View source for SS Agamemnon (1865)

{{Short description|Iron-hulled steamship with more efficient engine}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2016}}
{{Use British English|date=December 2016}}
{|{{Infobox ship begin}}
{{Infobox ship image
|Ship image=[[File:Agamemnon (1865).jpg|Agamemnon (1865)|300px]]
|Ship caption=''Agamemnon''
}}
{{Infobox ship career
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|Ship country= [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|United Kingdom]]
|Ship flag= {{shipboxflag|UKGBI|civil}}
|Ship name= ''Agamemnon''
|Ship namesake= [[Agamemnon]]
|Ship owner= [[Blue Funnel Line|Ocean Steam Ship Co]] 
|Ship operator= [[File:House Flag of the Blue Funnel Line.svg|22px]] [[Blue Funnel Line|Alfred Holt Ltd]]
|Ship registry= [[Port of Liverpool|Liverpool]]
|Ship route= Liverpool to China and the Far East
|Ship ordered=
|Ship builder=[[Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company|Scott & Co]], [[Greenock]]
|Ship original cost=
|Ship yard number= 116
|Ship way number=
|Ship laid down=
|Ship launched= 6 October 1865
|Ship completed=
|Ship christened=
|Ship acquired=
|Ship maiden voyage=
|Ship in service=
|Ship out of service=
|Ship identification= *UK [[official number]] 54924
*[[code letters]] JKGB
*{{ICS|Juliet}}{{ICS|Kilo}}{{ICS|Golf}}{{ICS|Bravo}}
|Ship fate= Scrapped 1898
|Ship notes=
}}
{{Infobox ship characteristics
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|Header caption=
|Ship type=cargo and passenger steamship
|Ship tonnage={{GRT|2270}}, {{NRT|1550}}
|Ship displacement=
|Ship length= {{convert|309.3|ft|abbr=on}}
|Ship beam=  {{convert|38.8|ft|abbr=on}}
|Ship height=
|Ship draught=
|Ship depth= {{convert|20.6|ft|abbr=on}}
|Ship decks=
|Ship deck clearance=
|Ship sail plan= 3-masted [[barque]]
|Ship power=300 hp
|Ship propulsion=*[[Marine steam engine#Compound|compound steam engine]],
*single screw
|Ship speed= {{convert|10|kn|km/h}}
|Ship capacity=
|Ship crew=
|Ship notes=
}}
|}

'''SS ''Agamemnon''''' was one of the first successful long-distance merchant [[steamship]]s. She was built in 1865 to trade between Britain and China, and competed with tea [[clipper]]s before and after the opening of the [[Suez Canal]] in 1869. She brought together three improvements in steamship design: higher boiler pressure, an efficient and compact [[Marine steam engine#Compound|compound steam engine]], and a hull form with modest power requirements.

Before ''Agamemnon'', steamships were not a practical commercial option for trade between Britain and the Far East. The amount of coal that they needed to carry left little space for cargo. ''Agamemnon'' could steam at {{convert|10|kn|km/h}}, consuming only 20 tons of coal a day. This was substantially less than other ships of the time{{snd}}a saving of between 14 and 23 tons per day was achieved.<ref name="Jarvis">{{cite book |last=Jarvis |first=Adrian |editor1-first=Robert |editor1-last= Gardiner |editor2-first=Dr Basil |editor2-last=Greenhill |date=1993 |title=The Advent of Steam – The Merchant Steamship before 1900 |publisher=Conway Maritime Press |pages=158–159 |chapter=9: Alfred Holt and the Compound Engine |isbn=0-85177-563-2}}</ref> This enabled her to steam to China with a coaling stop at [[Mauritius]] on the outward and return journey.

This was the first of five [[Blue Funnel Line|Blue Funnel]] ships to be named after [[Agamemnon]], the king of [[Mycenae]] during the [[Trojan War]]. Later examples include a [[motor ship]] {{HMS|Agamemnon|M10|2}} built in 1929, which in the [[World War II|Second World War]] was converted into an auxiliary [[minelayer]].

==Building and performance==
''Agamemnon'' was the first of three [[sister ship]]s, the others being ''Achilles'' (1866) and ''Ajax'' (1867). [[Scotts Shipbuilding and Engineering Company|Scott & Co]] of [[Greenock]], [[Renfrewshire (historic)|Renfrewshire]] built the three ships  for [[Alfred Holt|Alfred]] and Phillip Holt's Ocean Steam Ship Company, later called the [[Blue Funnel Line]]. Each was {{GRT|2270}} and {{NRT|1550}}. Overall length was {{convert|309|ft}} and beam {{convert|38|ft}}.<ref name="Greenwich"/>

''Agamemnon'' (and her sister ships) combined three key features.

