THE
HISTORY OF STEAM NAVIGATION.

LIVERPOOL IN 1837.

THE

HISTORY

OF

STEAM NAVIGATION.

BY

JOHN KENNEDY.

WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS.

PUBLISHED BY
CHARLES BIRCHALL, LIMITED,
7 & 9, VICTORIA STREET, LIVERPOOL.

1903.

C. TINLING AND CO.,
PRINTERS,
VICTORIA STREET, LIVERPOOL.

PREFACE.

The historical information contained in this volume has been in a large measure collected from the Press of the period, and chiefly from the Times, Liverpool Mercury, Glasgow Herald, and Chambers’ Journal. Lindsay’s “Merchant Shipping,” a most admirable work, has also been consulted, as well as other works of a similar nature. The name of the authority quoted has been given in most cases, but, where I have been unable to do so, I trust this general acknowledgment will suffice.

Some of the chapters in Part II. were contributed in 1901 to the Journal of Commerce, as part of a series of articles on “Historical Steamship Companies.” Chapter XXII. in Part I. was published in the May number (1903) of the Wide World Magazine, under the title of “The Strange Case of the Ferret.”

I take this opportunity of thanking the Directors, Managers, Agents, and other officials of the various Steamship Companies referred to, by all of whom, and at all times, I have been treated with the utmost courtesy. I desire also to express my appreciation of the uniform kindness and assistance received from the Librarians of the Bootle, Glasgow, and Liverpool Libraries in placing at my disposal publications, some of which were printed nearly a hundred years ago.

JOHN KENNEDY.

Liverpool, 20th November, 1903.

CONTENTS.

PART I.

PART II.

Errata.

[1] On page 127 read 1886 instead of 1896.

[2] On page 134 this vessel is called the Robert Bruce in error.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

THE

History of Steam Navigation.

Part I.
ITS ORIGIN AND EXPANSION.

Chapter I.

Inventors and alleged Inventors prior to 1807.

There is not a more fascinating page in history than that which tells of the growth of the Mercantile Steam Navies of the World. It is a record of the triumphs of Science and Art in Marine Architecture; of bold enterprises—not always carried to a successful financial issue; of deeds of “derring do” as romantic as the older stories of the Vikings. It is a page brightened by stories of true heroism, where men have bravely faced death, not in the lust of battle, but in calm devotion to duty, or in unflinching determination to save the lives of those weaker than themselves.

It is not possible, nor would it answer any useful purpose, to discuss fully the various claims which have been put forward for the honour of having invented the first Marine Steam Engine. It will be sufficient to refer briefly to the inventors, or alleged inventors, prior to the year 1807.

In the Appendix to Señor Navarette’s “History of the Four Voyages of Columbus,” are copies of certain documents which the historian vouches to be authentic extracts from the series of Spanish Records preserved at Simancas. These documents narrate “that in the month of May or June, 1543, Blasco de Garay, a naval captain in the service of the Emperor Charles V., conducted at Barcelona, a series of experiments upon the applicability to ships of a certain propulsive force, which he alleges he had himself discovered.” De Garay describes the mechanism he employed as consisting of two wheels, one attached to either extremity of a movable axis which traversed the vessel’s waist, and was connected with a large caldron of boiling water. The experiments, it is alleged, were conducted in the presence of several persons of high birth, deputed by the Emperor to witness them, and amongst whom were many naval commanders. It is further alleged that De Garay succeeded in taking to sea a vessel of two hundred tons burthen, without the aid of sail or oar, and that her speed was about one league per hour.[3]

Rear-Admiral Geo. Preble, U.S.N., author of a “History of Steam Navigation,” gives the names of several persons who have searched the documents referred to, none of whom have been able to trace any mention of steam; he, therefore, concludes that the account of De Garay’s invention is a Spanish legend. [4] Papin, who was driven from France by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and was elected F.R.S. in 1681, describes, in 1690, a steam cylinder in which a piston descends by atmospheric pressure, and, as one of its uses, he mentions the propulsion of ships by paddle wheels. Towards the close of the 17th century, or the beginning of the 18th, Papin made the acquaintance of Thomas Savory, one of the most ingenious men of his times, and of Thomas Newcomen, a working blacksmith, of Devon. Savory designed a marine engine, which was greatly improved by Newcomen in 1705, and was used by Papin to propel a steamboat on the Fulda.

Thirty years later (1736), Jonathan Hulls, of Berwick-on-Tweed, received a patent for the first steamboat of which there is any authentic record from George II., which recited as follows:—

[5]“Whereas our trusty and well-beloved Jonathan Hulls hath by his petition humbly represented unto our most dearly beloved Consort, the Queen, that he hath, with much labour and with great expense, invented and formed a machine for towing ships and vessels out of, or into any harbour or river, against wind or tide, or in a calm, which the petitioner apprehends may be of great service to our Royal Party and merchant ships, and to boats and other vessels, of which the petitioner hath made oath that he is the sole inventor, as by affidavit to his said petition annexed.

“Know ye, therefore, that we, of our special grace, hath given and granted to the said Jonathan Hulls our special license, full power, sole privilege and authority during the term of fourteen years, and he shall lawfully make use of the same for carrying ships and other vessels out to sea, or into any harbour or river.

“In witness whereof we have caused these our letters to be made patent.

“(Witness) Caroline,

“Queen of Great Britain, &c.

“Given by right of Privy Seal at Westminster, this 21st day of December, 1736.”

In the description of his invention, Hulls states that, in his opinion, it would not be practicable to place his machine on anything but a tow-boat, as it would take up too much room for other goods to be carried on the same vessel with it, and it could not “be used in a storm, or when the waves are very raging.” Hulls’ vessel is stated to have been a stern-wheeler, a type of steamboat which is now extensively used for navigating shallow rivers in the Southern States of America and in India. The steam tow-boat brought its inventor nothing but ridicule, and he died in London in almost destitute circumstances.

Next in chronological sequence come the Abbé Arnal and the Marquis de Jouffroy, of France, who, in 1781, made experiments to show the practicability of applying steam power to vessels.

Two years later (1783), a Mr. Fitch tried a species of steam boiler on board a small nine-ton vessel on the Delaware River in America, propelling the vessel by paddles.[6]“In 1787 he built another boat, 45ft. by 12ft., and fitted her with a 12in. cylinder. With this vessel he is reported to have made the trip from Philadelphia to Burlington at an average rate of seven miles per hour. In 1790 he completed another and a larger boat.” But all his plans failed, and, like Hulls, his contemporaries deemed him to be crazy. He died in 1798. [7] About this period (1780 to 1788) there resided in Edinburgh a banker, of aristocratic birth and connection. Patrick Miller, the banker referred to, was a man of an active and ingenious mind, and, having realised a large fortune by banking, he used it as a means of enabling him to work out schemes for the benefit of the public. Having purchased an estate in the beautiful valley of the Nith, from which he derived the title of Laird of Dalswinton, he retired thither to solve the problem of navigating a vessel by some more certain means than oars and sails. He had (prior to this)[8]“exhibited a triple vessel at Leith, having rotatory paddles in the two interspaces, driven by a crank and wrought by four men. He determined one day to try its powers against a fast sailing Customs Wherry, between Inch-colm and the harbour of Leith, a distance of six or seven miles. He beat his opponent by several minutes, and was very well satisfied with the result. His boys’ tutor, a Mr. Taylor, who had taken his turn at the crank, and realised how violent was the necessary exertion, was convinced that without a more staying power than manual labour the invention would prove practically useless. He stated his objections to Mr. Miller, and they had frequent discussions on the subject. At length, one day, Taylor said ‘Mr. Miller, I can suggest no power equal to the steam engine, or so applicable to your purpose.’ The result of this suggestion was that Mr. Miller decided to fit up a new double boat, which he had recently placed on the lake at Dalswinton for the amusement of his family. Taylor made the necessary arrangements under the direction of an ingenious mechanic named William Symington. The engine was a very small one, having four-inch brass cylinders, made by George Watt, brassfounder, Edinburgh. On the 14th October, 1788, several hundreds of people assembled on the banks of Dalswinton Loch to witness the trial trip of the twin steamboat, which was entirely successful. Mr. Miller was so pleased with the success of the experiment that he resolved to repeat it on a larger scale. The following year he fitted a twin vessel 60 feet long, belonging to himself, with an engine of 18in. cylinders. This vessel steamed at the rate of seven miles an hour on the Forth and Clyde Canal, in the presence of a vast multitude of spectators. It had been Mr. Miller’s wish to try a third experiment with a third vessel, in which he should venture out on to the ocean, and attempt a passage from Leith to London. Unfortunately, he became dissatisfied with Symington, and, being vexed at the cost of fitting up the second vessel, which was much greater than he anticipated, as well as by a miscalculation, through which the machinery was made too heavy for the hulls, he hesitated to make further trial.”

“Taylor being poor, and a scholar, not a mechanician, could do nothing without Mr. Miller’s assistance. Symington was the only one of the three who persevered. He deserves credit for having done so, but not for the manner in which he did it, for without any communication with Messrs. Miller and Taylor, the true inventors, he took out a patent for the construction of steamboats in 1801. Through the interest of Lord Dundas, he was able, in 1803, to fit up a new steamboat for the Forth and Clyde Canal Co., and this vessel, called the Charlotte Dundas, was tried in towing a couple of barges upon the canal with entire success, except in one respect, which was that the agitation of the water by the paddles was found to wash down the banks in an alarming manner. For this reason the Canal Co. resolved to give up the project, and the vessel was, therefore, laid aside. It lay on the bank at Lock 16 for many years, generally looked on, of course, as a monument of misdirected ingenuity, but, as we shall presently see, it did not lie there altogether in vain. Meantime Symington had been in communication with the Duke of Bridgewater, with the object of introducing steam towage on the Bridgewater Canal, and had actually received a trial order, when, unfortunately, the Duke died, and the project was closed. Here Symington vanishes likewise from the active part of this history. Miller died in 1815, a comparatively poor man, having exhausted his fortune by improvements and experiments. It has been stated by his son that he spent fully £30,000 in projects of a purely public nature. Taylor died in 1824, in straitened circumstances, leaving a widow and daughters, to whom the Government granted a pension of £50 a year.”

“The experiments at Carron, in 1789, had been witnessed by a young man named Henry Bell, a working mason originally, as it appears, afterwards a humble kind of engineer in Glasgow, and later an hotel proprietor at Helensburgh. Bell never lost sight of the idea, and when Symington ceased experimenting in 1803 he took up the project. At the same time an ingenious American, named Fulton, comes into the field. He, in company with Bell, visited the Charlotte Dundas in 1803, and Bell gave to Fulton drawings of the machinery which he (Bell) had obtained, partly from Mr. Miller and partly from Symington.”

FOOTNOTES:

[3] “Chambers’ Journal.”

[4] Hy. Fry, ex Pres. Dominion B/T. Canada and Lloyd’s Agent at Quebec, author of a “History of North Atlantic Steam Navigation.” 1896.

[5] “Chambers’ Journal.”

[6] Hy. Fry.

[7] “Chambers’ Journal.”

[8] “Chambers’ Journal,” 1857.

Chapter II.

Fulton (1807).—The Clermont, the first Passenger Steam-boat in the world.—Narrative of her first Voyage.—Steam Navigation in Canadian Waters.—The first Steamers on the St. Lawrence.—The Accommodation (1809).—Swiftsure and Car of Commerce (1813), and the Quebec (1817).

The United States of America has the honour of having built the first passenger steam-boat in the world, and she held the monopoly of the steamship passenger traffic for a period of about two years. She owes this honourable position in the commercial world to the energy and perseverance of Robert Fulton, who in spite of ridicule and active opposition, and want of capital, succeeded in building, in 1807, a paddle steam-packet, which he named the Clermont. Shortly after her trial trip, she was advertised to run from New York to Albany, and, as soon as she could be got ready, the Clermont sailed on her first voyage up the Hudson.

The following extract from a letter, written by an eyewitness on that occasion, tells how the people along the river were excited by the passage of the steam-boat on her voyage from New York to Albany:—

“It was in the early autumn of the year 1807 that a knot of villagers was gathered on a high bluff, just opposite Poughkeepsie, on the west bank of the Hudson, attracted by the appearance of a strange-looking craft, which was slowly making its way up the river. Some imagined it to be a sea-monster, whilst others did not hesitate to express their belief that it was a sign of the approaching judgment. What seemed strange in the vessel was the substitution of a lofty and strange black smoke-pipe rising from the deck, instead of the gracefully tapered masts that commonly stood on the vessels navigating the stream, and, in place of the spars and rigging, the curious play of the working beam and piston, and the slow turning and splashing of the huge and naked paddle-wheels, met his astonished gaze. The dense clouds of smoke, as they rose wave upon wave, added still more to the wonder of the rustics.

