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Steamship

A steamship, often referred to as a steamer, is a type of steam-powered vessel, typically ocean-faring and seaworthy, that is propelled by one or more steam engines[1] that typically move (turn) propellers or paddlewheels. The first steamships came into practical usage during the early 1800s; however, there were exceptions that came before. Steamships usually use the prefix designations of "PS" for paddle steamer or "SS" for screw steamer (using a propeller or screw). As paddle steamers became less common, "SS" is assumed by many to stand for "steamship". Ships powered by internal combustion engines use a prefix such as "MV" for motor vessel, so it is not correct to use "SS" for most modern vessels.

The paddle steamer PS Waverley at Swanage is the world's last seagoing paddle steamer
An aerial starboard quarter view of the aircraft carrier USS John F. Kennedy (CV-67), which was the last US Navy aircraft carrier to use conventional steam power

As steamships were less dependent on wind patterns, new trade routes opened up. The steamship has been described as a "major driver of the first wave of trade globalization (1870–1913)" and contributor to "an increase in international trade that was unprecedented in human history".[2]

History edit

Steamships were preceded by smaller vessels, called steamboats, conceived in the first half of the 18th century, with the first working steamboat and paddle steamer, the Pyroscaphe, from 1783. Once the technology of steam was mastered at this level, steam engines were mounted on larger, and eventually, ocean-going vessels. Becoming reliable, and propelled by screw rather than paddlewheels, the technology changed the design of ships for faster, more economic propulsion.

Paddlewheels as the main motive source became standard on these early vessels. It was an effective means of propulsion under ideal conditions but otherwise had serious drawbacks. The paddle-wheel performed best when it operated at a certain depth, however when the depth of the ship changed from added weight it further submerged the paddle wheel causing a substantial decrease in performance.[3]

Within a few decades of the development of the river and canal steamboat, the first steamships began to cross the Atlantic Ocean. The first sea-going steamboat was Richard Wright's first steamboat Experiment, an ex-French lugger; she steamed from Leeds to Yarmouth in July 1813.[4][5]

The first iron steamship to go to sea was the 116-ton Aaron Manby, built in 1821 by Aaron Manby at the Horseley Ironworks, and became the first iron-built vessel to put to sea when she crossed the English Channel in 1822, arriving in Paris on 22 June.[6] She carried passengers and freight to Paris in 1822 at an average speed of 8 knots (9 mph, 14 km/h).

 
The side-wheel paddle steamer SS Great Western, the first purpose-built transatlantic steamship, on its maiden voyage in 1838

The American ship SS Savannah first crossed the Atlantic Ocean arriving in Liverpool, England, on June 20, 1819, although most of the voyage was actually made under sail. The first ship to make the transatlantic trip substantially under steam power may have been the British-built Dutch-owned Curaçao, a wooden 438-ton vessel built in Dover and powered by two 50 hp engines, which crossed from Hellevoetsluis, near Rotterdam on 26 April 1827 to Paramaribo, Surinam on 24 May, spending 11 days under steam on the way out and more on the return. Another claimant is the Canadian ship SS Royal William in 1833.[7]

The first steamship purpose-built for regularly scheduled trans-Atlantic crossings was the British side-wheel paddle steamer SS Great Western built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel in 1838, which inaugurated the era of the trans-Atlantic ocean liner.

SS Archimedes, built in Britain in 1839 by Francis Pettit Smith, was the world's first screw propeller-driven steamship[a] for open water seagoing. She had considerable influence on ship development, encouraging the adoption of screw propulsion by the Royal Navy, in addition to her influence on commercial vessels. The first screw-driven propeller steamship introduced in America was on a ship built by Thomas Clyde in 1844 and many more ships and routes followed.

Screw-propeller steamers edit

 
Francis Pettit Smith 1836 patent for his propeller design originally fitted to the Archimedes

The key innovation that made ocean-going steamers viable was the change from the paddle-wheel to the screw-propeller as the mechanism of propulsion. These steamships quickly became more popular, because the propeller's efficiency was consistent regardless of the depth at which it operated. Being smaller in size and mass and being completely submerged, it was also far less prone to damage.

James Watt of Scotland is widely given credit for applying the first screw propeller to an engine at his Birmingham works, an early steam engine, beginning the use of a hydrodynamic screw for propulsion.

The development of screw propulsion relied on the following technological innovations.

Steam engines had to be designed with the power delivered at the bottom of the machinery, to give direct drive to the propeller shaft. A paddle steamer's engines drive a shaft that is positioned above the waterline, with the cylinders positioned below the shaft. SS Great Britain used chain drive to transmit power from a paddler's engine to the propeller shaft – the result of a late design change to propeller propulsion.

 
Image of stern tube and propeller shaft in a lighthouse ship

An effective stern tube and associated bearings were required. The stern tube contains the propeller shaft where it passes through the hull structure. It should provide an unrestricted delivery of power by the propeller shaft. The combination of hull and stern tube must avoid any flexing that will bend the shaft or cause uneven wear. The inboard end has a stuffing box that prevents water from entering the hull along the tube. Some early stern tubes were made of brass and operated as a water lubricated bearing along the entire length. In other instances a long bush of soft metal was fitted in the after end of the stern tube. SS Great Eastern had this arrangement fail on her first transatlantic voyage, with very large amounts of uneven wear. The problem was solved with a lignum vitae water-lubricated bearing, patented in 1858. This became standard practice and is in use today.

Since the motive power of screw propulsion is delivered along the shaft, a thrust bearing is needed to transfer that load to the hull without excessive friction. SS Great Britain had a 2 ft diameter gunmetal plate on the forward end of the shaft which bore against a steel plate attached to the engine beds. Water at 200 psi was injected between these two surfaces to lubricate and separate them. This arrangement was not sufficient for higher engine powers and oil lubricated "collar" thrust bearings became standard from the early 1850s. This was superseded at the beginning of the 20th century by floating pad bearing which automatically built up wedges of oil which could withstand bearing pressures of 500 psi or more.[8]

Name prefix edit

 
Steamer Yuma as she struck the Cherry Street Bridge in Toledo, Ohio

Steam-powered ships were named with a prefix designating their propeller configuration i.e. single, twin, triple-screw. Single-screw Steamship SS, Twin-Screw Steamship TSS, Triple-Screw Steamship TrSS. Steam turbine-driven ships had the prefix TS. In the UK the prefix RMS for Royal Mail Steamship overruled the screw configuration prefix.[9]

First ocean-going steamships edit

The first steamship credited with crossing the Atlantic Ocean between North America and Europe was the American ship SS Savannah, though she was actually a hybrid between a steamship and a sailing ship, with the first half of the journey making use of the steam engine. Savannah left the port of Savannah, Georgia, US, on 22 May 1819, arriving in Liverpool, England, on 20 June 1819; her steam engine having been in use for part of the time on 18 days (estimates vary from 8 to 80 hours).[10] A claimant to the title of the first ship to make the transatlantic trip substantially under steam power is the British-built Dutch-owned Curaçao, a wooden 438-ton vessel built in Dover and powered by two 50 hp engines, which crossed from Hellevoetsluis, near Rotterdam on 26 April 1827 to Paramaribo, Surinam on 24 May, spending 11 days under steam on the way out and more on the return. Another claimant is the Canadian ship SS Royal William in 1833.[11]

