Chapter II: Front Matter (2)

In the following years we ourselves were not idle. In 1843 the celebrated screw steamer Princeton—whose name is connected in so melancholy a manner with the bursting of the “Peacemaker” and the death of the then Secretary of the Navy, when he and a number of other high officials were visiting the ship—was built for the navy after Ericsson’s designs, and fitted with one of his propellers. She was 164 feet long, with 30 feet 6 inches beam, and a displacement, at 18 feet draught, of 1,046 tons. She had a very flat floor, with great sharpness forward and excessive leanness aft. She may almost be taken as representative of the later type in model. She had three boilers, each 26 feet long, 9 feet 4 inches high, and 7 feet wide, with a grate surface of 134 square feet. In 1845, Mr. R. B. Forbes, of Boston, so long known for his intimate and successful connection with shipping interests, built the auxiliary screw steamers Massachusetts and Edith for transatlantic trade. The former was somewhat the larger, and was 178 feet long and 32 broad. Her machinery was designed by Ericsson, and had 2 cylinders, 25 inches diameter, working nearly at right angles to each other. The machinery was built by Hogg & Delamater, of New York, and had the peculiarity of having the shaft pass through the stern at the side of the stern-post, under a patent of Ericsson’s. The propeller, on Ericsson’s principle, was 9-1/2 feet diameter, and could be hoisted when the ship was under sail. She made but one voyage to Liverpool, and was then chartered by our Government to carry troops to Mexico, in 1846; but was later bought into the naval service and known as the Farralones.

In June, 1847, the same year which witnessed the establishment of the Pacific Mail Company, the Washington, of 4,000 tons displacement, and of 2,000 indicated horse-power, was the pioneer of a line between New York and Bremen, touching at Southampton. The Hermann followed a little later, but was somewhat larger, the dimensions of the two ships being:

Washington. Hermann.
Total length 236 241
Beam 39 40
Depth 31 31

Their displacement was about 4,000 tons. The Franklin followed in 1848, and the Humboldt in 1850, both being a good deal larger than the two preceding. The latter two were, however, employed only between New York and Havre.

In 1850 the Collins line was formed, with a large Government subsidy. In the same year the Inman line was established, with screw steamers built of iron—two differences from the prevailing construction, which were to bear so powerful an influence in a few years against the success of steamers of the type brought out by the Collins company. In 1858 came the North German Lloyd, with the modest beginnings of its now great fleet, and in 1861 the French Compagnie Transatlantique. In 1863 the National line was established; in 1866 the Williams & Guion (now the Guion), which had previously existed as a line of sailing-packets; and in 1870 the White Star.

These are those in which we are most interested, as they touch our shores; but in the interval other lines were directed to all parts of the world, few seaports remaining, of however little importance, or lying however far from civilization, that cannot now be reached by regular steam communication.

The establishment of the Collins line was one of the great events of steamship history. We had been so successful upon our coasts, rivers, and lakes, that it was but natural we should make some effort to do our part with steam upon the greater field of international trade. It was impossible that the monopoly which had existed for ten years in the hands of the Cunard company should not be combated by some one, and with the advent of the Collins line came a strife for supremacy, the memories of which are still vivid in the minds of thousands on both sides of the Atlantic.

The Cunard company at this time had increased their fleet by the addition of the America, Niagara, Europa, and Columbia, all built in 1848. Their machinery did not differ materially from that of the preceding ships, in general design, but there had, in the course of practice, come better workmanship and design of parts, and the boiler pressure had been increased to 13 pounds, bringing the expenditure per horse-power down to 3.8 pounds per hour. In these ships the freight capacity had been nearly doubled, fifty per cent. had been added to their passenger accommodation, and the company was altogether pursuing the successful career which was due a line which could command $35 a ton for freight from Liverpool to New York—a reminiscence which must make it appear the Golden Age to the unfortunate steamship-owner of to-day, who is now most happy with a seventh of such earnings.

The Collins steamers were a new departure in model and arrangement; they were built by William H. Brown, a famous builder of the time; exceeded in size and speed anything then afloat, and reduced the journey in 1851 and 1852 to about 11 days—though some voyages were made in less than 10 days. The Cunard line put afloat the Asia and Africa as competitors, but they neither equalled the American steamers in size nor speed. The former were of 3,620 tons displacement, with 1,000 indicated horse-power. The comparison of size between them and the Collins steamers is as follows:

Length. Depth. Beam. Draught.
ft. ft. in. ft. ft. in.
Arctic 282 32 45 20
Asia 266 27 2 40 18 9

The three other vessels of the Collins line were the Baltic, Atlantic, and Pacific. They formed a notable fleet, and fixed for many years to come the type of the American steamship in model and arrangement. They were the work of a man of genius who had the courage to cast aside tradition where it interfered with practical purposes. The bowsprit was dispensed with; the vertical stem, now so general, was adopted, and everything subordinated to the use of the ships as steamers.

But great disaster was in store for these fine ships. The Arctic, on September 21, 1854, while on her voyage out, was struck by the French steamer Vesta, in a fog off Cape Race, and but 46 out of the 268 persons on board were saved. The Pacific left Liverpool on June 23, 1856, and was never heard of after. The Adriatic, a much finer ship than any of her predecessors, was put afloat; but the line was doomed. Extravagance in construction and management, combined with the losses of two of their ships and a refusal of further aid from the Government, were too much for the line to bear, and in 1858 the end came. Ever since, the European companies, with the exception of the time during which the line from Philadelphia has been running and the time during which some desultory efforts have been put forth, have had to compete among themselves. The sworn statement of the Collins company had shown the first four ships to have cost $2,944,142.71. The actual average cost of each of the first 28 voyages was $65,215.64; and the average receipts, $48,286.85—showing a loss on each voyage of $16,928.79.

