Tyler[12] names the stockholders of the Savannah Steamship Company, owner of the Savannah. The company was proposed by Capt. Moses Rogers, and its shareholders were William Scarborough, John McKenna, Samuel Howard, Charles Howard, Robert Isaacs, S. C. Dunning, A. B. Fannin, John Haslett, A. S. Bullock, James Bullock, John Bogue, Andrew Low, Col. J. P. Henry, J. Minis, John Sparkman, Robert Mitchell, R. Habersham, J. Habersham, Gideon Pott, W. S. Gillet, and Samuel Yates. Tyler establishes, by the company's charter, that the objective was to institute a New York-Savannah packet service, for which the Savannah was to be the first ship. He shows that, due to the economic depression of 1819, the Savannah sailed to Liverpool in ballast and without passengers. Her fuel capacity is given as 1,500 bushels (75 tons) of coal and 25 cords of wood. [It should be noted that 1,500 bushels of bituminous coal does not quite equal 75 tons.] Tyler quotes S. C. Gilfillan[13] as to criticisms of the engine and its design.
Partington[14] estimated coal consumption to be nearly 10 tons a day; remarked on the uneconomical arrangement of the ship, with the engine and boiler occupying the greater part of the space amidships, between fore and main masts; and located the axle of the paddle wheel "above the bends," that is, in the topsides above the wale. The description he gives of the unshipping of the wheels is that the pivoted blades were removed and the fixed blades, in horizontal position, were left on the shaft. This agrees with a Russian description referred to later. The logbook repeatedly speaks of "shipping" and "unshipping" the paddle wheels, indicating that the wheels were entirely removed from the shafts and stowed on deck.
Watkins[15] showed, by the account books of Stephen Vail, owner of the Speedwell Ironworks near Morristown, New Jersey, that the engine was built by Vail, but apparently to designs by Daniel Dod. The latter built the Savannah's boiler at Elizabeth, New Jersey, and made some parts of the engine, which he furnished, incomplete in some instances, to Vail. These account books, which were in the possession of John Lidgerwood of New York City in 1890, show the steam cylinder to have had an inside diameter of 403/8 inches and a 5-foot stroke. Reference in the account books to an error in Dod's draught of a piston proves that Dod designed the engine.
Watkins states that the engine was rated at 90 horsepower. He does not give the diameter of the pump cylinder, but, judging by the scaling of Marestier's drawing and by a rather indefinite entry in the Vail account book, it appears to have been between 17 and 18 inches. Quoting Captain Collins at some length, Watkins writes that the mainmast was placed farther aft than was usual in a sailing ship, and that the vessel had a round stern. Collins apparently based his opinion upon an unidentified "contemporaneous lithograph" and upon "all other illustrations of this famous vessel." Collins' conception of the appearance of the Savannah is shown in a drawing by C. B. Hudson that is reproduced as the frontispiece in Watkins' publication. A statement by Stevens Rogers that was published in the New London Gazette in 1836 appears to have been the original source for statements regarding the Savannah's fuel capacity, her sale, and her loss in 1821 while owned and commanded by Capt. Nathaniel Holdridge, "now master of the Liverpool packet ship United States." Watkins also gives a picture of Stevens Rogers' tombstone, on which there is a small carving purported to be of the Savannah. The tombstone was made in 1868.
From a Russian newspaper contemporary with the Savannah's visit to St. Petersburg, Frank Braynard found a statement that the vessel had two boilers, each 27 feet long and 6 feet in diameter.[16] It was also shown she had at least one chain cable. Considerable information on the cabin arrangement and the method of folding the wheels was also obtained from this Russian source.
In spite of a very extensive bibliography on the Savannah, the basic sources for reliable technical description are Marestier's report on American steamers, the logbook of the ship, Watkins' extracts from the Speedwell Iron Works account book, the customhouse records, and some of the statements made by Stevens Rogers between 1836 and 1856. Plans of the ship, or a builder's half-model, have not been found. Marestier's sketch of the Savannah, which is not a scale drawing, and his drawings of the engine and paddle wheels were the only available illustrations upon which reconstruction could be based.
Through the efforts of Malcolm Bell, Jr., of Savannah, Georgia, and Frank Braynard, a search was made by Russian authorities at Leningrad for contemporary references to the ship. This work resulted in information as to how the side wheels were folded, the dimensions of the boilers, and some description of the cabins and fittings.
As to the ship itself, the customhouse registered dimensions are of prime importance; they fix the over-all hull dimensions within reasonable limits. A vessel of 1818 measuring 98 feet 6 inches between perpendiculars would have been 100 to 104 feet long at rail. The type of ship represented by the Savannah is well established. All references are in agreement that she was built as a packet ship—a Havre or transatlantic packet in most accounts.
The packet ships listed by Albion[17] show that all the pioneer ships of the transatlantic Black Ball Line—which began operation with the sailing of the 424-ton James Monroe on January 5, 1818—measured at least 103 feet 6 inches between perpendiculars. Two of the pioneer ships of the first Havre Line—which did not begin operation until 1822—were under 98 feet between perpendiculars. The second Havre Line began operation in 1823; of its four pioneer packets, two were purchased general traders measuring under 98 feet between perpendiculars. The coastal packets built between 1817 and 1823 were all under 100 feet between perpendiculars. It is apparent, then, that the size of the early packets did not indicate, with any degree of certainty, the trade in which they might be employed.
Belief that the Savannah was built as a Havre packet is based upon Stevens Rogers' statements, and her size obviously does not make this impossible; nevertheless, it seems highly improbable that she was built for the Havre service because no Havre line of packets had been organized as early as 1818 out of New York or Savannah so far as can be found. However, the matter is not of very great concern as it is probably true that the models of coastal and transatlantic packet ships were quite similar at the period of the Savannah. This statement is supported by the plan of a coastal packet built seven years after the Savannah.