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SHIP , the generic name (O. Eng. scip, Ger. Schiff, Gr. o ca4os, from the See also:root skap, cf. "See also:scoop ") for the invention by which See also:man has contrived to convey himself and his goods upon See also:water. The derivation of the word points to the fundamental conception by which, when realized, a means of flotation was obtained See also:superior to the raft, which we may consider the earliest and most elementary See also:form of See also:vessel. The See also:trunk of a See also:tree hollowed out, whether by See also:fire, or by such See also:primitive tools as are fashioned and used with singular See also:patience and dexterity by See also:savage races, represents the first effort to obtain flotation depending on some-thing other than the See also:mere buoyancy of the material. The poets, with characteristic insight, have fastened upon these points. See also:Homer's See also:hero Ulysses is instructed to make a raft with a raised See also:platform upon it, and selects trees " withered of old, exceeding dry, that might See also:float 'lightly for him " (Od. v. 240). See also:Virgil, glorifying the See also:dawn and See also:early progress of the arts, tells us, " See also:Rivers then first the hollowed alders See also:felt " (Georg. i. 136, ii. 451). See also:Alder is a heavy See also:wood and not See also:fit for rafts. But to make for the first See also:time a dug-out See also:canoe of alder, and so to secure its flotation, would be a See also:triumph of primitive See also:art, and thus the poet's expression represents a See also:great step in the See also:history of the invention of the ship. Primitive efforts in this direction may be classified in the following See also:order: (i) rafts—floating logs, or bundles of See also:brush-wood or reeds or rushes tied together; (2) dug-outs—hollowed trees; (3) canoes of bark, or of skin stretched on framework or inflated skins (balsas); (4) canoes or boats of pieces of wood stitched or fastened together with sinews or thongs or See also:fibres of See also:vegetable growth; (5) vessels of planks, stitched or bolted together with inserted ribs and decks or See also:half decks; (6) vessels of which the framework is first set up, and the planking of the See also:hull nailed on to them subsequently. All these in their primitive forms have survived, in various parts of the See also:world, with different modifications marking progress in See also:civilization. See also:Climatic influences and racial peculiarities have imparted to them their specific characteristics, and, combined with the available choice of materials, have determined the particular type in use in each locality. Thus on the See also:north-See also:west See also:coast of See also:Australia is found the single See also:log of buoyant wood, not hollowed out but pointed at the ends. Rafts of reeds are also found on the Australian coast. In New See also:Guinea catamarans of three or more logs lashed together with rattan are the commonest vessel, and similar forms appear on the See also:Madras coast and throughout the See also:Asiatic islands. On the coast of See also:Peru rafts made of a very buoyant wood are in use, some of them as much as 70 ft. See also:long and 20 ft. broad; these are navigated with a See also:sail, and, by an ingenious See also:system of centre boards, let down either fore or aft between the lines of the timbers, can be made to tack. The See also:sea-going raft is often fitted with a platform so as to protect the goods and persons carried from the See also:wash of the sea. Upright timbers fixed upon the logs forming the raft support a See also:kind of See also:deck, which in turn is itself fenced in and covered over? Thus the See also:idea of a deck, and that of See also:side planking to raise the See also:freight above the level of the water and to See also:save it from getting wet, are among the earliest typical expedients which have found their development in the progress of the art of See also:shipbuilding.. I. HISTORY TO THE INVENTION OF STEAMSHIPS
Whether the observation of shells floating on the water, or of split reeds, or, as some have fancied, the See also:nautilus, first suggested the idea of hollowing out the trunk of a tree, the practice ascends to a very remote antiquity in the history of man. Dug-out canoes of a single tree have been found associated with See also:objects of the See also: The Madras surf boats are perhaps the most See also:familiar example of this type, which, however, is found in the Straits of See also:Magellan and in Central See also:Africa (on the See also:Victoria See also:Nyanza), in the See also:Malay See also:Archipelago and in many islands of the Pacific. Some of these canoes show a great advance in the art of construction, being , The raft of Ulysses described in Homer (Od. v.) must have been of this class.built up of pieces fitted together with ridges on their inner sides, through which the fastenings are passed.2 These canoes have the See also:advantage of See also:elasticity, which gives them ease in a seaway, and a See also:comparative See also:immunity where See also:ordinary boats would not hold together. In these cases the See also:body of the canoe is constructed first and built to the shape intended, the ribs being inserted afterwards, and attached to the sides, and having for their See also:main See also:function the uniting of the deck and cross-pieces with the body of the canoe. Vessels thus stitched together, and with an inserted framework, have from a very early time been constructed in the Eastern seas far exceeding in See also:size anything that would be called a canoe, and in some cases attaining to 200 tons burthen. From the stitched form the next step onwards is to fasten the materials out of which the hull is built up by pegs or treenails; and of this system early types appear among the Polynesian islands and in the See also:Nile boats described by See also:Herodotus 96), the prototype of the See also:modern " nuggur." The raft of Ulysses described by Homer presents the same detail of construction. It is remarkable that some of the early types of boats belonging to the North Sea See also:present an intermediate method, in which the planks are fastened together with pins or treenails, but are attached to the ribs by cords passing through holes in the ribs and corresponding holes bored through ledges cut on the inner side of each See also:plank. We thus arrive, in tracing'primitive efforts in the art of ship construction, at a See also:stage from which the transition to the practice of setting up the framework of ribs fastened to a timber See also:keel laid lengthwise, and subsequently attaching the planking of the hull, was comparatively See also:simple. The keel of the modern vessel may be said to have its prototype in the single log which was the See also:parent of the dug-out. The side planking of the vessel, which has an earlier parentage than the ribs, may be traced to the See also:attempt to fence in the platforms upon the sea-going rafts, and to the planks fastened on to the sides of dugout canoes so as to give them a raised gunwale .3 The ribs of the modern vessel are the development of the framework originally inserted after the completion of the hull of the canoe or built-up See also:boat, but with the difference that they are now See also:prior in the order of fabrication. In a word, the See also:skeleton of the hull is now first built up, and the skin, &c., adjusted to it; whereas in the earlier types of wooden vessels the outside hull was first constructed, and the ribs, &c., added afterwards .4 It is noticeable that the invention of the outrigger and See also:weather platform, the use of which is at the present time distributed from the Andaman Islands eastward throughout the whole of the See also:South Pacific, has never made its way into the Western seas. It is See also:strange that See also:Egyptian enterprise, which seems at a very early See also:period to have penetrated eastward down the Red Sea and See also:round the coasts of See also:Arabia towards See also:India, should not have brought it to the Nile, and that the Phoenicians, who, if the See also:legend of their See also:migration from the shores of the See also:Persian Gulf to the coast of See also:Canaan be accepted, would in all See also:probability, in their maritime expeditions, have had opportunities of seeing it, did not introduce it to the Mediterranean. That they did not do so, if they saw it at all, would tend to prove that even in that remote antiquity both nations possessed the art of constructing vessels of a type superior to the outrigger canoes, both in See also:speed and in carrying See also:power. The earliest representations that we have as yet of Egyptian vessels carry us back, according to the best authorities, to a period little See also:short of 3000 years before See also:Christ. Some of these are of considerable size, as is shown by the number of rowers, and by ,the See also:cargo consisting in many cases of See also:cattle. The earliest of all presents us with the See also:peculiar See also:mast of two pieces, stepped apart but joined at the See also:top. In some the masts are shown lowered 2 See See also:Captain See also:Cook's See also:account of the Friendly Islands, La Perouse on See also:Easter See also:Island, and See also:Williams on the See also:Fiji Islands. 3 Compare the planks upon the Egyptian See also:war galleys, added so as to protect the rowers from the missiles of the enemy. It is curious that these two methods should still survive, and be in use, in the construction of See also:light racing 8-oared boats. Some of these are built ribs first, and skin laid on afterwards; others, skin laid on moulds and framework first, and ribs inserted in' the See also:shell when turned over. and laid along a high spar-deck. The larger vessels show on one side as many as twenty-one or twenty-two and in one See also:case twenty-six oars, besides four or five steering. , They show considerable See also:camber, the two ends rising in a curved See also:line which in some instances ends in a point, and in others is curved back and over at the stern and terminates in an ornamentation, very frequently of the familiar See also:lotus See also:pattern. At the See also:bow the See also:stem is sometimes seen to rise perpendicularly, forming a kind of forecastle, sometimes to See also:curve backward and then forward again like a See also:neck, which is often finished into a figure-See also:head representing some See also:bird or beast or Egyptian See also:god. On the war galleys there is frequently shown a projecting bow with a See also:metal head attached, but well above the water. This, though no doubt' used as a See also:ram, is not identical with the See also:beak a fleur d'eau, which we shall meet with in Phoenician and See also:Greek galleys. It is more on a level with the proembolion of the latter. The impression as regards the build created by the drawings of the larger galleys is that of a long and somewhat See also:wall-sided vessel with the stem and stern highly raised. The tendencies of the vessel to " hog," or rise amidships, owing to the great weight fore and aft unsupported by the water, is corrected by a strong See also:truss passing from stern to stern over crutches. The See also:double mast of the earlier period seems in time to have given place to the single mast furnished with bars or rollers at the upper See also:part, for the purpose apparently of raising or lowering the yard according to the amount of sail required. The sail in some