PROGRESS OF STEAM NAVIGATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12602, 17 June 1904, Page 2 (Supplement)

PROGRESS OF STEAM NAVIGATION.

.. . l FROM THE WHERRY TO THE TURBINE. XOBD Invebcitde, chairman of the Cunard Company, lately said that one of the things which trouble shipowners to-day i» that they never seemed to come "to an end with the siae of the ships, which is continually being increased, as is also the power of the engines. The pioneers thought perfection was Jwssched with paddles; the stage of paddles ia'passed, and so is that of single screws. Engineers are even now considering whether they can be satisfied with twin screws. It has been suggested that some day they may find themselves with screws all round the ships. ::'■.'.' _ Our present stage of progress 'in steam navigation has been reached within less than a hundred years (says Chambers' Journal, in an interesting article on this subject). This fact is recalled to us by the publication of a volume, "The History ot Steam Navigation," by John Kennedy (Charles Birchall,

Liverpool). ■After some rather futile experiments by twe pioneers in steam. navigation, by name Miller and Taylor, yet Symington persevered, under a new patron, Lord Dundas. Instead . of the clumsy chain and ratchet-wheel system, "he employed a piston-rod guided by rollers in a straight path, connected by a connecting-rod to a crank attached directly to the paddle-wheel shaft, thus devising the system of working the paddle-wheel shaft which has been used evei - since that date." All the trials or the Charlotte Dundas in 1803 were successful, the first steamboat fitted for practical use. Both Fulton, wlio brought out his Clermont, the first American passenger-steamer, on the Hudson in 1807, and Henry Bell, who launched his Comet on" the Clyde in 1812, benefited by a close examination of the Charlotte Dundas. . None of the pioneers seem to have realised the greatness of the revolution which was to follow on these initial efforts. Miller felt he had been squandering money unprofiUably; Henry Bell never made money from the Comet, which plied between Glasgow. Greenock, and Helensburgh; and neither did Fulton from his Clermont on the Hudson. In 1813 there were three more steamers on the Clyde, one of which is believed to have visited Liverpool, in 1815, when there were seven steamers oh the Clyde. It was about this time that Cork and Loudon received the benefit of steam navigation. The Savannah, »n American steamer, was the first to cross the Atlantic from New York to Liverpool, in 1819, en route for St. Petersburg. She took 26 days on her first stage, and did not steam all the time. . ' ' ' / „ From its very novelty, and the spice of danger in taking the first steamer round our uoaste from Glasgow to the Thames, the firs* ocean voyage of a steamboat from the Clyde in 1815 is worth more than passing notice. There was a full narrative of this voyage in Chambers' Journal of May 28, 1857., under the title of " Captain Dodd at Bea." Captaiß Dodd had served in the navy, distinguished himself as an engineer and, . architect, and projected the Thames Tunnel; ;; out, becoming a victim of intemperance, he in poverty. He was entrusted with the task of teking theArgyle to London, a ■steamer which was launched on the Clyde in 3J813, and plied for a year between Glasgow r and Greenock. She was purchased by a | liPndoo company to run between the metropolis and Margate. The Argyle. renamed the Thames, was a packet of 70 ton? register. ;. measuring in her. keel 79 feet, with 16 feet of beam, and fitted with engines of li horse- . power; tho paddles were nine feet in dia,;j meter; there were \ two cabins, one in the forecastle, the other in the sterrt. It was believed at the time that grave perils awaited any captain foolhardy enough to brave the perils of the open sea." With a crew of eight, persons Capfain Dodd sailed ■about the middle of May, 1815, and at the outset narrowly escaped being driven on to ■ the iranbound coast at Portpatrick. Dodd found it impossible to beat off, in the teeth of tie gal© by the united power of steam and sails: he depended entirely on the engine, and laid the vessel's head to the windward, when she managed to make three knots an hour. He gained the Liff&y, whore the appearance of the Thames, as at every port of call on the voyage, attracted much notice. Some naval officers who saw her declared that she could never live in a heavy sea, arid that. there would be groat danger in venturing far from shore. The-boat had a ! id time rounding Land's End, and the rcefcs commanding St. Ives were crowded mth spectators. Thousands of people came i.-' see tho vessel at Portsmouth. On Juno ,11 «he was at the'mouth of the Thames, having done the 758 nautical miles from Dublin in I2l£ hours.

