The first passenger steamship. Steamboat
By the middle of the 19th century. It is becoming clear to the main shipbuilding powers that the times when the movement of merchant ships and warships of the sailing fleet entirely depended on the direction and strength of the wind are becoming a thing of the past.
By that time, a number of inventions had appeared (for example, Denis Papin's steam engine, Robert Fulton's model of the steamship, which he demonstrated to Napoleon Bonaparte), providing for the construction of ships driven by steam power.
If the first such inventions were significantly ahead of their time and appeared in an era when the corresponding technologies were still absent, then by the time of the Crimean War (1853 - 1856), the first steamships appeared in the fleets of the main powers of Europe and Russia.
The first known successful test of a steamship model called the Pyroscaphe took place in 1784. But the double-acting steam engine that rotated the steamship's wheels quickly broke down.
The first steamship to be successfully operated was Robert Fulton's North River Steamboat, which sailed from Albany to New York along the river. Hudson.
The benefits of steam ships, independent of wind and weather conditions and able to sail quickly against the current, quickly became clear. And similar ships began to appear in the fleets of the main shipbuilding powers of Europe.
By 1853, steamboats became a generally accepted form of river water transport.
Steamships on rivers, as vessels for navigation on inland waterways (IWW), quickly gained worldwide recognition. Repairing equipment and steam engines for river transport did not present any particular difficulties. The propellers of such steamships were wheels, and such steamships were called paddle wheel boats. Paddle wheels could be located on the sides or in the stern of the steamship. The paddle wheel continues to be used in our time as a propulsion device for river vessels, especially on pleasure or tourist vessels.
With the first steamships in the navy, the situation was much more complicated. Due to the unreliability of the first engines - steam engines - the steamships were combined sailing-steam vessels and had masts with spars and sails. If the car broke down, the ship could reach the port.
At first, the propeller of a sea-going steamship was also a paddle wheel. However, the unreliability of the paddle wheel as a propulsion device and its low efficiency led to the need to maintain sailing equipment during sea navigation. The engine on the first steamships was a steam engine, for example, like the one shown in Fig. 5.
Rice. 5. Steam engine for a steamship built in 1849, installed on the Atlantic sea liner.
Furnaces - fireboxes; boiler - steam boiler; steam pipe - steam pipeline; second engine - second engine (second steam engine); crankshaft - crankshaft; hot well - hot water tank; parallel motion linkage - parallel motion mechanism; cylinder - cylinder; side lever - side lever.
The steamship's wheels had a diameter of 11 m with 36 blades. The vessel was propelled by two side-lever steam engines with a power of 600 kW, one of which is shown in Fig. 5. Each steam engine had one cylinder with a diameter of 241 cm; steam entered the cylinder under a pressure of 120 kPa, which was then considered an example of expensive innovative technology. When the ship was moving with two cylinders of both steam engines running at full speed, the speed reached 16 rpm, and with the additional help of sails, the speed of the Collins liner reached 12-13 knots.
Fuel consumption (coal) was 1 ton for every 265 revolutions of the steamship wheel, or 85 tons within 24 hours. During the voyage, the steamship consumed an amount of coal almost equal to the weight of the steamship itself.
The Atlantic liner set off from Liverpool on its maiden voyage on April 27, 1850. It reached New York in a record time of 10 days and 16 hours. That is, during this time he completed a transatlantic voyage. Such was the ship technology of that time.
The first warships of that time were steam frigates. On the eve of the Crimean War, the last battle of sailing warships was the destruction of the Turkish fleet at Sinop by the squadron of Admiral Nakhimov. During the siege of Sevastopol, the sailing ships of the Russian fleet were scuttled in the fairway to block enemy ships from entering the Sevastopol Bay. Steam frigates took part in the Crimean War in the fleets of both belligerents. The first battle of the steamships was indicative: the battle of the frigate Vladimir with the Turkish steamer Pervaz-Bahri.
In the modern Russian language there are two small correlative groups of complex terms in which a peculiar opposition of the morphemes hod and voz has been created: motor ship, steamship and electric ship, on the one hand, and diesel locomotive, steam locomotive and electric locomotive with... ... History of words
STEAMBOAT- STEAMBOAT, steamboat, husband. A ship powered by a steam engine. Ocean steamer. Sea steamer. Passenger ship. Coastal steamer. Go by boat, by boat. Ushakov's explanatory dictionary. D.N. Ushakov. 1935 1940 ... Ushakov's Explanatory Dictionary
Steamboat- Waverlay. STEAMBOAT, a vessel driven by a steam engine or turbine (turbine steamships are called turboships). The first steamship “Clermont” was built in 1807 in the USA by R. Fulton. In Russia, one of the first steamships “Elizabeth” was built in 1815... ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary
steamship- steam engine, pyroskaf, steam locomotive, steamer, steamship, liner, whistle, vessel Dictionary of Russian synonyms. steamship see steam locomotive Dictionary of synonyms of the Russian language. Practical guide. M.: Russian language. Z. E. Alexandrova ... Synonym dictionary
STEAMBOAT- a ship driven by a steam engine or turbine (turbine steamers are usually called turbo ships). The first steamship Claremont was built in 1807 in the USA by R. Fulton. In Russia, one of the first steamships was the Elizaveta (for flights between St. ... ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
STEAMBOAT- STEAMER, see par. Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary. IN AND. Dal. 1863 1866 … Dahl's Explanatory Dictionary
STEAMBOAT- (Steamer) a vessel with a displacement of more than 100 tons, driven by a steam engine (steam engine or turbine). The first steamship was built in the North. America by Fulton in 1807. Samoilov K.I. Marine Dictionary. M.L.: State Military... ... Naval Dictionary
STEAMBOAT- STEAMER, see SHIP... Scientific and technical encyclopedic dictionary
STEAMBOAT- STEAMER, huh, husband. Steam engine powered ship. | adj. steamship, oh, oh. Ozhegov's explanatory dictionary. S.I. Ozhegov, N.Yu. Shvedova. 1949 1992 … Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary
STEAMBOAT- a self-propelled river or sea vessel, the main engine of which is a steam engine (see). The propeller of the propeller is a propeller or paddle wheels. In the modern fleet, the main type of self-propelled vessel (see), the main engine of which is ... ... Big Polytechnic Encyclopedia
Books
- The steamer goes to Jaffa and back, Gekht Semyon. The book by Semyon Hekht includes short stories and the novel “The Steamboat Goes to Jaffa and Back” (1936) - works that most clearly represent this writer of the Odessa school. Close attention to... Buy for RUR 1,750
- Steamship to Argentina, Alexey Makushinsky. “Steamboat to Argentina” is the author’s third novel. Its action covers the entire 20th century and takes place in the space from the Baltic states to Argentina. The focus of the novel's narrative is history... Buy for 176 rubles eBook
The use of steam engines on water began in 1707, when the French physicist Denis Papin designed the first boat with a steam engine and paddle wheels. Presumably, after a successful test, it was broken by boatmen who were afraid of competition.
Thirty years later, Englishman Jonathan Hulls invented a steam tug.