of the galleys is shown with a bottom as well as a top yard. In the war galleys during See also:action it is shown rolled up like a See also:curtain with loops to the upper yard. The steering was effected by paddles, sometimes four or five in number, but generally one or two fastened either at the end of the stern or at the side, and above attached to an upright See also:post in such a way as to allow the See also:paddle to be worked by a tiller. There are many remarkable details to be observed in the Egyptian vessels figured in Duemichen's See also:Fleet of an Egyptian See also:Queen, and in See also:Lepsius's Den/mailer. The Egyptian ship, as represented from time to time in the period between 3000 and See also:rood B.C., presents to us a ship proper as distinct from a large canoe or boat. It is the earliest ship of which we have See also:cognizance. But there is a noticeable fact in connexion with See also:Egypt which we gather from the See also:tomb paintings to which we owe our knowledge of the Egyptian ship. It is evident from these records that there were at that same early period, inhabiting the littoral of the Mediterranean, nations who were possessed of sea-going vessels which visited the coasts of Egypt for See also:plunder as well as for See also:commerce, and that sea-fights were even then not uncommon. Occasionally the See also:combination of these peoples for the purpose of attack assumed serious proportions, and we find the Pharaohs recording See also:naval victories over combined Dardanians, Teucrians and Mysians, and, if we accept the explanations of Egyptologists, over See also:Pelasgians, Daunians, Oscans and Sicilians. The Greeks, as they became familiar with the sea, followed in the same track. The legend of See also:Helen in Egypt, as well as the numerous references in the Odyssey, point not only to the attraction that Egypt had for the maritime peoples, but also to long-established habits of See also:navigation and the See also:possession of an art of shipbuilding equal to the construction of sea-going See also:craft capable of carrying a large number of men and a considerable cargo besides. But the development of the ship and of the art of navigation clearly belongs to the Phoenicians. It is tantalizing to find that the earliest and almost the only See also:evidence that we have of this development is to be gathered from See also:Assyrian representations. The Assyrians were an inland See also:people, and the navigation with which they were familiar was that of the two great rivers, See also:Tigris and See also:Euphrates. After the See also:conquest of See also:Phoenicia, they had knowledge of Phoenician naval enterprise, and accordingly we find the war See also:galley of the Phoenicians represented on the walls of the palaces unearthed by See also:Layard and his followers in Assyrian See also:discovery. But the date does not carry us to an earlier period than boo B.C. The vessel represented is a bireme war galley which is "aphract," that is to say, has the upper tier ofrowers unprotected and exposed to view. The apertures for the See also:lower oars are of the same See also:character as those which appear in Egyptian See also:ships of a much earlier date, but without oars. The artist has shown the characteristic details, though some-what conventionally. The See also:fish-like snout of the beak, the line of the parodus or outside gangway, the wickerwork See also:cancelli,' the See also:shields ranged in order along the side of the See also:bulwark, and ,the. heads of a typical See also:crew on deck (the rpwpeus looking out in front in the forecastle, an Erc%rr7s, two chiefs by the mast, and, aft, the KEAEU0T17S and KvjEpvi7T17s). The supporting timbers of the deck are just indicated. The mast and yard and fore and back stays, with the double steering paddle, See also:complete the picture. But, although there can be little doubt that the Phoenicians, after the Egyptians, led the way in the development of the shipwright's art, yet the See also:information that we can gather concerning them is so meagre that we must go to other See also:sources for the description of the ancient ship. The Phoenicians at an early date constructed See also:merchant vessels capable of carrying large cargoes, and of traversing the length and breadth of the Mediterranean, perhaps even of trading to the far See also:Cassiterides and of circumnavigating Africa. They in all probability (if not the Egyptians) invented the bireme and trireme, solving the problem by which increased See also:oar-power and consequently speed could be obtained without any great increase in the length of the vessel. It is, however, to the Greeks that we must turn for any detailed account of these inventions. The Homeric vessels were aphract and not even decked throughout their entire length. They carried crews averaging from fifty to a See also:hundred and twenty men, who, we are expressly told by See also:Thucydides, all took part in the labour of See also:rowing, except perhaps the chiefs. The galleys do not appear to have been armed as yet with, the beak, though later poets attribute this feature to the Homeric vessel. But they had great poles used in fighting, and the See also:term employed to describe these (vauµaxa) implies a knowledge of naval warfare. The See also:general characteristics are indicated by the epithets in use throughout the Iliad and the Odyssey. The Homeric ship is See also:sharp (See also:Boil) and See also:swift ((.''eKema); it is hollow (KOt)r7, yXacvpi7, µeyaK? rr7s), See also:black, See also:vermilion-cheeked (µLATOrisp los), dark-prowed (Kvavorpcppos), curved (KOpwvis, aµ¢eEAu r ), well-timbered (Eiio r€Xµos), with many thwarts (iroXvj'vyos, EKar4vyos). The stems and sterns are high, upraised, and resemble the horns of oxen (opeoKpalpac). They present in the history of the See also:shipping of the Mediterranean a type parallel with that of the Vikings' vessels of the North Sea. On the vases, the earliest of which may date between 700 and 600 B.C., we find the bireme with the bows finished off into a beak shaped as the head of some sea See also:monster, and an elevated forecastle with a bulwark evidently as a means of See also:defence. The craft portrayed in some instances are evidently pirate vessels, and exhibit a striking contrast to the trader, the broad ship of See also:burden (4opris evpeia), which they are overhauling. The trireme, which was See also:developed from the bireme and became the Greek ship of war (the long ship, vaiis µwcpa, navis longa, See also:par excellence), See also:dates, so far as Greek use is concerned, from about 700 B.C. according to Thucydides, having been first built at See also:Corinth. The earliest sea-fight that the same author knew of he places at a somewhat later date—664 Inc., more than ten centuries later than some of those portrayed in the Egyptian tomb paintings. The trireme was the war ship of See also:Athens during her See also:prime, and, though succeeded and in a measure superseded by the larger rates,--quadrireme, quinquereme, and so on, up to vessels of sixteen See also:banks of oars (inhabilis grope magnitudinis),—yet, as containing in itself the principle of which the larger rates merely exhibited an expansion, a difference in degree and not in kind, has, ever since the revival of letters, concentrated upon itself the See also:attention of the learned who were interested in such matters. The literature connected with the question of ancient ships, if collected, wo1''d fill a small library, and the greater part of it turns upon the construction of the trireme and the disposition of the rowers therein. 1 See See also:Rawlinson, Ancient Monarchies, vol. ii. p. 176. During the 19th See also:century a fresh light was thrown upon the subject by the discovery (1834) at the See also:Peiraeus of some records of the Athenian dockyard superintendents, belonging to several years between 373–324 B.C. These were published and admirably elucidated by Boeckh. Further researches were carried out by his See also:pupil Dr Graser. Since the publication of Graser's notable See also:work, De re navali veterum, the subject has been copiously treated by A. Cartauld, Breusing, C. Torr and others. The references to ancient writers, and the illustrations from vases, coins, &c., have been multiplied, and, though the vexed question of the seating of the rowers cannot be regarded as settled, yet, notwithstanding some objections raised, it seems probable that something like Graser's See also:solution, with modifications, will eventually hold the See also: In the aphract vessels these side plankings were absent and the upper tier of rowers was exposed to view from the side. Both classes of vessels had upper and lower decks, but the aphract class carried their decks on a lower level than the cataphract. The system of side planking with a view to the See also:protection of the rowers dates from a very early period, as may be seen in some of the Egyptian representations, but among the Greeks it does not seem to have been adopted till long after the Homeric period. The Thasians are credited with the introduction of the improvement. In our account of the trireme, both as regards the disposition of the rowers and the construction of the vessel, we have mainly, though not entirely, followed Graser. Any such See also:scheme must at the best be hypothetical, based upon inference from the ancient texts, or upon necessities of construction, and in every case plenty of See also:room will be See also:left for the critic, along with the Horatian invitation, " si quid novisti rectius istis, Candidus imperti." In the ancient vessels the See also:object of arranging the oars in banks was to economize See also:horizontal space, and to obtain an increase in the number of oars without having to lengthen the vessel. It has been reasonably inferred from a passage in See also:Vitruvius 1 that the " interscalmium," or space horizontally measured from oar to oar, was 2 cubits. This is exactly See also:borne out by the proportions of an See also:Attic aphract trireme, as shown on a fragment of a bas-See also:relief found in the See also:Acropolis. The rowers in all classes of banked vessels sat in the same See also:vertical See also:plane, and seats ascending in a line obliquely towards the stern of the vessel. Thus in a trireme the thranite, or oarsman of the highest bank, was nearest the stern of the set of three to which he belonged. Next behind him and somewhat below him sat his zygite, or oarsman of the second bank; and next below and behind the zygite sat the thalamite, or oarsman of the lowest bank. The vertical distance between these seats was probably 2 ft., the horizontal distance about t ft. The horizontal distance, it is. well to repeat, between each seat in the same bank was 3 ft. (the seat itself about 9 in. broad). Each man had a resting place for his feet, somewhat wide apart, fixed to the See also:bench of the man on the See also:row next below and in front of him. In rowing, the upper See also:hand, as is shown in most of the representations which remain, was held with the See also:palm turned inwards towards the body. This is accounted for by the See also:angle at which the oar was worked. The lowest See also:rank used the shortest oars, and the difference of the length of the oars on See also:board was caused by the curvature of the ship's side. Thus, looked at from within, the rowers amidship seemed to be using the longest oars, but outside the vessel, as we are expressly told, all the oar-See also:blades of the same bank took the water in the same longitudinal line. The