CHAPTER III.
Steam-ships of the United States—Improvements in form of hull—Natural facilities for Steam Navigation in America—Her lakes—Canals—Harbours—Rivers—Seaboard—Bays and roadsteads—Rapid increase of steam-vessels—First vessels built for the western rivers and lakes—Dangers of River Navigation—Number of steamers lost by “snags,” ice, fire, and collision, 1831-1833—Peculiar description of wharves and levees—Description of steamers employed—Boats of the Mississippi—Boatmen—Engines of the steamers—Different construction of the steamers on the Atlantic rivers—Great speed of American lake and river steamers—Peculiarity of construction—Steamer New World—Details of her construction—The Daniel Drew—Her enormous speed—Pacific Steam-ship Company started, 1847—Cost of establishing it—Speed of its vessels—Difficulties to encounter—Number of its steamers—Services performed—China and Japan line—“Law” line of steamers—South American Steam-ship Company—Mr. Randall’s projected large American steamer—Details of proposed ship—Two sets of paddle-wheels—Principle of construction—Advantages to be derived from vessels thus built—Mr. Randall’s experience of steamers employed on the lakes and the Pacific.
Steam-ships of the United States.
While Great Britain is entitled to the credit of the invention of the marine steam-engine with its auxiliaries, the paddle-wheel and screw, and of having first put both into practical, if not in the earliest stages remunerative, operation, America may, on her part, justly claim the making of many improvements on them, and the turning the new motive power to profitable account with greater rapidity than England.
Improvements in the form of hull.
To the Americans we owe the modification of Watt’s engine still in use in their vessels: to them we are also indebted for engines of long stroke with the necessarily long crank, and the further peculiarity of upright guides for the piston-rod instead of the old parallel motion. They likewise first introduced the paddle-wheel with divided floats by which the resistance of the water was rendered more uniform, and the concussion of the common paddle-wheel avoided. But, above all, they were the first to improve the form of steam-vessels by substituting a fine entrance and a clean, clear run for the round or bluff bows and full sterns previously prevailing. By these important alterations, and by making the length of their vessels eight and, occasionally, ten times their beam, they succeeded, even during the infancy of marine steam propulsion, in raising the rate of progress from 9 to 13 miles an hour, and in giving to the world lines for the modelling of ships vastly superior to any hitherto adopted.
Natural facilities for steam navigation in America.
Her lakes.
But nature has afforded our great Transatlantic rivals marvellous facilities for the development and rapid increase of vessels propelled by steam, not possessed by ourselves. The lakes[145] of America are, in fact, extensive inland seas, affording in themselves an almost unlimited source of profitable employment to vessels propelled by steam. Their shores are lined with sheltered bays and natural harbours, with waters unusually free from rocks and shoals, while, in their immediate vicinity, are vast tracts of rich lands requiring only the industry of man to render them subservient to his wants, while the surrounding forests at the same time produce some of the finest pine timber in the world.
Canals.
Harbours.
Great cities, such as Chicago,[146] Buffalo, Detroit, Michigan, Milwaukie, Toronto, and Kingston, besides numerous towns and villages, now line their banks, while those lakes which have no natural navigable communication with each other are now connected by means of canals, so that vessels from the Atlantic can penetrate for upwards of 2000 miles into the interior, in fact, to the most remote habitable regions of North America.[147] Short canals, also, overcome the natural obstacles presented to navigation by the rapids of the St. Lawrence and the Falls of Niagara; and, while, on the one hand, the Erie canal of 363 miles in length connects that lake with the River Hudson, and consequently with the Atlantic Ocean, the Ohio Canal, 334 miles in length, on the other hand, brings it into connection with the Gulf of Mexico by way of the great rivers Ohio and Mississippi: thus, with the Welland Canal,[148] the connecting link between the other lakes and Ontario, there is navigable communication throughout the whole of the vast continent of North America, extending from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico, a distance of upwards of 3000 miles. All these lakes are now well supplied with lighthouses, buoys, and beacons to insure the safety of the large fleets of shipping employed on them. There are, also, numerous spacious harbours, many of them built of stone, as also breakwaters, the waves on these lakes during gales of wind being hardly less formidable to navigation than those of the ocean.
Rivers.
But if the lakes of North America are vast in extent, the navigable rivers are even more gigantic, and afford still wider fields of remunerative employment for steamers.[149] Indeed, until steam-ships were launched on their surface, many of these rivers were altogether unnavigable, and some of them unexplored. Those of my readers who have not visited America, can form only a very imperfect idea of her mighty streams. Some of them, as may be seen by reference to a map of the United States, have their source in the northern parts of the Rocky Mountains, and discharge themselves by the Gulf of St. Lawrence into the Atlantic, while others rising in the west of these mountain ranges flow into the Pacific. Those which have their sources to the east of the Alleghany Mountains find their way by various routes, and through luxuriant valleys, some of them of enormous extent, to numerous outlets on the shores of the Atlantic and on the north-eastern portion of the Gulf of Mexico, while the rivers comprehended under the head of the Mississippi and its tributaries, which spring from that great valley between the Alleghany and the Rocky Mountains, likewise pour their huge volumes of water into the Mexican Gulf, with New Orleans as the chief entrepôt of their now gigantic commerce. The former rivers, upwards of one hundred in number, afford an aggregate amount of more than 3000 miles of ship and boat navigation. But the latter, embracing the parent Mississippi, the Missouri, the Ohio, Arkansas, Red River, and various other tributaries pouring their waters into the giant stream, constitute an aggregate length of no less than 44,000 miles![150] Large steamers now ascend to Pittsburg, a distance of 2000 miles from the Gulf of Mexico. The Missouri, which joins the Mississippi 18 miles above the city of St. Louis and about 1200 miles from the gulf, has an uninterrupted navigation of 2532 miles from its mouth; its tributaries being the Gasconade, navigable for 150 miles; the Osage for 500 miles; the Chariton for 300 miles; the Tansas for 200 miles; and the Yellowstone for 800 miles; while the Moine, which flows into the Mississippi 130 miles above the Missouri, is supposed, with its tributaries, to be navigable for a distance of 1500 miles.
