THE STEAMSHIP

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 197, 17 February 1912, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE STEAMSHIP

ITS CENTEARARY. Maritime development is one of the wonders of the age. Hints of an electrically driven ship are already heard. Such a vessel would supersede the steamer, and even the motor ship, which is now in its infantile existence. A ship of 1(100 feet in length is also being spoken of—our latest record being 882 feet. Where is it all to stop? No one can tell (writes T.S. in the Sydney Morning Herald). We seem to have come to a ''pause" in mercantile speed, but only because to increase it would be expensive and unprofitable under present conditions. Two 30,000-ton liners, each fitted like a palace, with a retinue of servants, retained to minister to their passengers' comfort, and capable of conversational communication with land or other vessels over 1000 miles of ocean by "wireless," are regularly cutting out 25 knots per hours between London and New York; but in the navy, where economy has been secured in torpedo craft by oil fuel, this record has been considerably exceeded —41 miles per hour sea speed having been attained. These remarkable achievements are all of the era of steam navigation and iron or steel ships. Others will follow when electricity becomes the standard power of propulsion. THE BIRTHPLACE OP THE STEAMER. In Great Britain, where steam power was first utilised for maritime purposes, the centenary of the steamships is about to be celebrated. Greenock was the birthplace of the world's first successful steamer, which was 1 launched towards the end of 1811. This vessel was named the Comet. She is described by Mr. G. 1 Iveble Chatterton in his "Romance of the Ship," as "a curious-looking craft, 40 feet long on the keel, having a bow reminiscent of the later Stuart times, 1 clumsy of design, "and with a speed of ! five miles per hour." A long narrow i funnel, well forward in the slyp, took I the place of a mast. Originally she was fitted with four paddle-wheels, but these were subsequently reduced to two, better results being thus obtained. The Com- j et had many unconvincing and therefore ' unsuccessful progenitors. Records show I that a steam stern paddle-wheel tug was patented in 173-6; a two-paddle-wheel ! steamer was propelled against the cur- ! rent of the River Saone in 1783; and a double-hulled craft 25 feet long, with paddles between the hulls, accomplished live miles an hour on Dalwinton Loch, in 1788. In 1801- thfe Charlotte Dundas, a stern-wheeler, towed two loaded vessels, of 70 tons burthen each, a distance of j 1914 miles on the Forth and Clyde Canal. The Comet, however, demonstrated what the others did not —the utility of steam ! for maritime purposes. After her practical success paddle steamers were introduced on various rivers, and in 1817 one of them, the Caledonia, steamed from the Clyde to the Thames, and on to Rotterdam . She was followed by the Rob Roy in 1818, which plied successfully between Greenock and Belfast, and later Dover and Calais. The first steam passage—or, to be correct, auxiliary steam passage—of the Atlantic was made in 1819 by a full-rigged ship fitted with a 80-h.p. engine, turning two detachable paddle-wheels. The voyage occupied 30 days, steam being used for only 80 hours, in which time the whole of the vessel's coal supply was demolished. It was the heavy coal consumption which retarded the advance of steam. The Savannah, the vessel mentioned had her engines removed on arrival back in America, The James Watt, a vessel of 420 tons, two engines and paddle-wheels, wsts launched in 1821. Her funnel (still long and slender) was placed between the masts, and paddle-boxes were for the first time introduced. The same year the British Admiralty, the Board of which had some years before "felt it their bounden duty, upon national and professional grounds, to discourage to the utmost of their ability the employment of steam ... as calculated to strike a fatal blow to the naval supremacy of the Empire," bought the paddle steamer Monkey, 212 tons, and she, although not built for the service, was utilised by it for towing purposes. Two years later steam vessels began to be added to the navv, and between then and 1840 seventy of them were built. Steam was still being utilised by merchantmen, and in 1825 two steam auxiliary vessels reached Calcutta, via Cape Horn. Seven years later 100 steamers were on Lloyd's register. The year 1834J witnessed four voyages across the Atlantic by steam power alone—the vessels being the Great Western, the Sirius, the Royal William, and the Liverpool. The British Government immediately called for tenders for the despatch of the American mails by steamship, instead of by sail, as formerly. The result was the foundation of the great Cunard line, which was subsidised to the extent of £BI,OOO for four wooden paddle steamers, built in 1840 on the Clyde. The Britannia, 1154 tons, and the pioneer of the line, steamed from Liverpool to Boston on her first trip in 14 days 8 hours.