To discuss the causes of our failure to hold our own in the carrying trade of the world may seem somewhat out of place, but the subject is so interesting in many ways that a few words may not be amiss.

The following is a comparative table showing the steam tonnage of the United States and of the British Empire, beginning with the year in which ocean steam navigation may be said to have been put fairly on its feet. Our own is divided into “oversea,” or that which can trade beyond United States waters, and “enrolled,” which includes all in home waters:

-----+-------+--------+-------+----------
Years| United States | |British
| | Total |Empire
-----+-------+--------| |(including
|Oversea|Enrolled| | Colonies)
-----+-------+--------+-------+----------
1838|2,791 |190,632 |193,423| 82,716
1840|4,155 |198,184 |202,339| 95,807
1842|4,701 |224,960 |229,681| 118,930
1844|6,909 |265,270 |272,179| 125,675
1846|6,287 |341,606 |347,893| 144,784
1848|16,068 |411,823 |427,891| 168,087
1850|44,942 |481,005 |525,947| 187,631
1852|79,704 |563,536 |643,240| 227,306
1854|95,036 |581,571 |676,607| 326,484
1855|115,045| ... | ... | ...
1856|89,715 |583,362 |673,077| 417,717
1858|78,027 |651,363 |729,390| 488,415
1860|97,269 |770,641 |500,144| 500,144
-----+-------+--------+-------+----------

It will be seen from this table how great the extension of the use of the steamboat had been in the United States in these earlier years, as compared with that elsewhere. In 1852 our enrolled tonnage had grown to more than half a million tons, or well on to three times the whole of that of the British Empire, and our oversea tonnage was about one-third of that of Great Britain and her dependencies.

One reason for this very rapid increase in the enrolled tonnage was, of course, the fact that railroads had not yet begun to seam the West, as they were shortly to do: the steamboat was the great and absolutely necessary means of transport, and was to hold its prominence in this regard for some years yet to come. When this change came, there came with it a change in circumstances which went far beyond all other causes in removing our shipping from the great place it had occupied in the first half of this century. But great as was the effect worked by this change, there were certain minor causes which have to be taken into account. We had grown in maritime power through the events of the Napoleonic wars—which, though they worked ruin to many an unlucky owner, enriched many more—as we were for some years almost the only neutral bottoms afloat; we had rapidly increased this power during the succeeding forty years, during which time our ships were notably the finest models and the most ably commanded on the seas; the best blood of New England went into the service, and one has but to read the reports of the English parliamentary commissions upon the shipping subject to realize the proud position which our ships and, above all, our ships’ captains held in the carrying trade. We had entered the steam competition with an energy and ability that promised much, but we gave little or no heed to changes in construction until long after they had been accepted by the rest of the world; and it is to this conservatism, paradoxical as the expression may seem applied to our countrymen, that part of our misfortune was due.

The first of the changes we were so unwilling to accept was that from wood to iron; the other was that from paddle to screw. Even so late as the end of the decade 1860-70, while all the world else was building ships of iron, propelled by screws, some of which were driven by compound engines, our last remaining great company, the Pacific Mail, put afloat four magnificent failures (from the commercial point of view), differing scarcely in any point, except in size, from those of 1850-56. They were of wood, and had the typically national over-head beam engine. They were most comfortable and luxurious boats; but the sending them into the battle of commerce at such a date, was like pitting the old wooden three-decker with her sixty-four pounders against the active steel cruiser of to-day and her modern guns. Many of the iron screws built at the same time are still in active service; but the fine old China, America, Alaska, and Japan are long since gone, and with them much of the company’s success and fortune.

Of course, one great reason for this non-acceptance was the fact that, with us, wood for ship-building was still plentiful, and that it was cheaper so to build than to build in iron, to which material English builders were driven by an exact reversal of these conditions; and the retention of the paddle over the screw was due in a certain degree to the more frequent necessity of repair of wooden screw ships, to which it is not possible to give the necessary structural strength at the stern to withstand successfully the jarring action of the screw at high speeds.

The part in advancing the British commercial fleet played by the abrogation of the navigation laws, in 1849, which had their birth in the time of Cromwell (and to which we have held with such tenacity, as ours were modelled upon theirs), need only be barely mentioned. British ship-owners were in despair at the change, and many sold off their ship property to avoid what they expected to be the ruin of the shipping trade, but the change was only to remove the fetters which they had worn so long that they did not know them as such.

But the great and overwhelming cause, to which the effect of our navigation laws were even secondary, was the opening up of the vast region lying west of the earlier formed States; the building of our gigantic system of railways; the exploitation, in a word, of the great interior domain, of the possibilities of which, preceding 1850, we were only dimly conscious, and so much of which had only just been added by the results of the Mexican War. It is so difficult, from the present standpoint, to realize the mighty work which has been done on the American continent in this short space of forty years, that its true bearings on this subject are sometimes disregarded. The fact that the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, at this date, was not running its trains beyond Cumberland, Md., will give an impression of the vastness of the work which was done later.

The period 1850-60 cannot be passed over without a mention of the Great Eastern, though she can hardly be said to have been in the line of practical development, which was not so much in enlargement of hull as in change in character of machinery. Brunel’s son, in his “Life” of his father, says: “It was no doubt his connection with the Australian Mail Company (1851-53) that led Mr. Brunel to work out into practical shape the idea of a great ship for the Indian or Australian service, which had long occupied his mind.”

The Great Eastern was to attempt to solve by her bulk the problem of coal capacity which was later to be solved by high pressures and surface condensation. The ship finally determined on was 680 feet long, 83 feet broad, with a mean draught of 25 feet, with screw engines of 4,000 indicated horse-power and paddle-engines of 2,600, to work with steam from 15 to 25 pounds pressure—thus curiously uniting in herself at this transition period the two rival systems of propulsion. She was begun at Millwall, London, in the spring of 1854, and was finally launched, after many difficulties, on January 30, 1858. Her history is too well known to be dwelt upon here. She has experienced many vicissitudes and misfortunes, and it is well that her great projector (who paid for her with his life, as he died the year after her launching) did not live to see her used as an exhibit, in 1886, in the River Mersey, her great sides serving to blazon the name and fame of a Liverpool clothing establishment. She was sold the next year for the pitiful sum of £8,000 and broken up.

