CHAPTER VII

THE DEVELOPMENT OF STEAM AUXILIARY The Atlantic was not the only scene of steam-ship enterprise in the early part of the nineteenth century, for merchants and shipowners recognised the importance of a faster and more regular communication between England and the Far East, and began to consider the desirability of employing steam-ships as soon as these vessels had shown that they could be used for sea voyages. At a meeting held in London in 1822 and attended by a number of merchants engaged in the Eastern trade, it was decided to form a steam-ship company to establish regular communication with India via the Cape of Good Hope, and to send Lieutenant Johnston to India to endeavour to interest merchants there in the scheme. The meeting naturally was in favour of the all-sea route by the Cape, but Johnston went to India via Suez, and became so convinced of the superiority of the latter route for mails and passengers and light merchandise that he became an enthusiastic advocate for its adoption. His mission to Calcutta was so successful that, in December 1823, Lord Amherst, the Governor, officially signified approval of steam-ship communication between the two countries, and recommended the Council to make a grant of 20,000 rupees to any British person or company who should, before the end of 1826, “permanently establish steam communication between England and India, either by the Cape of Good Hope or the Red Sea, and make two voyages out and two voyages home, occupying not more than seventy days on each passage.”[67] [67] Lindsay’s “History of Shipping.” Thanks to the generosity of the Rajah of Oude a sum of 80,000 rupees was subscribed in India. The enthusiasm shown in the East for the project induced the promoters in London to charter the _Enterprise_, which was then being built by Messrs. Gordon and Co. at Deptford. Johnston returned to England, and when the _Enterprise_ was completed he was appointed her captain. She was a wooden paddle-steamer, 122 feet on the keel, and 27 feet beam, and of 479 tons register. Her engines of 120 horse-power were estimated to give her a speed of eight knots per hour in good weather. Her boiler, which was of copper in one piece, cost £7000 and weighed about 32 tons. She sailed from London on August 16, 1825, and arrived at Calcutta on December 7. Her stoppages to replenish her bunkers occupied ten days, so that her actual travelling time was ninety-three days. She depended largely on sail. This voyage is of importance as it was the first made to India by a vessel built for ocean navigation and fitted with an auxiliary engine. The _Enterprise_ cost £43,000, and soon after her arrival, as the first Burmese war was then in progress, the Indian Government gave £40,000 for her. The _Falcon_, a sailing ship of 176 tons, and having steam auxiliary, went to Calcutta in 1825, but it is to the steamer _Enterprise_ that the honour belongs of having first reached Calcutta as a steamer. All that the voyage of the _Falcon_ proved was that she arrived safely; her engines were not much used and her small size shows that even if she had been filled with coal she could not have steamed all the way to Calcutta, nor were there sufficient coaling stations to enable her to do so. The pilot of the _Enterprise_ at Calcutta was Thomas Waghorn, then in the Bengal pilot service. The Calcutta Steam Committee, on behalf of the Indian Government, consulted him in 1827 on the question of the establishment of steam navigation between England and India, but though he visited a number of towns in England, his project of establishing a regular line of steamers via the Cape of Good Hope was not carried out. This, however, was not his only scheme. One of the difficulties in the way of establishing steamers on the Red Sea route was the high price of coal at Suez. Waghorn ascertained that coal could be brought to Suez by camel from Cairo at a reasonably cheap rate, and he therefore urged the adoption of this route. While he was still in England he heard that the East India Company intended to send the _Enterprise_ from India to Suez, and he then offered to make a trial voyage. He was appointed courier to the East, and left London in 1829, undertaking to carry despatches to Bombay and return with the reply in three months, a time which was usually occupied by sailing ships in voyaging one way. When he reached Suez he found that the _Enterprise_ had broken down on the way, and he accordingly took an open boat and began the journey down the Red Sea. Fortunately, the company’s sloop _Thetis_, which had been sent to look for him, picked him up and took him to Bombay, and he returned to London in the appointed time. A steamer service down the Red Sea was then established. The _Hugh Lindsay_ made the voyage from Bombay to Suez and back once a year until 1836, when two large steamers, the _Atalanta_ and _Berenice_, took her place. During these years Waghorn devoted himself to overcoming the difficulties and dangers of travel across the desert from Alexandria to Suez. “He associated with the Arabs, he lived in their tents, and gradually taught them that pay was better than plunder. He established a regular service of caravans, built eight halting-places between Cairo and Suez, and made what had been a dangerous path beset with robbers a secure highway. Before he left Egypt in 1841 he had a service of English carriages, vans, and horses to convey travellers.”