The British side-wheel paddle steamer SS Great Western was the first steamship purpose-built for regularly scheduled trans-Atlantic crossings, starting in 1838. In 1836 Isambard Kingdom Brunel and a group of Bristol investors formed the Great Western Steamship Company to build a line of steamships for the Bristol-New York route.[12] The idea of regular scheduled transatlantic service was under discussion by several groups and the rival British and American Steam Navigation Company was established at the same time.[13] Great Western's design sparked controversy from critics that contended that she was too big.[12] The principle that Brunel understood was that the carrying capacity of a hull increases as the cube of its dimensions, while water resistance only increases as the square of its dimensions. This meant that large ships were more fuel efficient, something very important for long voyages across the Atlantic.[14]

Great Western was an iron-strapped, wooden, side-wheel paddle steamer, with four masts to hoist the auxiliary sails. The sails were not just to provide auxiliary propulsion, but also were used in rough seas to keep the ship on an even keel and ensure that both paddle wheels remained in the water, driving the ship in a straight line. The hull was built of oak by traditional methods. She was the largest steamship for one year, until the British and American's British Queen went into service. Built at the shipyard of Patterson & Mercer in Bristol, Great Western was launched on 19 July 1837 and then sailed to London, where she was fitted with two side-lever steam engines from the firm of Maudslay, Sons & Field, producing 750 indicated horsepower between them.[12] The ship proved satisfactory in service and initiated the transatlantic route, acting as a model for all following Atlantic paddle-steamers.

The Cunard Line's RMS Britannia began her first regular passenger and cargo service by a steamship in 1840, sailing from Liverpool to Boston.[15]

In 1845 the revolutionary SS Great Britain, also built by Brunel, became the first iron-hulled screw-driven ship to cross the Atlantic.[16] SS Great Britain was the first ship to combine these two innovations. After the initial success of its first liner, SS Great Western of 1838, the Great Western Steamship Company assembled the same engineering team that had collaborated so successfully before. This time however, Brunel, whose reputation was at its height, came to assert overall control over design of the ship—a state of affairs that would have far-reaching consequences for the company. Construction was carried out in a specially adapted dry dock in Bristol, England.[17]

 
Great Britain in the Cumberland Basin, April 1844. This historic photograph by William Talbot is believed to be the first ever taken of a ship.

Brunel was given a chance to inspect John Laird's 213-foot (65 m) (English) channel packet ship Rainbow—the largest iron-hulled ship then in service— in 1838, and was soon converted to iron-hulled technology. He scrapped his plans to build a wooden ship and persuaded the company directors to build an iron-hulled ship.[18] Iron's advantages included being much cheaper than wood, not being subject to dry rot or woodworm, and its much greater structural strength. The practical limit on the length of a wooden-hulled ship is about 300 feet, after which hogging—the flexing of the hull as waves pass beneath it—becomes too great. Iron hulls are far less subject to hogging, so that the potential size of an iron-hulled ship is much greater.[19]

In the spring of 1840 Brunel also had the opportunity to inspect SS Archimedes, the first screw-propelled steamship, completed only a few months before by F. P. Smith's Propeller Steamship Company. Brunel had been looking into methods of improving the performance of Great Britain's paddlewheels, and took an immediate interest in the new technology, and Smith, sensing a prestigious new customer for his own company, agreed to lend Archimedes to Brunel for extended tests.[18] Over several months, Smith and Brunel tested a number of different propellers on Archimedes in order to find the most efficient design, a four-bladed model submitted by Smith.[18] When launched in 1843, Great Britain was by far the largest vessel afloat.

Brunel's last major project, SS Great Eastern, was built in 1854–57 with the intent of linking Great Britain with India, via the Cape of Good Hope, without any coaling stops. This ship was arguably more revolutionary than her predecessors. She was one of the first ships to be built with a double hull with watertight compartments and was the first liner to have four funnels. She was the biggest liner throughout the rest of the 19th century with a gross tonnage of almost 20,000 tons and had a passenger-carrying capacity of thousands. The ship was ahead of her time and went through a turbulent history, never being put to her intended use. The first transatlantic steamer built of steel was SS Buenos Ayrean, built by Allan Line Royal Mail Steamers and entering service in 1879.[citation needed]

The first regular steamship service from the East Coast to the West Coast of the United States began on 28 February 1849, with the arrival of SS California in San Francisco Bay. The California left New York Harbor on 6  October 1848, rounded Cape Horn at the tip of South America, and arrived at San Francisco, California, after a four-month and 21-day journey. The first steamship to operate on the Pacific Ocean was the paddle steamer Beaver, launched in 1836 to service Hudson's Bay Company trading posts between Puget Sound Washington and Alaska.[20]

Long-distance commercial steamships edit

The most testing route for steam was from Britain or the East Coast of the U.S. to the Far East. The distance from either is roughly the same, between 14,000 to 15,000 nautical miles (26,000 to 28,000 km; 16,000 to 17,000 mi), traveling down the Atlantic, around the southern tip of Africa, and across the Indian Ocean.[21] Before 1866, no steamship could carry enough coal to make this voyage and have enough space left to carry a commercial cargo.

A partial solution to this problem was adopted by the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O), using an overland section between Alexandria and Suez, with connecting steamship routes along the Mediterranean and then through the Red Sea. While this worked for passengers and some high value cargo, sail was still the only solution for virtually all trade between China and Western Europe or East Coast America. Most notable of these cargoes was tea, typically carried in clippers.[22]

Another partial solution was the Steam Auxiliary Ship – a vessel with a steam engine, but also rigged as a sailing vessel. The steam engine would only be used when conditions were unsuitable for sailing – in light or contrary winds. Some of this type (for instance Erl King) were built with propellers that could be lifted clear of the water to reduce drag when under sail power alone. These ships struggled to be successful on the route to China, as the standing rigging required when sailing was a handicap when steaming into a head wind, most notably against the southwest monsoon when returning with a cargo of new tea.[23] Though the auxiliary steamers persisted in competing in far eastern trade for a few years (and it was Erl King that carried the first cargo of tea through the Suez Canal), they soon moved on to other routes.

What was needed was a big improvement in fuel efficiency. While the boilers for steam engines on land were allowed to run at high pressures, the Board of Trade (under the authority of the Merchant Shipping Act 1854) would not allow ships to exceed 20 or 25 pounds per square inch (140 or 170 kPa). Compound engines were a known source of improved efficiency – but generally not used at sea due to the low pressures available. Carnatic (1863), a P&O ship, had a compound engine – and achieved better efficiency than other ships of the time. Her boilers ran at 26 pounds per square inch (180 kPa) but relied on a substantial amount of superheat.[22]

Alfred Holt, who had entered marine engineering and ship management after an apprenticeship in railway engineering, experimented with boiler pressures of 60 pounds per square inch (410 kPa) in Cleator. Holt was able to persuade the Board of Trade to allow these boiler pressures and, in partnership with his brother Phillip launched Agamemnon in 1865. Holt had designed a particularly compact compound engine and taken great care with the hull design, producing a light, strong, easily driven hull.[22]

 
SS Agamemnon (1865)

The efficiency of Holt's package of boiler pressure, compound engine and hull design gave a ship that could steam at 10 knots on 20 long tons of coal a day. This fuel consumption was a saving from between 23 and 14 long tons a day, compared to other contemporary steamers. Not only did less coal need to be carried to travel a given distance, but fewer firemen were needed to fuel the boilers, so crew costs and their accommodation space were reduced. Agamemnon was able to sail from London to China with a coaling stop at Mauritius on the outward and return journey, with a time on passage substantially less than the competing sailing vessels. Holt had already ordered two sister ships to Agamemnon by the time she had returned from her first trip to China in 1866, operating these ships in the newly formed Blue Funnel Line. His competitors rapidly copied his ideas for their own new ships.[22]