The experiment ended unsuccessfully: the engine turned out to be heavy and the tug sank. In 1802, Scotsman William Symington demonstrated a steamboat
"Charlotte Dundas." The widespread use of steam engines on ships began in 1807 with the voyages of the passenger steamer Clermont, built by an American Robert Fulton. Beginning in the 1790s, Fulton took up the problem of using steam to propel ships. In 1809, Fulton patented the Claremont design and went down in history as inventor of the steamboat. Newspapers wrote that many boatmen closed their eyes in horror when"Fulton's monster"
spewing fire and smoke, moving along the Hudson against the wind and current.
"Clermont"
Just ten to fifteen years after R. Fulton’s invention, steamships seriously replaced sailing ships. In 1813, two factories for the production of steam engines began operating in Pittsburgh in the USA. A year later, 20 steamships were assigned to the port of New Orleans, and in 1835 there were already 1,200 steamships operating on the Mississippi and its tributaries.
US River Steamboat (1810-1830)
By 1815 in England on the river. Clyde (Glasgow) already had 10 steamships and seven or eight on the river. Thames. In the same year, the first sea steamer "Argyle" was built, which sailed from Glasgow to London. In 1816, the Majestic steamship made its first voyages Brighton - Le Havre and Dover - Calais, after which regular sea steam lines began to open between Great Britain, Ireland, France and Holland.
The first steam ship in Europe "Comet" 1812 In 1813 Fulton turned to Russian government
with a request to grant him the privilege to build a steamship he had invented and use it on the rivers of the Russian Empire. However, Fulton did not create steamships in Russia. He died in 1815, and in 1816 the privilege given to him was revoked. The beginning of the 19th century in Russia is marked by the construction of the first ships In 1815, the owner of a mechanical foundry in St. Petersburg, Karl Bird, built the first paddle steamer "Elizabeth". A factory-manufactured Watt steam engine with a power of 4 hp was installed on the wooden Tikhvinka. With. and a steam boiler that powered the side wheels. The machine made 40 revolutions per minute. After successful tests on the Neva and transition from St. Petersburg to Kronstadt The ship made voyages on the St. Petersburg - Kronstadt line. The steamer covered this route in 5 hours 20 minutes with an average speed of about 9.3 km/h.
Russian steamship from the Berda plant.
The construction of steamships also began on other rivers of Russia.
The first steamship in the Volga basin appeared on the Kama in June 1816. It was built by Pozhvinsky iron foundry and ironworks V. A. Vsevolozhsky. Having a power of 24 hp. s., the ship made several experimental voyages along the Kama.
By the 20s of the 19th century, there was only one steamship in the Black Sea basin - "Vesuvius", not counting the primitive steamship "Pchelka" with a power of 25 hp, built by Kyiv serfs, which two years later was carried through the rapids to Kherson, from where he made flights to Nikolaev.
Major Siberian gold miner Myasnikov. received the privilege to organize shipping on the lake. Baikal and the rivers Ob, Tobol, Irtysh, Yenisei, Lena and their tributaries, in March 1843. launched the ship “Emperor Nicholas I” power 32 l. s., which in 1844 was brought to Lake Baikal. Following this, a second steamship with a capacity of 50 hp was laid down and completed in 1844. s., called “Heir Tsarevich”, which was also transferred to the lake. Baikal, where both ships were used for transportation.
In the 40-50s of the 19th century steamships began to sail regularly along the Neva, Volga, Dnieper and other rivers. By 1850 there were about 100 steamships in Russia.
In 1819, the American sailing mail ship "Savannah", equipped with a steam engine and removable side wheels, left the city of Savannah, USA, for Liverpool and made the transition across the Atlantic in 24 days. The engine on the Savannah was a single-cylinder, low-pressure, simple-action steam engine. The power of the machine was 72 hp, the speed when the engine was running was 6 knots (9 km/h). The ship's engine was used for no more than 85 hours and only within the coastal zone.
"Savannah"
Savannah's voyage was conducted to evaluate necessary fuel reserves on ocean routes, because supporters of the sailing fleet argued that no steamship could carry enough coal to cross the Atlantic. After the ship returned to the United States, the steam engine was dismantled, and the ship was used on the New York - Savannah line until 1822
In 1825, the English paddle steamer Enterprise, using sails with a fair wind, made a voyage to India.
The largest paddle steamer in naval history "Great East"
The first flight around Europe took place in 1830-1831. small Russian steamship "Neva".
Leaving Kronstadt on August 17, 1830, the Neva arrived in Odessa on March 4, 1831, spending 199 days on the voyage. The duration of the voyage was explained by long stops in ports due to severe winter storms.
The legendary giant "Titanic": In the boiler rooms of the ship it was installed 29 steam boilers - each weighing 100 tons, which were heated by the heat of 162 fireboxes. Coal furnaces heated water in boilers to produce steam. The steam was then supplied to piston engines. As soon as steam entered one of the four cylinders of the engine, the necessary force was generated to rotate one of the propellers. Excess or lost steam was condensed in the evaporators and the resulting water could be returned to the boilers for reheating. Changing the amount of steam supplied to the thrusters controlled the speed of the ship. Smoke from the furnaces and engine exhausts were emitted through the first 3 pipes. The fourth pipe was false and was used for ventilation. Everything was the same on the Titanic
the latest technology that time. First warship was built in the USA according to the design of R. Fulton in 1815. It was intended to protect the waters of the New York port and was battery catemaran. The sailors called him steam frigate, however, R. Fulton preferred to call it a steam battery and gave it the name "Demologos" ("Voice of the People"). In 1829, the steamship exploded in the New York roadstead due to the sailors' careless handling of fire. In Russia
first steam frigate
"Bogatyr", which became the forerunner of cruisers, was built in 1836.
Wheeled steam frigate "Taman" 1849 The best examples of steam engines of the 1870s, intended for the needs of the navy, weighed about 20 kg / hp, and the Heresgoff brothers in the USA managed to create a 4 hp engine, the weight of which, together with the boiler, was only 22.65 kg. has been delayed for many years. The main problem was the supply of air for burning fuel in the furnace of the steam boiler when the boat was submerged, because when the machine was operating, fuel was consumed and the mass of the submarine changed, but it must be constantly ready to dive. Despite the obstacles in the history of submarine invention, there have been many attempts to build a submarine powered by a steam engine.
Submarine project with a steam engine The first was developed in 1795 by the French revolutionary Armand Mézières, but he failed to implement it.
In 1815, Robert Fulton built a large submarine, equipped with powerful steam turbine, eighty feet long and twenty-two feet wide with a crew of 100 people. However, Fulton died before Mute was launched, and the submarine was scrapped.
Build submarine succeeded in 1846 by Armand Mézières' compatriot Dr. Prosper Peyern. In the submarine, called "Hydrostat", steam was supplied to the machine from a boiler, in a hermetically sealed firebox in which specially prepared fuel was burned - compressed briquettes of saltpeter with coal, which, when burned, released the oxygen necessary for combustion. At the same time, water was supplied to the firebox. Water vapor and fuel combustion products were sent to the steam engine, from where, having completed the work, they were discharged overboard through a non-return valve. However, this project turned out to be unsuccessful.
