On February 11, 1809, the American Robert Fulton patented his invention - the first steam-powered ship. Soon steamships replaced sailing ships and were the main water transport until the middle of the 20th century. Here are the 10 most famous steamships
Steamboat Claremont
Claremont became the first officially patented steam-powered ship in the history of shipbuilding. The American Robert Fulton, having learned that the French engineer Jacques Perrier had successfully tested the first steam-powered ship on the Seine, decided to bring this idea to life. In 1907, Fulton surprised the New York public by launching a ship with a large pipe and huge paddle wheels on the Hudson. Onlookers were quite surprised that this creation of Fulton's engineering thought could budge at all. But the Claremont not only went down the Hudson, but was able to move against the current without the help of wind and sails. Fulton received a patent for his invention and within a few years he improved the ship and organized regular river trips on the Claremont along the Hudson River from New York to Albany. The speed of the first steamer was 9 km/h.
Steamboat "Clairmont"
The first Russian steamship "Elizaveta"
The steamer "Elizaveta", built for Russia by the Scottish mechanic Charles Byrd, entered service in 1815. The ship's hull was wooden. A metal pipe with a diameter of about 30 cm and a height of 7.6 m, with a fair wind, served instead of a mast for setting sails. The 16 horsepower steamer had 2 paddle wheels. The steamship made its first voyage on November 3, 1815 from St. Petersburg to Kronstadt. To test the speed of the steamer, the port commander ordered his best rowboat to compete with him. Since the speed of the "Elizabeth" reached 10.7 km / h, the rowers, who leaned heavily on the oars, sometimes managed to overtake the steamer. By the way, the Russian word "steamboat" was introduced by naval officer P.I. Rikord, a participant in this voyage. In the future, the ship was used to transport passengers and tow barges to Kronstadt. And by 1820, the Russian fleet already numbered about 15 steamships, by 1835 - about 52.
The first Russian steamship "Elizaveta"
Steamboat "Savannah"
The Savannah was the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean in 1819. He made a flight from the American city of Savannah to English Liverpool in 29 days. It should be noted that the steamer sailed almost the entire way, and only when the wind subsided did they turn on the steam engine so that the ship could move in calm. At the beginning of the era of steamship building, sails were left on ships making long voyages. Sailors did not yet fully trust the power of steam: there was a great risk that the steam engine would break down in the middle of the ocean or there would not be enough fuel to reach the destination port.
Steamboat "Savannah"
Steamboat "Sirius"
They risked abandoning the use of sails only 19 years after Savannah's transatlantic voyage. The Sirius paddle steamer left the English port of Cork on April 4, 1838 with 40 passengers and reached New York 18 days and 10 hours later. Sirius was the first to cross the Atlantic Ocean without hoisting sails, only with the help of a steam engine. This ship opened a permanent commercial steamship line across the Atlantic. "Sirius" moved at a speed of 15 km / h and consumed a monstrously large amount of fuel - 1 ton per hour. The ship was overloaded with coal - 450 tons. But even this stock was not enough for the flight. "Sirius" with a sin in half got to New York. In order for the ship to continue moving, ship gear, masts, wooden decking for bridges, handrails, and even furniture had to be thrown into the firebox.
Steamboat "Sirius"
Steamboat "Archimedes"
One of the first propeller-driven steamships was built by the English inventor Francis Smith. The Englishman decided to use the discovery of the ancient Greek scientist Archimedes, which had been known for a thousand years, but was used only to supply water for irrigation, - the screw. Smith had the idea to use it to propel the ship. The first steamship called the Archimedes was built in 1838. It was propelled by a propeller with a diameter of 2.1 m, which was powered by two steam engines with a capacity of 45 horsepower each. The ship had a carrying capacity of 237 tons. "Archimedes" developed a maximum speed of about 18 km / h. Archimedes did not make long-distance flights. After passing successful trials on the Thames, the ship continued to operate on domestic coastal lines.
The first screw steamer "Stockton" to cross the Atlantic
Steamboat "Stockton"
The Stockton became the first screw steamer to sail across the Atlantic Ocean from Great Britain to America. The history of its inventor, the Swede John Erickson, is very dramatic. He decided to use the propeller for the movement of a steam ship at the same time as the Englishman Smith. Erickson decided to sell his invention to the British Navy, for which he built a screw steamer with his own money. The military department did not appreciate the innovations of the Swede, Erickson ended up in prison for debts. The inventor was saved by the Americans, who were very interested in a maneuverable steam ship, in which the propulsion mechanism was hidden below the waterline, and the pipe could be lowered. That was the 70-horsepower steamship Stockton that Erickson built for the Americans and named after his new friend, a naval officer. On his ship in 1838, Erickson left for America forever, where he gained fame as a great engineer and became rich.
Steamship "Amazon"
In 1951, the Amazon was described by newspapers as the largest wooden steamship ever built in Britain. This luxury passenger transport could carry more than 2,000 tons and was equipped with an 80 horsepower steam engine. Although steamships made of metal had been leaving the shipyards for 10 years, the British built their giant from wood, because the conservative British Admiralty was prejudiced against innovations. On January 2, 1852, the Amazon, with a crew of 110 of the best British sailors, sailed for the West Indies, taking on board 50 passengers (including the Lord of the Admiralty). At the beginning of the journey, the ship was attacked by a strong and prolonged storm, in order to continue moving on, it was necessary to start the steam engine at full power. The machine with overheated bearings worked without stopping for 36 hours. And on January 4, the officer on duty saw flames escaping from the hatch of the engine room. Within 10 minutes, the fire engulfed the deck. It was not possible to put out the fire in a stormy wind. "Amazon" continued to move through the waves at a speed of 24 km / h, and launch lifeboats it was not possible. Passengers rushed about the deck in a panic. It was only when the steam boiler had exhausted all the water that people were put into lifeboats. After some time, those who sailed away in lifeboats heard explosions - it was the gunpowder stored in the holds of the Amazon that exploded, and the ship sank along with the captain and part of the crew. Of the 162 people who set sail, only 58 escaped. Of these, seven died on the shore, and 11 people went crazy from the experience. The sinking of the Amazon was a cruel lesson for the Lords of the Admiralty, who did not want to admit the danger of combining the ship's wooden hull with a steam engine.
Steamer "Amazon"
Steamboat " Great East»
The ship "Great East" - the predecessor of the "Titanic". This steel giant, launched in 1860, was 210 meters long and for forty years was considered the largest ship in the world. The Great East was equipped with both paddle wheels and propellers. The ship was the last masterpiece of one of the famous engineers of the XIX century, Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The huge ship was built to carry passengers from England to distant India and Australia without entering ports for refueling. Brunel conceived his offspring as the safest ship in the world - the "Great East" had a double hull that protected it from flooding. When at one time the ship received a hole larger than the Titanic, it not only remained afloat, but was able to continue the voyage. The technology for building such large ships at that time had not yet been worked out, and the construction of the "Great East" was overshadowed by the many deaths of workers who worked at the dock. The floating colossus was launched for two whole months - winches broke, several workers were injured. The catastrophe also occurred when the engine was started - the steam boiler exploded, scalding several people with boiling water. Engineer Brunel died upon learning of this. Infamous before her launch, the 4,000-person "Great East" set off on its maiden voyage on June 17, 1860, with only 43 passengers and 418 crew members on board. And in the future, there were few who wanted to sail across the ocean on an "unlucky" ship. In 1888, it was decided to dismantle the ship for scrap.
Steamboat "Great East"
Steamboat "Great Britain"
The first screw steamer with a metal hull "Great Britain" left the stocks on July 19, 1943. Its designer, Izombard Brunel, was the first to combine the latest achievements on one large ship. Brunel's mission was to turn the long and dangerous transatlantic passenger journey into a fast and luxurious one. sea travel. The huge steam engines of the steamer "Great Britain" consumed 70 tons of coal per hour, produced 686 horsepower and occupied three decks. Immediately after its launch, the steamship became the largest propeller-driven iron ship in the world, ushering in the era of steam liners. But even on this metal giant, just in case, there were sails. On July 26, 1845, the steamship Great Britain set off on its maiden voyage across the Atlantic with 60 passengers on board and 600 tons of cargo. The steamer moved at a speed of about 17 km / h and after 14 days and 21 hours entered the port of New York. After three years of successful flights, "Great Britain" failed. On September 22, 1846, the steamer, crossing the Irish Sea, was dangerously close to the coast, and the rising tide brought the ship to land. The disaster did not happen - when the tide came, the passengers were lowered from the side to the ground and carried in carriages. A year later, "Great Britain" was rescued from captivity by breaking through the canal, and the ship was back on the water.
Huge transatlantic steam liner "Titanic" that claimed the lives of more than a thousand passengers
Steamer "Titanic"
The infamous Titanic was the largest passenger liner in the world at the time of its construction. This city-steamer weighed 46,000 tons and was 880 feet long. In addition to cabins, the superliner had gyms, swimming pools, oriental baths and cafes. The Titanic, which set sail from the English coast on April 12, could accommodate up to 3,000 passengers and about 800 crew members and traveled at a maximum speed of 42 km / h. On the fateful night of April 14-15, a collision with an iceberg, the Titanic was traveling at exactly that speed - the captain was trying to break the world record for ocean steamers. There were 1,309 passengers and 898 crew members on board at the time of the shipwreck. Only 712 people were saved, 1495 died. There were not enough lifeboats for everyone, most of the passengers remained on the ship with no hope of salvation. On April 15, at 2:20 a.m., a giant passenger ship on its maiden voyage sank. The survivors were picked up by the ship "Carpathia". But even on it, not all the rescued were delivered to New York safe and sound - some of the passengers of the Titanic died on the way, some lost their minds.
Transatlantic liners of the middle of the 20th century are huge high-speed comfortable ships, a whole era not only in shipbuilding, but also in the public life of many states. After all, until the 1950s there was no other way to get from Europe to America, except by sea.
The era has gone along with the liners - they were replaced by fast and less expensive aircraft. But even today there is an opportunity to visit one of the greatest transatlantic ships in history - the liner Queen Mary. After the end of her career in 1967, this liner was not scrapped like other ships, but became a museum, hotel and business center in Long Beach, California, USA.
On board we will now visit. But first, a little history of the ship.
