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 Curaçao, which used steam power for several days when crossing the Atlantic both ways in 1827.
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“To be sure, we have inherited abilities, but our development we owe to thousands of influences coming from the world around us from which we appropriate what we can and what is suitable to us.”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)
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