“This strange-looking craft was the Clermont on her trial trip to Albany; and, of the little knot of villagers above mentioned, the writer, then a boy in his eighth year, with his parents, formed a part; and I well remember the scene, one so well-fitted to impress a lasting picture upon the mind of a child accustomed to watch the vessels that passed up and down the river.

“On her return trip, the curiosity she excited was scarcely less intense—the whole country talked of nothing but the sea-monster, belching forth fire and smoke. The fishermen became terrified and rowed homeward, and they saw nothing but destruction devastating their fishing grounds; whilst the wreaths of black vapours, and rushing noise of the paddle-wheels, foaming with the stirred up waters, produced great excitement amongst the boatmen, until it was more intelligent than before; for the character of that curious boat, and the nature of the enterprise she was pioneering had been ascertained.”

Several accidents occurred to the machinery of the Clermont during her first season, but none of them caused any loss of life. There were, however, so many of these mishaps that the incredulous were encouraged in the belief that she was a failure. But the misfortunes of the boat were not limited to accidents to machinery and other legitimate mishaps. They included wilful attempts at her destruction on the part of those who felt that their business was about to be injured by this new system of navigation. Vessels ran foul of her intentionally, and so determined were the sloop owners and others to rid themselves of this dangerous competitor, that it became necessary for the Legislature to interfere. But in spite of all opposition, Fulton forced his way onward and upwards. He replaced his first steamer by a second and larger one, also named the Clermont, and, as the passenger trade developed, other steamers were added to the line.

American capitalists in different parts of the United States followed his example. Steamers were built so rapidly to ply on the American Atlantic Seaboard, and on the Mississippi and other rivers, that in 1823 (that is sixteen years after the first passenger steamer in the world was built) there were 300 steamers plying on American waters.

The St. Lawrence is the chief dividing line between the United States and Canada. It forms the great summer highway for the traffic of British North America. By it the commerce of Europe is brought into the country, and on its bosom is borne outwards the wealth of the forests and the surplus agricultural produce of the Dominion.

On the Canadian side of this great river are situated the two important cities of Quebec and Montreal. Two years (1809) after the building of Fulton’s Clermont, and three years before the first European steamer began to ply on the River Clyde, the steamboat Accommodation ran on the St. Lawrence, maintaining a passenger service between Quebec and Montreal.

The following account of this vessel, and of her first voyage, appeared in the “Quebec Mercury” of that date:—

“On Saturday morning at eight o’clock arrived here from Montreal, being her first trip, the steamboat Accommodation, with ten passengers. This is the first vessel of the kind that ever appeared in this harbour. She is continually crowded with visitants. She left Montreal on Wednesday, at two o’clock, so that her passage was sixty-six hours, thirty of which she was at anchor. She arrived at Three Rivers in twenty-four hours. She has at present berths for twenty passengers, which next year will be considerably augmented. No wind or tide can stop her. She has 75 feet keel, and 85 on deck. The price for a passage up is nine dollars, and eight down—the vessel supplying provisions. The great advantage attending a vessel so constructed is, that a passage may be calculated on to a degree of certainty, in point of time, which cannot be the case with any vessel propelled by sails only. The steamboat receives her impulse from an open double-spoked, perpendicular wheel, on each side, without any circular band or rim. To the end of each double spoke is fixed a square board, which enters the water, and by the rotary motion of the wheel, acts like a paddle. The wheels are put and kept in motion by steam, operating within the vessel. A mast is to be fixed in her for the purpose of using a sail when the wind is favourable, which will occasionally accelerate her headway.”

In 1813 two new steamers were placed on the St. Lawrence, called respectively the Swiftsure and the Car of Commerce, and, after a further interval of four years, a fourth steamer, the Quebec, began to ply between Quebec and Montreal.

The first of these steamers, the Swiftsure, was 140 feet over all, with a beam of 24 feet. On her maiden voyage she made the passage from Montreal to Quebec in twenty-two and a half hours, in the face of a strong easterly wind all the way. Notwithstanding that she “beat the most famous of the sailing packets on the line (fourteen hours in a race of thirty-six hours), her owners do not seem to have been very confident of her movements under all circumstances, or of the number of passengers who would patronise her, for she was advertised to sail ‘as the wind and passengers may suit.’”[9]

FOOTNOTES:

[9] Lindsay’s “Merchant Shipping,” folio 59.

Chapter III.

Steamboats on the River Clyde, the Comet, Industry, Argyle.—On the Thames, the Margery and the Thames.—The first Irish Steamer, the City of Cork.

Without, in the slightest degree, detracting from the credit due to the inventors referred to in the earlier pages of this history, it is indisputable that the River Clyde is the birthplace of European Steam Navigation.

For many years the Charlotte Dundas (a success from an engineering point of view, but a failure commercially), lay idle and corroding at Lock 16 on the Forth and Clyde Canal. She was regarded by the majority of those who saw her there, as a monument of Symington’s folly—the embodiment of a “fad.”

Bell, however, throughout these years, retained his faith in the ultimate success of the Marine Steam Engine. There seemed to be no probability of steam being utilized as a motive power for vessels in British waters, but the Americans were more enterprising, and Fulton, who accompanied Bell to inspect the Charlotte Dundas in 1803, gave the latter to understand that he had influential friends in America, whom he could induce to build steamers. Bell had good reason to consider himself badly treated by Fulton in this matter, yet, undoubtedly, indirectly Bell was benefited by Fulton’s success. It is more than probable that during the five years that succeeded the building of the Clermont, frequent reports regarding both this vessel and her successors in the United States and Canada, reached Scotland. And as a consequence of the success of these boats, Bell succeeded in getting a small steamer built to trade on the River Clyde. The following is a copy of Mr. Bell’s advertisement of the sailing of his steamer:—

“The Comet, between Glasgow, Greenock and Helensburgh, for passengers only. The subscriber having at much expense, fitted up a handsome vessel to ply upon the River Clyde, between Glasgow and Greenock, to sail by the power of wind, air, and steam, he intends that the vessel shall leave the Bromielaw on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, about mid-day or such hour thereafter as may answer from the state of the tide; and to leave Greenock on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, in the morning to suit the tide. The terms are fixed for the present at 4s. for the best cabin, and 3s. for the second; but beyond these rates nothing is to be allowed to servants or any other person employed about the vessel.”

The Comet was a steamer of 25 tons burden, 40 feet long, and 10 feet 6 inches broad, and she steamed about 5 miles per hour.

A correspondent of the “Steamship” (1st January, 1883), relates regarding one Dougal Jamson, a Clyde skipper, of the time of the Comet, that whenever the steamboat passed his slow going sloop, he invariably piped all hands—a man and a boy—and bade them “Kneel down and thank God, that ye sail wi’ the Almichty’s ain win’, an’ no’ wi’ the deevil’s sunfire an’ brimstane, like that spluttery thing there.”

The following year there were three additional steamers constantly plying on the Clyde between Glasgow and Greenock. One of these was probably the steamer (whose name has not been recorded), which came from the Clyde to Liverpool in 1815. The second of this trio was the Industry, whose remains were to be seen more than half a century later at Bowling. And the third was the steamer Argyle, afterwards re-named the Thames.

All these boats were faster than the Comet, and were twice as large, being 75 feet long and 14 feet broad. Against such competitors the Comet could not compete successfully. In his later years Bell received a small annuity from the Clyde Trustees, who, after his decease, erected an obelisk to his memory, which may still be seen standing on a rock a little below Bowling.

For two or three summers Glasgow was the only City in Great Britain or Ireland whose citizens enjoyed the advantages of steam packet communication with the coast. But, in the summer of the year 1815, the citizens of London and of Cork were given equal facilities.

Ireland has always occupied a most honourable position in the Annals of Steam Navigation. Cork had a steamship service certainly as early as Liverpool; the pioneer of the Liverpool coasting steamship trade was a Belfast steamer; from Cork, sailed the first steamer with passengers from Europe to America; the first Trans-Atlantic Liner from Liverpool was a Dublin steamer; and in this year of grace 1903, the steamers built in Belfast, which carry the White Star flag across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, have a reputation unsurpassed by any steamships afloat. But Cork anticipated Belfast in shipbuilding and ship-owning. Messrs. Michael O’Brien and Christopher Owens, of Cork, were the first to introduce steamers to the merchants and travelling public of the South of Ireland. They built, in 1815, the river steamer City of Cork. She was a wooden paddle steamer of 50 tons register; and of slightly larger dimensions than the Clyde-built steamers referred to, being 86 feet long, 13 feet broad, and 9 feet deep.

The steam fleet of the Thames consisted at this date of the three steam-packets Marjory, Defiance and Thames, which steamers plied between London and Margate. The Defiance, probably a locally built vessel, was commanded by William Robins, and sailed from near Summer Quay, Billingsgate, every Sunday and Wednesday morning, at 7 o’clock, returning from Margate every Tuesday and Friday morning.

“The Thames, steam yacht,” (says the London “Times,” of the 8th July, 1815), “from London to Margate, starts from Wool Quay, near the Custom House, Thames Street, every Tuesday and Saturday at 8 o’clock a.m., precisely, and leaves Margate on her return to London every Monday and Thursday at the same hour. This rapid, capacious and splendid vessel lately accomplished a voyage of 1,500 miles, has twice crossed St. George’s Channel, and came round the Land’s End with a rapidity unknown before in naval history, and is the first steam vessel that ever traversed those seas. She has the peculiar advantage of proceeding either by sails or steam, separated or united, by which means the public have the pleasing certainty of never being detained on the water after dark, much less one or two nights, which has frequently occurred with the old packets. Against the wind, the tide, or in the most perfect calm, the passage is alike certain, and has always been achieved in one day. Her cabins are spacious, and are fitted up with all that elegance could suggest, or personal comfort require; presenting a choice library, backgammon boards, draught tables, and other means of amusement. For the express purpose of combining delicacy with comfort a female servant attends upon the ladies. The fares (which include Pier Duty) are in the Chief Cabin 15s., and in the Fore Cabin 11s., children half price. No articles or goods will be taken, except the luggage accompanying passengers; and the proprietors will not be answerable for any of the above, unless delivered into the care of the Steward, nor to the amount of more than £5 value, except entered and paid for as such.”

A narrative of the remarkable voyage of this steamer from the Clyde to the Thames, referred to in the above quotation from the “Times,” will be found in the following chapter.

Chapter IV.

“The Year 1815.”

To the student of British history, the year 1815 is one of the most remarkable of the nineteenth century. In June of that year was fought the Battle of Waterloo—a victory for the British which effectually destroyed the power of the first Napoleon, and delivered Europe from the terror of a military despotism. The merchants of the “good old town” of Liverpool were determined that the famous victory should never be forgotten by their descendants, and so they perpetuated the name in the “Waterloo Road,” the “Waterloo Dock,” and their latest seaside suburb “Waterloo.” Another event occurred in that same eventful month of June, 1815, an event unheralded at the time, but whose results have been more widely spread and more beneficent than those which resulted from the Battle of Waterloo. This was the arrival from the Clyde of the first steamer ever seen on the river Mersey. The following brief and unsatisfactory paragraph appeared in the “Liverpool Mercury” of the 30th June:—

“Liverpool Steamboat.—On Wednesday last, about noon, the public curiosity was considerably excited by the arrival of the first steamboat ever seen in our river. She came from the Clyde, and in her passage called at Ramsay, in the Isle of Man, which place she left early on the same morning. We believe she is intended to ply between this port and Runcorn, or even occasionally as far as Warrington. Her cabin will contain about one hundred passengers.”

This is one of the most tantalising paragraphs ever printed. If “the public curiosity was considerably excited,” the reporter certainly took no pains to gratify it. The name of the vessel is not given, nor any particulars of her dimensions, or of her power and speed. The daring mariners who navigated her are nameless, and the incidents of this pioneer voyage are left unrecorded.

“The evil that men do lives after them,

The good is oft interred with their bones.”