The year 1855 marks the high-water mark of the paddle-steamer era. In that year were built the Adriatic, by the Collins line, and the Persia, as a competitor (and the twenty-eighth ship of the company), by the Cunard. But the former was of wood, the latter of iron. She was among the earlier ships of this material to be built by the Cunard company, and, with the slightly larger Scotia, built in 1862, was, for some years after the cessation of the Collins line, the favorite and most successful steamer upon the Atlantic. She was 376 feet long, 45 feet 3 inches broad, and of about 5,500 tons displacement. Her cylinders were 100-1/2 inches diameter, with 120 inches stroke, and she had—as also the preceding ship, the Arabia—tubular boilers instead of the old flue.

1830 +------------------------------------ 9 lbs.
|
1840 +---------------------- 5-1/2 „
|
1850 +---------------- 4 „
|
1860 +------------ 3.1 „
|
1870 +---------- 2.6 „
|
1880 +-------- 2.2 „
|
1886 +------ 1.5 „
and |
since|

Diagram showing Decrease in Expediture of Coal per indicated
Horse-power per hour based on Good Average Practice

1830— 2 @ 3 lbs. +--
1835— 5 lbs. +--
1840— 8 „ +--
1845—10 „ +--
1850—14 „ +---
1855—21 „ +----
1860—30 „ +-----
1865—40 „ +-------
1870—50 „ +---------
1875—60 „ +-----------
1880—70 „ +-------------
1882—80 „ +---------------
1885-6—150 @ 180 lbs. +--------------------------------
and
since

Diagram showing increase in Steam-pressures based on good average
Practice

How great an advantage she was upon their first ship will be seen by the following comparison:

Britannia. Persia.
Coal necessary to steam to
New York 570 tons 1,400 tons
Cargo carried 224 „ 750 „
Passengers 90 250
Indicated power 710 3,600
Pressure per square inch 9 lbs. 33 lbs.
Coal per indicated horse-power
per hour 5.1 „ 3.8 „
Speed 8.5 knots 13.1 knots

Thus, for two and a half times the quantity of coal nearly three and a half times the cargo was carried, and nearly three times the number of passengers. This result was due partially to increased engine efficiency, and partially to increased size of ship; and thus to a relative reduction of the power necessary to drive a given amount of displacement.

The Scotia was almost a sister ship to the Persia, slightly exceeding her in size, but with no radical differences which would mark her as an advance upon the latter. She was the last of the old régime in the Atlantic trade, and the same year in which she was built saw the complete acceptance by the Cunard company of the newer order of things, in the building of the iron screw steamer China, of 4,000 tons displacement, with oscillating geared screw engines of 2,200 indicated horse-power, with an average speed of 12.9 knots on a daily expenditure of 82 tons of coal. She was the first of their ships to be fitted with a surface condenser. The Scotia had been built as a paddle steamer rather in deference to the prejudices of passengers than in conformity to the judgment of the company, which had put afloat iron screw ships for their Mediterranean trade as early as 1852 and 1853.

* * * * *

The introduction of surface condensation and of higher pressures were the two necessary elements in a radical advance in marine engineering. Neither of these was a new proposal;[3] several patents had been taken out for the former at a very early date, both in America and in England; and in 1838 the Wilberforce, a boat running between London and Hull, was so fitted. Very high pressures, from almost the very beginning, had been carried in the steamers on our Western waters; and in 1811 Oliver Evans published, in Philadelphia, a pamphlet dealing with the subject, in which he advocated pressures of at least 100 to 120 pounds per square inch, and patented a boiler which was the parent of the long, cylindrical type which came into such general use in our river navigation. The sea-going public resolutely resisted the change to high pressures for nearly forty years, there being a very slow and gradual advance from 1 and 2 pounds to the 8 and 9 carried by the Great Britain and Britannia. In 1850 the Arctic carried 18 and in 1856 25 was not uncommon. Some of the foremost early engineers favored cast-iron boilers (see evidence before parliamentary committee, 1817); and the boiler in general use in England up to 1850 was a great rectangular box, usually with three furnaces and flues, all the faces of which were planes.[4]

Though tubular boilers did not displace the flue boiler in British practice to any great degree before 1850, many examples were in use in America at that date, but chiefly in other than sea-going steamers. Robert L. Stevens, of Hoboken, built as early as 1832 “the now standard form of return tubular boilers for moderate pressures” (Professor R. H. Thurston). But it worked its way into sea practice very slowly; and the multitubular boiler, in any of its several forms, cannot be said to have been fairly adopted in either American or British sea-going ships before the date first mentioned, though employed in the Hudson River and Long Island Sound steamers, in one of the former of which, the Thomas Powell, built in 1850, a steam pressure of 50 pounds was used.

There had been this slow and gradual advance in ocean steam pressures, with a consequent reduction in coal expenditure, when in 1856 came a movement in the direction of economy by the introduction of the compound engine, by Messrs. Randolph Elder & Co. (later John Elder & Co.), which was soon to develop into a revolution in marine steam enginery. The Pacific Steam Navigation Company has the credit of first accepting this change in applying it to their ships, the Valparaiso and Inca. The original pressure used was 25 pounds to the inch: the cylinders were 50 and 90 inches in diameter, and the piston speed from 230 to 250 feet per minute. The idea of using steam expansively by this means was of course not new, as it dates back to Hornblower (1781), but with the low pressures which had been used at sea there was no reason for its adoption afloat. Difficulties were experienced by the Pacific company with their earlier engines, but the line adhered to their change, and for nearly fourteen years were almost alone in their practice.

