Chapter VII
River and Ocean Steam-Fleets
While Robert Fulton and his rivals in the United States were thus bringing
into fruition the dreams of a century, inventors in other parts of the world
were by no means idle. In Great Britain, Miller, Taylor, Symmington, and
Lord Dundas had set an example which was well emulated by Henry Bell, of
Glasgow, in 1812, when he built the "Comet" at Greenock, on the
Clyde, - the first passenger steamer constructed in Europe. The boat was
laid down in 1811, and completed Jan.18, 1812, and proved to be a success.
It was of 30 tons burden, 40 feet long, 10 feet beam, and driven by two
pairs of paddle-wheels, worked by engines rated at but three horse-power.
Bell's boat was advertised as a passenger boat, to leave Greenock on Mondays,
Wednesdays, and Fridays, for Glasgow, twenty-four miles distant, returning
Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. The fire was made "four shillings
for the best cabin, and three shillings for the second." It was some
months before the vessel became considered a trustworthy means of conveyance.
Bell constructed several boats in 1815, and with his success steam-navigation
in Great Britain was fairly inaugurated. In 1814 there were five steamers,
all Scotch, regularly working in British waters. In 1820 there were thirty-four,
- one half of which were in England, fourteen in Scotland, and the remainder
in Ireland. Twenty years later, at the close of the period to which this
chapter is especially devoted, there were about thirteen hundred and twenty-five
steam-vessels in that kingdom, of which about a thou-sand were English,
and two hundred and fifty Scotch.
During this period the introduction of the steam-boat on the great rivers
of the United States was one of the most notable events of history. Inaugurated
by Evans, the building of steam-vessels once begun, never ceased; and not
long after Fitch's burial on the bank of the Ohio, his last wish - that
he might lie "where the song of the boatman would enliven the stillness
of his resting-place, and the music of the steam-engine soothe his spirit"
- was fulfilled.
Nicholas J. Roosevelt was the first to take a steamboat down the Obio and
Mississippi. His boat was built at Pittsburgh in 1811 from Fulton's plans.
It was called the "New Orleans," of about two hundred tons burden,
and was propelled by a stern-wheel, assisted, at times, by sails on two
masts. The hull was 138 feet long, and 30 feet beam. The cost of the boat,
including engines, was about $40,000. The builder, with his family, an engineer,
a pilot, and six "deck-hands," left Pittsburgh in October, 1811,
reached Louisville in seventy hours (about ten miles an hour), and New Orleans
in fourteen days, steaming from Natchez.
The next steamers built on Western waters were probably the "Comet"
and the "Vesuvius." The "Comet" was finally laid aside,
and the engine used to drive a saw-mill; and the "Vesuvius" was
destroyed by the explosion of her boilers. In 1813 there were two shops
at Pittsburgh building steam-engines, and it is stated that as early as
1840 there were a thousand steamers on the Mississippi and its tributaries.
In the "Washington" (built at Wheeling, Va., in 1816, by Capt.
H. M. Shreve) the boilers, previously placed in the hold, were carried on
the main-deck, and a "hurricane-deck" was built over them. Two
horizontal direct-acting engines were adopted instead of the single upright
engine used by Fulton, and were driven by high-pressure steam without condensation.
The engines, one on each side of the boat, were attached to cranks placed
at right angles. He adopted a cam cut-off, and the flue-boiler of Evans.
At that time the voyage to New Orleans from Louisville occupied three weeks,
and Shreve was made the subject of many witticisms when he predicted that
the time would be shortened to ten days. It is now made in four days.
The death of Fulton left the work of introduction of the steamboat on the
rivers of the country in the hands of others no less able and enterprising
than he; and the expiration or repeal of the provisions giving the monopoly
of steam-navigation on the Hudson to his company permitted them to proceed
with their plans undisturbed. The courts ruled, finally, that only the General
Government could control the navigation of tide-waters and navigable rivers
communicating directly with the sea; the provisions for rewarding inventors
by a patent-system covering the whole country and administered by the United
States patent office gave good reason for withdrawing the special laws previously
sustained by the several States, for giving this kind of monopoly, where
legal, even; and the whole river-system of the country was open to all.
