The Pioneer Steamship Savannah Part 1

The Pioneer Steamship Savannah: A Study for a Scale Model.

by Howard I. Chapelle.

_Howard I. Chapelle_

The Pioneer Steamship

SAVANNAH:

_A Study for a Scale Model_

_The original plans of the pioneer transatlantic steamer_ Savannah _no longer exist, and many popular representations of the famous vessel have been based on a 70-year-old model in the United States National Museum. This model, however, differs in several important respects from contemporary ill.u.s.trations._

_To correct these apparent inaccuracies in a new, authentic model, a reconstruction of the original plans was undertaken, using as sources the ship's logbook and customhouse description, a French report on American steam vessels published in 1823, and Russian newspaper accounts contemporary with the_ Savannah's _visit to St.

Petersburg on her historic voyage of 1819. The development of this research and the resulting information in terms of her measurements and general description are related here._

THE AUTHOR: _Howard I. Chapelle is curator of transportation in the United States National Museum, Smithsonian Inst.i.tution._

The United States National Museum has in its watercraft collection a rigged scale model purported to be of the pioneer transatlantic steamer _Savannah_. For many years this model was generally accepted as being a reasonably accurate representation and was the basis for countless ill.u.s.trations. Curiously enough, the model (USNM 160364) does not agree with the published catalog description[1] as to the side paddle wheels. Neither does it agree with the material in the Marestier report,[2] which is accepted as the only source for a contemporary picture of the _Savannah_.

The recent naming of an atomic-powered ship in honor of the famous steamer greatly increased popular interest in the pioneer ship and its supposed model. Consequently, the National Museum undertook the research necessary to correct or replace the existing model. This research has been carried out by the staff of the Museum's transportation division with the aid of Frank O. Braynard of the American Merchant Marine Inst.i.tute, Eugene S. Ferguson, curator of mechanical and civil engineering at the Museum, and others.

The _Savannah_ crossed from Savannah, Georgia, to Liverpool, England, in the period May 22 to June 20, 1819; and proceeded to the Baltic, where she entered at St. Petersburg (now Leningrad), Stockholm, and a few other ports. On her return she reached Savannah on November 30, and on December 3 she sailed for Washington, D.C., arriving on December 16. Her original logbook now on exhibition in the Museum,[3]

covers the period between March 28, 1819, when she first left New York for Savannah, to December 1819 when she was at Washington.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 1.--Old model of the _Savannah_, built under the supervision of Captain Collins. This model has been removed from exhibition in the United States National Museum because of inaccuracies. (_USNM_ 160364; _Smithsonian photo_ 14355.)]

The old model (fig. 1) was built about 1890-1892 by Lawrence Jenson, a master shipwright and model builder of Gloucester and Rockport, Ma.s.sachusetts, under the supervision of Capt. Joseph Collins of the U.S. Fish Commission. Notes in the records of the Museum's transportation division show that the research for this model was done by Captain Collins through use of an unidentified lithograph, printed after the transatlantic voyage, and what then could be learned about American sailing ships contemporary with the _Savannah_. In these notes the complaint is made that no contemporary representation of the steamship had then been found.

The old, inaccurate model, built to the scale of one-half inch to the foot, represents an auxiliary, side-wheel, ship-rigged steamer. The model scale measurements are about 120 feet in over-all length, 29 feet in beam, and 13 feet 6 inches depth in hold. The tonnage is stated on the exhibit card to have been about 350 tons, old measurement. The model has crude wooden side paddles of the radial type, a tall straight smokestack between fore and main masts, a small deckhouse forward of the stack, a raised quarter-deck, and a round stern.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 2.--The United States National Museum's new model of the _Savannah_. This model was built by Arthur Henning, Inc., of New York City, from the ship's plans as reconstructed by staff members of the Museum's division of transportation. (_USNM_ 319026.)]

The first step in the research for creating a more faithful representation of the _Savannah_ was to obtain the customhouse description of the ship. It was readily established that she was built as a sailing packet ship by the Fickett and Crockett shipyard[4] at Corlaer's Hook, East River, New York, and that she was launched August 22, 1818. Her register shows that she was 98 feet 6 inches in length between perpendiculars, 25 feet 10 inches in beam, 14 feet 2 inches depth in hold, of 319-70/94 tons burthen, and with square stern, round tuck, no quarter galleries, and a man's bust figurehead.