Such are a few, but a few only, of the many navigable rivers which pour their waters into the Mississippi; there are many others whose names our space precludes the possibility of our even mentioning. To the north and the west, we have the St. Lawrence, a river second only to the Mississippi, with a course of upwards of 2000 miles, receiving the waters of about thirty others of considerable size; and, though navigable itself for large sea-going vessels only as far as Montreal, a distance of 880 miles from the Atlantic, it is extensively used in its upper portion under the name of the St. Mary’s River, where, among the islands with which it is studded and the numerous rapids with which it is impeded, it is navigated by vast rafts of timber and by fleets of strong flat-bottomed boats expressly built for the purpose, and well-known as the Canadian batteaux.
Then we have the River Hudson (on which the first vessel in America propelled by steam was employed), small in itself compared to those I have named, but important from its connection with New York, and the extent and value of its trade; and most interesting to the traveller, from its beautiful scenery. This river is navigable for ships of large burden up to the town from which it derives its name, about 120 miles above New York, and for vessels of smaller draught of water to Albany and Troy respectively 30 and 34 miles further. To the north we have the Penobscot with a course of 300 miles from the bay of that name in the State of Maine, navigable for large vessels to Bangor, a distance of 50 miles, and the Kennebach River with a course of 230 miles, navigable for 40 miles from the sea, as also the Merrimac of 200 miles in length, and the Connecticut, which, after a course of 450 miles through a highly cultivated and fertile country, discharges itself into Long Island Sound.
To the south there is the important River Delaware, of 310 miles in length, navigable for vessels of the largest class to Philadelphia, a distance of 40 miles, and the Susquehanna flowing into the Chesapeake, which, though the largest river in the important and productive State of Pennsylvania, is more celebrated for the beauty of its scenery than for the facilities it affords for navigation. There is also the Patapsco, navigable to Baltimore for vessels drawing 18 to 20 feet of water; the Patuscent, navigable for 60 miles from its mouth; and the Potomac, navigated by vessels of the largest class to Washington, a distance of 103 miles from Chesapeake Bay; as also the Rappahannoc, navigable for 110 miles to the town of Fredericksburg, besides the James River and various others of greater or less importance extending along the line of coast from Chesapeake Bay to the western shores of the Gulf of Mexico.
Seaboard.
Bays and roadsteads.
But, beyond the vast facilities these immense lakes and rivers afford to a maritime commerce capable of development to an extent far beyond the conception of the most sanguine enthusiast, there is the extensive seaboard of that great continent, studded with harbours, and containing some of the most magnificent bays and the largest and safest roadsteads to be found in any part of the world. Take, for instance, the line of coast extending northwards from Chesapeake Bay to the Gulf of St. Lawrence: that bay, itself, has safe anchorage for an untold number of vessels; and, to the northward, there are numerous other bays and sheltered sounds, affording natural facilities for the formation of harbours more commodious than any which works of art alone, however costly, could possibly supply. From among these the Americans have been able to select many admirable sites for their trade emporiums,—in themselves also natural harbours of refuge of the finest description, completely sheltered from the surge of the ocean, and, therefore, not requiring for their protection the expensive breakwaters of Plymouth, Portland, or Cherbourg; where, along the margin of projecting tongues of land or within out-lying islands, vessels of the largest description can anchor in safety, or be moored alongside jetties erected at a trifling expense, where, too, they can discharge their cargoes into warehouses with almost as much ease as they could do in the London or Liverpool docks. These natural advantages, amply illustrated as they are in the case of New York, a city evidently destined to rival, if not to surpass, any city of either ancient or modern times, London not excepted, struck the writer with surprise and wonder. Situated on the southern portion of the island of Manhattan, New York is washed on the east by the sound separating it from Long Island,[151] and on the west by the estuary of the River Hudson, while the bay itself, which is nine miles in length and five miles in breadth, has a communication with the Atlantic through a strait two miles in width, between Staten Island and Long Island, completely sheltered from the ocean and forming a magnificent deep-water basin, with abundant quays and jetties on its eastern, western, and southern margins: here vessels of any size can deliver their cargoes into the heart of the city at all times and in perfect safety.
Proceeding further north we reach Boston Bay, more celebrated than any other place in the history of the War of Independence, a thoroughly sheltered inlet of about 75 square miles in extent, inclosed by two necks of land so nearly approaching each other as to leave only a narrow entrance communicating directly with the Atlantic, with deep water close in shore where numerous wharves are erected as in the case of New York. Further north, we reach Narraganset Bay, and, within it, the town of Newport and its finely sheltered roadstead forming one of the most superb natural harbours in America; also Penobscot Bay into which the river of that name flows, and Passamaquoddy with its excellent roadstead receiving the waters of the River St. Croix, the boundary between the United States and the Dominion of Canada.
With such magnificent bays, harbours, roadsteads, lakes, and rivers all ready formed by the hand of Nature to receive an almost unlimited extent of shipping, and, at the same time, peculiarly adapted for the employment of steamers, it is not a matter for surprise that the Americans should have directed their genius and energy to this new branch of industry and their skill to the rapid development of the power of steam, affording them as it did extraordinary means of opening out hitherto unknown branches of commerce and new sources of almost unbounded wealth. More conversant at this period than any other nation with the most approved style of shipbuilding, and possessing an abundant supply of materials at a comparatively low price, they were able, when steam-vessels were first introduced, to construct them at a lower cost than any other people; and if they had not the same facilities for obtaining steam-engines, these could easily be obtained from England.
Rapid increase of steam-vessels.
