Part 5

+-------------------+---------+------+------- Name |Dimensions: |Displace-|Piston|Boiler |Length, Breadth, |ment |Stroke|Heating |Depth | | |Surface ------------------+-------------------+---------+------+------- New York and | | Tons. |Feet. |Sq. Ft. Queenstown | | | | ------------------+-------------------+---------+------+------- City of Paris |560 × 63 × 43 | 13,000 |5 |50,265 | | | | ------------------+-------------------+---------+------+------- City of New York |560 × 63 × 43 | 13,000 |5 |50,040 | | | | ------------------+-------------------+---------+------+------- Majestic |582×57-1/2×59-1/8 | 12,000 |5 |40,972 ------------------+-------------------+---------+------+------- Teutonic |582×57-1/2×59-1/8 | 12,000 |5 |40,972 ------------------+-------------------+---------+------+------- Etruria |501-1/2×57.2×38.2 | 10,500 |6 |38,817 ------------------+-------------------+---------+------+------- Umbria |501-1/2×57.2×38.2 | 10,500 |6 |38,817 ------------------+-------------------+---------+------+------- City of Rome |546 × 52 × 58-3/4 | 11,230 |6 |29,286 ------------------+-------------------+---------+------+------- New York and | | | | Southampton | | |Inches| ------------------+-------------------+---------+------+------- Columbia |480 × 56 × 38 | 9,500 |66 |34,916 ------------------+-------------------+---------+------+------- Normannia |520 × 57-1/4 × 38 | 10,500 |66 |46,490 ------------------+-------------------+---------+------+------- Augusta Victoria |480 × 56 × 36 | 9,500 |63 |36,000 ------------------+-------------------+---------+------+------- Lahn |448 × 49 × 36-1/2 | 7,700 |72 | ... ------------------+-------------------+---------+------+-------

+------------+--------+------+--------+--------- Name | Grate Area | Steam |I.H.P.|Fastest |Direction | |Pressure| | Trip | ------------------+------------+--------+------+--------+--------- New York and |Square Feet.|Lbs. | |D. H. M.| Queenstown | | | | | ------------------+------------+--------+------+--------+--------- City of Paris |was 1,293 |150 |18,350|5 19 18 |Westward |now 1,026 | | | | ------------------+------------+--------+------+--------+--------- City of New York |was 1,080 |150 |18,100|5 21 19 |Westward |now 1,096 | | | | ------------------+------------+--------+------+--------+--------- Majestic | 1,154 |180 |18,000|5 21 20 |Westward ------------------+------------+--------+------+--------+--------- Teutonic | 1,154 |180 |18,000|5 19 5 |Westward ------------------+------------+--------+------+--------+--------- Etruria | 1,606 |110 |14,300|6 6 57 |Westward ------------------+------------+--------+------+--------+--------- Umbria | 1,606 |110 |14,300|6 3 29 |Westward ------------------+------------+--------+------+--------+--------- City of Rome | 1,398 | 90 |11,890|6 22 30 |Eastward ------------------+------------+--------+------+--------+--------- New York and | | | | | Southampton | | | | | ------------------+------------+--------+------+--------+--------- Columbia | 1,226 |150 |13,680|6 15 0 |Eastward ------------------+------------+--------+------+--------+--------- Normannia | 1,452 |160 |16,352|6 17 2 |Westward ------------------+------------+--------+------+--------+--------- Augusta Victoria | 1,120 |150 |14,110|6 22 32 |Eastward ------------------+------------+--------+------+--------+--------- Lahn | ... |150 | 9,500|7 3 0 |Eastward ------------------+------------+--------+------+--------+---------

+---------+--------+-------+-------+------- Name | Month |Distance|Average|Average|Fastest | | | Speed | for | Day’s | | | | Eight | Run | | | |Months |during | | | | |Season ------------------+---------+--------+-------+-------+------- New York and | | Knots | Knots | Knots | Knots Queenstown | | | | | ------------------+---------+--------+-------+-------+------- City of Paris |August | 2,788 | 20.01 | 19.02 | 515 | | | | | ------------------+---------+--------+-------+-------+------- City of New York |October | 2,775 | 19.64 | 19.02 | 502 | | | | | ------------------+---------+--------+-------+-------+------- Majestic |September| 2,780 | 19.64 | 19.00 | ... ------------------+---------+--------+-------+-------+------- Teutonic |August | 2,806 | 20.18 | 18.84 | 512 ------------------+---------+--------+-------+-------+------- Etruria |July | 2,845 | 18.80 | 18.29 | 481 ------------------+---------+--------+-------+-------+------- Umbria |August | 2,835 | 19.20 | 18.15 | 498 ------------------+---------+--------+-------+-------+------- City of Rome |Aug.-Sep.| 2,787 | 16.73 | 16.18 | 424 ------------------+---------+--------+-------+-------+------- New York and | | | | | Southampton | | | | | ------------------+---------+--------+-------+-------+------- Columbia |October | 3,045 | 19.15 | 18.68 | 492 ------------------+---------+--------+-------+-------+------- Normannia |August | 3,045 | 18.91 | 18.41 | 486 ------------------+---------+--------+-------+-------+------- Augusta Victoria |September| 3,049 | 18.31 | 17.52 | 470 ------------------+---------+--------+-------+-------+------- Lahn |October | ... | ... | 17.29 | ... ------------------+---------+--------+-------+-------+-------