The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 gave a distance saving of about 3,250 nautical miles (6,020 km; 3,740 mi) on the route from China to London.[b] The canal was not a practical option for sailing vessels, as using a tug was difficult and expensive – so this distance saving was not available to them.[22] Steamships immediately made use of this new waterway and found themselves in high demand in China for the start of the 1870 tea season. The steamships were able to obtain a much higher rate of freight than sailing ships and the insurance premium for the cargo was less. So successful were the steamers using the Suez Canal that, in 1871, 45 were built in Clyde shipyards alone for Far Eastern trade.[21]

Triple expansion engines edit

Throughout the 1870s, compound-engined steamships and sailing vessels coexisted in an economic equilibrium: the operating costs of steamships were still too high in certain trades, so sail was the only commercial option in many situations. The compound engine, where steam was expanded twice in two separate cylinders, still had inefficiencies. The solution was the triple expansion engine, in which steam was successively expanded in a high pressure, intermediate pressure and a low pressure cylinder.[25]: 89 [26]: 106-111 

The theory of this was established in the 1850s by John Elder, but it was clear that triple expansion engines needed steam at, by the standards of the day, very high pressures. The existing boiler technology could not deliver this. Wrought iron could not provide the strength for the higher pressures. Steel became available in larger quantities in the 1870s, but the quality was variable. The overall design of boilers was improved in the early 1860s, with the Scotch-type boilers – but at that date these still ran at the lower pressures that were then current.[26]: 106-111 

The first ship fitted with triple expansion engines was Propontis (launched in 1874). She was fitted with boilers that operated at 150 pounds per square inch (1,000 kPa) – but these had technical problems and had to be replaced with ones that ran at 90 pounds per square inch (620 kPa). This substantially degraded performance.[26]: 106-111 

 
Aberdeen, the first successful commercial use of triple expansion engines

There were a few further experiments until SS Aberdeen (1881) went into service on the route from Britain to Australia. Her triple expansion engine was designed by Dr A C Kirk, the engineer who had developed the machinery for Propontis. The difference was the use of two double ended Scotch type steel boilers, running at 125 pounds per square inch (860 kPa). These boilers had patent corrugated furnaces that overcame the competing problems of heat transfer and sufficient strength to deal with the boiler pressure. Aberdeen was a marked success, achieving in trials, at 1,800 indicated horsepower, a fuel consumption of 1.28 pounds (0.58 kg) of coal per indicated horsepower. This was a reduction in fuel consumption of about 60%, compared to a typical steamer built ten years earlier. In service, this translated into less than 40 tons of coal a day when travelling at 13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph).[c] Her maiden outward voyage to Melbourne took 42 days, with one coaling stop, carrying 4,000 tons of cargo.[26]: 106-111 [25]: 89 

Other similar ships were rapidly brought into service over the next few years. By 1885 the usual boiler pressure was 150 pounds per square inch (1,000 kPa) and virtually all ocean-going steamships being built were ordered with triple expansion engines. Within a few years, new installations were running at 200 pounds per square inch (1,400 kPa). The tramp steamers that operated at the end of the 1880s could sail at 9 knots (17 km/h; 10 mph) with a fuel consumption of 0.5 ounces (14 g) of coal per ton mile travelled. This level of efficiency meant that steamships could now operate as the primary method of maritime transport in the vast majority of commercial situations.[26]: 106–111 [25]: 89  In 1890, steamers constituted 57% of world's tonnage, and by World War I their share raised to 93%.[27]

Era of the ocean liner edit

 
RMS Oceanic, an important turning point in ocean liner design

By 1870 a number of inventions such as the screw propeller, the compound engine,[28] and the triple-expansion engine made trans-oceanic shipping on a large scale economically viable. In 1870 the White Star Line’s RMS Oceanic set a new standard for ocean travel by having its first-class cabins amidships, with the added amenity of large portholes, electricity and running water.[29] The size of ocean liners increased from 1880 to meet the needs of the human migration to the United States and Australia.

RMS Umbria[30] and her sister ship RMS Etruria were the last two Cunard liners of the period to be fitted with auxiliary sails. Both ships were built by John Elder & Co. of Glasgow, Scotland, in 1884. They were record breakers by the standards of the time, and were the largest liners then in service, plying the Liverpool to New York route.

RMS Titanic was the largest steamship in the world when she sank in 1912; a subsequent major sinking of a steamer was that of the RMS Lusitania, as an act of World War I.

 
RMS Titanic was the largest steamship in the world in 1912 (sank on 15 April).

Launched in 1938, RMS Queen Elizabeth was the largest passenger steamship ever built. Launched in 1969, 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 turbines was the Fairsky, launched in 1984,[citation needed] later Atlantic Star, reportedly sold to Turkish shipbreakers in 2013.

Most luxury yachts at the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries were steam driven (see luxury yacht; also Cox & King yachts). Thomas Assheton Smith was an English aristocrat who forwarded the design of the steam yacht in conjunction with the Scottish marine engineer Robert Napier.[31]

Decline of the steamship edit

By World War II, steamers still constituted 73% of world's tonnage, and similar percentage remained in early 1950s.[27] The decline of the steamship began soon thereafter. Many had been lost in the war, and marine diesel engines had finally matured as an economical and viable alternative to steam power. The diesel engine had far better thermal efficiency than the reciprocating steam engine, and was far easier to control. Diesel engines also required far less supervision and maintenance than steam engines, and as an internal combustion engine it did not need boilers or a water supply, therefore was more space efficient and cheaper to build.

The Liberty ships were the last major steamship class equipped with reciprocating engines. The last Victory ships had already been equipped with marine diesels, and diesel engines superseded both steamers and windjammers soon after World War Two. Most steamers were used up to their maximum economical life span, and no commercial ocean-going steamers with reciprocating engines have been built since the 1960s.

1970–present day edit

 
RMS Mauretania, built in 1906, and the sister to the RMS Lusitania, was one of the first ocean liners to adopt the steam turbine.

Most steamships today are powered by steam turbines. After the demonstration by British engineer Charles Parsons of his steam turbine-driven yacht, Turbinia, in 1897, the use of steam turbines for propulsion quickly spread. The Cunard RMS Mauretania, built in 1906 was one of the first ocean liners to use the steam turbine (with a late design change shortly before her keel was laid down) and was soon followed by all subsequent liners.[32]

Most larger warships of the world's navies were propelled by steam turbines burning bunker fuel in both World Wars, apart from obsolete ships with reciprocating machines from the turn of the century, and rare cases of usage of diesel engines in larger warships. Steam turbines burning fuel remained in warship construction until the end of the Cold War (eg. Russian aicraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov), because of needs of high power and speed, although from 1970s they were mostly replaced by gas turbines. Large naval vessels and submarines continue to be operated with steam turbines, using nuclear reactors to boil the water. NS Savannah, was the first nuclear-powered cargo-passenger ship, and was built in the late 1950s as a demonstration project for the potential use of nuclear energy.[33]

Thousands of Liberty Ships (powered by steam piston engines) and Victory Ships (powered by steam turbine engines) were built in World War II. A few of these survive as floating museums and sail occasionally: SS Jeremiah O'Brien, SS John W. Brown, SS American Victory, SS Lane Victory, and SS Red Oak Victory.

A steam turbine ship can be either direct propulsion (the turbines, equipped with a reduction gear, rotate directly the propellers), or turboelectric (the turbines rotate electric generators, which in turn feed electric motors operating the propellers).

