The mode of constructing these vessels is entirely different to that adopted in any other country: thus, the hull of the New World is of wood, the external planking being about 3½ inches in thickness, and the ribs sheathed internally for a considerable distance amidships by double-crossed diagonal woodwork. Further forward and aft, it is single, and, towards the end, there is no sheathing; but the floor-timbers are strengthened by several longitudinal timbers or keelsons of considerable size.
To compensate for the want of depth in the sides of the boat, a “hog-back” or “bow” frame, consisting of timbers joined together in the shape of a bow, springing from the side at some little distance from the end of the boat, and rising to a height of 20 or 25 feet at the centre, is applied to strengthen it. This “hog-back” is braced to the side in several places by vertical and diagonal timbers and bolts, the whole forming a powerful trussed framework, placed directly over the side of the boat so as to be regarded as virtually an addition to the depth of the side. The floor of the boat is strengthened by a system of bracing consisting of masts 40 or 50 feet in length, which are stepped into the keelson and furnished at their top with caps to which are fastened iron rods; these rods radiate to the sides of the boat, like the shrouds of a ship, and thus transfer the upward pressure on the centre of the floor directly to the side. The deck beams project over the sides of the boat to the extreme width of the paddlebox-houses, constituting what are called the “guards.” These guards are supported by diagonal struts underneath them, and they overhang to the extent of 18 or 20 feet at the centre, meeting in a point at the bow, but at the stern projecting about 2 feet 6 inches, so as to form a gangway round the ladies’ saloon. But the success now almost invariably attending the construction of all the lake, coasting, and river steamers of the United States is attributable less to any theoretical inquiries and deductions than to a long course of practical experience, or, as it has been characteristically termed, to “a course of trial and error.” To show that this experience has been successful it is enough to observe that the steamers built for these waters carry a greater amount of freight, and accommodate a larger number of passengers on a given draught of water than those constructed in any other part of the world.
The Daniel Drew.
Her enormous speed.
Although the New World was one of the largest and most magnificent vessels employed on the Hudson, she was surpassed in speed by the Daniel Drew, which has attained the extraordinary rate of 25 statute miles an hour without assistance from either wind or tide. From my own knowledge, I can confirm the accuracy of this statement, having made a passage in her from New York to Albany. To persons who, like myself, familiar with nautical affairs, have made their study the business as well as the pleasure of life, no more enjoyable sensation could have been afforded than the rapid movement of this vessel. Like some “thing of life” she noiselessly cut through the water with no curling wave or struggling foam at her bows, throwing aside only a silvery jet of the fluid over which she appeared to skim. Nor was the action of her machinery less worthy of admiration. After the first half-dozen strokes of the paddle-wheels when started, their pace was so smooth and rapid that sound and vibration alike were hardly perceptible.
But, though the Americans have surpassed all other nations in the steamers hitherto produced for their lake and river navigation, they have not as yet sent forth any steam-ships so well adapted for ocean navigation as those of Great Britain; indeed, almost every attempt made by them to compete successfully with British vessels so engaged has been a commercial failure. In their distant coasting lines (what a misnomer to describe the voyage between New York and San Francisco as “coasting trade”!) they have, however, for many years employed some of the finest steam-ships afloat. In fact, when the district of California was almost a wilderness, the merchants of New York started a line of steamers to trade with it, and were thus, in a great measure, the means, though at a heavy loss to themselves, of developing its marvellous natural resources.
Pacific Steamship Company started, 1847.
The Pacific Mail Steam-ship Company, formed in 1847, is much the largest maritime undertaking yet organised, as distinctly American and under the flag of the United States, and their first steamer, the California, which left New York on the 6th of October, 1848, was the first to bear the American flag to the Pacific Ocean. To form a steam-ship establishment 4000 to 5000 or, as it was at that time, 13,000 miles from home, where the necessary supplies could only be obtained with the greatest difficulty in a country wholly new, was an undertaking of no ordinary hazard and difficulty. Nevertheless, there appeared to be ingredients for success sufficient to encourage the projectors to increase their fleet with extraordinary rapidity soon after they commenced operations; and there were at that period no steam-ships afloat finer than the Panama, Oregon, Tennessee, Golden Gate, and Columbia, which followed the California in rapid succession.
Cost of establishing it.
From a small beginning, the Pacific Company has now one of the best fleets belonging to the United States, though the difficulties in forming it were probably far greater than in the case of any of the other American companies. Among these, may be mentioned the necessity of constructing large workshops and foundries for repairs, together with the creation at Bernicia of an establishment, where marine engines could be constructed; they had, also, to build their own dry dock, for that of the Government at Mare Island was not ready until 1854, the company’s dock being for some years the only accommodation of this kind in the Pacific. The company had also to form establishments at Panama, San Francisco, and Astoria, with coal depôts, at a time when labour and materials were excessively high, and when the coal itself, whether brought from the Eastern States of the American continent or from England, was invariably, and necessarily, carried round Cape Horn, seldom or never costing less than from 20 to 30 dollars, and, in one instance, 50 dollars per ton.[159]