The Sirius left Cork on the 5th of April, and arrived at New York eighteen days afterwards. She carried seven passengers, and close at her heels followed Brunel’s Great Western, which had left Bristol three days later. The two ships were received with loud acclaim, a vast crowd of spectators beholding their arrival. The vessels proved beyond possibility of doubt that the transatlantic voyage by steamships was possible, and, at a stroke, the duration of the passage was reduced by almost one-half. It has since been reduced to less than a quarter.
The Sirius made on an average about 161 miles a-day, or slightly less than seven miles an hour. She apparently, however, had been originally built for plying between London and Cork; while the Great Western, which had presumably been especially built for the transatlantic traffic, was both larger and more powerful. Her average speed was about 208 miles a-day, that is between eight and nine miles an hour; while returning, the speed was a little better, averaging about 213 miles per day. The return voyage of the Sirius was also better than her outward passage.
The engines of the Great Western were side-lever, and were built by Messrs. Maudslay & Field, of London. The cylinders were 73½ inches diameter, and the pistons had a big stroke of seven feet. The wheels’ diameter was no less than 28¾ feet, while the steam was generated in four boilers. Her tonnage was 1340—the largest Maudslay’s had yet engined, with 750 indicated horse-power. She voyaged many times across the Atlantic, her fastest eastward passage being 12 days, 7½ hours. The variation in her coal consumption was very remarkable. Thus, on her first voyage 655 tons were burnt, but on her return journey she consumed 263 tons less. No doubt this was owing to the greater use she was able to make of the wind.
The proprietors of the two vessels soon began to build others. The owners of the Great Western laid down the Great Britain, and the proprietors of the Sirius began the British Queen. She had paddle wheels of 31 feet diameter, and her piston stroke was the same as the Great Western, 7 feet. Her engines were 500 horse-power, and her cylinders 77½ inches in diameter. She was 275 feet long, 40 feet wide, and 27 feet deep. From Portsmouth to New York she crossed in 14 days, 8 hours.
Satisfactory as these results were, the pecuniary returns unfortunately were not so favourable. The Great Western, it is said, continued running at a loss, but others were withdrawn. Something seemed wanting to make the venture a commercial success. What was it?
Meantime Willcox & Anderson’s steamers plied with remarkable regularity to the Peninsula, and this regularity aroused some attention. The Government of the day applied to the proprietors to submit a scheme for carrying the mails. It seems that previously Willcox & Anderson had proposed this, but it had come to nothing. The end of the matter was, however, that the first mail contract was signed with them, the 22nd of August, 1837. To carry out their bargain, Captain Richard Bourne and Messrs. Willcox & Anderson founded the Peninsula Company, and three years later it was expanded to the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company—popularly known as the P. & O.—and incorporated by Royal Charter. The mail service was the keystone of the enterprise.
The first steamer, built in 1829, was the William Fawcett, a small vessel of 206 gross tonnage, and but 60 horse-power. In 1842 the proprietors owned the Hindostan, of 2017 gross tonnage, and 520 horse-power. She was a paddle-wheel vessel, and opened the Indian Mail Service. The commencement of this service marks another stage in the history of steam navigation. About fifty years later the Company owned about half-a-hundred ships, two being of 8000 horse-power and 7000 tonnage.
Some two years after the Hindostan first steamed to India, Brunel’s Great Britain was finished. She was a very remarkable vessel, and the wonder of her time. In the first place, she was built of iron, and, secondly, she was propelled by a screw, though at first it was intended that she should have paddle-wheels, and the engines for these wheels had been partly made.
Barges and light vessels had been built of iron since about 1790, or earlier, and the Lairds of Birkenhead, among others, had built an iron vessel about 1829. It is said that the Aglaia was the first iron steamer built on the Clyde in 1832. As for the screw-propeller, John Ericsson was successful with the Francis B. Ogden in 1836, and three years later Sir Francis Pettit Smith clearly showed, in the vessel appropriately called the Archimedes, the value and the feasibility of the new system.
Brunel, therefore, ever open to improvements, combined these two alterations in the Great Britain. It was in 1839, probably after Sir Pettit Smith’s success, that the change was made as regards the screw for this vessel, though the paddle-wheel engines had been begun. The superiority of the screw-propeller over the paddle-wheels are said to be these:—the engines occupy less room, and are lighter—two very important considerations. Then there is greater wear and tear on paddle-wheels, and consequently the screw vessels are less expensive. But most important of all, the screw being deep in the water, the vessel is much more suitable for ocean traffic. In the heaving billows of the sea one wheel may be buried deep on one side of the ship, and the other whirling round high in the air, and not propelling the vessel; whereas the screw, being always immersed, except possibly in severe pitching, is more constantly efficient for the whole of the vessel.