From the time therefore that Fulton[152] launched the Clermont at New York, and proved, by her performance in 1808 on the Hudson, that vessels propelled by steam could be made a source of profitable employment, they were increased with a rapidity and employed to an extent, especially during the first quarter of this century, far in excess of Great Britain. Besides the Clermont, launched in 1807, Mr. Charles Brown, an enterprising shipbuilder of New York, built in that year, also for the navigation of the Hudson, the Car of Neptune of 295 tons, and the Rareton, of 120 tons, named after the river on which she was employed. In 1811, he launched the Paragon, of 331 tons, which was likewise employed on the Hudson, and, in 1812, the Firefly, to trade between New York and Newburg, as well as the Jersey, ferry-boat of 118 tons, employed in the same year by the Ferry Company for the conveyance of passengers between New Jersey and the city of New York.
First vessels built for the western rivers and lakes.
In 1814 the Americans launched their first steam-ship on the great waters of the Mississippi, at once showing the practicability of ascending that mighty river by accomplishing on her trial trip, immediately after she was built, a distance of 700 miles against the current. In 1818, they started a steam-boat to ply between New York and New Orleans, and, from that time, vessels of this description, steadily, and we may say rapidly, increased on their coasts and rivers. Their first steamer on the lakes was the Orleans, a two-masted vessel built at Pittsburg in 1811, but some time elapsed before any other steamer appeared on the Lakes, their then limited trade offering little inducement for profitable employment; hence, when the Walk-in-the-Water—a most characteristic name—commenced to trade on Lake Erie in 1819, there was no one to furnish her with a cargo except the American Fur Company. In 1827, the waters of Lake Michigan were first ploughed by steam, a boat having made an excursion to Green Bay, and in 1832, another steam-boat reached Chicago with troops, that site being then in course of clearance and settlement: in the following year, there were eleven boats on the lakes at a cost of 360,000 dollars, carrying in that year (1833) 61,480 passengers, and earning in freight 229,211 dollars. In 1834, seven new boats were launched, making eighteen in this service during that year; and in 1840, the number of boats trading between Buffalo, Chicago and other ports west of Detroit, their trip between these two places occupying fifteen days, had increased to forty-eight. Such was the beginning of the steam-boat traffic on the great North American lakes.[153] In the following woodcut may be seen a fair illustration of one of these early vessels.
But it was on the rivers and along the sheltered bays on the coast that the new mode of propulsion made at first the most rapid progress. From the time when the pioneer boat ascended the Mississippi, steam-ships rapidly increased in number and in size, as well as in the power of their engines, so that, so early as 1832, there were no less than 900 arrivals of steamers at New Orleans from the upper country, and in 1834, there were 234 steam-vessels running on the Mississippi and Ohio, the large majority of which were built at Pittsburg and Cincinnati.
Dangers of river navigation.
Number of steamers lost by “snags,” ice, fire, and collision, 1831-1833.
The navigation, however, of these great rivers was for many years attended with almost endless difficulties and dangers. In the Ohio and other western waters of the United States, though the current does not average more than three miles an hour, there were rapids where, in some instances, it attains a velocity of from seven to eight miles. There were also numerous sandbanks, most of which have now been removed, whereon the boats frequently took the ground and were detained until the next rise of water, sometimes for even three and four months. In the upper waters, too, the floating ice during the spring of the year occasioned many disasters, and is still a danger not to be prevented. But the greatest danger arose from what was known as “snags,” stumps of trees which, from the falling in of the banks, are carried down the river until they lodge, with one end resting in the mud or sand, and the other rising to the surface sometimes so concealed as to baffle the utmost precaution in avoiding it. Among the sixty-six boats lost in the navigation of these western rivers during the years 1831-2-3, while seven were wrecked by ice, fifteen stranded and abandoned, fifteen destroyed by fire, and five wrecked by collision with other boats, no less than twenty-four were “snagged.”
But, besides the “snags,” there are dangers, though of somewhat less importance, arising from other falling trees, known by the name of “sawyers,” trees which have sunk with an inclination down the stream, the action of the current upon them causing a continual vertical vibration, whence their name. Generally, when a boat going down stream strikes a sawyer, she will pass over it with little or no injury as its inclination is in the direction of the boat’s movement. But the danger, here, differs from that of the “snags.” Their inclination is up the river, their ends sometimes projecting above the surface at low water, or when the river is at a higher stage, remaining just sufficiently beneath the surface to be still more dangerous. Boats going down stream, therefore, encounter very great peril, and it has frequently occurred that, when the “snag” lies at a great inclination, the end rises when struck and not only pierces the hull but passes up through all the decks.
These dangers are increased by the remarkable fluctuation in the depth of the water in the rivers, which is sometimes so great, as to admit the navigation of the largest vessel, and again so small, as to render it impossible to construct vessels with draught of sufficient lightness to float upon them.
On the Ohio, the rapids are chiefly caused by bars, or as they are termed “chains of rock,” extending across the river, which, when the water is low, impede navigation and sometimes stop it altogether. Artificial means have, however, in some instances been adopted whereby a greatly increased volume of water is thrown into a single channel, but hitherto these schemes have not been of much practical utility, though the money expended in the removal of “snags” and other temporary obstructions has tended to render the navigation of the Ohio, as well as of the Mississippi, Missouri, and Red River, comparatively safe and easy to what it was when steam-boats were for the first time despatched upon these mighty streams.
Peculiar description of wharves and levees.
In consequence of the great fluctuations in the depth of the western rivers, no regular wharves or jetties can be formed alongside of which the boats engaged in the traffic can land their passengers and goods. In lieu of these, therefore, the banks of the river opposite to the towns, or where landing-places are necessary, are sloped off at a considerable inclination and paved with ordinary paving-stones. At intervals along the shore, and, also, at different distances up the bank, piles are driven with large ringbolts attached to their heads for the purpose of mooring the boats. Owing, also, to the same cause, and the ever varying strength of the currents of the rivers, it is necessary that the boats employed on them should be as light as possible combined with the requisite strength, of small draught of water, and of great power, so as to be able to pass over the sandbanks and make headway against the currents.