One of the largest companies serving the transatlantic line was the British Cunard Line. After the end of the First World War, its three largest steamships - Mauretania, Aquitania and Berengaria (the former German Imperator, received by reparation) delivered passengers from Southampton to New York and back without interruption and with great comfort. These three vessels provided weekly departures from both ports. The one-way flight lasted a little less than five days.
But by the early 1930s, these ships were becoming obsolete, and competition in the Atlantic had also increased. The company found itself in a difficult financial situation. Then it was decided to build a new ship.
True, his concept was not immediately decided. The priorities could be speed, or comfort, or economy of the new vessel. The tentative decision was not to chase speed, but to provide the highest level of comfort for first-class passengers. However, in the end, it was decided to proceed from the need to replace the three existing ships with two, but with the same departure frequency from Southampton and New York, that is, to build two high-speed transatlantic liners, not forgetting, of course, about comfort.
The construction of the liner was started at the shipyard in Clydebank (Great Britain) in 1930, but a year later it was frozen: the world was covered by a severe crisis. Only in 1933, after receiving financial assistance from the British government, construction was continued. The liner, named Queen Mary, was launched by Queen Mary herself on September 26, 1934, and on May 27, 1936 went to the first transatlantic flight from Southampton to New York.
In one of the first flights, Queen Mary set a record for the speed of crossing the Atlantic - the flight was completed in just four days. Transatlantic passengers of that time valued their time, and accordingly valued such records. For comparison: today a transatlantic flight on the same route on the new Queen Mary 2 liner takes six to seven days. But today's passengers have nowhere to hurry: they are on a cruise. And if they need to go to America on business, they will take a faster and much cheaper plane. In the same years when Queen Mary entered the transatlantic routes, it was not yet possible to cross the Atlantic by plane.
The British government subsidized the construction of Queen Mary not just like that, but in order to have fast transport for the transfer of troops across the Atlantic in case of war. And the opportunity presented itself. Between 1939 and 1946, the Queen Mary and the newly built Queen Elizabeth to work alongside her carried troops across the ocean, carrying fifteen thousand people on some voyages.
After returning to civilian service, Queen Mary worked on transatlantic flights for another twenty years, until competition with aviation made the operation of old transatlantic ships impossible. In September 1967, the liner completed its last, 1001st transatlantic flight, and on October 31 set off on its last cruise from Southampton to its eternal parking lot in California.
During this flight, mainly from American tourists on board the Queen Mary, he crossed the Atlantic Ocean for the last time, rounded Cape Horn, visited the ports of South America and Mexico. Of course, I would not be the only one who would like to use the time machine and visit this significant flight. But the cruise itself was not very successful, because Queen Mary was built to work in the North Atlantic, and it did not have an air conditioning system. Therefore, as we approached the equator, many passengers and crew members became exhausted from the heat. Secondly, due to the huge fuel consumption, the company ordered the flight to be carried out on two turbines instead of four, which caused a drop in speed and many stops were reduced.
On December 9, 1967, Queen Mary arrived in Long Beach, where she can still be visited today. You can even live on board by booking one of the first class cabins (the other cabins on the Queen Mary have not been preserved).
Let's go through the decks of the liner from top to bottom. I must say right away that not all public premises of Queen Mary are open to the public, and not all of them have survived. But what can be seen gives a good idea of the ship.
Let's start with the cutting.
Maneuvers, as well as on modern ships, are conveniently performed while on the wing of the bridge. Duplicate machine telegraphs were placed on the wings of the bridge.
Next to the cabin were the cabins of the highest command staff of the liner. The captain had a separate study, and a separate living cabin. The captain was served by a separate steward who lived on the same deck.
The cabins of the chief mate and chief engineer of the ship were located nearby.
Now let's go down to the deck below. The deck below is called the sports deck, here is its layout:
The deck plans that I will give here correspond to the post-war layout of the Queen Mary. The post-war layout differs little from the pre-war one, with a few exceptions. In the post-war period, new names for passenger classes began to be used: the first class became cabin, the second became tourist, and the third remained third.
Speaking of classes: Queen Mary was designed back in the period when transatlantic ships traditionally used a system of division into three passenger classes (similar to how modern transatlantic flights have first, business and economy class). Accordingly, the cost of the ticket differed. This created great inconvenience even at the design stage, because the classes did not intersect with each other, and all passenger premises (salon, restaurants, promenade decks) had to be duplicated. Therefore, by the 1950s, the number of classes on new ships was reduced to two, and then the division into classes was completely abandoned.
Queen Mary is a classic liner with a three-class layout. Moreover, a significant part of the passenger space was assigned to the first class. Passengers of the second and third class almost did not see the ship: access to the first class was closed to them. Therefore, if we talk about a time machine in order to make a transatlantic trip on the Queen Mary: to get a full impression, you will need not only to travel back in time in a time machine, but also buy a first class ticket. But here comes the question of price: how many of us fly first class across the Atlantic these days? Even then, not everyone could afford to cross the Atlantic in first class.
Let's go back to the sports deck. Some passengers actually practiced sports here. In addition, a part of the deck was set aside for walking the dogs of first class passengers. The dogs lived in the premises next door, and special crew members were responsible for their maintenance and walking.
The Queen Mary had three chimneys (at the time, many considered the number of chimneys to be an indicator of a liner's reliability). But the very similar Queen Elizabeth, built a few years later, had the number of pipes reduced to two.
The Queen Mary tubes were in poor condition by the end of the liner's life, and in 1968 they were replaced with aluminum copies.
Below the sports deck is the sun deck. She, like sports, is entirely reserved for first-class passengers.
The Verandah Grill was best restaurant throughout the ship, and worked on the a la carte system. Every modern Cunard Line ship also has a restaurant with the same name and the highest level of cooking and service.
On the Queen Mary, it was a very prestigious seat for first-class passengers, decorated with theatrical motifs. Lunches and dinners were served here for an additional fee (in the 1930s it was one British pound, in those days not so little). Despite this, the restaurant was so popular that sometimes it was fully booked months in advance.
After 1967, when Queen Mary came to Long Beach, the Verandah Grill was used in various ways, including as a fast food cafe, and redecorated accordingly. Today this room is used as a conference room.
The open promenade deck looks the same as on modern cruise ships (although the Queen Mary was built in the 30s of the last century).
In some places there are narrow passages between the terraces of different sides.
And here is what the lifeboats looked like on the ships of those years: unlike modern motorboats, they were not closed from above.
In the forward part of the sun deck there are public spaces: this is a museum and a tea restaurant. However, when the Queen Mary was an active ship, they did not exist: this place was the cabins of the officers and offices.
The deck below is called the "promenade".
The central part of the deck, and perhaps the entire ship, is the first class lobby. High, several decks, atriums, to which modern cruise passengers are accustomed, were not yet made. But the foyers of ocean liners have always been spacious and tastefully decorated.
At the time of Queen Mary's transatlantic career, the semi-circular central foyer housed a store where you could buy a variety of goods necessary for the traveler. The foyer was surrounded by small first-class rooms: a library, a drawing room, a children's playroom. There was even a special 35-seat lounge designed for passengers to tell stories about their travels to other passengers with the possibility of a slide show. Now almost all of these premises have been converted into shops; they sell souvenirs and literature about historical ships.
The bow of the deck is occupied by a viewing bar for first-class passengers. During flights, this place was exceptionally popular. What could be better than talking and watching the sea with a glass of something intoxicating? When in the early 1960s were expanded public areas third class, the review bar began to be intended for passengers of this class.
The bar is still open today.
The deck is surrounded by a promenade terrace, closed from the North Atlantic winds, almost entirely intended for first-class passengers. After the war, two small "winter gardens" were equipped on this terrace - for first and second class passengers, but they have not been preserved.
A small part of this terrace closer to the stern is reserved for second-class passengers. They also had a large open area at the stern.
From the closed promenade terrace, one could get into the spacious first-class public rooms - each through its own foyer. Previously, first-class public spaces could be accessed not only from the promenade terrace, but also from the internal terraces that ran along almost the entire deck. These terraces have partly disappeared in the process of redevelopment in Long Beach.
The grand first-class saloon was the center of Queen Mary's social life. The center in every sense, including in the direct sense: this salon was located exactly in the middle of the ship so that the passengers gathered in it felt less rolling (after all, storms in the North Atlantic were not uncommon). Salon received musical motives in the design; live music played here in the evenings, passengers danced.
Sunday services were held in this cabin during flights, and passengers of all three classes were invited to these services. The service was traditionally conducted by the captain of the liner.
In the 1970s, there was an idea to turn this salon into a central restaurant (despite the fact that the original Queen Mary restaurants were preserved three decks below). In the process of reconstruction, the decor was partially lost, the room was somewhat reduced in size. But the work was never completed. Today, the central salon is offered for rent for events; its original furnishings have not been preserved.
Passengers of each class had their own smoking room. They didn't smoke in the smoking rooms, but enjoyed cigars and socializing. Traditionally, smoking rooms on ocean liners were considered “male territory”: women at that time did not indulge in cigars, but, however, they also visited the salon.
The smoking room on Queen Mary was striking in its size. In the original furnishings, it was a salon with soft chairs and small tables.
The smoking room is decorated with a painting by the English artist Edward Wadsworth (by the way, he painted it right here on the spot). During the first voyages of the Queen Mary, the picture caused a lot of controversy and even outrage among adherents of the traditional design of transatlantic liners - people never accept a new one right away. But then they got used to the picture, and it has been in its place for eighty years.
On the same deck there is another cozy salon of smaller sizes. It was, of course, cozy in its original furnishings: the modern "conference" furniture that the first-class rooms are now furnished with creates some dissonance. But add here mentally old-fashioned soft chairs and low tables, and everything will fall into place.
Service rooms and a chapel were equipped on the site of the second-class smoking parlor.
But it’s not easy to guess about the purpose of the room shown in the next photo. It was used by the musicians who played in the main salon for rehearsals before the start of the performance.
In the premises of each class there was a children's room, in which children could be left under the supervision of educators. The first-class children's room has been preserved; the toys in it are recreated from old photographs of life aboard the Queen Mary.
Already today, part of the promenade deck on the starboard side has been converted into a catering center. There are a fast food cafe and two restaurants.
