History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce, Volume 4 (of 4)

by W. S. Lindsay

CHAPTER XV.

River and coast trade of Great Britain—The Iona, paddle steamer—First screw collier Q. E. D.—The King Coal collier—Her dimensions and crew, note—Improvement in care of seamen—Leith and London traders—Dublin and Holyhead Mail-Packets—Their great speed and regularity—Dimensions, power, capacity, and cost—Dover and Calais Mail-Packets—The Victoria—Her speed—Proposed tunnel and other modes of crossing the Straits of Dover—Mr. Fowler’s plan—The Castalia—The Bessemer—Her swinging saloon—The cigar-ship built at Baltimore, 1858—Similar ship built on the Thames, 1864—Perkins’s economical steam-engine and proposed fast boat—The Engine of the Comet—Modifications in the construction of Marine Engines—Ratio of speed to power—The Compound Engine more economical than the simple—Great skill required for building perfect ships, and, especial importance to England of having the best ships—But her ships not yet perfect, though great progress has been made during the last half century.

River and coast trade of Great Britain.

Although Great Britain supplies from its rivers and coasts three-fourths of the ocean-going steamers of the world, its own coasting and inland navigation affords but a very limited field for the employment of vessels of any kind compared with the shores and rivers of America, India, and China.

Before the introduction of steamers, a few row-boats, sailing wherries, and barges were sufficient to conduct the whole of the river traffic. This new expedient, however, though soon met in another form by the competition of railways, has vastly developed even this comparatively limited trade. Steam-boats now, whether on business or pleasure, are to be found in great numbers on every navigable stream, and are still on the increase; indeed, the improved facilities for intercourse on land, so far from retarding that increase, gives fresh life to the swarms of passenger-boats, yachts, steam-launches and steam-barges, which ply wherever they can find the means of flotation, and, especially, on the Thames and Clyde.

The Iona paddle steamer.

Offering, as it does, greater inducements than any other river in the United Kingdom, there are now to be found on the Clyde many elegant and commodious steam-boats. Although generally inferior in size, equipment, and speed to those of the Hudson or Long Island Sound, one of them, the Iona, a paddle-wheel boat, employed in the passenger traffic between Glasgow and the Western Highlands, is almost unrivalled.[442] This beautiful vessel affords deck and cabin accommodation for no less than 1200 passengers, and her long range of saloon houses, with plate-glass windows extending right fore and aft, gives her a graceful and imposing appearance. Fleets of similar vessels, though of inferior dimensions, now ply between Glasgow and the numerous watering places which line the shores of the estuary of the Clyde, presenting a striking contrast to the times of Henry Bell’s Comet.

First screw collier, Q. E. D.

The King Coal collier.

Equally marked has been the improvement in the vessels now employed in the coal and coasting trades of Great Britain. From the sailing-vessels of the north-east coast, of which an illustration has been furnished,[443] we advanced to the screw, and, in 1844, built of iron the first screw-collier, the Q. E. D., for the conveyance of coal from Newcastle to London. She was heavily barque-rigged, and, in style and form, somewhat resembled the fast Baltimore clippers, the intention of her owners being to depend chiefly for speed upon her sails, and to use her engine as an auxiliary power. Her mizen mast, a hollow tube of iron, was made to serve the purpose of a funnel, and the whole of her standing rigging consisted of wire rope. She had a double bottom, divided into separate chambers, so that any injury to the one would not affect the other, each being covered with a false floor and hermetically closed. Into these vacant spaces between the bottom and the floors, water could be admitted by means of cocks, for the purpose of ballast, and, at the same time, easily pumped out again by an engine when not required. The Q. E. D. therefore, in herself, contained many inventions then little known, the more important of which, as the wire rope and water ballast, are now in general use. But the auxiliary engine and full sailing rig did not answer in the coal trade better than it had done for distant voyages, the sails in this, as in all cases, having become auxiliary to the engine as a propelling power. Steamers of light rig and comparatively full power, now carry on the largest proportion of this trade, although there is still room for a considerable number of the old sailing-colliers. An illustration of one of the finest steam-colliers will be found on [the following page], and I am enabled through the courtesy of her owners to furnish not merely a drawing, but the particulars of this vessel, which bears the appropriate name of King Coal.[444]

“KING COAL.”

We see, here, another instance of the vast progress of the last forty years. The ordinary collier of that period, of 230 tons register, or with a capacity of from 16 to 17 keels of coals, required[445] a crew of ten men, and from a month to five weeks for the round voyage to London. In the course of the year she delivered, under the most favourable circumstances, 3500 tons of coals; but the screw-collier of to-day, requiring a complement of only seventeen men, including the engineers and stokers and a steward (a luxury wholly unknown to the collier skipper of byegone days), conveys, annually, on the same round, 50,000 tons; while the deck-houses for the protection of her men in wet and stormy weather are comforts the crew of a sailing-collier never would have dreamt of.

Improvement in care of seamen.