DEVELOPMENT OF RECENT YEARS. The leviathanising mania, characteristic of the feritish shipowner and builder, now began to manifest itself for the first time, and in 1843 the Great Britain, an iron steamer, of a record tonnage of 3618 tons displacement, was launched for the Great Western S.S. Company. Her size was too great to bear the strain of a wooden hull, and iron was brought into requisition. A few smaller vessels had previously been built of this material, but there was a strong prejudice against it for shipbuilding purposes, and no contractor could be found to undertake the building of the Great Britain. The owners therefore carried the work out themselves. The Great Britain, in addition to being the first iron ocean-going steamer, and the leviathan of her day, was fitted with a screw propeller instead of paddles. She was subsequently engaged in the Australian trade for nearly 30 years. For the introduction of screw propulsion we must look back to the year 1838, when a vessel called the Archimedes was launched, and with a screw propeller —the invention, singular to relate, of a farmer, Francis Pettit Smith, in 1834 —did eight knots per hour against the wind and tide, and subsequently made several deep-water voyages. The Great Britain will go down | to posterity as one of our most famous ships—she demonstrated the superiority of iron over wood. Running ashore on the Irish coast, she withstood, assisted by a temporary breakwater, a winter of storm and surf, being almost below water for eleven months at high tide. This was before she came to Australia, being subsequently refloated. She was followed by a procession of iron ships, but it was not until 1858 that she was excelled in size. Then came the Great Eastern —that wonderful and unfortunate ship, which was the forerunner of the leviathans of to-day. She displaced 32,000 tons when loaded; could accommpdate 4000 passengers and 400 of a crew; had six masts, five funnels; was propelled by both paddles and a screw; and was to have journeyed to and from Australia. Bhe stuck on the ways when launching, however, and a fortune was lost in shifting her. Then she was sold for the Atlantic trade, where she proved a failure as to revenue, and was subsequently employed in laying cables, being broken up in 1890. Iron and the single screw now came into general use, and until

1884 sails were retained. In the meantime there had been many improvements in ship-designing, with the object of increasing speed, and of engines and furnaces with a view of decreased coal consumption, and at the same time increased power. Steel was utilised for building; oil lamps replaced by electric light; water-tight compartments installed, accommodation for passengers improved; and the twin-screw introduced on the City of Paris in 1888. This ship is still in commission, under the name of the Philadelphia. The twin-screw, as soon as it had demonstrated its speed qualities and effectiveness in a breakdown of steering gear, and other emergencies, led to the abandonment of sails as an auxiliary propelling power, and steamships fitted with pole masts began to appear. Two ships of the White Star Line were the first to introduce the innovation, and they were launched the year after the City of Paris, and christened the Teutonic and Majestic. These two vessels were specially constructed to be used as armed cruisers if necessity arose, and the Teutonic, about two years after she was built, averaged 20.35 knots per hour across the Atlantic. In 1892 the Campania and Lucania were built by the Cunard Line, and the former, 600 ft long, averaged nearly 22 knots speed. These vessels held the "blue ribbon" of speed until 1898, when the Germans entered into competition with them, the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse, 625 ft, beating the Campania's speed by a narrow margin. In 1903 the Kaiser Wilhelm 11. did 23 knots; and in 1905 the Allan liner Virginian was the first turbine steamer to cross the Atlantic. Then came the Carmania (20,000 tons), followed by the Mauretania and Lusitania a few years back, each of 30,000 tons, and accomplishing over 25 knots per hour. Now, we have two new vessels of moderate speed commissioned by the White Star Company, each being 882 ft long, 94ft beam, and of 51,000-h.p. And this is not all—the Cunard Company and the Ham burg-American Company are answering with steamers of 50,000 tons, which is 5000 tors larger than either of these veritable mammoths.