Peyern's failure did not deter his followers. Already in 1851, the American Laudner Philipps built Submarine with steam engine installation. But the inventor did not have time to finish the job. During one of the dives on Lake Erie, the submarine exceeded the permissible depth and was crushed burying the crew along with Philipps at the bottom of the lake.
In the summer of 1866, a submarine of a talented Russian inventor was created I. F. Alexandrovsky. It was tested for several years in Kronstadt. A decision was made about her unsuitability it for military purposes and inexpediency carrying out further work to eliminate deficiencies.
Other pages on the topic "Steam engines"
On February 11, 1809, American Robert Fulton patented his invention - the first steam-powered ship. Soon steamships replaced sailing ships and were the main water transport until the middle of the 20th century. Here are the 10 most famous ships
Steamship "Clermont"
The Claremont became the first officially patented steam-powered vessel in the history of shipbuilding. The American Robert Fulton, having learned that the French engineer Jacques Perrier had successfully tested the first ship with a steam engine on the Seine, decided to bring this idea to life. In 1907, Fulton surprised the New York public by launching a ship with a large funnel and huge paddle wheels on the Hudson River. Onlookers were quite surprised that this creation of Fulton's engineering was able to move at all. But the Claremont not only sailed along the Hudson, but was also able to move against the current without the help of wind or sails. Fulton received a patent for his invention and over the course of several years improved the ship and organized regular river trips on the Claremont along the Hudson River from New York to Albany. The speed of the first steamship was 9 km/h.
Steamship "Clermont"
The first Russian steamship "Elizabeth"
The steamship "Elizabeth", built for Russia by the Scottish mechanic Charles Bird, entered service in 1815. The ship's hull was wooden. A metal pipe with a diameter of about 30 cm and a height of 7.6 m served instead of a mast for setting sails in a tailwind. The 16 horsepower steamship had 2 paddle wheels. The steamship made its first voyage on November 3, 1815 from St. Petersburg to Kronstadt. To test the speed of the steamer, the port commander ordered his best rowing boat to compete with it. Since the speed of the "Elizabeth" reached 10.7 km/h, the oarsmen, pushing hard on the oars, sometimes managed to overtake the steamer. By the way, the Russian word “steamboat” was introduced into use by naval officer P. I. Ricord, a participant in this voyage. Subsequently, the ship was used to transport passengers and tow barges to Kronstadt. And by 1820, the Russian fleet already consisted of about 15 steamships, by 1835 - about 52.
The first Russian steamship "Elizabeth"
Steamboat Savannah
The Savannah became the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean in 1819. He made a flight from the American city of Savannah to Liverpool, England in 29 days. It should be noted that the steamer sailed almost the entire way, and only when the wind died down was the steam engine turned on so that the ship could move even in calm conditions. At the beginning of the era of steamship construction, sails were left on ships making long voyages. The sailors still did not fully trust the power of steam: there was a great risk that the steam engine would break down in the middle of the ocean or there would not be enough fuel to reach the destination port.
Steamboat Savannah
Steamship "Sirius"
They decided to abandon the use of sails only 19 years after the transatlantic voyage of the Savannah. The paddle steamer Sirius left the English port of Cork with 40 passengers on April 4, 1838 and reached New York 18 days and 10 hours later. Sirius crossed the Atlantic Ocean for the first time without raising sails, using only a steam engine. This ship opened a permanent commercial shipping line across the Atlantic. "Sirius" moved at a speed of 15 km/h and consumed a monstrously large amount of fuel - 1 ton per hour. The ship was overloaded with coal - 450 tons. But even this reserve was not enough for the flight. "Sirius" barely made it to New York. To keep the ship moving, ship rigging, masts, wooden bridge decking, handrails and even furniture had to be thrown into the firebox.
Steamship "Sirius"
Steamship "Archimedes"
One of the first steam ships with a propeller was built by the English inventor Francis Smith. The Englishman decided to use the discovery of the ancient Greek scientist Archimedes, which had been known for a thousand years, but was used only for supplying water for irrigation - the screw. Smith came up with the idea of using it to propel the ship. The first steamship, called Archimedes, was built in 1838. It was moved by a screw with a diameter of 2.1 m, which was powered by two steam engines with a power of 45 horsepower each. The vessel had a carrying capacity of 237 tons. "Archimedes" developed a maximum speed of about 18 km/h. Archimedes did not make long-distance flights. After successful trials on the Thames, the ship continued to operate on inland shipping lines.
The first screw steamer "Stockton" to cross the Atlantic
Steamship "Stockton"
The Stockton was the first screw steamship to sail across the Atlantic Ocean from Great Britain to America. The story of its inventor, Swede John Erikson, is very dramatic. He decided to use a propeller to propel a steam ship at the same time as the Englishman Smith. Erickson decided to sell his invention to the British Navy, for which he built a screw steamer with his own money. The military department did not appreciate the Swede's innovations; Erickson ended up in prison for debt. The inventor was saved by the Americans, who were very interested in a maneuverable steam ship, in which the propulsion mechanism was hidden below the waterline, and the pipe could be lowered. This is exactly what the 70-horsepower steamship Stockton was, which Erickson built for the Americans and named after his new friend, a naval officer. On his steamship in 1838, Erickson left for America forever, where he gained fame as a great engineer and became rich.
Steamship "Amazon"
In 1951, newspapers called the Amazon the largest wooden steamship ever built in Britain. This luxury passenger transport could carry more than 2,000 tons and was equipped with an 80 horsepower steam engine. Although metal steamships had been rolling out of shipyards for 10 years, the British built their giant from wood because the conservative British Admiralty was prejudiced against innovation. On 2 January 1852, the Amazon, crewed by 110 of Britain's finest sailors, sailed for the West Indies, taking on board 50 passengers (including the Lord of the Admiralty). At the beginning of the journey, the ship was attacked by a strong and prolonged storm; in order to continue moving further, it was necessary to start the steam engine at full power. A machine with overheated bearings worked non-stop for 36 hours. And on January 4, the officer on duty saw flames coming out of the engine room hatch. Within 10 minutes the fire engulfed the deck. It was impossible to put out the fire in the stormy wind. The Amazon continued to move through the waves at a speed of 24 km/h, and there was no way to launch lifeboats. Passengers rushed around the deck in panic. Only when the steam boiler had exhausted all the water were they able to put people into the rescue longboats. After some time, those who sailed away in the lifeboats heard explosions - it was the gunpowder stored in the holds of the Amazon that exploded, and the ship sank along with the captain and part of the crew. Of the 162 people who set sail, only 58 were saved. Of these, seven died on the shore, and 11 people went crazy from the experience. The death of the Amazon became a cruel lesson for the Lords of the Admiralty, who did not want to admit the danger posed by combining the wooden hull of a ship with a steam engine.