Nor are the seamen less cared for in other respects. The accommodation provided for the collier sailor of to-day is of an order very superior to that afforded him forty years ago. Thus he can make sure of a dry bed and a fire to cook his victuals during the stormiest weather, comforts too frequently unknown to his predecessors; if he may still have causes for complaint, they are incomparably few to those his fathers had before him, and if this service does not now produce the same class of hardy men, who helped to crown the ships of England with laurels of immortal fame in the days of Duncan and Nelson, this arises, in some measure, from the fact that the good living and comforts of modern times tend to render them less willing to endure, or perhaps less disposed for, the prompt and resolute action which, in most achievements, alike of war and peace, insures success.

But, even, if it be true that the seamen of to-day are too much pampered and nursed, they have, unquestionably, in their profession many hardships still to endure, with discomforts and even dangers, which might be avoided. The philanthropist, however, who advocates changes likely to weaken the Inspired maxim that man was born to live by the sweat of his brow, forgets his calling and injures those whose cause he advocates.

Leith and London traders.

In every other branch of our coasting trade, the change has been quite as marked as in that of the coal trade, steamers, on all the important lines, having superseded sailing-vessels. A few of my readers may remember the celebrated Leith smacks which derived their name from trading between that port and the Thames, carrying on, before the invention of railroads, a great portion of the passenger and goods traffic between Edinburgh and London.[446] Although the line of maritime communication, thus opened in 1809, was conducted in these smacks with considerable success, they were, subsequently, in part, replaced by clipper schooners, vessels of great speed, which maintained their position for some years against the steamers of the General Steam Navigation Company; but the London and Edinburgh Shipping Company, to whom they belonged, were obliged, in 1853, to adopt the new mode of propulsion, so that all the most valuable portion of this trade is now conducted by steamers. Indeed, they now encircle the whole of the coasts of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and there is hardly a port in the kingdom which has not its steam-ship communication either with the respective capitals or elsewhere.

Dublin and Holyhead Mail Packets.

Although constructed chiefly for the conveyance of goods, most of these lines have excellent accommodation for passengers, especially those I have just specified. This is also the case with the steamers plying between London, Dundee, and Aberdeen, Glasgow and Liverpool, and with many of the lines connecting Ireland with England and Scotland. Among the most celebrated are the Dublin and Holyhead packets, whose work is confined exclusively to the conveyance of the mails and passengers. Before the introduction of steam-vessels, it was no unfrequent occurrence for the sailing-packets, then engaged in this service, to be three or more days in crossing the Irish Channel; and, from a Parliamentary return issued in 1815, we learn that, for the space of nine days in the previous year, only one packet could sail owing to adverse winds. In 1819, the passage of the sailing-cutters then employed averaged twenty hours from Holyhead to Dublin. In the summer of that year, however, the Talbot, of 156 tons, built by Wood of Port Glasgow, with engines of 30 horse-power each, by Napier, was placed on the station; and the Ivanhoe, of somewhat the same size, by Scott of Greenock, with engines also by Napier, followed in the course of the ensuing year.

Their great speed and regularity.

The unexpected success of these steamers overcame the professional prejudices of the commanders of the sailing mail-packets, who had recently recorded as their opinion “that no vessel could perform the winter passage with safety but sailing-cutters.” The wish alone in this case must have been father to the thought, for, when the steamers Royal Sovereign and Meteor soon afterwards took up their station on the line, the cutters disappeared from it for ever. In fact, these steamers had so fully established the numerous advantages to be derived from the employment of vessels of this description, that, as early as 1823, a company was formed to carry on the communication regularly throughout the year by means of steam-vessels only. Subsequently, vessels superior to those of the class of the Meteor were constructed for this important service, and there were no faster or finer vessels of the period than the Banshee and the Llewellyn, which, in 1848, were placed on this station, having on their trial trips attained a speed of upwards of 18 statute miles per hour.[447]

Dimensions, power, capacity, and cost.

But the public soon required still faster and more commodious steamers; and a committee of the House of Commons appointed to inquire into the subject recommended the construction of vessels of 2000 tons each, with power sufficient to attain a speed of upwards of 20 statute miles the hour. Consequently, four ships were built, the Connaught, Ulster, and Munster by Messrs. Laird and Sons of Birkenhead, and the Leinster by Mr. Samuda of London.[448] The engines of all these vessels are on the oscillating principle. In the two pairs constructed by Messrs. Ravenhill, Salkeld, and Co., for the Leinster and the Connaught, the cylinders are 98 inches diameter with a length of stroke of 6 feet 6 inches. The eight boilers are multitubular, four being at each end of the engine-room space, arranged in pairs, with one funnel to each pair. The paddle-wheels are on the feathering principle, and are each 31 feet extreme diameter. On the trial trips the engines worked at the rate of 25½ revolutions per minute, under a steam pressure of 25 lbs. per square inch. The mean of the runs of the Leinster at the measured mile in Stokes Bay was at the rate of 20½ statute miles an hour, a greater speed by one mile an hour, than had up to this time (1860) been obtained by any other vessel in this country:—but the Connaught, when subsequently tried at the measured mile, attained a still higher result, the mean of her runs showing the speed of 20¾ statute miles per hour.[449]

