Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 08.djvu/465

LEFT SHIPPING 401 SHIPPING matter of time, though a combination of sail and steam or oil power may delay the inevitable end. There had been many experiments in the direction of using steam as the driving power for boats before Watt took out his first patent in 1769. The earliest authentic case seems to have been that of Professor Denis Papin of Blois who in 1707 built a steamboat which he navi- gated on the river Fulda. Watt, whose engines were single-acting pumps, sug- gested in 1770 their use for propelling vessels. In 1782 he brought out the double-acting engine and improved the principle of its working by cutting off the steam at a point fixed by experiment instead of allowing it to complete the stroke. This development by Watt brought into existence the engine needed for propulsion and from that time for- ward the development of the steamer was only a matter of time. In 1784 and after, James Rumsey put on the water at Berkeley Springs, Va., a number of small boats, which, by the ejection of water through a tube at the stern, at- tained a speed of over four miles an hour. In 1788 a boat made by James Fitch with paddles at the stern made a trip from Philadelphia to Burlington, a distance of 20 miles, in a little over three hours. Fitch in 1789 built a larger boat with side paddles that made a speed of eight miles per hour and was made a passenger and freight boat on the Delaware river in 1790. While Fitch was making his experi- ments, Patrick Miller, a banker of Edin- burgh, succeeded in developing at Dals- winton in Dumfriesshire a paddle boat driven by steam-power, which attained a speed of 7 miles per hour on the Forth and Clyde Canal. In 1801 Symington, the engineer of Miller's boat, built for Lord Dundas a steamer for towing barges with machinery very highly developed for the time. In Salem, Mass., Nathan Read in 1791 patented the multitubular boiler and built a successful paddle-wheel steamboat. John Stevens and Oliver Evans were making successful experi- ments about the same period. A boat built by Stevens in 1804 had twin screws. His steamboat "Phcenix" carried passen- gers on the Raritan river between New Brunswick and New York City, and later navigated the Delaware for six years. New possibilities were opened up with the appearance of the "Clermont" built by Robert Fulton. In 1797 Fulton went to France and experimented with sub- marine torpedoes and torpedo boats. In 1801 he built a small steamer and in 1804 procured from Watt in England machinery for a large vessel which was built in New York and launched in 1807. This was the famous "Clermont." From New York City she navigated the Hudson to Clermont, 110 miles away, and 20 hours later went to Albany. On the following day she began her return trip to New York City, and covered the distance in 30 hours at an average speed of five miles an hour. After an interval of a month she started running regularly be- tween Albany and New York. This marked the start of steam navigation as a commercial undertaking. From that time forward the building of steamboats increased rapidly. The United States took the lead, but other countries were not far behind. The Dublin-Holyhead line began in 1819 and in the following year a beginning was made with the Calais-Dover service. The "Savannah," a vessel built in the United States, was the first steamer to cross the Atlantic. She had a length of 100 feet, and a dis- placement of 350 tons, and she crossed from Savannah to Liverpool in 25 days. She was provided with sails and these were used when the wind was favorable. When the sea was smooth the paddle wheels were used and during an unfavor- able sea they were taken on deck. In 1828 the steamer "Curacao," built in Hol- land, successfully navigated the Atlantic and she was followed in 1832 by the Canadian "Royal William." The "Sirius" and "Great Western" registered a great step forward. Both started in April, 1838, arriving in New York in the same month within a day from each other. The "Great Western" averaged 208 miles per day and at her topmost speed she aver- aged 247 miles. She continued running as a regular transatlantic vessel, and may be said to have initiated the transatlantic steam service. It was left, however, to Samuel Cunard to make the service a paying commercial proposition. In 1839 he established the Cunard line with the help of a government subsidy. The Cu- nard line carried the bulk of the freight, passengers, and mail for ten years and was almost without a competitor till the Inman and Collins lines were started. The loss of a subsidy from the United States Government obliged the Collins line, which was purely American, to with- draw in 1858 after the service had been continued for eight years. In 1850 two other American lines, the Vanderbilt line and the New York and Havre Steamship Company, were started and both of them continued to run till British competition during the Civil War swept American commerce from the seas. The Inman line from the beginning used vessels of iron propelled by screws, and its example was followed by the Cunard line, with which the screw gradually displaced the paddle wheel. The building of the "Princeton" by