Below is the main deck.
In its central part there was a travel bureau, where first-class passengers could book tickets for a return transatlantic flight, a train, book a hotel, and even buy tickets to theaters in London and New York.
Most of this deck is occupied by first class cabins. The interiors of corridors and lobbies made of precious wood (and fifty different types of wood were used in the design of the liner) are returned to the 1930s and 50s. By the way, the river passenger diesel-electric ships “Lenin” and “Soviet Union” built in 1958-59 in the USSR had very similar interiors. Perhaps, when creating these ships, Soviet designers and designers studied foreign experience in designing prestigious ocean liners.
The aft part of the deck is reserved for public spaces of the second (tourist) class. This is an open promenade deck and saloon.
The salon of the second class, like other premises of the ship, is devoid of "salon" furniture. Now this is one of the conference rooms on board. It is combined with the former promenade deck, which has been converted into a conference hall foyer.
We go down to the next deck. The decks below are unnamed; instead, they are labeled A through H. The lowest decks are off-limits to access.
In the center of Deck A is the First Class Information Desk (now the hotel's "reception"). It was in this foyer that first-class passengers got on board the Queen Mary.
Almost all of deck A is reserved for first class cabins, with the exception of the aft area, where second class cabins once were.
My cabin is also on this deck. Of course, it would be nice to make a transatlantic voyage in the Queen Mary's first class cabin, but these days it's actually about hotel room. The layout is a large first class cabin, and with a new finish. All of Queen Mary's First Class staterooms were originally wood-paneled, and many of the staterooms retain the original finishes.
Aft Deck A has another open area for second class passengers and another second class cabin. Queen Mary had the traditional vertical arrangement of classrooms at the time. That is, the premises of all three classes were located on all or almost all passenger decks, but in different parts of the liner. On the Queen Mary, first-class quarters occupied the center section of the ship, second-class quarters occupied the aft section, and third-class quarters were reserved for bow quarters.
To facilitate maneuvers in ports in the stern of the Queen Mary and other ships of that time, an additional superstructure was built - the stern bridge. During maneuvers, one of the watch officers was on this bridge, transmitting information about the position of the stern relative to other ships, berths and other objects to the wheelhouse.
On deck B are first and second class cabins. Of interest here is the placement of a medical isolation room in the aft.
It would seem that the lower we go down, the less our chances of seeing some interesting public spaces. But, once on deck C, you can see that this is not so. There are restaurants of all three classes here.
As on modern cruise ships, passengers arrived at the restaurant by elevator, or descended to it along a wide gangway.
The three-deck high first-class restaurant is the prototype of today's atriums on cruise ships. This restaurant accommodated all first-class passengers at the same time; accordingly, breakfasts, lunches and dinners were held in one shift. But that only applied to a first-class restaurant. Second class passengers ate in a smaller restaurant in two shifts. And third-class passengers had their own small restaurant, where they ate in three shifts.
The Queen Mary's first-class restaurant is still open today, hosting a Sunday champagne brunch every week.
The premises of the second and third class restaurants are now used as office space and warehouses. Many elements of their design have been lost; access to them is closed.
Deck D, further down, is interesting because it contained a first-class indoor swimming pool. Now the pool is not functioning due to non-compliance with modern requirements for the strength of ship structures, but you can visit its premises during an excursion called “The Ghosts of Queen Mary” (there is one). Second-class passengers also had their own pool: it was located on the deck below. This room has partly become a museum cinema, partly - offices.
The aft deck D deck has been dismantled and is now a museum of the Queen Mary and transatlantic shipping. From the museum you can go down to the engine room of the ship.
The huge propeller of the liner under water makes a great impression.
Deck E and below are closed to the public; almost all the rooms there are dismantled.
A visit to the Queen Mary leaves a very strong impression. And not only because of the stylish interiors in the British style of the middle of the last century, but also because of the feeling of exceptional power of a huge liner, and thanks to the amazingly positive energy of the ship, which transported hundreds of thousands of people across the Atlantic.
A liner similar to the created sensations, perhaps, will no longer be built. After all, this also requires an appropriate era. But it is remarkable that this vessel has been preserved. There will be an opportunity - visit it.
The 19th century is called the age of steam. The steam engine, patented by the English physicist and inventor James Watt in 1784 and then constantly improved, became a universal engine in all industries of the 19th century. It has had such an impact on the progress of mankind that few other discoveries in the history of its development have had. The desire to find a use for it in transport - on land or on water - was natural, and the result was not long in coming. The steam locomotive appeared. A number of inventors then tried to use the steam engine to propel ships.
At the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, more or less successful projects were born in several countries, but the main problems were still that the steam engine of those times often broke down, was inefficient, heavy and took up too much space. Only its improvement would make it possible to take a decisive step forward and put it at the service of future courts.
In 1802, Scottish engineer William Symington built the first serviceable steam-powered ship with a paddle wheel at the stern, named the Charlotte Dundas. For a time it was used to tow barges along the Fort Clyde Canal, but as the waves created by the wheel eroded the banks of the canal, it had to be abandoned.
The Americans also had their say. In 1809, John Stephens of New York built the Phoenix paddle steamer with a total capacity of 176 reg. t. After 13 days, the steamer arrived from New York to Philadelphia, becoming the first ship with a steam engine to sail on the high seas. Three years later, engineer Robert Fulton of Pennsylvania built the Claremont, a 40-meter-long, 315-brt sailing vessel that successfully transported goods along the Hudson River between New York and Albany for several years. The Claremont is the first among steam-powered ships used for regular traffic.
In 1812, the Scottish mechanic Henry Bell built a small steam ship, the Comet, with a capacity of only 30 gross tons. In addition to the sails that were obligatory in those years (Bell originally solved the problem of the mast by replacing it with a high pipe), the ship had a 10 hp steam engine that drove two wheels on both sides. The Komet was the first passenger steamer in European waters, carrying passengers between Glasgow, Helensborough and Greenock on the River Clyde for a fixed fee.
The steamers of that time had many shortcomings, and often they became objects of ridicule. The boilers were heated with wood, flames and sheaves of sparks escaped from the pipes, the steam coming out hissed, and the steam engines made an incredible noise. The passengers of the steamer, over which clouds of smoke were rising, gradually got used to all these inconveniences, and it was clear that no mockery would make them refuse to set foot on her deck; only in England and America in those years, several hundred such ships sailed along the rivers and along the coasts. There were also desperate minds, like Henry Bell, who claimed that the day would come when steamboats would run regularly between Europe and America.
The event that became the first milestone in the fulfillment of Bell's dream was the voyage of the sailing ship Savannah, which in May 1819 set off from the United States across the North Atlantic to the shores of Europe. Above the deck of the vessel, which had a length of 33 meters and a total capacity of 320 reg. t, three masts with 18 sails were raised, but at the same time the Savannah was equipped with an auxiliary single-cylinder steam engine with a power of 72 hp, which drove two paddle wheels. After 29 days, the ship anchored in the English port of Liverpool; during the voyage, the steam engine worked for a total of 80 hours - more reserves of 70 tons of coal and 90 cubic meters of firewood were not enough. Savannah was the first ship in history to cross the Atlantic Ocean, partially using a steam engine. This marked the beginning of a glorious period of transatlantic steam shipping that lasted almost 120 years.
In 1827, the wooden three-masted ship Curacao, which belonged to the Dutch navy, crossed the Atlantic. It was equipped with a 100 hp steam engine, which set in motion the blades of two wheels. He traveled from Rotterdam to Paramaribo on the coast of the Netherlands Guiana in 28 days, partly using a steam engine. A year later, the ship repeated the same route, but this time the journey took 25 days, while the first 13 days of the three-masted ship was thanks to the work of the steam engine.
Already without sails, the Canadian wooden three-masted ship Royal William, which had a 200 hp steam engine, crossed the ocean. and two wheels with a diameter of 5.6 meters. On August 18, 1833, he left Nova Scotia on the southeast coast of Canada and reached England 25 days later, having completed the entire route only with the help of a steam engine. At the same time, 330 tons of coal were consumed.
These successes, which proved not only the possibility of crossing the Atlantic with the help of a steam engine, but also the enormous advantages of a steam engine, led to the fact that in the 30s of the XIX century, a real struggle broke out between sailboats and steamships on the sea lines between Europe and North America and, of course, , shipping companies to which they belonged.
During this rivalry, Great Western Steamship ordered the Great Western from Patterson's shipyards in Bristol in the mid-1930s. It was designed by the talented engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel. It was supposed to be the largest sailing steamer of that time with a capacity of 1320 gross tons, a length of 72 meters, with four masts, two paddle wheels and a two-piston steam engine weighing 200 tons and 450 hp. The arrangement of the new ship was of great interest: for example, only the area of \u200b\u200bthe saloon in the style of Louis XV was 175 square meters, the ship had cabins for 140 passengers, of which 120 were class I cabins and 20 class II cabins; an additional 100 passengers could be accommodated if necessary.
Competing shipping company "British and American Steam Navigation" at the same time ordered from the shipyards "Curling and Young" an even larger sailing and wheeled vessel "British Queen" with a total capacity of 1862 reg. t. But there were difficulties with the installation of boilers, and work was suspended. There was a fear that the Great Western would be ready to go to sea earlier, so the British and American Steam Navigation company hired from another shipowner a two-masted wooden vessel Sirius with a total capacity of only 703 reg. t and a 250 hp steam engine. and hurriedly sent him on a flight. In the bet for crossing the Atlantic from Europe to America, priority was given only to steam traction.
Sirius left Irish Queenstown (now Cork) on April 4, 1838, with a crew of 35 people and 40 passengers on board. The cargo and the maximum supply of coal (450 tons) were too large, so when the ship got into a strong storm, it almost sank. The team began to grumble and demand to return back. But the determined and fearless Captain Roberts restored discipline with a revolver. The ship continued its journey to the west. At the end of the voyage, unfavorable stormy weather led to an unforeseen consumption of fuel, and just before New York, the bunkers were almost empty. It seemed that there was no other way out but to raise the sails and get to the shores of America with their help. But Captain Roberts did not intend to capitulate almost at the very point. He ordered to cut the masts, break the handrails and bridges and heat the boilers with them. The fire in the furnaces blazed again, and as a result, the Sirius entered the port of New York on April 23, where it was greeted by jubilant crowds.
