Chapter XV: The Iron and Steel Age

In a very few years, then, the increasing success of the steamer, together with the opening of the Suez Canal and firm establishment of several steamship companies carrying mails east, west and south, gave the glorious sailing ships a blow from which they have never since recovered. Mechanically-propelled craft were now seen everywhere. In 1841 the Blackwall yard launched the 666-ton paddler _Princess Royal_ and the 875-ton paddler _Trident_ for the General Steam Navigation Company. The latter craft was one of the fastest vessels afloat, and on Queen Victoria’s first visit to Scotland this ship so far surpassed the royal yacht in speed that _Trident_ was chartered for Her Majesty’s party on the return voyage.

[_By courtesy Messrs. T. H. Parker._

S.S. “TRIDENT.”

Of the General Steam Navigation Company, arriving at Woolwich on September 13, 1842, with Queen Victoria on board after her visit to Scotland. “Trident” was of 875 tons.]

From 1840 to about 1860 the Cunard ships had practically a monopoly of the Atlantic steamship trade, though as long as they used paddle-wheels they were not very serious competitors with the sailing craft. It was the advent of iron and steel, of the high-pressure and compound engines which was to give the steamships the virtues of economy and efficiency and thus a superiority over the old-fashioned craft. From 1850 for the next eight years there was in the North Atlantic a certain amount of opposition from a steamship company called the Collins Line, which had been subsidised by the United States Government. After a burst of keen rivalry, the Collins Line withdrew from the contest. In 1850 came the Inman Line, which kept up the running for many years until in 1893 it was reorganised and became merged in the American Line. In 1866 was founded the Guion Line, which certainly had a great influence for a time in accelerating the development of the big steamship. And then in 1870 came the White Star Line, which, excepting the Cunard Line and a temporary influence of the two German lines, has done more for the improvement in design and speed and comfort in regard to steamships than all the other companies put together.

We must now see how this all came about. It depended really on two things: first, the use of iron, and subsequently steel, for the building of bigger hulls; and secondly, the invention of the screw propeller to take the place of the old-fashioned paddle-wheel. Briefly how this came to pass is as follows. As far back as 1821 a Mr. Aaron Manby had built an iron craft 120 feet long and 18 feet wide, and she steamed from London to Paris, being employed for the next twenty years on the Seine. She was thus the first iron ship to put to sea, and was called the _Aaron Manby_, after her builder. Then in 1832 Laird & Co. of Birkenhead built the 148-ton paddler _Lady Lansdowne_ for the trade between England and Ireland. But it was not until 1843 that the first really large iron ship, the famous _Great Britain_, was built, intended as an improvement on the _Great Western_.

But before we speak of the _Great Britain_ we must see something of the way the propeller came in, for the two subjects are intimately connected. At its best the paddle-wheel, except for excursion steamers and certain kinds of tugs, is a very clumsy means of driving a ship through the water. It is the most obvious, because historically it is analogous to the action of the duck, of the first primitive man who paddled his small craft, or of the later Egyptians who rowed with oars down the Nile. But for open sea work the paddle-wheel is an awkward encumbrance, and apart from tugs and pleasure steamers it was last seen, in European waters at least, in the mail steamers running from England to Flushing and Ostend comparatively recently.

[_By courtesy Messrs. T. H. Parker._

THE “ROBERT F. STOCKTON.”

(Captain Ericsson, 1839.)]

[_By courtesy Messrs. T. H. Parker._

AN EARLY CROSS-CHANNEL STEAMER.

This picture of 1855 shows the English and French Royal Mail Steam Packets “Queen” and “Empress.”]

But for a long time there had been efforts made to introduce the screw propeller. As far back as 1804 John Stevens crossed the Hudson in a little vessel driven by a screw propeller, but it was not until thirty-two years later that John Ericsson, a Swedish engineer, reintroduced the screw and patented it. In 1837 his propeller was successfully tried in the 45-foot _Francis B. Ogden_, and in the following year the Lairds built at Birkenhead the 63-foot _Robert F. Stockton_, which obtained the extraordinary speed of thirteen knots on the Thames, going with the tide, and she afterwards went across the Atlantic, where she was turned into a tug. But in England Francis Smith was at work on the screw problem and obtained a patent in the same year as Ericsson, and his invention was tried with success in a 6-ton boat. Smith’s patent was bought by a syndicate; and in 1838 was launched the 240-ton three-master _Archimedes_, fitted with Smith’s screw, and after she had steamed round Great Britain and across the Bay of Biscay, the prejudiced and “old-timers” began to believe in the new idea. Next year was launched the much larger _Novelty_, which was the first cargo ship to be fitted with a screw, and she proceeded from London to Constantinople and back. She was also the first ship to be fitted with an iron mast.

