SEA-GOING STEAMSHIPS
The first war steamer and ocean steamer ever attempted was built by Fulton, in 1813. It was called the Demolgos, and was not a practical success, and made no attempts to take protracted ocean voyages. The first steamship to cross was the Savannah in 1819. She made the voyage from Savannah to Liverpool in twenty-five days, using her paddle-wheels part of the time, but at other times depending entirely upon her sails. She was a boat of three hundred and fifty tons, and her paddle-wheels were arranged so that they could be hauled in upon the deck and stowed away in bad weather.
Following the Savannah several similar combination sailing and steam-propelled boats were constructed, the navigators coming to have more and more faith in the possibilities of steam, so that less sail was carried. These vessels continued to reduce the time of the passage between Europe and America, until the voyage had been made in about seventeen days. Then, in 1838, two vessels, the Sirius and the Great Western, for the first time using steam alone as motive power, made record voyages, the Great Western crossing in twelve days, seven and a half hours. This was considered remarkable time—an average speed of over two hundred miles a day. Something like four hundred and fifty tons of coal were consumed on the voyage, which impressed many as a great extravagance of fuel. Some of the ocean liners at present consume more than twice this amount in a single day.
On July 4, 1840, the Britannia, the first steamer of the Cunard Line, started on its maiden voyage from Liverpool to Boston. The voyage was made in fourteen days, among the passengers being Samuel Cunard, a Quaker of Halifax, who was the founder of the enterprise. The population of Boston went mad on the arrival of this boat; streets and buildings were decorated, and the day was given over to the regular holiday amusements. Cunard received upward of eighteen hundred invitations to dinner that evening.
The year 1840, then, may be considered as one of the vital years in the progress of steam navigation. Since that time no year has passed without seeing some important addition and improvement made in the conquest of the ocean, either in size, shape, or speed of the "greyhounds."