These changes made the use of a cylindrical boiler necessary, as the form best able to withstand the increased pressure. The old box-like shape has disappeared; and if the shade of Oliver Evans is ever able to visit us, it must be with an intense feeling of satisfaction to find his ideas of eighty years since now accepted by all the world.

* * * * *

The date 1870 marks the advent of a new type of ship, in those of the Oceanic Company, better known as the White Star line, built of iron by Harland & Wolff, of Belfast—engined with compound engines, and of extreme length as compared with their breadth. They established a new form, style, and interior arrangement, which has largely been followed by other lines, though the extreme disproportion of length and beam is now disappearing. The Britannic and Germanic, the two largest of the earlier of this line, are 468 feet in length and 45 feet 3 inches in beam, carrying 220 cabin passengers and 1,100 in the steerage, besides 150 crew. They develop 5,000 indicated horse-power, and make their passage, with remarkable regularity, in about 8 days 10 hours to Queenstown. The earlier ships of this line, when first built, had a means of dropping their propeller-shaft so as to immerse more deeply the screw; so many inconveniences, however, were associated with this that it was given up. Their general arrangement was a most marked advance upon that of their predecessors—an excellent move was placing the saloon forward instead of in the stern, a change almost universally followed.

In the same year with the Britannic came out the City of Berlin, of the Inman line, for some years the largest steamer afloat (after the Great Eastern), being 520 feet in length by 44 feet beam, of 5,000 indicated power, and in every way a magnificent ship.

The Bothnia and Scythia were also built in 1874, by the Cunard company, as representatives of the new type, but were smaller than the ships of the same period built by the Inman and White Star lines. They were of 6,080 tons displacement and 2,780 indicated horse-power, with a speed of 13 knots. The pressure carried was 60 pounds. These ships had by far the largest cargo-carrying capacity (3,000 tons measurement) and passenger accommodation (340 first-cabin) of any yet built by the company. With the addition of this great number of steamers, change was not to be expected for some years; and it was not until 1879, when the Guion company put afloat the Arizona, that a beginning was made of the tremendous rivalry which has resulted in putting upon the seas, not only the wonderful ships which are now running upon the Atlantic, but in extending greatly the size and speed of those employed in other service.

Several things had combined in the latter part of this decade to bring about this advance. The great change between 1860 and 1872, from the causes already noted, which had reduced coal consumption by one-half, was followed by the introduction of corrugated flues and steel as a material for both boilers and hull. With this came still higher pressures, which were carried from 60 to 80 and 90 pounds. In August, 1881, a very interesting paper was read by Mr. F. C. Marshall, of Newcastle, before the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, in which he showed that a saving of 13.37 per cent. in fuel had been arrived at since 1872. The general type of engine and boiler had remained the same in these nine years, but the increased saving had been due chiefly to increased pressures. It is curious that at the reading of both the paper by Sir Frederick Bramwell, in 1872, and that of Mr. Marshall, in 1881, there should have been pretty generally expressed a feeling that something like a finality had been reached. So little was this opinion true that, though over thirteen per cent. saving had been effected between these two dates, a percentage of gain more than double this was to be recorded between the latter date and 1886. In these matters it is dangerous to prophesy; it is safer to believe all things possible. Certainly the wildest dreamer of 1872 did not look forward to crossing the Atlantic at 20 knots as a not unusual speed.

In 1874 triple-expansion engines had been designed for the Propontis by Mr. A. C. Kirk, of Napier & Sons, of Glasgow, which, on account of failure in the boilers which were used, did not give at first the results hoped for. In 1881 the Messrs. Napier fitted the Aberdeen with engines of the same kind, steam at 125 pounds pressure per square inch being used. In the next two years the change proceeded slowly, but by 1885 the engineering mind had so largely accepted it that a very large proportion of the engines built in that year were on this principle, and at the present it may be regarded as being fully accepted as was the compound engine ten years since. The saving in fuel is generally reckoned at from twenty to twenty-five per cent., or, to put it more graphically, in the words of Mr. Parker, Chief Engineer Surveyor of Lloyds, in his interesting paper, read in July, 1886, before the Institution of Naval Architects: “Two large passenger steamers, of over 4,500 gross tonnage, having engines of about 6,000 indicated horse-power, built of the same dimensions, from the same lines, with similar propellers, are exactly alike in every respect, except so far as their machinery is concerned. One vessel is fitted with triple-expansion engines, working at a pressure of 145 pounds per square inch; while the other vessel is fitted with ordinary compound engines, working at a pressure of 90 pounds per square inch. Both vessels are engaged in the same trade and steam at the same rate of speed, viz., 12 knots an hour. The latter vessel in a round voyage of 84 days burns 1,200 tons more coal than the former.”

In the epoch 1879 to 1887 the following great ships had been placed upon the Liverpool and New York lines, their best speeds to that date being as shown:

Days. Hours. Minutes.
1. Etruria 6 5 31
2. Umbria (sister ship) slightly longer
3. Oregon 6 10 35
4. America 6 13 44
5. City of Rome 6 18 0
6. Alaska 6 18 37
7. Servia 6 23 55
8. Aurania 7 1 1

The time had thus been shortened much more than half since 1840, and had been lessened forty per cent. since 1860.

