Tod & Macgregor Shiplist
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Yard No.: |
146 |
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Name: |
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Year: |
1869 |
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Description: |
Passenger Ship |
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Webpage: |
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Picture: |
Yes Steaming & painted after her extension. The latter thanks to N.R. Omell |
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Tonnage: |
3,081 |
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Length: |
390 |
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Width: |
40.3 |
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H.P.: |
450 : 14½ knots |
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Type: |
Iron, two horizontal trink engines, single screw, three masts, one funnel ¹ |
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Customer: |
Inman |
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Fate: |
Sank in dense fog, on the 7th Jan.1883, in the mouth of the River Mersey, after collision with Kirby Hall, loss of 10 lives. |
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Points of Note: |
Won the Trans-Atlantic record (Blue Ribbon) for a westbound passage in 1969 and for an eastward passage of less than 8 days. Dec 1869. |
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Date of Launch: |
10th August 1869 |
Notes:
In 1869 the design of the City of Paris was greatly improved in the City of Brussels, another Tod & Macgregor ship. She was to be the last of the old type, with a long narrow wooden deckhouse and high bulwarks, giving very limited space for passengers. So many improvements followed immediately on her completion that she was radically altered after only 3 years’ service. When she first came out she had a gross tonnage of 3,081 on a length of 390 feet, and engines of 600 nominal h.p.
Many authorities regard the City of Brussels as being the first genuine Atlantic record breaker. Such a view was held by Mr. Charles H. Cramp, the famous American shipbuilder, although it would appear to be rather unfair to the big Collins and Cunard ships which had struggled so splendidly for the Blue Riband in the ‘fifties. The City of Brussels, however, certainly made a big difference to the record, for she reduced it from 8 days 4 hours 1 minute, to 7 days 22 hours 3 minutes, an average speed of 14.53 knots.
[A Century of Atlantic Travel, FG Bowen]
This eastward crossing took place in December 1869 and held until January 1873.
[The Atlantic Blue Ribband, C. Mackenzie-Kennedy]
While the Inman Company were building record breakers like the City of Paris and the City of Brussels they were also maintaining the emigrant business with which they had started by the steady construction of smaller and slower ships. The City of Antwerp, 2,483 tons, came out in 1867 and in 1869 the City of Brooklyn, of 2,971 tons, made a poor showing beside her contemporary the City of Brussels, but proved an exceedingly useful asset to the company.
In March 1870 she lost her screw altogether and had to finish the voyage from New York to Queenstown under canvas. She had sailed on the 28th of March and arrived on the 21st of April. In 1877 she broke her shaft and again had to make an eastward journey under sail. She completed 183 miles in a day, which showed that these ships were not so bad under canvass. She was crowded with Catholic pilgrims at the time and her late arrival caused some panic and hurried reinsurances on Lloyd's.
Hers was a particularly unlucky case, for in 1876 she had just been given new engines of a novel 4-cylinder tandem compound type which reduced her consumption from between 110 and 115 tons per day to a steady 65. The saving in bunker space allowing her to carry 800 tons more cargo. The forward second funnel had been added at the same time.
She sank in dense fog, on the 7th Jan.1883, in the mouth of the River Mersey, after being run down by the Kirby Hall, with the loss of 10 lives.
[A Century of Atlantic Travel, FG Bowen]
Altered in 1872 by having another deck added, and other improvements were made to enable her to compete with newer rivals, her tonnage rose to 3,747. Compound engines added in 1876.
[Trans-Atlantic Passenger Ships, Eugene W.Smith] [Passenger Ships of the World, Eugene W.Smith]