The Sirius became the first ship to sail from Europe to America on steam power alone, and at the same time the first winner of the Blue Ribbon of the Atlantic, a symbolic prize awarded to the ship that crossed the ocean in the shortest time. In the next more than a hundred years for " blue ribbon Atlantic” fought dozens of ships. According to the rules, its owner was the vessel that overcame the fastest route between Queenstown and New York with a length of 2,700 nautical miles, or 5,157 kilometers. However, "Sirius" was proud of his victory for the shortest time. Just four hours after his arrival in New York, the Great Western entered the port and accepted the award. His voyage lasted 18 days and 10 hours.
Immediately after going to sea, the Great Western failed. March 31, 1838, two hours later, as the ship said goodbye to Bristol, the main boiler room was on fire. The situation was so critical that the captain gave the order to go aground. And although the fire was soon managed and the ship was not in danger, the accident scared the passengers so much that out of 57 people, 50 returned to shore. On April 8, the Great Western continued its interrupted voyage and reached the shores of America without complications. On the opposite side of the ocean, its size, elegance, equipment aroused well-deserved interest, but the primacy in crossing the Atlantic with the help of a steam engine still belonged to the Sirius.
The historic voyage of the Sirius and the Great Western became a significant frontier in maritime traffic between the Old and New Worlds: now it was already possible to talk about regular navigation between the two continents.
The convincing result achieved by both ships finally resolved the protracted dispute about whether steamships are capable of crossing the Atlantic Ocean. Prior to this, doubts were expressed not only by amateurs and skeptics, but also by many influential people. For example, at a meeting of the Royal Institution in Liverpool in 1835, Dr. Dionysius Lardner declared that it was a chimera to make the journey from Liverpool to New York by steam power, just as one could speak of a trip to the moon. A little time passed, and Mr. Professor, apparently, regretted his hasty words.
The ships that plied the waters of the Atlantic Ocean in the first decades of the 19th century and sought to win the championship were sailing steamers, equipped with both a sail and a steam engine that turned the blades of the wheels that were located on the sides of the ship. The wheels were by no means an ideal adaptation for large sea Vehicle. They limited maneuverability, their rotation unpleasantly shook the entire ship, and with a slight wave and rolling they worked unevenly, which significantly reduced their efficiency. If they were damaged, it was necessary to raise the sails, and then the bulky wheels, which violated the smooth line of the hull, did not allow proper use of the wind force.
There was a need to replace the wheels with another system. The problem was solved by a propeller, for the introduction of which one should say words of gratitude to the Czech inventor, a native of the city of Chrudim, Josef Ressel. He received a patent already in 1827, but since he could not find support for his invention for a long time, the patent became invalid. Others took advantage of Ressell's idea and became undeservedly famous. And the outstanding Czech inventor died of typhus in obscurity and poverty.
Nevertheless, the propeller idea survived, and the clumsy wheels on the sides gradually disappeared. In April 1845, the British confirmed the advantages of the screw. They conducted an interesting experiment: with a thick rope they connected two ships astern to each other, each of which had a steam engine of the same power. One of the ships was set in motion by wheels, the other by a propeller. When the mechanisms of both vessels were started, it became obvious that the wheeled vessel had no chance of success. Despite the fact that the blades were rowing with might and main, the propeller vessel towed its rival at a speed of three knots astern. The propeller has won in all respects and reliably performs its work to this day.
Another ship that left a significant mark on the history of shipping was the Great Britn, owned by the Great Western Steamship Company. It was built by the already mentioned designer I. Brunel. Construction lasted six years, with Brunel redoing the project five times. The ship was considered a maritime masterpiece of the time. It was the first all-metal ocean-going vessel propelled by a six-bladed propeller (although it had six masts with twelve sails) with a diameter of 4.7 meters. Another novelty was a 1014 hp steam engine, designed specifically for this ship. Finally, for the first time, a ship had a double bottom and watertight bulkheads. "Great Britn" at that time was the world's largest merchant ship with a total capacity of 3618 reg. t, 98 meters long and 15.4 meters wide. From the very beginning, its construction was accompanied by numerous difficulties, since shipbuilders did not yet have sufficient experience in working with metal as a building material. Difficulties were also created by the size of the new vessel: they did not allow it to "get out" of the Bristol dock in which it was built, and it had to be redone. Until the shipping channel connecting the dock to the sea was expanded, which took 17 months, the ship could not go to the open sea. After overcoming all obstacles in July 1843, the Great Britain was finally launched. But the ship went on its first voyage to New York only two years later.
Great Britain has had a long and exciting life. It sailed across the Atlantic for a little over a year, but then, due to a navigational error, it got stuck among the rocks of the Irish coast. Eleven months passed before he could be rescued, and shortly thereafter he was acquired by Gibbs, Bright & Co. New owner converted the ship into a sailboat, installed a steam engine on it, which, however, performed only an auxiliary function, and sent it to the routes of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. The ship transported troops to India, settlers to Australia, and during the Australian gold rush, thousands of miners were brought to the continent. In 1881 the owner changed again. The ship was rebuilt again, this time the steam engine was removed, and the Great Britain turned into a three-masted sailing ship. Five years later, near Cape Horn, he fell into a severe storm and was so damaged that, literally with the last of his strength and only thanks to great luck, he dragged himself to Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands. There it was bought by the Falkland Islands Company, and until 1937 the Great Britain was used as a floating warehouse. Then he was towed into a small bay, the kingstones were opened and put aground. A few years later in England, a group of enthusiasts remembered the famous ship, which was once the best and most modern of what English shipbuilding had. They created a rescue committee, and in 1970 the dilapidated hull was raised from the bottom of the sea. After carrying out the necessary repairs, it was loaded onto a pontoon and sent to England. On July 5, 1970, a huge crowd greeted the ship in Bristol, where it was built 127 years ago at the shipyards of William Patterson & Sons. Today, after a major overhaul, the Great Britain is used as a maritime museum.
From the middle of the 19th century, new shipping companies arose, which very quickly concentrated in their hands a monopoly on transatlantic transportation. Vessels equipped with steam engines no longer depend on the weather and winds and are able to arrive at their destinations at a predetermined time; it becomes possible to adhere to a certain schedule. This was a huge step forward compared to sailing ships, for which the journey across the ocean took from 30 to 100 days and was accompanied by significant inconveniences, including in providing passengers with food. The most famous shipping company still in existence today was founded in 1840 by Samuel Cunard, a Quaker merchant from Halifax, Nova Scotia. Working for many years as a representative of the British East India Company, he was able to get a complete picture of the state of maritime traffic and soon realized that steamships would soon take over the transatlantic lines and allow regular communication between Europe and America. And he decided not to miss the opportunity. Cunard traveled to England with the intention of persuading the wealthy business people City in the need to timely organize regular flights across the Atlantic and to obtain the necessary financial support for this project. In London, he achieved nothing, but his proposal met with a positive response from the famous Scottish entrepreneur George Burns and his trading partner David MacIver. And when the talented designer Robert Napier joined them, a group was formed that took up the implementation of Cunard's plan with such enthusiasm that they very soon managed to overcome all obstacles. The collected 270,000 British pounds allowed the creation of the Cunard shipping company, which remained a solid enterprise for the next more than 100 years. After the company entered into an agreement with the government for the regular transport of mail between Liverpool, Halifax and Boston, it immediately set about building the necessary ships.
The first steamships of the Cunard company, plying the waters of the Atlantic, were called Britannia, Acadia, Caledonia and Columbia. These were seventy-meter wooden paddle steamers with three masts, with a total capacity of 1150 tons. They were powered by 700 hp steam engines designed by Napier, which allowed them to reach a speed of 8.5 knots. They carried cargo, passengers and mail, becoming the first mail steamers in history.
On her maiden voyage from Liverpool to Boston, the Britannia left on July 4, 1840, with 63 passengers on board, including Samuel Cunard himself. For 14 days and 8 hours she crossed the Atlantic Ocean, the return trip took 10 days. Britannia won the Atlantic Blue Ribbon. The ship had two decks: on the upper deck there were officer cabins, a saloon and a kitchen, on the lower deck there were two dining rooms and passenger cabins. The latter were served by 27 stewards and cooks. Even several cows were kept in the bow of the ship in order to constantly have fresh milk. But despite all the efforts, Britannia still could not offer its passengers the comfort that distinguished the floating hotels of later decades.
At the beginning of 1842, the writer Charles Dickens set off for America on the Britannia, and the conveniences on the ship did not arouse his delight. In his American Notes, he wrote that his cabin “extremely uncomfortable, hopelessly dull and absolutely ridiculous box”, and about his bunk he said that, "Perhaps, only in a coffin to sleep even more closely." When Dickens came to his senses after all the troubles associated with seasickness, his mood gradually improved. Here is how he described the little pleasures provided by the cabin of a passenger ship in the 40s of the last century:
“A bell tolls at one o'clock and a stewardess comes downstairs carrying a steaming dish of fried potatoes and another with baked apples; she also brings jelly, ham and corned beef, or a steam-shrouded dish with a whole mountain of excellently cooked hot meat. We pounce on these goodies; we eat as much as possible (we now have a great appetite), and stay at the table as long as possible. If a fire lights up in the stove (and sometimes it lights up), we all come into the best mood. If not, we begin to complain to each other about the cold, rub our hands, wrap ourselves in coats and capes, and before dinner we again go to sleep, talk or read (again, if there is enough light).
Despite the great writer's criticisms, Britannia was popular on the American Atlantic coast. When, in early 1844, a two-meter-thick ice floe squeezed her in the Boston port, residents organized a fundraiser and paid for the release of the vessel from ice captivity, for which it was necessary to cut a channel 11 meters long. Since one of the most important tasks of "Britain" was the delivery of mail, the British Post Office intended to return the amount collected, but the people of Boston did not accept the money. This case showed that the Boston winter can disrupt the regularity of sailing and expose residents to significant expenses. Therefore, the Cunard company chose never-freezing New York as the main port of destination on the American continent.