In addition to the ships mentioned, there had been placed upon the line from Bremen to New York (between 1879 and 1886) touching at Southampton, England, eight new ships of the North German Lloyd, which form 28 altogether, the most compact and uniform fleet upon the Atlantic. The Trave, Saale, and Aller, were then marvels of splendor and comfort, ranking in speed and power very little short of the fastest of the Liverpool ships. They, as were the others of the company’s eight “express” steamers, were built by the great firm of John Elder & Co., of Glasgow, their machinery being designed by Mr. Bryce-Douglas, to whose genius was also due that of the Etruria and Umbria, the Oregon, Arizona, and Alaska. The engines of the Trave, Saale, and Aller, however, were triple-expansion, as were the Gascogne, Bourgogne, and Champagne (their equals in speed and equipment), of the French Compagnie Transatlantique, which were built in France. All these steamers are of steel, with cellular bottoms carefully subdivided, and fitted with a luxury and comfort quite unknown thirty years ago.

It was difficult, if not almost impossible, to go beyond them without a change to twin screws. If more than the Umbria’s power was to be developed it was safer to use it through two shafts, and the depth of water on the New York bar is a hindrance to the use of a much greater diameter of screw. Mr. Griscom, of Philadelphia, was the bold manager to take the first step by laying down the Inman Company’s ships in 1887, the first of which, the City of New York, was ready for trial in thirteen months after the signing of the contract with Messrs. James & George Thompson, of Clydebank: a wonderful performance. The Teutonic and Majestic quickly after took shape in the yard of Messrs. Harland & Wolff, of Belfast, the place of birth of all of the White Star fleet. These two lines were thus the first to accept the changed conditions, and the City of New York and City of Paris of the former, and the Teutonic and Majestic of the latter, still mark the high-water mark of achievement, both as regards performance as a machine and the comfort and luxury of the passenger. The “Cities,” as they are familiarly termed, are 560 feet in length, by 63 feet broad, displace 13,000 tons, and indicate over 18,000 horse-power. The two White Stars are 582 feet long, by 57 feet 6 inches broad, of 12,000 tons displacement, and of nearly equal horse-power with their two great competitors. In less than twenty years these lines had thus nearly doubled the size of their ships, and more than tripled their power.

It may be of interest to the American public to know that the City of New York and City of Paris are but two of the largest fleet under one management on the North Atlantic. Though under one control it is under three flags—English, Belgian, and American—our own, thanks to the wisdom of Congress, covering but a small contingent, though our law-makers for several years have been besieged to allow them to become American in nationality as well as ownership. It would certainly seem that they were quite as worthy of it as some of our importations of another kind, but we shall probably have to wait for a little more breadth of thought and idea under the dome at Washington before this change can be brought about.

The building of these four ships seems to have given an impetus to the whole of the steamship world: the Hamburg-American lines started into new life with the Columbia, Normannia, Augusta Victoria, and Fuerst Bismarck, twin screws of 9,500 and 10,500 displacement, which have averaged in their best runs from New York to Southampton 19.01, 18.91, 18.31, and 19.78 knots in the order named, the distance being about 3,075 knots.

The French Company has added the twin-screw Touraine of 11,675 tons and 18-1/2 knots sustained speed to their already splendid fleet, and the North German Lloyds have since 1887 built the Lahn, Spree, and Havel, all single screws; and the two last of 7,000 tons with 13,000 horse-power and a speed of 18-1/2 knots. These latter ships would probably have been twin screws had the docks of Bremerhaven afforded sufficient width of entrance; but whether this be the case or not, the probability is that in the future it will be the dock which will yield and not the ship. There is no need to make comparison of these ships in equipment. Luxury has been carried as far as the present human invention and imagination can take it. Suites for families are arranged with private sitting-rooms and private tables, so that, barring the roll so uneasy to the unhappy landsman, one could scarce know the change from the most luxurious apartment of the Brevoort.

Such are the ships of to-day, but displacement from their eminence is already in discussion. The builders of the City of New York are guaranteeing a vessel to cross the Atlantic in 5 days, or at a speed of 23-1/2 knots, the probable elements of this projected vessel being given by _Engineering_ as a length of 630 feet and a beam of 70, with 33,000 indicated horse-power. It is a long step, but one can hardly doubt it will soon be taken.

But that this step will be greatly aided by any material change in the marine steam engine in the very near future is not probable, the difficulty is now not with the engine but with the boiler; forced draught and the higher pressures call imperatively for a new development in the steam producer; leaky tubes and joints and a rapid deterioration through the effort to keep up the high pressures necessary for the successful performance of the new type of engine are the shortcomings which must be successfully combated before we can make another great advance. Unfortunately there is another draw-back, for which the remedy will be even more difficult, the suffering of the firemen induced by the greater heat of the higher pressures. Let us hope that genius will yet invent a mechanical stoker and that we may not of necessity subject our fellow-beings to the 140° too frequently found in our modern fire-rooms.

We may fitly place here a tabulation of the very wonderful achievements of the ships first mentioned, based on official data in _Engineering_ of June 19 and July 10, 1891, and covering, in the case of the Liverpool ships, the season of 1890, except for the City of Paris, which is for 1889. (See table on p. 45.)

The coal consumption is also officially stated by the journal from which the above is compiled as follows: The City of New York, 328 tons: Teutonic, 316 tons: Etruria, 330 tons. This shows an actual expenditure of about 1.6 lb. per hour in the case of the Teutonic: slightly greater for the City of New York, and over 1.9 for the Etruria.

But in the month of August, 1891, both the Teutonic and Majestic won still greater laurels, the latter crossing from Queenstown to New York in 5 days 18 hours and 8 minutes; the former in 5 days 16 hours and 31 minutes, and averaging for the run of 2,778 miles 20.35 knots per hour, the best day’s run being 517 knots.