Description of steamers employed.
In order that the boats may land passengers without difficulty at these sloping banks or “levees,” as they are termed, and also discharge and take in freight and passengers, their bows have a very long rake, so that when they strike the bank the bow gradually rises out of the water till it has sufficient hold upon the bank to maintain its position while landing the cargo, without any material assistance from the warps attached to the mooring post. To facilitate the operation of landing, the forecastle deck carries its width in most cases right to the stem, so as to furnish the necessary platform for discharging and loading cargo. In order, also, to meet the frequent occurrence of very shallow water during the summer months, a class of boats has been constructed termed light-water steamers. They differ from the ordinary description of boats, in that they are built in the lightest possible manner and with a comparatively small engine power, so that their speed seldom exceeds from 6 to 7 miles per hour; they have, however, the advantage of being able to navigate rivers the ordinary boat could not traverse, their draught of water ranging from 12 to not more than 18 inches when laden with cargo and passengers.
The vessels employed on the Mississippi vary in size from 150 to 1500 tons burden, and in some cases more. It is necessary, too, that these should be built so to draw as little water as possible, the largest not exceeding when loaded from 7 to 8 feet, as this great river is also impeded by bars or “chains” extending across it, though not to the same extent as the Ohio and other smaller rivers. At New Orleans, the levee or quay is from four to five miles in extent, with an average breadth of 100 feet. It is 15 feet above low-water mark, or that condition of the river when its waters retire within their natural bed, and is 6 feet above the level of the city, to which it is graduated by an easy descent. It is constructed of the alluvial soil brought down from the north, and deposited in the vicinity by the waters of the Mississippi.
Boats of the Mississippi.
Prior to the general introduction of steam navigation, the trade carried on by flat boats occupied a great space in this now important emporium of commerce. Hundreds of long, narrow, black, dirty-looking, crocodile-like craft lay sluggishly without moorings, upon the soft batture,[154]—a heterogeneous compound produced from the territories of the Upper Mississippi and its numerous tributaries, while they poured out their contents upon the quay. These rafts, or flat boats as they are technically called, which frequently had on board cargo to the value of from 3000l. to 5000l., are covered with a raised work or scantling, giving them the appearance of long, narrow cabins, built for the purpose of habitation, but really designed to protect their contents from the weather. They are guided by an oar at the stern, aided with an occasional dip of two huge pieces of timber, which move on each side like fins (rude imitations of the leeboards to be found in Dutch galiots or Thames barges), and float with the stream at the rate of 3 miles the hour. Such were the means of carriage of the up-country’s products on the Mississippi about half a century ago, and steam-boat navigation has not diminished the number of these flat boats. They are so natural, simple, and cheap a mode of transporting produce down the stream, that as long as the Mississippi passes with such rapidity from its source to its embouchure in the gulf, the traveller will be sure to meet with these unsightly masses floating on its bosom; swayed to and fro by its currents, countercurrents, and eddies, often shifting end for end like some species of shell-fish, and not unfrequently resembling the crab, preferring the oblique to the forward movement.
Boatmen.
Like the boatmen of the Nile, the men who make these wooden habitations their usual dwellings are a distinct class. Launching their boats upon the Ohio, the Illinois, the Upper Mississippi, the Missouri, the Arkansas, and the Cumberland with all their respective tributaries, and guiding them to their final resting-place at New Orleans, these men are all known by the general designation of “Boatmen of the Mississippi.” They are a strong, hardy, rough, uncouth people, with a touch of the savage about them.
Engines.
Although the condensing engine is met with in some of the Mississippi steamers, high pressure engines are much more frequent, the pressure in the former being never less than 10 and frequently as high as 30 pounds to the square inch; when, however, this pressure is so worked, the object is to shut off the steam and take advantage of the expansion. In high pressure engines the pressure is used ad libitum from 50 to 150 pounds, and, in former times, to such an extent, that no mortal was left to measure its height, the boiler as well as the boat and its contents, animate and inanimate, having too frequently been blown into the air. In condensing engines, when moving at full speed, the steam is never “wire-drawn,” as the engineers term it, the passages being made large enough, and the valves fully opened: the same, in high pressure engines: but, when not moving at full speed, the steam can be “wire-drawn” as the engineer thinks necessary.
The term “high pressure” in America is applied to that description of engine which is worked against the atmosphere or without condensation; all condensing engines are called low pressure. In both these engines ashwood and pine, where coal could not be easily obtained, were the descriptions of wood most commonly used for fuel,[155] and, in the dangerous competition, happily less frequent now than it was some years ago, barrels of pitch, rosin, and even tallow were sometimes thrown into the furnaces, the recklessness of the captains and engineers on the Mississippi in working their boilers at a greater pressure than they could with safety carry, and, thereby, causing the frightful explosions to which I have just referred.[156]
Different construction of the steamers on the Atlantic rivers.
The steam-boats on the Atlantic rivers are differently constructed from those of the west, as the same necessity for light draught of water does not exist, while they are more especially intended for passengers; their cabins are, frequently, under deck, while those on the western rivers, constructed for carrying heavy cargoes as well as passengers, have their cabins, generally, in two tiers above the deck, hence the preference given to high pressure engines from their being lighter and occupying less space. The condensing or low pressure engine is much more prevalent in the Eastern boats, and is more economical in fuel than the high pressure: their boilers are usually circular; there is great variety in the form and construction of the furnaces and flues, and the boilers designed for burning wood are, of necessity, of greater external dimensions than those designed for burning coal, although the proportions of steam space may be smaller in the former than in the latter. These boilers are frequently worked at 18 to 20 pounds on the square inch, but 12 pounds is considered the medium.