NOTE.—The nautical mile is one-sixtieth of a degree of the Equator, and is usually reckoned 6,080 feet, the statute mile being 5,280; twenty nautical miles are thus about twenty-three statute miles. The shortest distance is the arc of the great circle of the Earth passing through the two ports; any deviation from this by varying the course on account of intervening land or ice increases the distance to be run.

The crown is thus for the moment with the White Star, nor is it likely to be torn away by anything short of the tremendous effort involved in putting afloat a new, a bigger, and a more costly ship. Owners must, of course, count the cost of such rivalry and must put against the gain of say sixteen hours, in order to come to the desired five days and twenty-three knots, the cost of the thousand or twelve hundred tons more of coal which will have to be burned, the doubled number of engine and fire-room force, the larger crew, the interest on the greater investment. It is a large price to pay for a gain of so small a bit of that we generally hold so cheap—but it will be paid.

* * * * *

It has been impossible, of course, in a single chapter to do more than touch upon the vast changes, and their causes, which have had place in this great factor of human progress. Higher pressures and greater expansions: condensation of the exhaust steam, and its return to the boiler without the new admixture of sea-water, and the consequent necessity of frequent blowing off, which comparatively but a few years ago was so common; a better form of screw; the extensive use of steel in machinery, by which parts have been lightened, and by the use of which higher boiler-pressures are made possible—these are the main steps. But in addition to steel, high pressures, and the several other elements named which have gone to make up this progress, there was another cause in the work chiefly done by the late W. Froude, to be specially noticed as being that which has done more than the work of any other man to determine the most suitable forms for ships, and to establish the principles governing resistance. The ship-designer has, by this work, been put upon comparatively firm ground, instead of having a mental footing as unstable, almost, as the element in which his ships are destined to float.

It is not possible to go below the surface of such a subject in a popular paper, and it must suffice to speak of Mr. Froude’s deductions, in which he divided the resistances met by ships into two principal parts: the surface or skin friction, and the wave-making resistance (which latter has no existence in the case of a totally submerged body—only begins to exist when the body is near the surface, and has its full effect when the body is only partially submerged). He showed that the surface friction constitutes almost the whole resistance at moderate speeds, and a very great percentage at all speeds; that the immersed midship section area which formerly weighed so much in the minds of naval architects was of much less importance than was supposed, and that ships must have a length corresponding in a degree to the length of wave produced by the speed at which they are to be driven.

He showed that at high speeds waves of two different characters are produced: the one class largest at the bow, which separate from the ship, decreasing in successive undulations without afterward affecting her progress; the other, those in which the wave-crests are at right angles to the ship’s course, and the positions of these crests have a very telling effect upon the resistance.

As the ship’s speed is increased the spaces between the crests of these lengthen in unison with the speed, and it has been shown that when the speed is such that a wave-crest would be at the middle point of the after body (or quarter) the wave-making resistance is least, and that it is greatest when the hollow appears at this point.

A ship must therefore be of a length that depends largely upon the length of wave which at a high speed she will tend to produce in order that she may be driven at such a speed without an expenditure of power disproportionate to the effect produced. This length, if very high speeds are desired, is best wholly taken up in fining the entrance and run, leaving no parallelism of middle body, and broadening and deepening the ship to keep the necessary displacement. The wave-action at several speeds is well shown in the illustrations, which are from instantaneous photographs, showing the Chilian cruiser Esmeralda at her full speed of 18 knots, when on her trial off Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the Giovanni Bausan, of the Italian navy (almost a sister ship to the Esmeralda), at a moderate speed, and H.M.S. Impérieuse, at about 17-1/4 knots. [See illustration, p. 64.] The following are the principal details of the Esmeralda and Impérieuse:

Displacement. Length. Beam. Draught. Horse-power. Esmeralda 3,000 270 42 18.3 6,500 Impérieuse 7,390 315 62 26.0 10,180

The eddy-making resistance is greater or less, of course, as the form is blunted or finer, and there is less resistance with a blunt bow and finely formed after-body than were the two reversed. Our practical towing friends will be glad to know that Mr. Froude substantiates their oft-reiterated assertion that a log tows more easily butt-end foremost. In the Merkara, a merchant ship built by Mr. Denny, of 3,980 tons, 360 feet length, 37.2 feet breadth, and 16.25 feet draught, this resistance is, at all speeds, about eight per cent. of the surface friction, which at the maximum speed of thirteen knots, at which she was intended to be run, still formed nearly eighty per cent. of the whole resistance.

