Discoveries and Inventions of the Nineteenth Century

The chapter on “Steam Navigation,” in the foregoing pages, has dealt mainly with the progress of the ocean-going steam-ship, from the establishment of regular transatlantic services down to the building of the splendid liners, the New York and the Paris, and we have recorded, in addition, the performances of the pair of hitherto unsurpassed sister ships, the Campania and the Lucania. The importance and interest attaching to steam navigation is, however, by no means confined to ocean-going vessels, and the chapter demands a supplementary notice of the great developments of the steam-ship in other parts of the world than Britain, more particularly where great rivers, navigable for hundreds of miles, and lakes, spreading their waters over vast areas, present conditions of traffic and opportunities for adaptation to an extent that could not be required within the range of Britain or British oceanic lines. PLATE IX.THE “MARY POWELL.” 145If the reader will cast his eye on the map of the United States, he will see towards the northern boundary a great fresh-water system, comprising five enormous lakes, the least of which is nearly two hundred, and the largest nearly three hundred miles in length, in all presenting a total area greater by far than that of England and Scotland together thrice told. This lake system has a line of coast to be reckoned only by thousands of miles, and for a long time an enormous traffic has been carried across its waters by sailing vessels of all kinds, two- or three-masted schooners, brigs, and other craft, carrying wood, stone, lime, and other commodities. On the map, the position of the Detroit River, which leads from the southern extremity of Lake Huron to Lake Erie, will readily be recognised, and this strait, which is in the only line of transport from the three great upper lakes, formerly presented all the picturesqueness that crowds of boats of every build could impart. Especially was this the case at Amherstburg, its southern extremity, where sometimes a northern wind would make the passage impracticable for several days in succession, and a fleet of a hundred or two hundred sailing vessels would collect to await the opportunity of a favouring breeze in order to carry them against the current to Port Huron. Then, taking advantage of the right moment, they would set their sails, and in a compact body move slowly up the strait. This was not quick enough to meet the traffic, and, before long, larger vessels were built, which were towed up and down the Detroit by steam-tugs. The next step of replacing sailing ships by steam-vessels was not long in following, and though there still exist fine specimens of sailing craft on the lakes, their day may be said to be over. The navigation of these lakes, before the extensive development of the railway systems near their shores, comprised a large passenger traffic, which was carried on by big paddle-wheel steamers, and at the time of the great westward set of emigration to Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, these steamers were crowded to their utmost capacity. The great improvement which in recent years has become possible for passenger steamers in speed, cabin accommodation, and other particulars, above all, the growth of great cities on the shores, the progress of the territories adjoining the lake system, and other circumstances, are now combining to renew the passenger traffic on a larger scale than ever. “Fifteen millions of people,” says Mr. H. A. Griffin, the Secretary of the Cleveland Board of Control (Engineering Magazine, iv., 819), “now live upon the shore lines of the lakes, or within six hours’ travel by rail, and nearly all of that population is south of the United States boundary line. The territory directly tributary to the lakes, north and south of the line, is capable of easily maintaining a population of 100,000,000.... It does not require a very lively imagination to foresee the Great Lakes surrounded by the most prosperous and progressive people on earth, and crossed and recrossed by scores of lines of passenger steam-ships, in addition to a still greater number of freight lines.” The number of first-class passenger steamers already launched or on the stocks is an indication that the revival of passenger traffic will not lag or be delayed. The unique conditions and requirements of this lacustrine traffic were bound to lead to types of vessels differing in many respects from the steam-ships to be seen in the harbours of Great Britain. The introduction of iron shipbuilding gave a great impetus to the construction of the lake steamers, for vessels of more than 3,000 tons could be built with a comparatively shallow draught of water (15½ feet), which was one of the 146necessities of the situation. As far back as 1872, iron shipbuilding had been fully established at Cleveland and Detroit, and at the latter place scores of splendid steel steam-ships have been turned out. The Cleveland builders have not been far behind, and Buffalo, Milwaukee, Chicago, and other places, have followed suit. At the beginning of 1893, there were on the lakes more than fifty vessels of over 2,000 tons each, while the total number of steam vessels of all kinds was considerably over 1,600, and sailing vessels with steam-tugs counted over 2,000. The tonnage of the ships on the lakes has been estimated at about 36 per cent. of the whole mercantile marine of the United States, and it is said that 40,000 men are employed upon the vessels. The total freight passing Detroit in 1892 was calculated to exceed 34,000,000 tons, an amount greater than the whole foreign and coasting trade of the port of London. There are more than thirty shipbuilding concerns on the lakes, and some of them possess large dry docks of their own; but there are also independent companies owning dry docks of great size. Some of these shipbuilding establishments have turned out steel ocean-going tugs, paddle and screw passenger steamers, cargo-carrying boats, vessels for carrying railway trains across the Detroit river, etc., etc. Fig. 68a.