The steam-navigation of the Hudson soon fell largely into the hands of the
Stevens, father and sons; and they, mainly through the ingenuity and skill
of Robert L. Stevens, soon established what has come to be recognized as
a peculiarly admirable type of craft for these long inland routes.
Referring to his valuable services, President King, then of Columbia College,
who seems to have been the first to appreciate the original invention and
the excellence of the engineering of this family, in a lecture delivered
in New York, in 1851, gave a connected and probably accurate description
of their work.
Young Stevens began working in his father's machine-shop when a mere boy,
and acquired at a very early age familiarity with details of work and of
business. It was he who introduced the "hollow water-line" in
the "Phoenix." In the same vessel he adopted a feathering paddle-wheel
and the guard-beam now universally seen in river steamboats.
The "Philadelphia" was built in 1813 and the young engineer introduced
several new devices, including screw-bolts in place of "tree-nails,"
and diagonal knees. Two years later he altered the engines, and arranged
them to work steam expansively. A little later he began using anthracite
coal. Stevens was the first of whom we have record who was thoroughly successful
in using the new fuel. Mr. R. L. Stevens's labours and inventions in mechanics,
should have more fitting commemoration than can be given in any passing
notice. Of some of them the following is the chronological record:
1808. Hollow or concave water-lines in the bow were introduced for the first
time in the steamboat "Phoenix;" these lines, under the name of
"wave lines," are now claimed as a recent application. On the
same vessel, in 1809, he first used the feathering-wheel with vertical buckets
on pivots.
1809. He suspended the guard-beam by iron rods from above, as is now universally
done in river steamers.
1813-14. The war with England being in progress, he invented the elongated
shell, to be fired from ordinary cannon. Having perfected this invention,
he sold the secret to the United States, after experiments so decisive as
to leave no doubt of the efficacy of such projectiles. In one of these experiments
made at Governor's Island in the presence of officers of the army, a target
of white oak, four feet thick, was completely destroyed by a shell weighing
two hundred pounds and containing thirteen pounds of powder; the opening
made was large enough, as the certificate of the officer commanding, Colonel
House, stated, for a man and horse to enter.
These shells were said to be free from the danger accompanying ordinary
shells, for they were hermetically sealed. Some, after being kept twenty-five
years, were tested by exploding gunpowder under them, and then taken to
high places and let fall on rocks below, without causing them to explode.
After this they were plunged into water, and finally being put into the
gun, were fired, and upon striking, exploded with devastating effect.
1813. First to fasten planks and braces of steamboats with screw-bolts,
and to place diagonal knees inside.
1815. First to use steam expansively in the "Philadelphia."
1818. First to burn anthracite coal in a cupola furnace, and subsequently
to introduce this fuel in steamers, - the "Passaic" being the
earliest.
1822. He made the skeleton wrought-iron walking-beam now in general use.
1824. First to place the boilers on the guards, and to divide the buckets
on the wheel.
1827. First, on steamboat "North America," to' apply artificial
blast to the furnace, and in the same boat to apply what is technically
known as the "hog-frame," consisting of large timbers along the
sides, to prevent the boat from being "hogged."
1828. First to apply steel spring bearings, under the centre of the paddle-shaft
of the steamer" New Philadelphia."
1832. First to introduce perfectly balanced valves, which enabled one man
to work the largest engine with ease. In the same year he used braces to
the connecting-rod, thus preventing its tremulous motion.
1832-33. Constructed a boat capable of navigating through heavy ice. In
the same year he introduced tubular boilers.
1840. Improved the packing of pistons for steam-engines by using the pressure
of steam to retain the packing-ring against the surface of the cylinder.
1841. The Stevens Cut-off; by means of main valves worked by two eccentrics,
invented by R. L. Stevens and his nephew F. B. Stevens. In the same year
he invented and applied on the Camden and Amboy railroad the double-slide
cut-off for locomotives and large engines, and improved locomotives by using
eight wheels, and with increased adhesion was enabled to turn short curves
with little friction on the flanges; also used anthracite as a fuel to great
advantage on the heavy engines.
