To get a handle on the audacity
of the designers and owners of the SS Savannah, the first
ship equipped with steam power
to cross the Atlantic Ocean, just thirteen years earlier in 1806 Robert Fulton had inaugurated passenger packet service on the Hudson River between New York City and Albany. Despite the enduring
American myth, Fulton had not invented the steamboat—a French inventor
had demonstrated one briefly on the Seine
as early as 1783 and by 1785 American John
Fitch of Philadelphia and William Symington of Dumfries, Scotland had built successful
prototypes. But Fulton—a student of Fitch—was the
first to build a successful commercial
vessel.
In the intervening years steamboats
had become relatively common on American rivers and some were plying the coastal trade. But the
possibility of crossing the ocean in the still crude vessels seemed
remote into the foreseeable future. Then
in 1818 Captain Moses Rogers, a respected
seaman, spied a trim ship under
construction at Fricket & Crockett
Shipyards in New York. The 98 foot long, 25 foot a-beam merchant packet under construction
seemed perfect for his vision. Roberts
contacted the wealthy owners, Scarborough & Isaacs of Savannah, Georgia to purchase the ship and have her outfitted with a
steam engine for the express purpose of becoming the first such ship to complete
an Atlantic crossing.
The ship was to be equipped with a
steam engine in addition to carrying a standard sail rigging. Moses Rogers
personally oversaw the construction and instillation of the steam engine, boiler, and twin side wheels while his brother-in-law
Captain Steven Roberts oversaw completion of the hull and the rigging.
The engine was a single cylinder 90 horsepower inclined direct acting low pressure type. The 40
inch diameter piston with a 5 foot
stroke was cast by Allair Iron Works
of New York and the rest of components
and running gears were cast by Speedwell Iron Works in New Jersey.
It was one of the largest steam engines yet built in America and
Rogers had a hard time obtaining a boiler
large enough to support it. Finally,
he settled on a copper boiler by Daniel Dod.
The ship’s pair of ten bucket cast iron side wheels were
unique and innovative. To save weight
and to make it possible to make way under sail without the drag of the wheels,
they were built with buckets connected by chains
rather than the customary iron rods. That allowed the wheels to be folded. Their canvas splash guards were easily
removable, and each wheel was hinged so that it could be folded
up onto the deck. They could be deployed
in the water in about 15 minutes.
Meanwhile Steven Roberts had to make
minor adjustments to the customary
rigging. He kept the usual three masts set to carry square sails, but had to set the mainmast further aft
than usual to accommodate the engine, boiler, and funnel. He also eliminated the royal masts and sails which customarily extended above the top gallant sails in ships of this
size. So, the new ship would carry less canvas than usual. It was hoped that in calm weather the steam engine working in concert with the sails,
would make up the difference.
The ship had to carry 75 tons of coal and 25 cords of wood which took up most of the usual cargo capacity. That was far less than would be needed to
cross the ocean under steam. But the
ship was expected to run with sails only in rough or gale conditions, which on
any Atlantic crossing even in the best
summer months was most of the time.
New Yorkers took great interest in
the construction of the unusual ship, which was completed and launched
in August of 1818, too late in the season to make a transatlantic run. Dubbed
the SS Savannah in honor of her owner’s hometown,
she made her maiden shakedown cruises in the waters of Long Island Sound in March of the next
year.
Unable to carry much in the way of
cargo, the ship was fitted out as a
luxury passenger packet with 32 births
in 16 state rooms including entirely separate quarters for women.
Whether those were intended for unaccompanied women or all female
passengers including spouses is
unclear. There were also three lushly
appointed salons for dining and passing leisure time in card playing,
reading, and other amusements.
However, when the time came for sea
trials and the run to Savannah to deliver the ship Rogers could not find enough
crew members in New York willing to sign on to the supposed floating coffin—so called because of well-founded fears of boiler explosions and fears that the exceptional weight of the engine
might swamp her. Moses Rogers had
to go back to his home port of New London, Connecticut where his reputation
as a top ship’s master was secure to
get enough crew to make the maiden voyage.