Steamship "Amazon"
Steamship "Great East"
The steamship "Great East" is the predecessor of the Titanic. This steel giant, launched in 1860, was 210 meters long and for forty years was considered the largest ship in the world. The "Great East" was equipped with both paddle wheels and propellers. The ship became the last masterpiece of one of the famous engineers of the 19th century, Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The huge ship was built to transport passengers from England to distant India and Australia without visiting ports to refuel. Brunel conceived his brainchild as the safest ship in the world - the Grand Orient had a double hull that protected it from flooding. When at one time the ship received a hole larger than the Titanic, it not only remained afloat, but was able to continue its voyage. The technology for building such large ships had not yet been developed at that time, and the construction of the “Great East” was marred by many deaths of workers working at the dock. The floating colossus was launched for two whole months - the winches broke down, several workers were injured. A disaster also occurred when the engine was started - the steam boiler exploded, scalding several people with boiling water. Engineer Brunel died upon learning of this. Infamous even before it set sail, the 4,000-person Grand Orient set off on its maiden voyage on June 17, 1860, with just 43 passengers and 418 crew on board. And in the future there were few people willing to sail across the ocean on the “unlucky” ship. In 1888, they decided to dismantle the ship for scrap metal.
Steamship "Great East"
Steamship "Great Britain"
The first metal-hulled screw steamship, the Great Britain, rolled off the slipways on July 19, 1943. Its designer, Isombard Brunel, was the first to combine the latest achievements on one large ship. Brunel set out to transform the long and dangerous transatlantic passenger transport into fast and luxurious sea travel. The huge steam engines of the Great Britain steamship consumed 70 tons of coal per hour, produced 686 horsepower and occupied three decks. Immediately after its launch, the steamship became the largest iron ship in the world with a propeller, marking the beginning of the era of steam liners. But this metal giant also had sails, just in case. On July 26, 1845, the steamship Great Britain set off on its maiden voyage across the Atlantic with 60 passengers on board and 600 tons of cargo. The steamer moved at a speed of approximately 17 km/h and after 14 days and 21 hours entered the port of New York. After three years of successful flights, the Great Britain failed. On September 22, 1846, the steamer, crossing the Irish Sea, found itself dangerously close to the shore, and the rising tide brought the ship ashore. There was no disaster - when the tide went out, the passengers were lowered from board to the ground and transported in carriages. A year later, the Great Britain was rescued from captivity, a canal was broken, and the ship was back on the water.
The huge transatlantic steam liner Titanic, which claimed the lives of more than a thousand passengers
Steamship Titanic
The infamous Titanic was the largest passenger liner in the world at the time of its construction. This city steamship weighed 46,000 tons and was 880 feet long. In addition to the cabins, the superliner had gyms, swimming pools, oriental baths and a cafe. The Titanic, which set sail from the English coast on April 12, could accommodate up to 3,000 passengers and about 800 crew members and moved at a maximum speed of 42 km/h. On the fateful night of April 14-15, when it collided with an iceberg, the Titanic was traveling exactly at this speed - the captain was trying to break the world record for ocean-going steamships. There were 1,309 passengers and 898 crew on board at the time of the shipwreck. Only 712 people were saved, 1495 died. There were not enough lifeboats for everyone; most of the passengers remained on the ship without hope of salvation. On April 15, at 2:20 a.m., a giant passenger ship, making its first voyage, sank. The survivors were picked up by the ship "Carpathia". But even on it, not all those rescued were transported to New York alive and well - some of the Titanic passengers died on the way, some lost their minds.
What is a steamboat?
A steamboat is a water vehicle propelled by steam power through the rotation of propellers or paddle wheels. The prefix SS, S.S. or S/S (for screw steamers) or PS (for paddle steamers) is sometimes used to designate steamships, but these designations are most often used to designate seagoing steamships (steamship).
The term steamboat refers to small, island, steam-powered vessels operating on lakes and rivers; more often, river vessels are called this. After the use of steam energy began to justify itself in terms of reliability, steam power began to be used on larger, ocean-going ships.
The history of the steamship
Who invented the first steamboat?
Early attempts to equip a boat with a steam engine were carried out by the French inventor Denis Papin and the English inventor Thomas Newcomen. Papin invented a steam autoclave (like a pressure cooker) and experimented with closed cylinders and pistons pushed by atmospheric pressure, similar to the pump built by Thomas Savery in England during the same period. Papin proposed using this steam pump for use on a wheeled boat and tried to sell his idea in Great Britain. It was unable to successfully convert the motion of the piston into rotational motion and its steam could not produce sufficient pressure. Newcomen's design solved the first problem, but remained constrained by the limitations of the engines of the time.
The steamboat was described and patented by the English physician John Allen in 1729. In 1736, Jonathan Hulls received a patent in England for a steamboat powered by a Newcomen engine (using a pulley instead of a drawbar, and a ratchet latch to achieve rotational motion), but it was the improvement of steam engines by James Watt that made the concept feasible. William Henry Lancaster, Pennsylvania, learned about Watt's engine during a trip to England and made his own engine. In 1763 he put it on a boat. The boat sank, and although Henry made an improved model, he was not very successful, although he may have inspired others.
The first steam-powered ship, the Pyroscaphe, was powered by a Newcomen steam engine; it was built in France in 1783 by the Marquis Claude de Geoffroy and his colleagues as a modernization of the earlier Palmipède model of 1776. During its first demonstration on July 15, 1783, the Piroscap sailed against the flow of the Saône River for fifteen minutes until a technical failure occurred. The malfunction was probably not serious, as the ship is said to have made several more such trips. Following this, de Geoffroy tried to interest the government in his work, but for political reasons he was asked to build another version of the vessel, this time on the Seine in Paris. But De Geoffroy did not have the funds for this, and after the events of the French Revolution, work on the project was stopped, as the inventor left the country.
Similar boats were made in 1785 by John Fitch in Philadelphia and William Symington in Dumfries, Scotland. Fitch successfully tested his cutter in 1787, and in 1788, he began regular commercial service along the Delaware River between Philadelphia and Burlington, New Jersey, carrying at least 30 passengers. This boat typically reached speeds of 11 to 13 km/h and traveled more than 3,200 km during its short service. Fitch's cutter was not a commercial success because the route was properly served by relatively good rail service. The following year, a second boat served a 26-mile excursion, and a third boat was tested on the Delaware River in 1790 before patent disputes discouraged Fitch from continuing.
At the same time, Patrick Miller of Dalswinton, near Dumfries in Scotland, developed double-hulled boats propelled manually by cranked paddle wheels located between the hulls, and even tried to interest various European governments in a giant version of the warship, 75 m in length. Miller sent King Gustav III of Sweden a working scale model, 30 m long, called the "Experiment". Then, in 1785, Miller hired engineer William Symington to build his patent steam engine, which drove the cutter's stern paddle wheel. The vessel was successfully tried on Lake Dalswinton in 1788 and was followed by a large steamship the following year. But Miller soon abandoned this project.
Steamboats in the 19th century
Patrick Miller's failed project attracted the attention of Lord Dundas, manager of the Forth and Clyde Canal Company, and at a meeting with the directors of the company on June 5, 1800, his proposals for the use on the canal of "Captain Shank's model of a ship, powered by Mr. Symington's steam engine" were approved ".
The vessel was built by Alexander Hart at Grangemouth and was powered by a Symington engine with vertical cylinders and cable transmission of power to a crank that turned the paddle wheels. Trials on the River Carron in June 1801 involved towing ships from the River Forth down the River Carron and thence along the Forth-Clyde Canal, where they were successful.