The sailing of the Cunard steamships was watched with increasing discontent by American shipowners. Once, when the Britannia left Liverpool, the American ship Washington of the Ocean Steam Navigation company, a three-masted wheeled steamer with a capacity of 3408 brt, set off from the same port. His captain made no secret of his intentions to leave "Britain" far behind him and gain the upper hand in competition with England. However, when the Washington approached New York, the Britannia had been unloading in port for several days.
The inglorious result of the first international transatlantic contest deeply hurt American pride. Therefore, the Collins Line was soon formed, ordering four wooden paddle steamers with the support of the government, which were supposed to restore the shaken reputation of American shipbuilding. The new ships were twice as large as the British ones - about 2860 GRT, and the power of their steam engines was enhanced by the installation of water-tube boilers. The ships were named "Arctic", "Atlantic", "Baltic" and "Pacific". So that in Liverpool and New York they did not have to wait for the tide to enter the port, they were flat-bottomed. Each ship could take on board 200 passengers, who were provided with such comfort as no other transatlantic ship has offered so far: the cabins had ventilation, steam heating, bathrooms and smoking rooms.
On April 27, 1850, the Atlantic was the first to go to sea. On the way to Europe, the wheels broke, and the ship arrived in Liverpool with a significant delay. After the repair, the return journey took him 9 days and 17 hours, as a result of which the Atlantic received the Blue Ribbon of the Atlantic. It wasn't long before the ships of the Collins Line really left behind the steamers of the British company Cunard, and the prosperous company itself received lucrative contracts for the transportation of mail from the American government. She replenished her flotilla with new ships and over time became the most popular company providing communication between the two continents. The Americans were very pleased, but arrogance precedes a fall. "Collins Line" lost two ships in maritime disasters, several hundred people died, and the trust of passengers - remember your name. Profits began to fall sharply, and after the refusal of state support in 1858, the Collins Line ceased to exist after eight years of brilliant activity.
In 1850, another famous British shipping company, the Inman Line, was formed in Liverpool. She sent several ships to the transatlantic lines, which attracted attention with significant design innovations, which confirmed that the development of shipbuilding was advancing by leaps and bounds. First of all, it was about the use of iron as a building material.
Only five years later, in 1856, the first all-metal ship "Persia", owned by the Kunard company, went to sea - a two-masted paddle steamer with a capacity of 3300 gross tons, which was said to be the most beautiful ship of its time. His 4000 hp machines. allowed to reach speeds of almost 14 knots. Therefore, with such great interest, the results of the competition of the Persia (it was her first voyage) with the steamer Pacific of the Collins Line were expected with such great interest. The ships simultaneously left Liverpool and headed for New York. The Persia approached the shores of America with a significant delay caused by a collision with an iceberg, which, fortunately, did not cause serious damage. "Pacific" did not appear at all, disappeared without a trace. This catastrophe remained shrouded in mystery for a long time and was one of the reasons that greatly contributed to the demise of the Collins Line company. "Persia" after the second voyage across the ocean received the "Blue Ribbon of the Atlantic" and held it for six years.
The fact that such a conservative company as Cunard preferred iron as a building material finally decided the still contentious issue in British shipbuilding: whether to build ships from traditional material, as wood has been for centuries, or from iron. It soon became clear that ships with an all-metal hull were not only stronger, but also lighter for the same tonnage. Their dimensions could increase without restrictions, which the tree did not allow, and the greater the displacement, the proportionally less space was required for storing fuel and, naturally, more area left for cargo. In addition, the transition to the construction of all-metal ships allowed the British to solve the problem that weighed on them - the lack of their own reserves of the appropriate wood species. The construction of ships over the course of several centuries has so depleted the forests on British Isles that a threat arose: the main centers of shipbuilding would become countries with large forest resources, and in the Atlantic the United States was the most dangerous competitor of Great Britain. On the other hand, if the new steamships are to be built of steel, the vast reserves of good quality iron ore and the powerful iron and steel industry will provide all the conditions for a sharp increase in the work of British shipyards.
The era of oceanic giants was opened by the ship "Great Eastern" of the English company "Eastern Steamship Navigation", the construction of which began on May 1, 1854 according to the project of engineer Brunel. It was supposed to have an unprecedented capacity - 18,915 GRT, four times more than that of the largest ship that had been built up to that time. The Great Eastern was 211 meters long and 25.15 meters wide. The ship had five metal masts and one wooden one, almost 6,000 square meters of sails; on the sides there were two wheels with a diameter of 17 meters, and at the stern - a four-bladed propeller with a diameter of 7.3 meters; the ship could reach speeds of up to 15 knots. The hold housed two four-cylinder main steam engines: one with a capacity of 2000 hp. to drive the wheels and the second with a capacity of 1622 hp. to turn the screw. The operation of pumps, windlasses, cranes and other mechanisms was provided by auxiliary steam engines. Nine bulkheads divided the hull into ten watertight compartments, and a double plating of steel sheets was installed from the keel to the waterline. In practice, the ship had two hulls, which played a huge role in its safety. If it received a hole in the outer skin, water penetrated only into the space between it and the inner "hull", it did not reach other hold compartments. The bunkers held 18,000 tons of coal, and with a full load of all engines, the daily fuel consumption was 380 tons. The crew consisted of 418 people, the ship was designed to carry 4,000 passengers. Luxurious equipment was provided for class I rooms: comfortable stylized furniture, crystal mirrors in frames made of rare woods, ventilation in cabins, warm water, sliding walls, and so on. The Great Eastern was to be launched on November 3, 1857.
Bad luck began to haunt this giant literally from the first steps. Engineer Brunel made serious miscalculations when he tried to lower the giant ship on 120 iron rollers instead of the usual wooden skids. After two and a half months of enormous stress and expenses of £120,000, Brunel had to accept that he would not be able to even carry out a traditional stern launch, since the width of the Thames on which the shipyard stood was such big ship didn't allow it. And for the first time in history, Brunel decided on the so-called side descent. Here the first accident in the chain of others happened: the 12,000-ton mass got stuck in the wooden scaffolding in which it was imprisoned. The failure of one of the winches led to the death of two workers, five were injured. Only on January 31, 1858, at a very high tide, the ship was finally launched. Huge responsibility and a series of failures upset the famous shipbuilder so much that everything ended in a nervous shock and Brunel died without waiting for his last and largest ship to set off on its maiden voyage.
During the test cruise, one of the boilers exploded and a fire broke out in the engine room, causing extensive damage to the ship and the death of five people. Then the Great Eastern was anchored for a long time in the port of Holyhead on the west coast of England, where one day during a severe storm the anchor chains broke and the ship narrowly escaped death. On July 17, 1860, the Great Eastern set out on her maiden voyage across the Atlantic. Its huge capacity remained practically unused - there were only 35 passengers on the ship. And although the Great Eastern, the largest ship in the world, received an enthusiastic reception in New York, from an economic point of view, this voyage and all subsequent voyages were regarded as bankruptcy. The situation was further aggravated by the fact that, due to its size, the Great Eastern could not enter most of the ports that served the bulk of merchant ships at all.
A new trouble came on October 10, 1861. Shortly after leaving Liverpool, the Great Eastern was caught in a violent storm. The damaged giant became uncontrollable, heavy wind and huge waves drove the ship straight to the rocky coast of Ireland. With inhuman efforts, the team still managed to prevent a catastrophe, another repair followed, but the glory of the loser did not recede. Then the Great Eastern was used as a cable ship and became famous for laying two transatlantic telegraph cables. Later, a French company bought it, and after a major overhaul, the Great Eastern became the first ship in the world with steering. He continued to sail across the Atlantic, but in 1888 his career ended - the ship was sold for scrap. Until the beginning of the 20th century, it held the title of the largest ship in the world.
Regular flights of transatlantic steamers made it possible to transport from continent to continent not only merchants and industrialists, but also tens of thousands of immigrants who left Europe in search of work and a better life in the countries of the New World. Numerous adventurers followed to America, tempted by the possibility of quick and easy enrichment, especially during the gold rush. But on most ships of that time there were a limited number of cabins with relative amenities, they were expensive and were available only to wealthy people. The poor, who set off on a journey in the hope of a better life, doomed themselves to a tiring journey in the cramped spaces of the hold, in cold, darkness and dampness. And only much later, the conditions for third-class passengers became more tolerable.
The transportation of huge masses of people brought considerable profits to shipping companies, and soon a sharp competitive struggle broke out between English, American, German, French, Italian and Scandinavian shipping companies. She forced shipowners to improve the equipment of ships and increase their speed. In the second half of the 19th century, all this led to an unprecedented development of shipbuilding, which embodied the best achievements of technology of that time.
In 1867, the Wilson & Chambers shipping company, saddled with exorbitant debts, filed for bankruptcy. This company managed, however, to build a flotilla of sailing clippers, which at one time belonged to the best and fastest ships of this class. They served the line Europe - Australia, where they gained such popularity that their red flag with a white five-pointed star continued to fly on the masts even after the bankrupt company was bought by entrepreneur Thomas Henry Ismay. About two years later, with financial support from Harland & Wolff, Ismay created a new company, Oceanic Steam Navigation, which, retaining the white star on the flag, entered the history of transatlantic transportation under the name White Star Line.
The Harland and Wolff shipyard, located in Belfast, Northern Ireland, was considered in those years to be the best shipbuilder in Europe, but also the most expensive. The shipyard was very proud of its reputation and almost completely provided the production of ships with its own funds, only an insignificant part of the equipment was manufactured by subcontractors. Excellent ships descended from its slipways. Ismay immediately ordered four sailboats from Harland and Wolff for the newly established shipping company, and in 1871 announced the start of regular operation of the Liverpool - New York line. One of these ships was the Oceanic, a four-masted metal-hulled ship with a total tonnage of 3,707 Reg. t and a power of 1060 hp machines, which set the propeller in motion. The ship no longer had wheels. The relationship between the White Star Line and the Harland & Wolff shipyard was a special and very beneficial relationship for both parties. According to long-term agreements, the shipyard undertook guarantees not to build ships for competitors of the White Star Line, and she, in turn, undertook never to place orders for another shipyard. The agreement made gave Harland & Wolff the right to build ships of their own choosing, regardless of expense, and the White Star Line did indeed pay big bucks for new ships, plus a fixed percentage. This collaboration between the shipping company and shipbuilders has led to some significant progress both in the design and fitting out of new ships. Many of the new products were then used on the ships of other companies.