_Fastest Passages of the more Important Steamers between New York and English Ports during the Season of 1890._[5]

------------------+-------------------+---------+------+-------
Name |Dimensions: |Displace-|Piston|Boiler
|Length, Breadth, |ment |Stroke|Heating
|Depth | | |Surface
------------------+-------------------+---------+------+-------
New York and | | Tons. |Feet. |Sq. Ft.
Queenstown | | | |
------------------+-------------------+---------+------+-------
City of Paris |560 × 63 × 43 | 13,000 |5 |50,265
| | | |
------------------+-------------------+---------+------+-------
City of New York |560 × 63 × 43 | 13,000 |5 |50,040
| | | |
------------------+-------------------+---------+------+-------
Majestic |582×57-1/2×59-1/8 | 12,000 |5 |40,972
------------------+-------------------+---------+------+-------
Teutonic |582×57-1/2×59-1/8 | 12,000 |5 |40,972
------------------+-------------------+---------+------+-------
Etruria |501-1/2×57.2×38.2 | 10,500 |6 |38,817
------------------+-------------------+---------+------+-------
Umbria |501-1/2×57.2×38.2 | 10,500 |6 |38,817
------------------+-------------------+---------+------+-------
City of Rome |546 × 52 × 58-3/4 | 11,230 |6 |29,286
------------------+-------------------+---------+------+-------
New York and | | | |
Southampton | | |Inches|
------------------+-------------------+---------+------+-------
Columbia |480 × 56 × 38 | 9,500 |66 |34,916
------------------+-------------------+---------+------+-------
Normannia |520 × 57-1/4 × 38 | 10,500 |66 |46,490
------------------+-------------------+---------+------+-------
Augusta Victoria |480 × 56 × 36 | 9,500 |63 |36,000
------------------+-------------------+---------+------+-------
Lahn |448 × 49 × 36-1/2 | 7,700 |72 | ...
------------------+-------------------+---------+------+-------

------------------+------------+--------+------+--------+---------
Name | Grate Area | Steam |I.H.P.|Fastest |Direction
| |Pressure| | Trip |
------------------+------------+--------+------+--------+---------
New York and |Square Feet.|Lbs. | |D. H. M.|
Queenstown | | | | |
------------------+------------+--------+------+--------+---------
City of Paris |was 1,293 |150 |18,350|5 19 18 |Westward
|now 1,026 | | | |
------------------+------------+--------+------+--------+---------
City of New York |was 1,080 |150 |18,100|5 21 19 |Westward
|now 1,096 | | | |
------------------+------------+--------+------+--------+---------
Majestic | 1,154 |180 |18,000|5 21 20 |Westward
------------------+------------+--------+------+--------+---------
Teutonic | 1,154 |180 |18,000|5 19 5 |Westward
------------------+------------+--------+------+--------+---------
Etruria | 1,606 |110 |14,300|6 6 57 |Westward
------------------+------------+--------+------+--------+---------
Umbria | 1,606 |110 |14,300|6 3 29 |Westward
------------------+------------+--------+------+--------+---------
City of Rome | 1,398 | 90 |11,890|6 22 30 |Eastward
------------------+------------+--------+------+--------+---------
New York and | | | | |
Southampton | | | | |
------------------+------------+--------+------+--------+---------
Columbia | 1,226 |150 |13,680|6 15 0 |Eastward
------------------+------------+--------+------+--------+---------
Normannia | 1,452 |160 |16,352|6 17 2 |Westward
------------------+------------+--------+------+--------+---------
Augusta Victoria | 1,120 |150 |14,110|6 22 32 |Eastward
------------------+------------+--------+------+--------+---------
Lahn | ... |150 | 9,500|7 3 0 |Eastward
------------------+------------+--------+------+--------+---------

------------------+---------+--------+-------+-------+-------
Name | Month |Distance|Average|Average|Fastest
| | | Speed | for | Day’s
| | | | Eight | Run
| | | |Months |during
| | | | |Season
------------------+---------+--------+-------+-------+-------
New York and | | Knots | Knots | Knots | Knots
Queenstown | | | | |
------------------+---------+--------+-------+-------+-------
City of Paris |August | 2,788 | 20.01 | 19.02 | 515
| | | | |
------------------+---------+--------+-------+-------+-------
City of New York |October | 2,775 | 19.64 | 19.02 | 502
| | | | |
------------------+---------+--------+-------+-------+-------
Majestic |September| 2,780 | 19.64 | 19.00 | ...
------------------+---------+--------+-------+-------+-------
Teutonic |August | 2,806 | 20.18 | 18.84 | 512
------------------+---------+--------+-------+-------+-------
Etruria |July | 2,845 | 18.80 | 18.29 | 481
------------------+---------+--------+-------+-------+-------
Umbria |August | 2,835 | 19.20 | 18.15 | 498
------------------+---------+--------+-------+-------+-------
City of Rome |Aug.-Sep.| 2,787 | 16.73 | 16.18 | 424
------------------+---------+--------+-------+-------+-------
New York and | | | | |
Southampton | | | | |
------------------+---------+--------+-------+-------+-------
Columbia |October | 3,045 | 19.15 | 18.68 | 492
------------------+---------+--------+-------+-------+-------
Normannia |August | 3,045 | 18.91 | 18.41 | 486
------------------+---------+--------+-------+-------+-------
Augusta Victoria |September| 3,049 | 18.31 | 17.52 | 470
------------------+---------+--------+-------+-------+-------
Lahn |October | ... | ... | 17.29 | ...
------------------+---------+--------+-------+-------+-------

NOTE.—The nautical mile is one-sixtieth of a degree of the Equator,
and is usually reckoned 6,080 feet, the statute mile being 5,280;
twenty nautical miles are thus about twenty-three statute miles. The
shortest distance is the arc of the great circle of the Earth passing
through the two ports; any deviation from this by varying the course
on account of intervening land or ice increases the distance to be
run.

The crown is thus for the moment with the White Star, nor is it likely to be torn away by anything short of the tremendous effort involved in putting afloat a new, a bigger, and a more costly ship. Owners must, of course, count the cost of such rivalry and must put against the gain of say sixteen hours, in order to come to the desired five days and twenty-three knots, the cost of the thousand or twelve hundred tons more of coal which will have to be burned, the doubled number of engine and fire-room force, the larger crew, the interest on the greater investment. It is a large price to pay for a gain of so small a bit of that we generally hold so cheap—but it will be paid.

