THE ROMANCE OF STEAM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20366, 21 September 1929, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE ROMANCE OF STEAM.

PIONEER MARINER'S WORK.

STORY OF THE ENTERPRIZE.

"FIRST STEAMER ROUND CAPE.

31 AN OF VISION AND COURAGE,

BY StR ARCHIBALD HUTU)

On tho banks of tho river Mersey, thronged with great passenger liners and cargo vessels, lives the grand-daughter of tho seaman who first rounded the Capo of Good Elopo in a steamer, a little ship of less than 500 tons which consumed so much coal that at times practically everyone on board had to bo pressed into tho arduous and dirty duty of keeping up tho fires. This pioneor navigator of tho sail «-ra not only commanded tho first vessel to steam round the Cape, her ultimate destination being Calcutta; ho doserves to be remembered as a missionary of the eteam ago which was then dawning. Within a few years of tho closo of the Napoleonic War, in which ho took part us ;i lieutenant of tho Royal Navy, James Henry Johnston began to advocate, by voice and pen, tho uso of steamors in place of sailing ships. Ho was a man of vision and no mean tenacity of purpose, for in thoso early days of the nineteenth century tho idea of steam propulsion at sea was not generally approved; Tho Comet with her engines of three horso-powcr had boon launched on the Clyde and had attained a speed of .six miles an hour. A few years .later David Napier had established a regular eteam service between Glasgow and Belfast; and in tho following year ho had begun running small steamships, between Glasgow and Liverpool. About this timo tho Savannah crossed from tho United States to England, her sails supplemented by steam power. But the xiiarino steam engine had fow supporters. Even merchants with goods to sell in distant markets wero not generally impressed with the advantages which it offered. Johnston, in urging strongly that tho reign of the sailing ship was coming to an end, showed no mean courage jis an ollicer of the Navy in going not only against the current of civilian opinion, but against tho opinion hold by the Admiralty.

Official Warning Disregarded.

Tho attitude of tho Lords Commissioners of tho Admiralty was no secret to Johnston, lor in lesponso to a request from the Colonial Otiico that tho mails bet wren Malta and Cyprus—then a T>rnish colony—might bo carried by Menfner, they had replied regretting " tho inability of my Lords Commissioners to comply with tho request of the Colonial Department, as they feel it their bounden duty, upon national and professional groundß, to discourage, to tho utmost of their- ability, the employment of steamvessels as they consider that the introduction of steam is calculated to strike a fatal blow to tho naval supremacy of Iho Empire! and to accede to tho request preferred would be simply to let in the thin edge of tho wedge, and would unquestionably lead to similar demands being made upon tho Admiralty from ether departments." Tho Honorable East India Company and Indian merchants generally had no good word to say for the steam engine, tho latter fearing that the flavour of their tea and other produce would be injuriously affected if this new method of transport were adopted. Johnston was not deterred by official frowns or unoflic'al sarcasms. Though the sailing ship then held undisputed sway on the seas and oceans of tho world, he championed the marine steam engine, then n very feeble and unreliable agent, in faco of all opposition. He even drew up plans for a steam servico to India.

A Voyage ol Adventure,

Johnston was fortunate in ha-ving Influential friends in London and Calcutta, mid as a result of meetings which ho 'organised and addressed in both cities. b widespread agitation was initiated, with » substantial backing. Ilis claims wore, of course, ridiculed in some quarters. Johnston,' however, was not to bo discouraged by men of little -faith and ho succeeded in raising sufficient money to / build tho' ship' of his dreams, which was christened, appropriately, the Enterprise. A ship of to-day on the Cape route will be a vessel of possibly 20,000 tons, but the Enterprise was of only 479 tons; the length of her keel was 122 ft. and her beam was 27ft.; her paddle-wheels—for there was no thought then of tho screw propeller—had a diameter of 15ft. She was equipped with two,, engines of 60 horse-power each, then regarded with wonder, and a copper boiler in one piece, which weighed 32 tons and cost £7OOO, was installed in her. Provision was rnado 7 for storing about 300 tons of coal, for though tho Enterprize had sails, her designers were fearful lest she should run out of fuel, thus exposing them to the contempt of those who regarded this yenture unfavourably.

Wondrous Object at Capetown.

On tho completion of tho Enterprize ehe wa3 placed under tho command of Johnston, .and after leaving Gravesend, on- August 3, 1825, she sailed from Falmouth on August 16, with seventeen passengers and a small quantity of cargo. :.,She reached the Capo on October 13. /' A great crowd," it is recorded, " gathered on the foreshore to admiro the wondrous object that could move at will 1 >vithout regard to the direction of the ■wiad. and to the' accompaniment, it must be saidi of "a mighty puffing and volume of . smoke." ' Tho Enterprizo, completed tho voyage 'to Calcutta, but it took so long—ll3 days -r-that eveiyono, not excluding her captain, was'. disappointed, foe under favourable conditions of wind the great East Indiainon, at loss expense, could make tho .voyage from London to Calcutta in 90 days. The log of this historic voyage is still v to' be. seen in tho Science Museum at South' Kensington. Johnston presented it to ono of the partners of tho famous .firm of Maudslay. Sons and Field, marino crigirieors, who built the ship s engines, nnd it passed in courso of time into this great national indeed Imperial, reposi- ; tory. A few years ago Engineer Captain Edgar C.' Smith, R.N., studied its pages, yellowing with age, and made a series of extracts which havo no littlo interest owing to the light which they shed on the..conditions in which this pioneer voyago under steam was made.