These dimensions of the _Savannah_ required the researchers to investigate the method of taking register dimensions in 1818. It was found that the customhouse rule then in effect measured length between perpendiculars above the upper deck, from "foreside of the main stem" to the "after side of the sternpost." The beam was measured outside of plank at the widest point in the hull, above the main wales. If a vessel were single-decked, the depth was measured alongside the keelson at main hatch from ceiling to underside of deck plank; if double-decked, one-half the measured beam was the register depth.[5] However, inspection of the register of a number of ships of 1815-1840 showed that, in practice, double-decked ships commonly were measured as single-decked ships; this obviously was the case in the _Savannah_. Also, due to the lack of precise measuring devices, the register dimensions were not always accurate, particularly those of the length, which often were in error as much as one foot in a hundred, as was found by investigation of various cla.s.ses of vessels.

Because of inherent difficulties in measuring to the required points, this condition lasted even after steel tapes were introduced late in the 19th century.

The Museum's researchers next turned their attention to examination of the Marestier work, a French report on early American steam vessels that had become known to some American marine historians in the 1920's. The author was a French naval constructor who, on orders from his government, had spent two years in the United States between 1819 and 1822 studying American steam vessels, schooners, and naval vessels. The published report contained only material on steam vessels and schooners. The portion dealing with naval vessels was not published, and the ma.n.u.script has not been found to the present time (1960). The publication, a rare book, was available in only a few collectors' libraries or public inst.i.tutions in the United States. In 1930 the writer translated the chapter on schooners,[6] and in 1957 Sidney Withington translated most of the remainder.[7] As a result of these publications and earlier published references, the Marestier material became widely known to persons interested in ships.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 3.--Marestier's sketch of the _Savannah_ (from plate 8 in Withington's translation of the Marestier report). Heights of lower masts are excessive by all known American masting rules; and, according to Marestier's drawing of the engine (see figure 4), the deckhouse is too short.]

Withington's translation states that the _Savannah_ measured 30.48 meters (100 feet) in length and 7.92 meters (26 feet) in beam and that she drew 3.66 meters (12 feet) in port and 4.27 meters (14 feet) loaded. Marestier's sketch (see fig. 3) of the outboard of the _Savannah_ shows a ship-rigged, flush-decked vessel with a small deckhouse forward of the mainmast and nearly abreast of the side paddle wheels. The stack is a little forward of the deckhouse and has an elbow at its top. Netting quarter-deck rail is shown and a bust figurehead is indicated. The position of the hawse pipe shown at the bow indicates the wheel shaft to have been at or about deck level. For structural reasons, and in compliance with the sketch, the wheel shaft would have been just above the deck.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 4.--Marestier's drawings of the _Savannah's_ engine (from plate 7 in Withington's translation of the Marestier report). The graphic dimensions do not precisely correspond to the scale of dimensions in Marestier's text, nor with other recorded measurements.]

Marestier's drawings of the engine and paddle wheels[8] are reproduced in figure 4. The nonoscillating engine is inclined toward the paddle-wheel shaft. The connecting rod operates a crosshead to which is pivoted a pitman, or oscillating rod, that operates the paddle-wheel crankshaft. Alongside the steam cylinder is an air pump cylinder, also connected to the crosshead. The steam inlet and outlet pipes enter a valve chest on top of the steam cylinder, which is described as being 1.035 meters (3.4 feet) in diameter, and of 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) in stroke.

The paddle wheels are shown as being of iron, with two fixed arms opposite one another on the hub. The other arms (four above and four below the fixed arms) are pivoted to the hub and held spread by chain stays. These eight blades fold, in pairs, to each of the fixed arms.

