Steam-ships

by R. A. Fletcher

London, Brighton, and South Coast Rly. Co.

A considerable amount of difficulty was experienced by the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway Company in their preliminary attempt to open up the Newhaven-Dieppe route in 1847. As Brighton was a very unprotected departure and arrival station, and they were unable to come to terms with the Shoreham Harbour authorities, the company decided on Newhaven as the base for their cross-channel operations. The Brighton, Newhaven, and Dieppe steamers carried both passengers and cargo. As, at that time, it was illegal for railway companies to own steamboats, the South-Eastern Railway Company entered a complaint, and the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway Company were mulcted in a heavy fine for the cross-channel trading that had already been carried on. The service was in consequence completely stopped and the boats sold. For three years Anglo-Continental trade was left to private steamship owners, and then an arrangement was entered into with Messrs. Maples and Morris to run steamers ostensibly on their own account, but really on behalf of the company. Among the earlier steamers thus employed were the Ayrshire Lassie, Culloden, and Rothesay Castle, all built at Glasgow. The extra amount of business anticipated from the Great Exhibition of 1851 necessitated fresh arrangements being made in connection with the service, and an agreement was entered into by which Mr. Maples was to run his steamers for seven years. In the meantime the company endeavoured, but unsuccessfully, to obtain powers to own steamers themselves. At the expiration of Maples’ contract, it was extended for another four years. During the second period the powers for which the company had been asking were granted by Parliament, but Maples would not release them till his contract expired. When he did leave the service he took with him the Paris, Rouen, Dieppe, Marco, Hope—the latter an iron brig noted for having about seven feet of false keel—and another, and £38,000 in hard cash, which he subsequently lost. The three Scotch boats mentioned ran through the whole of the summer of 1851, at the end of which the Aquila was also chartered for the company. Two of Maples’ privately-owned boats on the Newhaven-Dieppe service were the screw steamers Collier and Ladybird. The latter was about 160 feet long, of 150 horse-power and steamed 11 knots. She was fitted with inverted geared engines to work the screw shaft, the ratio being 2¹⁄₂ to 1. Subsequently she went to Australia, and in 1854 carried the first Sydney to Melbourne mail. One of the most remarkable of the earlier boats employed by the London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway Company was the Wave Queen. She was built in 1852 by Messrs. Robinson Russell and Co. for a Belgian gentleman, whom she did not suit, and was sent to Newhaven by Mr. Scott Russell until he could get the Lyons and Orleans ready for use. She was of iron with a length of 200 feet, but her breadth was little more than 13 feet. For her beam she was one of the longest boats ever constructed, and consequently attracted a considerable amount of attention. Her engines were of 80 horse-power. She had clipper bows with very fine lines even for so narrow a vessel, and she had also an exceedingly long overhanging counter. A special feature of her construction was the total absence of sheer, and she enjoyed the reputation of being a swift and dry boat. According to contemporary records she was held to be the smallest vessel then afloat capable of attaining the speed required. Her engines were of the oscillating type and made fifty revolutions per minute, and steam at 25 lb. pressure was supplied by two tubular boilers. These were 15·7 feet long, 10·5 feet wide, and 6·5 feet high, having a total grate area of 100 square feet and 2342 square feet of heating surface. The aggregate weight of engines, boilers, and water was 55¹⁄₂ tons. Her paddle-wheels, which were unusually small for her length, were 12·4 feet in diameter, and each had sixteen feathering floats 6 feet by 2 feet 6 inches, her average speed being 15¹⁄₂ knots and her load displacement 225 tons with a gross register of 196 tons. On one of her trips she ran into the West Pier fourteen feet, but although she remained fixed during one tide she did not start even a rivet, and was got off on the next tide without having admitted a drop of water.