Extracts from the Log.

Captain Smith clioso tlie mainly illustrate tho procedure regarding tho working of the engines and tho supply of coal, upon which, it,was realised, tho success of the voyage depended. These aro a few early entries in this log:

I uesday, August 10. 1823.—Draft of water forward 15ft.. oft 15ft Sin. At 7.30 enst of, from the mooring buoy and proceeded down (hnnncl 9110 passed the Lizard X-isht, engines going 22 strokes. Tennnraturo 221 decrees. Speed r.J wiles per hour. Light breer.es from tho N.W.

.'Wednesday, August 17.—0.30. set tho 'ore Jug nnd without increasing the speed found the engines much relieved und their velocity increased two strokes. At 3 stopped tho ' engines to oil tho tearing

Thursday, August 18. Ship evidently heavy forward, so provisions, cnblo nnd anchor were moved aft —filled tho two after cabins. Considering tlio ship 100 deep to encounter a galo with safety and being •rrxious to relievo her forward, I did not endeiivour to make so much sail as would enable me to stop tho engines, but kept them

going to the full number of otrokcß and in- j strncted tho engineer to use the coal from ; forward. found tho coal supplied at Fal- > mouth" very inferior to our own. Speed G ~n;d 7 miles Temp. 220 degrees, in the toiler, .... Hntsirdar. August 20.—810w out the boilei Temp. 2'27i degrees At 0.0 set on tho ..." strain. * - - • Hun'foy, Auensl 21.—1 have taken op the •>; Itiait off Portugal in tin expectation • of find j

ing N.E. winds, aB tliey blow on tins coast for nine months in tno ~srear, but I fear wo shall now have several days of southerly winds. 4.30, stopped the engines id consequenco of one of the valves of the feedpump being out of ojder, Set tho other engino going at 9.0.

Thoso early entries hnvo a peculiar interest after an interval of upward of a century. They show tho calm confidence which this pioneer seaman had in his marine steam engino and tho troublos with which ho had to deal. On tho succeeding Sunday—August 28, —Johnston made tho following entry in the tho reference to tho chief engineer having a human interost.

' Tho engines," Johnston wrote, " have boon continually at work since the 16th. inst, at noon, a period of 11- days, during which time the water has only been blown off onco, and then more as a measure of precaution than of necessity. Tho engineers and stokers have been mui.h fatigued, and to-day being Sunday, as wo aro, I trust, fairly in.'tho trade.' I liavo desired everything connected with tho engineer's department to stand over till to-morrow. 1 liavo invited the chief engineer, Mr. Ash, to dino with me, as I wish to give him as much consequence as possiblo in the eyes of thoso who aro placed under him."

Tho problem of keeping tho furnace supplied with coal evidently exercised Johnston's mind. On September 4 ho wrote in tho log, '' With tho exception of ono man at the wheel and another at the sails, tho whole crew must bo employed in supplying coal. Tho ollicors who are obliged to superintend aro covered with coal dust and exhausted by the close

heat." Ho put on record his conviction that the plan of carrying the whole supply of coal for so long a voyage could never answer. «»

" The side tanks will contain coals for 14 days' consumption," tho log reads; " and by having two depots between England and tho Cape the inconvenience of transporting coal would bo obviated and a considerable space would be available for cargo." On the following day—September 5 all hands were again " employed in trimming coal." Two days later " one Tucker fainted through the excessive heat in the tanks; recovered him by letting blood."

From September 17 to September 20 tho Enterprize was at St. Thomas. The voyage from St. Thomas to the Cape lasted from September 20 -.to October 13. Part of it was done under steam, and part under sail. The question of coal supply was evidently still a source of anxiety to tho captain, who records in the log that the coal dust caused annoyance to the passengers, which they bore " with much consideration." On October 13 tho crew hoisted the anchors from tho fore hatchway, got them over the side, got up the cables, and " stood into Table Bay, received a salute from tho Caßtle, and anchored in 5 fathoms."

According to Lindsay's History of Merchant Shipping " the Enterprize, on lier voyago to Calcutta from England,

covered 13,700 miles, and used 680 chaldrons of coal, ' being nine chaldrons u day for 64 days, the rest of the voyage being under sail. Altogether tho ship was under way 103 days, and her longest day's run was 225 miles." After on interval of upward of n hundred years these particulars of tho first voyage round tho Capo under steam liavo an intimate interest to us all, if only because they remind, us of tho wonderful development of tho marine stearn ongino which has 6ince taken place. Tho voyage of tho Enterprise proved such a tedious affair that Johnston and others devoted themselves to convincing tho Last India Company that tho Cape route must ba abandoned and that the Red Sea route must bo oponed up- I —the journey across tho Isthmus boing made by camel—if full advantage was to be gained from tho advent of tho marine steam engino. By 1830 this line of steam ship communication was opened and in 1869 the Suez Canal came into use nnd a complete revolution in sea transport from Kuropo to India, China and tho Eastern outposts of the British. Empire bega*