The expansive action of the superheated steam in these engines, the greater space allowed for the engines to work in, and the generally admirable form of the boats, will, of course, tend to reduce the quantity of fuel required. The stroke of the piston, in some of the fastest American boats, is as much as 10 or 11 feet, and the connecting rods 13 to 19 feet long: the engine is worked at a much quicker rate than in England, the piston passing through the space of 500 feet in a minute, at which speed the whole machinery is found to work more smoothly than at a slower rate. It has been remarked by competent judges that, though the English engine is more perfect and more highly finished than the American, the advantage of superior workmanship is more than compensated in the American by greater length of stroke and the connection. American engineers consider the English engine, as applied to marine purposes, too confined, and until steam of a higher pressure is used, the boat must be of inferior speed to those of the United States. A Boulton and Watt engine[157] of 30-inch cylinder and 4-foot stroke, making twenty-five revolutions in a minute with 3½ pounds of steam, is estimated as a 30-horse engine; but the force of this engine, it is argued by Americans, will be increased one-third if steam of 7 pounds be used; “lengthen the cylinder,” they remark, to 8 feet and drive the piston through that space in the same time, that is, 400 feet instead of 200, use the same quantity of steam by shutting it off at half the stroke, and the American engine as compared with the English will be nearly an 80-horse instead of a 30-horse power.
Great speed of American lake and river steamers.
In their early career the Americans were likewise much in advance, as we have seen, of Great Britain in the model and speed of their river steamers, a superiority they still maintain. Indeed, the competition on their rivers, especially on the Hudson, was then much greater than it is even now. This strong rivalry made speed of the utmost importance, as the boat which performed the trip between New York and Albany in the shortest time, if only by half an hour (the Americans not concerning themselves about the chance of an explosion), would be sure to take all the passengers. Hence every expedient ingenuity could devise was resorted to for this object, and to the skill and perseverance of Mr. Robert L. Stevens the Americans are greatly indebted for the perfection to which the models of their river boats have advanced. These boats were built on the finest models; their entrance and runs sharper than had ever been before attempted; besides this, he had several of the earlier ones sawn in two and their length increased 25 or 30 feet, at the same time carrying a false bow from 18 to 20 feet beyond the stem, and forming true lines with the planking of the boat. This experiment fully answered his expectations; their speed was surprisingly increased, and, when running at the rate of 18 miles an hour, “they hardly raised a feather in front.” But, in 1834, another American shipbuilder constructed a steamer 185 feet long and 20 feet beam, with solid ends sharper than any of the false bows, having a flat floor and a single-cylinder engine of 52-inch diameter and 10-feet stroke, which was pronounced to be “the fastest thing afloat:” indeed, to such perfection have these steamers been brought that they now traverse rivers once thought to be altogether unnavigable. The first attempt to reach the falls of the Ohio from New Orleans was considered so visionary that the projector was looked upon as little better than a madman, but steamers are now engaged in regular traffic wherever the bars are covered with 12 or 15 inches of water, American genius, skill, and perseverance having triumphed over almost every impediment.
Peculiarity of construction.
Each successive year new vessels have been built, surpassing their predecessors in their size and power and in the splendour of their decorations, while they possess every improvement the skill, taste, and experience of their constructor can devise. There exists, nevertheless, in the general external appearance of the boats employed on the river navigation a great similarity which may be seen also in the details of their construction and in that of their machinery, as well as to some extent in their models, their usual features being great proportion of length to beam, a shallow hold, and a long flat floor, extending almost to the extremities of the boat. Great buoyancy, and consequently, a very light draught of water are by these means secured, and as the shallowness of the rivers in some places requires this, experience has demonstrated the advantage of attempting to go over rather than through the water when it is desirable to attain very high speed.
Although the absolutely best form of model and that which, under all circumstances, is subject to the least average resistance remains a matter of speculation, every builder having an opinion and theory of his own differing more or less from those entertained by his brethren of the craft, the competition and rivalry between the different builders and owners have been productive of extraordinary results. On the American rivers a sustained average speed of 20 miles per hour is now not an uncommon performance, due, doubtless, in part, to the improved form and fineness of the water lines, and, in part, also, to the great size and power of recent engines: add to this, that, from the superior tenacity and strength of American iron, the constructor is able to give his engines proportions considerably lighter than would be deemed safe elsewhere. The immense diameter of their paddle-wheels is also worthy of note as an element of no mean importance in the economical expenditure of the power developed in the engine and, consequently, in its effect on the speed of the boat. Taken as a whole, therefore, it would be impossible to find anywhere else finer specimens of naval architecture or more suitable engines for the special traffic on which they are engaged, than the boats now traversing the coasts, rivers, and lakes of the United States.
HUDSON RIVER STEAMER “NEW WORLD.”
The steamers at present engaged in passenger traffic between New York and Boston, are magnificent vessels; they are indeed “floating palaces;” and it is a fine sight to witness their departure every evening from New York. They run in connection with the railway at Allen Point, their course being about 140 miles by the East River and Long Island Sound, a distance generally accomplished in about seven hours and a half, including the delay in calling at New London.[158] Yet these magnificent vessels were (if they are not now) surpassed in speed by the steamers on the River Hudson, while they were equalled in the beauty of their lines and the splendour of their accommodation. An illustration of one of these, the New World, will be found on the preceding page.
Steamer New World.
This graceful and magnificent vessel is 380 feet in length. Her breadth of beam is 50 feet, or 85 feet over all, including the sponsons and paddle-boxes, while the diameter of her paddle-wheel is no less than 45 feet, and that of her cylinder 76 inches, the length of stroke being 15 feet. The New World has 347 state rooms or cabins, and 600 sleeping-berths. In her construction and equipment may be traced, to the most minute details, the natural mechanical ingenuity so characteristic of the Americans; every corner that would otherwise be vacant is adapted either to the necessities of the trade or to the comfort of the passengers. From the colossal beam engine with which she is propelled, down to the minutest fittings of her saloons, cabins, restaurant, bar, lavatories, smoking-room, and barber’s shop, there is, combined with the system and order generally prevalent, almost everything to admire and nothing the most fastidious could honestly condemn.