[68] [68] “Dictionary of National Biography.” Meanwhile the service on the Cape route had been steadily improving. By 1840, Messrs. Green of Blackwall owned a fleet of splendid East Indiamen fitted with auxiliary steam. One of them, the _Earl of Hardwicke_, which may be taken as typical of the others, had a steam-engine of 30 horse-power, working paddle-wheels intended to propel her in light airs and calms, such as are common in the region of the tropics. These paddles could be disengaged in one minute from the engine whenever it was desired to use sails alone. Although the _Earl of Hardwicke_ was of 1600 tons, the space occupied by her boilers and engine was only 24 feet in length and 10 feet in width of the main deck, no part going into the hold or above deck. This engine in calm weather could give the ship a speed of five knots an hour on a coal consumption of three tons in twenty-four hours. In August 1840, in steaming from London to Spithead on her way to Calcutta, she beat the _Wellington_ by twelve hours, the steam-engine working for upwards of forty hours. The ship was expected to make the voyage in 75 days, which, considering that she would have to go round the Cape, was quick work. She was a sister ship to the famous _Vernon_, with which the experiment of auxiliary steam for a regular East Indiaman was first made. The _Vernon_ went from Calcutta to Spithead in 86 days, and for the first eight days and nights, in going down the Bay of Bengal, the wind was so light that she had to use her engines all the time. On the run from the Cape to Spithead she made the then shortest passage on record of 32 days, during which she used her steam nine days. The engines of the _Vernon_ were constructed by Messrs. Seaward and Capel, of the Canal Ironworks, Limehouse, who were also builders of many other marine engines, some of large size, including that of the _Nicholai_, the largest steamer then belonging to Russia. [Illustration: THE “EARL OF HARDWICKE.”] When the _Vernon_ left Blackwall on her trial trip her engines gave her a speed of about three and a half miles an hour, against a strong wind. Both these vessels, like all the rest of the Indiamen, were full-rigged ships. They were built to be sailing ships with steam auxiliary, and therefore were necessarily very differently constructed from the vessels which were launched about the same time for the North Atlantic trade, such as the _Great Western_, the _President_, and the _British Queen_, all of which were steamers with sail auxiliary. The interdependence of the two means of propulsion must not be lost sight of in considering the naval architecture of the period. The Indiamen of Messrs. Green illustrated the adaptation of steam as an aid to sailing vessels, which even then had not attained their full magnificence and power, but which showed continual improvement in speed as fresh ones were built. This improvement was partly forced upon sailing-ship builders by the opinion, universally held at that time, that steam could never supersede sail for long voyages, owing to the difficulty of carrying enough coal. The steamers designed for the North Atlantic trade, on the other hand, were only intended for a short voyage--short, that is, in comparison with those made by the Indiamen. Consequently, the North Atlantic liners have developed as steamers first and foremost with sail auxiliary, and the latest flyers on this ocean would be of little use as flyers if trading to the Far East or Australia, because they could not carry enough coal and would have to stop frequently to replenish their bunkers, while the liners of the southern and eastern oceans would be equally unable to compete on the North Atlantic routes. Some sailing ships with steam auxiliary were, however, seen on the Atlantic. One of the most remarkable boats of the time was the _Massachusetts_. She arrived at Liverpool after a run of thirty days from New York, which she left on November 17, 1845. She had an Ericsson screw-propeller, which could be lifted when it was desired to run her under sail only. Her screw was merely an auxiliary and was only intended to be of use in calms or against light head winds. She was confessedly an experiment. Her engine-space meant one-tenth less cargo-space, but it was the owner’s idea that, if the voyage were accomplished with so much greater rapidity than the ordinary packet ships could achieve as to recompense them for the loss of tonnage, the experiment would be a success. Her owner was Mr. R. B. Forbes of Boston, and she cost altogether about £16,000. She sailed from Liverpool for New York, beating such well-known sailing ships as the _Shenandoah_ and _Adirondack_ by thirteen days, and the _Henry Clay_ by five days. [Illustration: THE “MASSACHUSETTS.”] The United States _Nautical Magazine_ in 1845 said: “Let it be distinctly understood that we do not call her a steamer or expect her to make steamboat speed except under canvas; her steam-power is strictly auxiliary to her canvas.” The _Massachusetts_ was the first ship of a line intended to run between New York and Liverpool under the American flag. Her length on deck was 161 feet, and her beam 31 feet 9 inches, with 20 feet depth of hold, and she was about 751 tonnage. Her full poop extended as far forward as the main-mast, and contained accommodation for thirty-five passengers. Her bow was very sharp. She carried what is known as a false bow, which increased her sharpness, and was filled in on somewhat original lines. In her equipment everything that could be devised was provided. She carried lensed lights on each bow, and also aft between the main and mizzen masts. Her ventilators were similar to those on the Cunard steamers. Each stool, chair, and settee had airtight compartments, so that it could be used as a lifebuoy; she was well supplied with boats in case of accidents. The fact that she had an engine did not interfere with her sail equipment, for she was square-rigged throughout and carried skysails on all three masts. Her sail area was 3833 yards. A peculiarity of her rig was that all the masts were fidded abaft the lower masthead; but the advantages of this