The next development was Robert Fulton's Clermont, and her advent marks the beginning of steam navigation as a commercial success. In 1797 Fulton (q.v.) went to Paris from England and soon afterwards began experiments with sub marine torpedoes and torpedo boats. About the year 1801 he secured the assistance of Robert Liv ingston, then the United States Minister to France, and they built a small steamboat. Her engines proved to be too heavy for the poorly constructed hull, which collapsed and sank. The engines were recovered, however, and placed in a larger boat 60 feet long and 8 feet broad, and on August 9, 1S03, this boat was tried on the Seine, but the speed obtained w•as unsatisfactory. In 1804, as the agent of Livingston. Fulton went to England, where he ordered of Boulton and Watt the machinery for a much larger vessel which was to be built in the United States. In the autumn of 1800 Fulton returned to America, and the new engine followed him almost imme diately. A hull, built in New York, was launched early in 1807, the engines were placed on board, and on August 7, 1807, the Clermont started on her trial trip. She proceeded without stop ping to Clermont, the home of Livingston. on the Hudson, 110 miles away, and twenty hours later went on to Albany. The next day she started to New York and made the trip in thirty hours at an average speed of 5 miles an hour. Within a mouth she began to run regularly between Al bany and New York.
The success of paddle steamers for sheltered waters was now assured, and they multiplied rapidly, particularly in the United States, where the conditions were particularly suitable. In Great Britain the use of steamers was less im mediate. The first commercially successful one to be completed there was the Comet. built by Henry Bell in 1811-12. She went into service on the Clyde and was soon followed by others. In the meantime the use of steamers for ocean navigation was being tried. In 1813 Fulton be gan the war steamer Demologos (see UNITED STATES, section on :Vary). which was the first steam war vessel as well as the first ocean going steamer. Several steamers began to make regular trips along the British coast in 181S-19, but the voyages were all short. In 1819 a vessel fitted with steam power crossed the Atlantic. This was the Savannah. of 350 tons. with a length of 100 feet, which crossed from Savannah to Liverpool in 25 days. In her. however, the en gines were purely auxiliary: she was fitted with full sail power, and when the wind was fair or the seas too boisterous for steaming the paddle wheels were and taken in on deck. The beginning of real transatlantic voyages under steam was made by the Sirius and the Great Western. The latter was built for transatlantic service and was the larger and more powerful, while the former was taken from the London and Cork line. The Sirius started on April 4, 1S3S, and the Great Western four days later. They arrived in New York within twenty-four hours of each other, the Sirius at 10 P. M. on the even ing of April 22d and the Great Western the next afternoon at three o'clock. The average speed of the Sirius was 161 miles per day—the highest miles and the lowest 85 (half day only) : the amount of coal consumed was 450 tons. The Great Western averaged 20S miles per day and her highest run was 247 miles. Neither vessel carried much sail.
For two or three years the transatlantic steamer service was rather irregular. The Sirius was withdrawn after making a few trips, and though the Great Westtrn continued running, she lost money for the company that owned her. Other
steamers made a few trips, but they also, like the Sirius, were withdrawn. In 1839 Sa MHO Cu nard, of Halifax, N. S., went to England and suc ceeded in forming the celebrated Cunard Com pany. Assisted by a liberal Government mail subsidy, it was commercially successful from the start. The first vessels put in service were the paddle steamers Britannia„leadia, Columbia, and Ca/cdonia. They were of 1154 tons burden and their machinery was of 740 horse power. The Britannia, the first to sail, left Liverpool on July 4, 1840, and made the passage to Halifax in 12 days 10 hours; on her return voyage she did better, the time being but little over ten days. The Cunard Company enjoyed a practical monopoly of the transatlantic service until 1850, when the Collins (American) and Inman lines were started. The Collins Line lust two of its four steamers and was discontinued in 1858. Two other American steamship lines were started in 1850, the New York and llavre Steamship Company and the Vanderbilt Line. Both ceased running at the beginning of the Civil War.
The Inman Line was more successful. It be gan its career with steamers built of iron and propelled by screws. Though no faster than the wooden paddle-wheel Culla niers, they were cheaper to operate. The screw propeller (q.v.) now be gan rapidly to diSplace the paddle wheel, though the Cunard Company launched the Scotia, their last and finest paddle steamer, in 1861. The rapid increase in size of ocean steamships led to the production of the (treat Eastern (q.v.), but she was half a century ahead of the demands of ocean traffic and the adequate development of marine steam engineering. She was fitted with both screw and paddle engines. as it was thought im possible for either separately to deliver sufficient propulsive effect. The combination was not an economical one, and was a leading cause of her failure as a commercial venture. By 1860, in the fight for supremacy, the screw had become the unquestioned victor over the paddle wheel so far as ocean navigation was con cerned, both in the merchant marine and in naval construction. Its advantages for war vessels were numerous, but the greatest of these was the possibility of placing all the propelling ma chinery of a screw steamer below the water line; and this alone was decisive. In merchant steam ers the advantages of the screw were of a differ ent kind. The efficiency of the paddle wheel de pends upon the depth of immersion of the pad dies; if too great or too little, the losses from slip, drag, and churning of the water are serious. The variation of draught consistent with eco nomical propulsion was therefore very small—too small to admit of heavy loading. Very large wheels and feathering wheels reduced the losses somewhat. but introduced troubles of another type, while the rolling of paddle steamers in heavy seas greatly interfered with their speed and economy no matter what the character of the wheels. The draught and condition of lading of screw steamers was of much less importance and could be varied within much wider limits without perceptible loss of efficiency; rolling produced little effect, and though pitching might be serious in short vessels in whieh the screw was ma deeply immersed, yet, Owing to the small ordinary angle of pitch, the screw rarely rose high enough above the surface to give trouble.