This great ship was equipped with six masts, each capable of carrying sail, five funnels, two paddle-wheels, and a propeller. She never voyaged to Australia, but she did cross the Atlantic, and from 1865 to 1873 she was used for laying the first Atlantic cable. In 1888 she was beached and broken up. She, however, was ahead of her day. Engines had not developed to the point where ships of her size could be properly powered, and she merely stands for the courage and inventiveness of the mid-Victorian ship-builders who dared to undertake so vast and so new a task.
With the exception of the Great Eastern, however, ships increased only gradually in size, and their increases in speed were approximately parallel to their growing tonnage. The Great Eastern was an attempt—an unsuccessful attempt—to leap ahead half a century. But the semi-failure of this ship did not retard the growth of ships. Perhaps, even, it aided that growth.
And now again a new development puts in its appearance in the world of ships—a less spectacular one than the introduction of steam, less spectacular even than the introduction of iron, but important, nevertheless. In the ’seventies steel was first introduced as a serious competitor to iron for the construction of ships. Its greater strength and its comparative lightness were its principle claims to superiority, but so important are those that while the Allan liner Buenos Ayrean, launched in 1879, was the first steel sea-going ship, to-day every merchant ship (with exceptions hardly worthy of mention) is built of steel.
About this same time the White Star Line organized its transatlantic service, and in 1870 a 420-foot liner (carrying sails in addition to her engines, as was still the rule) was launched and put into service in the North Atlantic. The White Star Line had previously owned a fleet of clipper ships, but when trade between Britain and the United States increased so enormously and the trade became profitable the White Star owners decided to enter it. This first White Star liner, the Oceanic, may, perhaps, be called the first of the transatlantic greyhound fleet, for in her, for the first time, there were really great concessions made with the comfort of the passengers in mind, and from her time until to-day new and improved liners have been launched in ever-increasing numbers. In 1881 the Cunarder Servia, the greatest of her kind save only the Great Eastern, was put in service. This 515-foot, 7,300-ton ship was a marvel of mechanical perfection in her day and lowered the transatlantic record to seven days, one hour, and thirty-eight minutes.
THE STEAMSHIP OCEANIC
This ship may be said to be the first of the transatlantic liners, for in her, for the first time, great concessions were made for the comfort and convenience of the passengers.
One of the greatest reasons for the increased speed of these new ships was the introduction of the compound engine. It was in 1854 that John Elder, a Briton, adapted the compound engine to marine uses. This improvement, by utilizing more thoroughly the expansive power of steam, increased at one stroke the power developed by engines without increasing the supply of steam. The principle of the compound engine is simple. Steam escaping from the single cylinder of a simple steam engine still retains a part of its pressure—that is, a part of its power to expand. As it is largely the expansion of the steam that forces the piston from one end of the cylinder to the other this means that a part of the useful force of the steam is wasted in the average single-cylinder engine. A compound engine, however, utilizes this power by leading the steam from the exhaust port of the first cylinder to the inlet port of another and much larger cylinder. Here the steam, now occupying more space, is used again to operate another piston connected to the same crankshaft. There is often still a third cylinder, and in some cases a fourth, in each of which some of the remaining power of the steam is utilized. The gradual increase of steam pressure in the better boilers that were being built also aided the development of these compound engines. In 1854, for instance, 42 pounds pressure per square inch was seldom exceeded, while in 1882, 125 pounds was a pressure occasionally reached.
With the development of compound engines and boilers capable of more pressure the screw propeller became even more efficient, and gradually the paddle-wheel disappeared from the deep sea. Furthermore, the compound engine, by its more economic power, made it possible for the steamer to compete with the sailing ship in the carrying of cargoes, even on long voyages, and so began the rapid growth of the cargo steamers that now have practically driven sailing ships from the sea.
And now comes a division of this subject of steamships—a division that later led to subdivision after subdivision, but which I shall treat in two major parts: steamers equipped to carry passengers, and steamers not so equipped.