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

speed of 13 knots. [Illustration: THE “BRITANNIA” (CUNARD, 1840).] The building of the _Arabia_ marks the close of the first period in the history of the Cunard Line for, in 1855, the company began to build iron ships. She was intended to be a reply to the steamers of the Collins Line. For some reason or other the Americans made very few attempts to enter upon the transatlantic steam-ship trade until nearly the middle of the nineteenth century. Probably they were satisfied with the performances of their sailing clippers, as they had good reason to be, for the clippers often made faster passages than the early Cunarders. From 1838 to 1847 every Atlantic liner flew the British flag, but in 1845 the United States Congress passed an Act authorising contracts to be made with owners of American vessels, steamships preferred, for the regular transportation of the United States mails. As an American writer says: “This Act of 1845 is all-significant as the beginning of American steam-ship service in the foreign trade. Not until national protection was offered in the form of generous subsidies could our enterprising merchants and sailors see their way clear to enter into the rivalry with the State-aided steam fleets of Europe. The mail subsidy legislation of 1845 was a wise step and indispensable, but it was too long delayed. Congress should have acted five years before, when the first Cunarder, floated and maintained by a liberal subsidy from Parliament, came across the ocean, beating the time of our celebrated packet ships. Individual resource could never compete with the great treasury of the British Empire.”[64] [64] “The American Mercantile Marine,” by W. L. Marvin. In 1847 the Americans made a determined effort to establish a fortnightly service between New York and Bremen, calling at Southampton or Cowes. This venture was known as the Ocean Steam Navigation Company, and though it had a contract for carrying the American mails in return for a subvention of 200,000 dollars, it ceased operations in little more than a year. It had two wooden paddle-steamers, the _Washington_ and _Hermann_, built by Westervelt and Mackay for Mr. Edward Mills. Both were barque-rigged and carried a great spread of canvas. The _Washington_ was 236 feet in length, by 39 feet beam, 31 feet depth, and of about 2000 tons gross. The _Hermann_ was slightly larger. The _Washington_, on her first voyage eastward in June of that year, was pitted against the _Britannia_, which the Americans expected to beat easily, but though the American boat had twice the engine-power, and the Cunarder was seven years old, the latter arrived two days ahead. The New York and Havre Steam Navigation Company, another American enterprise, was founded in 1848 to carry the mails between those ports for a subsidy of 150,000 dollars per annum and to touch at Southampton. Its first vessel was the wooden paddle-steamer _Franklin_, 263 feet in length, of about 2184 tons, and 1250 indicated horse-power. She sailed on her first voyage in 1850, and was joined in the service by the _Humboldt_, a slightly larger vessel, in the following year. In December 1853 the _Humboldt_ was wrecked near Halifax, and the _Franklin_ went to pieces on Long Island in 1854. The company ordered two other vessels, the _Arago_ and _Fulton_, which were launched in June 1855 and February 1856 respectively. They were rather larger than the _Humboldt_, but instead of lever engines had oscillating cylinder engines, the cylinders being 65 inches diameter with a 10-foot stroke. Until they were ready the company maintained the service, after the loss of its earlier boats, with chartered vessels. The New England Ocean Steamship Company, formed by Messrs. Harnden and Co. of Boston, placed the iron screw-steamer _Lewis_ of 1105 tons on the service between that port and Liverpool in October 1851, but withdrew her the next year. By 1850 there were no fewer than seven or eight lines of steamers trading between New York and Liverpool. The Cunard Company had eight of the finest steamers in the world, and the ninth, the _Africa_, was expected shortly to arrive from the builders at Glasgow. An agitation had been maintained for some years in America for a subsidised American steam-ship service, which should surpass the British line. The Government at last was prevailed upon to promise financial support to a line of steamers under certain conditions, and the necessary legislation was passed by Congress in March 1847. The vessels were to be of the highest class, of great speed, and of superior passenger accommodation, and so fitted that they could be turned into war steamers at small expense. Mr. K. Edward Collins of New York, owner of the well-known Dramatic Line of sailing ships, so called because they were named after famous theatrical people, organised the line and was well supported by American capitalists and influential commercial men generally. The Collins Line, as the organisation was called, undertook, by a contract signed in November 1847, to provide a mail service between New York and Liverpool, fortnightly in summer and monthly in winter, with five first-class steam-ships, for which 19,250 dollars per trip for twenty round trips, or 385,000 dollars a year, were to be paid, but as the first four ships built for the line were very much larger, swifter, and more expensive and more valuable to the nation[65] than the exact terms of the contract required, the Government in 1852 increased the subsidy to 858,000 dollars a year. [65] Marvin’s “American Mercantile Marine.” [Illustration: THE “ATLANTIC.”] Money was spent upon the Collins liners like water, and everything in every department was of a most costly and luxurious description. Indeed, so lavish was the expenditure upon the Collins boats that even had they not met with the series of disasters which afterwards befell them, and had the line not been deprived by the United States Government of its subsidy for carrying the mails, it is doubtful whether it would ever have been a commercial success. Thus a description of the _Atlantic_ says: “Her interior