Steamships and their story

by E. Keble Chatterton

THE “SERVIA” (1881).

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

The owners of the Oceanic followed up their success by the Britannic and the Germanic in 1874. A photograph of the former [is here reproduced] as she appeared when leaving Southampton during the Boer War for South Africa, acting as a transport, with British troops aboard. From this picture it will be noticed that she is purely a steamship, but when launched she was rigged as a four-masted barque with yards and sails, but, following the fashion of the Oceanic, the bowsprit had been discarded. At one time the Britannic was given a curious arrangement by which she could lower her propeller so that it was almost level with the keel, and being placed thus low it was hoped that all tendency to race when the vessel pitched would be eradicated. To this end a hollow recess was made in the hull at the stern so that the shaft could be made to work up or down as desired. But the results were disappointing, so that after giving the method several months’ trial it was discarded. Both the Britannic and the Germanic were larger craft than the Oceanic, and had a tonnage of just over 5,000 tons, and a length of 468 feet, with 45 feet beam. They also were fitted with compound engines, which gave 5,000 indicated horse-power, and a pressure of 75 lbs. to the square inch. The Britannic broke the record again by her speed of 16 knots, but the year after her launch the Inman Line, with the City of Berlin, also developed 16 knots, and wrested the record from the White Star boats by crossing the Atlantic in seven days fourteen hours. She was a much larger ship than those other two, had a gross tonnage of 5,491, and was 520 feet over all. This ship is interesting as having been the first Atlantic liner to be fitted with electric light, which was installed in 1879. The White Star Line, however, had endeavoured in 1872 to instal in their Adriatic a system of lighting the ship by gas generated from oil. But the rolling of the ship and other causes led to so much leakage that it was discarded.

In the year 1879 the Atlantic competition was further accelerated by the advent of the Arizona, which belonged to the Guion Line. This company had been formed in 1866, and was originally known as Williams and Guion. In 1879 the Arizona further reduced the Atlantic passage by eight hours, but in the same year, whilst bound eastwards, she had the misfortune to run at full speed into a great iceberg, and her bows were altogether crumpled up; she would have foundered, but her water-tight bulkhead happily kept her afloat so that the ship was able to reach St. John’s, Newfoundland, her nearest port. It was such incidents as this which caused the adoption of efficient water-tight compartments on most steamships of any size, and the influence of the British Admiralty on our national shipping was in the late ’seventies and the early ’eighties decidedly powerful. By their instructions every steamship on their list available for transport duties was to be divided up in such a manner that if any one of her compartments should be opened to the sea in calm water this loss of buoyancy would not imperil the ship’s safety. As a result the shipbuilders took the hint, and greater attention was paid to so important a point.

The Oregon, another of the Guion Line’s famous steamships, was purchased by the Cunard Company, and showed her marvellous turn of speed by making the run from Queenstown to New York in six days, nine hours, fifty-one minutes. She distinguished herself by keeping up what was then the unheard-of average passage of six days fourteen hours. But, like the Arizona, this Oregon was born unlucky. Off the North American coast she was run into and sunk by a sailing ship, though the passengers and mails were happily saved. The Oregon had a tonnage of 7,375, and was driven by direct-acting inverted engines which developed the remarkable sum of 13,500 horse-power, and produced the equally wonderful speed of 18 knots per hour, thus earning for her the name of the “Greyhound of the Atlantic.”

We wish to call the reader’s attention now to the Servia, of which an interesting picture is reproduced [opposite page 154]. In her was embodied the result of another scientific discovery which has revolutionised the construction of the deep-sea ship, whether propelled by steam or sails. As iron had superseded wood, so now steel was to take the place of iron as the material of which to build the hull. So thoroughly, indeed, has this practice spread that during the year 1909, with the exception of a few small wooden vessels whose aggregate tonnage does not much exceed a thousand, the entire amount of new British shipping in that year was constructed of steel, and iron was not used at all for the hull. Such a fact is highly significant of the value of the newer material. Although as far back as 1873 the French had used this in constructing parts of their warships, it was not until four years later that the British mercantile marine began to be interested in it. But at length the Cunard Company were convinced of its superior virtues over iron, and ordered the Servia to be built of this material. When she made her appearance in 1881, she was the largest and most powerful ship, excepting the Great Eastern, that had ever been launched; her measurements were 515 feet, breadth 52 feet, depth 37 feet, with 7,392 gross tonnage. She lowered the Atlantic voyage once more to seven days, one hour, thirty-eight minutes, her speed being 17 knots, though it was not until 1884 that she really showed her full abilities. We may sum up the advantages which were now recognised in mild steel as consisting of, firstly, a saving of 25 per cent. in weight, just as we saw that iron exercised a similar superiority over wood. “Mild” steel is very ductile and can easily be fashioned into the required shape suitable for a steamship without risk of cracking. Iron is comparatively brittle, and steel is more uniform in quality. The latter will also endure a greater strain on its elasticity, and this had already been appreciated by the Royal Navy years before commercial shipbuilders realised its full value. Although the first cost of a steel-built ship was greater than one constructed of iron, yet that extra cost was found to be over-balanced by other considerations. Just as iron was stronger than wood, so steel was proved to be stronger than iron: consequently, the weight of the ship was diminished, which meant that the ship could carry a greater amount of fuel or cargo, or allowed of her being fitted with more powerful, though more weighty, engines. Steel is now very much cheaper than wrought iron, and is used not merely for the plates of the hull, but in almost every portion of the ship’s construction. Even in sailing ships the yards, masts, and rigging are to a large extent now made of this material.

THE “UMBRIA” (1884).

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