History of Steamship Lines - Improvements

Improvements

Constant improvement has been the watchword of the shipowner and the shipbuilder, and every decade has seen the ships of its predecessor become obsolete. The mixed paddle and screw leviathan, the Great Eastern, built in the late 1850s, was so obviously before her time by some fifty years, and was so under-powered for her size, that she may be left out of our reckoning. Thus, to speak roughly, the 1850s saw the iron screw replacing the wooden paddle steamer; the later 1860s brought the compound engine, which effected so great an economy in fuel that the steamship, previously the conveyance of mails and passengers, began to compete with the sailing vessel in the carriage of cargo for long voyages; the 1870s brought better accommodation for the passenger, with the midship saloon, improved state-rooms, and covered access to smokerooms and ladies cabins.

The early eighties saw steel replacing iron as the material for shipbuilding and before the close of that decade the introduction of the twin-screw rendered breakdowns at sea more remote than they had previously been, at the same time giving increased safety in another direction, from the fact that the duplication of machinery facilitated further subdivision of hulls. Now the masts of the huge liners in vogue were no longer useful for their primary purposes, and degenerated first into derrick props and finally into mere signal poles, while the introduction of boat decks gave more shelter to the promenades of the passengers and removed the navigators from the distractions of the social side. The provision of train-to-boat facilities at Liverpool and Southampton in the 1890s did away with the inconveniences of the tender and the cab.

The introduction of the turbine engine at the beginning of the 20th century gave further subdivision of machinery and increase of economy, whereby greater speed became possible and comfort was increased by the reduction of vibration. At the same time the introduction of submarine bell signaling tended to diminish the risk of stranding and collision, whilst wireless telegraphy not only destroyed the isolation of the sea but tended to safety, as was seen by the way in which assistance was called out of the fog when the White Star Line liner Republic was sinking as the result of a collision off Martha's Vineyard (1909).

Tank steamers were constructed for the carriage of oil in bulk. Many of these ships were adapted not only for the carriage of oil, but also for its consumption in their furnaces in place of coal. The experience of many years has enabled the owners of some of these lines to exhibit a wonderfully low record of loss, the percentage of deaths at sea to numbers carried being small beyond the dreams of, say, the 1870s. A tenth of 1% over a somewhat extended period is not an unprecedented average.