Chapter XIV: The Triumph of Steam

The speed of life, the rate of progress, and the development of new ideas have since the beginning of the nineteenth century been so rapid that all the previous history of the Mercantile Marine, as in other spheres of activity, seems ridiculously slow and unduly protracted until we realise that a ship could not become efficient until she had the right type of hull and the correct distribution of sails, nor be able to steam until suitable engines had evolved by invention and long practice.

It is a cliché to speak of the “wonderful” nineteenth century, and yet in regard to its effects on the sea services it is but expressing a literal truth. The amazing fact is, that just as the sailing ship was becoming perfect the steamship was beginning to take its place; and just as the clippers had definitely created the golden age of sail, steamers had become reliable, indispensable and destined to make sailing vessels out of date. If steam and iron, and then steel, had not been introduced into marine progress for another hundred years, and the clippers had been allowed to have the seas to themselves, it would have seemed but fair and natural, having regard to the centuries and centuries which had been necessary to bring about, at last, so perfect a creation of man’s science, art and bitter experience.

[_By courtesy Messrs. T. H. Parker._

LORD YARBOROUGH’S YACHT “FALCON.”

351 tons. Off Cowes. About 1829. Afterwards used as a merchant ship.]

But it was not to be. The story of the steamship, like that of the sailing ship, is one of evolution; but compressed into a few years instead of many centuries. As early as 1736 a steam vessel had been patented by Jonathan Hulls, to be used as a steam tug. It is even said that such a craft was built and experimented with in the following year; but at any rate the experiment was not continued. The essential idea was the use of a single paddle at the stern. Now follows the trend of invention. In 1783 a two-paddle-wheel steam craft, turned by a single horizontal steam cylinder, constructed by the Marquis de Jouffroy, actually went ahead for some time against the current of the Saône. For some time Patrick Miller had been experimenting with the old idea of propelling craft by hand-worked paddle-wheels. In 1787 William Symington had obtained a patent for a new steam-engine, and he was now asked to design an engine that would turn these paddle-wheels. Thus in the autumn of 1788 the engine was put into a double-hulled vessel, no bigger than the smallest yacht, measuring 25 feet long, with 7 feet beam, the engine being geared with chains and the two paddle-wheels being placed between the two hulls, one wheel astern of the other. This curious vessel was actually tried on Dalswinton Loch and was able to do her five miles an hour.

Then in 1801 was built the stern-wheeler _Charlotte Dundas_ at Grangemouth, having engines supplied by Symington. She also had a double stern with two rudders controlled by a steering-wheel. She proved her efficiency to the extent of towing a couple of 70-ton, loaded vessels for nearly twenty miles along the Forth and Clyde canal; but as the owners of this waterway feared for the damage done to the banks of the canal, the ship was condemned. We have to look upon these as hardly anything more than interesting experiments, but six years later we see the first real steamship, not in England nor Scotland, but in North America, yet produced by a combination of British and American brains. This was the _Clermont_, measuring 133 feet long and 18 feet beam, and was produced by Robert Fulton, an American engineer, born in Pennsylvania of Irish parentage. In 1797 he came to Paris, where he devoted his attention to steam navigation, and in 1803 built a small steamboat which went up the Seine. Three years later he went back to America, having seen the trial trip of the _Charlotte Dundas_. He arranged with the British firm Boulton & Watt to make for him the principal portions of a suitable engine, and these were sent across the Atlantic to him and fitted into the wooden ship _Clermont_. The result was that in 1807 this craft travelled by steam power from New York to Albany up the Hudson, a distance of 150 miles, in thirty-two hours. This was a veritable triumph, and definitely settled the question as to whether steam vessels would ever become of practical utility. It is, indeed, one of the landmarks of history, and when we look on the ocean to-day and see such mighty steamships as _Olympic_, _Aquitania_, _Majestic_ and _Berengaria_, to say nothing of the many thousands of smaller steamers all over the world, it is nothing short of remarkable that in little more than a hundred years such a stupendous change should have come about. The advancement of the ship seems suddenly to have been telescoped.