Fortunately we are able, from other sources, to gather some idea of the size and appearance of the vessel, and of the impression she made on the minds of the spectators. She was presumably one of the three steamers built on the Clyde in 1813, as competitors against the Comet, for passengers between Glasgow and Greenock; the other two were the Argyle and the Industry. There was only a difference of five feet between the smallest and the largest of these three steamers, so that a description of the Argyle will answer for the others as well. The Argyle was a packet steamer of 70 tons register, measuring in her keel 79 feet, with 16 feet beam, paddle wheels 9 feet in diameter, and engines 14 h.p. Her smoke was carried off by a funnel, which also did duty as a mast, being rigged with a large square sail. A gallery, upon which the cabin windows opened, projected so as to form a continuous deck, interrupted only by the paddle boxes, an arrangement which had the further effect of making the vessel appear larger than she really was. On the outside of the gallery eighteen large port holes were painted, which, with the two she displayed upon her stern, made the Argyle look so formidable to those to whom a steamer was a novelty, that it was stated in a Committee of the House of Commons, by several naval officers, that if they had met her at sea they would have endeavoured to reconnoitre before attempting to bring her to. After plying for twelve months between Glasgow and Greenock, the Argyle was sold to a London firm, who changed her name to the Thames. In consequence of this change of ownership, this vessel made one of the most remarkable voyages ever accomplished by any steamer. An interesting narrative of the voyage, from which these particulars are taken, was published in “Chambers’ Journal” on the 25th April, 1857.

The task of bringing the little steam-packet round by sea from the Clyde to the Thames, was intrusted to an ex-naval officer named Dodd, a man of considerable and diverse abilities. He projected the Thames tunnel, proposing to carry it across from Gravesend to Tilbury, at an estimated cost of under £16,000. According to an account of the voyage which Dodd himself published in the “Morning Chronicle” of the 15th June, 1815, and afterwards embodied in his evidence before a Committee of the House of Commons, Dodd sailed from Glasgow about the middle of May with a crew of eight persons—a mate, an engineer, a stoker, four seamen, and a cabin-boy. His voyage at first was far from auspicious. The weather was stormy, the sea ran high in the strait which separates Scotland from Ireland, and either through ignorance or negligence, the pilot during the night altered the course of the vessel, so that it ran a great risk of being wrecked. Dodd had given orders that the steamer should be steered so as to gain the Irish coast by the morning; but at break of day a heavy gale was blowing, and it was discovered that, instead of being off the coast of Ireland, they were within half-a-league off a lee shore, rock bound, about two miles to the north of Port Patrick. Relying entirely upon the efficiency of his engine, Dodd at once laid the vessel’s head directly to windward, and ordered the log to be kept constantly going. The plan succeeded. The Thames began slowly to clear the shore, going direct in the wind’s eye at the rate of something more than three knots an hour. On the 24th of May the voyagers arrived safely at Dublin, where they were joined by a Mr. Weld and his wife. Mrs. Weld has the proud distinction of having been the first lady passenger to cross the St. George’s Channel on a steamboat. Mr. Weld kept a journal, from which the following is an extract:—

[10]“On the 25th May, 1815, I heard by accident that a steam-vessel had arrived at Dublin. I immediately went to see her, and found her on the point of starting with a number of curious visitors upon an experimental trip in the bay. I was so much pleased with all that I saw and heard concerning her, that, having previously intended to proceed to London, I determined to request Captain Dodd to receive me as a passenger, and to be permitted to accompany him throughout the voyage. He at once consented, and my wife having resolved on sharing the dangers of the voyage with me, we proceeded to make the necessary arrangements for our departure. On the 28th of May, being Sunday, we left the Liffey at noon. Many persons embarked with us from curiosity, but only to cross the bay as far as Dunleary (now Kingstown), where they landed. Unfortunately, the sea was very rough, which occasioned the most violent sea-sickness amongst the passengers. Several naval officers were on board, who were unanimous in declaring it to be their firm opinion that the vessel could not live long in heavy seas, and that there would be much danger in venturing far from shore. I deemed it right to inform my wife of this opinion, but, although she suffered greatly from sea-sickness, she persisted in her intention of accompanying me, and that evening, after having passed some hours on land at the house of a friend, the vessel put to sea, we being the only passengers. The shore was covered with several thousands of spectators, who cheered and wished us a prosperous voyage.

“The sea was comparatively calm as the vessel steamed into the Bay of Dalkey, and the passengers calculated on a pleasant voyage during the night, but, when beyond the shelter of the coast, they found it to be as rough as ever. The Thames again proved her admirable sea-going qualities, bounding so lightly over the waves that her passengers were not once wetted, even by the spray.”

She soon left behind her all the vessels which had sailed from Dublin with the same tide, and about nine o’clock next morning arrived off Wexford. The dense smoke which issued from its mast chimney being observed from the heights above the town, it was concluded that the vessel was on fire. All the pilots immediately put off to its assistance; and nothing could exceed their surprise, mingled with disappointment, when they saw that the ship was in no danger whatever, and that their hopes of salvage were at an end.

The weather had now become so stormy, that Captain Dodd determined to put into port, his great object being to navigate the vessel safely to London, rather than, by using great dispatch, to expose her to unnecessary risk.

At two o’clock on Tuesday morning, 30th May, Dodd left Wexford and sailed for St. David’s Head, the most westerly point of Wales. During the passage across St. George’s Channel one of the blades of the starboard paddle wheel got out of order. The engine was stopped and the blade cut away. Some hours after a similar accident befell the port wheel, which was remedied in the same manner. The loss of one blade in each wheel made no apparent difference in the speed of the vessel. Fortunately when the accidents occurred the sea was very calm. After a voyage of twelve hours duration, the steamer arrived at the Pass of Ramsay, between the island of that name and St. David’s Head. There the adventurers remained for three hours to oil the engine, and to give the stoker, who had not quitted his post for an instant since leaving Wexford, a little rest. There, too, as at Wexford, boats put out from different parts of the coast to the assistance of the vessel, which they believed to be on fire. Leaving Ramsay, the Thames steamed through the straits and across St. Bride’s Bay. The weather had again become unfavourable, and a heavy sea had arisen in the bay. So high indeed were the waves, that, when ingulphed between them, the coast, though lofty, could not be seen; but the little craft held her way most gallantly over all.

On the south side of St. Bride’s Bay, between Skomar Island and the mainland, there is a dangerous passage called Jack Sound. The pilot warned the captain against attempting this passage, except under favourable conditions as to wind and water, but Dodd, who knew the power of his engine, insisted on going through the sound, in order to save five hours, and to avoid another night at sea. The dangerous sound was safely navigated, and the voyagers reached Milford Haven. As they were steaming up the harbour, they met the Government mail packet proceeding from Milford to Waterford, with all her sails spread. They had passed her about a quarter of a mile, when Captain Dodd determined to send some letters by her to Ireland. The Thames was immediately put about, and in a few minutes she was alongside the packet ship, and sailed round her, although the latter continued under way. The captain and passengers wrote a few letters, put them on board the packet, sailed round her once more, and then continued their course to Milford.

The two following days were spent in satisfying the curiosity of numerous naval officers who were anxious to see the Thames, and to examine her engine, as well as to test her sailing powers. It became necessary also to clean out the boiler, which had not been done since leaving Glasgow. Late on the evening of the 31st May, she sailed in company with the Myrtle, sloop-of-war, whose captain (Bingham) and a company of ladies were aboard the steamer, anxious to see how she would behave in a rough sea. The Myrtle was obliged to hoist royals and studding sails to keep up with the Thames, and at last by crowding all sail, she got a little ahead. But the great superiority of steam was yet to be shown. Dodd gallantly determined to carry the ladies back to Milford, instead of transferring them to the Myrtle in an open boat. Accordingly he steamed back to Milford, leaving the sloop of war far behind, and when he was again outward bound, he found the sloop had anchored, being unable owing to the failure of the wind to regain her former station. Next morning (Friday) the voyagers found themselves mid-way across the Bristol Channel, with no land visible on either side, but towards evening the Cornish coast was sighted. The weather, however, had again become threatening, and the pilot did not consider it would be prudent to attempt to round the Land’s End that night, and Dodd accordingly decided to put into St. Ives. As the Thames approached the shore, a fleet of small craft was seen making towards her, with all possible speed by means of sails and oars, in the belief (as at Wexford) that the Thames was a ship on fire making for the port. When they discovered their mistake they tacked about and endeavoured to out-sail each other. All the rocks from which a view of St. Ives could be obtained were crowded with spectators, to whom the appearance of the Thames created as much surprise as the ships of Captain Cook produced amongst the islanders of the South Sea. The harbour of St. Ives affording no shelter from gales from the North East, Dodd took his vessel to the sheltered port of Hayle, four miles distant, where she lay in perfect safety. It had been represented to Mr. and Mrs. Weld that rounding the Land’s End was the most difficult and dangerous part of the voyage, and they had in consequence crossed the neck of land to the South coast with the intention of remaining there until the steamer arrived. On further consideration, however, they resolved, instead of waiting for the Thames, to return to Hayle, and to brave with the steamer’s crew the dangers of doubling the Land’s End. The weather having moderated they re-embarked at 4 o’clock on Monday afternoon, 5th June, and the steamer at once proceeded on her voyage.

As the little vessel rounded Cornwall Head, the more northerly of the two great promontories which terminate England on the west, a tremendous swell from the Atlantic met her, whilst the tide, which ran strongly down St. George’s Channel, combining with the swell, raised the waves to such a height as to render her position in the highest degree alarming. Dodd would not put back, and after a night of severe struggle, the adventurers succeeded in rounding the Land’s End, and found themselves in a comparatively tranquil sea. Next day the sun shone with great brilliance, and revealed the beauties of the South Coast as they steamed along it towards Plymouth, which they reached at eleven o’clock in the morning. As the Thames passed the various ships at anchor, the sailors on board ran in crowds to the sides of their vessels or climbed the rigging for a better view. The harbour-master, who had never seen a steam vessel before, was as much excited when he boarded the Thames as a child is in getting possession of a new plaything.

The whole of the following day (Wednesday) was occupied in showing the capabilities of the steamer to the Port-Admiral and to the naval officers who went on board.

The Thames left Plymouth at noon on Thursday for Portsmouth, where she arrived at 11 o’clock on Friday morning, having steamed 155 miles in twenty-three hours. At Portsmouth she created a greater sensation than at any of the ports she had visited. Tens of thousands of spectators assembled to gaze at her; and the number of vessels that crowded around her was so great, that it became necessary to request the Port-Admiral to assign the voyagers a guard, in order to preserve some degree of order. The Thames steamed into the harbour in the most brilliant style, travelling with the aid of wind and tide at the rate of between twelve and fourteen knots an hour. A court-martial was sitting at the time on board the Gladiator frigate, but the novelty of the steam-boat presented an irresistible attraction, and the whole court went off to her (except the president). At an early hour next morning (Saturday), the Port-Admiral, Sir Edward Thornborough, sent his band and a guard of marines on board, and soon afterwards followed in person, accompanied by three admirals, eighteen post-captains, and a large number of ladies. The morning was spent very pleasantly in steaming amongst the fleet, and running over to the Isle of Wight. The Admiral, and all the naval officers, expressed themselves delighted with the Thames.

From Portsmouth the steamer proceeded to Margate, which was reached on Sunday morning. She remained at Margate until the following day, when she started on the final portion of her voyage at half-past eight in the morning, and reached her destination (Limehouse), about six o’clock the same evening, having accomplished the ninety miles run from Margate in about nine hours. The Thames carried fifteen tons of coal, her consumption being, on the average, a ton for every hundred miles. So ended this memorable voyage, practically the first ever attempted by a steamboat on the open sea.

Dodd’s after career was a most melancholy one. Talented, enterprising and courageous though he undoubtedly was, yet he never succeeded in his enterprises. And in his later years, instead of seeking that divine help which would have enabled him to meet his disappointments with fortitude, he sought to forget them in intemperance, and almost literally died a beggar in the streets.

FOOTNOTES:

[10] “Chambers’ Journal,” 25th April, 1857.

Chapter V.

1816 to 1818.—Rivals to the Thames, the Defiance (1815), Majestic and Regent (1816).—Loss of the Regent (1817).—Liverpool Steam-boats: the Runcorn Packet, the Princess Charlotte, Liverpool to Eastham (1816). Regulator and Etna, Liverpool to Tranmere (1817).—Parkgate to Bagillt, N.W., the Ancient Briton (1817).—First Spanish Steamer, Royal Ferdinand (1817).—Siberian Steam-boats (1817).—Loss of the Regulator (1818).—David Napier.—Greenock and Belfast Steamer, Rob Roy.—First Steamer between England and Ireland, the Hibernia (1816).

