1822. But Lord Cochrane’s work was practically over and she was

therefore not required for the purpose originally intended of enabling the Chilians to cope with the Spanish Navy. In June 1823 there was a sudden change of government in Chili, and the O’Higgins Cabinet was overthrown. The change was accompanied by the restless outbreaks which have often marked political differences in the South American States, and a good many of the papers relating to the building of the _Rising Star_ and sending her to Chili were destroyed. The new Chilian Government, being very short of money, took advantage of the destruction of the papers and repudiated the obligation to Lord Cochrane. It would take too much space to go into the details of this lamentable affair, but it is sufficient to say that the vessel was sold, that the Cochrane interest in her vanished, and the Hon. Wm. E. Cochrane was called on for payment of a considerable additional sum solely in consequence of the vexatious delay of the Chilian Government in saying whether they would or would not fulfil their engagement. [Illustration: THE “RISING STAR.”] From a journal kept by Major W. E. Cochrane it appears that on May 31, 1820, he made his first payment of £50 on account of the vessel to Mr. Kier, engineer. He seems to have visited very frequently the yard at Deptford where the vessel was built, sometimes with the Chilian agent, and payments on account of construction of £50 or so are frequent. By the 14th of the following September the engines were sufficiently advanced to undergo a trial, with what result is not stated. On October 6, he paid Mr. Ellice £2000 on account of the price of the ship. On the 17th he paid her another visit, when the engines were tried, and on the 18th he went again and tried the open paddles. Extensive alterations to the engines were necessary, for on November 11 there appears the item that he paid the balance of Kier’s account for that work, £163 4_s._ 11_d._ On January 30, 1821, he went and took dimensions for the smoke-burning apparatus. The _Rising Star_ left the dock on February 5, when the engineers received £1 for working on Sunday. On the 7th, the wheels were tried and one of them broke, and on the 8th he ordered the wheels to be brought to town. On the 16th, a payment was made of £79 19_s._ “for the deeds relating to the purchasing of the _Rising Star_.” On the 21st, he paid a bricklayer for constructing the smoke-burning apparatus in the flues of the boilers. Presumably the repairs were effected after the ship had been returned to dock, for on February 22 she was taken out of dock again. On March 20, the name of Captain Scott, as master, first appears. On the 24th, Major Cochrane “went to the ship and got the balance wheels fixed,” and on the 26th “tried the wheels, which did not propel.” The weights were taken off the paddles on the following day and reversed, and another trial was made of which the result is not stated, and there was yet another trial on the 11th of the following month. In April he paid to Mr. Brent, the builder, for docking the _Rising Star_, £120 15_s._ 3_d._ On May 9 he ordered “my new vertical paddles,” which were erected on the 29th. On this date there is a curious entry: “Steward and boat 6_s._ 6_d._,” which is probably the first recorded instance of a ship’s steward receiving a tip. The wheels were tried while the vessel was in dock on June 8, and were found to act well, and Don José Alvarez visited her the next day. On the 11th of that month the first real trial of the ship took place, for the entry reads: “Tried the ship with my vertical paddles. She went from 5 to 6 knots, (standard broke).” A new standard was ordered and on July 5, “tried my new paddles, went 20 miles at the rate of 5³⁄₄ knots an hour.” On the 18th of that month he paid Brent’s bill for alterations and repairs, £193 3_s._ 8_d._ On September 4 the ship was taken five miles down the river, and on the 11th he “ordered her into dock to have her paddle-case closed (on account of insurance).” The paddle-cases were fitted on the 13th, and on October 17 she went down to Gravesend. Then comes a series of entries which are interesting as showing the rates of pay at the time. They are as follows, and are dated October 18: Paid one month’s wages to Captain Scott £10 0 0 Paid William Ford, Carpenter, for the voyage 13 10 0 Mr. Cook, Mate, one month’s voyage[50] 4 0 0 To Cluly, 2nd Mate, one month’s wages 3 0 0 To Leach, Steward 6 0 0 Wages of Seamen 20 6 6 [50] Wages is probably meant. The _Rising Star_ sailed from Gravesend on October 22, 1821. Numerous heavy bills came in shortly afterwards, among