A very wonderful result of these experiments has been to show (in the words of Mr. Froude) “what an exceedingly small force, after all, is the resistance of a ship compared with the apparent magnitude of the phenomena involved. Scarcely anyone, I imagine, seeing the new frigate Shah (of 6,250 tons displacement) steaming at full speed (from sixteen to seventeen knots) would be inclined, at first sight, to credit what is nevertheless a fact, that the whole propulsive force necessary to produce that apparently tremendous effect is only 27 tons—in fact, less than one two-hundredth part of the weight of the vessel—and of this small propulsive force at least 15 tons, or more than one-half, is employed in overcoming surface friction simply.”

Of course, very small vessels, as torpedo-boats, have been driven at very high speeds, but the power necessary is in enormous disproportion as compared with the above, a development in 135-foot torpedo boats of from 1,000 to 1,500 horse-power and more being not uncommon.

The acceptance of the results of Mr. Froude’s deductions has naturally led to an increase in the beam of fast ocean steamers; we find all the later-built to be much broadened, and there is a still increasing tendency in that direction. It is needless to say how much this means in many ways to the passenger.

Collision will and must remain the great and really almost the one danger which the North Atlantic traveller need fear. He can rarely hope to cross in the usual steam route without experiencing a run of some hundreds of miles through fog, especially on leaving or approaching our coast. So long as the Gulf Stream and the cold inlying current from the north move in juxtaposition as they do, so long will the fog be almost always present upon the border-land dividing them. How easy it is for a great ship to be sunk was shown in the case of the Oregon. A blow from a pygmy schooner not more than one-tenth her size, and a hole was opened through her side which unfortunate circumstances combined to make fatal, and the great vessel, a triumph of human skill in hull and machinery, is lying in a few hours upon the bottom of the sea, with a million days of skilled labor, as represented by ship and cargo, in this moment made valueless. Who can over estimate the care and responsibility upon the man who commands such a ship? In what other calling are they found as such a constant part of daily life?

The only remedy for such an accident as that which befell the unluckly Oregon seems to be a subdivision such as is carried out in all the greater ships of late years; and that this has been carried to a degree which has made the finer passenger ships practically unsinkable, unless under most exceptional circumstances, would seem quite sure.[6]

* * * * *

How wonderful has been the scale upon which this great industry of carriage by steam vessels has grown can only be shown by tables of statistics.

The steam tonnage in the United States, Great Britain, France, and Germany, beginning with 1840, was as follows:

+-------------------------------+---------+---------+---------- | United States. | | | +----------+----------+---------+ | | Years.|Registered| Enrolled | | | | | for | and | Total. | United | France. | German | oversea. | licensed.| | Kingdom.| | Empire. ------+----------+----------+---------+---------+---------+---------- | Gross | Gross | Gross | | | | tons. | tons. | tons. |Net tons.|Net tons.| Net tons. 1840 | 4,155 | 198,184 | 202,339| 87,539| 9,535 | ... 1850 | 44,942 | 481,005 | 525,947| 167,698| 13,925 | ... 1860 | 97,296 | 770,641 | 867,937| 452,352| 68,025 | ... 1870 | 192,544 | 882,551 |1,075,095|1,111,375| 154,415 | 81,994 1875 | 191,689 | 976,979 |1,168,668|1,943,197| 205,420 | 183,569 1880 | 146,604 |1,064,964 |1,211,558|2,720,551| 277,759 | 215,758 | | | | | (1884) | (1884) 1885 | 186,406 |1,308,511 |1,494,917|3,969,728| 511,072 | 413,943 {| 197,630 |1,661,458 |1,859,088|5,112,683| 503,791 | 722,521 1890 {| | | | Gross | Gross | Gross {| | | | tons. | tons. | tons. {| | | |8,167,762| 848,522 |1,054,899 ------+----------+----------+---------+---------+---------+----------

This statement, showing our steam tonnage registered for foreign trade to be 6,000 tons less in 1885 than in 1870, is not an encouraging one, especially when taken in connection with the fact that our tonnage in foreign trade has steadily lessened, and the percentage of our imports carried in American vessels has dwindled from 75.2 per cent. in 1856 to 66.5 in 1860; to 35.6 per cent. in 1870; and to 12.29 per cent. in 1890. Even during the civil war it never fell below 27.5 per cent.