fittings are truly elegant, the woodwork being of white holly, satin wood, rosewood, &c., so combined and diversified as to present a rich and costly appearance. In the drawing-room the ornaments consist of costly mirrors, bronze-work, stained glass, paintings, &c. On the panels between the stateroom passages are the arms of the different States of the Confederacy painted in the highest style of art, and framed with bronze-work. “The pillars between are inlaid with mirrors, framed with rosewood, and at the top and bottom are bronzed sea-shells of costly workmanship. In the centre of each are groups of allegorical figures, representing the ocean mythology of the ancients, in bronze and burnished gold. The ceiling is elaborately wrought, carved and gilded.” The vessel was steam-heated, an improvement introduced for the first time in steam-ships. The _Atlantic_ left New York on April 27, 1850, with about a hundred passengers on board and a valuable cargo. Outside Sandy Hook she met some drifting ice which damaged her paddles, and she had to proceed at reduced speed across the ocean as the weather was too tempestuous to permit of the floats being repaired. On May 8, one of her condensers gave way, and the steamer was hove-to for forty hours, after which she resumed her voyage still at reduced speed. She arrived at Liverpool on May 10. The _Pacific_ sailed from New York on May 25, and was followed by the _Arctic_, _Baltic_, and _Antarctic_. Their beam was such that they could not enter any existing docks at Liverpool, and a dock at the North End was therefore constructed for their accommodation. Special interest attached to the arrival of the _Atlantic_ owing to the presence in the river of the new Cunarder _Asia_, just built by Messrs. Steel at Greenock, and engined by Robert Napier. An opportunity was thus afforded of comparing these two representative vessels, as the _Asia_, outward bound, steamed past her rival and exchanged salutes. The _Atlantic_ and her sister ship the _Arctic_ excelled in dimensions every steam-ship hitherto built. The length was 276 feet on the keel and 282 feet on the main deck, beam 45 feet, breadth across paddle-boxes 75 feet, depth of hold 31 feet 7 inches, diameter of paddle-wheels 36 feet, diameter of cylinder 96 inches, stroke 9 feet; the side-lever engines were of 1000 horse-power, and the tonnage 2860. The saloons were 67 feet long by 20 feet wide, and the dining saloons 60 feet long by 42 feet wide. Two remarkable points of difference between them and the Cunarders and all British steamers at that time were their rounded sterns and straight cutwaters without bowsprits. Powerfully engined though they were, they depended considerably on sail-power. Their paddles, like those of so many American steamers, were placed rather far aft, the idea being that a more uniform immersion of the blades was thus obtained. The Collins steamers were all built with flat floors (a departure in the shape of the hull to which considerable exception was taken but which was justified by events), long, wedge-like bows, and a long, easy run to the stern. The frames were of white and live oak, and the stout timbers were filled in solidly to the turn of the bilge. The huge oak keelsons were specially heavy under the boilers and engines. The planking was hard pine, metal-fastened below the water-line by copper bolts and above by galvanised iron. The frames were strengthened by a latticework of iron bands. Their wood construction was more massive than that of a line-of-battle ship. In his patriotic efforts to gain the Atlantic supremacy for his country Collins did far more than the Government required. The _Arctic_ and _Atlantic_ were built by W. H. Brown of New York, and their construction was superintended by G. Steers, who modelled the schooner-yacht _America_, the winner of the cup which has not yet been “lifted.” Mr. Faron, of the firm Sewell and Faron, chief engineer to the United States Government, was the chief engineer of the company, and designed the _Arctic_ and _Baltic_ boilers. These were arranged with double furnaces and had lower water-spaces connected by a row of tubes, round which the heated gas circulated; there was also a hanging plate which checked a too rapid flow to the funnel and increased the combustion. The _Arctic_ burned about 83 tons of coal in 24 hours, which gave her a speed of 316·4 knots for the day. Her gross consumption was 87 tons when she covered 320 knots in 24 hours. The funds subscribed were exhausted long before the construction of the boat was finished, and the Government not only granted the company’s appeal for assistance, but went further and released the company from its obligation to build the fifth steamer. It increased the subsidy to 33,000 dollars per round voyage, but in return it demanded an increased speed, which, according to Mr. Bayard in Congress, would enable the Collins steamers to overtake any vessel they wished to pursue, and escape from any vessel they wished to avoid. For some years the Collins Line seemed to have secured the premier position in the Atlantic trade. Its vessels eclipsed the Cunarders in size, speed, and luxury. The company, however, was expensively, almost wastefully, managed, and the steamers were run extravagantly. Great though its income was, its expenditure was greater. At its best the Collins Line never paid a dividend and its fall was hastened by two terrible disasters. Its first great calamity was the loss of the _Arctic_, which was rammed by the French iron steamer _Vesta_ in a very thick fog between sixty and seventy miles from Cape Race. The _Arctic_ was so well built that, although three large holes were torn in her side, through two of which the water poured, no apprehension was felt for her safety, and her captain sent a boat in charge of one of his officers to the other vessel to rescue those on board if necessary. One of the _Vesta’s_ crew was killed in the collision, and several others on board were injured. The rest of the crew and passengers made a rush for her boats and launched two, one of which was swamped; the other was occupied by two of the crew and several