The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril, & Heroism Volume II Part 6

Fulton, without doubt, designed and superintended the construction of the first steam war-vessel. On the 20th June, 1814, the keel was laid, and in little more than four months, that is, on the 29th October, she was launched from the yard of Adam and Noah Brown, her able and active architects. The scene exhibited on that occasion was magnificent. It happened on one of the brightest autumnal days. "Spectators," says Colden, "crowded the surrounding sh.o.r.es, and were seen upon the hills which limited the beautiful prospect. The river and bay were filled with vessels of war, dressed in all their variety of colours, in compliment to the occasion. In the midst of these was the enormous floating ma.s.s whose bulk and unwieldy form seemed to render her as unfit for motion as the land batteries which were saluting her. Through the fleet of vessels which occupied this part of the harbour were seen gliding in every direction several of our large steam-boats, of the burden of three or four hundred tons. These, with bands of music, and crowds of gay and joyous company, were winding through pa.s.sages left by the anch.o.r.ed vessels as if they were moved by enchantment. The heart could not have been human that did not share in the general enthusiasm expressed by the loud shouts of the mult.i.tude. He could not have been a worthy citizen, who did not then say to himself, with pride and exultation, 'This is my country!' and when he looked on the man whose single genius had created the most interesting objects of the scene, 'This is my countryman!'"

By May, 1815, her engine was put on board, and she was so far completed as to afford an opportunity of trying her machinery. But, unhappily, before this period the mind that had conceived and combined it was gone. Fulton, almost to the last day of his life, worked incessantly at this, the first steam war-vessel.

On the 4th July, in the same year, the steam frigate made a pa.s.sage from New York to the ocean and back, and went the distance-which, going and returning, is fifty-three miles-in eight hours and twenty minutes, by the mere force of her engine. These trials suggested the correction of some errors, and the supplying of some defects in the machinery. In September she made another pa.s.sage to the sea, and having at this time the weight of her whole armament on board, she went at an average of five and a half miles an hour, with and against tide. When stemming the tide, which ran at the rate of three miles an hour, she advanced at the rate of two and a half miles an hour.

We now reach the period which brings us to practical steam navigation in Europe. In January, 1812, Henry Bell, of Helensburgh, Scotland, completed the construction of a small pa.s.senger steam vessel, the _Comet_, of thirty tons burden. She was only forty feet in length, with an engine of three-horse power. The circular which announced its regular trips is worth reprinting, as it is the first advertis.e.m.e.nt of the kind made in all Europe. It reads as follows:-

"STEAM Pa.s.sAGE BOAT, THE _COMET_, BETWEEN GLASGOW, GREENOCK, AND HELENSBURGH FOR Pa.s.sENGERS ONLY.

"The Subscriber having, at much expense, fitted up a handsome vessel to ply upon the river Clyde, between Glasgow and Greenock, to sail by the power of wind, air and steam, he intends that the vessel shall leave the Broomielaw on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sat.u.r.days about mid-day, or at such hour thereafter as may answer from the state of the tide; and to leave Greenock on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays in the morning, to suit the tide.

"The elegance, comfort, safety, and speed of this vessel requires only to be proved to meet the approbation of the public; and the proprietor is determined to do everything in his power to merit public encouragement.

"The terms are for the present fixed at four shillings for the best cabin, and three shillings for the second, but beyond these rates nothing is to be allowed to servants or any other person employed about the vessel.

"The Subscriber continues his establishment at Helensburgh Baths, the same as for years past, and a vessel will be in readiness to convey pa.s.sengers in the _Comet_ from Greenock to Helensburgh.

"Pa.s.sengers by the _Comet_ will receive information of the hour of sailing by applying at Mr. Houslem's office, Broomielaw, or Mr. Thomas Blackney's, East Quay Head, Greenock.

"(Signed), HENRY BELL.

"Helensburgh Baths, Aug. 5, 1812."