The engines of the Ulster and Munster (constructed by James Watt and Co.) as well as their lines, very much resemble the other two, the main difference being that the diameters of the cylinders are each 96 inches, with 7-feet length of stroke. The internal arrangements of all the vessels are planned, with the object of providing for the comfort and accommodation of the public, in the way best calculated to mitigate, and, as far as possible, to prevent, the sufferings often accompanying the passage of the Irish Channel. In this and in most other respects, great success has attended the objects their designers had in view. Their saloons and cabins are large, lofty, and well ventilated; the principal one being upwards of 60 feet in length by 17 feet in breadth, and 9 feet 6 inches in height. Nor have these magnificent vessels failed to meet the requirements of Government. The regularity of their voyages has been surprising;[450] and I am not aware of any loss of life or property which has occurred in connection with them since they started in 1860.

Dover and Calais Mail Packets.

The Victoria.

Her speed.

Among the numerous other steamers now employed in the short voyage mail service, may be mentioned the small swift vessels running between Calais and Dover, Folkestone and Boulogne, Dover and Ostend, as well as between Southampton and the coasts of France, the Channel Islands, Jersey and Guernsey. They are beautiful boats of their class, and, considering their size and the rough weather they are frequently obliged to encounter, they perform their respective passages with remarkable speed and regularity. It is a rare occurrence for these packet-boats to be detained by a storm; and the manner in which they dash out of Dover or Calais harbours, at almost full speed, against a strong gale and an angry cross sea, shows that, if the British sailor has, from want of practice, deteriorated in seamanship, he has lost none of his native pluck. I know no more spirited and daring men than the masters of most of these small mail steam-packets, unless it be the Deal boatmen. They are cool and unruffled, while the smart little craft under their charge forces its way through the waves at the rate of twelve or thirteen miles an hour in the face of a gale which a landsman would describe as a “violent storm.”

On the [next page] is an excellent illustration of one of these vessels on her passage from Folkestone to Boulogne.

This smart vessel, the Victoria (well known no doubt to many of my readers), was built by Samuda, and her engines by Penn. On her trial trip over the measured mile, she attained a speed of 16½ knots or upwards of 18 statute miles an hour, which has been well maintained on the service in which she is engaged.[451]

S.S. “VICTORIA.”

Proposed tunnel

These boats, however, are in their turn about to be superseded: at least, various other means have been suggested for crossing the English Channel between Calais and Dover. The two most gigantic schemes are a bridge over the channel and a tunnel below it, both having one chief object in view, relief from sea-sickness during that short, and, to most landsmen, very unpleasant passage. The bridge, though it had a few influential and enthusiastic supporters, appears to have been abandoned as wholly impracticable; but the tunnel is still contemplated, and experiments are now being made to ascertain the nature of the soil beneath the bed of the sea at the requisite depth. Its projectors, who are men of influence and experience, are sanguine of success, but as its cost will be enormous, though estimated at not more than one-half that of the Suez Canal, and, as it cannot be completed for many years, other plans have been in the meantime suggested, two of which have been already partially put in operation.

and other modes of crossing the straits of Dover.

It would be entirely beyond my province to offer any opinion as to the practicability of either a bridge or tunnel, but I shall endeavour to furnish my readers with a brief outline of the novel description of vessels now prepared to cross this narrow strait.

The question of bridging, tunnelling, or otherwise crossing the channel by easier modes than the existing mail packets has long occupied the attention of men of science, however much they may have differed with regard to the best mode of effecting the object in view. Among various modes, the one suggested by Mr. Fowler, C.E., in 1864, for which plans were deposited in 1865 and 1867, and which was fully brought before Parliament in 1872, seems to be well worthy of further consideration, embracing as it does the extension of the “through traffic” without change of carriage to all parts of the continent. This is one of the important objects sought to be achieved by the tunnel, but at four times the cost.

Mr. Fowler’s plan.

Mr. Fowler proposes to build a steam-boat fit to receive a railway train complete, and carry it bodily across the channel from the South Eastern and London and Chatham lines to those of the North Eastern of France. To effect this object, it will be necessary to increase, materially, the existing facilities of Dover Harbour, and to construct a new harbour on the French coast, of sufficient depth of water to receive, at all times of the tide, vessels of the dimensions he suggests. The transport of railway trains, by means of vessels across broad sheets of water, has, already, been proved to be practicable. The operation may be seen, not merely in various parts of the United States and on the Lake of Constance, but in Scotland, where “the North British Railway Company carry trains across an arm of the sea, five miles in width.”[452] Nor is the plan suggested for connecting the steamers with the lines of railway, so that the carriages may run on board, either novel or impracticable. The ferry-boats of New York dove-tail, if I may so express it, into the end of a street and carry the whole of its traffic in one continuous line of passengers, carts, and waggons to Brooklyn, or across the Bay of New York to Staten Island and other more remote places: so that, in this respect, there is nothing visionary or impracticable in the scheme proposed by Mr. Fowler. Nor, so far as my nautical knowledge extends, are there any valid objections to it in other respects except the cost. There is no doubt that these vessels, from their immense weight, size, and speed, will realise every comfort by way of stability that can be attained in crossing the English Channel at its narrowest part, while their vast dimensions afford ample space for every possible convenience to passengers, and, even, luxuries, if desired.