which are “Insurance on ship £800,” and Mr. Brown’s account, in which is included the heavy expenses at Cork, when the ship put in there in distress, having sprung a leak off the coast of Portugal, £913 9_s._ 1¹⁄₂_d._ Altogether the actual outlay in cash amounted to £13,295 4_s._ 4¹⁄₂_d._ The sum agreed upon in the arrangement with Don Alvarez was £15,000, to which was added the interest to the year in which the claim was made thirty-four years later, bringing the total amount of the claim of the Cochrane family on account of this little steamer to £40,500. Mr. W. Jackson went to Chili to join Lord Cochrane as secretary, and remained with him in that capacity until his lordship’s return to England. Mr. Jackson wrote on June 20, 1856, from Melton Mowbray: “I sailed in her [the _Rising Star_] to Valparaiso, having been appointed joint agent with Mr. Barnard, already at that place, for her transfer to the Chilian Government. She arrived there in April 1822 in excellent condition, having proved herself a very superior sea-boat, frequently going twelve knots an hour. She was then tendered to the Government on the terms of the contract, but they first claimed her in virtue of a partial advance they had made for the building of the hull, and failing to obtain possession on that ground they repudiated the contract with Alvarez altogether, without assigning any valid reason for so doing. The sum agreed to be paid on her delivery was £15,000, no part of which was there received.” Unfortunately, little is known as to the nature of her machinery or means of propulsion. An illustration of the _Rising Star_, published in 1821, represents her as a full-rigged ship and carrying two funnels placed abreast and situated between the main and fore masts; but she seems to have neither paddle-boxes nor uncovered paddle-wheels. The description attached to the picture states that the _Rising Star_ was “built under the direction of Lord Cochrane upon the principle of navigating either by sails or by steam, the propelling apparatus being placed in the hold and caused to operate through apertures in the bottom of the vessel.” From this it may be conjectured either that the paddles were discarded or that she was also fitted with some modification of the jet system. Although no further attempt was made to send a steamer across the Atlantic for many years, the project was not lost sight of, and schemes innumerable were formed and abandoned. Ten years after the _Savannah’s_ voyage some Dutch merchants purchased the _Curaçoa_, a Clyde-built vessel of 320 tons, and despatched her to the West Indies from Antwerp. Her engines were of 100 horse-power, and consumed slightly over seven pounds of coal per indicated horse-power per hour, but there is no record of her having attempted to make the voyage under steam. The first steamer to cross the Atlantic from west to east depending largely though not entirely on her own steam was the _Royal William_, built by James Goudie for the Quebec and Halifax Steam Navigation Company at Quebec, in the shipyard of Black and Saxton Campbell, upon the lines of an early Clyde steamer, the _United Kingdom_, built by Steele of Greenock in 1826 for the London and Leith service. She was 176 feet long, and 146 feet between perpendiculars. Her beam was 27 feet, and outside the paddle-boxes 43 feet 10 inches, and her depth 17 feet 9 inches. Her tonnage is variously given as 830 gross[51] and 1370 B.M.[52] She had side-lever engines of 180 horse-power[53] or 200 horse-power,[54] by Boulton and Watt. She was engined at St. Mary’s foundry, Montreal. Her launch took place on April 29, 1831, and after trading for a time between Quebec and Nova Scotian ports she was sold to another company, which ultimately tried the experiment of sending her across the Atlantic. Mr. Samuel Cunard was one of the directors of this company, but there is nothing to show that he assisted in the promotion of the scheme to send her over the ocean.[55] Nevertheless it is a fact that “the idea of starting a line of steamers to connect the two countries had occurred to his mind as early as 1830.”