No doubt much of this perfection arises from the complete subdivision of labour to be found throughout most of the great American establishments, so apparent in many of their manufactories and workshops and in their large hotels as well as in their ships, but, more especially, in their river and coasting steamers. For instance, the construction, fitting, and equipment of the latter is carried on throughout by a class of people who devote themselves entirely to such work, and make it a study to attain perfection in it. Whatever may be the case in the “Far West,” where labour is scarce, and, whatever may be the facility with which the Americans can adapt themselves to circumstances (developed as this was remarkably during the late civil war), a “Jack of all Trades” receives no encouragement in the equipment or in the manning of their steamers. Their ship-owners require, in both cases, if they can be obtained, regardless of cost, men who thoroughly understand their respective duties, and in this, as well as in various other matters, England has much to learn from the Americans.
In the New World, we have an excellent specimen of the first-class American coast or river steamer, combining the multifarious and, apparently, conflicting requisites for vessels thus employed. With a light draught of water, such vessels require to have stability to carry in safety the lofty hotels erected on their decks, and to afford the spacious and sumptuous accommodation which competition has led every American traveller to expect. High speed must also be combined with safety and comfort, and lightness blended with strength. To attain the former, the boilers of these vessels are placed outside the ordinary line of the hull of the vessel on guards or framework, an extraordinary position for heavy weights, but tending, materially, to safety in the event of explosion, and, to comfort, in causing less vibration and greater coolness, the furnaces being thus away from the cabins. To secure the latter, the rigidity of the hull is maintained by a perfect system of trussing with wooden beams, braces, iron tie-rods, and stays, together with innumerable other remarkable contrivances wherein great skill and scientific knowledge is displayed. By these and other contrivances, the requisite strength, combined with the greatest lightness consistent with safety, is ensured, so that the whole vast and commodious structure, with its towering cabins, lofty saloons, handsome galleries, balconies, and extensive promenades, fragile as they doubtless appear, is a marvel of mechanical skill, and, really, possesses much greater stability and power of resistance than is to be found in numerous vessels of other countries of twice the weight of materials used in the construction of the New World.
Details of her construction.
The mode of constructing these vessels is entirely different to that adopted in any other country: thus, the hull of the New World is of wood, the external planking being about 3½ inches in thickness, and the ribs sheathed internally for a considerable distance amidships by double-crossed diagonal woodwork. Further forward and aft, it is single, and, towards the end, there is no sheathing; but the floor-timbers are strengthened by several longitudinal timbers or keelsons of considerable size.
To compensate for the want of depth in the sides of the boat, a “hog-back” or “bow” frame, consisting of timbers joined together in the shape of a bow, springing from the side at some little distance from the end of the boat, and rising to a height of 20 or 25 feet at the centre, is applied to strengthen it. This “hog-back” is braced to the side in several places by vertical and diagonal timbers and bolts, the whole forming a powerful trussed framework, placed directly over the side of the boat so as to be regarded as virtually an addition to the depth of the side. The floor of the boat is strengthened by a system of bracing consisting of masts 40 or 50 feet in length, which are stepped into the keelson and furnished at their top with caps to which are fastened iron rods; these rods radiate to the sides of the boat, like the shrouds of a ship, and thus transfer the upward pressure on the centre of the floor directly to the side. The deck beams project over the sides of the boat to the extreme width of the paddlebox-houses, constituting what are called the “guards.” These guards are supported by diagonal struts underneath them, and they overhang to the extent of 18 or 20 feet at the centre, meeting in a point at the bow, but at the stern projecting about 2 feet 6 inches, so as to form a gangway round the ladies’ saloon. But the success now almost invariably attending the construction of all the lake, coasting, and river steamers of the United States is attributable less to any theoretical inquiries and deductions than to a long course of practical experience, or, as it has been characteristically termed, to “a course of trial and error.” To show that this experience has been successful it is enough to observe that the steamers built for these waters carry a greater amount of freight, and accommodate a larger number of passengers on a given draught of water than those constructed in any other part of the world.
The Daniel Drew.
Her enormous speed.
Although the New World was one of the largest and most magnificent vessels employed on the Hudson, she was surpassed in speed by the Daniel Drew, which has attained the extraordinary rate of 25 statute miles an hour without assistance from either wind or tide. From my own knowledge, I can confirm the accuracy of this statement, having made a passage in her from New York to Albany. To persons who, like myself, familiar with nautical affairs, have made their study the business as well as the pleasure of life, no more enjoyable sensation could have been afforded than the rapid movement of this vessel. Like some “thing of life” she noiselessly cut through the water with no curling wave or struggling foam at her bows, throwing aside only a silvery jet of the fluid over which she appeared to skim. Nor was the action of her machinery less worthy of admiration. After the first half-dozen strokes of the paddle-wheels when started, their pace was so smooth and rapid that sound and vibration alike were hardly perceptible.
But, though the Americans have surpassed all other nations in the steamers hitherto produced for their lake and river navigation, they have not as yet sent forth any steam-ships so well adapted for ocean navigation as those of Great Britain; indeed, almost every attempt made by them to compete successfully with British vessels so engaged has been a commercial failure. In their distant coasting lines (what a misnomer to describe the voyage between New York and San Francisco as “coasting trade”!) they have, however, for many years employed some of the finest steam-ships afloat. In fact, when the district of California was almost a wilderness, the merchants of New York started a line of steamers to trade with it, and were thus, in a great measure, the means, though at a heavy loss to themselves, of developing its marvellous natural resources.
Pacific Steamship Company started, 1847.