The latest achievements were first applied on the Oceanic, launched in August 1870. Since then, the shipyards have abandoned the traditional forms of merchant ship hulls and switched to streamlined forms, reminiscent of sports yachts, with a completely unusual length-to-beam ratio of 10:1. For the convenience of passengers, especially those who could pay a large amount for a ticket, the first class cabins and the main saloon were transferred from the stern, where they were always located, to the center. This made it possible to remove them from the noise of the propeller and place them where the pitching was least felt. A canopy was built over the main deck, which made it possible for passengers to stroll even in adverse weather. New spaces, including saloons, smoking rooms and dining rooms, required the creation of a second deck. The light and airy cabins of the first class, which were much larger than was customary before, had water supply and steam heating installed through the portholes, electric bells made it possible to call the steward. For thousands of migrants who traveled in the hold, trade in a variety of goods was organized.
Despite the fact that the steam engine was increasingly consolidating its position, sailing ships, which dominated the sea routes for centuries, including the Atlantic Ocean, were very slowly losing ground. And although steam engines were installed on most of the ships that served long-distance lines in the second half of the 19th century, all ships had sails that, with a fair wind, helped the machines, but above all served as a guarantee in case of possible malfunctions. However, thanks to the technical improvement of steam engines, they became more and more reliable and powerful, confidence in them increased, the number of sails decreased, and step by step the steam defeated the wind. A heavy blow to the sail was dealt in 1869 in connection with the opening of the Suez Canal. Sailing ships were forbidden to enter the canal, because by complex and sometimes very long maneuvering, depending on the strength and direction of the wind, they slowed down the rhythmic work of the canal.
The last large ships equipped with both steam engines and sails were the City of Paris and the City of New York of the English company Inman Line. These were three-masted vessels with a total capacity of 10,786 reg. t, the power of their machines was equal to 20,000 hp, and they had two screws each. They were the largest and fastest ships of their time, and both were Blue Ribbon of the Atlantic winners. The City of Paris, launched in Glasgow in 1888, received it on her first voyage, when in April 1889 she crossed the Atlantic in 5 days and 22 hours. It became the first ship in history to do so in less than 6 days.
A number of ships, even before the launch of the above-mentioned ships of the Inman Line shipping company, were equipped with two propellers. However, before the advantages of the multi-screw system could be fully appreciated, a number of technical problems had to be solved. In a stormy sea, overcoming high waves, the bow of the vessel often sank, and the stern rose, while the propeller was above the water. The lack of resistance of the cut water led to the fact that the propeller began to work like a horse that had broken the bridle. In such situations, it happened that the shaft could not withstand unexpected stress and broke. For a vessel with one propeller, this was a disaster: it was immediately carried away by waves, current and wind, in bad weather it could sink. In the best case, he was taken in tow by another ship, but for the owner, this option was associated with the payment of a huge reward for the assistance provided. If such a nuisance happened to a ship equipped with two screws, things were not so bad: with the help of the second screw, it could get to the nearest port. If the steering device turned out to be damaged at sea, then the ship with one propeller from that moment became uncontrollable. In the presence of two propellers, their alternate activation or reduction in the speed of one or the other propeller made it possible to keep the ship on course. Often, even complex maneuvering when entering the port was much easier to carry out if the ship had two propellers. It was the experience of City of Paris and City of New York, despite all doubts, that proved the effectiveness of the multi-screw drive. Later, on large ocean-going ships, three and four propellers were installed.
From the 70s of the XIX century passenger ships on the Atlantic lines are beginning to turn into luxury floating hotels. This trend, which was most pronounced on the large English steamships, was the result of increasing competition from German, French and Dutch companies. In 1870, the ships Abyssinia and Algiria first had private bathrooms, and the equipment of the steamer Gallia, launched in 1879, was a harbinger of the extravagant luxury of the future. His salon was done in the Japanese style: the walls were paneled in jasper-red lacquer, on which birds and flowers were painted in gold and pastel colors; there was even a fountain in the center of the smoking room. In 1880, electric light bulbs were lit for the first time on the steamship City of Berlin of the Inman Line. The ships had luxurious suites, dance halls in mirrors, concert halls with expensive pianos, gyms, swimming pools, gambling halls, beauty salons, libraries. The first of the expensive ships of the new generation were the ships of the Kunard company - the Campania and Lucania, which received the Blue Ribbon of the Atlantic in 1893.
At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, several significant innovations appeared in shipbuilding. High-quality steel becomes the material for the construction of the hull, two or four propellers are driven by a powerful steam turbine of a new design. An automatic door closing system is installed on watertight bulkheads, remotely controlled from the navigation bridge. After the Italian engineer Guglielmo Marconi managed to establish radio communication between the stations of the British peninsula of Cornwall and the island of Newfoundland, located on the opposite side of the Atlantic, a new epoch-making discovery, radio, was used on ships. In 1900, the German merchant ship Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse became the first of the ships equipped with radiotelegraphy. The enterprising Marconi quickly convinced the owners of the largest English and Italian shipping companies of the importance of wireless telegraphy and began to install his radio stations on their ships. The first British steamship equipped with a wireless telegraph, also in 1900, was the Lucania.
At the turn of the century, ships belonging to Germany appeared on transatlantic lines. Thanks to broad government support, German companies have made huge strides over the years. The Hamburg-America Line owned the largest fleet of passenger steamers in the world (75 vessels with a total capacity of 412,000 registered tons). Not far behind her was another German company, the North German Lloyd (73 ships, 358,000 GRT). The largest British shipping company, British India Steam Navigation, had 108 vessels with a total capacity of 370,500 reg. tons, but most of them plowed the waters of the Indian and Pacific oceans. The White Star Line owned 24 ships with a tonnage of 188,000 GRT, while Cunard owned 23 ships with a tonnage of 140,000 GRT.
German shipping companies entered the fray for their share of the profits from transatlantic traffic, using the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse steamer on these lines. It was a 209-meter vessel with a total capacity of 14,349 reg. t, equipped with two steam engines with a capacity of 27,000 hp. and capable of speeds of 22.5 knots. It was built at the Stettin shipyard for the North German Lloyd. British shipowners closely followed her first voyage, which the ship set off on September 26, 1897. After this voyage, the Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse received the Blue Ribbon of the Atlantic. In 1900, he crossed the Atlantic Ocean along the New York-Southampton route in 5 days and 16 hours, but in the same year he lost the championship to another, even larger vessel of the Hamburg-America Line company, the Deutschland.
A little time passed, and the Atlantic Ocean turned into a kind of "sports ground" for the Germans, on which only two rivals competed in major competitions between the shores of Europe and America: "Kaiser Wilhelm der Grosse" and "Deutschland". None of the British courts could argue with them. The year 1901 was also successful for the Germans, when they launched the Kronprinz Wilhelm steamship, and the next, when the Kaiser Wilhelm II steamboat was launched. Both were owned by North German Lloyd and both were awarded the Blue Ribbon of the Atlantic.
Speed was an excellent advertisement for the shipping companies in attracting passengers, but it also had a downside that did not contribute to profit growth. The British, soberly assessing the situation, put up with second place in the rivalry, although their prestige as a sea power suffered. At the turn of the century, British shipowners turned their attention to increasing the size of ships, turning a blind eye to even their slow speed, since an increase in speed of only half a knot was associated with a significant increase in the cost of building ships. For example, in 1900, the Cunard company commissioned two ships, the Ivernia and Saxony, each with a capacity of 13,800 gross tons. At a speed of 16.5 knots, they had enviable stability, which provided passengers with maximum protection from unpleasant seasickness. Each of the two ships cost £325,000, carried 1,960 passengers and 250 crew, had a carrying capacity of 11,000 tons, and consumed 150 tons of coal per day. The construction of the German steamship "Deutschland" cost 660,000 pounds, while its total capacity was 16,502 reg. t. He could take on board 900 passengers less than the ships of the Kunard company, the crew consisted of 550 people, the carrying capacity was only 600 tons, and coal consumption per day was 570 tons. The construction costs in comparison with the ships of the Kunard company were twice as high, the crew size was also twice as large, fuel consumption was almost four times higher, a significantly smaller number of passengers and an insignificant carrying capacity - these are the significant disadvantages that could not be balanced no speed records. And while British companies received regular profits, the Germans' intentions in this direction remained unfulfilled. Their ships, crowned with the Blue Ribbon of the Atlantic, were often unprofitable, and achievements in speed could flatter only German national pride.
In 1905, the Cunard company brought two new ships to the Atlantic lines - the Carmania and the Caronia. Each of them could take on board 2,600 passengers and 10,000 tons of cargo. Their steam engines with a capacity of 21,000 hp. allowed to develop a speed of 18 knots, both ships had hydraulic drives for closing doors on watertight bulkheads, remotely controlled from the navigation bridge.
The construction of these ships was marked by a significant event: the testing of a new type of power plant - a steam turbine. In 1884, British engineer Charles A. Parsons designed a jet turbine that had a number of advantages over the classic steam engine. At first, it was installed only on a few small ships, but after overcoming some difficulties, the British Allen Line company in 1905 installed a turbine on their steamships Victorian and Virginian, plying along the Europe-Canada route. The results were so good that the Cunard company additionally supplied the Caronia with a steam engine that set two screws in motion, and installed three turbines on the Carmania that worked on three screws. "Carmania" fully justified the hopes, and the new power plant for large ships, which was a steam turbine, aroused the interest of all famous shipowners.
The relentless rivalry between British, German, American, French and Scandinavian shipping companies for the mastery of as much volume as possible passenger traffic between Europe and North America led to a constant reduction in fees and tariffs. Companies' incomes were falling, and if governments did not provide them with financial support, as was the case with German companies, then funds for the construction of new ships, which in their parameters would correspond to the progress made in shipbuilding and would meet the ever-increasing demands of wealthy passengers in luxury And they didn't have speed. We can say that at the turn of the century, transatlantic shipping found itself in a state of crisis for some time. And at that moment, the American financier and entrepreneur J. Pierpont Morgan entered the game. His plan was simple: create a gigantic international trust dominated by American capital, which would have the right to control all major American and European shipping companies. Then competitors can be easily brought to their knees, and it will only be necessary to dictate the amounts that provide the necessary profit.