The first was a higher boiler pressure than was normally used on British merchant ships. [[Alfred Holt]] had experimented with a boiler pressure of 60 [[Pounds per square inch|psi]] in the ''Cleator'', a ship he used as a floating testbed. Holt overcame the [[Board of Trade]]'s objections to boiler pressures above 25 [[Pounds per square inch|psi]] in seagoing vessels.

The second feature was her compound steam engine, designed by Alfred Holt. As well as being more efficient than others of the time, it was a relatively compact engine, so used less cargo space.

The third was an iron hull that was strong in relation to its weight and cost and with modest power requirements{{snd}}again developed by Alfred Holt.<ref name=Jarvis/>

''Agamemnon''{{'}}s fuel efficiency enabled her to compete successfully with tea clippers between Britain and China. She could steam from London to Mauritius, a distance of 8,500 miles (roughly half the distance to China via the [[Cape of Good Hope]]) without coaling.

Her normal journey time from [[Fuzhou]] (Foochow) to Liverpool was 58 days,<ref name="Clark">{{cite book |last=Clark|first=Arthur H |year=1911 |title=The Clipper Ship Era 1843–1869 |url= https://archive.org/stream/cu31924020891416#page/n5/mode/2up |place=New York |publisher=[[G. P. Putnam's Sons]] |pages=332 }}</ref><ref name="Greenwich">{{cite web |title=Agamemnon (1865); Passenger/cargo vessel |work=Ship models |publisher=[[National Maritime Museum]] |url= http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/66013.html }}</ref> whereas clippers could take anything from a record-breaking 88 days to 140 or more, and averaged 123 days in 1867–68.<ref name="MacGregor">{{cite book |last=MacGregor |first=David R. |year= 1983|title=The Tea Clippers, Their History and Development 1833–1875 |publisher=Conway Maritime Press |pages=225–243 |isbn=0-85177-256-0}}</ref> Further, her cargo carrying capacity was two or three times as much as these sailing ships.<ref name="Greenwich"/>

Scott built ''Agamemnon'' as yard number 116, launched her on 25 November 1865 and completed her on 31 March 1866.<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.clydeships.co.uk/view.php?&ref=20030 |title=Agamemnon |work=Scottish Built Ships |publisher=Caledonian Maritime Research Trust |access-date=5 May 2023}}</ref> Alfred Holt [[Ship registration|registered]] her at [[Port of Liverpool|Liverpool]]. Her [[United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland|UK]] [[official number]] was 54924,<ref>{{cite book |year=1867 |title=Mercantile Navy List |place=London |page=7 |url= https://www.crewlist.org.uk/data/viewimages?&name=Agamemnon&steamsail=Steam&submit=Enter&year=1867 |via=Crew List Index Project}}</ref> and by 1871 her [[code letters]] were JKGB.<ref>{{cite book |year=1871 |title=Mercantile Navy List |place=London |page=ii |url= https://www.crewlist.org.uk/data/viewimages?&name=Agamemnon&steamsail=Steam&submit=Enter&year=1871 |via=Crew List Index Project}}</ref>

==Maiden voyage==
The newly built ''Agamemnon'' arrived in Liverpool from Greenock on 1 April 1866, the year of the clippers' [[The Great Tea Race of 1866|Great Tea Race]]. She sailed for China on 19 April.<ref>{{cite news |title=Shipping Intelligence |date=21 April 1866 |newspaper=[[Liverpool Daily Post]] |page=8}} column 4</ref> Her outward passage was the quickest recorded to date, reaching Mauritius in 40 days and [[Port of Singapore|Singapore]] in 60. The whole journey from Liverpool to [[Port of Hong Kong|Hong Kong]] took 65 days.<ref>{{cite news |title=The Great Ocean Race from China |date=25 August 1866 |newspaper=Liverpool Daily Post |page=5}} column 1</ref> This beat the fastest tea clipper outward passage of 77 days by the ''Cairngorm'' in 1853.

==Later voyages==
The opening of the [[Suez Canal]] in 1869 guaranteed the success of ''Agamemnon'' and her sister ships by shortening the route that a steamship could take from Europe to China  whilst sailing vessels still had to travel via the [[Cape of Good Hope]]. In a few years the predominance of tea clippers in the China trade had ceased. Associates and competitors of Alfred Holt built similar ships and the nature of long-distance maritime trade had taken a major technological change.

==Fate==
In 1897 ''Agamemnon'' was transferred to Alfred Holt's Dutch subsidiary ''Nederlandsche Stoomboot Maatschappij Ocean''. She was scrapped in 1899.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* {{Commons category-inline}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Agamemnon (1865), SS}}
[[Category:1865 ships]]
[[Category:Ships built on the River Clyde]]
[[Category:Ships of the Blue Funnel Line]]
[[Category:Steamships of the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Victorian-era merchant ships of the United Kingdom]]