We have thus arrived at the stage when the iron ship and the screw propeller had become practicable, and thus the future of the steamer was moulded. Wood was all very well until the demand for increased tonnage arrived, but when it was proposed to construct the 3618-ton _Great Britain_ there was nothing for it but to use iron. Here was a ship to be 822 feet long with 50½ feet beam, able to carry 260 passengers and 1200 tons of cargo. As no contractor could be found willing to build such a ship, the Great Western Steamship Company at Bristol constructed her themselves. She was designed by Brunel, but she turned out to be an awkward, ill-fated monstrosity. Launched in July 1843, she was unable to enter the river until December of the following year, owing to delay in the alteration of the dock. It was originally intended to fit her with the usual paddle-wheels, but the arrival of the _Archimedes_ in the port caused Brunel to modify the designs, so that his ship should be driven by a six-bladed propeller. She was a curious, six-masted craft with a bowsprit and painted ports, and in July 1845, after making a trip to London, left Liverpool with sixty passengers and 600 tons of cargo, reaching New York after a voyage of fifteen days. On the return journey her best day’s steaming was 287 miles. One night during September of the following year, after leaving the Mersey, she ran ashore off the Irish coast in Dundrum Bay, where she remained for eleven months exposed to all weathers. Brunel cleverly had a wooden breakwater, loaded with stones, built round her, and she was eventually refloated and taken into Liverpool. She was now sold for a quarter of her original cost of £100,000, was turned into a full-rigged ship for the Australian trade, and eventually became a coal hulk.

But in spite of her failure this ship showed that an iron hull and a screw as propeller were a practicable combination. She was divided into five water-tight compartments, she was fitted with bilge-keels to minimise rolling, and instead of the heavy wooden bulwarks possessed by contemporary ships and inherited from the time when the Tudor ships mounted their cannon, _Great Britain_ had iron rails with netting, so that any seas shipped could get away easily. Thus, this unfortunate vessel, in spite of her ill-luck, did introduce new ideas into the Mercantile Marine. It was in 1856 that the Cunard Company built the _Persia_, of iron. She was a 3300-ton ship, but had paddle-wheels, and then, six years later, came their _Scotia_, which was the last and finest paddle-ship ever built for the Atlantic service. She had seven water-tight compartments and a double bottom, thanks to the influence of _Great Britain_, and she lowered the record of crossing the Atlantic to just two hours under the nine days. The sailing ship as a passenger-carrier across that ocean was now definitely beaten, and the future simply consisted in the more thorough perfecting of the steamships; there was no going back now, notwithstanding the fact that in the Eastern trades the full-rigged ships were still making such wonderful passages.

[_By courtesy Messrs. T. H. Parker._

THE FAMOUS “GREAT EASTERN.”

After her launching in 1858.]

The advance of engineering and science, the amount of valuable data which had been obtained during these years of steam propulsion, had already brought steamship building to be no rule-of-thumb method, but a highly technical art. About the middle of the century, John Scott Russell, for instance, made some valuable researches regarding the resistance of a ship’s hull passing through the water, and in 1860 Sir Edward Harland, founder of the famous Belfast yard of Harland & Wolff, introduced steamers into the Mediterranean with a length of ten times their beam. This novel idea was so successful that when he came to build the White Star steamships he carried out that same idea, which was yet another important influence in the evolution of the modern Atlantic liner. But even in 1852 a tremendous improvement was seen in the hull of the _Victoria_, which was built of iron to the design of Brunel & Scott Russell for the Australian Royal Mail Steam Navigation Company. She was designed to embody the wave-line theory and for a speed of ten knots, and instead of the clumsy, ponderous hulls, you find in the _Victoria_ smoothness, gracefulness and sweet lines. It is therefore not altogether surprising that she won the £500 prize offered by the Colonies for the fastest voyage to Australia, her time from Gravesend to Adelaide being sixty days, including two days’ delay at St. Vincent. She was propelled by a two-bladed screw.