In 1801, Symington patented a horizontal steam engine connected directly to a crank. He received support from Lord Dundas to build a second steamship, which became known as the Charlotte Dundas, named after Lord Dundas' daughter. Symington designed a new hull for his powerful horizontal engine, with a crank driven large paddle wheel enclosed in the center of the hull to prevent damage to the canal banks. The new ship had a wooden hull and was 17.1 m long, 5.5 m wide and 2.4 m deep. The steamboat was built by John Allan and the engine was built by the Carron Company.
The maiden voyage took place on the Glasgow canal on 4 January 1803 with Lord Dundas and some of his relatives and friends on board. The crowd were pleased with what they saw, but Symington wanted to make improvements, and another more ambitious test was made on 28 March. This time, the Charlotte Dundas towed two 70-ton barges 30 km along the Forth Clyde Canal in Glasgow, and despite the "strong headwind" that stopped all other canal vessels, it took her only nine and a quarter hours to complete the passage. which amounted to an average speed of about 3 km/h. The Charlotte Dundas was the first practical steamship in the sense that she demonstrated the practicality of steam power for ships, and was the first steamship to begin their continuous production and development.
American Robert Fulton attended the trials of the Charlotte Dundas and was intrigued by the steamship's potential. While working in France, he was an assistant and corresponded with the Scottish engineer Henry Bell, who may have given him the first model of his working steamboat. He designed his own steamboat, which sailed on the Seine River in 1803.
He later received Watt's steam engine, which was taken to America, where he built his first real steamboat in 1807. This was the North River Steamboat (later known as the Clermont) and carried passengers between New York City and Albany, New York. Claremont was able to complete the voyage of 150 miles (240 km) in 32 hours. The steamer was equipped with a Bolton-Watt engine and was capable of long-distance voyages. It was the first commercially successful steamship to carry passengers on the Hudson River.
In October 1811, the John Stevens-designed ship Little Juliana operated as the first steam ferry between Hoboken and New York. Stevens's ship was designed as a twin-screw steamship, as opposed to the Bolton-Watt engine on the Claremont. This design was a modification of Stevens's previous steamship, The Phoenix, the first steamship to successfully operate open ocean voyages from Hoboken to Philadelphia.
Henry Bell's PS Comet opened passenger traffic on the River Clyde in Scotland in 1812.
The Margery, launched at Dumbarton in 1814, became the first steamship on the River Thames in January 1815, much to the surprise of Londoners. She sailed from London to Gravesend until 1816, when she was sold to the French and became the first steamship to cross the English Channel. When she reached Paris, her new owners renamed her Elise and opened a steamship service on the Seine River.
In 1818, Ferdinando I, the first Italian steamship, left the port of Naples, where it was built.
The first sea steamship
The first seagoing steamship was Richard Wright's Experiment, a former French lugger; he, having sailed from Leeds to Yarmouth, arrived at Yarmouth on July 19, 1813. "Tug" - the first tug boat, was launched by the Wood brothers in Port Glasgow on November 5, 1817. In the summer of 1818 she became the first steamship to sail across Northern Scotland to the East Coast.
Use of steamships
The era of the steamboat began in Philadelphia in 1787 when John Fitch (1743-1798) made the first successful test of a 14-meter steamboat on the Delaware River on August 22, 1787, in the presence of members of the United States Constitutional Convention. Fitch later built a larger vessel that carried passengers and cargo on the Delaware River between Philadelphia and Burlington, New Jersey. His ship was not a financial success and was closed after several months of service.
Oliver Evans (1755-1819) - Philadelphia inventor, was born in Newport, Delaware into a family of Welsh settlers. He developed an improved high-pressure steam engine in 1801, but did not build it (patented in 1804). The Philadelphia Board of Health was concerned with the problem of dredging and clearing ship repair docks, and in 1805 Evans persuaded them to contract with him to develop a steam-powered dredge, which he called the "Oruktor Amphibolos". The dredge was built, but had only minor success. Evans' high-pressure steam engine had a significantly high power-to-weight ratio, making it practical for use on locomotives and steamships. Evans was so depressed by the poor protection that US patent law afforded inventors that he eventually took all his technical drawings and invention sketches and destroyed them to prevent his children from wasting their time fighting patent infringement lawsuits.
Robert Fulton and Robert Livingston, who owned extensive properties on the Hudson River in New York, met in 1802 and drew up an agreement to build a steamboat to service the route between New York and Albany, New York on the Hudson River. They successfully obtained a monopoly on navigation on the Hudson River after Livingston broke a preliminary agreement of 1797 with John Stevens, who owned extensive land on the Hudson River in New Jersey. The former agreement gave the northern Hudson River route to Livingston and the southern route to Stevens, with the agreement to use ships designed by Stevens for both routes. With the beginning of the new monopoly, the Fulton and Livingston steamship, named Claremont in honor of Livingston's estate, was able to turn a profit. Among doubters, Claremont earned the nickname "Fulton's Folly." On Monday, August 17, 1807, Claremont's memorable maiden voyage up the Hudson River began. The ship traveled 240 km to Albany in 32 hours and covered the return journey in about 8 hours.
Fulton's success in 1807 was soon followed by the use of steamboats on major rivers in the United States. In 1811, the first continuous (still (in 2007) commercial passenger service) line began operating river steamboats, leaving its dock in Pittsburgh to travel down the Ohio River to Mississippi and New Orleans. In 1817, a consortium in Sackets Harbor, New York financed the construction of the first American steamship, the Ontario, to navigate Lake Ontario and the Great Lakes, ushering in the growth of lake-based commercial and passenger shipping. In his book Life on the Mississippi, river pilot and author Mark Twain described the operation of such vessels.
Types of vessels and ships
By 1849, the shipping industry had entered a period of transition from sailing ships to steam ships and from wooden structures to an ever-increasing number of metal structures. Three different types of ships were then generally used: standard sailing ships of several different types, clippers, and paddle steamers with paddles mounted on the sides or stern. River steamers typically used rear-mounted paddle wheels and had flat bottoms and shallow hulls, being designed to carry large loads on mostly flat and sometimes shallow rivers. Ocean-going paddle steamers typically used side-wheel paddles and used narrower, deeper hulls designed for travel in the stormy weather often encountered at sea. The design of a vessel's hull is often based on that of a clipper ship, with additional bracing to support the stresses and deformations transmitted by the paddle wheels when they come into contact with rough waters.
The first paddle steamer to make a long voyage on the ocean was the 320-ton, 30-meter SS Savannah, built in 1819 specifically to carry mail and passengers from Liverpool, England. On May 22, 1819, the lookout on the Savannah sighted Ireland after a 23-day sea voyage. Aller's Ironworks in New York supplied the Savannah's engine cylinder, while the remainder of the engine and chassis components were manufactured by the Speedwell Ironworks in New Jersey. The 90-horsepower low-pressure engine was of an inclined direct-acting type, with one 100 cm cylinder and a 1.5 m stroke. The Savannah's engine and technology were unusually large for its time. The ship's wrought iron wheels were 16 feet in diameter with eight scoops on each wheel. For kindling, the ship took on board 75 short tons of coal and 25 bundles of firewood.