The Pacific Mail Steam-ship Company, formed in 1847, is much the largest maritime undertaking yet organised, as distinctly American and under the flag of the United States, and their first steamer, the California, which left New York on the 6th of October, 1848, was the first to bear the American flag to the Pacific Ocean. To form a steam-ship establishment 4000 to 5000 or, as it was at that time, 13,000 miles from home, where the necessary supplies could only be obtained with the greatest difficulty in a country wholly new, was an undertaking of no ordinary hazard and difficulty. Nevertheless, there appeared to be ingredients for success sufficient to encourage the projectors to increase their fleet with extraordinary rapidity soon after they commenced operations; and there were at that period no steam-ships afloat finer than the Panama, Oregon, Tennessee, Golden Gate, and Columbia, which followed the California in rapid succession.
Cost of establishing it.
From a small beginning, the Pacific Company has now one of the best fleets belonging to the United States, though the difficulties in forming it were probably far greater than in the case of any of the other American companies. Among these, may be mentioned the necessity of constructing large workshops and foundries for repairs, together with the creation at Bernicia of an establishment, where marine engines could be constructed; they had, also, to build their own dry dock, for that of the Government at Mare Island was not ready until 1854, the company’s dock being for some years the only accommodation of this kind in the Pacific. The company had also to form establishments at Panama, San Francisco, and Astoria, with coal depôts, at a time when labour and materials were excessively high, and when the coal itself, whether brought from the Eastern States of the American continent or from England, was invariably, and necessarily, carried round Cape Horn, seldom or never costing less than from 20 to 30 dollars, and, in one instance, 50 dollars per ton.[159]
Speed of its vessels.
Difficulties to encounter.
But, from first to last and amid all its difficulties, the Pacific Steam-ship Company has carried on these distant services with remarkable regularity. Even in the earlier portion of its career, the steamers performed the service between Panama and San Francisco, a distance of 3300 miles, at an average speed of 254 miles per day, touching at various ports on the way; the company has also by its semi-monthly line from San Francisco to Oregon materially assisted in populating that rich and beautiful agricultural district. Nevertheless, had it not been for the discovery of the gold fields of California, the undertaking must have been a great commercial failure; indeed, even within the last few years, its history has been one of disaster, while its management has been characterized by a succession of mistakes each one graver than the last. Its most formidable rival is now the Central Pacific Railroad Company with other allied lines, which carry off a large portion of the more valuable goods previously conveyed in steamers, viâ Panama, between the northern and eastern states and California.
Number of its steamers.
The Pacific Steam-ship Company is, however, still by far the greatest of the American maritime undertakings, having at present in commission thirty-three very fine steamers of an aggregate capacity of 74,000 tons of cargo, exclusive of the large space assigned to passengers. It has thirty-five chief agencies on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the United States and in the West Indies, Mexico, Central and South America, Canada, England, China, and Japan. There are altogether fifty ports where its steamers call, three of which are on the Atlantic and forty-seven on the Pacific: these figures may in some measure afford my readers an idea of the extent of its commercial operations.
Services performed.
The steamers engaged on the China line leave San Francisco for Yokohama and Hong Kong every alternate Saturday, connecting at Yokohama with their branch steamers for Shanghai and at Hong Kong with the English and French steamers for Singapore and the principal ports in India, and, viâ the Suez Canal, with the Mediterranean and Atlantic ports of Europe. The New York and Panama line connects at Aspinwall with the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company to Southampton; with the West India and Pacific Steam Packet Company to Liverpool; with the Hamburg-American Steam Packet Company to Hamburg, and with the Companie Générale Trans-Atlantique to France. At Panama, they connect with the Pacific Steam Navigation Company to all South American ports. The Mexican and Central American line leaves San Francisco every alternate Thursday for Panama, stopping at all Mexican and Central American ports. The New York and Panama line leaves New York every alternate Saturday and San Francisco every alternate Wednesday.
China and Japan line.
The China and Japan line, which the company is now promoting with great vigour, was not started until the 1st of January, 1867, when the first of its fleet passed out of the “Golden Gate” of California bound across the Pacific to those ancient nations. The Great Republic, China, Japan, and America, all of them wooden vessels with paddle-wheels and “walking beam” engines, soon followed. These vessels, of somewhere about 4000 tons each, make the voyage from San Francisco to Yokohama in twenty-two days, thence to Hong-Kong in seven more, the whole distance occupying, with the stoppage at Yokohama, thirty days.
Until recently, the service was monthly each way, but the rapid increase of trade has now induced the company to despatch a steamer from each end, once a fortnight. Between Yokohama and Shanghai, this company runs, in connection with the large steamers, many smaller vessels which, passing through the inland seas of Japan and calling at Hiogo and Nagasaki, have secured a large share of the local traffic, at the same time feeding the trunk line, the vessels of which have very extensive accommodation for the numerous Chinese passengers, between Hong-Kong and San Francisco. Though this company now finds a large and increasing amount of employment for its ships in goods, as well as passengers, consisting chiefly of wheat, flour, treasure, and general merchandise for China, and tea, sugar, cleaned rice, oil, and miscellaneous articles in return, it is largely subsidised by the American Government, which, as well as its subjects, shows considerable jealousy of the steamers of other countries competing for the same trade.
In 1874, two pioneer steamers of an English company attempted to compete with those of the Pacific Steam-ship Company, but the promoters appear to have been unable to obtain sufficient capital to enlarge their service and maintain the opposition, as they consented, after a few months’ trial, to charter their vessels to the American company, which has also added to its fleet now engaged in this trade two new and large vessels, the City of Pekin and the City of Canton.[160]
As the Central Pacific Railroad was opened soon after the inauguration of the line of steamers to China, passengers as well as a large proportion of the teas and other Chinese produce and merchandise are now transported by it, instead of being conveyed as hitherto from China, by way of the Cape of Good Hope, or across the Pacific Ocean to San Francisco, and thence, viâ Panama, to New York, Boston and other ports on the north-eastern seaboard.