The London, Brighton, and South Coast Railway Company started their Littlehampton trade in 1866. In 1875 the company acquired from Messrs. Elder the celebrated Paris, commonly spoken of as the most handsome steamer that ever crossed the Channel. Larger and faster vessels being required about this time for the Dieppe and Honfleur routes, they purchased the Honfleur from Messrs. Gurley Bros. She was 376 gross tonnage, had engines of 45 n.h.p., with two cylinders of 18 inches and 34 inches diameter and a piston stroke of 18 inches. The twin-screw Rennes, built in 1866, was sent to the Thames to be overhauled, and her engines were compounded by Messrs. J. and W. Dudgeon, the result being a great increase in speed and a reduction of somewhere about 45 per cent. in coal consumption. Two new screw steamers, the Newhaven and Dieppe, were built for the company by La Société des Forges et Chantiers at Havre, but owing to structural imperfections, a considerable amount of trouble was experienced before they could be made to meet the requirements of Lloyd’s and the Board of Trade. At their best they were very slow. A great increase in traffic being expected from the Paris Exhibition of 1878, two paddle-steamers, the Brighton and Victoria, were ordered from Messrs. Jno. Elder and Co. of Govan. Their bridges were filled with the first steam-steering gear ever seen at Newhaven. A larger type of boat than had been used heretofore was adopted in 1882, when the Normandy and Brittany were purchased from the Fairfield Company of Glasgow, and in 1885 the Lyons and Italy were obtained from Govan for the cargo trade. The vessels now employed are the Arundel, Brighton, Calvados, Dieppe, Paris, Sussex, and Trouville.

London and South-Western Rly. Co., etc.

Farther westward on the south coast, an equally important line of communication between England and France is maintained by the steamboat service now carried on by the London and South-Western Railway Company from Southampton to Havre and Honfleur, St. Malo and the Channel Islands. The early boats employed in the cross-channel traffic were all of much the same type and size on whatever line they were engaged, and as the same limitations of ports applied to those run by the South-Western Railway Company as to the steamers of other companies, there was little to choose between them in regard to speed, seaworthiness, or accommodation.

During the early years of the past century the mail and passenger service between England and the Channel Islands was performed by cutters similar to those employed in the French mail service between Dover and Calais. Later the mails were conveyed under the auspices of the Admiralty from Weymouth to Guernsey and Jersey by the ships of H.M. Navy, Meteor, Dasher, Wildfire, and Cuckoo. The Dasher was employed until very recent years in guarding the fisheries off Jersey.

The first records of the steam-packet services from Southampton are dated 1835, and mention a service between Southampton and Havre twice a week in each direction by the Camilla, of 186 tons; and between Southampton and the Channel Islands by the Ariadne, 218 tons, these vessels being the property of the South of England Steam Navigation Company, who appear to have been the pioneers of these services. Even at that time there was opposition on the Channel Islands Station by the Lord Beresford and on the Havre station by the Apollo, both vessels belonging to the British and Foreign Steam Navigation Company. About one hundred passengers were carried to the Channel Islands on each trip during the summer season of 1835.

One of the earliest steamers employed in the Channel Islands service was the Lady de Saumarez (January 1836) of 350 tons, belonging to the British and Foreign Steam Navigation Company, with two 40-horse-power engines and fitted with Seaward’s improved vibrating paddles.

In May 1836 the Monarch was launched from the shipyard of Rubie and Blaker, Northam, and was the largest steam vessel which had been constructed on the Itchen. Her dimensions were 140 feet long, 23 feet beam, 360 tons, and she was built in four months. Her engines, of 120 horse-power, were supplied by Horseley and Co. of Tipton, near Birmingham, and the vessel was sent to London to receive them. The Monarch was placed on the Havre station by her owners, the South of England Steam Navigation Company. On June 2, 1836, the Atalanta, of 400 tons and 120 horse-power, was launched from the yard of Mr. Thomas White, West Cowes. She began running on the Channel Islands station for the South of England Steam Navigation Company during the month of July. The Atalanta was lengthened by Mr. White some years later, her bows being cut off and up-ended in his yard for a workmen’s shelter. She ended her days as a coal-hulk in Jersey.

In July 1836 the Watersprite, a vessel of 200 horse-power, was put on the Channel Islands station by the British and Foreign Steam Navigation Company, which two years later became the Commercial Steam Packet Company. This company owned also the Grand Turk, a vessel of 500 tons and 300 horse-power, and she was reputed to be the fastest and most handsomely furnished ship of her day. Her saloon was 50 feet in length by 30 feet wide. She ran both to Havre and the Channel Islands, and in 1841-1842 had opposed to her the steamer Robert Burns.