* * * * *

It has been impossible, of course, in a single chapter to do more than touch upon the vast changes, and their causes, which have had place in this great factor of human progress. Higher pressures and greater expansions: condensation of the exhaust steam, and its return to the boiler without the new admixture of sea-water, and the consequent necessity of frequent blowing off, which comparatively but a few years ago was so common; a better form of screw; the extensive use of steel in machinery, by which parts have been lightened, and by the use of which higher boiler-pressures are made possible—these are the main steps. But in addition to steel, high pressures, and the several other elements named which have gone to make up this progress, there was another cause in the work chiefly done by the late W. Froude, to be specially noticed as being that which has done more than the work of any other man to determine the most suitable forms for ships, and to establish the principles governing resistance. The ship-designer has, by this work, been put upon comparatively firm ground, instead of having a mental footing as unstable, almost, as the element in which his ships are destined to float.

It is not possible to go below the surface of such a subject in a popular paper, and it must suffice to speak of Mr. Froude’s deductions, in which he divided the resistances met by ships into two principal parts: the surface or skin friction, and the wave-making resistance (which latter has no existence in the case of a totally submerged body—only begins to exist when the body is near the surface, and has its full effect when the body is only partially submerged). He showed that the surface friction constitutes almost the whole resistance at moderate speeds, and a very great percentage at all speeds; that the immersed midship section area which formerly weighed so much in the minds of naval architects was of much less importance than was supposed, and that ships must have a length corresponding in a degree to the length of wave produced by the speed at which they are to be driven.

He showed that at high speeds waves of two different characters are produced: the one class largest at the bow, which separate from the ship, decreasing in successive undulations without afterward affecting her progress; the other, those in which the wave-crests are at right angles to the ship’s course, and the positions of these crests have a very telling effect upon the resistance.

As the ship’s speed is increased the spaces between the crests of these lengthen in unison with the speed, and it has been shown that when the speed is such that a wave-crest would be at the middle point of the after body (or quarter) the wave-making resistance is least, and that it is greatest when the hollow appears at this point.

A ship must therefore be of a length that depends largely upon the length of wave which at a high speed she will tend to produce in order that she may be driven at such a speed without an expenditure of power disproportionate to the effect produced. This length, if very high speeds are desired, is best wholly taken up in fining the entrance and run, leaving no parallelism of middle body, and broadening and deepening the ship to keep the necessary displacement. The wave-action at several speeds is well shown in the illustrations, which are from instantaneous photographs, showing the Chilian cruiser Esmeralda at her full speed of 18 knots, when on her trial off Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the Giovanni Bausan, of the Italian navy (almost a sister ship to the Esmeralda), at a moderate speed, and H.M.S. Impérieuse, at about 17-1/4 knots. [See illustration, p. 64.] The following are the principal details of the Esmeralda and Impérieuse:

Displacement. Length. Beam. Draught. Horse-power.
Esmeralda 3,000 270 42 18.3 6,500
Impérieuse 7,390 315 62 26.0 10,180

The eddy-making resistance is greater or less, of course, as the form is blunted or finer, and there is less resistance with a blunt bow and finely formed after-body than were the two reversed. Our practical towing friends will be glad to know that Mr. Froude substantiates their oft-reiterated assertion that a log tows more easily butt-end foremost. In the Merkara, a merchant ship built by Mr. Denny, of 3,980 tons, 360 feet length, 37.2 feet breadth, and 16.25 feet draught, this resistance is, at all speeds, about eight per cent. of the surface friction, which at the maximum speed of thirteen knots, at which she was intended to be run, still formed nearly eighty per cent. of the whole resistance.

A very wonderful result of these experiments has been to show (in the words of Mr. Froude) “what an exceedingly small force, after all, is the resistance of a ship compared with the apparent magnitude of the phenomena involved. Scarcely anyone, I imagine, seeing the new frigate Shah (of 6,250 tons displacement) steaming at full speed (from sixteen to seventeen knots) would be inclined, at first sight, to credit what is nevertheless a fact, that the whole propulsive force necessary to produce that apparently tremendous effect is only 27 tons—in fact, less than one two-hundredth part of the weight of the vessel—and of this small propulsive force at least 15 tons, or more than one-half, is employed in overcoming surface friction simply.”

Of course, very small vessels, as torpedo-boats, have been driven at very high speeds, but the power necessary is in enormous disproportion as compared with the above, a development in 135-foot torpedo boats of from 1,000 to 1,500 horse-power and more being not uncommon.

The acceptance of the results of Mr. Froude’s deductions has naturally led to an increase in the beam of fast ocean steamers; we find all the later-built to be much broadened, and there is a still increasing tendency in that direction. It is needless to say how much this means in many ways to the passenger.

Collision will and must remain the great and really almost the one danger which the North Atlantic traveller need fear. He can rarely hope to cross in the usual steam route without experiencing a run of some hundreds of miles through fog, especially on leaving or approaching our coast. So long as the Gulf Stream and the cold inlying current from the north move in juxtaposition as they do, so long will the fog be almost always present upon the border-land dividing them. How easy it is for a great ship to be sunk was shown in the case of the Oregon. A blow from a pygmy schooner not more than one-tenth her size, and a hole was opened through her side which unfortunate circumstances combined to make fatal, and the great vessel, a triumph of human skill in hull and machinery, is lying in a few hours upon the bottom of the sea, with a million days of skilled labor, as represented by ship and cargo, in this moment made valueless. Who can over estimate the care and responsibility upon the man who commands such a ship? In what other calling are they found as such a constant part of daily life?