Thus in the fewest possible years a remarkable change had come over the Mercantile Marine, and though the old die-hards—those fine artists of the marlin-spike—still heartily despised every kind of steamship, yet others could see well enough that an entirely new order of things had begun owing to the advance in engineering. The ship, as in regard to other creatures, had to advance with the times. The first settlement in Australia had taken place as far back as 1788, and now required better lines of communication. So, too, with the East and the great strides which North and South America were making. Pioneers, emigrants, business men were exercising a pressure which could be met only in bigger and faster ships. Thanks to the peace and prosperity of the mid-Victorian era, new ideas were emerging. Gone were the days of monopolies and worn-out rules: the last trace of mediævalism in shipping had been severed, and men were thinking out freely and unfettered the problems of transport.

[_By courtesy Messrs. T. H. Parker._

THE FAMOUS “GREAT EASTERN.”

Also known as the “Leviathan.” Length 680 ft., beam 83 ft.; beam across paddle-boxes 120 ft.; depth (deck to keel) 58ft.; 22,500 tons; draught (laden) 30 ft.; paddle engines 1,200 horse-power; screw engines 1,800 horse-power. Accommodation for 4,000 passengers.]

It was quite a remarkable achievement that in 1853 the _Himalaya_ was built at Blackwall for the P. & O. line. Here was an iron vessel of 4690 tons, which succeeded in making a record run to Gibraltar at an average speed of thirteen and a half knots. No wonder that the year after she was built she was purchased by the British Government. And then came that wonder of the world, the historic _Great Eastern_, which was the biggest ship ever built for nearly fifty years, until the White Star _Baltic_ came out in 1905. The _Great Eastern_ is best described as a costly freak, but she shows the marvellous courage and enterprise of the Victorian age. It was Brunel’s idea that a ship should be built so as to carry a very large number of passengers and an enormous cargo all the way to Australia without having to coal anywhere on the voyage. She was to be 679 feet 6 inches long, with 82 feet 8 inches beam, of 18,915 tons, and driven by both paddles and a screw. This five-funnelled, six-masted giantess was built by Scott Russell on the Thames. She began to be built on May 1, 1854, but she was not launched at Millwall until the last day of January 1858, the first attempt to persuade her to enter the water being unsuccessful. As a financial speculation she was a failure. The attempts to launch her and the ensuing delay ran into thousands of pounds, and the company which owned her had to be wound up, but she was sold to a new company for £160,000. She was unfortunately now put on the Atlantic route, where she was a financial failure also; then from 1865 to 1873 she was used in laying the Atlantic submarine telegraph cables, for which she was found suitable, and finally in 1888 she was beached and then broken up. Though in a commercial sense she had never succeeded, the _Great Eastern_ did prove that she was perfectly sound structurally, and never exhibited any signs of weakness in spite of her enormous length. But she was really years before her time.

To have built this, or indeed any big ship, of wood could not have been possible. What rendered practicable the increased length of ships, able to carry high-powered engines with much space for passengers and cargo, was the invention of the rolling-mill, which had been brought about by Henry Cort, who died in 1800. Before this was introduced, the iron after leaving the furnace had to be hammered into shape. But nowadays iron and steel can be turned out into suitable plates, so that shipbuilding really consists in riveting together so many plates as to form a steel box with shaped ends. Instead of the soft sounds of the adze and caulking chisel and the wholesome smell of tar, the shipyard of to-day is a pandemonium of monotonous, buzzing pneumatic riveting hammers. There is no loving selection of timbers and planking: the steel plates and girders are just there ready to be put into position. It is highly unsentimental, but inevitable that development should proceed along these lines. During the ’seventies steel had been used for shipbuilding more or less tentatively, but it was not until the Allan liner _Buenos Ayrean_ that a steel ship was seen in the Atlantic.

Mild steel, because of its ductility and strength and lightness, became much more suitable than iron, and opened up another era in the story of the steamship. With the exception of yachts, lifeboats and certain fishing craft, this is now used universally for constructing hulls. In 1873 the French had employed steel in building their warships, and in 1881 the Cunard _Servia_ came out thus constructed. She was the largest and most powerful ship then built with the exception of _Great Eastern_, her measurements being 515 feet long, 52 feet beam and 7392 tons gross. She lowered the Atlantic voyage to seven days, one hour, thirty-eight minutes.

[_By courtesy the White Star Line._

S.S. “OCEANIC.”

The first White Star Line steamship. Launched 1870. She measured 420 ft. over all. She was the first of the modern steamship era.]

