A history of commerce

by Clive Day

The suggestion of iron for building ships was met at first with ridicule; some people, of course, thought that an iron ship would surely sink, and more serious objections were found in the cost, the derangement of the compass, and the fouling of the ship’s bottom. Iron, however, came gradually into use for steamers, and, after 1850, was applied more and more generally to the constructions of sailing vessels. Iron vessels were actually superior in buoyancy to wooden, drawing less water and carrying more cargo with a given tonnage; they were cheaper in the long run, because they are stronger, more durable, and less exposed to destruction by fire. Furthermore, iron was absolutely essential if the size of ships was to be increased. Builders of wooden ships were limited by the average height of trees, and, in spite of all devices, could not construct a frame sufficiently strong for a vessel exceeding about 300 feet in length. The size of an iron or steel ship is practically unlimited. The cost of ships constructed of metal has decreased with advances in the manufacture of iron and steel; remedies, fairly satisfactory, have been found for the derangement of the compass; and though it has been found impracticable to apply copper sheathing to steel ships, the fouling of the bottom is an evil of minor importance.

356. Relative decline of sailing vessels, notwithstanding improvements.—During the second half of the nineteenth century the wooden ship gradually disappeared from the seas, giving place to vessels constructed first of iron and then of steel. The country which suffered most from the change, as will appear later, was the United States; the country best prepared to profit by it was England. The English now rapidly enlarged the dimensions of their ships, and improved their rig and model. Some of the modern steel ships carry 5,000 tons of cargo, or even more. A study of winds prevailing on the ocean, to which an American officer, Maury, made important contributions, enabled sailing vessels to choose a course which, on many routes, shortened the duration of the voyage a third or more. Steam has been applied for handling the cargo, and for managing the rudder and sails.

In spite of all improvements the sailing vessel has not been able to keep its share of sea-borne commerce. So much depends on certainty in modern business that the merchant will gladly pay a higher freight rate to be relieved of the element of uncertainty which is bound to attend navigation by sails. Steamers now exceed the sailing vessels of the world not only in tonnage, and still more in effective carrying capacity, but even in number also, if only vessels of 100 tons and above are counted.

357. Steamers used at first chiefly for internal navigation.—American inventors made a practical success of steam navigation soon after 1800; a brief notice of their work will be given later. The steamer was used at first, however, chiefly for internal navigation and for short coasting voyages. It was of immense importance in furthering the development of the Mississippi Valley in America; and it soon made a place for itself on the European rivers. About 1840 there was a rapid development of steam transportation on the German rivers, and this has not ceased to grow in volume and efficiency. Chains have been laid along some of the river beds; on the Elbe, for instance, a chain extends all the way across Germany and even into Bohemia; and by this means steamboats are enabled to haul their barges up-stream against a strong current. The application of steam to ocean navigation did not become of great importance until about the middle of the century. At that time only one fifth of the steam tonnage entering British ports came from foreign ports; the rest was employed still in the coasting trade.

358. Beginnings of steam navigation of the Atlantic.—The credit for the first passage across the Atlantic by steam has often been ascribed to the American ship Savannah, which arrived at Liverpool in 1819 after a voyage of twenty-nine days. This boat, however, should be classed as a sailing ship with auxiliary engine, rather than as a steamer; the paddle-wheels were arranged to be removed and hoisted on deck when the wind was fair. It made most of the distance by sailing, and the scanty supply of coal gave out before it reached its port, so that, as the log reads, there was “no cole to git up steam.” A Canadian boat, the Royal William, actually did make the whole passage under steam in 1833, but stopped at Pictou for coal on the way; while the first regular steamship to cross without recoaling was the Great Western in 1838. The considerable intervals between these trips show that navigation of the ocean by steam was still in its experimental stage. Indeed, in the very year 1838, in which the Great Western and the Sirius began the period of practical application, a leading English scientist set out to prove by arguments and statistics that the project of connecting Liverpool and New York by direct steamer trips was “perfectly chimerical.” The Cunard Company was founded the next year; and some measure of the appreciation of the American people is given by the fact that when Mr. Cunard arrived at Boston in 1840, on the first trip of the new line, he received (it is said) no less than 1,873 invitations to dinner within twenty-four hours!