While steam turbine-driven merchant ships such as the Algol-class cargo ships (1972–1973), ALP Pacesetter-class container ships (1973–1974)[34][35] and very large crude carriers were built until the 1970s, the use of steam for marine propulsion in the commercial market has declined dramatically due to the development of more efficient diesel engines. One notable exception are LNG carriers which use boil-off gas from the cargo tanks as fuel.[27] However, even there the development of dual-fuel engines has pushed steam turbines into a niche market with about 10% market share in newbuildings in 2013. Lately, there has been some development in hybrid power plants where the steam turbine is used together with gas engines.[36] As of August 2017 the newest class of Steam Turbine ships are the Seri Camellia-class LNG carriers built by Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) starting in 2016 and comprising five units.[37]

Nuclear powered ships are basically steam turbine vessels. The boiler is heated, not by heat of combustion, but by the heat generated by nuclear reactor. Most atomic-powered ships today are either aircraft carriers or submarines.

See also edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ The emphasis here is on ship. There were a number of successful screw propeller driven vessels prior to Archimedes, including Smith's own Francis Smith and Ericsson's Francis B. Ogden and Robert F. Stockton. However, these vessels were boats—designed for service on inland waterways—as opposed to ships, built for seagoing service.
  2. ^ The distance by a modern shipping route calculator is 13,373 nautical miles (24,767 km; 15,389 mi) from London to Fuzhou via the Cape of Good Hope. Using the same calculator, a route through the Mediterranean and Suez Canal is 10,124 nautical miles (18,750 km; 11,650 mi). The difference is 3,249 nautical miles (6,017 km; 3,739 mi). A sailing vessel would take a longer route to obtain the best winds, so this comparison is only an approximation.[24]
  3. ^ If this fuel consumption is compared to SS Agamemnon (1865) (previous section), the relative sizes and the cruising speeds of the two ships should be taken into account: Aberdeen 3,616GRT, 13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph), Agamemnon 2,270GRT, 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph).

References edit

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  2. ^ Pascali, Luigi (24 August 2017). . The Long Run. Economic History Society. Archived from the original on 1 August 2020. Retrieved 14 November 2020.
  3. ^ Carlton, 2012 p.23
  4. ^ Malster, R (1971), Wherries & Waterways, Lavenham, p. 61{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link).
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  7. ^ Croil, James (1898). Steam Navigation: And Its Relation to the Commerce of Canada and the United. W. Briggs. p. 54.
  8. ^ Corlett, ECB (1993). "Chapter 4: The Screw Propeller and Merchant Shipping 1840–1865". In Gardiner, Robert; Greenhill, Dr. Basil (eds.). The Advent of Steam - The Merchant Steamship before 1900. Conway Maritime Press Ltd. pp. 96–100. ISBN 0-85177-563-2.
  9. ^ RINA. "Maritime Services Directory – RINA acronyms". rina.org.uk. Retrieved 2017-12-28.
  10. ^ Thurston, 1891 pp.168-169
  11. ^ Croil, James (1898). Steam Navigation: And Its Relation to the Commerce of Canada and the United. W. Briggs. p. 54. SS Royal William.
  12. ^ a b c Corlett, Ewan (1975). The Iron Ship: the Story of Brunel's SS Great Britain. Conway.
  13. ^ American Heritage (1991). The Annihilation of Time and Space.
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  23. ^ Clark, Arthur H. (1911). The Clipper Ship Era, An Epitome of Famous American and British Clipper Ships, Their Owners, Builders, Commanders, and Crews 1843-1869. G P Putnam’s Sons, New York and London, The Knickerbocker Press. pp. 331–332.
  24. ^ systems, maritime data. "London - Fuzhou distance is 10120 NM - SeaRoutes". m.classic.searoutes.com. Retrieved 23 October 2021.
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  27. ^ a b c Marek Błuś (2003). "Co się stało z parowcami? Zmierzch historycznego napędu" [What happened to steamers? A decline of the historical propulsion]. Morza, Statki i Okręty (in Polish). Vol. nr. 2/2003 (39). pp. 85–86.
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  32. ^ Maxtone-Graham, John (1972). The Only Way to Cross. New York: Collier Books. p. 15.
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  34. ^ . September 2014. Archived from the original on 2017-08-30. Retrieved 2014-09-23.
  35. ^ . September 2014. Archived from the original on 2017-08-30. Retrieved 2014-09-23.
  36. ^ Is there still a commercial future for marine steam turbines? 2017-01-24 at the Wayback Machine Marine Propulsion & Auxiliary Machinery, 30 March 2016. Retrieved 2017-03-11.
  37. ^ Versatile LNG carrier series for Malaysia The Motorship: insight for marine technology professionals 04AUG2017. Retrieved 2017-08-05.

Bibliography edit

  • Armstrong, Robert (1859). High Speed Steam Navigation and Steamship Perfection. E. & F. N. Spon, London. p. 59. E'Book
  • Bennett, Frank M. (1897). The steam navy of the United States. Warren & Company Publishers Philadelphia. p. 502. ISBN 1176467921, E'Book Url2
  • Bradford, James C. (1986). Captains of the Old Steam Navy: Makers of the American Tradition, 1840–1880. Naval Institute Press, p. 356, ISBN 9780870210136, Url
  • Canney, Donald L. (1998). Lincoln's Navy: The Ships, Men and Organization, 1861–65. Naval Institute Press. p. 232, Url
  • Carlton, John (2012). Marine Propellers and Propulsion. Butterworth-Heinemann. p. 544. ISBN 9780080971230., Url
  • Dawson, Charles (2006). "Thomas Assheton Smith's Steam Yachts". The Mariner's Mirror. 92 (3): 331ff.
  • Dickinson, Henry Winram (1913). Robert Fulton, engineer and artist: his life and works. John Lane, New York, London. p. 333.,E'Book
  • Lambert, Andrew (1984). Battleships in Transition, the Creation of the Steam Battlefleet 1815–1860. Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-315-X
  • Mahan, Alfred Thayer, n (1907). p : From sail to steam: recollections of naval life. Harper & Brothers, New York, London, p. 325. E'Book
  • Pacific Mail Steamship Company (1867). A sketch of the new route to China and Japan. Turnbull and Smith, San Francisco. p. 104. E'Book
  • Sewall, John Smith (1905). The logbook of the captain's clerk: adventures in the China seas. J.S. Sewall. p. 278. E'Book
  • Thurston, Robert Henry (1891). Robert Fulton: his life and its results. Dodd, Mead and company, New York. p. 194. E'Book
  • Walske, Steve (2011). Civil War Blockade Mail: 1861 - 1865. Steve Walske Exhibition at WESTPEX 2011. p. 32. Url