lowest or thalamite oar-ports were 3 ft., the zygite 4; ft., the thranite 51 ft. above the water. Each oar-See also:port was protected by an ascoma or See also:leather bag, which fitted over the oar, closing the See also:aperture against the wash of the sea without impeding the action of the oar. The oar was attached by a 1 In Vitruvius I, 2, 4 the See also:MSS. give DIPHECIACA (Or DIFECIACA), which is an unknown word. Many of the See also:editions read AIIIHXAIKH, an emendation which commends itself as consonant with probability, though in itself conjectural. (We may suggest the See also:reading AIHHXIAKA, by which the See also:scribe's See also:error would be reduced to EC for X.)thong (rpoa6s, porwr, p) to a thowl (,, aXp6s). The port-hole was probably See also:oval in shape (the Egyptian and Assyrian pictures show an oblong). We know that it was large enough for a man's head to be thrust through it. The benches on which the rowers sat ran from the vessel's side to timbers, which, inclined at an angle of about 64° towards the ship's stern, reached from the lower to the upper deck. These timbers were, according to Graser, called the diaphragmata. In the trireme each diaphragma supported three, in the quinquereme five, in the octireme eight, and in the famous tesseraconteres See also:forty seats of rowers, who all belonged to the same " complexus," though each to a different bank. In effect, when once the principle of construction had been established in the trireme, the increase to larger rates was effected, so far as the See also:motive power was concerned, by lengthening the diaphragmata upwards, while the increase in the length of the vessel gave a greater number of rowers to each bank. The upper tiers of oarsmen exceeded in number those below, as the contraction of the sides of the vessel left less available space towards the bows. Of the length of the oars in the trireme we have an indication in the fact that the length of supernumerary oars (replsetp) rowed from the gangway above the thranites, and, therefore, probably slightly exceeding the thranitic oars in length, is given in the Attic tables as 14 ft. 3 in. The thranites were probably about 14 ft. The zygite, in proportion to the measurement, must have been See also:Pal, the thalamite 71 ft. long. Comparing modern oars with these, we find that the longest oars used in the See also:British See also:navy are 18 ft. The university boat See also:race has been rowed with oars 12 ft. 6 in. The proportion of the See also:loom inboard was about one third, but the oars of the rowers amidship must have been somewhat longer inboard. The size of the loom inboard preserved the necessary See also:equilibrium. The long oars, of the larger rates were weighted inboard with See also:lead. Thus the topmost oars of the tesseraconteres, of which the length is given as 53 ft., were exactly balanced at the See also:rowlock. (See OAR.) Let us now consider the construction of the vessel itself. In the cataphract class the lower deck was I ft. above the water-line. Below this deck was the hold, which contained a certain amount of See also:ballast, and through an aperture in this deck the buckets for baling were worked, entailing a labour which was See also:constant and severe on board an ancient ship at sea. The keel (r Oats) appears to have had considerable camber. Under it was a strong false keel ()Awopa), very necessary for vessels that were constantly See also:drawn up on the See also:shore. Above the keel was the kelson, under which the ribs were fastened. These were so arranged as to give the necessary intervals for the oar-ports above. Above the kelson See also:lay the upper false keel, into which the mast was stepped. The stem (ereipa) See also:rose from the keel at an angle of about 70 to the water. Within was an See also:apron (¢6Xitgs), which was a strong piece of timber curved and fitting to the end of the keel and beginning of the stern-post and firmly bolted into both, thus giving solidity to the bows, which had to bear the beak and sustain the See also:shock of ramming. The stem was carried upwards and curved generally backwards towards the forecastle and rising above it, and then curving forwards again terminated in an See also:ornament which was called the acrostolion. The stern-post was carried up at a similar angle to the bow, and, rising high over the See also:poop, was curved round into an ornament which was called " aplustre ' (a. Xaarov). But, inasmuch as the steering was effected by means of two rudders (rr~Saxta), one on either side, there was no need to carry out the stern into a See also:rudder post as with modern ships, and the stern was left, therefore, much more See also:free, an advantage in respect of the manceuvring of the ancient Greek man-of-war, the weapon being the beak or rostrum, and the power of turning quickly being of the highest importance. Behind the " aplustre," and curving backwards, was the "cheniscus " (xnvtrrcos), or See also:goose-head, symbolizing the floating See also:powers of the vessel. After the ribs had been set up and covered in on both sides with planking, the sides of the vessel were further strengthened by waling-pieces carried from stern to stem and See also:meeting in front of the stern-post. These were further strengthened with additional balks of timber, the lower waling-pieces meeting about the water-level and prolonged into a sharp three-toothed See also:spur, of which the See also:middle tooth was the longest. This was covered with hard metal (generally See also:bronze) and formed the beak. The whole structure of the beak projected about to ft. beyond the stern-post. Above it, but projecting much less beyond the stern-post, was the " proembolion " (rpoep,36atov), or second beak, in which the prolongation of the upper set of waling-pieces met. This was generally fashioned into the figure of a ram's head, also covered with metal; and sometimes again between this and the beak the second line of waling-pieces met in another metal See also:boss called the rpoep9oxts. These bosses, when a vessel was rammed, completed the work of destruction begun by the sharp beak at the water-level, giving a racking See also:blow which caused it to See also:heel over and so eased it off the beak, and releasing the latter before the weight of the sinking vessel could come upon it. At the point where the prolongation of the second and third waling-pieces began to converge inwards towards the stem on either side of the vessel stout catheads (irwrtics) projected, which were of use, not only as supports for the anchors, but also as a means of inflicting damage on the upper part of an enemy's vessel, while protecting the side gangways of its own and the banks of oars that worked under them. The catheads were strengthened by strong balks of timber, which were firmly 864 bolted to them under either extremity and both within and without, and ran to the ship's side. Above the curvature of the upper waling-pieces into the 7rpo€p86X LOV were the cheeks of the vessel, generally painted red, and in the upper part of these the eyes (oitBaXµol), answering to our hawse holes, through which ran the cables for the anchors. On either side the trireme, at about the level of the thranitic benches, projected a gangway (7rapocos) resting against the ribs of the vessel. This See also:projection was of about 18 to 24 in., which gave a space, increased to about 3 ft. by the inward curve of the prolongation of the ribs to form supports for the deck, for a passage on either side of the vessel. This gangway was planked in along its See also:outer side so as to afford protection to the See also:seamen and See also:marines, who could pass along its whole length without impeding the rowers. Here, in action, the sailors were posted as light-armed troops, and when needed could use the long supernumerary oars (7rEptvew) mentioned above. The ribs, prolonged upwards upon an inward curve, supported on their upper ends the cross beams (oTp(,JT7)pES) which tied the two sides of the vessel together and carried the deck. In the cataphract class these took the place of the thwarts (;-iya) which in the earlier vessels, at a lower level, yoked together the sides of the vessel, and formed also benches for the rowers to sit on, from which the latter had their name (fuyiraL), having been the uppermost tier of oarsmen in the bireme; while those who sat behind and below them in the hold of the vessel were called OaaaµiraL or OaXaµaKss (from O Aauos). In the trireme the additional upper tier was named from the elevated bench (Bpavos) on which they were placed (epaviraL). On the deck were stationed the marines (7rLSaraL), fighting men in heavy See also:armour, few in number in the Attic trireme in its palmy days, but many in the See also:Roman quinquereme, when the ramming See also:tactics were antiquated, and wherever, as in the great battles in the See also:harbour at See also:Syracuse, See also:land tactics took the place of the maritime skill which gave victory to the ram in the open sea. The space occupied by the rowers was termed EyKL07rov. Beyond this, fore and aft, were the 7rapE ELpkataL, or parts outside the rowers. These occupied about 12 ft. of the bows and 15 ft. in the stern. In the fore part was the forecastle, with its raised deck. In the stern the decks (rKpLa) rose in two or three gradations, upon which was a kind of deck-See also:house for the captain and a seat for the steerer (Ku$Epp, rfis), who steered by means of See also:ropes attached to the tillers fixed in the upper part of the paddles, which, in later times at least, ran over wheels (rpoxLaiat), giving him the power of changing his vessel's course with great rapidity. Behind the deck-house rose the flagstaff, on which was hoisted the See also:pennant, and from which probably signals were given in the case of an admiral's ship. On either side of the deck ran a See also:balustrade (cancelli), which was covered for protection during action with felt (cilicium, 7rapappbuara rpixtva) or canvas (7r. XEVKa). Above was stretched a strong awning of hide (KarciAnua), as a protection against grappling irons and missiles of all kinds. In Roman vessels towers were carried up fore and aft from which darts could be showered on the enemy s deck; the heavy See also:corvus or boarding See also:bridge swung suspended by a See also:chain near the bows; and the ponderous SeXoIs hung at the ends of the yards ready to fall on a vessel that came near enough alongside. But these were later inventions and for larger ships. The Attic trireme was built light for speed and for ramming purposes. The dimensions of some dry docks discovered at Munychium and Zea, " ship-houses " as the ancients called them, afford some indications as to limitations of length and breadth in the Attic ships that used them. The measurements indicate for these houses about 150 ft. in length and 20 ft. in breadth. We may infer, therefore, that the ships housed in them did not exceed 150 by 20 ft. But there must necessarily have been some spare room in the See also:dock houses, on either side and at both ends. Allowing 2 ft. on either side for passage room, and to ft. at either end, we should have room for a vessel of about 13o ft. in length including the beak, and of about i6 ft. See also:beam. Adopting the 2 cubit " interscalmium," the rowing space in the trireme (31 by 3) for the upper tier would equal 93 ft. Allowing 12 ft. for bows and 15 for stern and to ft. for beak, we have 130 ft. as the aggregate length of the war vessel of three banks of oars. This of course is conjectural, but we submit that it is a reasonable conjecture from