One of the best known steamship companies in the United States is the Fall River Line, belonging to the New England Navigation Company. The Fall River Line runs from New York to Boston, and their vessels are of exceptional interest as being propelled by paddle-wheels notwithstanding that their size is in some cases of from four to six thousand tons. Characteristic, too, is the extent to which the decks tier aloft and spread out beyond the hull of the ship. Among their fleet may be reckoned the Priscilla, Puritan, and Providence, vessels which vary in length from over, to just under, 400 feet, with a beam of about 50 feet, but including “guards” about another 30 feet. [Opposite this page] will be seen the Commonwealth, the flagship of this celebrated fleet, and the most modern. Instead of the paddle-boxes rising to a great height, they are absorbed by the excessive amount of top-hamper. To such an extent, also, has the widest beam of the ship been pushed that the paddle-wheels are scarcely discernible, being quite underneath the “guards,” instead of projecting from the hull. The Commonwealth plies between New York and Boston via Newport and the Fall River, and is the largest and most magnificent steamship built for service on inland waters. Some idea of her value may be gathered when we remark that she cost £400,000 to build. It will be seen that she has been given a high bow, for the reason that she must be a good sea-boat, since part of her route is exposed to the Atlantic. She is 456 feet long, 96 feet wide (reckoning in the “guards”), and has sleeping accommodation for two thousand people. This voyage is performed in about twelve hours, mostly by night, from New York to the Fall River, and the retention of the paddle-wheel gives an absence of vibration, and enables the nerve-wrecked citizen to sleep as peacefully as on shore. The Commonwealth is steady in a sea-way, and has pushed the cult of luxury just about as far as it can go, whilst yet retaining any of the accustomed characteristics of the ship. Practically these craft are remarkably up-to-date hotels moved by a pair of paddle-wheels. Replete with their barber’s shops, cafés, libraries, saloons, orchestra, galleries, stairways, dining-rooms, spacious bedrooms, kitchens, and other features too numerous to mention, they are representative afloat of the prevailing passion ashore for luxury and personal comfort. The Commonwealth, like her sisters of the same fleet, is built of steel, and for greater safety she has seven bulkheads, which extend to the main deck, and are so installed that no carelessness can leave the doors open. Her hull is double and the space between the bottoms is divided into numerous water-tight compartments, whilst collision bulkheads are also placed at each side of the steamer at the “guards.” Her speed is twenty-two knots per hour, which is obtained by compound engines, with two high-pressure cylinders. The paddle-wheels are of the feathering type, with curved steel buckets, and in addition to the usual steam pumps, there is a large pump for use on the fire-sprinkler system which covers the whole interior of the ship. The ship has a powerful search-light, and an electric lift to the kitchen. In case both her steam-steering and hand-gear should get out of order the ship can be steered by independent auxiliary gear attached direct to the rudder stock.
Having regard to the fact that it was North America which played so prominent a part in the history and introduction of the steamship, it is by no means unfitting that that country should also have developed the paddle-wheel steamboat to an extent that is entirely unknown in Great Britain. The difference in types is partly owing to the difference in tastes and habits between the two peoples, but also owing to the contrast in geographical arrangement. We in England have nothing comparable with the Hudson, for instance, and its fine, long sweep of navigable water; nor with the vast American Great Lakes, which, in a unique manner, have held out a special kind of encouragement to the steamship. As carriers not merely of cargoes, but also of passengers, especially during the tourist seasons, the steamships on the Great Lakes have attained the character rather analogous to the ocean liner than to the inland steamboat. The spirit of luxury is not concealed in these Lake liners, and some idea of one of the two-funnelled passenger steamboats now plying on the Great Lakes of America may be seen in [the illustration facing this page] of the City of Cleveland. The two characteristics already noted in the case of the Hudson and the Fall River steamships will here be noticed still further. We refer to the extent of the added decks, and to the increased beam which is given to the ship by means of the “guards.”
THE “CITY OF CLEVELAND.”
AN AMERICAN “WHALE-BACK” STEAMER.
But perhaps the most extraordinary looking American steamship is the well-known “whale-back” which is in use on the Great Lakes as a cargo-carrier. Practically speaking she is just a whale-like steel tank with an engine and propeller at the stern. Anything but comely in appearance, she is something of the American counterpart of the British turret-ship, but with one difference. The American type has no turret, but is just a long curved box with two comparatively small erections at bow and stern respectively, as will be seen by examining the photograph of one of these vessels reproduced [opposite page 264]. But the design of these Lake steamers is to carry the largest amount of cargo with the lowest registered tonnage, and this object is attained with satisfactory results, for there is scarcely any space at all in the ships but is thus employed.
And with this we may bring our chapter to an end. We have now seen the rise, the gradual growth, and the specialisation of the steamship in many ways, and in many different localities whenever employed as a commercial money-earning concern. But the steamship, like the sailing ship, is not exclusively employed either for commerce or for war. With the latter kind of ships we have in the present volume no concern; but with regard to the development of the steam yacht we shall now have something to say.
CHAPTER X
THE STEAM YACHT
That the steamship should become for the sportsman what for some time the sailing vessel had been was a natural prophecy. Even if steam were not to oust the simpler craft, at least both might sail the seas together without let or hindrance. But, of course, the old prejudice asserted itself again in yachting just as we have so frequently through the pages of this book seen that it did in the evolution of the purely commercial and experimental ships.