelphia late in 1825. The 

 drawings of this ship (fig. 5) were made from the 

 offset tables and from other measurements; minor de- 

 tails are from portraits of packet ships, particularly 

 of the first New York (1822-1834) of the Black Ball 

 Line. 



The Ohio was two-decked, with the upper deck 

 flush. She had rather straight sheer, 27-inch bul- 

 warks, a moderately full but easy entrance, a fine, 

 long run, and little drag to the keel. The midsection 

 was formed with moderately short and rising floor, 

 round and easy bilge, and some tumble-home in the 

 topside. The stem raked a good deal for a ship- 

 rigged vessel; the post raked slightly. There was a 

 distance of 6 feet between upper and lower deck 

 planks. The stern was of the square transom, round 

 tuck form, as mentioned in the Savannah^ register. 

 Lenthall reported the Ohio to have been a good sailer 

 and to have had other desirable qualities. She was 

 registered as being of 351.86 tons burthen, 105.5 feet 

 between perpendiculars, and 27.4 feet in extreme 



" Op. cit. (footnote 4). 



PAPER 21: THE PIONEER STEAMSHIP SAVANNAH: 

 579766—61 2 



" William Morgan and Augustin Creuze, eds., Papers on 

 Naval Architecture, London, n. d., no. 12, p. 387. 



A STUDY FOR A SCALE MODEL 



69 