The successful voyage from the Clyde to the Thames achieved by Captain Dodd, and the less-known one by the Runcorn Packet from the Clyde to the Mersey, gave a great impetus to steam-packet building, and created active opposition, especially on the London and Margate service. The Thames, after being refitted, opened the service in July, 1815. She had a monopoly of the station for about three months, when the Defiance was put on in opposition. The following year saw the Majestic placed on the River Thames, and this vessel was probably the first steamer employed in towing ships. She towed, on Wednesday, 28th August, 1816, the large Indiaman, the Hope, from Deptford to Woolwich at the rate of three miles per hour against the wind.

On the 29th June of the same year, a new steamboat, named the Regent, was tried on the Thames. She was built under the supervision of the eminent engineer Brunel, by Maudsley (founder of the famous engineering firm of Maudsley and Field). Her burden was 112 tons, and she was propelled by engines of 24 horse power. On her trial trip she steamed from Blackfriars Bridge to Battersea Bridge in 30 minutes, and back through London Bridge in 52 minutes. Her machinery was remarkably light. Her engines, paddle-wheels, and all connections necessary to give and convey the motive power, weighing only five tons. The Regent had a very short existence. On the 2nd July, 1817, she left London for Margate, with between 40 and 50 passengers on board. Although it was blowing a gale, all went well until the vessel arrived off Whitstable, about 18 miles from Margate. The Regent was keeping well out in mid-channel, and was about three miles from land, when she was discovered to be on fire amidships. The force of the wind had carried away the funnel, and the wood-work at the bottom of the funnel (nearly breast high from the deck for the protection of the passengers), caught fire. The vessel’s life-saving equipment consisted of one small boat, barely sufficient to accommodate her crew; and the only available means of extinguishing the fire was by hand buckets, dipped overside. To add to the alarm of the passengers, the buckets one after the other were either broken against the side of the steamer, or carried away by the turbulent waves. The passengers bore themselves bravely, as Britons should in the face of danger, and did not give way to panic. Perfect discipline appears to have been maintained amongst the crew. Seeing that he had no means of keeping the fire under, the Captain collected all the passengers forward and headed the Regent for the nearest shore with the intention of beaching her. This he succeeded in doing without the loss of a single life, but the vessel herself was almost totally destroyed.

On the Mersey, also, progress had been made since the arrival of the first steamer, the Packet, to and from Runcorn.

In July, 1816, the steam-packet Princess Charlotte commenced the Liverpool and Eastham service, and continued to sail twice each way daily. The fare charged to Eastham and back was 1s. At Eastham the steamer connected with coaches to and from Chester, Shrewsbury, Holyhead, and many other places.

The Liverpool and Tranmere Steam Ferry was opened by the steam-packet “Etna” sailing from the West-side Queen’s Dock. She was shortly afterwards opposed by the steam-packet Regulator, running in connection with coaches from Tranmere to Parkgate, thence by steam-packet Ancient Briton to Bagillt, North Wales. During a gale on Monday, 12th January, 1818, the Regulator was sunk near the Liverpool Pierhead, but all on board were rescued.

Meantime other continental nations were awakening to the advantages of steam navigation.

On the 30th May, 1817, there was launched at Seville the Royal Ferdinand, the first steamer built in Spain. And, about the same date, Mr. Wesewelodsky, a man of great wealth, and owner of several rich mines in Siberia, built two steamers for navigating the River Kama. These vessels were 51 feet and 100 feet long, respectively. Mr. Wesewelodsky travelled with his steamers from his mines to Casan, a distance of 1,000 versts, and accomplished the voyage in 105 hours.

[11]“England owes to David Napier the establishment of deep-sea communication by steam-vessels, and of Post Office steam-packets. As a first step, he endeavoured to ascertain the difficulties to be encountered. For this purpose he took passage at a stormy period of the year on a sailing packet, which formed one of a line, and the only means of intercourse between Glasgow and Belfast; a passage which often required seven days to accomplish what is now done by steam in as many hours. The captain of the packet found a young man, whom he afterwards knew as Mr. Napier, during one of his winter passages to Belfast, constantly perched on the bow of the vessel, fixing an intent gaze on the sea when it broke on the side of the ship, quite heedless of the waves and spray that washed over him. He only ceased from this occupation at intervals, as the breeze freshened, to ask the captain whether the sea was such that it might be considered a rough one, and, when told that it was by no means unusually rough, he returned to the bow of the vessel and resumed his study of the waves breaking at her stem. When the breeze began to freshen into a gale, and the sea to rise considerably, he again enquired of the captain whether the sea might now be considered a rough one, and was told that as yet it could not be called very rough. Disappointed, he returned again to his station at the bow, and resumed his employment. At last he was favoured with a storm to his contentment, and when the seas, breaking over the vessel, swept her from stem to stern, he found his way back to the captain and repeated his enquiry, ‘Do you call it rough now?’ The captain replied he could not remember having faced a worse night in the whole of his experience, a reply which delighted young Napier, who muttering, as he turned away, ‘I think I can manage if that is all,’ went down to his cabin. Napier saw then the end of his difficulties, and soon satisfied himself as to the means of overcoming them. His next enquiry was as to the means of getting through the water with least resistance. To determine this, he commenced a series of experiments with models of vessels in a small tank of water, and soon found that the round full bluff bow adopted for sailing vessels was quite unsuited for speed with mechanical propulsion of a different nature. This led him to adopt the fine wedge-like bows by which the vessels built under his superintendence were afterwards so distinguished.”

Napier established regular steam-packet communication between Greenock and Belfast by means of the Rob Roy, a vessel of 90 tons burden and 30 horse power. After plying for two years between these ports with great regularity and success, the Rob Roy was transferred to the English Channel as a packet between Dover and Calais. Cross-channel steamboats between England and Ireland were first introduced in 1816, when the steam-packet Hibernia was built by a company to carry passengers between Holyhead and Howth. The Hibernia was 112 tons burden, 77 feet keel measurement, and 9 feet draft. She was lugger rigged, and capable of making the passage by sails only. Her average passage, Holyhead to Howth, was about seven hours, and her passengers frequently had the satisfaction of arriving in Dublin considerably in advance of the Mail packets.

FOOTNOTES:

[11] “History of Steam Navigation,” Adm. Prebble, U.S.N.

Chapter VI.

Early Clyde Steam-packets.—Season Tickets issued, 1816.—First steamer to cross the English Channel.—Dumbarton Castle steams round North of Scotland, 1819.—First serious Accident to a Steam-packet.—Clyde Passenger Fares, 1818.

Many circumstances combined to make the Clyde the birthplace and the home of the Marine Steam Engine. Coal and iron mines were in close proximity, and skilled labour for the construction of engines and of ships was abundant. The beautiful Firth, with its numerous lochs and islands, constituted an ideal locality for the employment of steamboats while yet the art of steamship building was in its infancy. And on the shores of the River, or within easy distance of it, dwelt a large industrial population, eager to take advantage of the facilities for travel which steamboats afforded.

Under these circumstances it is not surprising that steam-packets on the Clyde increased with marvellous rapidity. In 1812 the Comet first began to ply between Glasgow, Greenock and Helensburgh, and she was, in fact, the only steamboat then sailing on British waters. Three years later (in 1815) a fleet of seven steamers, viz., the Glasgow, Britannia, Dumbarton Castle, Caledonia, Argyle, Prince of Orange, and Princess Charlotte, sailed regularly from Glasgow to Largs, Ardrossan, Troon and Ayr, southwards; and Rothesay, Tarbert, Lochgilphead and Inverary, westwards. No agents’ names are given in any of the press advertisements of this or previous years, but the sailings were advertised on boards placed outside the agent’s counting houses, and exhibited in taverns and other places of public resort. In 1816 and subsequent years the owners’ or agents’ names are appended to the press notices of the various steam-packets.

Early type of African Coasting Steamer.

In May of the year named, the steamboats Britannia and (new) Waterloo were advertised to sail between Glasgow and all the watering places on both sides of the Clyde.

“Families wishing to agree for the season may know particulars by applying to Mr. Lewis MacLellan, Gallowgate, Mr. Wm. Smith, Bromielaw, and the Masters on board.”

These small steamers were the pioneers of the magnificent fleet of Channel steamships, sailing from Glasgow, and known as the “Laird Line.” A grandson of the Mr. Lewis MacLellan here referred to, and a nephew, are still (1903) connected with the Company as directors. The steamer Albion was advertised in the same paper in similar terms, and on the 9th July following the agents of nine steam-packets sailing from Glasgow, gave notice that the issue of season tickets was discontinued for the remainder of the season.

Hence it appears that the issue of season contract tickets, popularly supposed to be a modern institution of the railway companies, is found to be a common practice amongst the steamship owners of Glasgow more than three-quarters of a century ago.

Mr. W. S. Lindsay, in his admirable book “The History of Merchant Shipping from 1816 to 1874,” quotes Mr. Muirhead’s “Life of Watt,” as stating that “In April, 1817, Mr. James Watt, Jun., purchased the Caledonia, and having re-fitted her, took her in October to Holland and up the Rhine to Coblentz; having thus been the first to cross the English Channel in a steamboat. The average speed he obtained was seven and a half knots an hour.”

Either Mr. Muirhead was in error in the dates given, or he was wrong in assuming that the Caledonia was the first steamer to cross the English Channel. A correspondent of the “Glasgow Chronicle,” in a letter to that Journal, dated Cologne, 16th June, 1816 (i.e., sixteen months prior to the date mentioned by Mr. Muirhead as the date on which the Caledonia crossed the Channel), says:—

“To-day, about noon, we enjoyed a sight equally novel and entertaining, a pretty large vessel without a mast ascending the Rhine, and proceeding with astonishing rapidity, arrive before this city. All the vessels stationed on the Rhine in this neighbourhood were in a moment covered with spectators, to see the arrival of this vessel, which is a steamboat coming from London, and bound for Frankfort. Everybody was eager to view the progress, the motion, the organisation of this masterpiece of art. The vessel left Rotterdam on the 6th inst. The passengers affirm that it can go 25 leagues in a day.”

The Dumbarton Castle (Captain Thomson) was advertised to take passengers for a trip from Glasgow round Ailsa Craig on the 7th August, 1816. She was the first British steamboat (the Thames excepted) to take passengers on a deep sea trip, and she was also the first steamer to sail round the North of Scotland, which she did in 1819, in consequence of being sold for employment between Leith and Grangemouth.

The first serious accident to a Clyde steamboat of which there is any record, occurred in the early part of the year 1816. The new steam-packet Rothesay Castle, while entering the harbour of Tarbert on her return voyage from Inverary, struck on a reef of sunken rocks. All her passengers were rescued by fishing boats, which also landed the luggage. One of the fishing boats was also despatched to request the Master of the Argyle (which was to leave Inverary four hours later than the Rothesay Castle) to call at Tarbert. This was accordingly done and the shipwrecked passengers were taken on to Rothesay and Greenock the same evening. The steamer was subsequently got off the rocks and taken to Port Glasgow for repairs.

It may interest citizens of Glasgow and dwellers on the coast to compare, by means of the following table, the steamship Passenger Fares of 1818 with those of the present day.

[C] = Cabin
[S] = Steerage

Young persons 8 to 14 years of age—half-price. Below eight years of age at
the discretion of the Master.

These rates were fixed by a Conference consisting of the proprietors of the following steamboats:—Albion, Argyle, Britannia, Clyde, Defiance, Duke of Wellington, Dumbarton Castle, Glasgow, Margaret, Marquis of Bute, Neptune, Prince of Orange, Rothesay Castle, and Waterloo, who agreed that the Fares taken from passengers travelling by any of the boats named should be according to the above table, and that no engagements should be entered into with families or individuals at rates below these fares. Passengers were allowed 28 lbs. of luggage free, excess luggage was charged at the rate of 10d. per cwt. from Glasgow to Greenock, and proportionately for any further distance.

Chapter VII.

1819 to 1821.—The Savannah the first steamer to cross the Atlantic.—Arrival at Liverpool of the Waterloo, the first Irish Channel steamer.—Sailing of the Robert Bruce, the first steamer trading between Liverpool and the Clyde.—Curious Accident to the steamer Morning Star.—The Triton.—The Conde De Patmella, first European steamer to cross the Atlantic.—Cattle Ventilators suggested.—The Tourist.—Steamers between London and Leith.

Prior to the introduction of marine steam engines, the United States of America had no inconsiderable share of the world’s ocean traffic. No swifter ships raced with cargoes of tea from China to the Thames than the famous Baltimore clippers. No finer vessels crossed the Atlantic than the celebrated New York Packet Liners. It cannot be supposed that a people so enterprising as the Americans would make no attempt at ocean steam navigation. On the contrary, as they were the first to build a coasting passenger steamer, so were they the first to build a steamer to cross the Atlantic.

