AUXILIARY SCREW-STEAMER “MASSACHUSETTS.”
From a description given of her in the Mechanics’ Magazine of January 1846, she appears to have been 161 feet in length on deck, 31 feet 9 inches in breadth of beam, and 20 feet depth of hold from maindeck. She was 751 tons, O.M., and had a full poop extending to the mainmast, in which there was accommodation for thirty-five first-class passengers.
Her enterprising owners (Mr. Forbes and others),[187] did not contemplate competition so far as regards speed with the steamers then employed on the Atlantic service, but by using the screw as an auxiliary they hoped to accomplish the voyage with so much greater rapidity than an ordinary sailing-ship as to recompense them for the cost of the machinery and the cargo space which it occupied. By insuring greater regularity they also hoped to command a moderate share of the passenger traffic, and of that description of goods which from their nature would not allow so high a rate of freight to be paid as the owners of steam-ships required to cover the greatly enhanced cost of navigation. The passages of the Massachusetts, as compared[188] with those of sailing-ships which left Liverpool before and after her, showed a considerable saving in time.
Her motive power consisted of a condensing engine, constructed by Messrs. Hogg and Delamater of New York, designed by Captain Ericsson and fitted with his screw, the blades of which turned up out of the water when the vessel was under sail alone. The engine had two cylinders working nearly at right angles, each 3 feet stroke and 26 inches diameter. There were two boilers, named “waggon-boilers,” each 14 feet long, 7 feet wide, and 9 feet high, with a furnace to each boiler. For the purpose of raising steam quickly there was a blowing-engine and blower, the power of her engine being equal to 170 horses, sufficient to drive the ship about 9 statute miles an hour in smooth water and during calms, with a consumption of 9 tons of anthracite coal per day. The whole of the machinery, with the boilers, coal bunkers, &c., which were fitted in the after portion of the lower hold, occupied a space of one-tenth the cubic contents of the ship. Her propeller was made of composition metal, and could be raised out of the water when the steam-power was not required. Its shaft passed through the ship, close to the stern post on the port side and rested in a socket which was bolted to the stern post, and further supported by a massive brace above. Her entire cost was 16,000l. complete in all respects with machinery.
American line of steamers to Europe, 1847.
First ocean race won by the English.
But even the Massachusetts[189] did not meet the wishes of the American people. They saw their most valuable maritime commerce slowly but surely passing away from them, and though not yet prepared to run steamers to compete on the direct Atlantic line with British enterprise, they determined to secure at least a portion of the first-class passenger and fine goods trade with Europe. Consequently, they established a line of steam-ships of their own to run between New York and Bremen, calling at Southampton, and in June 1847 started their first ship, the Washington, for Southampton on the same day that the Britannia, belonging to the Cunard Company, sailed from New York for Liverpool. This was the first race between American and British steamers, and though the Britannia did not require “to run by the deep mines, and put in more coal” to beat the Washington as the New York Herald anticipated, the other prophecy of the editor of that enterprising journal has been now remarkably fulfilled.[190]
The Britannia won the race by two full days. The Washington,[191] of which the following is an illustration (though the Spithead correspondent of the London Times does not give a very glowing account of her appearance as she passed before him on the waters of the Solent[192]), was welcomed on her arrival at the port of Bremen with great rejoicings; the burgomaster proceeding on board in state to invite the captain to a banquet in the Town Hall, specially prepared for him by the Senate.
