Steamboat

For other uses, see Steamboat (disambiguation).

File:Steamboat lucerne small.jpg

Paddle steamers — Lucerne, Switzerland.

A steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving a propeller or paddlewheel.

The term steamboat is usually used to refer to smaller steam-powered boats working on lakes and rivers, particularly riverboats in the USA; steamship generally refers to steam powered ships capable of carrying a (ship's) boat. The term steamwheeler is archaic and rarely used.

Steamships gradually replaced sailing ships for commercial shipping through the 19th century, and they were in turn superseded by diesel-driven ships in the second half of the twentieth century. Most warships used steam propulsion until the advent of the gas turbine. Today, nuclear powered warships and submarines use steam to drive turbines, but are not referred to as steamships or steamboats.

Screw-driven steamships generally carry the ship prefix "SS" before their names. Paddle steamers usually carry the prefix "PS" and Steamships powered by the steam turbine may be prefixed "TS" (Turbine Ship). The term steamer is occasionally used, out of nostalgia, for diesel motor-driven vessels, prefixed "MV".

• 
  Left: original paddlewheel from a paddle steamer on the lake of Lucerne. Right: detail of a steamer.
• 
  PS Waverley leaving Dunoon on the Firth of Clyde.
• 
  "Andreas" in Berlin

Early development

The first piston steam engine, invented by Denis Papin in 1690.

As often happens with inventions, the development of the steam engine powered vessel involved many people, sometimes working at the same time.

One of the first to propose the idea (around 1690) was the French physicist Denis Papin, inventor of the steam engine. In a 1690 article in Acta Eruditorum, he describes a steamboat equipped with four cylinders, propelling rotating wheels. In 1707 he constructed a paddle-powered boat, but whether it was full-size and steam-powered or not is unclear. River boatmen took exception to the threat to their trade and destroyed it at Loch, on September 27, 1707.

In 1736 Jonathan Hulls took out a patent in England for a Newcomen engine-powered steamboat, but it was the improvement in steam engines by James Watt that made the concept feasible. William Henry of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, having learned of Watt's engine on a visit to England, made his own engine and in 1763 attempted to put it in a boat. The boat sank, and while he made an improved model he does not seem to have had much success, though he may have inspired others.

In France, by 1774 Marquis Claude de Jouffroy and his colleagues had made a 13 metre (42 ft 8 in) working steamboat with rotating paddles, the Palmipède. The ship sailed on the Doubs in June and July 1776, apparently the first steamship to sail successfully. In 1783 a new paddle steamer, Pyroscaphe, successfully steamed up the river Saône for fifteen minutes before the engine failed, but bureaucracy thwarted further progress.

From 1784 James Rumsey built a pump-driven (water jet) boat and successfully steamed upstream on the Potomac river in 1786; the following year he obtained a patent from the State of Virginia. In Pennsylvania, John Fitch, an acquaintance of Henry, made a model paddle steamer in 1785, and subsequently developed propulsion by floats on a chain, obtained a patent in 1786, then built a steamboat which underwent a successful trial in 1787. The following year a second boat made 50 km (30 mi) excursions, and in 1790 a third boat ran a series of trials on the Delaware River before patent disputes dissuaded Fitch from continuing.

Meanwhile, Patrick Miller of Dalswinton, near Dumfries, Scotland, had developed double-hulled boats propelled by cranked paddlewheels placed between the hulls, and he engaged engineer William Symington to build his patent steam engine into a boat which was successfully tried out on Dalswinton Loch in 1788, and followed by a larger steamboat the next year. Miller then abandoned the project, but ten years later Symington was engaged by Lord Dundas, and in March 1802, Charlotte Dundas towed two 70 ton barges 30 km (19 mi) along the Forth and Clyde Canal to Glasgow. This vessel, the first tow boat, has been called the "first practical steamboat", and the first to be followed by continuous development of steamboats. Although plans to introduce boats on the Forth and Clyde canal were thwarted by fears of erosion of the banks, development was taken up both in Britain and abroad.