the evidence which we possess. There was indeed every See also:reason for keeping the vessel as short as was compatible with the necessary requirements, and it is to be remembered that it was constantly being hauled up on shore for the See also:night and launched again in the See also:morning. As to the " interscalmium," it does not appear to exceed 3 ft. even in the largest boats now used in the royal navy. In the See also:Chinese See also:dragon boats, which are 73 ft. long and under 5 ft. beam, and have each 54 rowers or paddlers, it does not exceed 2 ft. 6 in. An oarsman whose feet are nearly on a level with his seat, as in a modern racing eight, requires more room for the See also:swing forward of the handle of his oar in the recovery, than a man whose feet See also:rest on a level well below that of his seat. It is not likely that the ancient oarsman swung forward more than See also:blue-jackets do now-a-days in a man-of-war's cutter. All the Attic triremes appear to have been built upon the same See also:model, and their See also:gear was interchangeable. The Athenians had a peculiar system of girding the ships with long cables (57ro1'd, ara), each trireme having two or more, which, passing through eyeholes in front of the stern-post, ran all round the vessel lengthwise immediately under the waling-pieces. They were fastened at the stern and tightened up with levers. These cables, by shrinking as soon as they were wet, tightened the whole fabric of[EARLY HISTORY the vessel, and in action, in all probability, relieved the hull from part of the shock of ramming, the See also:strain of which would be sustained by the waling-pieces convergent in the beaks. These rope-girdles are not to be confused with the See also:process of undergirding or frapping, such as is narrated of the vessel in which St See also:Paul was being carried to See also:Italy. The trireme appears to have had two masts. In action the Greeks did not use sails, and everything that could be lowered was stowed below. The mainmasts and larger sails were often left ashore if a conflict was expected. The crew of the Attic trireme consisted of from 200 to 225 men in all. Of these 170 were rowers—54 on the lower bank (thalamites), 54 on the middle bank (zygites), and 62 on the upper bank (thranites), —the upper oars being more numerous because of the contraction of the space available for the lower tiers near the bow and stern. Besides the rowers were about io marines (E7rLf3araL) and 20 seamen. The See also:officers were the trierarch and next to him ' the helmsman (ICOEpv$T7)S), who was the navigating officer of the trireme. The rowers descended into the seven-See also:foot space between the 3iaphragmata and took their places in See also:regular order, beginning with the thalamites. The See also:economy of space was such that, as See also:Cicero remarks, there was not room for one man more. The improvement made in the build of their vessels by the Corinthian and Syracusan shipwrights, by which the bows were so much strengthened that they were able to meet the Athenian attack stem on (apooi3oXii), caused a See also:change of tactics, and gave an impetus to the building of larger vessels—quadriremes and quinqueremes—in which increased oar-power was available for the propulsion of the heavier weights. In principle these vessels were only expansions of the trireme, so far as the disposition of the rowers was concerned, but the speed could not have increased in proportion to the weight, and hence arose the variety of contrivances which superseded the ramming tactics of the days of Phormio. In the century that succeeded the See also:close of the Peloponnesian War the See also:fashion of building big vessels became prevalent. We hear of various See also:numbers of banks of oars up to sixteen (EL:KaLSerilpois)—the big vessel of See also:Demetrius Poliorcetes. The famous tesseraconteres or forty-banked vessel of See also:Ptolemy Philopator, if it ever existed except in the See also:imagination of Callixenus, was in reality nothing more than a costly and ingenious See also:toy, and never of any practical use. The See also:story, however, of its construction indicates the perfection to which the shipwright's art had been carried among the ancients. The See also:Romans, who developed their naval power during the First Punic War, though it is clear from the treaty with See also:Carthage, 509 B.C., that they had had some maritime interests and adventurings before that great struggle began, were deficient in the art of naval construction. A Carthaginian quinquereme, which had drifted ashore, served them for a model, and with crews taught to row in a framework set up on dry land they manned a fleet which was launched in sixty days from the time that the trees were felled. Their first attempt was, as might have been expected, a failure. But they persevered, and the invention of the " corvus," by means of which boarding were vposed to ramming tactics, gave them under See also:Duilius (26o B.c.)'victory at Mylae, and eventually the command of the sea. From that time onwards they continued to build ships of many banks, and seem to have maintained their predilection for fighting at close quarters. The larger vessels with their " turres," or castles, fore and aft, deserved See also:Horace's description as " alta navium propugnacula." The " L corvus " and the " See also:dolphin " were ready in action to fall on the enemy's decks, and in See also:Caesar's See also:battle with the See also:Veneti off the coast of See also:Gaul the " falces," great spars with curved See also:steel heads like a sickle, mowed through the See also:rigging and let down the sails on which alone the foe depended for See also:movement. But the fashion of building big ships received a severe shock at the battle of See also:Actium (3i B.C.), when the light Liburnian " biremes," eluding the heavy missiles of the larger vessels, swept away their banks of oars, leaving them crippled and unable to move, till one by one they were burnt down to the water's edge and sank.' After this experience the Romans adopted the Liburnians as their See also:principal model, and though the building of vessels with many banks continued for some centuries, yet the Liburnian type was so far dominant that 'See also:Merivale, Hist. of Romans under the See also:Empire, c. 28. the name was used generically, just as the name of trireme had been used before, to signify a man-of-war, without reference to the size of vessel or the number of banks of oars. Meanwhile, with the See also:peace of the Mediterranean ensured, for piracy was kept in See also:abeyance by the imperial power, and with increased commercial activity, the building of large merchant vessels naturally followed. These were propelled by sails and not by oars, which, however, continued to furnish the principal motive power for the ship of war until the See also:necessity for increasing its carrying power began to make it too unwieldy for propulsion by rowing. The great See also:corn ships, which brought supplies from Egypt to the See also:capital, were, if we may take the vessel described by See also:Lucian as a typical instance, 120 cubits long by 30 broad and 29 deep. The ship in which St Paul and his companions were wrecked carried 276 souls besides cargo. Even larger vessels than these were constructed by the Romans for the transport of See also:marbles and great obelisks to Italy. These huge vessels carried three masts, with square sails, and on the main mast a topsail, which the corn ships from See also:Alexandria alone were allowed to keep set when coming into the See also:Italian port. All other merchant vessels were compelled to strike the supparum. But while the construction of large vessels for commercial purposes was thus developed, the policy of keeping the war-vessel light and handy for manoeuvring purposes prevailed, and, though vessels of three, four or even five banks were still built, the great See also:majority did not rise above two banks. In the war with the See also:Vandals (A.D. 440-470) we hear of ships of a single bank, with decks above the rowers. These, we are told, were of the type which at a later date were called Dromons (SpOpa ves) in allusion to their speedy qualities, a name which gradually superseded the Liburnian, as indicating a man-of-war. During the following centuries the Mediterranean was the See also:scene of constant naval activity. The rise of the Mussulman power, which by A.D. 825 had mastered See also:Crete and See also:Sicily, made the See also:maintenance of their fleet a See also:matter of first importance to the emperors of the See also:East, and as the Arab inroads became more threatening, and piracy more rife, so the necessity of improving their galleys as regards speed and armament became more and more pressing. It was during this period, and that very largely by the See also:Arabs, that a great advance was made in the employment of what we should See also:call See also:artillery. The use of Greek fire and of other detonating and combustible mixtures, launched by siphons or in the form of bombs thrown by hand or machinery, led to various devices by way of protective armour, such as leather or felt casing, or woollen stuffs soaked in See also:vinegar, and all such contrivances tended gradually to alter the character as well as the equipment of the war vessel. During the same period the rise and growth of the Venetian See also:republic See also:mark the entrance on the scene of a new seafaring and shipbuilding power. Meanwhile, the northern seas were breeding .a. new terror. In the 5th century the Roman fleet which guarded the narrow entrance into the British Channel had disappeared. The Frankish power gradually established itself in Gaul. But behind the See also:Franks still fiercer races, See also:born to the use of oar and sail, were gathering for the invasion of the west and south. For a while it seemed as if the empire consolidated by See also:Charlemagne would be able to withstand their inroads. Yet even in the See also:year of his See also:coronation (A.D. Boo) the piratical Northmen had carried their ravages as far as See also:Aquitaine. Charlemagne organized a naval force at See also:Boulogne and at See also:Ghent. But, though in See also:alliance with the See also:kings of See also:Mercia and Wessex, he had not that See also:control of the Channel which the possession of both shores had given to the Romans. The ships of the Vikings, propelled by oar and sail, were seagoing vessels of an excellent type. They were of various sizes, ranging from the skuta of about 30 oars to ask or skeid with 64 oars and a crew of 240, and to the still larger dreki or dragon boats, and the famous snekkjur or serpents, said to be represented on the See also:Bayeux See also:tapestry. Of these vessels we have fortunately, though of the smaller class, a typical instance in the well-known See also:Viking ship discovered in 188o in a