[56] On August 4, 1833, the _Royal William_ sailed from Quebec, coaled at Pictou, and began her journey. She is said to have steamed the greater part of the way, some writers say the whole of it, and arrived at Gravesend on September 11 after calling at Cowes. Probably owing to there being another vessel of the same name a few years later, some misconception has arisen as to her performance, for as a matter of fact, the first _Royal William_ did not steam all the way, but made a considerable portion of the voyage under sail alone. It is to the credit of Canadians, however, that this steamer was despatched, and it is upon this particular enterprise that the claim of the Canadians to have made the first steam-ship voyage across the Atlantic is founded. The subsequent history of this vessel is interesting. She stayed in the Port of London for a few weeks, after which she was chartered by the Portuguese, and while in their service her speed attracted the attention of the Spanish Government. The Spaniards purchased her towards the end of 1833 at the time of the first Carlist rebellion and changed her name to the _Ysabel Secunda_. It was shortly after this that she obtained the doubtful honour of being the first steamer to fire a gun in war, the Spaniards having armed her with six cannon. Her eventful career ended when she went to pieces on the Santander rocks. [51] “The Atlantic Ferry.” [52] Kennedy’s “History of Steam Navigation.” [53] _Ibid._ [54] “The Atlantic Ferry.” [55] _Ibid._ [56] “History of the Cunard Company.” [Illustration: THE “DIEPPE” (L.B. & S.C.R.).] [Illustration: THE “UNITED KINGDOM.”] These two voyages stand in a class by themselves, and both mark a distinct step forward in the progress of the modern mercantile marine. The earliest steamboats, whether European, British, or American, were smooth-water vessels only, and were admitted to be of an elementary and experimental character. The _Charlotte Dundas_ and _Comet_ in Scotland and the _Clermont_ and _Phœnix_ in America were much beyond anything that had preceded them, and were significant as indicating a perception of the possibility of extending the activity of steam-propelled boats from the placid waters of canals or rivers to the greater waters of harbours, ports, and estuaries. The four vessels first named demonstrated, each in her own way, that it was necessary to build the hull to suit the engine, instead of acquiring a hull and putting an engine into it and trusting to luck. The _Phœnix_ showed in 1807 that a vessel constructed to carry a steam-engine of a suitable size could be trusted on the open sea, by steaming from New York to the Delaware. A few years later, the Clyde shipbuilders showed that they could construct steamers which should go down the Clyde estuary and even essay the journey to Ireland. It is true they used sails whenever possible, but when winds or tides were against them the engines alone were depended on. Vessels with two and three masts were employed, and as marine engines were made of greater size, power, and weight, vessels of greater dimensions were equipped with them, and the coastal service was inaugurated. By this time the engine had become a powerful auxiliary to sail on short voyages for which large bunker space was not required. The maintenance of the coastal voyages in all weathers proved the thorough seagoing qualities of the steamers. In estimating the value of the _Savannah’s_ voyage and its place in the history of steam navigation, it must not be forgotten that she was a sailing vessel, was built to be one, that the form of her hull was not altered in any way when she was engined, and that on her return, when her machinery was taken out of her, she resumed her place in her country’s trade as a sailer. Quebec’s _Royal William_, on the contrary, was designed and built to be a steam auxiliary vessel, and it was not until she had established herself in that capacity that her voyage to the Mother Country was decided upon. The performances of these two ships were thus of great importance; they demonstrated, in the case of the _Savannah_, that a little sailing ship could carry a small auxiliary engine which might help her in and out of port, and at other times if it were necessary and fuel permitted; and in the case of the _Royal William_ that a steam packet could essay an ocean voyage and depend both upon her sails and steam-engines to enable her to reach her destination in good time. No further attempts were made, however, until 1838, which was destined to become a memorable year. Before this, various companies had been proposing to build steamers, but nothing had been done. In 1828 an Act of Parliament was obtained for the incorporation of the Valentia Transatlantic Steam Navigation Company, which was to run a line of steamers from the west coast of Ireland to America. The company proposed to build a steamer at a cost of £21,000. She was to carry fifty cabin passengers and as many in the steerage, and 200 tons of cargo in her hold. It was suggested that she should be of about 800 tons displacement, with engines of 200 horse-power, and her speed was to be such