In a short time, Morgan really managed to take over almost all American shipping and the two largest German companies - the Hamburg-America Line and the North German Lloyd. As for other companies, such as the Dutch "Holland - America Line", he became the owner of most of the shares. In early 1902, the Morgan Trust, called International Mercantile Marine K, or IMM, made an offer to the British company Cunard. This step caused serious concern both among the English public and in the British Admiralty, which for many years supported large English shipping companies with various subsidies, but reserved the right in case of war to attract appropriate ships for their needs as auxiliary floating facilities. Morgan's plan jeopardized this whole hitherto reliable system. The American financier was a completely unknown figure for the British Admiralty, and one cannot take risks in matters of principle.
Therefore, the Admiralty immediately took the necessary steps. Parliament prohibited the transfer from the British shipping register of ships received by the Morgan Trust, and negotiations began for financial assistance to the Cunard company. The negotiations culminated in an agreement under which the Admiralty took over the financing of the construction of two new ships. The conditions were as follows: firstly, the construction costs must not exceed £2,600,000 and, secondly, the ships must be capable of a speed of 24.5 knots. The second condition was dictated by the fact that the Admiralty did not rule out a possible clash with Kaiser Germany. The fastest German passenger ship at that time was the Kaiser Wilhelm II steamer, whose machines allowed a speed of 23.5 knots. The new British ships were supposed to have faster speeds.
An agreement between the Admiralty and the Cunard Company led to the construction of the Lusitania and Mauritania, the two largest steamships of the time. The Lusitania's hull was laid down in September 1904. On June 7, 1906, the ship was launched, and when on September 7, 1907, it set off on its maiden voyage from Liverpool to New York, 200,000 people came to see it off. Without exaggeration, it was a huge floating palace. The length of the vessel was 240 meters with a width of 27 meters, the power of the machines reached 68,000 hp, it had six decks, its total capacity was 31,500 reg. t. In class I, 563 passengers could accommodate, in class II - 464 and in class III - 1138. A team of 900 people took care of them.
Since the advent of transoceanic passenger lines (originated in the 1840s for regular passenger transportation between continents), the passenger liners serving them have rather slowly "gained weight": the tonnage of a typical 19th century steamship-liner usually totaled only a few thousand registered tons. After the first unsuccessful experience of creating a giant steamship, we are talking about a British liner Great Eastern 1858 (tonnage 18,915 registered tons) - shipping companies have long been wary of building large ships. It was only at the end of the 1880s that the first passenger steamships with a size of more than 10,000 registered tons began to appear (a total of 37 of them were built before 1900), then in 1901 the first liner with a tonnage of more than 20,000 tons appeared - Celticof the White Star company, and in 1907 appearedLusitania and Mauretania"Kunard", overcoming the milestone of 30,000 tons. In 1911, the milestone of 40,000 tons was finally overcome: the White Star Line launched the first giant liner of the twentieth century - Olympic size 45 324 register tons, designed to serve the passenger line Southampton-New York. 
The first giant liner turned out to be a lucky ship - even a meeting with a German submarine in World War I ended with not the giant liner, but the German submarine itself;Olympic he calmly worked on the North Atlantic lines until 1935, after which he died a natural death of the ship - he was decommissioned for scrap. But the siblings of "Olympic" became famous for their sad glory. O the fate of the liner launched in 1911 Titanic needless to say a lot - the whole world knows that this steamer died on its very first voyage, taking more than 1,500 lives to the bottom with it.
Titanic, 46,328 tons
A little more lucky was the third of the brothers - British(48,158 tons). Launched in 1914, due to the outbreak of war, she did not have time to work on passenger lines, but in 1915 she was converted into a hospital ship of the British Navy and, as such, made five voyages to the Eastern Mediterranean. The sixth flight in November 1916 proved fatal: British died in the Aegean Sea blown up by an enemy mine, becoming the most large ship, sunk in World War I; 30 people died along with the ship.
"Kunard" - the eternal competitor of the "White Star" - could not but react to the creation of three giant ships by the opponent at once. In 1913, the company launched its first giant liner - it was Aquitaniawith a tonnage of 45,647 tons, plowing the seas from 1914 to 1949, surviving both world wars; by the end of the 30s, the liner remained the only operating four-pipe ship in the world.
Aquitania compared to the United States Capitol 
The creation by the British of four giants at once prompted the German shipping company "Hamburg-America" to create their own extra-large passenger liners, which surpassed the ships of the British. The first of the "Big Three" in 1913 was Emperor(52 117 tons), then the water was launched Waterland("Vaterland", 54,282 tons) and Bismarck(56,551 tons). Due to the war that began in August 1914, the first of the brothers did not have time to swim on the Hamburg-New York line for a very short time, and Bismarck and never went on a flight under the German flag. With the start of the war Waterland was blocked in New York and in 1917 went to the Americans, two other ships after the war had to be given to the British as reparation payments.
Emperor went to the Kunard company and got the name Berengaria
Bismarck was given to the White Star Line and given the name Majestic. In 1914-1935, he held the title of the largest ship in the world. 
Waterland remained with the Americans under a new name Leviathan and until 1934 sailed on the New York-Cherbourg-Southampton-Hamburg line 
The First World War dealt a severe blow to transatlantic passenger shipping: only by the end of the 20s, passenger traffic between North America and Europe again exceeded 1,000,000 passengers a year (for comparison, in 1913, 2.6 million passengers crossed the Atlantic). At the same time, by the end of the 20s, the rivalry between the shipping companies of Europe revived again. The German company Norddeutscher Lloyd, using money received from the United States (these were compensation payments for German ships confiscated in 1917), decided to create two new giant liners:
Bremen Built in 1928, 51,656 register tons 
and Europa 1930, 49,746 tons. 
The new German liners turned out to be the most technically advanced ships of their time - Bremen the first of the giant ships became the owner of the Blue Ribbon of the Atlantic (before it, giant liners did not show speed records), and Europa- second. Both record-breaking liners served German passenger lines until 1939, when the war began. Bremen did not survive the war (it burned down in 1941), but Europa in 1945, it became a trophy of the Americans, who handed over this liner to France as compensation for the Normandie they burned down (more on that below). The French under the name Liberte this liner sailed until 1962, when it was scrapped. 
And the French themselves in the late 20s did not sit idly by. In 1927, it was commissioned Ile de France- the first French giant liner (43,153 tons). To the one who created it french line l ainer worked over 30 years. 
Photo after World War II. 
Then in 1930 the French launched L"Atlantique, 40,945 tons - the first giant liner designed to operate on non-North Atlantic lines ( L"Atlantique sailed on the line Bordeaux - Rio de Janeiro - Buenos Aires). The hull of this ship was designed by Russian engineer Vladimir Ivanovich Yurkevich. The hallmark of the two French giants was the magnificent and innovative interior design in the Art Deco style. Unlike Ile de France this ship lived a very short life. 
Finally, in the early 1930s, a completely new player appeared in the race of giant steamships - Italy, where, at the initiative of the ambitious leader Benito Mussolini, steamship companies began to create two new large-scale liners. was first launched into the water rex(51,062 tons). 
Then was dropped Conte di Savoia, 48,502 tons. Both liners, starting in 1932, sailed on the Genoa-New York line. The most famous of the two Italian brothers was rex, in 1933 won the Blue Ribbon from the Germans. Smaller Conte di Savoia I didn't set any speed records. On the line about ba liner operated until the spring of 1940, then after Italy entered the war, they were laid up and ingloriously died under the bombs of Anglo-American aircraft.
Conte di Savoia
Britain also joined the renewed race: bypassing the temporarily lagging Cunard and White Star, the Canadian Pacific company distinguished itself - in 1931 it launched a liner on the Southampton-Quebec-Montreal line Empress of Britain(42,348 register tons). In September 1939, this ship was requisitioned for the British Navy and in October 1940 was sunk by a German submarine, becoming the largest casualty of the Kriegsmarine in World War II. 
For giant liners, 1932 became a kind of acme - then 12 ships with a tonnage of more than 40,000 registered tons each plowed the waters of the Atlantic Ocean at once; in descending order of tonnage, starting with the largest:
Majestic
Leviathan
Berengaria
Conte di Savoia
Aquitania
Ile de France
Empress of Britain
L"Atlantique
However, 1932 cannot exactly be called a happy time for transalantic shipping - the Great Depression was raging, so only 751,592 transatlantic passengers, by 1934 their number had dropped to 460,000 altogether. , decommissioned and scrapped in the second half of the 1930sOlympicand three captured Germans (Leviathan,Majestic and Berengaria);
Aquitaniaremained the only giant ship of the 1910s in operation.
But they were replaced by a more than worthy replacement - three supergiant liners with a size of more than 80,000 registered tons each.
The first of these was the French liner normandie, in May 1935, released on its first flight. This liner became the most Russian of the giant ships of the twentieth century: the ship's hull was designed by the already mentioned engineer Vladimir Yurkevich,the unsinkability system for the Normandy was developed by other Russian engineers - I.P. Poluektov, I.N. Bokhanovsky and B.C. Verzhebsky, propellers for the ship were developed by another Russian emigrant, Alexander Kharkevich, and the artist Alexander Yakovlev took part in creating the luxurious interior of the ship. At the time of creation, the tonnage of the vessel was 79,280 tons, but then the tonnage was increased to 83,423 tons; up until 1940normandieheld the title of the largest passenger ship in the world and at the same time in 1935-36 and 1937-38 she held the title of the fastest ship in the world - the Blue Ribbon of the Atlantic - became the first, after the Lusitania and Mauritania, passenger ship of the 20th century, which simultaneously broke both the size record and the speed record.
But normandieit was not destined to live a long life - in August 1939 the liner arrived in New York and got stuck here due to the outbreak of war in Europe, in December 1941, after the US entered the war, the liner was requisitioned by the American government, and the liner was re-equipped for military transport. In the midst of work in February 1942, a fire broke out on the ship, 1 person died, and with itnormandie.
Main rivalnormandiein the second half of the 30s became an EnglishwomanQueen Mary(1936, 81,237 tons) of the new combined company Cunard White Star. 