TTly. 28tomb-See also:mound at Gokstad near See also:Christiania, of which the dimensions are given as: length 78 ft., beam 16 ft. 7 in., depth 5 ft. 9 in., with. high stem and stern; See also:clinker-built of See also:oak throughout, with 16 oars on either side. Of this type were the vessels large and small which had by the 9th century or even earlier found their way into the Mediterranean. Such were the fleets. which continually infested the northern and western coasts of. Gaul, carrying swarms of the fierce Northmen who eventually came to stay, and gave their name to the portion of See also:Neustria which they had wrested from the Frankish See also: The emperors of the West do not seem to have maintained their fleets or naval stations as they had been of old. See also:Ravenna and See also:Misenum were shorn of their ancient glories. But in the East things were different. There, as we have said, it was fully perceived that the maintenance of the empire depended upon sea power. The Tactica of the See also:Emperor See also:Leo (886-911), followed by See also:Constantine Porphyrogenitus (911-959), give us full details as to the See also:composition of a See also:Byzantine fleet and its See also:units. Dromons of two sizes and of two banks of oars are described, and, besides these, smaller Dromons of great speed are referred to as " galleys or single-banked ships." In all these the See also:rule was still " one oar, one man," but the way was being prepared for improvements by which the medieval galley, still preserving a comparatively See also:low See also:freeboard, was enabled to equal or to surpass the many-banked vessel in speed, while it was gradually adapted to carry greater weight and more powerful means of offence. The medieval man-of-war was essentially a one-banked vessel (povoKpoTOV), but the use of longer oars or sweeps took the place of the smaller paddling oars of the ancient vessel, and altered greatly the angle at which the oars reached the water. It was the increase in the length and weight of the oar, requiring for its efficiency greater power than that of one man, which led to the employment of more than one man to an oar. With the longer oar the necessity arose of placing the weight at a greater distance from the power applying the See also:lever. This was gained by the invention of the apostis, which was practically a framework See also:standing out on each side of the hull and See also:running parallel to it; a strong See also:external timber, in which the thowls, against which the oars were rowed, were set. By this means it became possible not only to arrange the oars horizontally, in sets of three or more of different lengths (alla zenzile), instead of in banks one above the other obliquely, but still further to make an innovation, unknown to the ancients, which, while greatly increasing the length and substance of the oar, and its leverage, applied the strength of three or four men (or even up to seven with, the larger galleys and galleasses) for the motive power of each blade. As time went on oars of from 30 to 50 ft. came into See also:vogue, the inboard portion of which was about one-third of the length, and furnished with handles (manettes) attached to the loom, while the men for each oar were arranged in steps Calla scaloccio). It must not be imagined that these developments took place all at once, or that any improvements in building, or in the method of propulsion, were generally adopted but by slow degrees. Moreover, as commerce increased and merchant vessels gained in size, the necessity of being able to defend themselves against piratical attacks became more and more cogent, a necessity which ultimately led the way to the supersession of the galley by the sailing vessel. Yet the galley for centuries, especially in the Mediterranean, maintained its place as the ship of war par excellence, even when mixed fleets of galleys and sailing vessels were not uncommon. In the See also:Atlantic and northern seas it. was less en evidence, though even with the See also:Spanish See also:Armada some galleys and galleasses were included in the invading fleet. II The period of the See also:Crusades was one of great activity in ship-building, in which the Venetians and the Genoese were the leaders in the Mediterranean, but the enterprise of England under See also:Richard Coeur de See also:Lion (1189—1199) shows that in the northern seas great efforts were being made in the same direction, with the undoubted result that the See also:English nation became more familiarized with the sea, and more eager for maritime See also:adventure. Richard's fleet which sailed from See also:Dartmouth consisted of do vessels, and its See also:total in the Mediterranean after reinforcement amounted to 230 vessels. Among these were Busses, or Dromons of large size, with masts and sails, ships of burden and triremes. Nor were the See also:Saracens without great vessels, if the story of Richard's destruction of a three-masted vessel, carrying reinforcements to See also:Acre, on board of which there were no less than 1500 men, be true. The attack of a swarm of galleys upon the great ship as she lay becalmed reads almost like the attack of a swarm of See also:torpedo boats upon a disabled battleship to-See also:day. The whole period of the Crusades was, as regards naval matters, one of mixed fleets, in which the sailing vessels were mostly merchant vessels armed for fighting purposes. The effect of the Crusades upon the seafaring races of northern See also:Europe was that the See also:revelation of the East and its See also:traffic quickened their See also:desire for adventure in that and other directions. Hence rivalries between them and the Mediterranean sea powers, and consequent improvement in sea-going vessels and in See also:seaman-ship. The steering side-paddle gradually disappears, and the rudder slung at the stern becomes the usual means of directing the vessel's course. The merchant vessels when prepared for war have fore-castles and stern-castles (compare the Roman turres) erected on them, of which the one survives in name, and the other in the See also:quarter-deck of modern times. But a change was at hand which was destined to affect all classes, from the galley with its low freeboard to the alta propugnacula of the great sailing vessels.
The invention of See also:gunpowder, and the consequent use of See also:cannon on board ship, was the cause of many new departures in building and armaments. In the galleys we find guns mounted in the bows, and See also:broadside on the upper deck, en See also:barbette, firing over the bulwarks. Soon, however, the need of covet suggested portholes cut for the guns, just as in the ancient galleys they had been cut for the oars. The desire to carry many guns led to many alterations in build, such as the tumble-home of the sides, and the desire for speed to many improvements in rig, as well as to an increase in the number of masts and consequently larger spread of sail. About 1370—1380 See also:French, Venetians and Spaniards are using the new artillery in action, and the policy of maintaining a navy composed of sailing vessels built for the purposes of war, and not merely of armed merchant ships impressed for the emergency, soon began to take effect.
In England See also: It was in a vessel of this kind that See also:Columbus (1492) sought to reach the Indies by a western route.' She was but little over 230 tons when fully laden. Her forecastle overhung the stem by nearly 12 ft. Aft she had a half deck and a quarter deck. Her total length was 128 ft., her beam nearly 26 ft. She had three masts and a bowsprit. Her fore and main masts were square-rigged, but the mizzen had a See also:lateen sail. The vessels in which Vasco da Gama first doubled the Cape of See also:Good See also:Hope (1497) were of the same type but larger. The ship of See also: 87, to which the writer is indebted for many of the details concerning modern vessels. In England during the Tudor times a great advance in ship-building is observable. Henry VII. with his new ships, the " See also:Regent " and the " See also:Sovereign," and Henry VIII. with his " Henry See also:Grace a Dieu," or " Great Harry," both came abreast of their times, but it is worthy of See also:notice that the French then, as well as at a later period, were providing the best See also:models for naval See also:architecture. These big ships were armed at first with " serpentines," and later with cannon and culverins. The re-presentations of them show several tiers of guns, four or even five masts, and enormous structures by way of forecastles and deck-houses aft. As regards merchant vessels, the Genoese and the Venetians during the 15th and 16th centuries carried out great improvements. The " carracks " of the 16th century often reached as much as 1600 tons burden. There is a See also:record of a Portuguese carrack captured by the English, of which the dimensions reached 165 ft. in length and 47 ft. in beam. She carried 32 pieces of See also:brass See also:ordnance and between 600 and 700 passengers. The Spanish Armada (1588) was composed of 132 vessels, of which the largest was about 1300 tons and 30 under too tons. Four galleys and four galleasses accompanied the fleet. The opposing fleet consisted of 197 vessels of which only 34 belonged to the royal navy. Of these the largest was the " Triumph " of about t000 tons. The " See also:Ark," the See also:flagship of the English admiral, was of 800 tons, carrying 55 guns. Among the armed merchant vessels employed with the fleet was the " Buonaventure," the first English vessel that made a successful voyage to the Cape and India. The result to England of the defeat of the Spaniards was a great increase of See also:mercantile activity. Merchants, instead of See also:hiring Genoese or Venetian carracks, began to prefer building and owning home-built ships, and though the See also:foreign merchant vessels appear to have been on a larger See also:scale, yet, as sea-going craft, the English-built ships certainly held their own. We hear also during this period of many improvements in details, such as striking topmasts, the use of chain pumps, the introduction of studding, topgallant, sprit and top sails, also of the weighing of anchors by means of the See also:capstan, and the use of long cables. In the men-of-war the lower tier of guns, which, as in the galleys, had been carried dangerously near the water-line, began to be raised. This improvement, however, does not seem to have been adopted in the English ships till after the Restoration. Meanwhile, in the Mediterranean the galley was still in vogue, being only partially superseded by the great galleasses, six of which are recorded to have taken part in the battle of See also:Lepanto (1571), in which the Venetians and their See also:allies employed no less than 208 galleys with single banks and long sweeping oars. The contrast between the conditions and the character of the vessels used in this battle and those engaged in the case of the Spanish Armada is interesting and instructive as typical of the different development of naval power in the inland and the open seas. During the 17th century the expansion of See also:trade and the increase of mercantile enterprise were incessant. The East India See also:Company organized its fleet of armed vessels of about 600 tons, and fought its way through Portuguese obstruction to the See also:Indian coast. The Dutch were also competing for the trade of the East and the West, and formed similar companies with this object in view. Conflicts owing to commercial rivalry and See also:international jealousies were inevitable. Hence in the British navy the construction of large vessels such as the " See also:Prince Royal " and the " Sovereign of the Seas " (see RIGGING), which may be considered as among the earliest types of the modern wooden man-of-war. English oak afforded the best timber for shipbuilding, and skilful naval architects, such as Phineas Pett, succeeded in constructing the kind of sea-going war vessel which eventually gave England the superiority in its struggle with other naval powers in this and the fbllowing century. This, however, was by no means easily gained. The Dutch and the French were not slack in the building of merchant vessels and men-of-war. The