During the latter part of the year 1818, and the beginning of 1819, there was, in process of building at New York, a beautiful little ship of about 320 tons burden. Whilst on the stocks it was suggested to convert her into a steamer, which was accordingly done. After she was launched, the Savannah, that being the name given to her, sailed from New York to Savannah, and thence, about the 25th May, 1819, she sailed to Liverpool, en route to St. Petersburg. It was reported at the time that she was a present from the Americans to the Emperor of Russia. Although she did not steam the whole of the voyage from Savannah to Liverpool, which occupied twenty-six days, she was the first steamer that ever attempted to cross the Atlantic. British and Canadian authors have contended that she was not entitled to this honour, as her steam power was merely auxiliary, but the contention is somewhat ungenerous, and, if allowed, would debar later vessels, notably the Sarah Sands and the Great Britain, from claiming the title of steamships. The Savannah reached Liverpool on Sunday, 20th June, 1819, after a voyage of twenty-six days duration. Shortly after leaving Savannah it began to blow hard, and the following entry appears in the Captain’s log book:

“Stopped the engines, and brought the paddle-wheels
in-board in thirty minutes.”

When off the Irish coast, the coastguard, seeing a huge volume of smoke proceeding from a ship at sea, reported it to be a vessel on fire. A Government cutter from Cork put out to render assistance, and were much surprised on boarding her to learn that she required no assistance, except a Channel pilot, and that she had come from America. Her arrival at Liverpool was witnessed by great crowds of people, who had assembled to watch her entering the Mersey. After her visit to St. Petersburg she re-crossed the Atlantic, her engines were taken out of her, and, as a sailing packet, she traded between New York and Savannah, until she was wrecked off Long Island.

A month later, or to be exact, on the 22nd July, 1819, the first cross-channel steamer that ever entered the port, arrived at Liverpool from Belfast, after a passage of twenty-four hours. This steamer was the Waterloo, owned by Messrs. Langtry, of Belfast, who were also the owners of a fleet of smacks which traded regularly between the two ports. The Waterloo was a schooner-rigged paddle-steamer of 201 tons burthen, propelled by a pair of low-pressure engines of 80 h.p. each. Her length was 98 feet, and her breadth on deck was 37 feet. She had a dining room capable of accommodating all the cabin passengers at one sitting, a separate and neatly decorated cabin for ladies, and two staterooms for families. She carried sleeping accommodation for 22 cabin passengers, in addition to steerage passengers. The fares charged for a single passage between Liverpool and Belfast were, cabin £1 11s. 6d., steerage 10s. 6d. The Waterloo made two round voyages per week during the season, sailing from Liverpool every Monday and Friday. She was intended to carry passengers only (the cargo trade being maintained by the smacks), and cost her owners nearly £10,000.

On the 29th July of the same year, the first steamer that traded between Liverpool and Glasgow was advertised in the following terms:—

“Safe and Expeditious Travelling between Liverpool
and Glasgow.
The elegant new Steam-Packet Boat,
Robert Bruce,
Captain John Patterson,

will sail for Glasgow on Monday, 2nd August, at Seven o’clock in the morning, from George’s Dock, Pierhead. The accommodations for passengers are most excellent, and she is expected to perform the passage within 30 hours.

“The Fares in the Cabin, 40s.; Steerage, 21s. Passengers will be accommodated with Provisions on moderate terms. For passage apply to Captain Patterson, or to

John Richardson.”

From this date (1819) the expansion of the British steam coasting trade was most rapid. Within a very short time regular services were advertised between Liverpool and Isle of Man, Whitehaven, Dumfries, the Clyde Ports, Belfast and Dublin. Nor were these pioneers of the steam trade permitted to be monopolists of their respective stations. Frequently two, and in some cases three companies advertised steamers sailing for the same ports, of which some account will be found in the succeeding chapters of this volume.

An extraordinary accident is reported by the “Berwick Advertiser” (September, 1819), as having occurred to one of the local steam-packets. The Morning Star, while on her usual passage from Alloa to Leith, suddenly stopped. On investigation it was discovered that a salmon had entered and completely obstructed the condensing water pipes, and thus stopped the machinery.

In the fall of the following year (1820) steam communication between the Ports of London and Hull was projected.

Across the Channel the steam-packet Triton, built at Bordeaux, maintained a passenger service, three times each way per week, between Havre and Rouen. The passage occupied about nine hours, and the fares charged were 8s. first class, and 4s. second class.

On the 5th October, 1820, the steamer Conde De Patmella, Captain Silva, sailed from Liverpool for the Brazils. She made a remarkably rapid passage to Lisbon, arriving there in four days. This is probably the first steamer that ever crossed the Atlantic Ocean from Europe.

Perhaps one of the most remarkable steamers ever launched was a small steamboat, named the Snake, built at Bombay, and launched in 1820. She was the first steamer on the Indus or on any river in India. Her engines were designed and built by a Parsee, and were the first ever manufactured in India. How well they were constructed is evidenced by their lasting power. After a notable career of 60 years, she was broken up in 1880.

Above the initials “W. P.,” a correspondent of the “Liverpool Mercury,” in a letter dated 25th October, 1820, suggests the use of iron ventilators, to supply fresh air to the holds of steamers carrying cattle across the Channel, for, of course, at that date, steamers to carry cattle across the ocean were unthought of. He describes the ventilators suggested as “iron funnels with movable vane tops, which could be constructed by any mechanic at a cost of about £3 10s. each.”

In the spring of 1821, a new steamboat, named the Tourist, was launched at Perth. When launched she was the largest steamer in the United Kingdom, being 128 feet long by 40 feet broad. She was rigged as a three-masted schooner, with a clipper bow and bowsprit, and was propelled by two engines of 40 h.p. each. She was intended (as her name implies) for the passenger trade between Leith and the Northern Ports of Scotland, and her owners claimed that communication between the ports named “will thus be effected in one-third less time, and for one-sixth of the expense incurred by the present mode of travelling.” After running for a short time in the Leith and North of Scotland trade, she was placed on the station between Newhaven and London, on behalf of the London and Edinburgh Steampacket Co.

In May of the same year two steam vessels of upwards of 400 tons burden each, were built for the Leith and London passenger service. These steamers were not intended to carry cargo, but they had sleeping accommodation for one hundred passengers. They were propelled by engines of 100 h.p., and were expected to make the passage in about sixty hours.

Chapter VIII.

St. George Steam-Packet Co. incorporated, 1822.—Swift passage of the Hero, steam yacht.—Liverpool owned steamers highly commended in Parliamentary Report, 1822.—Aaron Manby, iron steamer.—First steamer between Hull and the Continent, 1823.—City of Dublin Steam-Packet Co. founded, 1823.—H.M.S. Lightning.—General Steam-Packet Co. and the Belfast Steam-Packet Co. established, 1824.—Keen competition, Glasgow and Belfast service, 1825.—Advertising extraordinary.—G. & J. Burns commence business, 1825, as steamship owners.—Competition on the Liverpool and Dublin station.—First steamer from the Thames to Hamburg.—The Enterprize sails for Calcutta.—Rapid growth of Steam Navigation.—Sailing ship owners petition Parliament, 1826.—The Erin.—Liverpool and Kingstown Royal Mail Service.—City of Dublin Steam Packet Co. establish a Passenger Service between England, Ireland and France, 1827.

The year 1822, witnessed the first operations of what was destined to become one of the most famous of the early Steam-Packet Companies. Projected the previous year, the St. George Steam-Packet Company immediately contracted with Mr. Thomas Wilson, of Liverpool, for two large and powerful steamers, the St. Patrick and the St. George. The former was intended to trade between Dublin and Liverpool, and Dublin and the Bristol Channel; and the latter between Liverpool, the Isle of Man, and the River Clyde, Mr. Alex. A. Laird, the founder of the well-known firm of Alex. A. Laird & Co., being the agent at Greenock. The St. Patrick was launched at 10-30 a.m. on the 21st April, 1822. This event excited great interest in the town of Liverpool, as she was, if not the first steamer ever built in the port, certainly the finest specimen of the ship-building craft produced there up to that date. Her sister ship, the St. George, launched the following day, rapidly won for herself a reputation for comfort and speed. After running about six months she made a voyage from Dublin to Liverpool in 11½ hours, the shortest time on record. Eighteen months later she made a passage from Liverpool to Dublin in 10 hours 40 minutes, beating her previous record by 50 minutes. The third steamer was the Prince Llewellyn, to ply between Liverpool, Beaumaris, Bangor, and Carnarvon. The St. George Steam-Packet Co. continued until 1844, when it was re-constructed, the Cork Steamship Co. taking over its various services and seven of its steamers.

Mr. David MacBrayne’s Steamer, Inverary Castle. See Paragraph page [43].

The steam-yacht Hero is credited with a phenomenal speedy voyage on the 26th July, 1822. She is reported to have steamed from London to Margate in 6½ hours, being at the rate of 14 miles an hour.

A report relative to steam navigation was laid before the House of Commons (August, 1822). All the steam-packets belonging to Liverpool were named in a manner highly honourable to their owners, commanders and constructors.

“On Thursday, 9th May, 1822, a large party of distinguished naval officers, engineers, &c., embarked at Parliament Stairs, London, on board the Aaron Manby, iron steamboat, which immediately got under weigh and proceeded to Battersea Bridge; she then descended to Blackfriars, and manœuvred for several hours between the two bridges in a very superior style. This steamboat was built at the Horsley Iron Works, near Birmingham, by Mr. Manby, and put together at Rotherhithe. She is the most complete specimen of workmanship in the iron way that has ever been witnessed, and draws one foot less water than any steamboat that has ever been built. She is 106 feet long and 17 feet broad, and is propelled by a 30 h.p. engine and Oldham’s revolving bars. This boat will leave London in a few days for Paris, the first instance of a direct communication between the capitals of France and England. Amongst the gentlemen present were Admirals Sir William Hope, Sir Pulteny Malcomb and Sir James Wood Gage; Captains Dundas and Napier; Mr. Manby, the inventor; Mr. Williams, the patentee of the revolving bars, &c.”—“London Courier,” 15th May, 1822.

On or about the 24th March, 1823, the steam-packet Yorkshireman arrived at Hull from Antwerp, and was only 31 hours on the passage. This vessel is noteworthy as being the first steam vessel to sail from Hull to the Continent.

In the month of February of this year (1823) Mr. C. W. Williams, of Dublin, placed an order with Mr. Wilson, of Liverpool, for the pioneer steamer of the future famous City of Dublin Steam-Packet Company, the City of Dublin, a vessel of 130 h.p. It was an express stipulation with the builder, that this steamer should be constructed of such materials, and in such a manner, as to withstand the severity of the winter navigation. The City of Dublin differed from her competitors in two respects, (1) in carrying general cargo in addition to live stock and passengers, and (2) in maintaining the service uninterruptedly throughout the twelve months.

A month later, Mr. Wilson was again applied to, to build a second vessel for the company, but in consequence of his having that very morning (5th March, 1823) contracted to build the steam-packet Henry Bell for the Liverpool and Glasgow trade, it was not till some days later the contract was signed for building the Town of Liverpool, to be commenced as soon as the Henry Bell was launched.

The City of Dublin sailed from Dublin on her maiden voyage to Liverpool on Saturday, the 20th March, 1824. She anticipated, by about six months, the operations of the Dublin and Liverpool Steam Navigation Co., whose first steamer, the Liffey, 305 tons burthen, and 110 h.p., did not sail until the 13th September following. In December of the same year (1824) the Mersey joined the Liffey, and in the July following the Commerce was added to the Navigation Co.’s fleet. The Commerce was considerably larger than either of her predecessors, and was launched from the yard of Messrs. Grayson and Leadley, Trentham Street, Liverpool.

Her (late) Majesty’s steamship Lightning sailed from Algiers for home on the 27th July, 1824, calling at Gibraltar and Lisbon. She remained at Lisbon two days taking in coal, and finally arrived at Plymouth nineteen days after leaving Algiers. The Lightning was one of the first vessels in the British Navy to be supplied with steam power.

Two still existing and influential Steamship Companies were established this year. The General Steam Navigation Co., of London, and the Belfast Steam-Packet Co., afterwards merged into the Belfast Steamship Co., Limited, of Belfast.

The competition between the Steam-Packet Companies engaged in the Scotch and North of Ireland passenger trade had become so keen, that in the summer of 1825 the steamers from Belfast to Glasgow lowered their fares to 2s. for 1st cabin, 6d. for 2nd cabin, and carried deck passengers for nothing.