On March 28 after completing brief sea trials, S.S. Savannah set sail for her namesake city by sail. She left running ahead of the wind. She did not deploy her steam engines until the next day, but the paddlewheels were only in the water for half an hour before high seas caused Captain Rogers to order them retracted. On the week-long voyage south her engines ran for just over 41 hours. She pulled into port at 4 am April 6 and was greeted with a large demonstrative crowd despite the early hour.
The ship remained in port while the
owners desperately tried to secure passengers and freight for the
planned run to England. When President James Monroe arrived on a
Southern tour of coastal fortifications,
he was invited on a day voyage.
He sailed in company of a small retinue and the owners of Tybee Light House where the ship moored,
and the party was served an elegant dinner. Monroe was interested in the ship and
the prestige of the proposed
Atlantic run. He was especially
interested in the engine, considered a marvel of the age. He encouraged the owners to bring her to Washington after returning from Europe
with an eye toward convincing an always tight fisted Congress to buy her for operations as a
cruiser against pirates sailing from Cuban
ports.
Preparations for the voyage were now
under way. She loaded up on fuel, water,
and supplies. Captain Moses Rogers and Sailing Master Steven Rogers drilled
the crew. There was a slight delay when
a squall blew up on May 15 and dashed
the ship against the dock doing minor, but quickly repaired, damage to
one of the two paddle wheels.
Despite the delay, and the
endorsement of the President, no one was found who was willing to risk his life
or property on the voyage. Savannah sailed on the morning of May
22, 1819 on a profitless demonstration
run under both sail and steam. Her
paddles were folded later that day. On
May 29 smoke from her funnel was spotted by the schooner Contract who gave chase for most of
a day fearing she was a ship on fire. Only when the captain realized he could not overtake
her did he realize that he must be chasing a steam ship. On June 2 she was seen making a good 9 or 10 knots by the Pluto whose crew gave her
three cheers.
The next contact came as she
had crossed most of the ocean. The
revenue cutter HMS Kite spotted her smoke off the coast of Ireland and also gave chase fearing the
worse on June 19. Unable to overtake
her, the captain fired three warning rounds causing Captain Rogers to
bring the Savannah around. He allowed the English to board and inspect the ship, which duly impressed them, before he could
proceed.
Shortly after that encounter the
ship was embarrassingly becalmed off
Cork—she had expended all of her
fuel. More was obtained from shore and
the ship proceeded after a brief delay.
On June 20 she finally entered Liverpool
harbor where hundreds of small boats swarmed to greet her. Not
amused was the captain of a Royal
Navy Sloop of War which intercepted Savannah
and demanded that she haul down her colors which he said were
“threatening.” Evidently he had not
gotten over certain Royal Navy humiliations during the recent War of 1812. When Captain Rogers could be heard to
issue the order to “haul out the [non-existent] water engine and prepare to
resist boarding,” the sloop stood down.
The ship made anchor at 6 pm after a 29 day 11 hour voyage, during which she
had employed her engine for a total of 80 hours. It was a decent, but far from record,
run in those days before clipper ships
began peeling days from crossings.
Savannah
was docked at Liverpool for twenty
five days while the crew scraped and repainted the hull and performed maintenance
on the engine and boiler. The curious
public swarmed the ship. But officials
were wary. Some suspected that
she and her crew were on some sort of covert
mission either from the American government or in the pay of Napoleon Bonaparte’s brother Jerome who had emigrated to the
U.S. and was offering a large reward for rescuing the former Emperor from exile.
Captain Rogers graciously invited
senior officers of the Navy, Army,
and Government as well as top
British industrialists and engineers
to inspect the ship. They were impressed
that the Americans, who they assumed were decades behind them in
industrial capacity, were able to float a ship with such an engine at all. But they were also relieved that it was not
any more advanced than what they believed Britain
was capable of. Certainly, the visit spurred
construction of stem ships for both Naval and commercial use.