But a most important influence on the future of the Mercantile Marine was created when the White Star Line began their competition in the Atlantic trade. Previously their flag had flown at the masthead of a fine fleet of sailing clippers. In 1867 the managing owner of the White Star Line retired, and Mr. T. H. Ismay took over control. He began by using iron for his Australian clippers instead of wood, and two years later gave an order to Harland & Wolff, Belfast, to build steamships for the Atlantic. In August 1870 was launched the first of the fleet. This was the _Oceanic_, 420 feet long, her beam being only one-tenth of her length. That proportion was a radical departure in shipbuilding, and very different from the beamy old “waggons,” as the old sailing ships were sometimes called. This _Oceanic_ is really the first of the modern steamships, and contained so many new ideas as to make all the other steamships old-fashioned. For instance, she introduced the practice of having the saloon extending the entire width and placed in the middle of the ship instead of aft. The state-rooms were placed forward and abaft the saloon, instead of opening out on to it, which had been the custom derived from the sailing ships. Moreover, the introduction of glass side-lights on a much larger scale made the interior of the ship lighter and more pleasant. In fact, what with this, the revolving chairs instead of the hard seats, the oil-lamps instead of the spluttering candles, and other details of comfort, the passenger saw that he was so well looked after that the White Star became at once a popular line. Ever since that time one company has vied with another to give the Atlantic passenger the maximum amount of pleasure and luxury. How little do many of them appreciate the contrast between the crack steamships of to-day and of fifty or sixty years ago, when everything had to be learned by hard and costly experience!

The _Oceanic_ was a 3808-ton vessel, and became the fastest steamship afloat, her four-cylinder compound engines enabling her to average fourteen and a quarter knots. The first Atlantic line to build all its steamers of iron had been the Inman Line, which from 1850 to 1892 was one of the chief competitors in that ocean. Founded by William Inman, its successful policy was to capture the emigration trade which had been carried on by the sailing ships. Their first ships had been the _City of Glasgow_ and _City of Manchester_, built of iron and propelled by a single screw. They inaugurated the custom of calling at Queenstown, and began running to New York instead of Philadelphia. The first so-called Atlantic “greyhound” was built by the Guion Line. In 1879 came their _Arizona_, which unfortunately ran at full speed into an iceberg, but her water-tight bulkhead enabled her to get into St. John’s, Newfoundland. Her advent was followed by the _Oregon_, built in 1882, and she created a sensation by making the run from Queenstown to New York in six days, fourteen hours. This was a 7375-ton ship, which, with her speed of nineteen knots, made her the fastest vessel afloat, and was purchased by the Cunard Company; but she in turn was eclipsed by the two famous Cunarders, _Umbria_ in 1884 and _Etruria_ in the following year. These two wonderful craft were to be used as armed cruisers if required, and never were more satisfactory ships built to give their owners so little trouble. In respect of speed, also, they broke all records, _Etruria_ crossing from Queenstown to New York in six days, six hours and thirty-six minutes in 1885, while seven years later _Umbria_ surpassed this by maintaining an average of over nineteen and a half knots.

And whilst all this activity was proceeding in the Atlantic, ships driven by steam were running regularly to the East, though the competition in this sphere was not keen. In 1877 the Orient Line was founded. One of their ships, the _Austral_, launched in 1881, was lying in Sydney Harbour with her scuttles open, but owing to a heavy list caused through unequal coaling the water poured in and she sank in fifty feet of water. She was, however, refloated several months later.

[_By courtesy Messrs. T. H. Parker._

S.S. “SULTAN.”

2,225 tons, 240 horse-power. J. Maddison, R.N.R., Commander. About 1873.]

[_By courtesy Messrs. T. H. Parker._

S.S. “ORIENT.”

About 1879. Owned by Orient Steam Navigation Company. 5,386 tons, 5,400 horse-power, length 460 ft., beam 46 ft. 6 in.]

Up till the ’eighties it was customary for the crack liners to carry three and even four masts with yards and both a fore staysail and square-sails. It was a practice which exhibited the last suspicion of steam, for it was argued that if the propeller should become damaged, or the shaft break there would at least be canvas enough for her to get along. But, with the introduction and general adoption of the twin-screw, masts became fewer, yards and canvas disappeared, and the seaman who had been brought up to go aloft and lay-out along a yard found himself a mere deckhand. He had seen the golden age of the full-rigged pass away, and the last resemblance in the steamship to the Blackwall frigates and the clippers remained only in the clipper bows of the Inman Line, who for so long kept up the useless but ornamental bowsprit even as late as the ’nineties. It is with the launch of their _City of New York_ and _City of Paris_, the latter in 1888, that twin screws of a large size were introduced into the Mercantile Marine, and here begins the final chapter in the steamship’s development, for it gave her an independence and increase of efficiency which never before has she possessed nor since lost.