The Savannah was too small to carry much fuel, and the engine was intended only for use in calm weather and for sailing in and out of harbors. With favorable winds, the sails alone were able to provide a speed of at least four knots. Savannah was considered a commercial failure, the engine was removed from her, and she was converted back into a regular sailing vessel. By 1848, steamships built by both American and British shipbuilders were being used to carry passengers and mail across the Atlantic Ocean, making 4,800-kilometre voyages.
Because paddle steamers typically required 5 to 16 short tons of coal (4.5 to 14.5 t) per day to keep them running, they were expensive to operate. Initially, almost all ocean-going steamships were equipped with a mast and sails to supplement the power of the steam engine and provide propulsion when the steam engine required repair or maintenance. These steamships tend to focus on carrying high-value cargo, mail, and passengers, and have only a moderate cargo capacity due to their heavy coal load requirements. The typical paddle wheel vessel was powered by a coal engine, which required stokers to shovel coal into the fireboxes.
By 1849 the propeller had been invented and was slowly being adopted as iron was increasingly used in shipbuilding and the stress created by the propellers could now be carried by ships. Due to progress in the 1800s, the use of wood and lumber in the construction of wooden ships became more expensive, and the production of the iron sheet needed to build an iron ship was much cheaper, since the large ironworks in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales, for example, received iron even more effective. The propeller placed heavy loads on the sterns of ships, and its use did not become widespread until the transition from wooden steamships to iron ships was well underway in the 1860s. By the 1840s, ocean shipping was well established, as demonstrated by the Cunard Line and others. The last sailing frigate of the US Navy, the Santee, left the slipways in 1855.
West Coast Steamships
In the mid-1840s, the acquisition of Oregon and California opened the West Coast to American steamship navigation. Beginning in 1848, Congress subsidized the Pacific Steamship Mail Company with $199,999 to establish regular mail, passenger, and freight routes in the Pacific Ocean. This regular route went from Panama, Nicaragua and Mexico to San Francisco and Oregon. Panama City was the Pacific end of the portage across Panama along the Isthmus of Panama. The contract to carry Atlantic mail from the cities of the East Coast and New Orleans along the Chagres River in Panama was won by the American Mail Steamship Company, whose first paddle steamer, the SS Falcon (1848), was sent on December 1, 1848 to the Caribbean (Atlantic). ) portage terminal Panama Isthmus-Chagres River.
SS California (1848) - the first paddle steamer of the Pacific Mail Shipping Company, left New York on October 6, 1848 only partly loaded with a passenger capacity of about 60 first class passengers (about $300 fare) and 150 third class passengers (about $150 toll). Only a few made it all the way to California. The crew consisted of about 36 people. The California left New York long before confirmation of reports of the California Gold Rush reached the East Coast. As soon as the California Gold Rush was confirmed by President James Polk in his Address to the United States on December 5, 1848, people began rushing to Panama City to catch the California. The California took on more passengers at Valparaiso, Chile, Panama City and Panama City, and on February 28, 1849, she appeared at San Francisco laden with about 400 passengers—a number twice her calculated capacity. She did not take on board about 400 - 600 potential passengers who wanted to get out of Panama City. The California sailed from Panama and Mexico after rounding Cape Horn en route from New York.
The paddle steamer route to Panama and Nicaragua from New York, Philadelphia, Boston, via New Orleans and Havana was a distance of about 2,600 miles (4,200 km) and took about two weeks. Traveling across the Isthmus of Panama or Nicaragua typically takes about one week by local canoe and mule back. The 6,400 km trip from San Francisco to Panama City can be made by paddle steamer in about three weeks. In addition to this time, the Panama route typically had a two to four week waiting period to find a ship going from Panama City to San Francisco before 1850. Only in 1850 did a sufficient number of paddle steamers appear capable of making regular trips across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
Other steamships soon followed, and by late 1849, paddle steamers such as the SS McKim (1848) were carrying miners and their supplies along the 201 km (201 km) route from San Francisco up the vast Sacramento-San Joaquin River delta to Stockton ( California), Marysville (CA), Sacramento, etc. to get 201 km closer to the gold mines. Steam and non-steam tugboats began operating in San Francisco Bay shortly thereafter to make it easier for ships to enter and leave the bay.
As the boom in highly profitable passenger, mail, and freight service to and from California grew, more paddle steamers were put into service—eleven by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company alone. The trip from California via Panama by steamship, without waiting for space on the ship, took approximately 40 days, which was 100 days less than by wagon or 160 days less than the route around Cape Horn. About 20-30% of the Argonauts from California are believed to have returned to their homes, mostly to the East Coast of the United States via Panama, the fastest route. Many returned to California after incorporating their businesses in the East with their wives, families and/or lovers. The most heavily used route was via Panama or Nicaragua until 1855, when the completion of the Panama Railroad made the Panama route much easier, faster, and more reliable. Between 1849 and 1869, while the first transcontinental railroad across the United States was being completed, approximately 800,000 travelers took the route through Panama. Most traveled east through Panama on paddle steamers, mule wagons and canoes, and later on the Panama Railroad through Panama. After 1855, when the Panama Railroad was completed, the Panama Route became the fastest and easiest way to get to California from the East Coast of the United States or Europe. Most California-related goods were still shipped via the slower but cheaper sailing route via Cape Horn. The sinking of the steamship Central America (Gold Ship) during a storm on September 12, 1857 and the loss of approximately $2 million in California gold indirectly led to the Panic of 1857.
Steamboat navigation, including passenger and freight traffic, grew exponentially in the decades before the Civil War. Which also led to economic and human losses, in addition to those caused by snags, shoals, boiler explosions and human errors.
During the American Civil War, the Battle of Hampton Roads, often called either the Battle of the Monitor and the Merrimack or the Battle of the Ironclad, was fought over two days (March 8–9, 1862) using ironclad steam ships. The battle took place at Hampton Roads, in the roadstead into Virginia where the Elizabeth and Nansemond Rivers meet the James River just before entering Chesapeake Bay adjacent to the city of Norfolk. The battle was part of the Confederate States of America's efforts to break the Union naval blockade that had cut off Virginia from all international trade.
The Civil War in the West was fought to gain control of major rivers, especially the Mississippi and Tennessee Rivers, where wheeled ships were used. Only the Union had them (the Confederates captured a few but could not use them.) The Battle of Vicksburg involved scout ships and ironclads. USS Cairo is an ironclad that survived the Battle of Vicksburg. Merchant river traffic, suspended for two years by the Confederate blockade of the Mississippi until the Northern victory at Vicksburg, was resumed on July 4, 1863. The victory of the Eads-class ironclads and Farragut's capture of New Orleans secured the river for the Union.
Although Union forces gained control of tributaries of the Mississippi River, river travel continued to be suppressed by the Confederates. The ambush of the J.R. Williams, which was carrying supplies from Fort Smith to Fort Gibson on the Arkansas River on July 16, 1863, demonstrated this. The steamer was destroyed, its cargo was lost, and the small Allied escort fled. However, these losses did not affect the military achievements of the North.
The worst of all steamship accidents occurred at the end of the Civil War in April 1865, when the steamship Sultana, overloaded with Union soldiers returning from southern captivity, exploded, killing more than 1,700 people.
