CHAPTER XVIII
ELECTRICITY APPLIED TO NAVIGATION (A FORECAST)

“And knowledge shall be increased.”—Daniel xii. 4.

DEVELOPMENT IN SIZE OF SHIPS AND STEAMERS

“DON’T give yourself away,” shrewdly remarked an eminent engineer, as I discussed with him the outline of this work, and the probability that in the near future, gigantic ships, as long as the Crystal Palace, and propelled solely by electricity, would traverse the seas. “I have not yet come across any form of accumulator that could be adapted to such a purpose, though I admit that the next quarter of a century may produce some startling results. Still, I would not, if I were you, write about it.”

My friend, like many scientists, was cautious, and did not like to commit himself; but I am not professionally restricted, and may freely indulge in a dream containing many elements of reality, and “take the wings of fancy,” nay, may also “take the wings of foresight,” and try to describe a mail-packet of the future.

But before entering into particulars of that phenomenon, the Princess Ida, and to prepare ourselves for the contemplation of her large proportions, we should note the evolutionary process which has gone on steadily for the last seventy years, and rapidly during the close of the Victorian Era, in regard to the size and tonnage of ocean steamers.

To go far back for the purpose of comparison—i.e. to the days when Britain as a maritime nation was in her infancy, or even to Tudor and Stuart times, when the Great Harry floated proudly in English waters, and Elizabeth’s Ark Royal defied the Spanish Armada, or when Phineas Pett reconstructed Charles the Second’s navy and planned those famous men-of-war, the Royal Sovereign, Royal Charles, and Royal Prince—is misleading, because up to Nelson’s time the practice of building ships with an extravagant amount of “sheer” (the fore-castle and stern towering upwards to protect the fighting men, and producing the outline of a doubled-up old shoe), together with the pronounced “tumbling in” of the ship’s sides, rendered it difficult to arrive at any correct estimate of length and beam. Approximately, 1,500 tons might represent the Great Harry’s measurement, and 150 feet her length, the Carolean Royal being about the same.

This method of shipbuilding began to be modified while Pepys was at the Admiralty, but it was very gradually abandoned, and had almost disappeared at the beginning of the century, the Victory, slightly over 2,000 tons, and some 152 feet in length, showing but a slight trace of it in her high poop.

In 1834 a merchantman of 1,000 tons was considered a big craft, the largest on Lloyd’s register for that year being 1,500 tons, upon which there was not much advance until the “fifties” and “sixties,” when all the adventurous of England’s manhood were irresistibly attracted to the goldfields of Australia, and vessels of large tonnage began to be laid down on the stocks. Of such were the British Empire, 2,676 tons; the Donald McKay, 2,636 tons; Red Jacket, 2,000 tons; and many others of from 1,000 to 1,800 tons registered tonnage. These in their turn gave place to iron “sailers” of immense capacity, the tendency being to build them bigger and still bigger—“five-masters” of from 3,000 to 4,000 tons—it having been found that they are worked more economically than smaller craft, and are able to compete with the larger vessels of other countries, and with the syndicates that threaten to monopolise the nation’s carrying trade. Foreign examples are La France, 3,624 tons, and the Preussen (biggest in the world), 4,700 tons.

In steamers the development of size has been great, and astonishingly so since the universal adoption of the screw-propeller. For instance, the paddle-wheel William Fawcett, that pioneered the P. and O. Company, built in 1829, was but 74 feet long; the Cunard Britannia, that took Charles Dickens to Boston, was a paddle-boat of 1,154 tons, and 207 feet long; the Great Britain (1843) was 3,400 tons register, and regarded as phenomenal.