The wheels are shown in elevation, with the upper pivoted arms folded on top of the fixed arms, and in cross section; the latter shows the shape of the buckets, hub, and outboard bearing of the shaft. The wheels are described as being 4.9 meters (16 feet) in diameter, while the buckets are 1.42 meters (4.65 feet) wide and 0.83 meters (2.72 feet) deep. The two outer corners of each bucket are snyed off at nearly 45. The wheels are shown folded in the sketch; according to the description, they could be unshipped from the shaft and stowed on deck when desired. The method of removing the wheels from the shaft is not described, but from the drawings it seems probable that they were detached from the shaft by removing a lock bolt outboard and sliding the wheels off the square shaft. The hub seems adequate for this.

Marestier states that this removal could be accomplished in 15 to 20 minutes; the logbook shows that it took 20 to 30 minutes to perform this operation at sea.

Marestier states that the ship had spencer masts and trysails on fore and main, and a spencer mast on the mizzen for a spanker; he ill.u.s.trates these as having royal poles, but with no royal yards crossed.[9] The smokestack is described as pivoted. The mainstay is double, setting up at deck, near rail, and forward of the foremost shrouds of the foremast to clear the stack and foremast.

The boilers were in the hold, but Marestier gives no dimensions.

However, he comments that, in American steamers, the s.p.a.ce for steam in the boilers varied from 6 to 12 times the capacity of the cylinder.

He gives the _Savannah's_ boiler pressure as 2 to 5 pounds per square inch and the maximum revolution of the wheels as 16 revolutions per minute. The boilers could burn coal or wood. Judging by Marestier's sketch of the ship, the stack was at the firebox end; the boiler or boilers were underneath the engine.

The log of the _Savannah_ gives little useful technical information other than that the ship readily made 9 to 10 knots under sail in fresh winds, showing she could sail well. Under steam alone the log credits the ship with a speed of 6 knots; Marestier estimated her speed at 5-1/4 knots in smooth water. The log shows that she usually furled her sails when steaming, though on a few occasions she used both steam and sail. In her crossing from Savannah to Liverpool she appears to have been under steam for a little less than 90 hours in a period of about 18 days (out of the total of 29 days and 11 hours required to cross). There is no evidence of any intent to make the whole pa.s.sage under steam alone, for the vessel was intended to be an auxiliary, with sails the chief propulsion.

Captain Collins states in his notes that the ship was built by Francis Fickett as a Havre packet, that she stowed 75 tons of coal and 25 cords of wood, and cost $50,000. Apparently quoting Preble[10] to a great extent, he also states that the engine developed 90 horsepower and had a 40-inch diameter cylinder with a stroke of 5 feet.

Preble states that the ship was purchased for conversion to a steamer after launching and gives statements by Stevens Rogers, sailing master of the _Savannah_, to the effect that the ship was built as a Havre packet and that the project ruined financially one of the investors, William Scarborough. Rogers, who made these statements in 1856, also said the ship was built by "Crocker and Fickett." Contemporary newspapers, quoted by Preble, state that the ship had 32 berths in staterooms for pa.s.sengers.

Morrison[11] credits the building of the _Savannah_ to Francis Fickett and says she was intended for the Havre packet run. He states that the vessel cost $50,000; that her paddle wheels, each with eight buckets, were 16 feet in diameter; and that she had canvas wheel boxes supported by an iron frame. Morrison also relates the history of the ship after her return from Russia--the removal and the sale of her machinery to James P. Allaire, the operation of the ship as a sailing packet between New York and Savannah under the ownership and command of Captain Holdridge, and her stranding and loss during an east-northeast gale on November 5, 1821, at Great South Beach, off Bellport, on the south sh.o.r.e of Long Island. He also states that the steam cylinder of her engine was exhibited at the Crystal Palace Fair in New York during 1853, and that the ship proved uneconomical due to the large amount of s.p.a.ce occupied by the engine, boilers, and fuel, leaving little s.p.a.ce for cargo. Morrison apparently used some of the statements made in 1836 and 1856 by Stevens Rogers, who was the sailing master on the famous voyage.

Tyler[12] names the stockholders of the Savannah Steamship Company, owner of the _Savannah_. The company was proposed by Capt. Moses Rogers, and its shareholders were William Scarborough, John McKenna, Samuel Howard, Charles Howard, Robert Isaacs, S. C. Dunning, A. B.

Fannin, John Haslett, A. S. Bullock, James Bullock, John Bogue, Andrew Low, Col. J. P. Henry, J. Minis, John Sparkman, Robert Mitch.e.l.l, R.