[_By courtesy Messrs. T. H. Parker._

CLIPPER SCREW S.S. “HELLENIS.”

755 tons, length 206 ft. Owned by the Anglo-Ionian Steam Navigation Co., Ltd. Built at Stockton. In 1861.]

[_By courtesy Messrs. T. H. Parker._

S.S. “ORINOCO.”

2,250 tons, 800 horse-power. Lieut. G. M. Chapman, R.N., Commander. Owned by Royal West India Mail Company.]

But the successive stages were not easy, and there was much to be learnt. In 1811 on the Clyde was launched the _Comet_, a clumsy little thing of 40 feet length on the keel, and able to steam five miles an hour by means of one paddle on each side, as in the case of the _Clermont_. During the next few years paddle-steamers began to be built and introduced on the Clyde, Thames and Mersey. By 1817 a steamer called the _Caledonia_ had been taken from the Clyde to the Thames, whence, after receiving new engines, she steamed to Rotterdam. A year later came the 90-ton _Rob Roy_, constructed by William Denny and engined by Napier with thirty nominal horse-power. After running for some time between Greenock and Belfast, she was transferred to the Dover-Calais route, but in the meantime steamer development was proceeding in other parts of Europe. For in 1815 a small craft called the _Elizabeth_ was running on the Neva, another steamer was carrying passengers between Cronstadt and St. Petersburg, whilst in Germany the first vessel of this kind to be built was the _Prinzessin Charlotte_, a double-hulled thing with a single paddle-wheel between the hulls. She was running on the Elbe and Spree as early as 1816.

Thus far small steamers had shown their utility for inland waters and for short sea passages; but now comes another important event. In the year 1818 there was built in New York the 350-ton full-rigged ship _Savannah_, but she was also fitted with a low-pressure engine of ninety horse-power, and a couple of paddle-wheels, one on each side. These were so arranged that they could be hoisted on board. In the following year she crossed the Atlantic to Liverpool in thirty days, but this was largely a sailing passage, for she did not use her engines except for eighty hours, and by the time she had reached the Irish coast she had consumed all her fuel. On her return to America her engines were removed and she became a sailing ship simply. Still, for the first time in history a ship had been driven by steam in the Atlantic, and it showed what could be expected presently.

And then came a surprise. In that yard which had been building nothing else but sailing ships since the time of Elizabeth, in that yard where the flower of the British merchant fleet had always been constructed, there was now actually being made a steamer! It seemed incredible, but it was true, and it caused a great sensation at the time. In 1820 had been formed the first steamship company, under the title of the General Steam Navigation Company, and they gave the order for their first steamer to the Blackwall yard of Wigram & Green. This ship was the 401-ton paddler _City of Edinburgh_, for the Edinburgh trade, and she was launched in 1821, the same year as the yard also launched the 1333-ton East Indiaman _Duchess of Atholl_, one of the finest sailing ships of the time. It was significant of the big change that was coming over the Mercantile Marine, though for many a year most of the officers and men heartily despised any one who deserted sail for steam.

In the following year this same yard launched the 180-ton paddler _King of the Netherlands_ for the same owners, and in 1823 they built three more steamers of from 244 to 510 tons. The _City of Edinburgh_ had been launched in March, and had caused so much interest that the future William IV and Queen Adelaide went to look over her and were surprised at the magnificence of her passenger accommodation. The engines were of only 100 horse-power, yet the Press at the time referred to them as “extremely powerful.” Then in the following June was launched at Port Glasgow the 420-ton three-masted schooner _James Watt_, which had a long, narrow funnel, about as tall as her mainmast, and a paddle-wheel on either side of the ship driven by engines of the same horse-power as those for the _City of Edinburgh_.

