FIRST ATLANTIC STEAMER

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 154, 29 June 1912, Page 16

FIRST ATLANTIC STEAMER

INTERVIEW WITH SOLE SURVIVOR. There is elill living in a quiet English rectory a clergyman who, as a, boy, was a passenger on the maiden trip of the first steamship that crossed from Great Britain to New York. The vessel was the paddle steamer Sirius, and the boy of 1838 is the Rev. Vincent E. Raasome, rector of Compton-Bassett, near Calne, the one-time Wiltshire borough which was represented in Parliament by two men of such distinction -as "Bobby" Lowe, afterwards Lord Sber•brooke, and Thomas Babington Macaulay, the historian. ik. Ransome, who is tha sole survivor of that momentous voyage, is quite familiar with its details, thanks to a good memory and to many talks in after life with hig father, an Army officer, who was then going out to tak« part in the, suppreesion of the Papinea-u rebellion, started by a French- Canadian organisation knowa as "File de la Liberte." To a representative of the London Chronicle, Mr. Ransome gave come interesting details of the historic voyage. The Sirius managed to secure by only n, small margin the honour of being first in a race across the_ Atlantic witn another British steamship, the Great Western, which sailed from.- Bristol five days after the Sirius steamed out of Cork, whither "she had" gone to embark some passengers. It was on the 28th March, 1838, that fie Sirius left London for Cork, and many of the passengers were so alarmed by tneir experience of the run down tho English Channel that they left the ship when she reached Cork, and forfeited their passage money rather than proceed on the voyage. When she left Cork there were only six first-class paeeengere on board. These wero the Ransomes — father, two sons, and a daughter — and Mr. and Miss Davenport — father and daughter — noted members of the theatrical profession. "It was on 13th April," Mr. Ransome etatea, "that the Sii'ius steamed away from Cork, and as she passed down the river she was cheered loudly by the thousands of people who lined the shore, and the battery at Monks(Jown fired a salute. The vessel was loaded ahnost down to the water. She was compelled to carry most of her coal on deck, and so short did she run of fuel that she was . obliged to burn every ■ spare yard and spar to keep her engines going." A DOUBLE WELCOME. For several days before the Siriuo reached New York thousands of people had assembled daily on the "Battery," or sea end' of the city, watching the "Narrows" that lead from the Atlantic to the harbour. It> seemed aB if the whole population turned out to witness her arrival. They had scarcely recovered from their surprise when the rival vessel, the Great Western, steamed alongside the Sirius, and the rejoicing was renewid. The bells in the churches and chapels were set ringing, cannon thundered, and people were wild with joy. A new link with the Old Country had been forged, and henceforth those who wished to visit England would no longer be at the mercy of slow sailing vessels, which bore the grim title of"coffin brigs," on account of their un-seaworthi-;ess. The Sirius was a two-masted paddle steamer, built at Leith, in Scotland, in 1537, and she is said to have cost £27,000. She had for a figurehead a dog, which held between its front paws a star, representing Sirius., She was 412 tons burthen, 178 ft in length, 25ft in breadth, and 18ft deep. . t The Titanic — to draw a comparison — had a registered tonnage of 46,328 tons, was 1000 ft long, 112 ft in breadth, , and cost £1,500,000 to build. She had accommodation for 2500 passengers and a crew of 860, and could have taken the SMus into one of her holds.