Habersham, J. Habersham, Gideon Pott, W. S. Gillet, and Samuel Yates.

Tyler establishes, by the company's charter, that the objective was to inst.i.tute a New York-Savannah packet service, for which the _Savannah_ was to be the first ship. He shows that, due to the economic depression of 1819, the _Savannah_ sailed to Liverpool in ballast and without pa.s.sengers. Her fuel capacity is given as 1,500 bushels (75 tons) of coal and 25 cords of wood. [It should be noted that 1,500 bushels of bituminous coal does not quite equal 75 tons.] Tyler quotes S. C. Gilfillan[13] as to criticisms of the engine and its design.

Partington[14] estimated coal consumption to be nearly 10 tons a day; remarked on the uneconomical arrangement of the ship, with the engine and boiler occupying the greater part of the s.p.a.ce amidships, between fore and main masts; and located the axle of the paddle wheel "above the bends," that is, in the topsides above the wale. The description he gives of the unshipping of the wheels is that the pivoted blades were removed and the fixed blades, in horizontal position, were left on the shaft. This agrees with a Russian description referred to later. The logbook repeatedly speaks of "shipping" and "unshipping"

the paddle wheels, indicating that the wheels were entirely removed from the shafts and stowed on deck.

Watkins[15] showed, by the account books of Stephen Vail, owner of the Speedwell Ironworks near Morristown, New Jersey, that the engine was built by Vail, but apparently to designs by Daniel Dod. The latter built the _Savannah's_ boiler at Elizabeth, New Jersey, and made some parts of the engine, which he furnished, incomplete in some instances, to Vail. These account books, which were in the possession of John Lidgerwood of New York City in 1890, show the steam cylinder to have had an inside diameter of 40-3/8 inches and a 5-foot stroke. Reference in the account books to an error in Dod's draught of a piston proves that Dod designed the engine.

Watkins states that the engine was rated at 90 horsepower. He does not give the diameter of the pump cylinder, but, judging by the scaling of Marestier's drawing and by a rather indefinite entry in the Vail account book, it appears to have been between 17 and 18 inches.

Quoting Captain Collins at some length, Watkins writes that the mainmast was placed farther aft than was usual in a sailing ship, and that the vessel had a round stern. Collins apparently based his opinion upon an unidentified "contemporaneous lithograph" and upon "all other ill.u.s.trations of this famous vessel." Collins' conception of the appearance of the _Savannah_ is shown in a drawing by C. B.

Hudson that is reproduced as the frontispiece in Watkins' publication.

A statement by Stevens Rogers that was published in the _New London Gazette_ in 1836 appears to have been the original source for statements regarding the _Savannah's_ fuel capacity, her sale, and her loss in 1821 while owned and commanded by Capt. Nathaniel Holdridge, "now master of the Liverpool packet ship _United States_." Watkins also gives a picture of Stevens Rogers' tombstone, on which there is a small carving purported to be of the _Savannah_. The tombstone was made in 1868.

From a Russian newspaper contemporary with the _Savannah's_ visit to St. Petersburg, Frank Braynard found a statement that the vessel had two boilers, each 27 feet long and 6 feet in diameter.[16] It was also shown she had at least one chain cable. Considerable information on the cabin arrangement and the method 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 ill.u.s.trations upon which reconstruction could be based.

Through the efforts of Malcolm Bell, Jr., of Savannah, Georgia, and Frank Braynard, a search was made by Russian authorities at Leningrad for contemporary references to the ship. This work resulted in information 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[17] 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 perpendiculars. 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 perpendiculars. 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; nevertheless, 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 established. 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 William 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, U.S. naval constructor, to William Morgan and Augustin Creuze, London editors, for publication.[18] The offset tables were for a packet ship 103 feet between the perpendiculars of the builder (rather than between those of the customhouse) 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 Museum, 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 details are from portraits of packet ships, particularly of the first _New York_ (1822-1834) of the Black Ball Line.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Figure 5.--Lines of the coastal packet ship _Ohio_, built at Philadelphia in 1825 for the Philadelphia-New Orleans run.