Further reading edit

External links edit

  •   Media related to Steamships at Wikimedia Commons
  • Transportation Photographs Collection - University of Washington Library

steamship, usually, distinguished, from, smaller, steamboat, steamship, often, referred, steamer, type, steam, powered, vessel, typically, ocean, faring, seaworthy, that, propelled, more, steam, engines, that, typically, move, turn, propellers, paddlewheels, f. Usually distinguished from the smaller steamboat A steamship often referred to as a steamer is a type of steam powered vessel typically ocean faring and seaworthy that is propelled by one or more steam engines 1 that typically move turn propellers or paddlewheels The first steamships came into practical usage during the early 1800s however there were exceptions that came before Steamships usually use the prefix designations of PS for paddle steamer or SS for screw steamer using a propeller or screw As paddle steamers became less common SS is assumed by many to stand for steamship Ships powered by internal combustion engines use a prefix such as MV for motor vessel so it is not correct to use SS for most modern vessels The paddle steamer PS Waverley at Swanage is the world s last seagoing paddle steamerAn aerial starboard quarter view of the aircraft carrier USS John F Kennedy CV 67 which was the last US Navy aircraft carrier to use conventional steam powerAs steamships were less dependent on wind patterns new trade routes opened up The steamship has been described as a major driver of the first wave of trade globalization 1870 1913 and contributor to an increase in international trade that was unprecedented in human history 2 Contents 1 History 2 Screw propeller steamers 3 Name prefix 4 First ocean going steamships 5 Long distance commercial steamships 6 Triple expansion engines 7 Era of the ocean liner 8 Decline of the steamship 9 1970 present day 10 See also 11 Notes 12 References 13 Bibliography 14 Further reading 15 External linksHistory editSteamships were preceded by smaller vessels called steamboats conceived in the first half of the 18th century with the first working steamboat and paddle steamer the Pyroscaphe from 1783 Once the technology of steam was mastered at this level steam engines were mounted on larger and eventually ocean going vessels Becoming reliable and propelled by screw rather than paddlewheels the technology changed the design of ships for faster more economic propulsion Paddlewheels as the main motive source became standard on these early vessels It was an effective means of propulsion under ideal conditions but otherwise had serious drawbacks The paddle wheel performed best when it operated at a certain depth however when the depth of the ship changed from added weight it further submerged the paddle wheel causing a substantial decrease in performance 3 Within a few decades of the development of the river and canal steamboat the first steamships began to cross the Atlantic Ocean The first sea going steamboat was Richard Wright s first steamboat Experiment an ex French lugger she steamed from Leeds to Yarmouth in July 1813 4 5 The first iron steamship to go to sea was the 116 ton Aaron Manby built in 1821 by Aaron Manby at the Horseley Ironworks and became the first iron built vessel to put to sea when she crossed the English Channel in 1822 arriving in Paris on 22 June 6 She carried passengers and freight to Paris in 1822 at an average speed of 8 knots 9 mph 14 km h nbsp The side wheel paddle steamer SS Great Western the first purpose built transatlantic steamship on its maiden voyage in 1838The American ship SS Savannah first crossed the Atlantic Ocean arriving in Liverpool England on June 20 1819 although most of the voyage was actually made under sail The first ship to make the transatlantic trip substantially under steam power may have been the British built Dutch owned Curacao a wooden 438 ton vessel built in Dover and powered by two 50 hp engines which crossed from Hellevoetsluis near Rotterdam on 26 April 1827 to Paramaribo Surinam on 24 May spending 11 days under steam on the way out and more on the return Another claimant is the Canadian ship SS Royal William in 1833 7 The first steamship purpose built for regularly scheduled trans Atlantic crossings was the British side wheel paddle steamer SS Great Western built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel in 1838 which inaugurated the era of the trans Atlantic ocean liner SS Archimedes built in Britain in 1839 by Francis Pettit Smith was the world s first screw propeller driven steamship a for open water seagoing She had considerable influence on ship development encouraging the adoption of screw propulsion by the Royal Navy in addition to her influence on commercial vessels The first screw driven propeller steamship introduced in America was on a ship built by Thomas Clyde in 1844 and many more ships and routes followed Screw propeller steamers editSee also Propeller marine nbsp Francis Pettit Smith 1836 patent for his propeller design originally fitted to the ArchimedesThe key innovation that made ocean going steamers viable was the change from the paddle wheel to the screw propeller as the mechanism of propulsion These steamships quickly became more popular because the propeller s efficiency was consistent regardless of the depth at which it operated Being smaller in size and mass and being completely submerged it was also far less prone to damage James Watt of Scotland is widely given credit for applying the first screw propeller to an engine at his Birmingham works an early steam engine beginning the use of a hydrodynamic screw for propulsion The development of screw propulsion relied on the following technological innovations Steam engines had to be designed with the power delivered at the bottom of the machinery to give direct drive to the propeller shaft A paddle steamer s engines drive a shaft that is positioned above the waterline with the cylinders positioned below the shaft SS Great Britain used chain drive to transmit power from a paddler s engine to the propeller shaft the result of a late design change to propeller propulsion nbsp Image of stern tube and propeller shaft in a lighthouse shipAn effective stern tube and associated bearings were required The stern tube contains the propeller shaft where it passes through the hull structure It should provide an unrestricted delivery of power by the propeller shaft The combination of hull and stern tube must avoid any flexing that will bend the shaft or cause uneven wear The inboard end has a stuffing box that prevents water from entering the hull along the tube Some early stern tubes were made of brass and operated as a water lubricated bearing along the entire length In other instances a long bush of soft metal was fitted in the after end of the stern tube SS Great Eastern had this arrangement fail on her first transatlantic voyage with very large amounts of uneven wear The problem was solved with a lignum vitae water lubricated bearing patented in 1858 This became standard practice and is in use today Since the motive power of screw propulsion is delivered along the shaft a thrust bearing is needed to transfer that load to the hull without excessive friction SS Great Britain had a 2 ft diameter gunmetal plate on the forward end of the shaft which bore against a steel plate attached to the engine beds Water at 200 psi was injected between these two surfaces to lubricate and separate them This arrangement was not sufficient for higher engine powers and oil lubricated collar thrust bearings became standard from the early 1850s This was superseded at the beginning of the 20th century by floating pad bearing which automatically built up wedges of oil which could withstand bearing pressures of 500 psi or more 8 Name prefix editSee also Ship prefix nbsp Steamer Yuma as she struck the Cherry Street Bridge in Toledo OhioSteam powered ships were named with a prefix designating their propeller configuration i e single twin triple screw Single screw Steamship SS Twin Screw Steamship TSS Triple Screw Steamship TrSS Steam turbine driven ships had the prefix TS In the UK the prefix RMS for Royal Mail Steamship overruled the screw configuration prefix 9 First ocean going steamships editThe first steamship credited with crossing the Atlantic Ocean between North America and Europe was the American ship SS Savannah though she was actually a hybrid between a steamship and a sailing ship with the first half of the journey making use of the steam engine Savannah left the port of Savannah Georgia US on 22 May 1819 arriving in Liverpool England on 20 June 1819 her steam engine having been in use for part of the time on 18 days estimates vary from 8 to 80 hours 10 A claimant to the title of the first ship to make the transatlantic trip substantially under steam power is the British built Dutch owned Curacao a wooden 438 ton vessel built in Dover and powered by two 50 hp engines which crossed from Hellevoetsluis near Rotterdam on 26 April 1827 to Paramaribo Surinam on 24 May spending 11 days