Victor Hugo, in *" Toilers of the Sea." jives an amusing; account of "' Lethierry's Valley," as the first stetraer to run between Guernsey and St Malo was nicknamed. 'The chapels fulminated against" the new sfeamVessel as an " atheistical construction;'' the - Lorn a of the devil were- Sean in the fire-ship, which was named "Devil Boat." It was a flying in the face of Scripture to separate fire and water. ' She is described as too abort, round, and. thick-set. She pitched . very little, but; she rolled a good ''deal, and the paddle-boxes were too high. The mas* wve machinery encumbered her, and to carry & heavy cargo her bulwarks were raised to &n unusual height. The engine was made at" ' Paris; the vessel was built at St. Peters Port. The Durande prospered in spite of the outcries of the owners of cutters, which suggest the Clyde skipper quoted by Mr. Kennedy: he piped all hands, a man "and a ; boy, when a steamboat passed las "slow;V; going sloop, and bade them "kneel down :; and thank God that ye sail in the Almiehiy's : ♦in win', an' no' in the deevil's a in fire an' " : brjmstane, like that spluttering thing there." THE MAMMOTH LINERS OP TO-DAY. The writer then' brings his subject down to the present day by giving a short descrip- , tion of the progress of the Cunard Company. "■■ . At first (he says) the company was called j • " The British ; and North American Royal fe \ Mail Steam Packet Company." The names ; of the earliest vessejs were the, Unicorn, Aca- ;-„; dia, Caledonia, Columbia, and Britannia. The" four "paddle-wheel steamships last ;_ named had engines of 740 indicated '■ horse-' V power, and went at ah average speed of 8£ T: knots an hour. The last of the paddletrfe wheel steamers was the Scotia (1262). The first screw-steamer was the China, followed by the Cuba and "others in 186*. When steel began to be substituted for iron in shipbuilding, thejraagnificent steamer the Servia : .j- was completed in 1881, fitted with the most " modern appliances for comfort and safety. Of later vessels the Etruria made the passage from Queenstown to New York in "five days twenty hours fifty-five minutes. It w&a in the Lucania of this fleet that the Marconi system of wireless telegraphy was first set . op, and in October, 1903, messages were transmitted over a distance of 2000 miles. An agreement was made by the Cunard Company in 1903 with the British Government, by which- the company was to 'build. Wo new screw-steamers, of an average speed of not less than 211 knots, which, along with nil other Cunard ships, were to be at the dis T posal of the Admiralty for hire or purchase when required. The number and tonnage ;, of the vessels of this.and other Atlantic lines are being increased, with every pros- .. pect of severe competition. ' : The largest steamship'in the world, the > Baltic, ha? been built by Messrs. H art and , and "Wolff, Belfast, fe, the White Star Line (whose Ocean has been called a Hotel Cecil afloat), and will be ready in summer. The decoration- and appointments of this vessel are handsome and luxurious. There ie accommodation for about 3000 passengers, besides 350 of a crew. The grand dining- '•■ -saloon, on the upper deck, extends for 75 feet, occupying the full width of the ship, and has seating '.accommodation for 370 { people. . There are twin engines and twin screws, and her whole equipment is such as . to make her one or the finest and fastest . vessel;' afloat. There are ove: 4000 ships of the German merchant marine ot a tonnage , of 1000 tons and more. The Kaiser Wilh&lm 11, and the Kronprinz Wilhelm of the Lloyd line have hitherto hold the world's record for speeds of 23 knots ftn hour. The Deutsoh- ■ land, of the Hamburg-American line, 13 another of these monster ships. There in a world of difference between the four-horse-power little steamer Comet, of 1812, and our (present Atlantic liners, which more and more deserve the nam© of floating palaces. The perfecting and adaptation of the turbine to marine purposes is due to the HonCharles Algernon Parsons, brother of the present Earl of Rosse, and son of the builder « of the great Birr telescope. Three countries are specially concerned in its manufacture, for the patentee* is an Irishman, the works are on the Tyne in England, wliile Messrs. Denny, of Dumbarton, have had much to do in adapting the turbine to the passenger steamer. A leading American engineer irpeßks of building up a great turbine industry in the United States. .. Another American engineer, named Curtis, has brought out a turbine in which the shaft is vertical, and ; not_ horizontal a3 in the Parsons turbine. ' It is a coincidence that the Hon. Charles Algernon Parsons should have a residence at Holoyn Hall, Wylam-on-Tyne, near which :; : •was the birthplace of George Stephenson, the railway pioneer. The electrical and engineering work 3 of 0. A. Parsons and Company are at Heaton, Newcastle-on-Tvne, and the marine turbine works are at Wallsend, where ' thm cover 23 acres The develoDmenfc of

the turbine, whereby it has been made suitable foi the generation of electricity and the propulsion of war and mercantile vessels, has been termed the most important and original departure in steam engineering practice since the compound engine was introduced. The turbine is purely rotary in its action, whether actuated by steam or water, the .turning movement being equal and constant. The Clyde passenger-steamers. King Edward and Queen Alexandra (1902), have been often described. The latter vessel did equal to 25 miles an hour en her trial trip. Of the torpedo-destroyer* fitted with turbine macinery, the Viper and the Cobra were unfortunate. The Turbinia has done 34£ knots an hour. The Queen, for the Dover and Calais passage, and the Brighton, for that between Newhaven and Dieppe, have shortened the time considerably. The first of the two turbine Allan liners, the Victorian, will be ready in autumn, and she will be the largest find swiftest of this fleet. She is being fitted by Messrs. Workman, Clark, and Company, Belfast, in the most modern style for 1500 'passengers. Great power is attained for forward and backward movement, and the reversing power is equal to the forward propelling power. There are throe propellers. In the light of what has been accomplished in less than a century, the prophecy made by Dr. Lardner in 1835 at Liverpool reads rathe» drolly to-day: "As to the project which is announced in the newspapers of making the voyage directly from New York to Liverpool, it is, I have no hesitation in saying, perfectly chimerical, and they may as well talk of nuking a voyage from Liverpool or New York to the moon." Leaving the moon out of the question, British steamers have sailed in all the navigable waters of the globe. 4