[Ill.u.s.tration: BELL'S "COMET."]

Bell's claims to recognition are very much the same as those of Fulton and Livingston in the United States. He was instrumental in bringing steam navigation to a practical issue, but was not its inventor or first introducer. In 1816, he addressed an interesting letter to the _Caledonian Mercury_, showing the intimacy which existed between himself and Fulton, and proving that the leaders of the new steam movement were in frequent communication. In this letter he commences by recapitulating Miller's experiments in propelling vessels or rafts by paddles worked by capstans or by wind, like a windmill. These ideas were communicated to all the Courts of Europe, and the French, at one time, actually proposed something of the nature of rafts worked by Miller's plan, for the conveyance of troops to England. Miller sent one of his capstan vessels as a present to the King of Sweden. Bell makes the following statement:-

"Fulton came to the knowledge of steam-boats by employing me (H. Bell) about some plans of machinery, and begged me to call on Miller and see how he had succeeded in his steam-boat plan; and if it answered, to send him full drawings and description along with my machinery. I had a conversation with Miller, who gave me every information. I (H. Bell) told him that his engineer was wrong, and that I intended giving Fulton my opinion on steam-boats. I left Fulton's letter with Miller.

"Two years after, a letter from Fulton arrived, stating that he had constructed a steam-boat from the drawings I had sent him, but improvements were required. This letter I also sent to Miller."

He goes on to say that he set on foot his steam-boat after making various models, and when convinced they would answer, contracted with John Wood and Co., ship-builders, Port Glasgow, to build the _Comet_, so called from a comet which appeared in Scotland at that period. He claims that the _Comet_ was the first steam-vessel built in Europe "that would work," but this is unfair to the memories of Miller and Symington.

Oddly enough, while Bell was experimenting on the Clyde, Mr. Dawson was doing the same in Ireland. He even claims that he built a fifty-ton steamer in 1811, and which, by a coincidence simply, as it would seem, he had also named the _Comet_. He put the first steamer for public accommodation on the Thames in 1818, to run between London and Gravesend.

Mr. Lawrence, of Bristol, introduced a steam-boat on the Severn shortly after Bell put the _Comet_ on the Clyde, and brought her to London, but so great was the opposition from the watermen that he took her back to Bristol. She was afterwards taken to Spain, and long plied between Seville and St. Lucar. These were the precursors of those grand steam-ship lines which now run to every part of the habitable world. Bell's steamer was made, in the second year of its career, a pleasure-boat to many parts of the coasts of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and may therefore count as one of the first ocean-going as well as river steamers.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FOUR GREAT ENGINEERS.]

CHAPTER VI.

THE HISTORY OF SHIPS AND SHIPPING INTERESTS (_continued_).

The Clyde and its Ship-building Interests-From Henry Bell to Modern Ship-builders-The First Royal Naval Steamer-The First Regular Sea-going Steamer-The Revolution in Ship-building-The Iron Age-"Will Iron Float?"-The Invention of the Screw-propeller-Ericsson, Smith, and Woodcroft-American 'Cuteness-Captain Stockton and his Boat-The First Steamer to Cross the Atlantic-Voyages of the _Sirius_ and _Great Western_-The International Struggle-The Collins and Cunard Lines-Fate of the _Arctic_-The _Pacific_ never heard of more-Why the Cunard Company has been Successful-Splendid Discipline on Board their Vessels-The Fleets that Leave the Mersey.

What a contrast to the days of Henry Bell does the Clyde now present! From a mere salmon stream it has become, in little more than half a century, by far the largest and most important ship-building river in the wide world.