The steamship had thus got a good start, though as regards ocean work the engines were auxiliary rather than the main propelling power. In 1825 the 176-ton auxiliary _Falcon_ reached Calcutta via the Cape, and the 470-ton _Enterprise_ made the same voyage in 113 days, but for 103 days she used steam. This was the biggest test which marine machinery had so far endured. It proved a good deal, and therefore it is not surprising that two years later there were eighty steamers classed in Lloyd’s Register, and five years later there were 100. But the Atlantic had not yet been conquered by steam, and when we realise that _Aquitania_ was not in commission until 1914, we can well appreciate the rate of progress that was afterwards made. In 1831 a vessel named the _Royal William_, 176 feet long, was built in Quebec, and fitted with engines made by Boulton & Watt that had been sent across the Atlantic. Two years later this ship crossed the ocean to Cowes, having done the 2500 miles in seventeen days, yet there is some doubt as to whether she used her engines throughout the whole voyage.

But the year 1838 was to be remarkable in the story of the Atlantic, for on April 4 there started from Cork the 703-ton paddler _Sirius_, which reached New York on April 22. She had steamed all the way, but it had been a near thing, for her fuel gave out and she had even to burn some of her spars. At one stage of the voyage her captain had to quell a mutiny, for the crew began to assume that the ship would never get across. Twelve hours after her arrival came into New York the four-masted paddler _Great Western_, which had left Bristol on April 7. She was a much larger ship, of 1321 gross tons, and had been specially designed by that engineering genius Brunel to withstand Atlantic weather. On the return voyage she took fifteen days, and _Sirius_ seventeen. _Great Western_ was a most successful ship, both technically and commercially. At the end of the first year she earned a dividend of 9 per cent., thirty-five guineas being the fare, and she carried 152 passengers. She was not broken up until 1847.

So far no steamer had crossed from Liverpool to New York, though the sailing ships were still doing the voyage in about three weeks, but in 1838 a second _Royal William_ accomplished this. She was hardly the kind of paddler to choose for Atlantic work, and had really been built for the Liverpool-Kingstown route. Built and engined at Liverpool, being 3 feet shorter but 2 feet wider than _Sirius_, she was thus the first of those steamers to maintain the communication between Liverpool and New York, which has meant so much to the mutual commerce and development of ideas in the two countries. On April 2, 1839, the three-masted paddler _British Queen_ left Portsmouth and reached New York on April 16, or three days quicker than the first _Royal William_ had done the journey in the opposite direction under sail and steam. Encouraged by the success of _Sirius_, which had been chartered because the _British Queen_ was not yet ready, the British Queen Steam Navigation Company had also built the sister ship _President_, 1863 tons and 700 horse-power; but after sailing from New York on March 11, 1841, with a few passengers, _President_ was never heard of again, and thus the company came to an end.

We have now reached a stage when a change was coming over the Mercantile Marine slowly but without a doubt. A new competition was beginning, yet so far sail was ahead and improving all the time. But from the number of new shipyards which were springing up, and the interest which they and owners were taking in the steamship, it was obvious even soon after Queen Victoria’s accession that in the steamship lay the future of the trading and passenger ship. It is to be noted that during the time of the Honourable East India Company their ships were primarily and essentially freighters. They earned their profits by carrying valuable exports and imports. The few passengers who travelled were officials going out to India in the service of the company, or returning home. To-day the finest merchant ships in the world are not freighters, but passenger ships. It is the tramp which has succeeded to the carrying trade of those pioneer ships; and after the Indian monopoly had disappeared, and there came a need for people to go out East, it was quite an innovation to provide more accommodation for passengers. Then the same thing happened in regard to China, but especially with the emigration to Australia. Gradually this element increased, people began to travel all over the world, for business, for administrative reasons, for pleasure; and as the number of passengers increased so the amount of cargo space was encroached upon. Especially was this the case in the transatlantic ships, so that to-day the principal liners on that route carry practically no cargo beyond mails and the passengers’ luggage. Thus, within a hundred years, the needs of the public have entirely altered the characters of the shipping.