1842. Having contracted to build for the United States government a large
war-steamer, shot and shell proof, R. L. Stevens built a steamboat at Bordentown
for the sole purpose of experimenting on the forms and curves of propeller-blades,
as compared with side-wheels, and continued his experiments for many months.
While occupied with this design he invented about 1844, and took a patent
for, a mode of turning a steamship of war by means of a cross propeller
near the stern, so that if one battery were disabled, she might promptly
present the other.
1848. This year he succeeded in advantageously using anthracite in fast
passenger locomotives.
1849 witnessed the successful application of air under the bottom of steamer
"John Neilson," whereby friction is so much diminished, that she
actually attained, as stated by President King, the speed of twenty miles
an hour. This was the invention of R. L. Stevens and F. B. Stevens.
The name of Robert L. Stevens will long be remembered as that of one of
the greatest of American mechanics, the most intelligent of naval architects,
and as the first, and one of the greatest, of those to whom we are indebted
for the beginning of the mightiest of revolutions in the methods and implements
of modern naval warfare. American mechanical genius and engineering skill
have rarely been too promptly recognized, and no excuse will be required
for an attempt (which it is hoped may yet be made) to place such splendid
work as that of the Messrs. Stevens in a light which shall reveal both its
variety and extent and its immense importance.
As early as August, 1841, his brothers, James C. and Edwin A. Stevens, representing
Robert L., addressed a letter to the Secretary of the Navy, proposing to
build an iron-clad vessel of high speed, with all its machinery below the
water-line, and having submerged screw-propellers. The armament was to consist
of powerful breech-loading rifled guns, provided with elongated shot and
shell. In the year 1842, having contracted to build for the United States
government a steamer on this plan, Robert L. Stevens built his steamboat
at Bordentown, for the sole purpose of experimenting on the forms and curves
of propeller-blades, as compared with side-wheels, and, as already stated,
worked many months. After some delay, the keel of an iron-clad was laid
down. This vessel was to have been 250 feet long, 40 feet beam, and 28 feet
deep. The machinery was 700 horse-power. The plating was proposed to be
4.5 inches thick, - the thickness adopted ten years later by the French.
In 1854 such marked progress had been made that Mr. Stevens was no longer
willing to proceed with the original plans, and work, which had progressed
very slowly and intermittently, was stopped entirely; and in 1854 the keel
of a ship of much greater size and power was laid down. The new design was
415 feet long, of 4-feet beam, and of something over 5,000 tons displacement,
while its machinery was of 8,66o horse-power. The thickness of armor proposed
was 6.75 inches. The engines were to drive twin screws, propelling the vessel
twenty miles or more an hour.
The remarkable genius of Stevens is in no way better exemplified than by
the accuracy with which, in this great ship, those forms and proportions
were adopted which are now, many years later, recognized as most correct
under similar conditions. The lines of the vessel were beautifully fair
and fine, - what J. Scott Russell called "wave-lines," or trochoidal
lines, and are now known to be the best possible for easy propulsion.
The death of Robert L. Stevens occurred in April, 1856, when the hull and
machinery were practically finished, and it only remained to add the armour-plating,
and to decide upon the form of fighting-house and the number and size of
guns. The construction of the vessel then ceased and it was never completed.
From the time of Fulton, the progress of steam-navigation on the rivers
of the United States was rapid. The "Phoenix" of Stevens opened
the Delaware, and the boats of Fulton himself and his successors introduced
the new system of transportation on the Connecticut and Long Island Sound.
The venturesome voyage of Roosevelt, in 1811, down the Ohio and the Mississippi,
was made on the first of the steam-vessels, since numbered by thousands,
on the western waters. His boat, the "New Orleans," ran for years
between the city of that name and Natchez. The "Enterprise," in
1814, took part in the defence of New Orleans by General Jackson, and afterward
ascended the "Father of Waters," reaching Louisville in twenty-five
days from New Orleans. A quarter of a century later the trip was made in
less than a week; and in 1850, four days was considered good time for the
same voyage.
