Steam vs. Iron and the Role of William Inman

E. Keble Chatterton

Now, as compared with wooden ships, the use of iron meant a saving in displacement of about one-third, taking the wooden and the iron ships to be of the same dimensions. From this followed the fact that the iron ship could carry a greater amount of cargo with consequent greater profit to her owners. And, as I have already indicated in another chapter, before it was possible to build ships of great length iron had to be introduced to enable them to endure such longitudinal strains.

Again, a wooden ship must have her skin and ribs made of a thickness far greater than an iron ship, for the clear reason that one inch of iron is much stronger than one inch of wood; in other words, to obtain a given strength the iron will take up less room in the ship. Thus in an iron steamer there will be more space available for cargo than a wooden ship of the same design.

We could go on enumerating the advantages of iron, and quote instances of iron ships, whose cargo had got on fire, arriving safely in port and coming into dock where the assistance of the local fire-brigade had enabled the vessel's own pumps to get the conflagration under. In December of 1909 the Celtic, a well-known White Star liner, during a voyage between New York and Liverpool, had the misfortune to get on fire while at sea. By means of tarpaulins and injections of steam it was possible to control the burning until the Mersey was reached, when it was intended to flood her holds had she been a wooden ship instead of steel, or even iron the Celtic would undoubtedly have ended her days in the Atlantic.

The first Atlantic company to build all its steamers of iron was the Inman Line, which had been founded in 1850, and until 1892 was one of the foremost competitors for the coveted “blue ribbon” of the Atlantic. Their first ships had been the City of Glasgow and the City of Manchester, and these, inasmuch as they were built of iron, and were propelled by a screw at a time when prejudice had not yet died down, were entirely different from the prevailing type of steamer; and this, it should be remembered, at a period six years before the Cunard had built their iron Persia.

This City of Glasgow was built by the Glasgow firm of shipbuilders Tod & Macgregor, and Mr. Inman had sufficient confidence in her to purchase her and form a company. Barque-rigged, with a single funnel, she was of only 1,610 tons and 350 horsepower. Under the command of Captain B. E. Matthews, who had been on the famous Great Western, she had already crossed from Glasgow to New York and back in 1850, and on December 11^th of that year began her regular sailings between England and America.

The City of Glasgow—all the ships of this line were named after cities—was fitted up in a manner which at that time called forth the greatest admiration. “One room”, wrote a correspondent in the Glasgow Courier, about that date, “is being fitted up as an apothecary's shop, from which the surgeon will dispense his medicines.” She was provided with five water-tight bulkheads, and had a propeller whose diameter was 13 feet, with an 18 feet pitch. It was in connection with the Inman ships that the custom was inaugurated of carrying steerage passengers on the best Atlantic liners, although hitherto they had been taken across solely on board sailing ships.

The City of Glasgow and the City of Manchester began to quicken the pace, and at once ensued a contest between the paddle-steamers and those propelled by screws. In 1857 this enterprising company instituted the custom of calling at Queenstown on the way to America, and began running their steamers to New York in place of Philadelphia. Their success was so great that these ships were followed by the City of Philadelphia, and, in 1866, by the City of Paris.

This was the first of their steamships of that name, and is not to be confused with another ship built in 1888. It will be seen that the liner before us was ship-rigged and had a single screw. She measured 346 feet long, 40 feet wide and 26 feet deep, her tonnage being 2,651. She was driven by horizontal trunk engines with steam at 30lb. pressure, consuming 105 tons of coal per day, and giving her a speed of 13½ knots.

Her name was afterwards changed to the Tonquin, and the superstitious will find interest in the fact that she subsequently foundered at sea in the year 1885. In the City of Paris one is able to note some of the last traces of the old sailing ship, which were to disappear in later steam ships. The long narrow wooden deckhouse going down almost the length of the ship, and leaving but little room for the passengers to promenade; the high, stout bulwarks, which rise almost to the top of the deckhouse, were among the last links which connected the steamship with the sailing ship.

One must not forget that about the time when the City of Paris was built, the great clipper sailing ships were enjoying their prime, and no one will deny that their influence is very clearly marked in the design of the Ships of this era; built by Tod & Macgregor.