"Ancient historians have told us that when the first Punic war roused the citizens of Rome to extraordinary exertions in the equipment of a fleet for the destruction of the maritime supremacy of Carthage, the banks of the Tiber resounded with the axe and the hammer, and that the extent of the ship-building operations then carried on was a matter not merely of surprise, but of wonder. How insignificant, however, was that sound when compared with that of the steam-hammer and the anvil, and the din of the work now to be heard on the banks of the Clyde. For miles on both sides of the river stupendous ship-building yards line its banks, employing tens of thousands of hardy and skilled mechanics earning their daily bread, as G.o.d has destined all men to do, by 'the sweat of their brow.'... Along those banks there is now annually constructed a much larger amount of steam tonnage than in all the other ports of Europe combined, those of England alone excepted." These great private yards have been and will be invaluable in war times. Take such a firm as that of John Elder and Co., Fairfield, Glasgow, whose works cover sixty acres of ground. They have built vessels in the course of a year aggregating 35,000 to 40,000 tons, and have contracted for as many as six 4,000-ton steam-ships at a time.

One of these was delivered to her owners complete and ready for sea, with steam up, within thirteen months of the time she was contracted for.

Bell's _Comet_ was only of thirty tons, and its engine but of four-horse power! Mr. James Deas, C.E., in a work on the Clyde and its commerce, &c., says:-"It was no uncommon occurrence for the pa.s.sengers, when the little steamer was getting exhausted, to take to turning the fly-wheel to a.s.sist her."(29) Poor Bell, like so many of the pioneers of grand and important undertakings, did not profit much by his successful application of steam to navigation, and in his declining years was chiefly supported by an annuity of 50 granted by the Clyde trustees.

While the public, after the successful experiments already mentioned, and others which followed, were beginning to appreciate the value of steamers, the Admiralty would have nothing to do with them, and it took them about forty years before they reluctantly applied steam to war vessels. The absolutely first steam vessel built for the Royal Navy was a tug, also named the _Comet_. She was constructed in 1819, after some experiments had convinced Lord Melville and Sir George c.o.c.kburn of the value of steam power in towing men-of-war. "At this period, Mr. Ronnie, who planned the breakwater at Plymouth and new London Bridge, was 'advising engineer' to the Admiralty, and on every occasion urged the application of steam power to vessels of war. More than this, he hired at his own cost the Margate steam-boat, the _Eclipse_, and successfully towed the _Eastings_, 74, against the tide from Woolwich to Gravesend, June 14th, 1819. On this, the Admiralty, supported by Lord Melville, gave up their objections."(30)

Still, practically, it was not till after the Crimean war that steam became the leading motive power in our war navy. The merchants were more sensible. Mr. David Napier had, in 1818, launched a steamer of ninety tons burden-the _Rob Roy_-from the yard of Mr. William Denny, of Dumbarton. For two years she ran between Glasgow and Belfast, carrying the mails, and was the first regular _sea-going steamer_ which had been built in either Europe or the United States. But she also calls for particular mention for another reason: she was subsequently transferred to the English Channel as a packet-boat between Dover and Calais. And there are still, no doubt, many travellers or residents of those towns who can remember the inauguration of what is now a most important service. The same Napier, whose name is very intimately connected with the history of the marine engine, which he was constantly striving to improve, inaugurated, with the a.s.sistance of capitalists, a line between Liverpool, Greenock, and Glasgow. Next followed a line from London to Leith, which commenced with two steamers, each fitted with engines of fifty horse-power. Now came an immense advance, for in 1826, the first of the then considered "leviathan"

cla.s.s of steamers-the _United Kingdom_-was built for the trade between London and Edinburgh. She was 160 feet long, with engines of 200 horse-power. "People flocked from all quarters to inspect and admire her."

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE "UNITED KINGDOM".

(_From a Drawing by E. W. Cooke, R.A._)]

Although these two lines of regular steam communication between Liverpool and the river Clyde, and between London and Edinburgh, were now successfully established and proved of considerable importance in the encouragement of steam navigation elsewhere, some years elapsed before those rapid strides were made in its adaptation as a propelling power which have rendered it one of the wonders of the present age. Indeed, this power would probably never have made such an extraordinary advance had iron not been adopted instead of wood for the construction of our ships.