By the year 1860 there were about one hundred and twenty-five steamboats
on the Ohio and Mississippi and their tributaries, some of which made twenty
miles an hour or more. All were paddle-boats, and usually stern - wheelers,
- that type of vessel being found more manageable on those rivers, - although
the side-wheeler became the only form of steamboat on the rivers and sounds
of the coast for many years, and until the advent of the screw.
The growth of steam-navigation in Great Britain was less rapid than in the
United States; but as early as 1815, about the time of Fulton's death, there
were ten steamers on the Clyde, and seven or eight on the Thames. The "Argyle"
was the first sea-going steamer built in British waters. This vessel made
a voyage from the Clyde, where she was built, to London, where she was to
be employed, after a year of service between Glasgow and Greenock. The voyage
was made in about a month, in a stormy season, and the Thames was safely
reached, the vessel then entering upon her regular scheduled trips between
London and Margate. In 1816 the steamer "Majestic," built at Ramsgate
for the purpose, made her first trips between Brighton and Havre, and from
Dover to Calais. It was in this year that Captain Bunker, who hati served
on the "Phoenix," was given command ot the steamer "Connecticut,"
and established the first line of boats on Long Island Sound, between New
York and New Haven and New London. From this date on, British steamers began
to appear in all the principal harbours of Great Britain, and lines to Ireland
and to the French and Dutch coasts were rapidly created.
Progress continued to be most rapid in the United States, however. Cornelius
Vanderbilt made his first venture in the "Bolona," built by Lawrence
in 1817; and the fortunes of that family and the steam-navigation of the
Hudson and of the sounds adjacent fiourshed together. The trip to Providence
from New York was made, in those days, in about twenty hours, and the price
paid was ten dollars, induding berths and meals.
About 1821 Robert L. Thurston, John Babcock, and Capt. Stephen T. Northam,
of Newport, R. I., commenced building steamboats, beginning with a small
craft intended for use at Slade's Ferry, near Fall River. They afterward
built vessels to ply on Long Island Sound. One of the earliest was the "Babcock,"
built at Newport in 1826. The engine was built by Thurston and Babcock,
at Portsmouth, R. I. They were assisted in their work by Richard Sanford,
and with funds by Northam. The engine was of twelve inches diameter of cylinder,
and four feet stroke of piston- The boiler was a form of "pipe-boiler,"
patented (1824) by Babcock. The water used was injected into the hot boiler
as fast as required to furnish steam, no water being retained in the steam-generator.
This boat was succeeded, in 1827-1828, by larger vessel,- the" Rushlight,"
- for which the engine was built by James P. Allaire, at New York, while
the boat was built at Newport. The boilers of both vessels had tubes of
cast-iron. The smaller of these boats was of eighty tons burden. It steamed
from Newport to Providence, 30 miles, in 3.5 hours, and to New York, a distance
of 175 miles, in 25 hours, using 1.75 cords of wood. Thurston and Babcock
removed to Providence, where the latter died. Thurston continued to build
steam-engines there nearly a halfcentury, dying in 1874. The establishment
founded by him, after various changes, became the present Providence Steam-Engine
Works.