River transport
For much of the 19th century and early 20th century, the merchant marine fleet on the Mississippi River was dominated by paddle steamers. Their use generated rapid economic development in port cities. Agricultural and primary products were developed that could be most easily transported to markets, and settlements along major rivers flourished. This success of steamships led them to penetrate deep into the continent, where the Anson Northup in 1859 became the first steamship to cross the border between Canada and the United States along the Red River. They also took part in major political events, such as those that occurred when Louis Riel captured the International at Fort Garry, or Gabriel Dumont occupied the Northcote at Batoche. Steamboats were held in such high esteem that they became state symbols. The steamboat Iowa (1838) is included in the Iowa state seal because it symbolizes speed, power and progress.
At the same time, expanding steamboat traffic had a major negative impact on the environment, especially in the Middle Mississippi Valley, between St. Louis and the river's confluence with the Ohio. Steamboats consumed a lot of wood for fuel, and the forests in the river's floodplain and on the banks were cut down. This resulted in unstabilized banks, allowing silt into the water, making the river shallower and therefore wider, and causing unpredictable, lateral movement of the river bed across the wide, ten-mile floodplain, compromising navigation. Vessels designed to fish out snags to keep the canals clear had crews who sometimes cut down the remaining large trees or more beyond the banks, exacerbating the problem. In the 19th century, flooding on the Mississippi became a greater problem than when the floodplain was filled with trees and shrubs.
Most of the ships were destroyed by boiler explosions or fires, many sank in the river, and some are now buried in the mud as the river changed its course. From 1811 to 1899, 156 steamboats sank into snags or crashed on rocks between St. Louis and the Ohio River. Another 411 were damaged by fires, explosions or crushed by ice during this period. One of the few surviving Mississippi steamships of the period with a wheel on the stern, the Julius C. Wilkie was operated as a museum ship in Winona, Minnesota, until it was destroyed by fire in 1981.
From 1844 to 1857, luxury palace steamships carried passengers and cargo across the North American Great Lakes. Great Lakes passenger steamships reached their zenith during the century from 1850 to 1950. The SS Badger is the last of the once numerous passenger car ferries operating on the Great Lakes. The unique style of bulk carrier known as the lake truck was developed on the Great Lakes. St. Marys Challenger, launched in 1906, is the oldest operating steamship in the United States. A marine 4-cylinder reciprocating steam engine is installed as a power unit. However, the steam yacht Gondola is even older and still operates on Coniston Water in the UK.
Steamboats also operated on the Red River at Shreveport, Louisiana, after Captain Henry Miller Shreve cleared the jam.
Oldest operating steamship
The Belle of Louisville is the oldest operating steamship in the United States, and the oldest operating Mississippi-style steamship in the world. It was launched as "Idlewild" in 1914 and is currently located in Louisville, Kentucky.
Steamboats at present
Five large commercial steamships currently operate on the inland waterways of the United States. The only remaining overnight cruise ship is the American Queen, which carries 432 passengers and runs weeklong cruises on the Mississippi, Ohio, Cumberland and Tennessee rivers 11 months a year. Other daytime steamers: "Chautauqua Belle" on Lake Chautauqua (New York); "Minne Ha-Ha" in Lake George (New York); "Belle of Louisville" in Louisville (Kentucky), operating on the Ohio River; and "Natchez" in New Orleans (Louisiana), operating on the Mississippi River.
During World War II, Kaiser's Richmond Shipyards in Richmond, California (a Kaiser facility) operated four shipyards located in Richmond, California and one shipyard in Los Angeles. Kaiser had other shipyards in Washington State and other states. They were managed by Kaiser-Permanente Metals and Kaiser Shipyards. Richmond Shipyards was responsible for the production of the majority of Liberty ships during World War II, 747 ships—more than any other shipyard in the United States. The Liberty ships were chosen for mass production because their somewhat antiquated design was relatively simple, and their triple expansion steam piston engine components were simple enough to be manufactured by a few companies that were not critically needed to make other parts. The shipbuilding industry was given high priority for the supply of steel and other necessary components, since more ships were sunk by German submarines before 1944 than all the shipyards in the United States could build. American shipyards built approximately 5,926 ships during World War II and more than 100,000 small vessels manufactured for the U.S. Army's naval units.
In Canada, Terrace, British Columbia (BC) celebrates Riverboat Days every summer. Built on the banks of the Skeena River, the city depended on steamships for transportation and trade in the 20th century. The first steamship to enter Skeena was the Union. This happened in 1864. In 1866, the Mumford attempted to ascend the river, but was only able to reach the Kitsumkalum River. No one succeeded until 1891; only the Hudson Bay Company's sternwheeler Caledonia succeeded in passing Kitselas Canyon and reaching Gazelton. A number of other steamships were built at the turn of the 20th century, partly due to the growing fishing industry and gold rush.
Steamships equipped with stern wheels became an instrumental and transport technology for the development of Western Canada. They were used on most of the shipping routes of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia and the Yukon at one time or another, generally with shipping superseded by the expansion of railways and roads. In the more mountainous and remote areas of the Yukon and British Columbia, working sternwheel steamships continued well into the 20th century.
The simplicity of these ships and their shallow draft made them indispensable to pioneers who were otherwise virtually cut off from the outside world. Because of their shallow, flat-bottomed design (Canadian examples of western river sternwheelers typically required less than three feet of water to float), they could land almost anywhere on the riverbank to pick up or disembark passengers and cargo. Sternwheel steamers also proved vital in the construction of the railroads that eventually replaced them. They were used to transport cargo, rails and other materials for the construction of camps.
The simple, general-purpose locomotive-type boilers found on most sternships after about the 1860s could be fired by coal, if available, in densely populated areas such as the lakes of the Kootenays and Okanagan regions of southern British Columbia, or by wood in more remote areas. , as did the steamboats of the Yukon River or northern British Columbia.
Hulls were generally made of wood, although iron, steel and composite hulls were gradually gaining ground. They were internally strengthened by a series of built-in longitudinal beams called "keelsons". Further stability of the hull was achieved by a system of “deflection rods” or “deflection nets”, which were strengthened into keelsons and led up and behind the vertical masts, called “deflection pillars”, and back down.
Like their counterparts on the Mississippi and its tributaries, and vessels on the rivers of California, Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Alaska, Canadian sternwheelers generally had a fairly short service life. The harsh operating conditions and the inherent flexibility of their shallow wooden hulls meant that relatively few lasted longer than ten years.
In the Yukon, two ships remain: the SS Klondike in Whitehorse and the SS Keno in Dawson City. Many abandoned shipwrecks can still be found along the Yukon River.
In British Columbia, the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) built the steamship Moyie in 1898 and operated until 1957 on Kootenay Lake in southeastern British Columbia. It has been restored and displayed in the village of Kaslo, where it is used as a tourist attraction in close proximity to the Kaslo Visitor Centre. Moyi is the world's oldest intact stern paddle steamer. While the SS Sicamous and SS Naramata (steam tug and icebreaker) built by the Canadian Pacific Railway at Okanagan Landing on Okanagan Lake in 1914, are preserved in Penticton at the southern end of Okanagan Lake.