under steam on the way out and more on the return Another claimant is the Canadian ship SS Royal William in 1833 11 The British side wheel paddle steamer SS Great Western was the first steamship purpose built for regularly scheduled trans Atlantic crossings starting in 1838 In 1836 Isambard Kingdom Brunel and a group of Bristol investors formed the Great Western Steamship Company to build a line of steamships for the Bristol New York route 12 The idea of regular scheduled transatlantic service was under discussion by several groups and the rival British and American Steam Navigation Company was established at the same time 13 Great Western s design sparked controversy from critics that contended that she was too big 12 The principle that Brunel understood was that the carrying capacity of a hull increases as the cube of its dimensions while water resistance only increases as the square of its dimensions This meant that large ships were more fuel efficient something very important for long voyages across the Atlantic 14 Great Western was an iron strapped wooden side wheel paddle steamer with four masts to hoist the auxiliary sails The sails were not just to provide auxiliary propulsion but also were used in rough seas to keep the ship on an even keel and ensure that both paddle wheels remained in the water driving the ship in a straight line The hull was built of oak by traditional methods She was the largest steamship for one year until the British and American s British Queen went into service Built at the shipyard of Patterson amp Mercer in Bristol Great Western was launched on 19 July 1837 and then sailed to London where she was fitted with two side lever steam engines from the firm of Maudslay Sons amp Field producing 750 indicated horsepower between them 12 The ship proved satisfactory in service and initiated the transatlantic route acting as a model for all following Atlantic paddle steamers The Cunard Line s RMS Britannia began her first regular passenger and cargo service by a steamship in 1840 sailing from Liverpool to Boston 15 In 1845 the revolutionary SS Great Britain also built by Brunel became the first iron hulled screw driven ship to cross the Atlantic 16 SS Great Britain was the first ship to combine these two innovations After the initial success of its first liner SS Great Western of 1838 the Great Western Steamship Company assembled the same engineering team that had collaborated so successfully before This time however Brunel whose reputation was at its height came to assert overall control over design of the ship a state of affairs that would have far reaching consequences for the company Construction was carried out in a specially adapted dry dock in Bristol England 17 nbsp Great Britain in the Cumberland Basin April 1844 This historic photograph by William Talbot is believed to be the first ever taken of a ship Brunel was given a chance to inspect John Laird s 213 foot 65 m English channel packet ship Rainbow the largest iron hulled ship then in service in 1838 and was soon converted to iron hulled technology He scrapped his plans to build a wooden ship and persuaded the company directors to build an iron hulled ship 18 Iron s advantages included being much cheaper than wood not being subject to dry rot or woodworm and its much greater structural strength The practical limit on the length of a wooden hulled ship is about 300 feet after which hogging the flexing of the hull as waves pass beneath it becomes too great Iron hulls are far less subject to hogging so that the potential size of an iron hulled ship is much greater 19 In the spring of 1840 Brunel also had the opportunity to inspect SS Archimedes the first screw propelled steamship completed only a few months before by F P Smith s Propeller Steamship Company Brunel had been looking into methods of improving the performance of Great Britain s paddlewheels and took an immediate interest in the new technology and Smith sensing a prestigious new customer for his own company agreed to lend Archimedes to Brunel for extended tests 18 Over several months Smith and Brunel tested a number of different propellers on Archimedes in order to find the most efficient design a four bladed model submitted by Smith 18 When launched in 1843 Great Britain was by far the largest vessel afloat Brunel s last major project SS Great Eastern was built in 1854 57 with the intent of linking Great Britain with India via the Cape of Good Hope without any coaling stops This ship was arguably more revolutionary than her predecessors She was one of the first ships to be built with a double hull with watertight compartments and was the first liner to have four funnels She was the biggest liner throughout the rest of the 19th century with a gross tonnage of almost 20 000 tons and had a passenger carrying capacity of thousands The ship was ahead of her time and went through a turbulent history never being put to her intended use The first transatlantic steamer built of steel was SS Buenos Ayrean built by Allan Line Royal Mail Steamers and entering service in 1879 citation needed The first regular steamship service from the East Coast to the West Coast of the United States began on 28 February 1849 with the arrival of SS California in San Francisco Bay The California left New York Harbor on 6 October 1848 rounded Cape Horn at the tip of South America and arrived at San Francisco California after a four month and 21 day journey The first steamship to operate on the Pacific Ocean was the paddle steamer Beaver launched in 1836 to service Hudson s Bay Company trading posts between Puget Sound Washington and Alaska 20 Long distance commercial steamships editThe most testing route for steam was from Britain or the East Coast of the U S to the Far East The distance from either is roughly the same between 14 000 to 15 000 nautical miles 26 000 to 28 000 km 16 000 to 17 000 mi traveling down the Atlantic around the southern tip of Africa and across the Indian Ocean 21 Before 1866 no steamship could carry enough coal to make this voyage and have enough space left to carry a commercial cargo A partial solution to this problem was adopted by the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company P amp O using an overland section between Alexandria and Suez with connecting steamship routes along the Mediterranean and then through the Red Sea While this worked for passengers and some high value cargo sail was still the only solution for virtually all trade between China and Western Europe or East Coast America Most notable of these cargoes was tea typically carried in clippers 22 Another partial solution was the Steam Auxiliary Ship a vessel with a steam engine but also rigged as a sailing vessel The steam engine would only be used when conditions were unsuitable for sailing in light or contrary winds Some of this type for instance Erl King were built with propellers that could be lifted clear of the water to reduce drag when under sail power alone These ships struggled to be successful on the route to China as the standing rigging required when sailing was a handicap when steaming into a head wind most notably against the southwest monsoon when returning with a cargo of new tea 23 Though the auxiliary steamers persisted in competing in far eastern trade for a few years and it was Erl King that carried the first cargo of tea through the Suez Canal they soon moved on to other routes What was needed was a big improvement in fuel efficiency While the boilers for steam engines on land were allowed to run at high pressures the Board of Trade under the authority of the Merchant Shipping Act 1854 would not allow ships to exceed 20 or 25 pounds per square inch 140 or 170 kPa Compound engines were a known source of improved efficiency but generally not used at sea due to the low pressures available Carnatic 1863 a P amp O ship had a compound engine and achieved better efficiency than other ships of the time Her boilers ran at 26 pounds per square inch 180 kPa but relied on a substantial amount of superheat 22 Alfred Holt who had entered marine engineering and ship management after an apprenticeship in railway engineering experimented with boiler pressures of 60 pounds per square inch 410 kPa in Cleator Holt was able to persuade the Board of Trade to allow these boiler pressures and in partnership with his brother Phillip launched Agamemnon in 1865 Holt had designed a particularly compact compound engine and taken great care with the hull design producing a light strong easily driven hull 22 nbsp SS Agamemnon 1865 The efficiency of Holt s package of boiler pressure compound engine and hull design gave a ship that could steam at 10 knots on 20 long tons of coal a day This fuel consumption was a saving from between 23 and 14 long tons a day compared to other contemporary steamers Not only did less coal need to be carried to travel a given distance but fewer firemen were needed to fuel the boilers so crew costs and their accommodation space were reduced Agamemnon was able to sail from London to China with a coaling stop at