Robert Fulton, who may have become interested in steamboats when he visited Henry in 1777 at the age of 12, visited Britain and France where he built and tested an experimental steamboat on the River Seine in 1803, and was aware of the success of Charlotte Dundas. Before returning to the United States he ordered a Boulton and Watt steam engine, and on return built what he called the North River Steamboat (often mistakenly described as the Clermont ). In 1807 this steamboat began a regular passenger boat service between New York City and Albany, New York, 240 km (150 miles) distant, which was a commercial success. In 1808 John and James Winans built Vermont in Burlington, Vermont, the second steamboat to operate commercially. In 1809, Accommodation, built by the Hon. John Molson at Montreal, and fitted with engines made in that city, was running successfully between Montreal and Quebec, being the first steamer on the St. Lawrence and in Canada. The experience of both vessels showed that the new system of propulsion was commercially viable, and as a result its application to the more open waters of the Great Lakes was next considered. That idea went on hiatus), due to the War of 1812, however.

In Scotland the ideas of Charlotte Dundas were taken up by Henry Bell, and in 1812 the Comet began passenger steamboat service on the River Clyde between Glasgow and Greenock. This was the first commercially successful service in Europe.

In 1815, Pierre Andriel crossed the English Channel abord Élise, marking the first sea-going use of a steam ship.

• 
  1736 steamboat English patent.
• 
  Model of steamship, built in 1784 by Jouffroy d'Abbans.
• 
  Robert Fulton's Clermont.
• 
  the Élise

River steamboats

Model of a shallow draft stern wheel riverboat

As Henry and Fitch had foreseen, steamboats on major American rivers soon followed Fulton's success. Mark Twain, in his Life on the Mississippi, described much of the operation of these vessels. For most of the 19th century and part of the early 20th century, trade on the Mississippi River would be dominated by paddle-wheel steamboats. Their success led to penetration deep into the continent, where Anson Northrup in 1859 became first steamer to cross the U.S.-Canadian border on the Red River. They would also be involved in major political events, as when Louis Riel seized International at Fort Garry, or Gabriel Dumont was engaged by Northcote at Batoche. Very few such craft survive to the present day, most destroyed by boiler explosions or fires. One of the few surviving Mississippi sternwheelers from this period, Julius C. Wilkie, is a museum ship at Winona, Minnesota. For modern craft operated on rivers, see the riverboat article.

The cartoon Steamboat Willie introduced steamboat pilot Mickey Mouse to the public.

The Belle of Louisville, out of Louisville, Kentucky is the oldest continually operating steamboat on the inland waterways of the United States: she was laid down as Idlewild in 1914.

ss Inlander on the Skeena River at Kitselas Canyon, 1911

In Canada, the city of Terrace, British Columbia, celebrates "Riverboat Days" each summer. The Skeena River passes through Terrace and played a crucial role during the age of the steamboat. The first steamer to enter the Skeena was Union in 1864. In 1866 Mumford attempted to ascend the river but was only able to reach the Kitsumkalum River. It was not until 1891 Hudson's Bay Company sternwheeler Caledonia successfully negotiated Kitselas Canyon and reached Hazelton. A number of other steamers were built around the turn of the century, in part due to the growing fish industry and the gold rush.

Lake, loch, estuary and sea-going steamers

Bell's Comet started a rapid expansion of steam services on the Firth of Clyde, and within four years a steamer service was in operation on the inland Loch Lomond, a forerunner of the lake steamers still gracing Swiss lakes. Today the 1900 steamer SS Sir Walter Scott still sails on Loch Katrine, while on Loch Lomond PS Maid of the Loch is being restored.

On the Clyde itself, within ten years of Comet's start there were nearly fifty steamers, and services had started across the Irish Sea to Belfast. By 1900 there were over 300 Clyde steamers. The paddle steamer Waverley, built in 1947, is the last survivor of these fleets, and the last seagoing paddle steamer in the world. This ship sails a full season of cruises every year from places around Britain, and has sailed across the English Channel for a visit to commemorate the sinking of her predecessor of 1899 at the Battle of Dunkirk.

