Steam-ships : The story of their development to the present day by R. A. Fletcher

in carrying capacity. The first steamer placed in service on the Great Lakes, above Niagara Falls, was launched in 1818, and bore the picturesque Indian name _Walk in the Water_, after a noted Wyandotte chief. She was of 338 tons gross and built at a spot which is now a part of the City of Buffalo. The machinery was furnished by Robert McQueen of New York, one of her owners. By 1844 there were three large steamers of over 1000 tons each on the lakes, built wholly for the American passenger service from Buffalo. The first screw-propelled boat on the lakes was the _Vandalia_, built at Oswego in 1841. She was one of the earliest vessels to have her machinery placed right aft. By 1849 there were enrolled at Buffalo, which was the chief lake port, 29 side-wheelers, 18 of which were of from 500 to 1500 tons, and 10 screw-propelled boats of under 500 tons, but by 1862 the number of steamers had increased to 147 side-wheelers and 203 screw-propelled boats. The construction of the Welland Canal and the Sault Ste. Marie Canal with larger locks than hitherto had a most stimulating effect on lake shipping. American ingenuity devised freight-carrying steamers peculiarly adapted for work on the lakes. The largest boat on the Great Lakes is the _William M. Mills_, a “bulk-freighter.” She is virtually an immense box girder 607 feet in length, 585 feet length of keel, 60 feet beam, and 32 feet in depth, with triple-expansion engines. She is built on the hopper and girder system, and has a cargo hold 447 feet long without obstruction other than three screen bulkheads fitted for convenience in carrying grain; her cargo capacity is 514,505 bushels of wheat. She and her two sister ships can each carry 12,380 tons of ore. Her water-ballast tanks will take 7000 tons, and her pumps are so powerful that the whole of this quantity can be discharged overboard in three hours. The officers and crew are accommodated in a deck-house situated on the forecastle. Above this deck-house are the navigating bridge and steering-house. The engines are placed at the extreme end of the vessel, so that the whole space between the engine bulkhead and the forecastle is devoted to the cargo. The scantlings of the hull throughout are the heaviest on fresh water. [Illustration: THE “ROBERT FULTON” (HUDSON RIVER DAY LINE), 1909.] On the Mississippi River and its tributaries a type of large shallow steamers, propelled by immense side or stern paddle-wheels, was developed. These vessels were noted for their high superstructures and towering funnels. Racing was frequent among them. In April 1838 the Mississippi River steamer _Moselle_, crowded from stem to stern with passengers for St. Louis, blew up. She had gone a little way up the river from Cincinnati for the purpose of exhibiting herself and of coming back past the city “a-flying.” As she stopped to turn, the boilers exploded, blowing the ship to fragments. The captain, who was in the pilot-house, was blown about eighty yards away; a boy on board was found dead on the roof of a house on shore. It was never known exactly how many perished, but the number is estimated at anything from one hundred to two hundred. One of the boilers was thrown ashore by the explosion, and in falling made a large hole in the pavement.[23] [23] Cincinnati _Evening Post_, April 25, 1838. Another accident of that year befell the steamer _Oroonoko_ on the Mississippi. Her boilers blew up and, the wreck taking fire, about one hundred lives were lost, most of the victims being burnt to death. The engineer, before he died, said the boilers were full of water, and that his department was not in fault, but that the boilers were old and worn out and not fit for such a boat.[24] [24] Vicksburg _Register_. About the same time two other steamers, the _Pioneer_ and _Ontario_, were racing on the river near Cincinnati and collided. The _Ontario_ ran purposely into the _Pioneer_, which returned the compliment by deliberately ramming the _Ontario_, killing one passenger, dangerously wounding two others, and smashing the _Ontario’s_ guards. The _Pioneer_ won that race, but intentional collisions were too much even for the sensation-loving public which patronised the racing Mississippi steamers and used to bet heavily on the result, and dangerous racing of this character was for a time tabooed. One of the most famous races on record was that between the _Eclipse_ and the _Natchez_, two magnificent vessels which were very evenly matched. It is recorded that the immense funnels of these two boats, as they tore along almost on a level with only a few feet between them, were red-hot, and that the blaze from their pine-fed furnaces made the dwellers on either side of the bank think that the vessels were on fire. The finest passenger steamer which has ever been placed on the Lakes is, without exception, the _City of Cleveland_. The hull, built of mild steel, is divided into ten compartments by water-tight cross bulkheads extending from the keel to the main deck. The double bottom, which reaches nearly the entire length of the ship, is also divided into ten compartments, which can be used for water-ballast, and she has a steadying tank holding 100 tons of water and situated amidships to check the rolling in a heavy sea. The _City of Cleveland_ is 400 feet over all, 390 feet keel, 54 feet across the hull, and has a depth of 22 feet. Like nearly all American paddle-steamers she is decked to the full width of the guards. She has seven decks, the main deck, which is of steel, being sheathed with wood to deaden the noise of the handling of cargo. Her electric plant provides 1500 lights, as well as a search-light of 50,000 candle-power. Her engine was constructed by the American Shipbuilding Company and consists of an inclined three-cylinder compound engine, the high pressure being arranged between the two low-pressure cylinders. The high-pressure cylinder is 54 inches in diameter and the low-pressure cylinders are each 82 inches and the stroke of piston is 8 feet. The paddle-wheels are 29 feet in diameter and are fitted with feathering blades, each of which is 14 feet long and 4 feet wide. This steamer makes two trips a day between Detroit and Cleveland, and is credited with having attained to a speed of twenty-four miles an hour. [Illustration: THE “CITY OF CLEVELAND.”] [Illustration: THE “WILLIAM M. MILLS.”] The Canadian-built lake steamers are similar to those from United States yards, and a typical specimen of colonial construction is the _Midland Prince_, launched in 1907 by the Collingwood Shipbuilding Company of Collingwood, Ontario, which, like the _Collingwood_, is an immense freighter. One or two “whalebacks,” a type designed for the Lakes by Captain McDougall, have been seen on the Atlantic occasionally, but they were not a great success. A vessel of this type visited Liverpool some years ago, the _Charles Wetmore_, and having her engines placed aft, and being built with a perfectly flush whaleback, without hatchways, and with a “scow and pig-snout” bow, was a decided curiosity. The ingenuity of her design and the excellent workmanship displayed in her construction impressed naval architects favourably, but there was nothing to show that she was superior as a cargo vessel to the single-deck steamers on this side of the Atlantic. The whaleback steamer is less in favour than it was, even in America, but a good many of them are still to be seen on the Lakes and the Pacific coast.