LONGITUDINAL SECTION

DIMENSIONS

LENGTH	450	feet
BEAM	57	”
DEPTH of HOLD	14	”
DRAUGHT	12	”
FREEBOARD	8½	”

SECTION OF BOAT & HOIST	TRANSVERSE SECTION
Showing Carriages being run on board

CHANNEL PACKET PROPOSED BY MR. FOWLER, C.E.

But in order that my readers may more clearly understand Mr. Fowler’s proposal, I furnish ([page 559]) longitudinal and transverse sections of the boat he contemplates, with an illustration of the mode by which the carriages are to be transferred from the lines of railway on board the vessel, and, in a footnote,[453] his explanatory remarks. Further explanations will be found in detail by reference to the evidence given before a Committee of the House of Lords, but the more important points of that evidence with the number of the question is supplied herewith.[454]

The other boats, which have been already built, do not contemplate the transport of the railway carriages, but are simply meant to afford an easier mode of transit for passengers than at present exists.

The first, planned by Captain Dicey, formerly Master Attendant at the port of Calcutta, proposed, according to the prospectus issued by the company, “To provide ample accommodation for all classes of passengers under shelter as well as on deck; to reduce the motion of rolling and pitching of the vessel to a minimum; and to keep the draught of water of the vessel to 6 feet, so that she may enter the ports on either side of the channel at all hours of the tide.”

The Castalia.

To accomplish these objects, the company has built, at the Thames Iron Works, a ship named the Castalia, which may be roughly described as the two halves of a longitudinally divided hull, 290 feet long, placed 26 feet apart, and strongly bound together by a system of girders upon which is erected, as may be seen by the [following woodcut], a raised deck inclosing cabin space. Under this deck in the water-way between the halves of the hull, work a pair of paddle-wheels side by side upon two separate shafts so that each wheel can be worked independently; these wheels are driven by two pairs of engines, one pair in each half of the vessel. The division and separation of the hull provides a deck of no less than 60 feet in width, with a stability much greater than any ordinary vessel possesses. Before and behind the engine, there are various state saloons inclosed by the hurricane deck, running the whole width of the vessel. These spacious rooms are handsomely decorated, and provide various comforts seldom attainable at sea, while the top platform affords a magnificent promenade 14 feet above the level of the water-line. There are, also, decks below running fore and aft to within a few feet of the double bow or stem in the separate hulls. The Castalia has accommodation for somewhere about 1000 passengers. Her estimated cost was only 60,000l., but the actual outlay must have been considerably in excess of that sum. Captain Dicey states that, in designing this vessel, he was in some measure guided by the performances of the “outriggers” that ply in the harbour of Galle—“long cranky boats hollowed out of tree-trunks, and steadied in the water by a log of timber fixed to the end of two wooden outriggers which project some way from the vessel’s side.”[455]

CHANNEL PACKET “CASTALIA.” (BETWEEN DOVER AND CALAIS.)

The Bessemer.

The other vessel, the Bessemer, is in many respects as different from all other steam-ships afloat as the Castalia; but was constructed with exactly the same objects in view, viz., to insure great speed, light draught of water, and, more especially, the smallest possible rolling or pitching motion. In a word, to afford to passengers crossing the channel the quickest means of transit with the greatest amount of ease, at an immersion so small, that the vessels could enter the existing English and French harbours at all times of the tide. This was the problem to be solved, and each inventor set about it in a wholly different way. Nor was this surprising, considering that each had been trained in an entirely different school. The projector of the Castalia is a sailor of great nautical experience; the designers of the Bessemer are an engineer and iron worker together with a scientific shipbuilder. Perhaps, had the originators of the two schemes consulted, amicably, instead of entering on a needless rivalry, they would have produced a better and much swifter ship than the Castalia; and a considerable sum of money expended on experiments would also have been saved.

The Bessemer, of which an illustration is given [on next page], was designed entirely by Mr. E. J. Reed (late Constructor to the Royal Navy), with the exception of the so-called “swinging saloon,” and was constructed at Hull by Earle’s Shipbuilding and Engineering Company: she is built entirely of iron, is a vessel of immense strength, and has, as may be seen from the illustration, very much the appearance of a breastwork turret ship of war. Her form is the same at bow and stern and, for 48 feet from each end, she has a freeboard of about 3 feet only. Her extreme length at the water-line is 350 feet, and the raised central portion, rising 8 feet above the low bow and stern, is 254 feet long, and, extending the whole width of the vessel, is 60 feet over all. The ends, as will be perceived, are very sharp and low. The engines and boilers, which drive the two pairs of paddle-wheels, are fitted in the hold at either end of the raised portion of the vessel. A series of deck-houses for private parties, refreshment bars, and other rooms are carried fore and aft of the paddle-boxes on the breastwork deck; there is, also, a covered walk between these and the windowed sides of the “swinging saloon,” which rises about 8 feet through the breastwork deck, with a flat roof pierced by two companion hatches.