On the Dublin and Liverpool station competition was nearly as severe, one steamer sailing in the autumn of 1825 with upwards of 700 passengers carried at 6d. each.

Under these adverse circumstances, the proprietors of the Dublin and Liverpool Steam Navigation Co. deemed it prudent to make terms with their more powerful competitor, the City of Dublin Steam-Packet Co. The managers of the latter company, early in the following year (1st February, 1826), purchased the Navigation Co.’s steamers, and increased the capital of their own company to £250,000, in shares of £100 each.

The Press communications exchanged between the owners of the rival steam-packets must have been extremely entertaining to the citizens of Glasgow of that period. The following extraordinary literary effusion, from the owners of the steamboat Swift, was published in the “Glasgow Herald,” of the 30th June, 1825:—

“The great superiority of the Swift over the Cock Boat that is puffed off as sailing direct from the Bromielaw is now so well known at Glasgow and Belfast as scarcely to require to be noticed in this advertisement, but for the sake of strangers coming from a distance it may be proper to state that her power and size are double, and her speed so much greater, that when the two vessels start together the Swift runs the other out of sight in five or six hours. Her hours of sailing are so adapted to the tide, as to ensure the shortest possible passage, by arriving at Greenock and Glasgow about high water, and at Belfast as soon as there is water up to the quay.”

The following crushing reply of the owners of the steamer referred to as “the Cock Boat,” appeared in the next issue of the same newspaper.

“The fine new Steam-Packet George Canning continues to sail for Belfast every Tuesday and Friday. She is the only Steam-Packet that sails direct from Glasgow, therefore, her passengers are not subjected to the delay, inconvenience and risk, attending change of vessel and transhipment of luggage.

“The George Canning has crossed the Channel upwards of 60 times, and has in every instance accomplished her passage without putting into any intermediate ports.

“If the writer of a contemptible article in the Swift’s advertisement of Friday last, means the George Canning, he has the merit of stating a gross falsehood, knowing it to be such; and, therefore, written for the express purpose of deceiving the public!!!

“The author of the paragraph alluded to is challenged to produce a single instance of the Swift having ever accomplished her passage from Belfast in so short a period as the George Canning.

“The public will be surprised to learn, after reading the Swift’s advertisement, particularly ‘strangers coming from a distance,’ that the Swift and the Canning have never yet sailed together either from Belfast or Glasgow; therefore, the author of the Swift’s advertisement is left to state when and where the Swift ran the vessel alluded to out of sight.”

The rivalry between these two steamers terminated the following year, when the Swift was sold to the London, Leith and Edinburgh Shipping Company, and sailed for Leith, via Oban, Fort William and Inverness, on the 27th June, 1826. The George Canning was offered for sale by auction in June, 1831, but was evidently withdrawn. She appears to have been sold subsequently by private treaty, and sailed, after repairs, for St. Malo, Brittany, in June, 1833.

The well-known firm, G. & J. Burns, of Glasgow, commenced business as steamship owners in 1825. The style of the firm at that time was James and George Burns, and their offices were at 45, Miller Street, but in February, 1842, they changed the style of the firm to G. & J. Burns.

The first steamer employed by this firm was the new steampacket Ayr, of 76 tons, built by John Wood & Co., of Port Glasgow, and having two engines of 30 h.p. each, by John Nelson, Glasgow. The Ayr was employed in the Glasgow and Ayrshire and Galloway trade. On the 20th March following (1826) Messrs. Burns despatched their first steamer from Glasgow to Belfast. She was a new steamboat named Fingal. Her length was 116 feet, her beam 21 feet 6 inches, and her depth 12 feet 4 inches. She had two engines of 50 h.p. each. She could accommodate thirty passengers with sleeping berths, had several horse boxes on deck, and carried 180 tons of cargo. The rates for passage were, in the cabin, 20s., and on deck, 3s.; and the days of sailing from Glasgow, Tuesdays and Fridays.

Three years later (March, 1829) Messrs. Burns began their Liverpool and Glasgow service. The pioneer steamer of this service was the Glasgow, a small steamer, 120 tons deadweight, and fitted with two engines of 30 h.p. each. The Messrs. Burns have ceased for many years to have any connection with the Glasgow, Ayr and Galloway trade, but on the other two stations, Belfast and Liverpool, they have maintained continuous services for nearly eighty years. They were also largely interested in the Glasgow and West Highland Passenger Services, but sold their interests in 1851 to Messrs. David Hutcheson & Co. These services are now conducted by the fleet of splendid steamships owned by the Messrs. MacBrayne of Glasgow.[12]

On Saturday, the 30th June, 1825, a steam-packet sailed from the Thames for Hamburg, the first that had ever made that voyage.

The following month (16th August) the first steamer sailed from England (Falmouth) to Calcutta, via the Cape. This was the wooden paddle-steamer Enterprize, 470 tons burthen, 120 h.p. Further particulars of this vessel are given in Chapter IX. (Steamship Routes to India and the East).

Some idea of the marvellously rapid growth of steam navigation may be gathered from the fact that in the year 1825, just ten years after the arrival of the first steamers on the Thames and Mersey, there were 44 steam vessels on the stocks at Liverpool of from 250 to 500 tons each; while in London no less than 45 companies had been formed to establish steam-packets in every quarter of the globe. Owners of sailing ships became alarmed for their future, and at a meeting held in Swansea, on the 14th December, 1826, a resolution was passed to send a petition to the House of Commons, praying for the intervention of Parliament to protect sailing vessels against the further increase of steamers.

Amongst those steamers referred to as building at Liverpool was the Erin, the largest steamer (up to date of launching) ever built in Liverpool. Her principal dimensions were, length 161 feet, breadth 44 feet. Her tonnage was 500 tons gross, and she was propelled by engines of 180 h.p., by Fawcett and Co. She was launched from Mr. Rathbone’s yard in February, 1826, and was intended to trade regularly between London and Belfast, calling at Southampton, Plymouth and Falmouth. Her owners were the Belfast Steam Navigation Co., and she cost £20,000.

Her (late) Majesty’s Steam-Packets, for the conveyance of mails and passengers between Liverpool and Kingstown, commenced sailing on the 29th August, 1826. Captain John Emerson, R.N. (late Commander of the St. George steam-packet), was appointed Captain of one of these Royal Mail Steamers, of which there were four, all built at Liverpool, and each of 300 tons burthen.

The City of Dublin Steam-Packet Company commenced a regular steamship passenger service between England, Ireland and France in June, 1827. The route was from Belfast to Dublin, thence to Bordeaux. Passengers from the North of England were carried by the Company’s steamers between Liverpool and Dublin, connecting at the latter port with the steamer to France. The pioneer steamer of the service was the Leeds, which sailed on her first voyage from Belfast on Sunday, 17th June, and from Dublin on the following Wednesday, continuing to sail at fortnightly intervals during the season. The venture was so successful that the Directors of the Company, the following April, added the steamers Sheffield and Nottingham to the service, and increased the sailings to the 1st, 10th and 20th of each month.

FOOTNOTES:

[12] For a special account of this Firm, see Part II. of this Volume.

Chapter IX.

Steamship Routes to India and the East.—Lieut. Johnston.—Enterprize purchased by Indian Government.—Renders important service during Burmese War.—Thomas Waghorn.—Regular steamship service established between Bombay and Suez.—Peninsular Steam Navigation Co. (1834).—Altered to Peninsular and Oriental S. N. Co. (1837).—First P. and O. steamer to India, 1842.—Services extended to Ceylon, Penang, Singapore, and Hong Kong, 1844.—And to Australia, 1852.—P. and O. steamships engaged as troopships during Crimean War.—S.S. Mooltan (1861) and other later steamers fitted with compound engines.—Suez Canal opened, 1869.—Mails transferred to Canal route, 1888.—Calcutta and Burmah S. N. Co. (1855).—Steamers engaged as transports during Indian Mutiny.—Title changed to British India Steam Navigation Co., Ltd. (1862).—Bibby Line.

Soon after steam navigation began to attract attention in Great Britain, a public meeting was held in London (1822), for the purpose of forming a steamship company to trade between England and India. It was the intention of the promoters of the meeting that the packets should proceed to India by way of the Cape of Good Hope, the route by which the bulk of the trade of Europe with the East had been carried since the time of Vasco da Gama. At this meeting it was decided that Lieut. (afterwards Captain) Johnston should proceed to Calcutta, with a view to interesting the East India merchants in the proposed undertaking.

Lieut. Johnston proceeded to India via Egypt, and although he was commissioned to advocate the Cape route, he was convinced on this journey of the greater advantages of the route by Suez, and afterwards became one of its most ardent supporters. Several meetings were held in Calcutta after his arrival there, at one of which, held on the 17th December, 1823, it was announced that the Governor, Lord Amherst, cordially approved of the proposal to establish steamship communication between England and India, and that he was prepared to recommend his Council to grant as a premium[13] “a gift of 20,000 rupees to whoever, whether individuals or a company, being British subjects, should permanently, before the end of 1826, establish a 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.”

Colombo carrying Xmas gifts to the troops in the Crimea.

An additional 80,000 rupees were raised in India for this object, of which amount the Rajah of Oude subscribed 12,000. On receipt of this gratifying news in London, another meeting of those interested was held, at which sufficient capital was underwritten to justify the promoters in ordering, as an experiment, the Enterprize, the first steamer destined to double the Cape of Good Hope.

Johnston, having accomplished his assigned task, embarked on board the Indiaman Eliza for England. On his arrival in London he found the Enterprize two-thirds completed, and on completion he was appointed captain.

P. & O. Liner. Date about 1850 A.D.

P. & O. Liner. Date 1900 A.D.

The Enterprize was a paddle-steamer, built of wood, by Messrs. Gordon & Co., Deptford, at a cost of £43,000. Her length of keel was 122 feet, beam 27 feet, and she registered 479 tons. She had a copper boiler in one piece, which weighed 32 tons, and cost £7,000. Her engines were 120 horse power, capable of propelling her in calm weather at the rate of 8 knots per hour. She sailed with 17 passengers from London for Calcutta on the 16th August, 1825, and arrived at the latter port on the 7th December following. She occupied 113 days on the passage, partly under steam and partly under sail, and inclusive of ten days stoppages for the purpose of obtaining fresh supplies of fuel. She did not return to England, but was purchased by the Indian Government for £40,000, the East India Company being at that time engaged in the first Burmese War. She was employed carrying despatches between Calcutta and Rangoon, and on the occasion of the Treaty of Malwa, she saved the Government six lacs of rupees by reaching Calcutta in time to prevent the march of troops from the upper provinces.

When the Enterprize arrived at Calcutta from England she was piloted by a young man, a mate in the Bengal Pilot Service, named Thomas Waghorn.

Mr. Waghorn was born at Chatham in 1800, and was, consequently, in his twenty-sixth year when he acted as pilot for the Enterprize. He had served four years in the Royal Navy, and was afterwards for twelve years in the service of the East India Company as pilot, subsequently rejoining the Royal Navy, in which he remained until he obtained his commission as Lieutenant. He was selected in 1827, by the Indian Government (Calcutta Steam Committee), for the purpose of establishing steam navigation between England and India. He visited London, Liverpool, and Manchester, but could not obtain sufficient financial support for a regular service of steamers via the Cape of Good Hope. Hearing that it was the intention of the East India Company to despatch the Enterprize to Suez, he offered his services as Courier to the East to Mr. Lock (Chairman of the East India Company), and to Lord Ellenborough (President of the Board of Control). His offer of service was accepted, and he left London on the 28th October, 1829, taking the overland route, via Trieste, to Alexandria, where he arrived on the 27th November. His instructions were to proceed with his despatches for the Governor of Bombay (Sir John Malcolm), by the steampacket Enterprize from Suez, but owing to a breakdown of her machinery, the steampacket was not at Suez to meet him. There being no steamer to take him on to his destination, Mr. Waghorn embarked on an open native boat, and sailed down the Red Sea, being subsequently picked up by the East India Company’s sloop Thetis, which had been sent to meet him, and which brought him to Bombay. The day previous to the arrival of Mr. Waghorn at Bombay, the East India Company had despatched the steamer Hugh Lindsay to Suez to take up the sailing of the disabled Enterprize. The Hugh Lindsay continued to make one round voyage between Bombay and Suez annually until 1836, during the north-east monsoons, not being sufficiently powerful to make the passage during the south-west monsoons. In 1836 the Court of Directors of the East India Company decided to place on the station two new and more powerful steamers. These were the Atalanta, of 616 tons burthen and 210 horse power, built in 1835 at a cost of £36,652; and the Berenice, of 664 tons and 230 horse power, built the same year at a cost of £40,124.

