STEAM NAVIGATION.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1548, 18 September 1912, Page 4

STEAM NAVIGATION.

PBOJ[ THE COJIKT-TO THE PRESENT ' DAY. Jn (heyeai- 17S8 the first vessel to 1;e propelled i>y steam was built in Scotlanil. TA'pnty-niiiL" years later, Mr. Henry Hell's Comet was launched, iind she was the first vessel wnich carried on a steamship jiasSengci , . service. A- few; yenrs later, , . tho powers of steam Irfgan to ho more fully realised, and more-vessels were construct ed for steam propnlsion. ■ '. - ; ■ :, .i In 1819 the Savannah propelled, partly by steam imd by. sail, crossed the Atlantic from ■ the U'nitc'd 'Stales to Britain. ,It was not until 1833 that/ the voyage-.was done by.a' ship'pr6iiell6d"'rfnly by steam.. The honour lies between-two vessels. Tho Great Western; ■ launched ,at Bristol in" July, 1337. was 212Tt. in length,- and had engines of 750 i.h.p. Tho Sirius built by ifessrs. Menzies and yon.T.eith, was of 450 "tons,- and had'eii; gines of 270 i.h.p. The Great -Western sailed on her first cross -Atlantic voyago iii- 183S, leaving Bristol on April f. Tlis Sirius- had sailed three days previously from Cork Harbour, and both vessels nr-'' rived at New York on the. same' day, the 'Siriu's reaching the port first. The firsf. vessel of the now world-famous Curiaril Line fleet was the wood-paddle steamer Britannia, built in 1810 by Jfr. Robert Duncan; Port Glasgow.- She wait 207 ft. in length,- of 1154 tous gross, and' had engines of 740 i.h.p. • She carried 115 cabin passengers, and 225 tons of cargo. She ran about.BJ knots per hour on a coal consumption of-38 tons per <lay. She sailed on. her . maiden voyage from Liverpool to Boston on July .4, 1810. ' The introduction of mild steel meant •another revolution in naval architecture. For.n' time shipbuilders- and shipowner,? fought, shy of it. They were afraid to build steamers of material so light as. compared with the iron .hitherto used. The Allan Line were the first, to venture out into the unknown. Lloyds' Register sanctioned the use oi ! mild- steel in 1877, and in 1879 the Allan Line had the Buenos Ayrean, built at" Dumbarton entirely of this material. '

Nri name is more-famous in the nnnals of naval architecture than that of the Great Eastern. This' vessel, which was laun'ehp'd oh the Thames in 1853, was thft wonder of her day, and she furnished the experience on which later vessels, were, design/id and built, and. run successfully. Silo was an embodiment of .strength rind lightness" as fine as. can be- found even J yet in any ocean-going merchant vessel ; J j and as a"specimen .of the shipbuilders' .-, art she was a splenifid success. But as a commercial venturei she was a failure, and provided a warning, and not nn example, to- shipping, men. She, was a "white elephant" from the first to last, and th* only profitable bit of work she | did was the laying of one of thVAtlantic TbJ' little turbine- sfeairie'r Tu'rbinia. is worthy'oi a- place alongside Henry Bell's ConiAt- and George Stephinsoh's first loco-, m'otive,- as the:.precursor' of a revolution in steam engineering..- For over- eighty ' veaTs-'tKe .piston-rod and. crank-shaft had held-their place a's .Hie-only practicablemean's of- converting thes.-erietgy of steaminto .mechanical power.. The Hon. C.-A.. 'Parsons'' solved the problem of -a, simple rotary engine in -the eaTly rnneties, when■h* set--liis-little-TurWriia, running on-the Tyae'. ■ ■'•■.•.-.-.:---• ■' . '':