While acknowledging fully Fulton's right to the claim of being "the father of steam navigation," as he has been called, there is no evidence to show that he introduced any new principle or discovery in his application of steam to the Clermont. The boiler, engine, paddle-wheel—every part of the boat had been known for years. Yet this does not detract from the glory of Fulton, who first combined this scattered knowledge in a practical way, and demonstrated the practicality beyond question.
SEA-GOING STEAMSHIPS
The first war steamer and ocean steamer ever attempted was built by Fulton, in 1813. It was called the Demolgos, and was not a practical success, and made no attempts to take protracted ocean voyages. The first steamship to cross was the Savannah in 1819. She made the voyage from Savannah to Liverpool in twenty-five days, using her paddle-wheels part of the time, but at other times depending entirely upon her sails. She was a boat of three hundred and fifty tons, and her paddle-wheels were arranged so that they could be hauled in upon the deck and stowed away in bad weather.
Following the Savannah several similar combination sailing and steam-propelled boats were constructed, the navigators coming to have more and more faith in the possibilities of steam, so that less sail was carried. These vessels continued to reduce the time of the passage between Europe and America, until the voyage had been made in about seventeen days. Then, in 1838, two vessels, the Sirius and the Great Western, for the first time using steam alone as motive power, made record voyages, the Great Western crossing in twelve days, seven and a half hours. This was considered remarkable time—an average speed of over two hundred miles a day. Something like four hundred and fifty tons of coal were consumed on the voyage, which impressed many as a great extravagance of fuel. Some of the ocean liners at present consume more than twice this amount in a single day.
On July 4, 1840, the Britannia, the first steamer of the Cunard Line, started on its maiden voyage from Liverpool to Boston. The voyage was made in fourteen days, among the passengers being Samuel Cunard, a Quaker of Halifax, who was the founder of the enterprise. The population of Boston went mad on the arrival of this boat; streets and buildings were decorated, and the day was given over to the regular holiday amusements. Cunard received upward of eighteen hundred invitations to dinner that evening.
The year 1840, then, may be considered as one of the vital years in the progress of steam navigation. Since that time no year has passed without seeing some important addition and improvement made in the conquest of the ocean, either in size, shape, or speed of the "greyhounds."
SHIPS BUILT OF IRON AND STEEL
Even before the introduction of steam as a motive power for boats shipbuilders had been casting about for some satisfactory substitute for wood in the construction of vessels. One reason for this was that suitable wood was becoming scarce and very expensive. But also there was a limit to the size that a wooden vessel might be built with safety. A wooden boat more than three hundred feet long cannot be constructed without having dangerous structural weakness.
Naturally the idea that the only suitable material for boat-building was something lighter than water,—something that would float—which had been handed down traditionally for thousands of years, could not be overcome in a moment. And surely such a heavy substance as iron would not be likely to suggest itself to the average ship-builder. But at the beginning of the nineteenth century rapid strides were being made in theoretical, as well as applied science, and the idea of using metal in place of wood for shipbuilding began to take practical form.
Richard Trevithick, whose remarkable experiments in locomotive building have been noted in another chapter, had planned an iron ship as early as 1809. He did not actually construct a vessel, but he made detailed plans of one—not merely a boat with an iron hull, but with decks, beams, masts, yards, and spars made of the same material. It was nearly ten years after Trevithick drew his plans, however, before the first iron ship was constructed. Then Thomas Wilson of Glasgow built a vessel on practically the same lines suggested by Trevithick.