“Law line” of steamers.
That San Francisco was, in the opinion of the Americans, destined to become a great central depôt of commerce, and ought, therefore, to be encouraged by every means in their power, may be inferred from the circumstance that, in 1847, when the Pacific Mail Steam-ship Company commenced operations, another company, known as the “Law Line,” established by Messrs. Law, Roberts, and Company, of New York, received also a subsidy for carrying the United States’ mails between New York, California, and Oregon monthly, although there was not then sufficient trade for even one monthly line of steamers.
South American Steam-ship Company.
Running in connection with the steamers from New York to Aspinwall, the Americans have another line, consisting of twelve very fine steamers ranging from 500 to 2000 tons each, plying between Panama, Valparaiso, and the intermediate ports, rivalling the vessels of the English Pacific Steam Navigation Company, and largely sharing in the commerce between San Francisco and the South American Republic, a trade destined to become one of vast magnitude and of great public importance. Nor do they seem disposed to limit their operations to the shores of the Pacific, for besides the great line now traversing that ocean to China and Japan, they evidently contemplate at no distant date to run lines of their own steamers from San Francisco and Panama to our Australian Colonies. “One of the most pressing needs of the day,” remarks a writer in the leading San Francisco journal of January 1875, “is for the establishment of a permanent steam communication with Australia, and it is a disgrace to the public spirit of our community that it has not been satisfactorily effected.”
Mr. Randall’s projected large American steamer.
Nor are the Americans inclined to rest satisfied with the present size of their steamers, but, with a prudence not displayed by the projectors of our Great Eastern, they have hitherto regulated their dimensions by the requirements of the trade in which they intended to employ them. When I visited Philadelphia, in the autumn of 1860, several merchants of that city brought under my notice the designs and model of a steam-ship they then contemplated building, and which, though not one-half the dimensions of our own vast Leviathan, was double the size of any other vessel then afloat; they had, indeed, formed a company which they styled the Philadelphia and Crescent Steam Navigation Company, expressly for the purpose of constructing a line of such vessels to trade with Great Britain. The plans of this ship are now before me.
Details of proposed ship.
Into the estimates of profit and loss I need not enter, as their accuracy, or otherwise, has not been tested, but the plans of the projector, Mr. Randall, were considered of sufficient importance to justify the State legislature in granting to the company an Act of Incorporation. This vessel was to be 500 feet long, with a beam of 58 feet moulded, and to measure about 8000 tons. She was to have “ample accommodation for 3000 passengers and 3000 tons of cargo,” and to be “a regular 20-mile ship.” She was to “have ample fuel room, sufficient to run 8000 miles without stopping for coal,” and to have a “main saloon of 350 feet of uninterrupted length,” and “175 family state rooms, with double beds in each of extra size, and a dining-room and drawing-room, each 150 feet long.” For the comfort and convenience of excursionists, who, it was said, “will be induced, in consequence of the increased safety offered by these vessels to visit Europe in preference to Saratoga, Newport, Niagara, &c., there will be found on board a social hall, reading-rooms, and library 50 feet long, and a smoking-room 45 feet in extent, and numerous baths, comparing favourably with first-class hotels.”
Two sets of paddle-wheels.
Principle of construction.
Her motive power was to consist of two sets of wheels, “constructed in such a manner and so placed as to obtain a vast increase of speed;” she was to be divided into seven water-tight compartments, and the engines were to be entirely distinct, 130 feet apart. She was to be constructed on the diagonal principle and trussed with bars of iron as shown in the following midship section. There was to be “a solid arch on each side of the ship, together with the vertical arch and iron diagonal bracing, extending over the whole frame, affording a construction of strength and security never equalled.”[161]
But her midship transverse section was the most striking feature of this great ship; it is in many respects novel, and so different from the midship section of any vessel constructed in other countries, that the following representation of it may prove interesting and instructive.
Advantages to be derived from vessels thus built.
The proposed arrangements present an amount of accommodation for passengers greatly superior to any obtainable in vessels of similar size constructed on the principles generally followed by the shipbuilders of Great Britain. The almost dead flat floor, adopted with the American idea of, as far as practicable, skimming over the surface of the water, rather than forcing a passage through it, is at variance with the form hitherto considered by us most desirable where great speed is required. But we are daily expanding the breadth of the round and rising floors of our ships, and approaching the American form, and, so long as there is sufficient depth to secure stability,[162] some persons consider that vessels with flat floors and fine ends are the best models for speed as well as for capacity.
Although the ocean-going steamers of Great Britain, as in the case of the great competition between the steamers of the Collins and Cunard lines, to which reference will presently be made, have, hitherto, in a commercial point of view, surpassed those of the United States, it is much to be regretted that Mr. Randall’s ship was never built. As she was the nearest approach in size to the Great Eastern of any vessel hitherto contemplated, her trial would have been interesting, especially as it was thought that her form and mode of construction presented greater elements of success as regards speed and capacity in proportion to her register tonnage; and, if we apply the formula for determining the strength of a truss, we shall find that, in proportion to the weight of materials used, with the system of bracing proposed, she would have more effectually resisted the twisting or writhing so fatal to long and heavily-laden ships when they encounter the violently agitated cross seas of the Atlantic Ocean.
Mr. Randall’s experience of steamers employed on the Lakes and Pacific.
Such were the views of Mr. Randall, and, when it is considered that he was no mere theorist, but a man of large practical experience in such matters, there were even greater reasons to anticipate valuable results from the experiment. For twenty-two years before he propounded his scheme to the merchants of Philadelphia, Mr. Randall had been employed in building, fitting, and navigating steam-ships on the American lakes and on the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans:[163] and the only difference between these ships and the one he projected for the European trade consisted in the increased size, and in the application of two distinct sets of paddle-wheels instead of one.