While a regular steamship service was thus being established between the Isthmus of Suez and Bombay, the British Government had established a service of Admiralty packets between Falmouth and Cadiz, Gibraltar, Malta, and Corfu. From Malta the mails were conveyed to Alexandria by other of H.M. ships. Prior to 1830 the Admiralty packets were all sailing brigs, but on the 5th February of that year the Meteor, the first of the steampackets, sailed from Falmouth to the Mediterranean. She was followed by the steampackets African, Carron, Columbia, Confrance, Echo, Firebrand, Hermes and Messenger.

About 1834 Messrs. Bourne, of Dublin, the principal owners of the Dublin and London Steampacket Company, were induced by the Spanish Minister in London to start a line of steamers between London and the Peninsula. They placed the management of the steamers in the hands of Messrs. Willcox and Anderson, a London firm with whom they had had some previous transactions. Messrs. Willcox and Anderson were well acquainted with the trade to the Peninsula, having been engaged in it, at first with sailing vessels, and afterwards with chartered steamers. The new line was called the Peninsular Steam Navigation Company, and Mr. James Allan, then a clerk in the Dublin Office of the Dublin and London Steampacket Company, was sent to London to assist Messrs. Willcox and Anderson in the management.

The first steamer of the service was probably the Royal Tar, belonging to the Dublin and London Steampacket Company, which had been chartered in 1834 to Don Pedro, and subsequently to the Queen Regent of Spain, Messrs. Willcox and Anderson being the chartering brokers. The “Graphic” Xmas Number for 1901 states the Wm. Fawcett was the first P. & O. steamer, and the “P. & O. Pocket Book” (1900 edition) heads the list of the past and present fleet of the company with the name of the same vessel, built in 1829. It is only necessary to say here that neither the Peninsular Steam Navigation Company nor the P. & O. Steam Navigation Company were in existence at that date. The Wm. Fawcett was certainly built that year by Caleb Smith, and engined by Fawcett and Preston, both Liverpool firms. For some time she was engaged as a ferry boat on the Mersey, and in the early thirties she was employed as a regular trader between London and Dublin. She probably was chartered for a short time to the Peninsular Steam Navigation Company in 1835 or 1836, as she does not appear in the company’s advertised sailing list for 1838.

In the latter year the fleet consisted of the following vessels, from London to Vigo, Lisbon, Cadiz and Gibraltar:—Tagus, 800 tons gross, 300 h. p.; Royal Tar, 650 tons gross, 264 h. p.; Braganza, 650 tons gross, 264 h. p.; Iberia, 690 tons gross, 200 h. p.; Liverpool,[14] 500 tons gross, 160 h. p.; City of Londonderry,[14] 500 tons gross, 160 h. p. Branch steamers, Peninsula, Guadalquiver, Estrella and Sol.

In 1837 the Government advertised for tenders from steamship owners for the conveyance of the mails between Falmouth and the Peninsula, which up to that time were conveyed by sailing brigs which left Falmouth for Lisbon every week, “wind and weather permitting.” In response to this advertisement two companies, the British and Foreign Steam Navigation Company, and the Peninsular Steam Navigation Company, sent in tenders. The former company having failed to show that it had adequate means for the efficient performance of the Postal service, the Government concluded a contract, on the 29th August, 1837, with the Peninsular Steam Navigation Company, by which that company agreed to convey monthly the whole of the Peninsular mails for an annual subsidy of £29,600, afterwards reduced to £20,500. The first steamer to be despatched under this contract was the Iberia, in September, 1837, calling at Vigo, Oporto, Lisbon and Cadiz, on its passage to and from Gibraltar.

The British Government in 1839 entered into an arrangement with the French Government to send letters to and from India through France by way of Marseilles. The mails were conveyed between Marseilles and Malta by an Admiralty packet, and between Malta and Alexandria by another Admiralty packet. This arrangement did not work satisfactorily, and the Government advertised for tenders for a line of steamers, to run direct from England to Alexandria and vice versa, touching only at Gibraltar and Malta. The steamers were to be of sufficient power to perform the voyage in not more than three days beyond the time then occupied in the conveyance of the mails via France, and the cost was not to exceed the amount required for the maintenance of the small and inefficient Admiralty packets then employed.

Four competitors tendered for the contract, but that of the Peninsular Company was accepted, it being the lowest (£34,200), and containing also an offer to convey at a reduced rate all officers travelling on the public service, and bona fide Admiralty packages gratuitously.

At this time much pressure was brought to bear on the Government to induce it to subsidize a proposed line of steamers between Falmouth and Calcutta via the Cape of Good Hope. These steamers, according to the “Times” of the 11th November, 1838, were to make the passage in thirty days.

The Great Liverpool, of 1,540 tons and 464 horse power, built by Sir John Tobin, of Liverpool, and intended for the Liverpool and New York trade; and the Oriental, of 1,600 tons and 450 horse power, were the steamers offered by Messrs. Willcox and Anderson, and approved by the Admiralty, to convey mails between England and Alexandria, calling at Gibraltar, and combining the two mail services of the Peninsular and the Oriental, thus constituting the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. Subsequently, the company was requested to provide two steamers, one to be not less than 250 horse power, and the other to be 140 horse power, for the Malta and Corfu branch of the mail service, which was done at a cost to the country of £10,712 per annum, less than the cost of maintaining the Admiralty packets previously employed.

In September, 1842, the P. & O. Company obtained a contract for carrying the mails between Calcutta and Suez. The contract was granted very reluctantly by the East India Company, and only after much pressure had been brought to bear on it by the Home Government.

On the 24th September, 1842, the P. & O. Company despatched its first steamer to India via the Cape of Good Hope. She was the paddle-steamer Hindostan, of 2,017 tons gross and of 520 horse power. On her arrival at Calcutta she was placed on the service between Calcutta, Madras, Ceylon and Suez. Other steamers were despatched speedily from England, and in 1844 the company was in a position to enter into another contract with the Government for a monthly service from Ceylon, to Penang, Singapore, and Hong Kong. For the premier service (Suez-Calcutta) the company received £115,000 per annum, or at the rate of 20s. per mile, and for the Ceylon-Hongkong service £45,000, or at the rate of about 12s. per mile.

In connection with the Eastern services, coaling stations, docks, store establishments, and in such places as Suez and Aden, even fresh-water supplies had to be, and were, provided and organised.

At this period, and until the completion of the Railway from Alexandria to Suez, the passengers and cargo carried by the P. & O. steamers were conveyed across Egypt in a somewhat primitive manner. The Mahmoudieh Canal enabled the company to transport its passengers and cargo from Alexandria to the Nile, whence they proceeded by steamer to Cairo, and thence through the desert on the backs of camels, a distance of less than 100 miles, to Suez.

As it was notorious that the mail service between Suez and Bombay was conducted by the East India Company at a cost of upwards of 30s. per mile by steamers vastly inferior in speed and accommodation to the P. & O. steamers, which maintained the mail services to India and the principal ports of China at an average rate of about 17s. per mile, the public naturally demanded that the Suez-Bombay service should be taken out of the control of the East India Company, and placed in the hands of those competent to work it more efficiently and with greater economy. The demands of the public, although confirmed by the Parliamentary Committee of 1851, were successfully resisted by the Court of Directors until 1854, and it is questionable if even then, they would have given up the service if (in consequence of the East India Company having no steamer ready for them at Suez) the Bombay mails had not been lost in a native sailing craft into which they had been transferred at Aden.

The P. & O. Company were applied to by the Government, and undertook this service for the sum of £24,700 per annum, or at the rate of 6s. 2d. per mile, resulting in a decreased expenditure of about £80,000 per annum, as compared with the expense incurred by the far less efficient East Indian Navy.

In 1852, the P. & O. Company extended its operations to Australia, by means of a branch line of steamers from Singapore. The following year saw an addition of no less than eleven steamships to the company’s fleet. Amongst these was the celebrated troopship Himalaya, which continued in active service until near the end of the century. At the time of her launch she was the largest steamship afloat, and of extraordinary speed. She cost £132,000 when fully equipped and ready for sea. Her length was 340 feet, beam 44 feet 6 inches; her gross tonnage was 3,438 tons, and her engines indicated 2,050 horse power.

Another famous steamer built for the P. & O. in 1853 was the Colombo (steamship), which was engaged as a Government transport during the Crimean War. Even Santa Claus himself could not have been more eagerly welcomed than was the Colombo when she arrived off Sebastopol on Christmas Eve, 1854, with provisions for the wounded soldiers and sailors. She was originally a vessel of 1,864 tons gross, but in 1859 she was lengthened amidships, and her tonnage increased to 2,127 tons. The Himalaya and the Colombo were two, out of eleven, P. & O. steamships chartered to the Government as transports during the Crimean War, and these vessels conveyed during the continuation of hostilities 1,800 officers, 60,000 men and 15,000 horses.

The first steamer of the P. & O. Company fitted with compound engines was the Mooltan (steamship), of 2,257 tons, built in 1860-1. Several succeeding steamers were fitted with the same type of engines, but although the consumption of fuel was decidedly less, the engines themselves proved so unreliable that they were taken out of all the ships and replaced by the old style of engines. “It was not until 1869” (says Sir Thomas Sutherland, in the “P. & O. Pocket Book,” 1900) “that the company succeeded in building a steamer with high and low pressure machinery which could be considered thoroughly successful.”

On the 17th November, 1869, the Suez Canal, the greatest engineering work of the 19th century, was formally opened by the Empress Eugenie, in the presence of numerous distinguished men from all countries. While the benefits conferred upon the world of commerce by the opening of this canal can hardly be over-estimated, its influence upon the fortunes of the P. & O. Company was at first almost fatal. The whole of the company’s business had to be re-organised, and as speedily as possible a new fleet obtained adapted to the changed requirements of the company’s services. This transitory state continued for a period of five years, from 1870 to 1875, by which date the company’s re-organization was sufficiently accomplished to enable them to transfer their services from the Overland to the Suez Canal route. The accelerated mails sent via Brindisi were still carried by the Egyptian Railway between Alexandria and Suez, and continued to be so carried until 1888, when they also were transferred to the Canal route.

It is interesting to compare the earlier vessels of the company’s fleet with the later. The India, built in 1839, was a vessel of 871 tons, and with engines of 300 horse power. Her namesake, built in 1896, is a steamer of 7,911 tons, with engines of 11,000 horse power. The Persia, built in 1900, has a slightly larger register (8,000 tons), with engines of the same power. In 1901 four twin-screw steamers were added to the fleet, the Syria, Soudan, Somali and Sicilia, each of 6,600 tons gross, with engines of 4,500 horse power, while 1903-4 witnesses the addition to the Company’s list of the Marmora and Macedonia, 10,500 tons and 15,000 horse power, and the Moldavia and Mongolia, 10,000 tons and 14,000 horse power, as well as several cargo steamers of immense tonnage.

During the war in the Transvaal, as at the time of the Crimean War, many of the steamers of the P. & O. Company were engaged by the Government as transports.

The following figures indicate the extensive operations of the company:—In 1899 the mileage traversed by the steamers of the fleet during the year was about 3,000,000 miles. The consumption of coal during that period was 625,000 tons. The dues paid to the Suez Canal Company exceeded £272,000, while the sum expended in wages to officers and crews amounted to £362,000.

In 1855 the Directors of the East India Company advertised for steamers to carry the mails between Calcutta and Burmah, a service inaugurated by the Enterprize (see ante) in 1826, and afterwards conducted by various vessels of the East Indian Navy. Messrs. McKinnon & Co., of Glasgow, tendered in response to this advertisement, and their tender having been accepted, they despatched the two steamers Baltic and Cape of Good Hope to fulfil their contract. These vessels were small and unsuitable for the intended service, and the result would have been a serious financial loss to their owners, had they not, soon after their arrival in India, been engaged for transports on the outbreak of the Indian Mutiny.

The new company traded under the title of the Calcutta and Burmah Steam Navigation Co., its first operations being confined to the ports of Calcutta, Akyab, Rangoon and Moulmein. One of the two pioneer steamers, the Cape of Good Hope, collided with a P. and O. steamer and sunk in the Hooghly. Another, the Calcutta, of 900 tons, was totally lost off the coast of Wicklow, when on her first voyage from the Clyde to Calcutta. A fresh contract was entered into in 1862 with the Indian Government, and in the same year the title of the Company was changed to the British India Steam Navigation Co., Limited. The terms of the new contract included the transport of troops and stores at a mileage rate; a mail service every fortnight between Calcutta, Akyab, Rangoon and Moulmein; also a monthly service via the two latter ports to Singapore; a similar service to Chittagong, and one to the Andaman Islands; as well as one between Madras and Rangoon; a fortnightly service between Bombay and Karachi; and a service, once every six weeks, to various ports in the Persian Gulf. New vessels were built and despatched for these various services, and the traffic of the Company developed with great rapidity.