Mauritius on the outward and return journey with a time on passage substantially less than the competing sailing vessels Holt had already ordered two sister ships to Agamemnon by the time she had returned from her first trip to China in 1866 operating these ships in the newly formed Blue Funnel Line His competitors rapidly copied his ideas for their own new ships 22 The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 gave a distance saving of about 3 250 nautical miles 6 020 km 3 740 mi on the route from China to London b The canal was not a practical option for sailing vessels as using a tug was difficult and expensive so this distance saving was not available to them 22 Steamships immediately made use of this new waterway and found themselves in high demand in China for the start of the 1870 tea season The steamships were able to obtain a much higher rate of freight than sailing ships and the insurance premium for the cargo was less So successful were the steamers using the Suez Canal that in 1871 45 were built in Clyde shipyards alone for Far Eastern trade 21 Triple expansion engines editThroughout the 1870s compound engined steamships and sailing vessels coexisted in an economic equilibrium the operating costs of steamships were still too high in certain trades so sail was the only commercial option in many situations The compound engine where steam was expanded twice in two separate cylinders still had inefficiencies The solution was the triple expansion engine in which steam was successively expanded in a high pressure intermediate pressure and a low pressure cylinder 25 89 26 106 111 The theory of this was established in the 1850s by John Elder but it was clear that triple expansion engines needed steam at by the standards of the day very high pressures The existing boiler technology could not deliver this Wrought iron could not provide the strength for the higher pressures Steel became available in larger quantities in the 1870s but the quality was variable The overall design of boilers was improved in the early 1860s with the Scotch type boilers but at that date these still ran at the lower pressures that were then current 26 106 111 The first ship fitted with triple expansion engines was Propontis launched in 1874 She was fitted with boilers that operated at 150 pounds per square inch 1 000 kPa but these had technical problems and had to be replaced with ones that ran at 90 pounds per square inch 620 kPa This substantially degraded performance 26 106 111 nbsp Aberdeen the first successful commercial use of triple expansion enginesThere were a few further experiments until SS Aberdeen 1881 went into service on the route from Britain to Australia Her triple expansion engine was designed by Dr A C Kirk the engineer who had developed the machinery for Propontis The difference was the use of two double ended Scotch type steel boilers running at 125 pounds per square inch 860 kPa These boilers had patent corrugated furnaces that overcame the competing problems of heat transfer and sufficient strength to deal with the boiler pressure Aberdeen was a marked success achieving in trials at 1 800 indicated horsepower a fuel consumption of 1 28 pounds 0 58 kg of coal per indicated horsepower This was a reduction in fuel consumption of about 60 compared to a typical steamer built ten years earlier In service this translated into less than 40 tons of coal a day when travelling at 13 knots 24 km h 15 mph c Her maiden outward voyage to Melbourne took 42 days with one coaling stop carrying 4 000 tons of cargo 26 106 111 25 89 Other similar ships were rapidly brought into service over the next few years By 1885 the usual boiler pressure was 150 pounds per square inch 1 000 kPa and virtually all ocean going steamships being built were ordered with triple expansion engines Within a few years new installations were running at 200 pounds per square inch 1 400 kPa The tramp steamers that operated at the end of the 1880s could sail at 9 knots 17 km h 10 mph with a fuel consumption of 0 5 ounces 14 g of coal per ton mile travelled This level of efficiency meant that steamships could now operate as the primary method of maritime transport in the vast majority of commercial situations 26 106 111 25 89 In 1890 steamers constituted 57 of world s tonnage and by World War I their share raised to 93 27 Era of the ocean liner edit nbsp RMS Oceanic an important turning point in ocean liner designBy 1870 a number of inventions such as the screw propeller the compound engine 28 and the triple expansion engine made trans oceanic shipping on a large scale economically viable In 1870 the White Star Line s RMS Oceanic set a new standard for ocean travel by having its first class cabins amidships with the added amenity of large portholes electricity and running water 29 The size of ocean liners increased from 1880 to meet the needs of the human migration to the United States and Australia RMS Umbria 30 and her sister ship RMS Etruria were the last two Cunard liners of the period to be fitted with auxiliary sails Both ships were built by John Elder amp Co of Glasgow Scotland in 1884 They were record breakers by the standards of the time and were the largest liners then in service plying the Liverpool to New York route RMS Titanic was the largest steamship in the world when she sank in 1912 a subsequent major sinking of a steamer was that of the RMS Lusitania as an act of World War I nbsp RMS Titanic was the largest steamship in the world in 1912 sank on 15 April Launched in 1938 RMS Queen Elizabeth was the largest passenger steamship ever built Launched in 1969 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 turbines was the Fairsky launched in 1984 citation needed later Atlantic Star reportedly sold to Turkish shipbreakers in 2013 Most luxury yachts at the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries were steam driven see luxury yacht also Cox amp King yachts Thomas Assheton Smith was an English aristocrat who forwarded the design of the steam yacht in conjunction with the Scottish marine engineer Robert Napier 31 Decline of the steamship editThis section does not cite any sources Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed October 2021 Learn how and when to remove this template message By World War II steamers still constituted 73 of world s tonnage and similar percentage remained in early 1950s 27 The decline of the steamship began soon thereafter Many had been lost in the war and marine diesel engines had finally matured as an economical and viable alternative to steam power The diesel engine had far better thermal efficiency than the reciprocating steam engine and was far easier to control Diesel engines also required far less supervision and maintenance than steam engines and as an internal combustion engine it did not need boilers or a water supply therefore was more space efficient and cheaper to build The Liberty ships were the last major steamship class equipped with reciprocating engines The last Victory ships had already been equipped with marine diesels and diesel engines superseded both steamers and windjammers soon after World War Two Most steamers were used up to their maximum economical life span and no commercial ocean going steamers with reciprocating engines have been built since the 1960s 1970 present day edit nbsp RMS Mauretania built in 1906 and the sister to the RMS Lusitania was one of the first ocean liners to adopt the steam turbine Most steamships today are powered by steam turbines After the demonstration by British engineer Charles Parsons of his steam turbine driven yacht Turbinia in 1897 the use of steam turbines for propulsion quickly spread The Cunard RMS Mauretania built in 1906 was one of the first ocean liners to use the steam turbine with a late design change shortly before her keel was laid down and was soon followed by all subsequent liners 32 Most larger warships of the world s navies were propelled by steam turbines burning bunker fuel in both World Wars apart from obsolete ships with reciprocating machines from the turn of the century and rare cases of usage of diesel engines in larger warships Steam turbines burning fuel remained in warship construction until the end of the Cold War eg Russian aicraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov because of needs of high power and speed although from 1970s they were mostly replaced by gas turbines Large naval vessels and submarines continue to be operated with steam turbines using nuclear reactors to boil the water NS Savannah was the first nuclear powered cargo passenger ship and was built in the late 1950s as a demonstration project for the potential use of nuclear energy 33 Thousands of Liberty Ships powered by steam piston engines and Victory Ships powered by steam turbine engines were built in World War II A few of these survive as floating museums and sail occasionally SS Jeremiah O Brien SS John W Brown SS American Victory SS Lane Victory and SS Red Oak Victory A steam turbine ship can be either direct propulsion the turbines equipped with a reduction