Steamships and their story

by E. Keble Chatterton

THE “CITY OF PARIS” (1866).

From the Model in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

THE “RUSSIA” (1867).

From a Painting. By Permission of the Cunard Steamship Co.

The City of Glasgow and the City of Manchester began to quicken the pace, and at once ensued a contest between the paddle-steamers and those propelled by screws. In 1857 this enterprising company instituted the custom of calling at Queenstown on the way to America, and began running their steamers to New York in place of Philadelphia. Their success was so great that these ships were followed by the City of Philadelphia, and, in 1866, by the City of Paris, of which a beautiful little model [is here illustrated]. This was the first of their steamships of that name, and is not to be confused with another ship built in 1888. It will be seen that the liner before us was ship-rigged and had a single screw. She measured 346 feet long, 40 feet wide, and 26 feet deep, her tonnage being 2,651. She was driven by horizontal trunk engines, with steam at 30 lb. pressure, consuming 105 tons of coal per day, and giving her a speed of 13½ knots. Her name was afterwards changed to the Tonquin, and the superstitious will find interest in the fact that she subsequently foundered at sea in the year 1885. In the City of Paris the reader will be able to remark some of the last traces of the old sailing ship, which were destined presently to be altered considerably. The long, narrow wooden deckhouse going down almost the length of the ship, and leaving but little room for the passengers to promenade; the high, stout bulwarks, which rise almost to the top of the deckhouse, were among the last links which connected the steamship with the sailing ship. We must not forget that about the time when the City of Paris was built, the great clipper sailing ships were enjoying their prime, and no one will deny that their influence is very clearly marked in the model before us. As an interesting lesson in comparisons, showing how the tendency since the ’sixties has been to raise the decks of the steamships higher and higher, the reader is invited to compare this illustration with that of the Majestic, [facing page 162], and also that of the Kaiser Wilhelm II., [facing page 180]. In the sailing ship the deckhouse had to be small, for the reason that the deck space was required for the crew to work the sails; in the steamer this space was encroached upon, so that the deckhouse was elongated, and extended from the break of the anchor deck to the hood at the stern.

The City of Paris’s great rival came with the launching of the Cunard Company’s steamship Russia, which is [here illustrated], and began running across the Atlantic in 1867. But though the latter’s quickest passage from New York to Queenstown was eight days twenty-four minutes, the City of Paris, in 1867, crossed in eight days four hours, which at the time had broken the record, though the City of Brussels reduced it still further to under eight days. The Russia was another Clyde-built boat, and measured 358 feet long, 43 feet broad, and nearly 28 feet deep, having a gross tonnage of 2,960, and an indicated horse-power of 2,800. Her average hourly speed was 13 knots on a coal consumption of 90 tons per day. She was, of course, built of iron and had a single screw—two characteristics which practically all the crack Atlantic liners possessed from about 1862 until the end of 1883, if we except the Cunard Servia, which was launched in 1881, although the Allan liner Buenos Ayrean had been the first steel ship on the Atlantic.

During this period the liner was steadily adapting herself, her design, her engines, and her build, to meet the increase of experience gained at sea, and the increase of knowledge which shipbuilders and engineers were accumulating was in readiness for the continuity of advance. In 1881, after a period of much usefulness and great popularity among passengers, the Russia was sold to the Red Star Line, who lengthened her, changed her direct-acting engines to compound engines, and named her the Waesland. But the Russia was not the first screw-ship possessed by the Cunard Company. Already I have mentioned that though this line had introduced the screw-steamer into their fleet, it had not met with the reception it had expected, and for a time a return had been made to the paddle-wheel. It was the China, which had begun running in 1862 to New York, that helped to convince those who were prejudiced against the newer form of propulsion. She was 326 feet long, and was driven by a type of surface-condensing engine geared down to the propeller shaft by means of tooth-gearing after the manner already described, her engines being of the oscillating kind.

But we approach now another of those important crises in the history of the steamship when her future, for some years to come, became so definitely moulded. On other pages I have already alluded to the boilers in use on the big steamers, and to the important adoption of the compound engines using the expansive force of steam to do additional work after it has entered one cylinder. The increase of steam-pressure necessitated the adoption of a different type of boiler, with a cylindrical shell and flues. Thus the type which is known as the “Scotch” boiler was introduced about the year 1870, and is still in use even on the Mauretania. It was not until this type was adopted that the compound system began to make progress. At the same time it is only fair to state that the latter method had been introduced by the Pacific Steam Navigation Company as far back as 1856, and by the National Line in the early ’sixties. But it is when we come to the pioneer steamship of the White Star Line that we see the real influence which was at work to make the final cleavage between the old-fashioned steamship and the new type of liner. That flag which is now so familiar to all who travel across the Atlantic used to fly at the masthead of a fleet of sailing clippers. In 1867 the managing owner of the White Star Line retired; Mr. T. H. Ismay took over the control and began by introducing iron for the clippers instead of wood. Two years later and a fleet of steamships, especially constructed for the American passenger trade, was ordered to be built. The order was given to that famous Belfast firm, Messrs. Harland and Wolff, who have built the White Star steamships ever since. In August of 1870 was launched the first Oceanic, which made the old-fashioned rub their eyes in surprise and shake their heads in distrust. For the Oceanic simply threw convention to the winds and set going an entirely new order of things in the steamship world. From her have followed most of the modern steamship improvements up to the coming of the turbine. Some idea of her appearance may be gathered from [the illustration facing this page], but in the fewest words we will now endeavour to indicate some of her especial characteristics.