The only remedy for such an accident as that which befell the unluckly Oregon seems to be a subdivision such as is carried out in all the greater ships of late years; and that this has been carried to a degree which has made the finer passenger ships practically unsinkable, unless under most exceptional circumstances, would seem quite sure.[6]

* * * * *

How wonderful has been the scale upon which this great industry of carriage by steam vessels has grown can only be shown by tables of statistics.

The steam tonnage in the United States, Great Britain, France, and Germany, beginning with 1840, was as follows:

------+-------------------------------+---------+---------+----------
| United States. | | |
+----------+----------+---------+ | |
Years.|Registered| Enrolled | | | |
| for | and | Total. | United | France. | German
| oversea. | licensed.| | Kingdom.| | Empire.
------+----------+----------+---------+---------+---------+----------
| Gross | Gross | Gross | | |
| tons. | tons. | tons. |Net tons.|Net tons.| Net tons.
1840 | 4,155 | 198,184 | 202,339| 87,539| 9,535 | ...
1850 | 44,942 | 481,005 | 525,947| 167,698| 13,925 | ...
1860 | 97,296 | 770,641 | 867,937| 452,352| 68,025 | ...
1870 | 192,544 | 882,551 |1,075,095|1,111,375| 154,415 | 81,994
1875 | 191,689 | 976,979 |1,168,668|1,943,197| 205,420 | 183,569
1880 | 146,604 |1,064,964 |1,211,558|2,720,551| 277,759 | 215,758
| | | | | (1884) | (1884)
1885 | 186,406 |1,308,511 |1,494,917|3,969,728| 511,072 | 413,943
{| 197,630 |1,661,458 |1,859,088|5,112,683| 503,791 | 722,521
1890 {| | | | Gross | Gross | Gross
{| | | | tons. | tons. | tons.
{| | | |8,167,762| 848,522 |1,054,899
------+----------+----------+---------+---------+---------+----------

This statement, showing our steam tonnage registered for foreign trade to be 6,000 tons less in 1885 than in 1870, is not an encouraging one, especially when taken in connection with the fact that our tonnage in foreign trade has steadily lessened, and the percentage of our imports carried in American vessels has dwindled from 75.2 per cent. in 1856 to 66.5 in 1860; to 35.6 per cent. in 1870; and to 12.29 per cent. in 1890. Even during the civil war it never fell below 27.5 per cent.

* * * * *

The amount of steam tonnage built in the United States and in Great Britain at intervals of five years from 1855 is as follows:

------+-------+---------------------
| United States.
+-------+------------+--------
Years.|Number.| Tonnage. |Average
| | |tonnage.
------+-------+------------+--------
| |Gross tons. |
1855 | 246 | 72,760 | 296
1860 | 275 | 69,370 | 259
1865 | 411 | 145,696 | 356
1870 | 290 | 70,621 | 244
1875 | 323 | 62,460 | 193
1880 | 348 | 78,853 | 229
1885 | 338 | 84,333 | 249
1890 | 410 | 159,045 |
------+-------+------------+--------
| United Kingdom.
+-------+------------+--------
Years.|Number.| Tonnage. |Average
| | |tonnage.
------+-------+------------+--------
| | Net tons. |
1855 | 278 | 106,872 | 385
1860 | 234 | 67,699 | 289
1865 | 453 | 211,665 | 467
1870 | 512 | 267,896 | 523
1875 | 428 | 226,701 | 530
1880 | 629 | 414,831 | 660
1885 | 487 | 221,918 | 456
| | |
| | Gross tons.|
1890 | 632 |1,076,220[7]| 1,700
------+-------+------------+--------

The startling steam tonnage of 1883 (nearly three-quarters of a million tons) built in Great Britain, of which 134,785 were built at Glasgow, 125,870 at the Tyne ports, and 117,776[8] at Sunderland, was followed by a great depression. In 1884 but a little over half that of the preceding year was built (415,095 tons); and in 1885 this was again almost halved, the output falling to only 221,918 tons, and the average size also falling off from 724 tons in 1883 to 456 in 1885. But in the last five years Great Britain has moved forward with a constantly accelerated pace, culminating in the vast figures of 1890, when she put afloat over 80 per cent. of the world’s production for the year.

Nearly or, practically, quite all of the vast fleet represented by these figures are of iron or steel; the tonnage of the wooden steamers generally falling in later years in Great Britain to a total of 1,000 tons or less, and this made up of vessels averaging not more than 30 tons each.

Steel may be said to have almost supplanted iron as a material; in 1880 but 10 per cent. of British steam vessels were built of this, as against 90 per cent. of iron; in 1890 but 4 per cent. were of the latter metal. There is, however, a tendency on the part of some owners to return to iron as less liable to the pitting caused by the galvanic action arising from want of homogeneity in the steel; a vessel’s bottom, unless well guarded by protective compositions, being frequently severely corroded, generally in small pits the size of a pea, but often extending to large patches.

One would think that this immense yearly addition of steamships represented in the foregoing tables would soon go beyond the world’s needs, but the almost incredible losses from wrecks, casualties, and other reasons for disappearance from the register, must be considered. There were lost or abandoned, in the fiscal year ending June 1890, 238 steamers and 588 sailing vessels of our fleet, a total of 165,508 tons; 311,220 tons disappearing in the same period from the British Register, going to swell the gigantic total of 6,795 vessels, representing 2,349,034 tons of British shipping totally lost at sea in the ten years 1880-89 inclusive.

In the face of these tremendous figures the ship-builder need not despair—he need only wait; a few slack years and the gaps in the ranks become so great that building of necessity must re-begin. The lives of ships are indeed more precarious than those of us mortals. They perish at the annual rate of about 30 in the 1,000, whereas our general chances are one-third better. But these losses of ships carry with them the lives of many brave men; with the wrecks above enumerated more than 20,000 persons perished. In this bald statement what vistas of suffering, incapacity, carelessness, negligence, misfortune, and heroism are opened up!