In 1835 Junius Smith[58] from Massachusetts began to consider the navigation of the ocean by steamers, and in 1836 he proposed to form the British and American Steam Navigation Company. The company was actually established in 1837 by Mr. Macgregor Laird with a capital of £1,000,000, but Smith’s connection with the scheme ceased, as he saw himself unlikely to make as much out of the enterprise as he had anticipated.
[58] The name is given as “Junius Smith” in Appleton’s “Cyclopædia of National Biography.”
Mr. Kennedy’s “History of Steam Navigation,” however, states that Doctor Julius Smith organised in 1836 “a transatlantic steam-ship company bearing the title of the ‘British Queen Steam Navigation Company,’ with a capital of £1,000,000, and Mr. Macgregor Laird as secretary.” The most remarkable event in the annals of this company is the voyage of the Sirius from London to New York in 1838. “The Sirius! The Sirius! The Sirius! Nothing is talked of in New York but about the Sirius. She is the first steam vessel that has arrived here from England, and a glorious boat she is.... Lieutenant Roberts, R.N., Commander, is the first man that has navigated a steam-ship from Europe to America.”[59] The Sirius was sent across the Atlantic really as a desperate remedy against competition.
[59] New York Weekly Herald.
The Transatlantic Company had placed a contract as early as 1836 with Messrs. Curling and Young of Blackwall, London, for the construction of the British Queen steam-ship, but the bankruptcy of Messrs. Claude Girdwood and Co. of Glasgow, who had contracted to build the engines, caused considerable delay. Enterprising rivals at Bristol, seizing the opportunity, formed the Great Western Steamship Company to build and equip the Great Western, which they determined to put on the service before the British Queen could be got ready. In this they were successful, and to save the honour of their own company the British Queen directors hired the Sirius from the Cork Steamship Company. It was known at the time that she was too small to be employed as a regular transoceanic trader, and even before she started on her first voyage the announcement was made that she would make two voyages only.
She was 178 feet long, 25¹⁄₂ feet broad, 18¹⁄₄ feet deep, and of 703 tons register. Her engines, like those of all other vessels of her time, were of the side-lever type; their cylinders were of 60 inches diameter, and had a stroke of 6 feet, and she carried a surface condenser similar to those now in use. She was a two-masted vessel, carrying three square sails on the foremast, her aftermast being fore-and-aft rigged only. She had one funnel situated abaft the paddle-boxes, which were about amidships. A picture of the vessel is in existence which represents her as three-masted, and with her paddles rather far forward, but this is inaccurate. She was almost a new ship at this time, and it is not likely that a mast would have been taken out of her between her launch and her Atlantic voyage. Her schooner bows bore as figurehead a dog with a star between his front paws.
The Sirius left London, sailing from East Lane Stairs, on March 28. She took no goods, as she was intended to be a passenger steamer only. On going down the river she overtook the Great Western “with a respectable pleasure party on board,” and a trial of speed was the consequence. When the Sirius had reached Gravesend she was upwards of a mile ahead of her rival. She had made the distance from Greenwich to Gravesend against a strong tide in one hour and fifty-six minutes. Both ships had their colours hoisted, and the banks of the river were thronged with spectators. Soon after the departure of the Sirius the American Line packet-ship Quebec came down the river in tow, and wagers were freely laid that the Quebec would arrive before the Sirius at New York. But those who backed the Quebec lost their money.
The Ocean, a vessel belonging to the Irish Company, acted as tender to the Sirius when the latter called at Cork, and arrived there from Liverpool on April 3, with mails and passengers for the venturesome little craft. At a few minutes after ten o’clock on the morning of the 4th, the Sirius proceeded on her voyage. The day was beautifully fine, every vessel in the harbour was decked with flags in honour of the event, a salute was fired from the battery on shore, and every boat which could be pressed into service was crowded with enthusiastic sightseers when, accompanied by the Ocean, the vessel left the harbour. The Ocean went with her as far as the entrance to the bay.
The Watt, which arrived at Liverpool on April 8, reported having sighted on April 5, in latitude 51° N. and longitude 12° W., the Sirius bound for New York, bravely encountering a westerly gale. “When it is considered,” the Liverpool Standard of the day naively remarked, “that this is the first steam vessel to cross the Atlantic, this information may not be altogether unimportant.”
New York was reached at ten o’clock in the evening of April 22, not without some adventure. Lieutenant Roberts, her commander, was determined to carry the voyage through, but it was only “thanks to stern discipline and the persuasive arguments of loaded firearms” that he brought the crew round to his way of thinking, as they became somewhat demoralised by continuous head-winds and declared that it was utter madness to proceed in so small a vessel. There were 94 passengers on board, of whom 30 were in the state-cabin, 29 in the fore-cabin, and 35 were steerage passengers.[60]