History of merchant shipping and ancient commerce, Volume 4 (of 4)

by W. S. Lindsay

His vessel a complete success;

In 1840, Captain Stockton sold this vessel to the Delaware and Raritan Canal Company, permission having been obtained (being British built) by a special Act of Congress, to run her in American waters, and her name was at the same time changed to that of the New Jersey. For many years she was in constant work as a steam-tug on the rivers Delaware and Schuylkill during the winter months, as she was capable of towing through the drift ice, where paddle-wheel steamers are of little use.

and the first “screw” used for commerce in America.

If we except the small vessel tested by J. Stevens[143] between Hoboken and New York in 1804, the New Jersey was the first screw-propelled vessel practically used in America, numerous experiments with the screw having been previously made without success, and she certainly was the first used for commercial purposes. The importance of the screw as a propeller having now been fully admitted in America, 150 vessels of a similar description were in less than ten years from that time employed in the United States; most of which continued to be in active operation in the carrying trade, returning large profits to their owners, particularly those employed on the great North American Lakes. Indeed, in 1848, thirteen screw-propelled vessels were employed on Lake Ontario, and only nine paddle-wheel steamers.

Superiority of Mr. Woodcroft’s “varying-pitch” propeller, 1832.

It is not my province to decide to whom the honour of the invention of the screw is due. It had engaged, as has been shown, the attention of various men in different countries for more than a century before it was applied to any useful purpose, and, like most other great inventions, has evidently been the production of many minds. I can, therefore, only deal with it as has been done in the case of the steam-engine itself, in its application to marine propulsion, by inquiring who it was that first, by practical tests, showed its superiority to the paddle-wheel, and that, for the purposes to which it has been applied, it could maintain such superiority over all other modes of propulsion. As this appears to me to be the only way in which this question can be fairly treated, I shall venture to state that, if Robert Fulton of America and Henry Bell of Glasgow are entitled, as I think they are, to be considered the first who put the paddle steamer into practical and continuous employment (I hold that James Watt and Robert Symington were its true inventors), it may, with equal justice, be said that to Captain Ericsson, Mr. Pettit Smith, and Mr. Woodcroft, the credit is chiefly due of having put the screw into working order so as to show how it could be profitably employed for the purposes of commerce or of the arts of war, though, at the time when Smith and Ericsson were practically illustrating the power of the screw, in their respective forms, that of Mr. Woodcroft, though well known, had not then been tried. In fact, his invention bears date antecedent to that of either of the others,[144] and proved equal, if not superior, when tested; indeed, it must have been considered so by the Admiralty, as it was fitted in the royal yacht Fairy, which, with the exception of the Rattler, and the Bee, of thirty tons, was the first screw-propeller in Her Majesty’s Navy: it was also about the same time applied to H.M.S. Dwarf. Mr. Woodcroft’s “varying-pitch screw-propeller,” patented by him in February 1844, of which the following is an illustration, was, certainly, in advance of any other at that time, and is, I believe, still considered the best and most useful type. In the account of it furnished by its able and ingenious inventor, it is said to be the “only propelling instrument of any description which has the peculiar and inherent property of acting with an increased impulse against the water from the leading part, first taking its action against the water to the end, however long or short such propeller may be upon its axis.”

However, be that as it may, when an impartial review is taken of all the facts, it may be said of Messrs. Woodcroft, Ericsson and Smith that, while each may be regarded as the individual author of their respective plans, conceiving as they did their designs apart from each other, we are indebted to them conjointly for this most valuable invention.

While the relative merits of the paddle-wheel and screw were being tested, the attention of scientific men was necessarily directed to the different forms of ships or lines best adapted to the various requirements of maritime commerce, which the introduction of steam had either created or materially developed. Vessels of every conceivable form, and of varied dimensions, have been in use from the earliest ages: we have had, of one sort or another, canoes, coracles, barges and yachts, coasters and Indiamen, with frigates and line-of-battle ships such as they were, almost from the dawn of history, and no doubt their owners and builders bestowed much thought and exercised considerable skill in their construction, so as to suit the varied purposes for which they were required; but it is only within our own time that a thorough scientific knowledge has been invited to aid in the construction of our merchant ships.