See also:capture of vessels from time to time on either side served to enlarge the See also:area of improvement and to assist in the progress of the art of construction. The French navy especially, under the fostering care of See also:Colbert, was greatly strengthened. During the 18th century it was constantly found that the dimensions of French ships exceeded those of British ships of the same date, and that French vessels were superior in speed. This led from time to time to an increase of the measurements of the various classes of vessels in the British navy. These were now rated according to the number of guns which they were constructed to carry. A 9o-See also:gun ship of the line at the beginning of the 18th century averaged 164 ft. in length of gun deck, 47 ft. beam, and about 1570 tons, while the frigates now ran to 120 ft. with 34 ft, beam and from 600 to 700 tons. These dimensions, however, were not always maintained, and towards the middle of the century the See also:Admiralty seem to have recognized the consequent inferiority of their ships. The famous and See also:ill-fated " Royal See also:George," launched in 1756, was the result of an effort to improve the lineof-battle ship of the period. She was 178 ft. in length, 52 ft. in beam, was of over 2000 tons, and carried too guns and a crew of 750 men. The " Victory," See also:Nelson's flagship, was built nearly ten years later. Her dimensions were 186 ft., 52 ft., 2162 tons, and she carried too guns. During the same period frigates, which were cruisers carrying their armament on one deck, were built to carry 32 or 36 guns, but in this class also the French cruisers were superior in speed and of larger dimensions. The See also:remainder of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th witnessed a continuous rivalry in naval architecture, the French and Spanish models being constantly ahead of the British in dimensions and armament. In the American war (1812) the same disparity as regards dimensions became apparent, and the English frigates, and sloops used as cruisers, were generally outclassed, and in some instances captured, by American vessels of their own See also:rate. This as usual led to the construction of larger vessels with greater speed, and though, after the conclusion of the long war, the activity of the royal See also:dockyards slackened, yet the great three-deckers of the last period, before the See also:adoption of See also:steam power, had reached a length of over 200 ft., with more than 55 ft. beam, and over 3000 tons. Meanwhile the mercantile navies of the world, but more especially of England, had largely increased. The East India-man, as the armed vessels of the East India Company were called, really performed the functions of merchant vessel, passenger ship, and man-of-war. But, where there was no See also:monopoly, competition soon quickened the development of trading vessels. The Americans with their fast-sailing " clippers " again taught the English builders a See also:lesson, showing that increased length in proportion to beam gave greater speed, while admitting of lighter rigging in proportion to See also:tonnage, and of economy as regards the number of men required to work the ship. The English shipyards were for a long time unequal to the task of producing vessels capable of competing with those of their American rivals, and their trade suffered accordingly. But after the See also:repeal of the Navigation See also:Laws in 1850 things improved, and we find clippers from See also:Aberdeen and from the See also:Clyde beginning to hold their own on the long voyages to See also:China and elsewhere. At this See also:epoch steam power appears in use on the scene, and the period of great wooden vessels closes with See also:iron and steel taking their place in the construction of the hulls, while the sail gives way to the paddle and the See also:screw. II. HISTORY SINCE THE INTRODUCTION OF STEAMSHIPS Before steam was applied to the propulsion of. ships, the voyage from Great See also:Britain to See also:America lasted for some See also:weeks; at the beginning of the loth century the time had been reduced to about six days, and in 1910 the fastest vessels could do it in four and a half days. Similarly, the voyage to Australia, which took about thirteen weeks, had been reduced to See also:thirty days or less. The fastest of the sailing See also:tea-clippers inquired about three months to bring the early teas from China to Great Britain; in 1910 they were brought to See also:London by the ordinary P. & O. service in five weeks. Atlantic liners now run between England and America which maintain speeds of 25 and 26e'enots over the whole course, as compared with about 12 knots before the introduction of steam. The See also:accommodation in the mcsdern passenger ships is palatial compared with that in the corresponding wooden sailing ships of the middle of the 19th century. The changes from sail power to steam power for propulsion, and from wood to iron and steel for constructional purposes, proceeded together, though at first very slowly. The marine steam See also:engine was at first a very imperfect motor, and the services upon which steamships could be used to advantage were, in consequence, much restricted. There was, moreover, a See also:national See also:prejudice against the substitution of iron for " the Wooden Walls of Old England." It is recorded that an iron boat, intended apparently for passenger service, was built and launched on the See also:river See also:Foss, in See also:Yorkshire, in 1777, and shortly afterwards iron was used for the shell plating of lighters for See also:canal Intro-on of service. One of these, having its shell constructed irom of plates five-sixteenths of an See also:inch thick, was built near See also:Birmingham in 1787. About the same time parts of wooden ships began to be replaced by iron, the first being beam knees. Early in the 19th century iron " See also:diagonal riders " 'for providing the longitudinal strength were introduced by Sir See also:Robert See also:Seppings, and from this period down to the present day iron strengthenings for resisting both transverse and longitudinal strains have been generally used in wooden ships. The introduction of iron as a recognized material for ship construction is often given as dating from 1818, when the lighter " See also:Vulcan " was built on the Monkland canal, near See also:Glasgow. Among the early objections were: (1) from its weight iron could not be expected to float, and was therefore unsuitable for the construction of a floating body; (2) when a ship constructed of this material grounded and was exposed to bumping on a shore, the bottom would be easily perforated; (3) the bottom could not be preserved from fouling by weeds and barnacles; and (4) the iron affected the See also:compass, making it untrustworthy, if not useless. Gradually, however, the material made its way, and the objections to it proved to be for the most part untenable. Objection (I), although often repeated, was proved to involve a See also:fallacy. With regard to objection (2) it was found that iron ships might ground and be subjected to a great See also:deal of bumping and rough usage without being destroyed, and that, on the whole, they were better off in this respect than wooden ships. On more than one occasion when iron and wooden ships were stranded together by the same See also:gale and in approximately the same circumstances, the iron ships were got off, and, apart from See also:local injury,' were found to be little the worse for the grounding, while the wooden ships were either totally wrecked, or, if got off, were strained to such an extent as to be beyond repair. The power of resistance of iron ships to the strains produced by grounding received, in 1846-1847, a remarkable See also:confirmation in connexion with the grounding of the " Great Britain," the first large screw steamer built of iron. This ship had been initiated by, and built under the supervision of, Mr I. K. See also:Brunel, who had bestowed much attention upon the details of her construction. In 1846 she ran ashore in Dundrum See also:Bay, in Ireland, and settled on two detached rocks; and although she remained aground for eleven months, including a whole See also:winter, she was subsequently got off and repaired, and afterwards did good service. As regards (3), the fouling of the bottom, this evil, although not preventable, can be lessened materially by frequent cleaning and repainting, dimensions of the last vessel are. length, 88 ft. 8 in.; breadth, 21 ft. provided, of course, that docks are available. The See also:fourth objection, the effect of iron on the compass, was very serious. After experimenting with the " See also:Rainbow " at See also:Deptford and the " See also:Ironsides " at See also:Liverpool, Sir G. B. See also:Airy in 1839 read a See also:paper on the subject before the Royal Society, and the rules which he gave for the correction of the error caused by the iron at once became the See also:guide for future practice. Besides .the above, a further objection was raised which applied only to warships, namely, the nature of the damage which would be done to an iron ship by the enemy's shot: this also was found to be less serious, when proper appliances were supplied, than the damage done in the same circumstances to a wooden ship. Thus during the Chinese War in 1842 the " See also:Nemesis," an iron vessel, was able to repair her damage from shot in twenty-four See also:hours at the scene of the fight, while some wooden ships had to go to Bombay, the nearest port at which See also:repairs could be carried out. Steel, as a material for shipbuilding, was introduced under modern conditions of manufacture during the years 1870–1875. It is a homogeneous metal, stronger than iron, and of Intro- a more See also:uniform and more trustworthy character. duct/on of steel. Its quality is to a considerable extent See also:independent of the skill of those employed in its manufacture, whereas iron is produced by a laborious and unhealthy process, and is largely dependent for its quality on the skill of the workmen. Among the advantages which experience has proved iron and steel to possess over wood for the purposes of ship construction are: (1) the structure of the ship has less weight; (2) it has greater durability; (3) the requisite general and local strengths are much more easily obtained. The importance of the first of these advantages can scarcely be overstated. The See also:primary object of a particular ship is to carry cargo or passengers, or both, from place to place, at a given speed (in the case of a warship, the armament, See also:ammunition, armour, &c., constitute the weight to be carried) ; and since at the maximum See also:draught at which the vessel can properly and safely proceed on her passage the total weight of vessel, cargo, &c., complete, must be a definite quantity, namely, the weight of the water displaced by the ship, it follows that the less the weight required for the structure of the ship, the greater is that available for the cargo, &c. As to durability, in wooden ships the See also:chief source of deterioration is dry-rot, in iron or steel ships the wasting of the surfaces, especially of such portions of the outer surfaces of the bottom plating as are frequently left See also:bare of pa'.nt and exposed to the sea, and of the inner surfaces of the bottom in machinery spaces, &c. If dry-rot can be prevented, the See also:life of the wooden ship will be lengthened ; so also will the life of the iron or steel ship if the surfaces can be kept