* * * * *

The amount of steam tonnage built in the United States and in Great Britain at intervals of five years from 1855 is as follows:

+-------+--------------------- | United States. +-------+------------+-------- Years.|Number.| Tonnage. |Average | | |tonnage. ------+-------+------------+-------- | |Gross tons. | 1855 | 246 | 72,760 | 296 1860 | 275 | 69,370 | 259 1865 | 411 | 145,696 | 356 1870 | 290 | 70,621 | 244 1875 | 323 | 62,460 | 193 1880 | 348 | 78,853 | 229 1885 | 338 | 84,333 | 249 1890 | 410 | 159,045 | ------+-------+------------+-------- | United Kingdom. +-------+------------+-------- Years.|Number.| Tonnage. |Average | | |tonnage. ------+-------+------------+-------- | | Net tons. | 1855 | 278 | 106,872 | 385 1860 | 234 | 67,699 | 289 1865 | 453 | 211,665 | 467 1870 | 512 | 267,896 | 523 1875 | 428 | 226,701 | 530 1880 | 629 | 414,831 | 660 1885 | 487 | 221,918 | 456 | | | | | Gross tons.| 1890 | 632 |1,076,220[7]| 1,700 ------+-------+------------+--------

The startling steam tonnage of 1883 (nearly three-quarters of a million tons) built in Great Britain, of which 134,785 were built at Glasgow, 125,870 at the Tyne ports, and 117,776[8] at Sunderland, was followed by a great depression. In 1884 but a little over half that of the preceding year was built (415,095 tons); and in 1885 this was again almost halved, the output falling to only 221,918 tons, and the average size also falling off from 724 tons in 1883 to 456 in 1885. But in the last five years Great Britain has moved forward with a constantly accelerated pace, culminating in the vast figures of 1890, when she put afloat over 80 per cent. of the world’s production for the year.

Nearly or, practically, quite all of the vast fleet represented by these figures are of iron or steel; the tonnage of the wooden steamers generally falling in later years in Great Britain to a total of 1,000 tons or less, and this made up of vessels averaging not more than 30 tons each.

Steel may be said to have almost supplanted iron as a material; in 1880 but 10 per cent. of British steam vessels were built of this, as against 90 per cent. of iron; in 1890 but 4 per cent. were of the latter metal. There is, however, a tendency on the part of some owners to return to iron as less liable to the pitting caused by the galvanic action arising from want of homogeneity in the steel; a vessel’s bottom, unless well guarded by protective compositions, being frequently severely corroded, generally in small pits the size of a pea, but often extending to large patches.

One would think that this immense yearly addition of steamships represented in the foregoing tables would soon go beyond the world’s needs, but the almost incredible losses from wrecks, casualties, and other reasons for disappearance from the register, must be considered. There were lost or abandoned, in the fiscal year ending June 1890, 238 steamers and 588 sailing vessels of our fleet, a total of 165,508 tons; 311,220 tons disappearing in the same period from the British Register, going to swell the gigantic total of 6,795 vessels, representing 2,349,034 tons of British shipping totally lost at sea in the ten years 1880-89 inclusive.

In the face of these tremendous figures the ship-builder need not despair—he need only wait; a few slack years and the gaps in the ranks become so great that building of necessity must re-begin. The lives of ships are indeed more precarious than those of us mortals. They perish at the annual rate of about 30 in the 1,000, whereas our general chances are one-third better. But these losses of ships carry with them the lives of many brave men; with the wrecks above enumerated more than 20,000 persons perished. In this bald statement what vistas of suffering, incapacity, carelessness, negligence, misfortune, and heroism are opened up!

Despite the danger of prophecy it would seem safe to say that we shall not go, in the next five years, far beyond the changes which had taken pretty complete shape by 1887. For a while at least the startling transitions of the last decade are not to be looked for, and we can only expect greater power in greater ships on the lines already established. It is well these great transitions should not come too frequently; the ship-owner should be allowed a little breathing time, and should not be continually oppressed by a nightmare of obsolete ships. We may safely say, too, that our own country will have a greater share in shipbuilding than in past years. Our output since 1885 has been steadily increasing, and though the amount has not been great, the change wrought in our shipyards has been revolutionary. The demands of the navy have enabled them to extend and reorganize their plant and staff until they are now on a plane with the best of the world. Coincident with the transformation of the shipyards, and for the same reason, has been that of our steel industry, whereby we now have establishments which it is not Chauvinistic to say are more perfectly equipped than elsewhere.[9] If the rebuilding of the navy had served no other purpose, it had been money well spent.

Having reached this stage our builders can now take large orders much more cheaply than a few years since, and which in 1887 they could not have taken at all had it been required to supply all parts from our own industrial establishments. This fact, taken with the dawn of a new era in our commercial relations, wherein the ship-owner will have a fair chance of carrying both ways, gives good prospect of an early rehabilitation of our ancient power upon the sea.

Footnotes:

[1] Report of Lecture in the Liverpool Albion, delivered in Liverpool, December, 1835.