S.S. “BESSEMER,” BUILT FOR SERVICE BETWEEN DOVER AND CALAIS.

The nominal horse-power of the engines of the Bessemer is 750, but they can work up to an indicated power of no less than 4600, and were calculated to drive the vessel at a speed of from 18 to 20 statute miles an hour. The two pairs of paddle-wheels are placed 106 feet apart, and each wheel is 27 feet 10 inches in diameter, fitted with twelve feathering floats. Many of the inventions first produced in the Great Eastern have been adopted also in the Bessemer, such as hydraulic gear for starting the engines and for steering, telegraphic wires leading from the bridges to the engine-rooms, and various other ingenious contrivances to facilitate the working of the ship and her machinery.

Her swinging saloon.

The “swinging saloon,” the invention of Mr. Bessemer, is in the centre of the vessel, and is entered by two broad staircases leading to a landing connected with the saloon by a flexible flooring. The saloon itself is upheld on its axis by four steel supports, one at each end and two close together in the middle. The aftermost of the two central supports is hollow, and serves as part of the hydraulic machinery for regulating the motion of the saloon itself, a spacious and elegant apartment 70 feet in length, 35 feet wide and no less than 20 feet high. It is presumed, that the hydraulic machinery will enable the person in charge of it to keep the floor of this cabin perfectly level, even when the ship herself is rolling violently in a heavy sea.[456]

Such are the vessels contemplated to supersede the existing Dover and Calais packets. Although the Castalia has not realised the anticipated speed, and the Bessemer has been found altogether unsuitable for the service for which she was built, it would be premature to condemn even her as a failure, while the Castalia, from the comparative comfort she affords, is daily increasing in public favour. I have not, however, hesitated to furnish my readers with full particulars of these vessels, because they are interesting from their novelty, and no great strides have, hitherto, been made, as we have seen, in the art of ship-building or in the mode of propulsion, without the aid of men, who have been bold enough to enter on novel and, frequently, very costly experiments.

The cigar ship built at Baltimore, 1858.

Similar ship built on the Thames in 1864.

In these novelties, the Americans have, during recent years, taken the lead, and, on this subject, I cannot omit to mention one of the greatest maritime curiosities of this age, the cigar ship built at Baltimore in 1858 by Messrs. Winans of that city,[457] who also, subsequently, built another somewhat similar vessel on the Thames. Her model in all respects resembled a cigar, or, in other words, she is a great iron tube tapering away to a point at each end, and presenting perhaps the strongest possible form for a ship, her deck being merely the arc of a circle, on which were riveted staunchions for rails, and between these a raised platform with seats on each side. She had neither keel nor cutwater, and, in the language of the inventors, there was “No blunt bow standing up above the water-line to receive blows from heavy seas, no flat deck to hold, or close bulwark (as in the case of ordinary vessels) to retain the water that a rough sea may cast upon the vessel; neither mast, spars, nor rigging.” “The absence of sails,” they add, “not only renders the parts thus abandoned by us useless, but their abandonment in such a vessel as ours, will, we believe, most materially promote safety, easy movement, or diminished strain of vessels in rough weather; will save dead or nonpaying weight, insure simplicity and economy of construction, and will give greater speed in smooth water, less diminution of speed in rough water as well as diminished resistance in moving power at all speeds in all water, and result in shortening the average time of making sea voyages. The length of our vessel,” they continue, “is more than eleven times its breadth of beam, being 16 feet broad and 180 feet long. This whole length is made available to secure water-lines, which are, materially, more favourable to fast speed, and also to diminished resistance to moving power of all speeds, than the water-lines of any of the sea-going steamers now built, the best of which, looking to speed and ease of movement, have a length of only eight times their breadth of beam: the portion of our vessel not immersed, has the same lines as that immersed, so that it will pass through the heaviest sea; while, from its form and construction, no water can be shipped that will sensibly affect the load, or endanger the safety of the vessel, which may, we believe, be propelled at its highest speed in rough weather with an impunity which is far from being attainable with vessels as now built, to be propelled wholly or in part by sails.”

She was fitted with high pressure engines, and her boilers were on the principle of those used in railway locomotives. With regard to the propelling power it was a very novel application of the screw, being a ring to which blades were attached at certain angles to strike the water, the ring being itself made to revolve round the vessel with great rapidity by the engines fitted in the centre of the vessel; but Messrs. Winans do not furnish any further explanation beyond stating that “Its position is such that its minimum hold of the water will be much greater in proportion to the tonnage of the vessel than the maximum hold of the propelling wheel or wheels in ordinary steam-ships.” In the [illustration] to which I have referred there will be found cross and longitudinal sections of this curious vessel.