This "pipe-boiler" was intended, as was the earlier construction
of the elder Stevens, for high pressures, which now came into use. As early
as 1817, according to the testimony of Seth Hunt before a parliamentary
committee in England, Oliver Evans had successfully carried pressures of
one hundred and forty and one hundred and sixty pounds of steam; and now
James P. Allaire, of New York, started on the same line of improvement in
economy. Watt had showed, both by his logical deduction, exemplified in
his patent of 1769, and by actual construction of engines some years later,
that the expansive action of steam was an available source of economy, and
had beaten Horublower, whose compound engine was expressly constructed for
the purpose of securing that advantage. Allaire used the compound engine,
with steam at a pressure of one hundred pounds and upward, in 1825, for
the first time in steam-navigation. The first of his vessels of this class
was the "Henry Eckford," and this was succeeded by others, one
of which, the "Sun," made the run from New York to Albany in twelve
hours, eighteen minutes. Erastus W. Smith afterward introduced the compound
engine on the Great Lakes, and they were still later introduced into British
steamers by John Elder and his partners. The machinery of the steamer "Buckeye
State "was constructed at the Allaire Works, New York, in 1850, from
the designs of John Baird and Smith, the latter being the designing and
constructing engi neer. The steamer was placed on the route between Buffalo,
Cleveland, and Detroit, in 1851, with most satisfactory results, consuming
less than two thirds the fuel required by a similar vessel fitted with the
single-cylinder engine. The steam-cylinders were placed one within the other,
the low-pressure exterior cylinder being annular. They were 37 and 80 inches
in diameter, respectively, with a piston-stroke of 11 feet. Both pistons
were connected to one 'cross-head, and the arrangement of the engine was
that of the common beam-engine. The steam-pressure was seventy to seventy-five
pounds, - about the maximum pressure adopted a quarter of a century later
on trans-Atlantic lines.
The French engineem were but little behind their American rivals in this
race, and built a steamboat with compound engines, in 1829, called the "Union,"
from the plans of M. Hallette, of Arras. Steam was carried at sixty-five
to seventy pounds pressure. As illustrating the latest form of the lineal
successor of Fulton's -" Clermont," we may take the Hudson River
steamer "New York," playing on the same route. The hull of this
vessel was built at Wilmington, Del., by The Harlan and Hollingsworth Co.,
of iron throughout. The dimensions are as follows:
| Length on the water-line | 301 feet |
| Length over all | 311 feet |
| Breadth of beam, moulded | 40
feet |
| Breadth of beam, over guards | 74 feet |
| Depth,
moulded | 12 feet, 3 inches |
| Draft of water | 6 feet |
| Tonnage (net, 1091.89) | 1552.52 |
The machinery was built by the W. & A. Fletcher Company, North River
Iron Works. The engine is a standard American beam-engine, with a cylinder
seventy-five inches diameter and twelve feet stroke of piston, with Stevens's
cut-off. The use of a surface condenser, instead of a jet condenser, in
this river steamer, is a change made to overcome the evil of using mixed
salt and fresh water in the boilers. Another is the adoption of "feathering-wheels"
instead of the radial wheels, with fixed buckets or floats. These wheels
are 30 feet 2 inches diameter outside of buckets. There are twelve curved
steel buckets to each wheel. Each bucket is 3 feet 9 inches wide and 12
feet 6 inches long, with an angle iron 3 x 5 inches on each end. The wheels
are overhung, or have a bearing outboard on the hull only. The feathering
is done in the usual manner by means of driving and radius bars, operated
by a centre placed eccentric to the shaft and held by the A frame on the
guard. They were introduced in the "New York" for the purpose
of gaining speed, and the trial trips show that the builders' expectations
were not groundless.
Absence of jar is another great gain obtained by the use of these wheels,
and the comparatively thin buckets enter the water so smoothly that the
boat is without the shake so common with the ordinary wheels.
Steam is supplied to the engine by three return flue-boilers, each 9.25
feet diameter of shell, 11 feet width of front, and 33 feet long. These
boilers are constructed for a working pressure of fifty pounds per square
inch. Each boiler has a grate surface of 76 square feet, or 228 square feet
in all, and with the forced draught produce 3,850 horse-power.
Another measure of safety is the steam steerer, which has been put on so
that the boat can be handled with the quick and easy precision due to this
improvement.
The exterior is, as usual in this class of steamers, of pine painted white,
relieved with tints and gold. The interior is finished in cabinet work,
and is all hard wood, - ash being used forward of the shaft on the main
deck and mahogany aft and in the dining cabin. The construction of steamers
of recent design for lake and sound routes, as between New York and New
England, on Long Island Sound, is exemplified by that of the "Puritan."
"The 'Puritan' has principal dijnensions as follows: Length, over
all, 420 feet; length on the water-line, 404 feet; width of hull, 52 feet;
extreme breadth over guards, 91 feet; depth of hull amidships, 21 feet,
6 inches; height of dome from base-line, 63 feet; whole depth, from base-line
to top of house over the engine, 70 feet. Her total displacement is 4,150
tons, and her gross tonnage 4,650 tons.