Hitherto throughout all ages, timber alone had been used in ship-building.

The forests of Lebanon had supplied the naval architects of Tyre with their materials; Italy cultivated her woods with unusual care so that sufficient trees might be grown for the timber-planking and masts of ships for its once powerful maritime republics; and in our own time how often have we heard fears expressed that Great Britain would not be able to continue the supply of sufficient oak for her royal dockyards, much less for her merchant fleets? Yet, when shrewd, far-seeing men, no farther back than the year 1830, talked about subst.i.tuting iron for the "ribs" of a ship instead of "timber," and iron plates for "planking" instead of oak, what, a howl of derision the public raised.

"'Who ever heard of iron floating?' they derisively inquired," says Lindsay. "It is true they might have seen old tin kettles float on every pool of water before their doors almost any day of their lives-nay, floating even more buoyantly than their discarded wooden coal-boxes, but such common-place instructors were beneath their notice. Timber-built ships had from time immemorial been in use in every nation and on every sea, and had bravely battled with the storm from the days of Noah, and were these, they sneeringly asked, to be supplanted by a material which in itself would naturally sink? Such was the reasoning of the period; and, indeed, the best of the arguments against the use of iron rested on scarcely more solid foundation."(31)

It is true that so early as 1809, Richard Trevethick and Robert d.i.c.kenson had proposed to build "large ships with decks, beams, and sides of plate iron," and had even suggested "masts, yards, and spars" of iron, which latter are now by no means uncommon. "But," says Lindsay, "as these inventors or patentees did not put their ideas into practice, no other person (if, indeed, any other person gave even a pa.s.sing thought to the subject) was convinced that any craft beyond a boat or a river-barge could be constructed of iron, much less that if made in the form of a ship, this material would oppose more effectual resistance to the storms of the ocean, or, if dashed upon the strand, to the angry fury of the waves, than timber, however scientifically put together. But though no available substance can withstand the raging elements with less chance of destruction than plates of iron riveted together in the form of a boiler (the principle on which iron ships are now constructed), the public could not then appreciate their superior value; and it was not until 1818 that the first _iron vessel_ was built." This vessel is in use even now. Three years afterwards a steam-engine was, for the first time, fitted into a vessel built of iron-the _Aaron Manby_-constructed for Mr. Manby and Captain Napier, afterwards Admiral Sir Charles Napier. Gradually the suitableness of these vessels was becoming apparent, and from this time dates the establishment of some of the greatest ship-building yards, like those of the Lairds and Fairbairns. In 1834 the first-named firm built the _Garry Owen_ for service between Limerick and Kilrush. Almost fortunately, she was driven on sh.o.r.e with a number of wooden vessels, all of which were wrecked or seriously damaged, while she got off with scarcely any damage, and the credit of iron vessels became improved. But another of the chief and more tenable objections to the extended use of iron vessels was the perturbation of the compa.s.s. This has been clearly shown to proceed almost entirely from the proximity of iron _not_ forming a part of the _hull_ of the ship, the magnetic influence of which is comparatively even all round.

A funnel, tank, boilers, the machinery, the iron fastenings even of a deck-house, &c., may all have their influences. Still these influences are now regulated and understood, and iron ships are more commonly employed than those of wood, showing that it is not an objection which can be urged to-day. After the early steamers came by degrees iron sailing vessels, till at length we find iron applied to a grand steamer, magnificent then and first-cla.s.s still, the _Great Britain_. "Experience by degrees successfully met almost every objection; and science was again triumphant over prejudice and ignorance. Iron had been made not merely to float, but to ride buoyantly over the crest of the wave amid the raging elements."

[Ill.u.s.tration: SECTION AND PLAN OF THE STERN OF A SCREW STEAMER.]

Then came the introduction of the screw-propeller, which, if we are to believe some authorities, is an early invention of the Chinese. There have been many claims to its invention in modern times. In May, 1804, Mr. J.