359. Improvement of the means of steam navigation.—The early steamers were moved by paddle-wheels, which offer special advantages for use in shallow water, but which are not so efficient as the screw propeller in the open sea. They require heavier and bulkier engines which must be placed in the best part of the ship, they waste power, and they show the effects of wear and tear more quickly. The Great Britain, which made its first voyage in 1845, was noteworthy on two accounts: it was the first large steamer (over 3,000 tons) to be built of iron, and it was the first to introduce the screw in ocean navigation. These two improvements were adopted by the Inman line (1850) and were gradually accepted by other builders.

In the second half of the century various improvements have added still more to the efficiency of the ocean steamer. Early steamers ran under such a low steam pressure that we find recorded in the log-book of one, “Broke the larboard steam-pipe, lapped it with canvas and rope-yarn and proceeded”! Higher pressures were introduced, and after about 1870 the steam was more fully utilized by compound engines, of which some have three or even four sets of cylinders. The introduction of twin screws, first applied to the City of New York (1889), has added rather to the safety than the speed of a passage, by permitting further development of the system of water-tight compartments.

360. Gains resulting from increase in size.—Another most important factor in the development of efficient steamers has been mere growth in size. A ship’s carrying power varies as the cube of her dimensions, while the resistance offered by the water increases only a little faster than the square of her dimensions. Large ships, therefore, consume less coal per ton of cargo, and as large boilers and engines consume coal more efficiently than small ones, there is a double gain. Here again, as in the case of railroads, the introduction of cheap steel has been of immense importance, and may fairly be said to have revolutionized the art of ship-building since 1875. While in 1880 nine tenths of British steamers were still constructed of iron, the proportion had sunk in 1890 to less than one twentieth, and the employment of steel is now almost universal. From steel are constructed the great cargo-carriers and the fast express steamers of the modern oceanic service. Some conception of the progress that has been made can be got by a comparison with earlier conditions. In 1841 the total steam tonnage of the British Empire was 188,000; nowadays a single steamer (Leviathan, Majestic) has a tonnage in excess of 50,000. The horse-power of British steamers in 1841 was estimated at 75,000; nowadays a single steamer, has an indicated horse-power almost equal to that total. The boilers of a modern express steamer (Teutonic) were required to evaporate 120 tons of water every hour, yet so thoroughly is the heat utilized that it was said of a steamer some years ago that the burning of a sheet of paper would move a ton a mile.

361. Resulting decline in freight rates.—Even in 1884 a competent writer could make this interesting statement: twenty years before, a steamer of 3,000 tons had to allow for coal and machinery on a given voyage 2,200 tons, and must confine the cargo to the remaining space; at the date when he wrote the great improvements had reversed the proportions, so that only 800 tons were needed for motive power and 2,200 were devoted to cargo. Manifestly steamship owners would be enabled by a change of this character to lower greatly the charges for transportation, and freight rates have, in fact, declined steadily in the course of the century. Lancashire spinners could transport their raw cotton from the source of supply in America at one sixteenth the cost which they had to bear sixty years before. Even in the last quarter of the century ocean freight rates dropped to one half, one third, or even one fourth, of the figures prevailing in 1874.

Conditions such as have been thus briefly suggested explain the immense increase in sea-borne traffic during the century. For the carriage of that traffic the merchant has now at his disposal not only the sailing ship and the “tramp,” the general-utility steamer, but also a multitude of special boats for special services: the tank-steamer for transporting liquids cheaply, the cattle steamer for live stock, and the steamer with refrigerators for dead meat, the fruit steamer, etc. The use of oil as fuel and the introduction of explosion motors of the Diesel type promise to raise still higher the efficiency of transportation.