Perkins’s economical steam-engine,

These “cigar” ships appear to have failed through want of sufficient stability, or, more especially, on account of the novel and complicated character of their machinery, yet the facility with which they can be driven through the water may suggest a clue to further improvement in the construction of ships or at least in their form. There is, frequently, only a narrow line between the sublime and the ridiculous, and, in the scheme of a madman (called mad because he proposes something apparently wild and useless), there may be found the germ of really useful and grand inventions. Such fancies, therefore, ought not, in all cases, to be cast aside with contempt, even though they may create a smile from their novelty. Columbus was pronounced to be mad by the most learned men of Spain, when he talked of exploring the Atlantic in search of a world to the west. If Franklin, when he drew a spark of lightning from the clouds by means of his kite, had spoken about controlling that spark and rendering it the means of communication with other parts of the globe, all men would have called him mad.[458] Even the steam-boat herself was long considered the dream of a schemer. Something useful may therefore still be learned from the plan of the “cigar ship,” absurd as she may appear to the practical seaman. With these feelings I read the other day with great interest a prospectus brought casually under my notice of a plan for applying an improved steam-engine (patented by Messrs. Perkins and Sons, Engineers, London), to a vessel very similar in design to the cigar ship. The value of this “economical steam-engine,” as it is termed, would seem to be the greatly improved principle adopted by the patentees in the construction of the boilers, which, they say, “will work with a pressure of steam of 300 lbs. to the square inch, and on a consumption of coal not exceeding 1½ lb. to the indicated horse-power per hour when working at full speed.”[459] If anything like this can be really achieved, another surprising stride will be made in the path of progress. The Lords of the Admiralty, who have not hitherto been prone to adopt “novelties,” appear to be of opinion that it can, as I understand that an engine has been ordered from the Yorkshire Engineering Company on Messrs. Perkins’s principle, and is now in course of construction to be fitted on board her Majesty’s ship Pelican, a sea-going ship of war.

and proposed fast boat,

Combining this new principle with a form of hull somewhat resembling the cigar, Messrs. Perkins propose “to construct and run an experimental fast express steamer from England to New York for the speedy crossing of the Atlantic, by passengers and mails as well as parcels and light goods ... with a light draught of water, great length and stability, and possessing steam power greatly in excess of any steam-vessel now afloat.”

The general design of the steamer they propose is represented as follows.

It is proposed that she should be 800 feet in length with 40 feet beam, and, having a flat bottom, it is calculated that she will not draw more than 11 feet of water with her cargo, passengers, and 500 tons of coal on board—the quantity estimated to be sufficient to take her from Liverpool to New York. The midship part of the ship, of which the following is a transverse section, will, Messrs. Perkins state, be “400 feet in length, or about equal to that of a first-class Atlantic steamer of the present day; she is to have every modern convenience” to accommodate “1000 first-class passengers.” “This vessel,” the projectors add, “is to be fitted with four separate and distinct engines, working independent screws, two of which will be at either end of the boat; they are to be of the collective working power of 12,500 horses, calculated to make the passage either way in 100 hours;” at the average rate of 30 knots an hour.[460]

Considering the great resistance which the displaced fluids must offer to a speed on the ocean so enormous, it is not easy, with our present state of knowledge, to conceive its realization; but the projectors are sanguine of success, and, therefore, while recording the results of the past, I place before my readers such information as is likely to be interesting, or may prove useful for the future. History is of little value, unless it teaches lessons to those who are to fill our vacant places, and, even at the risk of wearying my readers, I have for this reason gone more into detail than I should otherwise have done on such subjects, with a full conviction, that we have still very much more to learn, and especially as regards ships, than one man can hope to teach.

The Engine of the Comet.

Though the different stages of improvement on the steam-ship have been carefully and fully recorded, it may be interesting to notice briefly the progress which has been made in the marine steam-engine itself. With that object I present my readers with a woodcut of the engine of the Comet constructed by James Watt and fitted into that boat by Mr. Robertson, who is still living, and whose photograph accompanies the illustration. This famous machine is now exhibited at South Kensington, in the Museum of Patents.

“COMET” ENGINE.

This engine, which was a “high pressure” one, is simple in construction and light in weight, and, though many improvements have been made since it first drove the Comet, to the wonder of the people on the Clyde, few of these changes have embodied any important principles. Although great strides have been made in the economy of fuel, and in the harmonious working of engines, the general principle of their action has undergone no change. By the reciprocating movements of a steam impelled piston within a closed cylinder, the motive power of the modern steam-ship is obtained, as in the Comet; yet, probably, on no other subject has more mechanical ingenuity been lavished than on the marine engine. Twenty years ago, almost every engineer had his own peculiar type, comprising the “side lever,” the “steeple engine,” the “grasshopper,” the “trunk,” the “oscillating,” and the “direct acting engine,” with an endless variety of sub-combinations; but, after all, these were only variations in the engine left to us by Watt, which, a few years ago, might be seen in some of the small coasting craft plying between the Mersey and the Dee and elsewhere.[461]

Modifications in the construction of Marine Engines.