It was natural enough that the East should for so long have instigated all the improvements in shipping, for the reason that travellers went to the Orient long before America was discovered, and the East India Company had a continuous need for the best ships. But since the introduction of steam and the rapid progress of the United States, it is the West, and not the East which has always seen the greatest enterprise in shipping. Bigger and better vessels, compound engines, twin screws, triple screws, quadruple screws, turbines, oil fuel, increased speed, luxurious accommodation—all these most important and progressive factors in the Mercantile Marine have come as a result of the Atlantic, and not the Oriental trade.

In reality it is all traceable to the year 1840, though the establishment of Lloyd’s Register in 1834,[5] the founding of the Marine Department of the Board of Trade in 1846 and the repeal of the Navigation Laws in 1849 have also to be reckoned as having powerfully contributed to the improvement of British shipping. Some time since I had in my hands the log of the sailing ship _Elizabeth_, which sailed from the Thames in the spring of 1833, arrived in China the following January, left there in March, called at St. Helena in June, then crossed the Atlantic and reached Halifax in August. She was, I believe, the last of the ships owned by the Honourable East India Company to leave China before the monopoly ended. Now, as showing the interlocking of human affairs, it is interesting to observe that at Halifax she went alongside Mr. Cunard’s wharf, for he was the East India Company’s agent in that port. Curiously, five years previously, in reply to a letter sent to his firm by Messrs. Ross & Primrose, Cunard had written: “We have received your letter of the 22nd inst. We are entirely unacquainted with the cost of a steamboat, and would not like to embark in a business of which we are quite ignorant. Must, therefore, decline taking any part in the one you propose getting up.”

Now in those days the arrangements for postal contracts were in the hands of the British Admiralty, who were so impressed by the wonderful steamship achievements of 1838 that they proceeded to issue circulars inviting tenders for the carrying of American mails by steamers. It so happened that one of these circulars fell into the hands of Samuel Cunard of Halifax, who owned a number of sailing ships trading between Boston, Newfoundland and Bermuda. He had been one of the shareholders of the first _Royal William_, which had crossed in 1833 from Nova Scotia to Cowes. Having read the circular and made up his mind, he came to London in order to raise the required money, but the merchants would have nothing to do with the scheme. From the secretary of the East India Company he obtained a letter of introduction to Mr. Robert Napier, a Clyde shipbuilder and engineer, who in turn introduced him to Mr. George Burns, and the latter introduced him to Mr. David MacIver. Each of these two last mentioned was an expert in the shipping business, and in a few days the necessary capital of £270,000 was subscribed. A tender was then made to the Admiralty for the conveyance of Her Majesty’s mails once a fortnight between Liverpool, Halifax and Boston. This was accepted in competition, and a contract was signed for seven years. It was agreed that the service was to be carried on by four ships, that fixed dates of sailings should be adhered to, and that the company should be subsidised to the extent of £81,000 a year.

Thus the famous Cunard Company was founded. Cunard came to London, Burns to Glasgow and MacIver to Liverpool, and to these three men we owe a great deal of the subsequent development of Atlantic shipping and the progress of the Mercantile Marine. The company was at first known as “The British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company,” and in the year 1840 these four wooden ships were built on the Clyde and supplied with engines by Robert Napier. The first was the _Britannia_, followed by the _Acadia_, _Caledonia_ and _Columbia_. They were propelled by paddle-wheels, carried 115 cabin passengers and 225 tons of cargo, and they were all approximately 1154 tons, and 207 feet long. Regardless of superstition, _Britannia_ began her maiden voyage on a Friday, which happened to be July 4, a day which commemorated another kind of Independence. After a fine trip of eleven days and four hours she reached Halifax, and thence proceeded to Boston, just a fortnight plus eight hours out from Liverpool. The citizens of Boston celebrated the historic event with banqueting and enthusiasm, and thus was forged one of those links which have bound the two nations together for so many years ever since.

