steamship

Early Steam-powered Ships

Marquis Claude de Jouffroy d'Abbans is generally credited with the first experimentally successful application of steam power to navigation; in 1783 his Pyroscaphe ran against the current of the Saone River for 15 min, although the boiler could not generate enough steam for extended operations. In 1787 a steamboat built by James Rumsey of Maryland was demonstrated on the Potomac River; propelled by a stream of water forced out of the stern by steam pressure, the vessel attained a speed of 4 mi (6.4 km) per hr. Rumsey received a grant to navigate the waters of New York, Maryland, and Virginia. In 1790, John Fitch, who had previously built several successful steamboats, one of which operated in 1787, built a vessel capable of 8 mi (12.9 km) per hr which plied the Delaware River between Philadelphia and Burlington, N.J. Other early American steamboat inventors were Samuel Morey, Nathan Read, and John Stevens. In 1807, Robert Fulton launched the Clermont, 150 ft (46 m) long and powered by a Boulton and Watt steam engine. It ran from New York City to Albany (150 mi/241 km) in 32 hr and made the return trip in 30 hr. On the other side of the Atlantic, the Scotsman Henry Bell launched the Comet in 1812.

Oceangoing Steamships

The first ocean crossing by a steam-propelled vessel was in 1819, when the Savannah voyaged from Savannah, Ga., to Liverpool in 29 days, 11 hr. It was a full-rigged sailing ship fitted with engines and side paddlewheels; during the crossing the engines were in use for about 85 hr. The first crossing under steam power alone was made in 1838, when two British steamship companies sent rival ships to New York within a few days of each other; the Great Western made the trip in 15 days, arriving a few hours after the Sirius, which had left England 4 days before her. The first seagoing vessel to be fitted with a screw propeller was the Archimedes (1840); the Great Britain (1845) was the first large iron steamship driven by a screw propeller to cross the Atlantic. By the late 1850s the screw propeller was conceded to be superior to paddlewheels, and the steamship began to supplant the sailing ship. In 1881 the Servia, a merchant steamer capable of crossing the Atlantic in 7 days, was the first vessel to be constructed of steel. Seven years later the Philadelphia, the first twin-screw steamship, was built at Glasgow.

Era of the Ocean Liners

Great liners propelled by engines of 28,000 or more horsepower began plying the Atlantic on regular schedules in the late 1800s. During the 1880s Sir Charles A. Parsons and C. G. P. de Laval developed the steam turbine, and the Turbinia, the first vessel to be driven by a turbine, was first seen in 1897. Within 10 years several turbine-driven liners were in the Atlantic service. Although multiple cylinders were added to reciprocating engines to take full advantage of the steam's expansion, within a decade the steam turbine virtually eliminated the older reciprocating steam engine on major vessels; the great transatlantic liners, such as the Queen Mary (launched 1934), the Queen Elizabeth (1938), and the United States (1951), were all turbine-powered. In 1955 the first nuclear-powered ship, in which the heat generated by nuclear fission is used to create the necessary steam, was launched. Nuclear-powered commercial vessels like the Savannah (launched in 1958 but since laid up) proved to be uneconomical because of the high cost of nuclear-power systems and environmental concerns; however, most large naval vessels are powered by nuclear steam plants.

The Demise of the Steamship

Despite such innovations as turbo-electric drive, which converts steam energy into rotational power for turning the propeller shafts, commercial steamships have today given way to diesel-powered ships, which constitute 95% of new ship construction. Diesel engines provide a fuel efficiency of more than 50%, with a reliability at least equal to steam turbines. The Queen Elizabeth 2 (1969) was originally steam-powered, but it later was refitted with turbocharged diesel engines, which supply electric power to the propeller motors.

The Lady Elgin was a steamship wrecked in Lake Michigan off Chicago, Illinois in 1860.[1]

On the night of September 6 1860 the Lady Elgin left Milwaukee, Wisconsin from the Dooley, Martin, Dousman, and Company, Dock, for Chicago, carrying members of Milwaukee's Union Guard to hear a campaign speech by Stephen A. Douglas, part of being authorized as a federal militia company. The next night, on the return trip, the brightly lit Lady Elgin was steaming through Lake Michigan against gale force winds when she was rammed by the schooner Augusta of Oswego, running dark, when the Augusta did not attempt to turn to her larboard side, a customary rule of the sea and lakes.[2]

Concerned that she was damaged and believing the Lady Elgin had gotten safely away, the Augusta made for Chicago. Aboard the Lady Elgin, Captain Wilson futilely ordered that cattle and cargo be thrown overboard to lighten the load and raise the gaping hole in the Lady Elgin's port side above water level. Within twenty minutes, the Lady Elgin broke apart, and all but the bow section rapidly sank.

When day broke, between 350 and 500 passengers and crew were drifting in stormy waters, holding on to anything they could, many only to be pulled under by breakers near shore. Over 400 people are believed to have died in the sinking. Most of those lost were from Milwaukee's German Jaeger Clubs and Third Ward Irish communities and is the second greatest loss of life seen on the Great Lakes. A Wisconsin Historical Marker in the Historic Third Ward, Milwaukee commemorates the tragedy, and there are many burials and tombstones at Calvary Cemetery.

Following the wreck, the ship's owner, Gurdon Saltonstall Hubbard received a $12,000 payment from his insurance company, but neither Hubbard nor the insurance company accepted abandonment of the ship. The Captain of the Augusta, Darius Malott, was arrested and tried in Chicago, but found not guilty of navigational negligence.[2] A Coroner's Jury declared the second-mate Mr Budge of the Augusta to be incompetent, and the crew of the Augusta to be of principal blame.[3]

The wreck of the Lady Elgin was discovered in 1989 off Highland Park, Illinois by Harry Zych, who was awarded ownership in 1999 after a protracted legal battle.[4]

References

• [1] Historical Collection of the Great Lakes: Lady Elgin
• [2] Darkest Hours by Jay Robert Nash (Nelson-Hall 1976, Wallaby: Simon & Schuster 1977).
• [3] New York Times September 25, 1860.

External links

• [4] The Wreck of the Steamer Lady Elgin, by Brendon Baillod
• [5] The Great Lakes Shipwreck File
• [6] University of Detroit Mercy