The career of the Company was, however, not an unchequered one. In addition to the two steamers referred to as lost during the first year of the Company’s existence, must be added the wreck of the Burmah on the Madras coast, the loss of the Bussorah on her voyage to India, and the foundering of the Persia on her voyage from Rangoon to Calcutta, during one of those fearful cyclones which periodically sweep the Indian Ocean.

The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, which for a time adversely affected the fortunes of the P. and O. Co., proved beneficial to the British India Steam Navigation Co. The directors of the latter Company at once took advantage of the facilities which it offered, and their steamer India, requiring new boilers, was despatched to England, and was the first steamer to arrive in London with a cargo of Indian produce via the Suez Canal. Since that date the Company has added steamer to steamer until at the present date (1903) its fleet (inclusive of the British India Association steamers) numbers upwards of 120 vessels.

In July, 1891, Messrs. Bibby Brothers, of Liverpool (a firm which was founded in 1807), established a direct service of first-class and swift steamers between the United Kingdom and Burmese ports. For half a century prior to 1901 Messrs. Bibby had maintained steamship communication between Liverpool and all the principal ports of the Mediterranean. Prior to the construction of the Suez Canal, cargo from the East was carried by the P. and O. to Suez, thence by rail to Alexandria, where it was transhipped to the Bibby steamers, which loaded in Alexandria for Liverpool.[15]

Early Bibby Liner Sicilian (1859), the first steamer built by Messrs. Harland & Wolff.

FOOTNOTES:

[13] Lindsay’s History of Commerce, page 339.

[14] Chartered Steamers belonging to the City of Dublin Co.

[15] A sketch of the history of this important Firm will be found in Part II. of this Volume.

Chapter X.

Steamers on the Pacific.—The Telica (1825).—P. S. N. Co., 1840.—Compound Engines adopted, 1856.—Service extended from West Coast, South America, to the River Plate (1865), and to Liverpool, 1868.—The P. S. N. Co. and Messrs. Anderson Anderson & Co., 1878.—Gulf Line of Steamers between Great Britain and West Coast, South America.

The first steamer to trade along the Pacific Coast of South America was a small steamer, named the Telica, in 1825. She was owned and commanded by a Spaniard bearing a Russian name, Mitrovitch. The venture proved a failure, chiefly owing to the scarcity of fuel, and the unfortunate man, in a fit of despair, fired his pistol into a barrel of gunpowder, and blew up his vessel in the harbour of Guayaquil, destroying himself and all on board, except one man.

The next person to attempt to establish steamship communication along the Pacific Coast was an American citizen, Mr. William Wheelwright, born in Newburyport, Mass., U.S.A., in 1798, and appointed United States Consul at Guayaquil in 1824. Mr. Wheelwright, notwithstanding the tragic fate of the Telica and her owner, was convinced of the importance of steam communication to the development of the rich resources of the western side of the South American Continent, spent six years in arranging plans for steam communication between the different Republics, and at last obtained from the Peruvian, Bolivian, and Chilian Governments the privilege of establishing and maintaining a steamship service along their respective coasts for a period of ten years. In pursuance of this object he came to England, and secured the co-operation of several wealthy merchants, and on the 17th February, 1840, a charter was obtained for the establishment of the undertaking known as the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, together with a small subsidy for the conveyance of the mails. It was not the intention of the founders of the company to trade elsewhere than along the Pacific Coast, and for this purpose a capital of a quarter of a million pounds was thought to be sufficient. The capital consisted of 5,000 shares, £50 each. Only the amount required to build two small steamers was called up. These steamers were the Chili and Peru, each of about 700 tons gross register, with engines of about 150 horse-power nominal. They were brig-rigged paddle steamers, built of wood, by Charles Young and Co., Limehouse, London, and engined by Miller & Ravenhall.

Peru. Pacific Steam Navigation Co., Ltd.

Owing in great measure to the scarcity of fuel on the coast, the company, during the first five years of its existence, sustained a loss of four-fifths of its paid-up capital, but the shareholders courageously resolved to persevere with their undertaking. The seat of management of the company was, however, transferred from London to Liverpool (1846), and the late Mr. William Just appointed Managing Director. The following year (1847), the Directors were for the first time able to declare a dividend, a modest two-and-a-half per cent.

In 1850, having obtained an extension of the Government Postal contract, the Directors ordered four steamers, at a total cost of £140,000. These steamers were named the Lima, Santiago, Quito and Bogota, and were each of about 1,000 tons gross and 300 horse-power nominal.

In 1856 the company’s service was re-organised by Mr. Just, who visited the West Coast specially for that purpose. During the same year the compound type of engines was adopted in the company’s steamers, the Pacific Steam Navigation Company being thus one of the earliest ocean steamship companies to use this type of engine.

A supplemental charter was obtained in 1865, extending the operations of the company, and authorising steamship communication between the West Coast of South America, and the River Plate on the East Coast.

As the profits of the company had been steadily increasing for a number of years prior to 1867, it was resolved at a meeting of shareholders, held in December of that year, to establish a monthly line of steamers from Liverpool to the West Coast of South America, via the Straits of Magellan, and to increase the capital of the company to £2,000,000.

The first new steamer of the new service was the Pacific, 1,630 tons gross register, 1,174 tons net, with engines of 450 horse-power. Her principal dimensions were, length 267 feet, beam 40 feet, depth 17 feet. She was built on the Clyde in 1864, by Randolph Elder & Co., and cost £61,855. After trading for about three years on the Pacific Coast, she sailed from Valparaiso for Liverpool in May, 1868, as the pioneer steamer of the new mail service. During this year five steamers of about 3,000 tons each, specially built for the maintenance of this service, were added to the company’s fleet. These were the John Elder, Magellan, Patagonia, Araucania and Cordillera.

So profitable was the Liverpool trade to the West Coast, the Directors determined in 1870 to make the sailings fortnightly, and in that year they added the steamers Chimborazo, Cuzco, Garonne, Lusitania and Aconcagua to the fleet.

In December, 1871 they recommended a further increase of the company’s capital to £3,000,000, with a view of making the service from Liverpool a weekly one. During the year they had greatly increased the number of the company’s ocean steamers, having built in 1871 seven steamers, each of about 4,000 tons gross, viz., the Sorata, Illimani, Cotopaxi, Galicia, Corcovado, Puno and Potosi.

In July, 1872, the capital of the company was raised to £4,000,000, and the steamers Valparaiso and Britannia were added to its fleet, and in the following year the Iberia and Liguria.

Orellana. Pacific Steam Navigation Co., Ltd.

In addition to the above steamers, which were all built for the Liverpool to West Coast service, the Pacific Steam Navigation Company built during the years 1869 to 1873 inclusive, eighteen steamers for its Pacific Coast service.

The Iberia and Liguria were the last of the barque-rigged, clipper-bow type of steamer built for the Pacific Steam Navigation Company. The succeeding vessels of the fleet have as a rule four pole masts and a straight stem.

Although the trade between Liverpool and the West Coast of South America had increased with marvellous rapidity, the increase in the company’s tonnage had more than kept pace with it. It was found that the combined passenger and cargo trade would not support a sailing each week, and the sailings were reduced to two each month. As a consequence of the reduced number of sailings, as many as nine of the company’s steamers were at one time laid up for want of employment. In 1878 the Directors were fortunately able to charter four of their vessels, the Chimborazo, Lusitania, Cuzco and Garonne, to Messrs. Anderson, Anderson & Co., who in that year founded the Orient Line of steamers from London to Australia. In 1882, when the latter company decided to double its sailings, the Pacific Steam Navigation Company made arrangements to employ several additional steamers in the Australian service. Although the Pacific Company was the first to establish steamship communication between Great Britain and the West Coast of South America, it has had to share the traffic in later years with the Gulf Line of steamers belonging to the Greenock Shipping Company, and with the steamers belonging to Messrs. Lamport & Holt.

Chapter XI.

French-Algerian Expedition, 1830.—Civil War in Portugal.—Loss of the steamer Rival.—Mutiny on a Transport.—Loss of the Lord Blaney.—The Margaret, first screw passenger steamer trading from Hull.

Early in the year 1830, the French Government, fitted out an expedition against the Dey of Algiers, and an agent of the former was instructed to contract with the City of Dublin and the St. George Steam-Packet Companies for the employment of some of their first-class boats as transports in the expedition. The vessels chartered were ordered to proceed immediately to Toulon to embark French troops for service in North Africa. This was the first instance of steam vessels being extensively engaged in warlike expeditions. At this date, Portugal was engaged in a prolonged and sanguinary civil war, in the course of which vessels belonging to both of the famous Liverpool steamship companies were again employed.

Don Miguel (surnamed the Usurper) had about the year 1826 assumed the government of Portugal. It is calculated that in the short space of five years he imprisoned 26,270 of his beloved subjects; 16,000 were transported to various places; 13,000 were forced to fly from his paternal government; 13,700 perished on the scaffold; and 5,000 were either in concealment or wandering about the kingdom to avoid a similar fate. Finally, Dom Pedro, Emperor of Brazil, on behalf of his daughter Donna Maria of Portugal, took active measures to recover the throne. A number of British steamers were engaged as transports or privateers in the civil war that ensued. Amongst other vessels was the “ill-fated steamer”[16] Rival, which sailed from Greenock on the 22nd December, 1832, bound for Oporto, with about 400 volunteers for Dom Pedro, and foundered in Galway Bay, with the loss of nearly 500 lives. Some spars, bedding, and ship’s papers were washed ashore, but as not one of the passengers or crew escaped, no particulars can ever be known of the circumstances attending the fatal disaster.

The Lord Blaney was one of several of the St. George Steam-Packet Company’s vessels chartered for the same service. It appears from a record of magisterial proceedings (August, 1831) before Mr. H. Leach, of Milford, that the agents employed by Dom Pedro hired 200 seamen at Liverpool, and induced them to ship on board the Lord Blaney, under a pretext that they were merely wanted to navigate British transports across the Atlantic, to convey some regiments of Portuguese from Rio de Janeiro to Europe; but no sooner had the Lord Blaney got fairly into the Irish Channel than the officers threw off the mask, and acknowledged their destination to be Belle Isle, for the purpose of manning Dom Pedro’s fleet. Finding themselves thus entrapped, the seamen exhibited signs of mutiny, and a violent gale of wind having forced the steamer into Milford Haven for shelter, the whole body of tars went ashore with bed and baggage, declaring their intention not to fight under any flag but that of England. After completing her engagement with Dom Pedro, the Lord Blaney was placed on the Liverpool and Newry service, and on the 18th December, 1833, she was lost with all hands (45) whilst on a voyage from Newry to Liverpool. A subscription list was opened for the benefit of the families and relatives of the crew and passengers. The City of Dublin Steam-Packet Co., although in active opposition to the St. George Steam-Packet Co., headed the list with the handsome donation of £100. Two, at least, of the City of Dublin Steam-Packet Co.’s vessels took part in the Portuguese war, the Leeds and the Birmingham. The latter steamer, under the command of Captain Beazley, arrived at Falmouth about the 15th July, 1833. She brought despatches from Lagos which contained intelligence of the most important and decisive nature, nothing less than the complete defeat and capture of the fleet of the Usurper. The news was received with the utmost satisfaction in England as well as Portugal.

The Margaret steamship sailed from Hamburg to Hull on Friday, 19th October, 1845, with a number of passengers and a full general cargo. Shortly after leaving the Elbe she encountered a north-west gale, and after beating against it for two days, she was driven on to a dangerous bank called the Memmett, near Juist, at the entrance to the river Memm. The moment she took the shoal, the sea, which was running very high, swept several overboard. The long boat was launched and an attempt made to reach the shore, but owing to it being crowded it capsized, and every soul in it perished. From advices received, it appears that altogether sixteen of the passengers and three of the crew were lost. Those who remained on board the vessel, after severe privations, were rescued. The Margaret was owned by Mr. Pimm, of Hull; was several years old; was about 250 tons burthen, and was rigged as a three-masted schooner. She was worked by a screw propeller, and was the first vessel of that description engaged in the passenger trade from the port of Hull.