gear rotate directly the propellers or turboelectric the turbines rotate electric generators which in turn feed electric motors operating the propellers While steam turbine driven merchant ships such as the Algol class cargo ships 1972 1973 ALP Pacesetter class container ships 1973 1974 34 35 and very large crude carriers were built until the 1970s the use of steam for marine propulsion in the commercial market has declined dramatically due to the development of more efficient diesel engines One notable exception are LNG carriers which use boil off gas from the cargo tanks as fuel 27 However even there the development of dual fuel engines has pushed steam turbines into a niche market with about 10 market share in newbuildings in 2013 Lately there has been some development in hybrid power plants where the steam turbine is used together with gas engines 36 As of August 2017 the newest class of Steam Turbine ships are the Seri Camellia class LNG carriers built by Hyundai Heavy Industries HHI starting in 2016 and comprising five units 37 Nuclear powered ships are basically steam turbine vessels The boiler is heated not by heat of combustion but by the heat generated by nuclear reactor Most atomic powered ships today are either aircraft carriers or submarines See also editSteamboat Paddle steamer History of the steam engine International relations of the Great Powers 1814 1919 Travel List of steam frigates of the United States Navy Bibliography of early American naval history Lake steamers of North AmericaNotes edit The emphasis here is on ship There were a number of successful screw propeller driven vessels prior to Archimedes including Smith s own Francis Smith and Ericsson s Francis B Ogden and Robert F Stockton However these vessels were boats designed for service on inland waterways as opposed to ships built for seagoing service The distance by a modern shipping route calculator is 13 373 nautical miles 24 767 km 15 389 mi from London to Fuzhou via the Cape of Good Hope Using the same calculator a route through the Mediterranean and Suez Canal is 10 124 nautical miles 18 750 km 11 650 mi The difference is 3 249 nautical miles 6 017 km 3 739 mi A sailing vessel would take a longer route to obtain the best winds so this comparison is only an approximation 24 If this fuel consumption is compared to SS Agamemnon 1865 previous section the relative sizes and the cruising speeds of the two ships should be taken into account Aberdeen 3 616GRT 13 knots 24 km h 15 mph Agamemnon 2 270GRT 10 knots 19 km h 12 mph References edit steamship Oxford English Dictionary Online ed Oxford University Press Subscription or participating institution membership required Pascali Luigi 24 August 2017 Globalisation and Economic Development A Lesson from History The Long Run Economic History Society Archived from the original on 1 August 2020 Retrieved 14 November 2020 Carlton 2012 p 23 Malster R 1971 Wherries amp Waterways Lavenham p 61 a href Template Citation html title Template Citation citation a CS1 maint location missing publisher link Stephen L 1894 DNB Smith Elder amp Company p 399 Retrieved 2017 12 28 Steamships steamships dn 07 artistaswitness com Archived from the original on 2015 03 23 Retrieved 2017 12 28 Croil James 1898 Steam Navigation And Its Relation to the Commerce of Canada and the United W Briggs p 54 Corlett ECB 1993 Chapter 4 The Screw Propeller and Merchant Shipping 1840 1865 In Gardiner Robert Greenhill Dr Basil eds The Advent of Steam The Merchant Steamship before 1900 Conway Maritime Press Ltd pp 96 100 ISBN 0 85177 563 2 RINA Maritime Services Directory RINA acronyms rina org uk Retrieved 2017 12 28 Thurston 1891 pp 168 169 Croil James 1898 Steam Navigation And Its Relation to the Commerce of Canada and the United W Briggs p 54 SS Royal William a b c Corlett Ewan 1975 The Iron Ship the Story of Brunel s SS Great Britain Conway American Heritage 1991 The Annihilation of Time and Space Gibbs Charles Robert Vernon 1957 Passenger Liners of the Western Ocean A Record of Atlantic Steam and Motor Passenger Vessels from 1838 to the Present Day John De Graff pp 41 45 Ship History The Cunarders Archived from the original on 2016 04 04 Retrieved 2013 11 24 A Brief History Brunel s SS Great Britain Archived from the original on 2010 03 24 Retrieved 2013 11 24 SS Great Britain Brunel 200 Retrieved 2008 12 31 a b c Fox Stephen 2003 Transatlantic Samuel Cunard Isambard Brunel and the Great Atlantic Steamships HarperCollins pp 147 148 ISBN 978 0 06 019595 3 Fox Stephen 2003 Transatlantic Samuel Cunard Isambard Brunel and the Great Atlantic Steamships HarperCollins p 144 ISBN 978 0 06 019595 3 Beaver Vancouver Maritime Museum Archived from the original on 2007 09 28 Retrieved 2007 11 26 a b MacGregor David R 1983 The Tea Clippers Their History and Development 1833 1875 Conway Maritime Press Limited ISBN 0 85177 256 0 a b c d e Jarvis Adrian 1993 Chapter 9 Alfred Holt and the Compound Engine In Gardiner Robert Greenhill Dr Basil eds The Advent of Steam The Merchant Steamship before 1900 Conway Maritime Press Ltd pp 158 159 ISBN 0 85177 563 2 Clark Arthur H 1911 The Clipper Ship Era An Epitome of Famous American and British Clipper Ships Their Owners Builders Commanders and Crews 1843 1869 G P Putnam s Sons New York and London The Knickerbocker Press pp 331 332 systems maritime data London Fuzhou distance is 10120 NM SeaRoutes m classic searoutes com Retrieved 23 October 2021 a b c Gardiner Robert J Greenhill Basil 1993 Sail s Last Century the Merchant Sailing Ship 1830 1930 London Conway Maritime Press ISBN 0 85177 565 9 a b c d e Griffiths Denis 1993 Chapter 5 Triple Expansion and the First Shipping Revolution In Gardiner Robert Greenhill Dr Basil eds The Advent of Steam The Merchant Steamship before 1900 Conway Maritime Press Ltd pp 106 126 ISBN 0 85177 563 2 a b c Marek Blus 2003 Co sie stalo z parowcami Zmierzch historycznego napedu What happened to steamers A decline of the historical propulsion Morza Statki i Okrety in Polish Vol nr 2 2003 39 pp 85 86 Dawson Charles November 1999 S S Thetis a Daring Experiment The Mariner s Mirror 85 4 458 62 doi 10 1080 00253359 1999 10656768 THE WHITE STAR LINE The Red Duster Archived from the original on 2010 08 19 Umbria Chris Cunard Page Archived from the original on 2010 04 06 Dawson Journal 2006 p 331ff Maxtone Graham John 1972 The Only Way to Cross New York Collier Books p 15 McCandlish Laura 13 May 2008 Savannah calls on Baltimore The Baltimore Sun p D1 permanent dead link Purchase required APL History Timeline 1960 Present 1970 September 2014 Archived from the original on 2017 08 30 Retrieved 2014 09 23 APL History Featured Vessels President Jefferson September 2014 Archived from the original on 2017 08 30 Retrieved 2014 09 23 Is there still a commercial future for marine steam turbines Archived 2017 01 24 at the Wayback Machine Marine Propulsion amp Auxiliary Machinery 30 March 2016 Retrieved 2017 03 11 Versatile LNG carrier series for Malaysia The Motorship insight for marine technology professionals 04AUG2017 Retrieved 2017 08 05 Bibliography editArmstrong Robert 1859 High Speed Steam Navigation and Steamship Perfection E amp F N Spon London p 59 E Book Bennett Frank M 1897 The steam navy of the United States Warren amp Company Publishers Philadelphia p 502 ISBN 1176467921 E Book Url2 Bradford James C 1986 Captains of the Old Steam Navy Makers of the American Tradition 1840 1880 Naval Institute Press p 356 ISBN 9780870210136 Url Canney Donald L 1998 Lincoln s Navy The Ships Men and Organization 1861 65 Naval Institute Press p 232 Url Carlton John 2012 Marine Propellers and Propulsion Butterworth Heinemann p 544 ISBN 9780080971230 Url Dawson Charles 2006 Thomas Assheton Smith s Steam Yachts The Mariner s Mirror 92 3 331ff Dickinson Henry Winram 1913 Robert Fulton engineer and artist his life and works John Lane New York London p 333 E Book Lambert Andrew 1984 Battleships in Transition the Creation of the Steam Battlefleet 1815 1860 Conway Maritime Press ISBN 0 85177 315 X Mahan Alfred Thayer n 1907 p From sail to steam recollections of naval life Harper amp Brothers New York London p 325 E Book Pacific Mail Steamship Company 1867 A sketch of the new route to China and Japan Turnbull and Smith San Francisco p 104 E Book Sewall John Smith 1905 The logbook of the captain s clerk adventures in the China seas J S Sewall p 278 E Book Thurston Robert Henry 1891 Robert Fulton his life and its results Dodd Mead and company New York p 194 E Book Walske Steve 2011 Civil War Blockade Mail 1861 1865 Steve Walske Exhibition at WESTPEX 2011 p 32 UrlFurther reading editQuarstein John V 2006 A History of Ironclads The Power of Iron Over Wood The History Press p 284 ISBN 9781596291188 Book permanent dead link External links edit nbsp Media related to Steamships at Wikimedia Commons Transportation Photographs Collection University of Washington Library Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Steamship amp oldid 1188438389, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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