that she could make six voyages each way in twelve months. The company announced in 1828 that it would commence operations immediately, but the public held aloof, and seven years later matters were no further advanced. Then the project was revived, and considerable interest was taken in it because it was suggested that the enterprise should be worked in connection with the new railway from London, the new Post Office packets and the Valentia Railway. It was at this time that Dr. Lardner, a man of recognised scientific attainments, made his remarkable assertion regarding the impossibility of establishing steam navigation between New York and Liverpool. According to a report of a meeting at which Dr. Lardner was present, that gentleman pointed out that “the only difficulty would be as to the run from Valentia to St. John’s.” He continued: “As a last resource, however, should the distance between Valentia and St. John’s prove too great they might make the Azores a stage between, so there remained no doubt of the practicability of establishing a steam intercourse with the United States. As to the project of making a voyage directly from New York to Liverpool, it was, he had no hesitation in saying, perfectly chimerical, and they might as well talk of making a voyage from New York or Liverpool to the moon.”[57] [57] Liverpool _Albion_, December 14, 1835. While England was listening to the depressing remarks of Dr. Lardner, America was at work. In 1835 Junius Smith[58] from Massachusetts began to consider the navigation of the ocean by steamers, and in 1836 he proposed to form the British and American Steam Navigation Company. The company was actually established in 1837 by Mr. Macgregor Laird with a capital of £1,000,000, but Smith’s connection with the scheme ceased, as he saw himself unlikely to make as much out of the enterprise as he had anticipated. [58] The name is given as “Junius Smith” in Appleton’s “Cyclopædia of National Biography.” Mr. Kennedy’s “History of Steam Navigation,” however, states that Doctor Julius Smith organised in 1836 “a transatlantic steam-ship company bearing the title of the ‘British Queen Steam Navigation Company,’ with a capital of £1,000,000, and Mr. Macgregor Laird as secretary.” The most remarkable event in the annals of this company is the voyage of the Sirius from London to New York in 1838. “The _Sirius_! The _Sirius_! The _Sirius_! Nothing is talked of in New York but about the _Sirius_. She is the first steam vessel that has arrived here from England, and a glorious boat she is.... Lieutenant Roberts, R.N., Commander, is the first man that has navigated a steam-ship from Europe to America.”[59] The _Sirius_ was sent across the Atlantic really as a desperate remedy against competition. [59] New York _Weekly Herald_. The Transatlantic Company had placed a contract as early as 1836 with Messrs. Curling and Young of Blackwall, London, for the construction of the _British Queen_ steam-ship, but the bankruptcy of Messrs. Claude Girdwood and Co. of Glasgow, who had contracted to build the engines, caused considerable delay. Enterprising rivals at Bristol, seizing the opportunity, formed the Great Western Steamship Company to build and equip the _Great Western_, which they determined to put on the service before the _British Queen_ could be got ready. In this they were successful, and to save the honour of their own company the _British Queen_ directors hired the _Sirius_ from the Cork Steamship Company. It was known at the time that she was too small to be employed as a regular transoceanic trader, and even before she started on her first voyage the announcement was made that she would make two voyages only. She was 178 feet long, 25¹⁄₂ feet broad, 18¹⁄₄ feet deep, and of 703 tons register. Her engines, like those of all other vessels of her time, were of the side-lever type; their cylinders were of 60 inches diameter, and had a stroke of 6 feet, and she carried a surface condenser similar to those now in use. She was a two-masted vessel, carrying three square sails on the foremast, her aftermast being fore-and-aft rigged only. She had one funnel situated abaft the paddle-boxes, which were about amidships. A picture of the vessel is in existence which represents her as three-masted, and with her paddles rather far forward, but this is inaccurate. She was almost a new ship at this time, and it is not likely that a mast would have been taken out of her between her launch and her Atlantic voyage. Her schooner bows bore as figurehead a dog with a star between his front paws. The _Sirius_ left London, sailing from East Lane Stairs, on March