Engineering Wonders of the World
Volume I

THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SHIP. 315 THE “ CLER- MONT.” BUILT BY ROBERT FULTON, 1807. a wooden paddle steamer, 207 feet long, in- augurated the Cunard Company’s Atlantic service. Her average speed was about 8| knots per hour, and she used to accomplish the journey from Liverpool to Boston in some- thing over fourteen days. But although the marine steam-engine, as THE CHAR- LOTTE DUN- DAS,” FIRST ER IN UNITED DO M. KING- E M- PLOYED IN TOWING BOATS ON THE FORTH AND CLYDE CANAL. BUILT, 1801 ; ENGINE BY WILLIAM SYMINGTON. THE STEAM- THE THE “ COMET,” 1812. FIRST PAS SENGER STEAMBOAT IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. Speed, 7J miles an hour. (These, are sketched and copied from Prints in the Rischgitz Collection.) crossed the Atlantic. The Savannah, a paddle steamer of 300 tons, arrived at Liverpool from Savannah, Georgia, in June 1819. The voyage was made mainly under sail, however, as during the twenty-five days the trip steam was used for Early Atlantic Steamships. occupied by only eighty hours, and her fuel was exhausted before Liverpool was reached. Scientists and naval men alike appear at this time to have been practically unanimous in the opinion that no vessel could ever be constructed cap- able of carrying sufficient fuel to enable her to steam right across the Atlantic, and the performance of the Savannah was merely re- garded as a novel experiment, without any real significance. Yet the practical utilization of the steamship for oversea traffic was soon to be accomplished. In 1840 the Britannia, Decline of the Sailing Ship. already explained, was no longer a dream at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the glory of the sailing ship did not begin to wane until about 1850. Indeed, so late as the year 1870 the bulk of the world’s merchandise was carried oversea in wooden sailing ships. To America must be accorded much of the credit for improvements in mercantile sailing ships between 1800 and 1850. Wooden sailing ships were still being launched from American yards in consider-