After laying in plenty of coal, the
ship disembarked Liverpool for a new adventure on June 21—a run to Scandinavia and Russia. She reached Elsinore, Denmark on August 9
and after five days of quarantine,
was off to Stockholm,
Sweden where she was the first steam ship to enter the Baltic Sea. During her stay
in the Swedish capital, she was received by royalty and sponsored an excursion trip for officials and
the diplomatic corps. Impressed, the government offered to buy
the ship, but Ross declined. Before
sailing, however, King Charles XVI John presented
the captain with a gift of a stone and muller, a hand-operated tool used for mixing and grinding paint. This was evidently a more impressive gift
back then than it seems today.
In Stockholm Savannah picked up her first passenger— Lord Lynedoch Thomas Graham, a hero of the Napoleonic Wars. She departed Sweden September 5 and
arrived at Kronstadt on the 9th
where Tsar Alexander II himself
visited the ship. After an inspection,
he presented Captain Rogers with a fine
gold watch and two iron chairs.
The ship continued to the capital of
St. Petersburg. The ships steam engines had their most
consistent use on the voyage from Liverpool to St. Petersburg—in use for 241
hours in total.
While in port the American Ambassador arranged visits by the Royal
family, government official and high ranking officers. Once again excursions were run under steam
power. The Russian government also
offered to buy the ship but was again turned down. The refusal by Rogers to part with his
beloved ship would later be deeply
regretted by her actual owners.
Before she departed, Lord Lynedoch presented Moses Rogers with a silver coffee urn and Steven Rogers a gold snuff box. It is unclear, however, if he actually
paid a fare to the owners of the ship.
With a full load of coal and wood, Savannah departed St. Petersburg to
begin the long voyage home on September 29.
She experienced several days of rough weather at Kronstadt during which
she lost an anchor and a hauser. After repairs and the return of calm
weather she left that port under steam on October 10 once again bound for
Stockholm. There she picked up a pilot to guide her to Arendal on the Norwegian coast where she anchored and took on a full load of fuel
and water.
She departed Arendal for the long
run home. It was late in the season and Savannah experienced such high seas and
storms that she was not able to employ her engines on the crossing. When she arrived in home waters, however, she
was able to enter Savannah harbor under steam after a 40 day crossing on
November 30, just over six months since she had departed.
She received a warm welcome at home,
but she quickly painted and repaired so that she could make the promised visit
to Washington. Her visit once again was
a public sensation and official swarmed her decks. But President Monroe never mentioned a
possible purchase again and made no appropriation
request to Congress. Rogers was
disappointed but there was worse news to come.
On January 16, 1820 a great fire swept the business district of Savannah, all but wiping out the ship’s owners
Scarborough & Isaacs. With no profit
earned from the great voyage, they were forced to sell the ship. First the engine was removed and salvaged. It was sold back to Allair Iron Works for
$1,500. The firm preserved it and later
displayed at the New York Crystal Palace
Exhibition of 1856. Other metal
parts were melted down.
The new owners of the ship put her in service as a coastal
packet operating between New York and Savannah.
But she was not in service long.
On November 5, 1851 she ran
aground off Long Island and broke up in heavy seas. An ignominious
end for a great ship.
Historians refuse to give Savannah credit as the first ship to
cross the Atlantic under steam. At best
she gets an asterisk—first ship
equipped with a steam engine to cross.
It was not until 1827 that the Dutch
owned and English built Curaçao powered by twin 50 hp
engines made a crossing from Hellevoetsluis,
near Rotterdam on April, 26, 1827 to
Paramaribo, Surinam on May 24 having spent 11 days under steam. In 1832 the Canadian ship SS Royal William, then the largest
passenger ship in the world, made a crossing from Pictou, Nova Scotia to Gravesend on the River Thames in a 25-day passage under steam the whole way except when the boilers were in
maintenance.
The British side-wheel paddle
steamer SS Great Western became the first steam ship to engage in regular trans-Atlantic service in
1838. It was not until 1847 that the
American built and owned ship SS Washington completed a crossing.
The noble Savannah was just a
little too early.
No comments:
Post a Comment