It was only when surface condensation and the compound principle were adopted, with improved boilers, and superior modes of raising steam and of more effectually applying its power, that the marine engine made any substantial advance. Thirty or forty years ago the usual pressure in a marine boiler seldom exceeded from 3 to 4 lbs. above that of the atmosphere, and, consequently, one of its most necessary fittings was a safety-valve opening inwardly, and called a “vacuum valve,” so as to prevent the boiler collapsing if the steam pressure should chance to fall below that of the atmosphere,[462] but now the usual working pressure is 60 lbs., and 300 lbs. is the pressure to which many men of science think we are now advancing.

In a condensing engine, the effective pressure on either side of the piston is the steam boiler pressure plus the weight of the atmosphere due to the vacuum produced on the opposite side thereof.[463]

Ratio of speed to power.

The boilers for this description of engine, being supplied with water from the sea, required frequent “blowing out” in order to prevent incrustation, and keep the water at a safe and regular density. But this “blowing out” process, which occasioned a very considerable loss in fuel, was to a great extent overcome by the introduction of the surface condenser, which produced fresh water; and this water is pumped back into the boiler to be again and again evaporated and condensed, thus dispensing with feeding from the sea. When the marine engine arrived at so comparative a stage of perfection, the public demanded increased speed, and when steam navigation was extended to distant stations, where fuel was costly, it became a matter of the greatest importance to still further economize its consumption; but considering that the speed of a steam-ship in relation to the power of the engines is subject to a ratio peculiarly its own (to double the speed of a ship the engines have to exert eight times the power necessary for the slower rate), the energies of the engineering world were severely taxed to obtain a greater speed on a less consumption. Higher pressures were introduced, and the principles of expansion more thoroughly worked out. It was known that, when steam from the boiler was cut off after the piston had traversed any desired portion of the cylinder’s length, its expansive energy still enabled it to exert a considerable, though a necessarily decreasing, motive force upon the piston: that is to say, if steam of 50 lbs. absolute pressure were cut off at one-half the stroke, its elastic energy at 910ths of the stroke would be 28 lbs., while the mean of its force throughout the whole of the stroke would be 42 lbs.: in other words, if the whole volume of steam in the cylinder, at the initial pressure, produced 50 lbs. per square inch, one-half of that volume, used expansively, would produce 42 lbs. per square inch.

To more effectually work out these principles and utilize the steam at high pressures, the compound engine was introduced, and is now, almost universally, adopted in the steamers of the mercantile marine.

The Compound Engine

The following woodcut shows an ordinary pair of direct acting inverted cylinder compound engines, as usually fitted in screw steamers.[464] It will be seen that they consist of two steam cylinders, one of small, and the other of large diameter. The steam from the boiler, at a high pressure, enters the small cylinder, and, thence, at the end of the stroke, passes, through an intermediate receiver, into the large cylinder acting upon its piston entirely by its expansive force. At the conclusion of its double work, it passes into the surface condenser, and is there condensed into fresh water, producing the vacuum effect in the large cylinder.

COMPOUND SURFACE ENGINE.

The distinctive difference between the simple and the compound engine is that, in the former, the work of the steam is begun and ended in the same cylinder, whereas, in the latter, it is begun in the small or high pressure cylinder and completed in the large or low pressure one; the work obtained in the small cylinder with the high pressure, and consequently the hotter steam, should be about equal to that in the large one with the lower pressure and cooler steam: in fact, it is the aim of engineers in designing a compound engine to proportion the cylinders and arrange the details of effecting the admission, expansion, and eduction of the steam, so that its pressure may be thoroughly utilized and as much work as possible obtained from it. Some engineers consider the simple engine to be more economical than the compound engine with the same pressure and total expansion; but I am informed, by those who have had opportunities of witnessing the performance of engines made on this principle, that, after a thorough trial in large ocean-going steamers, the anticipated results were not obtained from them, and that they were, consequently, replaced by compound engines.

more economical than the simple.

But when the compound engine itself was first introduced, the high pressure and with it, necessarily, high temperature steam, together with surface condensation, caused serious drawbacks to its efficiency, so that great changes had to be made in the internal arrangements of both engines and boilers. For instance, the high temperature produced great wear and tear in the cylinders, valves, valve faces, and so forth, while the boilers rapidly corroded under the influence of the feed water taken from the condenser. These evils, however, when more thoroughly understood, were provided against; and the enormous saving in fuel induced shipowners to adopt the compound engines: under careful engineers, they last as long as, and cost very little more for repairs than the ordinary common condensing engines which consumed twice the amount of fuel.

