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| the birth of
steamboat |
After several experiments with fitting steam engines
in boats, the first steamboats appeared between 1800 and 1815. Driven
by paddlewheels, they were used for towing barges on rivers and
canals, and also as harbor tugs.
The first Atlantic crossing by a sailing ship fitted with a small
steam engine was made (mostly under sail) by Savannah in 1819. It
took until 1838 before Sirius made the first steam Atlantic crossing
without the aid of sail. Unhampered by side paddles, fast sailing
ships known as "clippers" kept the trade on most sea routes
until the late 1850s. By the 1860s bigger, faster steamers, driven
by the far more efficient stern screw, were threatening the wail
clippers even on the long China tea and Australian wool routes.
The opening of the Suez Nanal in 1869 ended the need for fast voyages
around Africa.
Steamship development was delayed by the long struggle between paddlewheel
and screw. The first screw-driven iron steamer to cross the Atlantic
was I.K. Brunel's Great Britain in 1845, but she still carried a
full sail rig. So did what was then the world's biggest ship, Brunel's
27,400-ton Great Eastern (1858). Driven by side paddles and a stern
screw, Great eastern also carried six masts.
During these years of mounting competition, sail clippers like the
lovely Cutty Sark reached their peak of excellence. But they could
only sail faster than steamships with the right wind. By the 1880s,
steamers offered ont only much bigger cargoes than the slim clippers
could carry, but far more regularity of service in all weathers.
Clippers were simply unable to compete. |
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A very early steam paddlewheel tug, patented in 1736, shown towing
a warship. |
 Charlotte
Dundas (1802) was the first successful working steamer. |
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John
Fitchs 1786 steamboat used straight paddles, but proved slower than
a rowboat.
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| The tea
clipper routes from Foochow, China, to London: 25,744 kilometers
(16,000 miles). The first captain home earned a bonus of 100 and
ten shillings a ton extra on his tea cargo. |
Steam power
opened the great rivers of Europe to regular passenger and freight
traffic. This is the Rhine steamer Friedrich Wilhelm, shown carrying
a passenger coach. |
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| Americans
have always claimed that Savannah made the first Atlantic crossing
under steam, in 1819. But her collapsible paddlewheels were only
used for eight hours of the voyage to Liverpool from Savannah, Georgia,
which took nearly 21 days, all under sail. |
Auxiliary
sails were used for many years on the River Seine. This French river
steamer, which operated between Le Havre and Rouen, carried sails
on three masts as well as a paddlewheel. |
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| Bigger than
most world War I battleships, the Great Eastern (1858) was 211 meters
(692 feet) long, but failed as a passenger-carried. |
19th century
diving suits made it possible to explore wrecks and make underwater
repairs. |
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The most famous tea clipper race of all time. On may 30, 1866 Ariel,
Taeping, and Serica left Foochow on the same tide. After racing
in sight of each other nearly all the way, all three reached the
Thames on September 6, on the same tide, after 99 days, and docked
in London within two hours of each other. Their record was never
beaten. Packed with chests of the year's first tea crop, Ariel and
Taeping race in company. |
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