innovation were not found, in this or any other ship in which they were tried, to be very great, and it was not commonly adopted. It was thought that by fidding the masts in this fashion a vessel might be kept more steadily on her course when it became necessary for the sailors to reef or take in sail. She carried a condensing engine with two cylinders, working nearly at right angles, of 26 inches diameter with a stroke of three feet. She had two “waggon” boilers, each 14 feet long, 7 feet wide, and 9 feet high, with a furnace to each, and a blowing engine and blower for raising steam quickly. The diameter of the propeller was nine and a half feet. It was made of wrought copper and composition metal, and could be raised out of the water when the steam-power was not required. This was effected by means of a shaft from the engine-room through the stern, above and parallel to the propeller shaft. The upper shaft revolving raised the propeller and placed it close against the flat of the stern, where it was secured with chains. The propeller shaft passed close to the stern-post on the larboard side, and rested in a socket bolted to the stern-post, and was further supported by a massive brace above. Messrs. Hogg and Co. of New York constructed the engines to Captain Ericsson’s design. The rudder had the peculiarity of a “shark’s mouth” cut across it. This is an opening or gap extending a considerable distance across the rudder so that the rudder itself shall not be impeded by the screw-shaft which extends beyond it, the upper and lower portions of the rudder passing above and below the shaft when turned in that direction. Several steam auxiliary vessels were thus fitted, but it was not long ere the plan was adopted of cutting away the dead wood in front of the rudder-post and placing the screw before the rudder instead of behind. This enterprise was short-lived, as the vessel made but two round voyages and thereafter remained in American waters. A sister boat, the _Edith_, was purchased by the United States Government before she had made a voyage. The _Massachusetts_ was chartered to carry American troops to Mexico in 1846, and continued in the United States Navy until 1870, when she was sold and converted into the sailing ship _Alaska_, under which name she made some good passages. The _Vanderbilt_, also an auxiliary steamer, built by Simonson of New York for his uncle, Commodore Vanderbilt, in 1855, was 331 feet in length, and had a gross tonnage of 3360. She was probably the first and perhaps the only American-built vessel with two overhead beams to cross the Atlantic; certainly her appearance attracted no small amount of attention. Her two cylinders were each 90 inches diameter and 12 feet stroke; her indicated horse-power was 2800 and her boiler-pressure was as high as 18 lb. The engines were built at the Allaire works. She ran on the New York, Havre, and Cowes route until November 1860, besides going once to Bremen in 1858, and on the outbreak of war was presented by the Commodore to the United States Government. She was afterwards laid up and bought in 1873 by a San Francisco firm, who removed the engines and turned her into the full-rigged three-masted ship _The Three Brothers_; she was next bought by a British firm to end her days as a hulk at Gibraltar. One of the last of the vessels carrying steam for admittedly auxiliary purposes only was the clipper _Annette_, built by Messrs. Russell and Co. in 1863. She was fitted with a screw and a small oscillating engine with cylinders 3 feet in diameter and 3 feet stroke, and a tubular boiler 9¹⁄₂ feet long by 13 feet high gave steam at 20 lb. pressure. Her screw was 11 feet in diameter with 22 feet pitch, and a universal joint connected it to the engine-shaft so that it could be lowered or raised as desired. The masts carried 1418 square yards of canvas. The full-rigged, fast-sailing clipper ships, fitted with auxiliary screw propellers, found one of the finest representatives of their class in the _Sea King_, which was built at Glasgow for the trade with China, where several splendid vessels, fast under sail and carrying powerful auxiliary engines, were engaged. They were peculiarly suitable for those waters, for the coaling stations were few and far between, and coal was expensive, and their engines consumed a great deal more fuel in proportion to results than do those of modern steamers. The _Sea King_ was composite built; that is, she had an iron frame with wood planking. Her screw could be lifted when the wind was favourable, and her ability to show a clean pair of heels to most sailing craft afloat is proved by her making the passage home from Shanghai in seventy-nine days, or, after allowing time for coaling _en route_, seventy-four days. She was of 1018 registered tonnage, and her engines were of 200 nominal horse-power; she was 220 feet in length by 32¹⁄₂ feet beam, and 20¹⁄₂ feet depth. Her career for a time was exciting. She was one of the many vessels bought by the agents of the Confederate States in 1864, nominally as a blockade-runner, but she became a privateer--pirate the Northerners called her--and as such she had the distinction of being the only vessel which carried the Confederate flag round the world. Her name was changed to _Shenandoah_ when she was purchased; she was neither the first nor the last famous sailing vessel of that name. The last _Shenandoah_, the biggest wooden sailing vessel ever built in America, a four-masted barque, returned the fire of a Spanish gunboat in the recent Spanish-American War, and then out-sailed her. The commander of the _Shenandoah_ of the ’sixties was James Tredell Waddell, whose record justified his appointment. He was formerly an officer in the United States Navy, and was wounded and lamed for life in a duel in