—A Whaleback Steamer, No. 85, Built at West Superior, Wisconsin. The extent and importance which steam navigation has attained in a definite region have been indicated in the preceding paragraphs; but an attempt to show by illustration and description the several characteristic forms the steam-ship has now assumed in these lacustrine waters would carry us far beyond our allotted limits. The steam vessels now on the lakes are almost exclusively actuated by screw-propellers, whether they are passenger or freight boats. The boilers and engines are near the stern, and the hulls are usually of great length; in fact, some of these steamboats will compare in dimensions with the Persia, which was the transatlantic marvel about the year 1857. (See p. 137.) Such is the Mariposa, launched in 1892, which is 350 feet long and 45 feet broad, carrying 3,800 net tons, with a draught of only 15½ feet. There are others, 380 feet long, with engines of 7,000 horse-power, steaming at 20 miles an hour, and providing 147ample accommodation for 600 passengers. The newest and most novel type of steam-ship on the lakes is the “whaleback.” The celerity with which ships of this kind have been constructed on occasion is perfectly marvellous. One of them, named the Christopher Columbus, designed to carry passengers to and from the World’s Fair at Chicago in 1893, was launched in fifty-six days after the keel had been laid, yet it was a ship intended to carry 5,000 passengers, having a length over all of 362 feet, breadth 42 feet, depth 24 feet. The “whaleback” steamers are designed to give the greatest carrying capacity with a given draught of water, and all the structures usually fitted to the upper deck of a steamer are in them replaced by the plain curved and closed deck, over which, when the vessel is in a storm, waves may sweep harmlessly, thus avoiding the shocks received by ships with high sides. The river steam-boat was, as we have seen, nearly coeval with the nineteenth century, and although its practicability was first demonstrated in British waters, regular steam navigation was not established until a few years afterwards, when, in 1807, Robert Fulton placed on the River Hudson its first steam-boat. To this others were soon added, so that in 1813 there were six steam-boats regularly plying on the Hudson before a single one ran for hire on the Thames. An article by Mr. Samuel Ward Stanton, in a recent number of The Engineering Magazine, gives a very full account of the Hudson River steam-boats from the beginning down to 1894, and to this article we are mainly indebted for the details we are about to give. The Hudson River washes the western shore of Manhattan Island, on which stands by far the greater part of the city of New York, with its vast population. The river is here straight, and has a nearly uniform width of one mile; at New York it is commonly called the North River, because of the direction of its course, for it descends from almost the due north. It is not one of the great rivers of the United States as regards length or extent of navigation; not, e.g., like the Mississippi and the Missouri, which are ascended by steam-boats to thousands of miles above their mouths; but it has one of the world’s great capitals on its shores, and at the quays, which occupy both its banks to the number of eighty or more, may be seen in multitudes some of the finest ocean-going steamships, trading to every considerable port in the world. The North River separates New York from what are practically the populous suburbs of Jersey City and Hoboken, though these are controlled by their own municipalities. It was on the River Hudson that steam navigation was inaugurated by Fulton with a vessel which was 133 feet long, 18 feet broad, and 7 feet deep, and was named the Clermont. The speed attained was but five miles an hour. The first trip was made on the 7th August, 1807, to Albany, 150 miles up the river from New York, with twenty-four passengers on board, and the new kind of locomotion was so well patronised that during the following winter, when the Hudson navigation had to be suspended on account of the ice, it was considered expedient to enlarge the capacity of the boat by adding both to her length and width; at the same time her name was changed to The North River, and she plied regularly for several seasons afterwards. Her speed down the river with the current was evidently greater than that of the first trip up the river, for on 9th November, 1809, the New York Evening Post announced that 148“The North River steam-boat arrived this afternoon in twenty-seven and a half hours from Albany, with sixty passengers.” The paddle-wheels were of a primitive form, and as they were unprovided with paddle-boxes, the arrangement had the appearance of a great undershot mill-wheel on each side of the boat, above the deck of which was placed the steam-engine, a position it has retained in all these river-boats, in which a huge, rhombus-shaped beam, oscillating high above the deck, is a conspicuous feature. Another boat of much larger dimensions was built the following year, having a tonnage of nearly 300, and from that time there has been a more or less regular increase in the sizes of the vessels, until in 1866 a tonnage of nearly 3,000 was reached. In 1817 a vessel called the Livingstone was launched, which was able to go up to Albany in eighteen hours. In 1823 was launched the James Kent, a novel feature in which vessel was the boiler made of copper, and weighing upwards of 30 tons. It was so planned that if it happened to burst, the hot water would be carried through the bottom of the vessel by tubes or hollow pillars. From this it appears that considerable apprehension existed as to the liability of the boilers exploding. We are told that the cost of the copper boiler was in this case nearly one-third of that of the whole vessel. The cabins are described as having been very handsomely fitted up, and the speed was such