"The 'Puritan' is fireproof and unsinkable, has a double bull divided
into fifty-nine water-tight compartments. In the fastenings of her steel
hulls and compartments, there have been used seven hundred thou-sand rivets.
Her decks are of steel, wood covered.
Her masts are of steel, and hollow, to serve as ventilators, and are twenty-two
inches in diameter. Her paddle-wheels are encased in steel.
"The ' Puritan's' hull is made of 'mild steel,' which metal, weight
for weight, is some twenty per cent stronger than iron, with twenty-five
per cent reduction of area, according to the best Government test."
Her wheels are of steel, and are 35 feet in diameter outside the buckets.
The buckets are 14 feet long and 5 feet wide, each bucket of steel 7/8 inch
thick, and weighing 2,800 pounds without rocking-arms and brackets attached.
The total weight of each wheel is 100 tons. She has eight steel boilers
of the Redfield return tuliular type, and the maximum working pressure is
one hundred and ten pounds to the square inch. This fact illustrates the
great advances made since the days of Fulton in the safe employment of high-pressure
steam; and the standard construction continually tends toward still higher
tension.
"The 'Puritan' has a compound, vertical beam, surface-condensing engine
of 7,500 horse-power. The high-pressure cylinder is 75 inches in diameter,
and 9 feet stroke of piston. The low-pressure cylinder is 110 inches in
diameter, and 14 feet stroke of piston. A horse and wagon could be driven
through this cylinder if laid on its side. The surface condenser has 15,000
square feet of cooling surface and weighs 53 tons. Of condenser tubes of
brass there are 14.5 miles in the 'Puritan.' Her working beam is the largest
ever made, being 34 feet in length from centre to centre, 17 feet wide,
and weighing 42 tons. When it is considered that the section of beam-strap
measures 9.5 x 11.25 inches, one may get an idea of the enormous strain
and the strength of resistance of this beam. The main centre of the beam
is 19 inches in diameter in bearing. The shafts are 27 inches in diameter
in main bearing, and 30 inches in gunwale bearing, and are the largest ever
made in this country. They weigh 40 tons each. The cranks weigh 9 tons each.
The crank-pin is enormous, the bearing being 10 inches in diameter and 22
inches long.
"There are two centrifugal circulating pumps, each capable of throwing
ten thousand gallons per minute. Besides these there are three other large
pumps, with a combined capacity of two thousand gallons per minute. Novel
features are the three steam capstans, - one forward and one on each quarter,
- to be used in docking the boat; each capstan has a double cylinder engine,
each cylinder welve inches in diameter and fourteen inches stroke. She has
two Sturtevant blowers, furnishing fresh air for fire-room, each capable
of fifty thousand feet per minute. She will burn about one hundred and twenty
tons of coal on the trip from New York to Fall River and back.
"From stem to stern, and in every nook and corner of the ship, the
electric wire is to be found. In all, there are twelve miles of this wire;
and including annunciators, fire-alarm, etc., there are twenty miles of
wire on the ship, and twelve thousand feet of steam pipe. There are capacious
gangways, grand and imposing staircases heavy with brass and mahogany, lofty
cornices, and ceilings supported by tasteful pilasters, the tapering columns
of which, in relief, flank exquisitely tinted panelling throughout the length
of her grand and minor saloons. And over all this artistic work and exuberant
colouring, the incandescent electric light sheds its soft rays. Every convenience
known to civilization, and which can contribute to the ease and comfort
of the traveller on land or when afloat, is included in the internal arrangements
of this floating caravansary. The artistic and luxuriant sense of the beholder
is also abundantly appealed to. The 'Puritan' has in all, three hundred
and sixty-four staterooms.
"Some idea of the immense amount of finish in the different departments
may be obtained when it is understood that in the gilding alone 180,000
gold leaves, each 3 3/8 inches square, were used. In painting the ship nearly
one hundred thousand pounds of lead were expended."