The SS Samson V is the only Canadian sternwheeler still afloat. She was built in 1937 by the Canadian federal Department of Public Works as a ship to clear logs and debris from the lower Fraser River and to maintain docks and navigational aids. The fifth in the Fraser River line of snagheads, Samson the Fifth has engines, paddle wheels and other components that were transferred to it from the 1914 Samson the Second, currently moored on the Fraser River as floating museum in his home port of New Westminster, near Vancouver in British Columbia.
The oldest operating steam ship in North America is the RMS Segwun. It was built in Scotland in 1887 for cruise routes on Lake Muskoka in the county of the same name in Ontario, Canada. Originally named "SS Nipissing", she was converted from a steamship with side-mounted paddle wheels and a beam engine to a steamship with two counter-rotating propellers.
It is believed that the engineer Robert Furness and his cousin, the physician James Ashworth, came to own the steamship operating between Hull and Beverley after they were granted British Patent No. 1640 of March 1788 for "a new invented machine for working, hauling, accelerating and to facilitate the navigation of ships, boats and barges and other vessels on the water." James Oldham - Member of the Institution of Civil Engineers (MICE), described how well he knew those who built the F&A steamship in his lecture entitled "On the Rise, Progress and Present State of the Hull Shipping Company", which he gave on 7 September 1853 at 23 - meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in Hull, England. With the first commercially successful steamship in Europe, Henry Bell's Comet, the rapid expansion of the steamship system on the Firth of Clyde began in 1812, and within four years steamships were in operation. on the inland Loch Lomond, as a harbinger of the lake steamers that still grace the scenery of the Swiss lakes.
There were almost fifty steamships on the Clyde itself within ten years of the launch of the Comet in 1812, and steamship traffic also began on the Irish Sea at Belfast and in many British estuaries. By 1900 there were over 300 steamships on the Clyde.
People had a special affection for Clyde steamships, small steam-powered freight craft of traditional design designed for use on the Scottish canals and for service in the Highlands and Islands. They were immortalized by Neil Munro's stories of the Vital Spark and the film Maggie, and a small number are now preserved to continue steam navigation of the sea lake arms of the Western Highlands.
From 1850 until the early decades of the 20th century, Windermere, in the English Lakes region, was home to many elegant steam launches. They were used for private parties, watching yacht races or, in some cases, for transportation to work across the rail connection at Barrow-in-Furness. Many of these fine ships were saved from destruction when steam went out of fashion, and part of the collection is now housed in the Windermere Steamship Museum. The collection includes the SL Dolly (1850), believed to be the world's oldest power-driven vessel, and several classic Windermere longboats.
Today, the 1900s steamship SS Sir Walter Scott still sails on Loch Katrine, while the PS Maid of the Loch is being restored on Loch Lomond, and the most The oldest active passenger yacht on the English lakes, SY Gondola (built 1859, restored 1979), sails daily on Coniston Water during the summer season.
The paddle steamer Waverley, built in 1947, is the last survivor of these fleets, and the last seagoing paddle steamer in the world. The ship makes all-season cruises around Britain every year and has visited the English Channel in memory of her 1899-built predecessor, which sank at the Battle of Dunkirk in 1940.
After the Clyde, the Thames Estuary became a major growth area for steamships, starting with the Margery and Thames in 1815, which both came from the Clyde. Until the advent of the railways in 1838, steamships reliably filled the role of many sailing ships and paddle ferries, with at least 80 ferries operating routes from London to Gravesend and Margate, and upstream to Richmond, until 1830. By 1835, the Diamond Steamship Mail and Passenger Company, one of several popular companies, reported carrying more than 250,000 passengers in one year.
The first metal-hulled steamship, the Aaron Munby, was laid down at the Horsley Ironworks in Staffordshire in 1821 and launched at Surrey Docks in Rotherhithe. After testing on the Thames, the ship went to Paris, where it was operated on the Seine River. Three similar iron steamships were followed within a few years.
The SL (steam launch) 'Nuneham' is an authentic Victorian steamship, built in 1898 and operated on the non-tidal upper Thames by the Thames Steam Packet Boat Company. It is anchored at Runnymede.
"SL Nuneham" was built at the port of Brimscombe on the Thames and Severn Canal by Edwin Clarke. It was built for the Salter Brothers Company in Oxford to regularly transport passengers between Oxford and Kingston. Sissons' original triple expansion steam engine was removed in the 1960s and replaced with a diesel engine. In 1972, SL Nuneham was sold to a London shipowner and arrived at Westminster Pier for service at Hampton Court. In 1984 the ship was sold once again - now virtually abandoned - to French Brothers Ltd in Runnymede as a restoration project.
Over the years, French Brothers have carefully restored the original specification. A similar Sissons triple expansion engine was found in a museum in America, shipped to Britain and installed, along with a new coal-fired Scottish boiler designed and built by Alan McEwan of Keighley, Yorkshire. The superstructure has been restored with original design and elegance, including a raised roof, wood paneled saloon and open upper deck. The restoration was completed in 1997 and a 106-passenger MCA passenger certificate was granted for launch. "SL Nuneham" was commissioned by French Brothers Ltd but operated under the flag of the Thames Steam Packet Boat Company.
Steamships in Europe
Built in 1856, the PS Skibladner is the oldest steamship still in operation, serving towns along the shores of Lake Mjøsa in Norway.
In Denmark, steamboats were a popular means of transportation in earlier times, and were used mainly for recreational purposes. They were adapted to carry passengers short distances along coastlines or across large lakes. Built in 1861, the PS Skibladner ranks second as the oldest steamship in service and sails on Lake Julsø near Silkeborg.
The 1912 steamship TSS Earnslaw still makes regular excursion trips on the high-altitude Lake Wakatipu, near Queenstown in New Zealand.
Swiss lakes became a haven for a number of large steamships. On Lake Lucerne, five paddle steamers are still in service: Uri (1901) (built 1901, 800 passengers), Unterwalden (1902) (1902, 800 passengers), Schiller " (1906) (1906, 900 passengers), "Gallia" (1913) (1913, 900 passengers, the fastest paddle steamer on the European lakes) and "City of Lucerne" (1928) (1928, 1200 passengers, the last steamship built for Swiss lake). There are also five steamers converted, as is the case with some old ships, into diesel wheeled vessels on the shores of Lake Geneva, two steamers on Lake Zurich and the rest on other lakes.
In Austria, the vintage paddle steamer Gisela (1871) (250 passengers) continues to operate on Lake Traunsee.
Steamboats in Vietnam
Seeing the enormous potential of steam ships, the Vietnamese Emperor Minh Mang attempted to reproduce the French steamship. The first test in 1838 was unsuccessful because the boiler failed. The project manager was chained and two officials Nguyen Trung Mau and Ngo Kim Lan from the Ministry of Construction were jailed for making false reports. The project was again entrusted to Hoang Van Lich and Vo Huy Trinh. The second test two months later was successful. The Emperor generously gifted two new performers. He noted that although this machine could be purchased in the West, it was important that his engineers and mechanics could become familiar with modern technology, so no expense was spared. Encouraged by the success, Minh Mang ordered engineers to study and develop steam engines and steamships to equip his navy. By the end of Minh Mang's reign, 3 steamships were produced, named Yen Phi, Van Phi and Vu Phi. However, his successor was unable to save the industry due to financial problems complicated by years of social unrest caused by his rule.