People have had a particular affection for the Clyde puffers, small steam freighters of traditional design developed to use the Scottish canals and to serve the Highlands and Islands. They were immortalised by the tales of Para Handy's boat Vital Spark by Neil Munro and by the film The Maggie, and a small number are being conserved to continue in steam around the west highland sea lochs.

The Clyde sludge boats had a tradition of occasionally taking passengers on their trips from Glasgow, past the Isle of Arran, down the Firth of Clyde, and one has emerged from retirement as "SS Shieldhall, Steam powered General Cargo-Passenger Steamer available for Trips in the Solent", offering outings from Southampton, England with views of the two triple expansion engines.

Built in 1856, PS Skibladner is the oldest steamship still in operation, serving towns along lake Mjøsa in Norway.

The 1912 steamer TSS Earnslaw still makes regular sight-seeing trips across Lake Wakatipu, an alpine lake near Queenstown, New Zealand.

• 
  Paddle steamer PS Waverley steaming down the Firth of Clyde.
• 
  Turbine steamer TS Queen Mary.
• 
  SS Shieldhall steams down the Firth of Clyde.

Ocean steamships

SS Great Eastern

The side-wheel paddle steamer SS Great Western was the first purpose-built steamship to initiate regularly scheduled trans-Atlantic crossings, starting in 1838. The first regular steamship service from the west to the east coast of the United States began on February 28, 1849 with the arrival of the SS California in San Francisco Bay. California left New York Harbor on October 6, 1848, rounded Cape Horn at the tip of South America, and arrived at San Francisco, California after a 4-month 21-day journey. SS Great Eastern was built in 1854–1857 with the intent of linking Great Britain with India, via the Cape of Good Hope, without coaling stops; she would know a turbulent history, and was never put to her intended use.

By 1870, a number of inventions, such as the screw propeller and the triple expansion engine made trans-oceanic shipping economically viable. Thus began the era of cheap and safe travel and trade around the world.

RMS Titanic

RMS Titanic was the largest steamship in the world when she sank in 1912. Launched in 1938, RMS Queen Elizabeth was the largest passenger steamship ever built. Launched in 1969, RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2) was the last passenger steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean on a scheduled liner voyage before she was converted to diesels in 1986. The last major passenger ship built with steam engines was the Fairsky, launched in 1984.

SS Explorer is the last remaining steam trawler in Britain. She was built in Aberdeen, including the last steam engine built there, and was launched in 1955 as a fishery research vessel. Accommodation was provided for researchers, including a computer cabin. Currently she is berthed at Edinburgh Dock, Leith, by Edinburgh, and is subject of a restoration project.

The turbine steamship Royal Yacht Britannia, now retired from service, is berthed nearby at Ocean Terminal, Leith.

External links

• Barlow Cumberland, A Century of Sail and Steam on the Niagara River, 2001
• Robert H. Thurston, A history of the growth of the steam-engine, 1878 (Chapter 5)
• The Steam Boat Association of Great Britain
• Cruising The World TV Show (RTP-TV 2001), Online video showing trip down Mississippi on the Delta Queen steamboat
• Loch Katrine Steamship Sir Walter Scott, Steamer on Loch Katrine
• Waverley Excursions
• Paddle Steamer Preservation Society
• Steamboats.org US inland rivers steamboats today and in history: pictures, sounds, videos, link directory, travel guide, expert discussion forums.
• University of Washington Libraries: Digital Collections:
• Oliver S. Van Olinda Photographs A collection of 420 photographs depicting life on Vashon Island, Whidbey Island, Seattle and other communities of Washington State's Puget Sound from the 1880s to the 1930s. This collection provides a glimpse of early pioneer activities, industries and occupations, recreation, street scenes, ferries and boat traffic at the turn of the century.
• Transportation Photographs An ongoing digital collection of photographs depicting various modes of transportation in the Pacific Northwest region and Western United States during the first half of the 20th century.
• Rainer Radow's Steam Boat Page Description of his steamlaunch project Emma and a picture collection of over 60 small still existing steamlaunches.

See also

• steam engine

References

• Ian McCrorie, Clyde Pleasure Steamers, Orr, Pollock & Co. Ltd., Greenock (ISBN 1-869850-00-9)
• Allan Line Royal Mail Steamers