SS Savannah - Development

Development

Savannah was originally built as a sailing packet at the New York shipyard of Fickett & Crocker. While the ship was still on the slipway, Captain Moses Rogers persuaded Scarborough & Isaacs, a wealthy shipping firm from Savannah, Georgia, to purchase the vessel, convert it to a steamship and gain the prestige of inaugurating the world's first transatlantic steamship service.

Savannah was therefore equipped with a steam engine and paddlewheels in addition to her sails. Moses Rogers himself supervised the installation of the machinery, while his brother-in-law Steven Rogers (no blood relation) oversaw construction of the ship's hull and rigging.

Given that the craft had sails and did not rely exclusively on steam engine-driven paddles, some sources contend that the first ocean-going steamship was the SS Royal William launching several years later, in 1831. The Royal William was the first vessel to cross the ocean almost entirely from steam engine power. Another claimant is the British-built Dutch-owned CuraƧao, which used steam power for several days when crossing the Atlantic both ways in 1827.

Read more about this topic:  SS Savannah

Famous quotes containing the word development:

    Information about child development enhances parents’ capacity to respond appropriately to their children. Informed parents are better equipped to problem-solve, more confident of their decisions, and more likely to respond sensitively to their children’s developmental needs.
    L. P. Wandersman (20th century)

    Fascism, the more it considers and observes the future and the development of humanity, quite apart from political considerations of the moment, believes neither in the possibility nor the utility of perpetual peace.
    Benito Mussolini (1883–1945)

    And then ... he flung open the door of my compartment, and ushered in “Ma young and lovely lady!” I muttered to myself with some bitterness. “And this is, of course, the opening scene of Vol. I. She is the Heroine. And I am one of those subordinate characters that only turn up when needed for the development of her destiny, and whose final appearance is outside the church, waiting to greet the Happy Pair!”
    Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (1832–1898)