The length of the liner was 311 meters
The liner survived the Second World War and after the war in 1949-1967 continued to work on the Southampton-New York line; for 15 whole years this ship kept, not without difficulty, taken fromnormandieAtlantic Blue Ribbon. In 1967Queen Mary was assigned to the California port of Long Beach, where it still serves as a hotel.
(Near Queen MaryB-427 is located, a former submarine of the Pacific Fleet of the USSR, now a museum ship)
In 1940, a sister was launched into the water Queen Mary - liner queen elizabeth(83,673 tons), the largest passenger liner of the 20th century. From 1946 to 1968, this ship sailed on the Southampton-Cherbourg-New York line, then it was sold to Hong Kong for rework; in January 1972, in the same place in Hong Kong, this ship burned down.
queen elizabeth
Europe took a long time to recover from the consequences of the Second World War, so the first post-war giant liner was an American - a shipUnited States 1952 , 53,329 tons. The American liner became the last owner of the Blue Ribbon of the Atlantic and held it until her retirement in 1969.
In 1969 United Stateswas laid up in Philadelphia and has been standing - or rather, rotting - there for 46 years.
By the end of the 50s, transatlantic passenger navigation revived again - in 1957 and 1958 more than 2 million passengers crossed the North Atlantic on a ship (and the same number crossed the ocean by air). 15 years after the end of the war, the Europeans again began to build giant ships. France resigned in 1958Ile de Franceand set about creating a replacement for it - in 1961 the liner was launchedFrance(66,343 tons), designed to operate on the Havre-Southampton-New York line. 
The British company "Peninsula and Orient" in the early 60s commissioned two new giant liners designed to work on the Southampton - Suez Canal line (but after June 1967 they sailed through South Africa) - Australia; those were linersOriana(41,910 tons) and Canberra(45,270 tons). Both ships served the passenger line until 1973, and then were redesigned as cruise ships.
Oriana
Canberra
In the 1960s, Italy returned to the already extinct race of giant liners - in 1963, it launched the linerRaffaello(45,933 tons), a year later - a liner Michelangelo(45,911 tons). Both sisters worked on the Genoa-New York line.
Raffaello
Michelangelo
By the mid-60s, 8 giant liners continued to sail on ocean passenger lines - their maximum number after the 1930s; 6 out of 8 giant liners served the European-North American route, 2 - the European-Australian. But such a mode of transport as an ocean liner was already living out its last years: in 1961, 750 thousand passengers crossed the North Atlantic by water, and 2 million by air, by 1964 the share of ships in the transatlantic passenger traffic had decreased to 17% (in 1957 it was 50%) , and by 1970 it dropped to 4%. One by one, shipping companies began to decommission their liners on passenger lines, and the lines themselves were closed - in 1969 the line was removedUnited States, in 1974 - France(was sold to Norway and sent to work on cruises), in 1975 the Italians finished their workRaffaello and Michelangelo(after many ordeals they were sent for scrap).
And this very "epoch of decay" in 1969 on the Southampton-New York line went to work the last giant passenger liner of the twentieth century - an Englishwomanqueen elizabeth 2(69,053 registered tons), which combined work on the passenger line with cruise activities. By the mid-70s, the only competitors of this liner on the North Atlantic route were the Soviet medium liners Alexander Pushkin and Mikhail Lermontov, and the Polish liner Stefan Batory, but in the next decade these rivals were gone.
Passenger linerqueen elizabeth 2entered the 21st century in splendid isolation.
queen elizabeth 2She was "retired" in 2008.
THE FIRST RUSSIAN STEAMSHIP
In 1815, the first steamship was built in Russia. This significant event for domestic shipping took place in St. Petersburg at the Berd plant. The Scot Charles Byrd arrived in Russia in 1786. At first, he worked as an assistant to Carl Gascoigne, also a visiting specialist in Petrozavodsk at the Alexander Cannon and Foundry. Later in 1792, together with his father-in-law, another Scot, Morgan organized a partnership. One of the enterprises of the partnership was a foundry and mechanical plant, later called the Byrd plant.
At that time, the monopoly on the production of steamships was given by Alexander I to Robert Fulton, who was the inventor of the steam engine. But since for 3 years Fulton did not build a single steamboat on the rivers of Russia, the privilege to build passed to Charles Byrd.
The Scot took the matter seriously, and already in 1815 in St. Petersburg, the first Russian steamship, called the Elizabeth, was built at the Byrd factory. The ship, called in the English manner "pyroscaphe" or "steamboat" became the ancestor of Russian steamships. As an engine on the "Elizabeth" they used Watt's balancing steam engine, the power of which was 4 horsepower, and the shaft speed was forty revolutions per minute. 6-bladed side wheels 120 cm wide and 240 cm in diameter were installed on the steamer. The length of the “Elizabeth” was 183 cm, the width was 457, and the ship’s draft was 61 cm. The steam boiler for one furnace worked on wood, a chimney came from it made of brick, which was later replaced with metal. Such a pipe could serve as the basis for a sail, its height was 7.62 m. The Elizabeth could reach speeds of up to 5.8 knots (almost 11 km / h).
The first time the steamer "Elizaveta" was tested on the pond Tauride garden and showed good speed there. Subsequently, Charles Byrd continued to promote his invention. For example, he invited St. Petersburg officials for a boat trip. During the trip along the Neva, the guests were entertained and treated, but, in addition, the route included a visit to the plant.
The first regular flight of the steam boat "Elizaveta" from St. Petersburg to Kronstadt departed on November 3, 1815. The road there took 3 hours 15 minutes, back due to bad weather - just over 5 hours. There were thirteen passengers on board. In the future, "Elizabeth" began to regularly walk along the Neva and the Gulf of Finland, and with the light hand of P.I. Rikord, the English name "steamboat" was replaced by the Russian "steamboat". Rikord was one of the first to draw up a detailed description of the first Russian steamer, the Elizaveta. Thanks to the success of his invention, Charles Bird received several large government orders and created his own shipping company. New steamships carried both cargo and passengers.
http://www.palundra.ru/info/public/25/
THE FIRST STEAMSHIPS
The beginning of the use of steam engines "on the water" was 1707, when the French physicist Denis Papin designed the first boat with a steam engine and paddle wheels. Presumably, after a successful test, it was broken by boaters who were afraid of competition. After 30 years, the Englishman Jonathan Hulls invented the steam tug. The experiment ended unsuccessfully: the engine turned out to be heavy and the tugboat sank.
In 1802, the Scotsman William Symington demonstrated the steamship Charlotte Dundas. The widespread use of steam engines on ships began in 1807 with the voyages of the Claremont passenger steamer, built by the American Robert Fulton. From the 1790s, Fulton took up the problem of using steam to propel ships. In 1809, Fulton patented the Clermont design and went down in history as the inventor of the steamboat. Newspapers reported that many boatmen turned a blind eye in horror as the "Fulton monster", belching fire and smoke, moved along the Hudson against the wind and current.
Already ten or fifteen years after the invention of R. Fulton, steamships seriously pressed sailing ships. In 1813, two factories for the production of steam engines began operating in Pittsburgh, USA. A year later, 20 steamboats were assigned to the port of New Orleans, and in 1835 there were already 1,200 steamboats operating on the Mississippi and its tributaries.
By 1815 in England on the river. Clyde (Glasgow) already operated 10 steamers and seven or eight on the river. Thames. In the same year, the first sea steamer "Argyle" was built, which completed the passage from Glasgow to London. In 1816, the steamer "Majestic" made the first trips to Brighton-Havre and Dover-Calais, after which regular sea steam lines began to open between Great Britain, Ireland, France and Holland.
In 1813, Fulton turned to the Russian government with a request to grant him the privilege to build the steamboat he invented and use it on the rivers Russian Empire. However, Fulton did not create steamships in Russia. In 1815 he died, and in 1816 the privilege granted to him was annulled.
The beginning of the 19th century in Russia is also marked by the construction of the first ships with steam engines. In 1815, the owner of a mechanical foundry in St. Petersburg, Karl Byrd, built the first paddle steamer "Elizaveta". A factory-made Watt steam engine with a capacity of 4 liters was installed on a wooden "tikhvinka". With. and a steam boiler that powered the side wheels. The car did 40 revolutions per minute. After successful tests on the Neva and the transition from St. Petersburg to Kronstadt, the steamer made voyages on the St. Petersburg-Kronstadt line. The steamer traveled this route in 5 hours and 20 minutes. average speed about 9.3 km/h.
The construction of steamships on other rivers of Russia also began. The first steamship in the Volga basin appeared on the Kama in June 1816. It was built by the Pozhvinsky iron foundry and ironworks of V. A. Vsevolozhsky. With a capacity of 24 liters. s., the ship made several experimental trips along the Kama. By the 20s of the 19th century, there was only one steamboat in the Black Sea basin - Vesuvius, not counting the primitive steamboat "Pchelka" with a capacity of 25 hp, built by Kiev serfs, which two years later was carried through the rapids to Kherson, from where he made flights to Nikolaev.
THE BEGINNING OF DOMESTIC SHIPBUILDING
Despite all the unfavorable conditions that hinder the implementation and dissemination of Russian inventions, the works of Russian innovators back in the 18th century. in the field of construction of steam engines and metallurgy contributed to the introduction of steam and iron shipbuilding in Russia. Already in 1815, the first Russian steamship "Elizaveta", a car, made flights between St. Petersburg and Kronstadt; which has a capacity of 16 liters. With. was made in St. Petersburg at the Byrd factory. In 1817, the first Volga-Kama steamships and machines for them were built in the Urals. In 1817, the Izhora Admiralty Shipyard built the Skory steamship, 18 m long, with a 30-hp engine. With. and in 1825 the steamer "Provorny" with an 80 hp engine. With. Vesuvius (1820) and the 14-gun steamer Meteor (1825) were the first steamships on the Black Sea.
Based on the experience of building small steamships that served for port needs and transportation of goods, in 1832 the military steamship "Hercules" was built. It was equipped with the world's first improved steamship machine without a balancer, built by Russian innovative technicians. Such machines appeared in England only at the end of the thirties of the XIX century. In 1836, the first wheeled 28-gun steamboat-frigate "Bogatyr" was built with a displacement of 1340 tons, with a machine with a capacity of 240 liters. with., manufactured at the Izhora plant.
