MARINE ENGINEERING.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19981, 24 December 1926, Page 21

MARINE ENGINEERING.

FIRST STEAM BOATS. FASTER VESSELS IN 1813. PROBLEMS GRADUALLY OVERCOME. IV. Following the Comet, the Charlotte Dundas, and the Clermont the keels o£ three steamers were laid down on the Clyde in 1813. They were all larger and faster than the pioneer boats. The Elizabeth was a flat-bottomed boat of 12 horse power. She was built under the supervision of an able engineer, upon a much improved principle, both with respect to the quickness of sailing and the accommodation of passengers. The boat was so constructed that neither wind nor tide prevented her sailing at a certain hour. The Elizabeth began carry in g/passengors on the Firth of Clyde on March 9. 1813, running between Glasgow and Greenock. She ran on the Firth for about a year, and was then transferred to Liverpool for service on the Mersey. She was built by Messrs Wood, engined by Mr James Cook, and owned by Mr John Thomson, an engineer in Glasgow. Thomson had made the acquaintance of Henry Bell when on a visit to Hellensburgh some years earlier, and had been consulted by Bell regarding the wheels and gearing required for propelling, by hand power, an experimental boat which Bell had in hand. This vessel was to be 12 or 13 feet in length. Thomson undertook and carried out this work, and he and Bell together made a variety of trials, which, however, proved only that manual power was quite inadequate tor effective propulsion. They then discussed the question of steam power, and Thomson understood that ho was to be associated with Bell in the construction of the steam boat which was then contemplated, and which was known afterwards as the Comet At this stage, however. Thomson found himself left out of the business—a result which he strongly resented, in view ot the trouble which he had taken in trying to assist Bell and to forward his projects. He resolved, therefore, to have a steamer built on his own account, and accordingly the hull was comxnenced by Messrs Wood, while the Comet was still in their yard. The vessel was launched in November, and she commenced to ply on the river on,March 9, 1813 —seven months after the start ox Bell’s steamer. The dimensions of Thomson’s boat were: Length 51ft (keel) and 58ft (on deck), breadth 12ft, and depth sft. The flat bottom in this, as in some later examples of the early steam boats, was adopted for the purpose of securing as small a draft as possible. The engine is stated in some lists to have been made bv Thomson himself, but this is incorrect, as it was made by James Cook, the power being variously stated as 8 to 10 horse-power. The Elizabeth was said to have been a profitable venture, but she appears to have been sold to Liverpool in 1814. There is no record of Thomson having built or owned any other steam boat. INCREASING CONFIDENCE. The Elizabeth was followed at comparatively short intervals by other vessels, and as these came on service one by one confidence in navigation by steam increased steadily. There was no looking back, no period of retrogression, no time of which it can be said that it resembled one or other of the periods which followed the Dalswinton Loch experiments of 1788, the advent of the Charlotte Dundas on the Forth and Clyde Canal in 1808, or that of the Clermont on the Hudson River in 1807. The record of the progress made during the years immediately after the Comet had.proved the practicability of the new system would include the stories of many vessels and would be simply a recapitulation of the early history of steam navigation. In the summer of 1813 there were two other vessels, each about 70ft in length, running on the Clyde, carrying passengers and goods. In 1814 one still larger was on service; in 1815 the three previously run ling had been transferred to other rivi xs, but there were six 'later steamers on the Firth, one of them 90ft in length, 17ft in beam, and with an engine of 24 horse-power. Another vessel of about the same size had an engine of 30 horse-power. The problem before the designers of all these early boats was to obtain speed and carrying capacity on the smallest possible draught, as the vessels had to navigate the shallow channel leading up to Glasgow. It is also interesting to note that many of the preseat-day difficulties of the naval architect and marine engineer were in evidence thus early in the story of steam shipbuilding. The paddles were deeper in the water when the vessel was loaded than when she was light. In order to overcome this some genius devised a contrivance by means of which the “paddles”—which are now called the “floats”—were drawn inwards from the circumference towards the centre of the wheel by a rack from each float, operated by a small toothed wheel turned by a spanner. It was also discovered tnat the increase of speed obtained was not at all in proportion to the increase of power expended, as (in the words of a writer in 1816) “the resistance to which a boat is subject increases not in arithmetical proportion, but in a geometrical proportion—as the squares of velocity. In other words, to make the same vessel move with 10 times a given velocity requires one hundred times the power.” SCOPE FOR DEVELOPMENT. In the second decade of the nineteenth century there was so much scope for development and for improvement in the designs of engines that progress was not impeded. In 1814 no fewer than nine steamers were launched on the Clyde, among these being: the Industry, which was the first and last steamei constructed by the now famous yacht-building firm of Fife, at Pairlie. Between 1812 and 1815 26 steamers were built on the Clyde, while before 1816 there were staam-propelled vessels on the Forth the 'lay, the Mersey, the Thames, tno Avon, the Yare, the Trent, the Tyne, and one in Irish waters. Of these the great majority were Clyde-built, many of them having been transferred from service on the Clyde, to be succeeded there by vessels of more improved types. In these circumstances the little Comet could not possibly live on the river and her owner had to look round in order, if possible, to find for her some field of activity in which she could be employed profitably. He tried the West Highland route, the Comet running from Glasgow to Greenock, Gourock, Rothesay, Tarbert, Lochgilp, Orinan, Easdale. Oban, Port Appin, and Fort William. She completed the round voyage in four days. There was not sufficient trade to enable Bell to xnake ends meet, and it was impossible, without more money than he could command, as well as a better boat than the Comet, to develop the trade until it would reach the paying stage. As there was then no tourist traffic, a large volume of trade could not be expected. ' WRECK OF THE COMET. In any case, the career of the Comet was cut short before the possibilities of the service were anything like thoroughly ascertained. Within a little more than a year after her opening run she was wrecked on the rocks off Craignish Point. Arygllshire. On December 15, 1820, she was returning from Fort Willium, and had nearly reached safety at Crinan, when the racing tide of the “Dorus Mhor,” off Loch Craignish, caught her, and, together with a strong wind, proved too much for her engines, and she was driven ashore. A strong gust of wind laid her on her beam ends and in 10 minutes, owing to the great current of tide and high seas and wind she was laid broadside on the rocks. She ’quickly became a complete wreck. It is supposed that the hull had been weakened by being lengthened. In any case the after end drifted away towards the whirlpool of Corrievreckan, but R*.: natelv the forward end, which carried We engines, remained fast on the rocks, hrom it the passengers, among whom was Henry Bell himself, scrambled ashore. Bell was, at the time of the wreck, on his way to Glasgow to arrange for the building of a more powerful steamer, which would, he hoped compete successfully with the many vessels then running on the Clyde.