covered with paint, to prevent the corrosive action of See also:air and water. With both wood and iron or steel ships, if the parts which have become deteriorated can be removed and replaced, this is usually See also:worth doing when the deterioration is only local. At the end of the 18th century the preservation of wood was not so well understood as it is at the present day, and See also:teak, one of the most durable of See also:woods, was, in Great Britain at least, little known. The ships for the Royal Navy as then constructed were only expected to be available for service some fifteen or twenty years. The ships built for the East India Company made, on an See also:average, four voyages, which occupied eight years. This at one time was considered the vessel's life, so far as the Company's service was concerned; but subsequently, if on examination at the expiration of that time they appeared worth repairing, this was done, and they were allowed to make two more voyages. It was unusual for one of these ships to make more than six voyages; after this they were sold or broken up. In certain cases, however, ships lasted a considerable length of time; a number of vessels built in the 17th century continued in the service of the Royal Navy until the middle of the 18th century, though with a reduced number of guns, and specimens of the old wooden battleships which served in the fleet in the earlier part of the last century are still to be found in the naval and other ports as training vessels, See also:hospital ships, &c. The best-known example is Nelson's " Victory " (fig. 1, See also:Plate XIII.). Laid down in 1759, she had been afloat 4o years before she took part in the battle of See also:Trafalgar, and to-day flies the See also:flag of the See also:commander-in-chief at See also:Portsmouth. Of small wooden merchant vessels there are instances of the attainment of very remarkable ages. See also:Lloyd's See also:Register for 1909–1910 shows one sailing vessel, the "Olivia " of 94 tons, as having been built as early as in 1819, two vessels built in the 'twenties, and twelve built between 1830 and 1840. The See also:collier brig " Brotherly Love," of South Shields, was over one hundred years old when she was broken up; and the See also:schooner " Polly " built in 1805, was still sailing in 1902; as also was the brig " Hvalfisken," built at Calmar in See also:Sweden in 18ot. The2 in.; depth of hold, 14 ft. 7 in.; and her See also:gross tonnage, 211. The See also:oldest vessel afloat in 1910 was said to be the Danish See also:sloop "See also:Constance" —a small wooden sailing vessel built in 1723 and still employed in the See also:coasting trade of See also:Denmark. This vessel is 52 ft. 6 in. long, 14 ft. 8 in. beam, 6 ft. 8 in. depth in hold and of 35 tons gross. In the cases of these very old wooden vessels it should be re-membered that many portions of the See also:original structures have been replaced by continual repairs. We have less experience concerning the life of iron and steel ships when taken care of , and in most instances ships have been condemned and broken up only because they were obsolete; but after twenty or even forty years' service, those parts which by See also:accident or intention had remained properly covered and protected were found very little the worse for See also:wear. Thus the inner surface of the outside plating of such vessels, coated with See also:cement, have been found to be in as good See also:condition as when the ships were first built. The hulls of many of the early iron vessels still afloat are known to be in excellent condition. The " See also:Himalaya," an iron vessel of 3453 tons and 700 h.p., 6 guns, length 340 ft. 5 in., breadth 46 ft. 2 in., depth 24 ft., built by See also:Mare of Blackwall in 1853 for the P. & O. Steam Packet Co., and See also:purchased by the Admiralty, was actively employed, chiefly as a See also:troop-ship, until 1896, when she was converted into a See also:coal See also:depot, it being found that her plating and framing were almost as good as new. Known as " C. 6o," she seemed likely in 1910 to survive for many years in her new service. The " See also:Warrior the first British iron battleship, built in 1861, was converted into a floating workshop forty years later at Portsmouth, where in 1910 she was known as " See also:Vernon III." The hull and framing of the vessel were then practically as See also:sound as when first put together. Experience up to 1910 with vessels built of mild steel indicates that this is more liable to surface corrosion than iron, especially where exposed to the action of See also:bilge water and coal ashes in See also:boiler rooms. Some owners on this account require the plating for the tank tops under the boilers to be of iron in vessels otherwise built of mild steel, al-though the iron is inferior in strength and See also:costs more than the mild steel. That general and local strength are more easily obtained in an iron or steel ship than in a wooden one follows partly from the fact that the weight required for the structure is less in the former than in the latter, and also from the fact that iron and steel are more suitable materials for the purpose. They can be obtained in almost any desired shape, the parts can be readily See also:united to one another with comparatively little loss of strength, and great local strength can be provided in very little space. For some purposes, and in some markets, wood is still in favour. In scientific expeditions to the Polar regions, it is of the highest importance to avoid any disturbance of the compass, and this can be ensured by constructing the vessel of wood, with metal fastenings. The " Fram," built in 1892 for See also:Nansen's See also:Arctic expedition, was of wood, her outside planking, in three thicknesses, amounting in the aggregate to from 24 in. up to 28 in.; she was 117 ft. long, rigged as a three-masted schooner, and provided with See also:auxiliary machinery working a screw propeller. The " America," fitted out for the Ziegler expedition to the North See also:Pole, was an old See also:Dundee whaler (the " Esquimaux "), and was reported to be still a " stout " ship with timbers as sound as on the day they were put in thirty-six years before. She is 157 ft. long, 292 ft. beam, 194 ft. deep, See also:net tonnage 466; her engines have a nominal See also:horse-power of Too, and she has a lifting screw. In 1901 the " Discovery," a wooden vessel, 172 ft. in length, was built at Dundee for See also:Antarctic exploration, under Captain Robert See also:Scott, R.N.,i and a wooden vessel for similar service was constructed in See also:Germany, and in 1910 the " Terra Nova " (Plate I., fig. 2) , a wooden Dundee whaler, 187 ft. long, barque-rigged and fitted with auxiliary steam power, which had already seen service in the Far South, carried to the Antarctic regions an expedition also led by Captain Scott. Some wooden sailing vessels are still built in the United States and employed in the coasting and other trades. One of these, the " See also:Wyoming," the largest wooden sailing vessel ever built, was launched in See also:December 1909 at See also:Bath. She was a six-masted schooner 350 ft. long, 5o ft. wide and 30 ft. deep. Wood is also in favour for most of the large and palatial river steamers of the Western states of America. Some progress had been made in the introduction of steam propulsion before the end of the 18th century, but steam the advance became more rapid in the 19th. In propulsion. the early steam vessels paddle-wheels only were used for propulsion. In 1801–1802 the " See also:Charlotte Dundas," one of the earliest steam vessels, was constructed by Symington in Scotland. She proved her capability for towing purposes on the Forth and Clyde canal. See also:Fulton now made his experiments in See also:France, and after visiting Scotland and witnessing the success of the " Charlotte Dundas," constructed the " Clermont " on the See also:Hudson river in America in 1807. The engines for this vessel were obtained from See also:Boulton&See also:Watt,
1 A very complete account of this vessel was given by her designer, Mr W. E. See also: In 1822 a return was made to the House of See also:Commons showing the times occupied by steamers as compared with sailing vessels on some thirty coasting routes; the average speed given for steamers in the best of these was from eight to nine knots, while the average time taken varied from one-half to one-See also:sixth (or even less) of the time taken by the sailing vessels.
Steam vessels were employed at a very early date upon the See also:mail services, for besides being very much quicker than the sailing vessels, they were practically independent of the direction of the See also:wind, and to a considerable extent of the weather; consequently the regularity of their passages contrasted very favourably with the irregular times kept by the sailing vessels. The mail service across the Irish Channel, between See also:Holyhead and See also:Dublin, was especially uncertain in the days of the sailing packets, frequently occupying three or four days, and occasionally as much as seven and nine days. All this was altered when in 1821 the steamers " Royal Sovereign " and " See also:Meteor " were placed on the service. The advantages were so apparent that steam mail packets between Great Britain and the Continent, and on many other services, were soon established. The mail boats had been for many years owned by the See also:crown, but in 1833 the carrying of the mails to and from the Isle of Man, and between England and See also: She was 130 ft. long, 26 ft. broad, 161 ft. deep and of about 380 tons. The success of the " Enterprise," of 470 tons, which made the voyage from London to See also:Calcutta by the Cape of Good Hope in 1825 in 103 sailing days, is noteworthy. The distance is 11,450 nautical See also:miles, and the vessel was under steam for 64 days and under sail for 39 days. The steamer afterwards (1829–183o made the trip between Bombay and See also:Suez in 54 days, in furtherance of a scheme to reach the former place from London by the Red Sea route. The year 1838 witnessed the successful transatlantic voyages of the steamers " Sirius " and " Great Western." The latter vessel, built under the See also:advice of I. K. Brunel, the engineer of the Great Western Railway Company, was the first steamer actually constructed for the transatlantic service. She was built of wood, her dimensions being—length 212 ft., breadth 351 ft., depth 231 ft. and tonnage 1340 B.O.M.; and her total displacement on a draught of 16 ft. 8 in. was 2300 tons. Although not originally built for the service, the " Sirius " was subsequently placed on it at the recommendation of Mr M'Gregor See also:Laird of See also:Birkenhead. This vessel also was built of wood, and was 178 ft. long, 251 ft. broad, 181 ft. deep and her tonnage was 703. Mr Laird's arguments in favour of placing the vessel on the transatlantic service throw light on the steaming capabilities of vessels of that day. He pointed to the steamers " Dundee " and " See also:Perth " making 11 m. per hour, " in all weathers, winter and summer, See also:fair and foul "; and to the other vessels making from 10 to tot m. per hour. He based his estimate for the coal required on the voyage on a speed of to m. per hour and a coal See also:consumption of 30 tons per day, which gave 525 tons for the whole voyage. Finally, he allowed 800 tons, corresponding to the difference of the displacement at 15 ft. load draught and at a ft. light draught, so that he had a margin of 275 tons for contingencies.