It will, thus, be seen that the great stride in economy in the marine engine is due to high pressure steam expansion, and surface condensation: and, with a view to further economy, pressures are still advancing, the difficulty now being to construct a boiler that will withstand these pressures, and, at the same time, fulfil the other requirements of a marine boiler at sea. With these objects in view a number of patent water tubular boilers have been made. In 1870 and 1871 three ocean-going steamers were fitted with Howard’s and one with Roots’ patent boilers to work at a pressure of 120 lbs. per square inch, but they were not very long at sea before they failed, and were condemned. Again, in 1870, two very large steamers, each of 800 nominal horse-power, built for one of the Atlantic lines, were fitted with improved water tubular boilers to work at 120 lbs. pressure, but the trial of the first set of boilers, which completely failed, led the owners to condemn them and supply both vessels with those of the ordinary type to work at a pressure of 80 lbs. per square inch.

The failure of these boilers entailed an immense loss to the owners, and detained the vessels over twelve months, besides rendering the large engines, which were designed to work at 120 lbs., much less efficient at the lower pressure than they were intended to be.

It will, thus, be seen that the primary obstacle to advancement in economy appears to be the boilers, and although their construction, for very high pressure, is an expensive experiment, there are no less than four different descriptions (all of them patented) now being built in this country for marine purposes, any one of which, if thoroughly successful, will be another great step in advance.

However great the saving, hitherto, effected in fuel, there is still a wide margin between the means used and the effect produced, and great room, in other respects, for improvement. Indeed, Mr. Froude’s late experiments, at the instance of the Admiralty, on the actual resistance of ships, show that, in the case of the Greyhound, the ship he experimented on, the efficiency, at a speed of 10½ knots, was only 51 per cent., showing a loss of 49 per cent. of the motive power, which was even greater when the speed was less.[465]

There remains, therefore, a very large and deeply interesting field of research; for, of all the heat produced, we utilise in the steam engine only a small proportion for the purposes of propulsion.[466] Nor have we yet reached perfection in our ships, so far as regards the best form for obtaining the greatest speed. I have already shown[467] that, in river navigation, the American steamers surpass in speed anything we have as yet accomplished; and that they have made various attempts towards the adoption of the flat floor or “skimming” process—in other words, to sail over the surface of the water rather than to force the ship through it, as in the case of the cigar ship and others.

Great skill required for building perfect ships,

To construct a perfect ship is itself a problem of the highest order, to which the attention of mathematicians and the knowledge, skill, and tact of naval architects have of late years been constantly directed, with as yet no examples of complete success, however much the ships of our own time surpass those of our forefathers. Nor can the construction of safe, effective, powerful, profitable, and durable engines and boilers for marine purposes be a matter of easy determination, as shown from the fact, that there are still continual failures, revealing many difficulties yet to be overcome. Again, the means of propelling the vessel through the water suggests questions as to the resistance of fluids, which hydro-dynamic science has hitherto failed fully to resolve. Finally, the combination of all these, so as to bring about to the greatest advantage the effect desired, is a still more arduous task which the skill of the naval architect, the mechanician, and the sailor, even when combined, has not yet overcome. To the perfecting of our steam-ships we must still continue to apply ourselves, if we would maintain the high maritime position we now hold; for it is, only, by the unwearied exertions of all who are employed in our varied branches of industry, and with the aid of wise and just laws, that England can hope to keep ahead of all other nations.

and especial importance to England of having the best ships.

But her ships not yet perfect,

We have already, it is true, made extraordinary progress in the model and propulsion of our ships, but we have not yet approached perfection, nor shall we reach it, unless we continue earnest in our endeavours to do so. We know the properties of air, water, and electricity, and we have discovered the means of utilizing and directing these powers and of applying them to the most valuable purposes; yet, it is still necessary to carry in our steam-ships vast stores of coal—so great, on certain voyages, as to occupy much of the space otherwise available for cargo. So long, therefore, as this necessity exists, it cannot be said that we have reached anything like perfection.

Nevertheless, we have made surprising advances, and have derived many inestimable advantages from the application of the power of steam to sea and river navigation, far exceeding the most sanguine anticipations, whether as the means of extending commerce with the various producing and manufacturing portions of the globe, or in promoting the advancement of civilization to less cultivated regions.[468] By steam navigation, the intercourse between maritime nations has already been facilitated to an almost incredible extent; while postal communication has been established between Great Britain and her extensive possessions in India, East and West, as well as with the United States of America, and, indeed, with all other countries. Even the most remote regions of Australia, China, and Japan have now a regular postal steam communication with Great Britain; we have doubled Cape Horn in our steam-ships, reaching the once distant shores of the Pacific in a space of time so short, and with certainty so unerring that, only a quarter of a century ago, the work performed would have been considered altogether impossible.

though great progress has been made during the last half century.

To enable us to secure these important advantages we have been greatly indebted to the invention and application of the screw to marine propulsion, for, without it, we should not have been able to undertake such remote voyages by means of steam, and without it, also, we certainly could not have successfully maintained them with profit and regularity; but there is still much to be done, and were we, in the pride of our achievements, however great they may be when compared with those of our forefathers, to assume that we have reached anything like perfection in Ocean navigation, our children would very likely have reason in their day to smile at our vanity.