Following the precedent of the Cunard Company, the Royal Mail Line in March 1840, obtained a contract to carry the mails in at least fourteen “good substantial and efficient steam vessels” to the West Indies, whither previously the mails had been carried in gun-brigs. The contract was for ten years from December 1841. All the ships were named after British rivers, and they used to depart from Falmouth, the voyage taking from seventeen to eighteen days. It is evidence of the great spread of shipbuilding already that these fourteen ships were built at Northfleet on the Thames, Greenock, Dumbarton, Leith and even Cowes. The fleet cost about £1,000,000 sterling, but the Government gave them a subsidy of £240,000 a year. The undertaking was very successful, and presently Southampton took the place of Falmouth. Then in 1851 the Royal Mail Line extended their service to South America. Gradually the heavy subsidy dropped to £85,000 a year, and was finally abolished in June 1905.

As further evidence of the solid belief which the steamship had now won, it is only necessary to refer to the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, which received its charter in 1840. It is now amalgamated with the Royal Mail Line, but in those days, whilst the latter served the east side of South America, the Pacific Steam Navigation Company served the Pacific coast of that continent by going round through the Magellan Straits. Their two ships the _Chile_ and _Peru_ were in fact the first two steamers which ever passed through those straits. What a wonderful change since the time of Drake’s ships!

But there is still one more important event which belongs to the year 1840, for this was the date when there was incorporated by royal charter the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company. The foundation of the Peninsular Company dates back to 1837, and a regular service of mail packets was instituted from London to Lisbon and Gibraltar, though even a little prior to this date its ships had begun running to the Peninsula. The first steamship owned by the Peninsular Company was the 209-ton paddler _William Fawcett_, built in the year 1829, and she ran from London to Lisbon and Gibraltar. In 1840 the line was extended to Malta and Alexandria, and its title changed from Peninsular to Peninsular and Oriental. There was as yet no Suez Canal, so from Alexandria passengers and goods were sent by the Mahmoudieh Canal to the Nile, whence they proceeded by steamer to Cairo, and from there travelled through the desert on camels as far as Suez. It was thus a laborious business, 3000 camels being employed for transporting a single steamer’s loading, every package requiring three separate transfers; and for nearly thirty years this continued until the Suez Canal was opened in 1869.

[_By courtesy Messrs. T. H. Parker._

TWO EARLY MAIL STEAMSHIPS.

This picture of 1842 shows two of the General Steam Navigation Company’s vessels at Rotterdam. The 600-ton “Ocean” leaving, and the 500-ton “Giraffe” arriving.]

But this company first sent a steamer to India via the Cape in 1842. This was the 1800-ton _Hindostan_, with 500-horse-power engines. In 1844 the P. & O. undertook the mail service from England to Alexandria, and thus from Suez to Ceylon, Calcutta and China. The service between Suez and Bombay was carried on by the East India Company, in order to keep alive their navy, but in 1854 this service was absorbed by the P. & O., who in 1852 had also started a branch line from Singapore to Australia. Then in 1869 came the opening of the Suez Canal, and thus was broken down the last barrier which separated India from the trader. A tremendous impulse was given now to shipping; for the first time vessels need not go round the Cape of Good Hope, and so once again the Mediterranean ceased to be a backwater and the route to the East was now more like what it was before the Portuguese, Dutch and Elizabethan English had begun to undertake their Oriental voyages. It is interesting to remark that in the same year which saw the opening of the Suez Canal the two fastest clipper ships which ever sailed were both afloat—_Thermopylae_ and _Cutty Sark_. The latter made her maiden voyage in the following February. Thus, at a time when sailing ships were passing the Cape at a record speed, the canal was being opened and putting an end to the sail-driven vessel’s usefulness after so many centuries, linking it up with Vasco da Gama and earlier.

FOOTNOTES:

[5] By the amalgamation of the Register of Shipping (1760) and the New Register Book of Shipping (1799).