Stevens, of the United States, put to sea with a steam-boat propelled with some form of screw. Trevethick, the engineer, in 1815, patented "a worm or screw revolving in a cylinder at the head, sides, or stern of a vessel;"

and the following year, Robert Kinder applied for a patent for a shaft and screw almost of exactly the form now in use. The French claim it, and only a few years since erected at Boulogne a monument to Frederic Sauvage, as its inventor. On the front is a bronze bas-relief showing a vessel with a screw-propeller. Sauvage's life was similar to those of many other inventors, in that he spent his days and fortune in perfecting inventions which brought him no profit. Having lost his own money, and got into great difficulties, he was thrown into a debtors' prison, and subsequently ended his days in a madhouse. Lindsay remarks properly that "the number of claimants to every important invention is remarkable. An impartial student will, however, probably come to the conclusion that the invention of the screw and its application was, like that of the steam-engine itself, the sole property of no one man." The time for its development and proper use had come, and many scientific students were inquiring concerning its value.

There can be little doubt that the first demonstration in our country of its value on a proper scale and in convincing form, was that made by Captain John Ericsson, a Swedish engineer resident in London. After a successful experiment with a model, he had a boat built forty-five feet in length, and fitted with engine and two propellers. She was named the _Francis B. Ogden_. "The result of her first trial went far beyond his most sanguine expectations. No sooner were the engines put at full speed, than she shot ahead at the rate of more than ten miles an hour."

Afterwards she towed a schooner of 140 tons burden at seven miles an hour.

The next experiment was made in the presence of the Lords of the Admiralty, and they were minute in their inspection. Ericsson felt confident that they were convinced, and would soon order the construction of a war-vessel on the new principle. In this, however, he was disappointed, though he had given them a tolerably good proof of its value by towing their barge at the rate of ten miles an hour for a considerable distance. Scientific theorists reported against it, and said that a ship thus propelled would be unsteerable. Lindsay records how Admiral Beechey, one of the old school, in 1850, stated that "he did not believe that the navy of the future-the Royal Navy-ever could consist of steamers! Nor could he endure iron ships."

While Ericsson was thus employed, Mr. Thomas Pett.i.t Smith, who, on the 31st May, 1836, had taken out a patent for a "sort of screw or 'worm,'

made to revolve rapidly under water in a recess or open s.p.a.ce formed in that part of the after-part of the vessel commonly called the dead rising or dead wood of the stern," was experimenting, and the following year exhibited it in practical form in a small vessel. It appeared to several gentlemen so satisfactory that a company was formed in July, 1839, to purchase the patent. It was now applied to a vessel called the _Archimedes_, the burden of which was 237 tons, and although her speed was somewhat less than Ericsson's vessel, the trial was undeniably satisfactory, more especially as it was obvious that her engine was really not large enough for a propeller of the size. In her next trials against the _Widgeon_, the fastest paddle-wheel steamer then running between Dover and Calais, the success of the screw might be regarded as an established fact. The _Archimedes_ laboured under the disadvantage of having ten horse-power less steam, while her burden was seventy-five tons more; she had the advantage of carrying more sail. On the first three trials the _Widgeon_ had a very slight advantage, in spite of her superior steam-power and smaller tonnage, while on the last two the _Archimedes_ made the trip in less time than it had ever previously been performed by any of the mail packets. Captain Chappell, R.N., afterwards took her clear round England and Scotland, calling at numerous ports. The Admiralty at length ordered the construction of a screw vessel, and the lines of the _Rattler_ were laid down on the same model as the _Alecto_, a paddle-wheel steamer then building.

Another claimant as an inventor, who should be mentioned most honourably, is Mr. Woodcroft, some of whose experiments were being patented in 1826.

They were not tried on a suitable scale till after the successes of Ericsson and Smith. Woodcroft's "varying pitch screw-propeller," patented in 1844, the t.i.tle of which describes itself, is to-day "considered the best and most useful type."