passengers, who, disobeying their captain’s orders, cut their boat adrift and were soon lost to sight in the fog. Meanwhile on the _Arctic_ it had been discovered that the steamer was sinking. Preparations were made to save the lives of the passengers and crew by means of the boats. One of the tackles of the first boat to be filled gave way while it was being lowered to the water, and all her occupants, except one sailor who seized the other tackle and a lady who clung to him, were precipitated into the sea and drowned. Among those who lost their lives at this time were Mrs. Collins, the wife of the managing owner, and their son and daughter. The second boat was lowered without mishap and was provisioned and quickly filled with passengers. The water continued to pour into the ship, and she was headed for the nearest port, but in about a quarter of an hour the furnaces were put out. All the other boats but one left the ship, the exception being a large lifeboat which there were not sufficient seamen left on board to launch. This boat is believed to have been filled by passengers, who thought that it might be left afloat when the ship went down. It is probable that it was so crammed that it had no chance of floating, and that it was sucked down with its occupants in the vortex caused by the sinking of the steamer. The loss of life is variously stated. One version is that the _Arctic_ had three hundred and sixty-five persons on board of whom only eighty-seven survived. An American writer, however, states: “The _Arctic_ foundered with two hundred and twelve of her passengers and one hundred and ten of her crew.”[66] The _Vesta_ left St. Peter’s the day before the disaster with one hundred and forty-seven passengers and a crew of fifty, of whom thirteen were reported missing when she reached St. John’s. [66] “The American Mercantile Marine,” by W. L. Marvin. [Illustration: THE “ADRIATIC” (COLLINS LINE, 1857).] The _Pacific_, a sister ship to the _Arctic_, was the next of the Collins liners to succumb to the perils of the sea. She sailed from Liverpool for New York in January 1856 and never reached her destination, and not a trace of her has been discovered to reveal her fate. The loss of these two splendid steamers within two years seriously crippled the Collins organisation. Mr. Collins, to replace the _Arctic_, ordered the fifth steamer which was stipulated for in the contract with the United States Government at the time the line was started. This steamer, the _Adriatic_, like the other four vessels of the line, was in excess of the American Government’s requirements, and was larger, speedier, and even more luxuriously fitted than any of her four predecessors. She was built by George Steers at New York and launched in April 1855. She was 355 feet in length, 50 feet beam, and 33 feet deep, with a gross tonnage of 4144 tons. Her cost was £240,000. It was hoped that this splendid vessel would retrieve the falling fortunes of the Collins Line, but in the following month a bitter attack was made in Congress upon the policy under which the line had been granted Government aid, and in consequence of this attack the subsidy to the line was reduced. The mail pay to the Collins Line was lessened by the withdrawal of the 473,000 dollars added in 1852; and the original subsidy of 385,000 dollars, or considerably less than half the amount on which Collins had been relying, was now to be paid to the company. This was further reduced to 346,000 dollars, and in 1858 the subsidy was withdrawn altogether. The line ceased operations at once. The _Adriatic_ made one trip to Liverpool and, after lying idle there for some time, passed into the hands of the promoters of the Galway Line. An equally unfortunate enterprise was the attempt to establish a line between Galway and America. The project of connecting the west coast of Ireland with Newfoundland by a line of fast steamers has always had its attractions for those who are seeking to cut down the ocean voyage to a minimum, but so far as the passengers are concerned, the prospect of a long land journey from St. John’s or Halifax to New York has always militated against the scheme. There are also the no less serious drawbacks of a trip across the Irish Sea to Dublin or other Irish port, continued by a railway journey to Galway before finally embarking on the ocean voyage. For the conveyance of mails this might be the fastest possible route, but until the Government adopt the exceedingly unlikely course of subsidising a line of mail packets for this purpose, the Galway-Newfoundland route has no prospect of becoming a serious factor in the North Atlantic traffic. The first proposal to use Galway was made in 1851, when some of the Irish railway authorities and an American named Wagstaff visited the port, and in June of that year sent the steamer _Viceroy_ to New York via Halifax. She was a wooden cross-channel boat and not suited for the work, and nothing more was done in the matter until 1857, when the project was revived by a Manchester man named Lever. Two steamers, the _Indian Empire_ and _Propeller_, were chartered for the enterprise and sailed for New York via Halifax in the next year. In the autumn of that year, the Newfoundland Government contracted with the promoters of the line to carry the mails monthly from Galway to St. John’s, and a service of six steamers was to be established. The British Government and the company entered into a contract whereby the company was to carry the mails from Galway to Portland (Maine), and to Boston and New York. Four steamers were ordered but were not up to the requirements of the postal authorities in respect to speed, and one or two were not perfectly seaworthy, and the effort to maintain the service with chartered steamers not being satisfactory--only the last of the Collins liners, the _Adriatic_, which had been purchased, being able to run to stipulated time--the company, after a series of misfortunes which probably constitutes a record, went into liquidation, and the mail contract was cancelled, after resulting in a heavy financial loss to every one who had anything to do with it.