All the vessels just named were propelled by paddle-wheels. The screw propeller had been advocated as a means of propulsion by many inventors in England, France and America during the latter half of the 18th and the early part of the 19th century; a number of experiments had been made, but these
had not been brought to a successful issue, as no /et props/sloe. suitable steam engine was available for See also:driving the
propeller. See also:Benjamin See also:Franklin, in 1775, See also:drew attention to the in-efficiency of side paddle wheels as a means of propulsion, and proposed as an alternative to set the steam engine to See also:pump water in at the bow and force it out at the stern, the water passing along a trunk. In 1782 a boat 8o ft. long, fitted with this means of propulsion by See also: system was not generally adopted until its com- mercial possibilities were more successfully demonstrated by Captain John Ericsson—formerly an officer in the See also:Swedish See also:army —and F. P. Smith of England. Smith took out his patent for the propulsion of ships by means of a screw fitted in a See also:recess formed in the See also:deadwood, in May 1836, and in See also:July of the same year Ericsson, then practising as a See also:civil engineer in London, took out his patent. Small vessels were built and fitted by both inventors and both were tested in the Thames. In 1838 Captain Robert F. See also:Stockton, on behalf of the U.S. Navy, ordered two iron boats of Messrs Lairds of Birkenhead, to be supplied with steam engines and screw propellers of Ericsson's design. The first boat was named the " Robert F. Stockton," and arrived at New York under sail early in 1839, with her machinery on board. The machinery was fitted in her at See also:Bordentown, and under the name of " New ;jersey " the boat afterwards served as a See also:tow boat on the river See also:Delaware. She was 70 ft. long, 10 ft. beam and 6 ft. 9 in. draught, and could steam about 10 m. an hour. Ericsson had the See also:satisfaction of seeing his plans very largely adopted in the American Navy, but the mercantile marine adhered with great pertinacity to the paddle-See also:wheel. Fincham, See also:writing in 1851, says that in England See also:engineers were reluctant to admit the success of the screw propeller, and adds; " A striking instance of prevailing disinclination to the screw propeller was shown on the issue of a new edition of the See also:Encyclopaedia Britannica, in which the See also:article on steam. navigation contained no notice whatever of the subject." Smith, however, persevered, and with the assistance of some influential people of the day—notably Messrs See also:Rennie & Co.—formed the Ship Propeller Company, and in 1838 built the " See also:Archimedes," a vessel of 237 tons burthen, to illustrate the value of the See also:plan. The length of the vessel was 106 ft. 8 in., breadth 21 ft. 10 in., depth in hold 13 ft., draught of water 9 ft. 6 in., h.p. 8o nominal, but only 66 could be developed. A speed of about 72 knots could usually be maintained, but on one run of 3o m. under very favourable circumstances a speed of 10.9 M. was reported. In 1840 she was placed at the disposal of the Admiralty for experiment, and the trials were favourably reported on. She afterwards passed into the hands of Brunel, who was so satisfied with the results of further trials that he modified the design of the " Great Britain " steamship thein. in hand (1843), and fitted her with a screw propeller instead of paddle-wheels as originally intended. The success of this and other vessels was sufficient to largely See also:influence public See also:opinion in favour of the propeller, and the Admiralty took the important step of building the " Rattler," a vessel of 888 tons and 200 H.P., to test the system. She was practically a repeat of the "Alecto," as far as her hull and the power of her machinery were concerned, but she was propelled by a screw propeller, whereas the " Alecto " was propelled by paddle-wheels. These vessels were tested together at sea in See also: See also:Kirk. In 1874 he fitted a three-See also:crank triple-expansion engine in the Propontis. The boiler used proved a failure, but in 1882 he fitted a similar set of engines in the Aberdeen, with a boiler pressure of 125 lb, and the result was entirely successful. Continuous improvements have enabled engineers to produce machinery of less and less weight for the same power, and at the same time to reduce the spaces required for its accommodation, the vibration due to the working of the engines, and the consumption of See also:fuel per horse power. For engines of high power, quadruple expansion has sometimes been adopted, while scientific methods of balancing have been employed, improved qualities of steel and bronze have been introduced, the rate of revolution has been increased, and forced See also:lubrication fitted. In the boilers higher steam pressures have been used, superheating in some cases being resorted to; the rate of See also:combustion has been accelerated by supplying air under pressure in the stokehold or in the furnaces, and in some cases by placing fans in the exhaust to draw the air and products of combustion more rapidly through the fires; the former being known as forced draught and the latter as induced draught. In the Navy, with the view of saving weight, water-See also:tube boilers have been adopted, but boilers of this type have not yet been generally fitted in the mercantile marine. Steam pressures now in common use vary from See also:loo to 18o lb per sq. in. in cargo .ships; from 140 to 220 lb in passenger ships, including the large Atlantic liners; from 210 to 300 lb in large warships where water-tube boilers are used; while in destroyers and other classes of warships in 1 The original propeller used by the " Rattler " is now to be seen in the Victoria and See also:Albert Museum.which small tube water-tube boilers are used it varies from 180 to 250 lb per sq. in. A century ago the reciprocating steam engine was slowly making its way as a means of propulsion as an auxiliary to, or as a substitute for sail power—the steam being obtained by burning wood or coal. In 1815 nine small steam vessels, having an aggregate tonnage of 786 tons, were built and registered in the United See also:Kingdom; in 1825 24 steam vessels were built, having an aggregate of 3003 tons; in 1835 86 vessels were built, having an aggregate of 10,924 tons. In 1910 the reciprocating steam engine, after reaching a very high degree of perfection and universal adoption, was being largely replaced by the See also:turbine, coal was being replaced to a considerable extent by oil as a fuel for raising steam, and steam itself was being challenged as a motive See also:agent by the development of the internal combustion engine. Ill. See also:STATISTICS For some years before 187o the total tonnage of sailing ships built each year in the United Kingdom had been about equal to that of steam ships, but then a great change took place; Decrease 541 sailing vessels, amounting to 123,910 tons, were of sailing added to the register of the United Kingdom, while 433 to sailin steam ships, amounting to 364,86o tons, were added; the steam tonnage thus added being nearly three times that of sailing vessels. A uniform rate of increase of See also:production of steam vessels was on the whole maintained after 1870, but, as will be seen by referring to Table I. and fig. 3, considerable fluctuations have occurred, the falling off in steam tonnage being simultaneous with increases of sailing tonnage and See also:vice versa down to 1895. The dotted lines on fig. 3 show approximately the average output for 5o years of sailing and steam tonnage separately and combined. Roughly speaking, it may be said that from 186o to 1895 the output of sailing tonnage See also:fell from about 200,000 tons per annum to 100,000 tons; during the later 'nineties the falling off was more rapid, and between 1900 and 1910 the output varied between 15,000 and 30,000 tons. The average tonnage of the sailing vessels built in the United Kingdom in 186o was 206 tons; this increased with a fair degree of regularity to 532 tons in 1890, 749 tons in 1891 Average and 963 tons in 1892, after which a rapid decrease took s place, and by 1898 the average size had fallen to 75 tons; sailing there were fluctuations after this date, but the average vessels. never rose above 163 tons; and these vessels are practically restricted to the coasting trade and See also:pleasure purposes. Although the building of large sailing vessels of wood and steel has almost ceased in the United Kingdom, the sizes of the largest of such vessels built abroad have continued to increase. Under the influence of the shipbuilding bounties granted in France between 1895 and 1902 something like 15o sailing vessels of from 2000 to 3500 tons each were built, but few since. In Germany and in America a few large sailing vessels continue to be built. Lloyd's Register for 1841 ^See also:fives a table of " the Steam Vessels belonging to England, Scotian,. and Ireland in the years 1814 to 1839," which shows that in 1839 there were 720 vessels Qrowth of a total tonnage of 79,240 tons owned in the United Kingdom. Between 1839 and 186o considerable numbers of steam of steam ships were built for various services, and the See also:pro- tonnage. duction from 186o is shown by fig. 3 and Table I. The tonnage added to the Register in 1860 amounted to 93,590 tons, rising over , four years to 293,140 tons in 1865; after a See also:gradual decline extending over three years to See also:Ioo,000 tons it again rose till 1872, when nearly 500,000 tons were added. In 1876 It had fallen to about 200,000 tons; then came the great rise extending to 1883, when it reached a maximum of 885,495 tons. A rapid decrease followed, and in 1886 it had fallen practically to what it had been ten years before. In another three years the figure was again what it had been in 1883; and for a period of seventeen years, with much smaller fluctuations than previously, great increases were maintained. In 1906 a maxi-mum of 1,428,793 tons was reached, when another rapid fall occurred —over two years—the minimum reached being 600,837 tons in 1908. The fluctuations in output, shown by fig. 3, synchronize approximately with the improvements and depressions in trade. The average tonnage of British steam vessels rose slowly from 8o tons in 1815 to 102 tons in 1830, and to 473 tons in 1860, reaching a maximum of 1442 tons in 1882. During the next four Average years it fell gradually to 896 tons, rising again to 1515 veraP tons in 1890, and the average tonnage built since 1890 has steam remained, with a certain amount of fluctuation, nearly ships. 1500 tons. These figures may be taken as roughly repre- senting the average tonnage of the ships produced throughout the world ; but as in these averages large numbers of comparatively small vessels are included, the vast increase in the numbers of large-sized vessels which have been built, especially during See also:recent years, is not adequately represented. Of the vessels built in 1890 only 1% exceeded 8000 tons in displacement, whereas the vessels of over 8000 added to the Register of the United Kingdom during each year enumerated. Year. Mode Wood and Composite. Iron. Steel. Totals. Average of Groa Propulsion. Tonnage. No. Gross T Gross No. Gross No. Gross Tonnage.' No. Tonnage. Tonnage. Tonnage. ' 860 Saii 786 154,130 32 14,290, 818 168,420 206 Steam . 49 7,050 149 86,540 .. .. 198 93,590 473 Sail . . . 8o6 160,430 116 88,970 .. .. 922 249,400 270 '865 Steam . . 38 5,780 344 287,360 .. .. 382 293,140 767 8 0 Sail . . . 478 72,970 63 50,940 541 123,9i0 229 Steam . 51 7,290 382 357,570 .. .. 433 364,860 843 Sail . . . 373 46,060 193 206,110 566 252,170 446 875 Steam 66 8,740 291 281,390 .. 357 290,130 813 880 Sail . . 273 18,159 39 40,015 4 1,671 316 59,845 189 Stearn 20 1,779 362 447,389 26 36,493 408 485,661 1190 '885 Sail . . . 266 17,841 144 160,034 27 30,569 437 208,444 477 Steam 37 2,751 177 148,508 122 154,249 336 305,508 909 18go Sail 142 7,704 6 5,911 59 96,374 207 109,989 532 t Steam 26 1,326 110 40,144 432 817,010 568 858,480 1515 Sail . . 156 8,541 3 1,544 93 178,593 252 188,678 749 1891 Steam 25 1,212 167 31,381 388 730,051 58o 762,644 1315 18y, Sail . 151 8,372 6 5,121 128 260,874 285 274,367 963 Steam . 19 1,026 86 18,937 365 660,847 470 680,810 1449 Sail . 154 7,980 4 418 66 113,097 224 121,495 542 1893 Steam 27 1,551 64 12,458 328 622,099 419 l 636,108 1518 1894 Sail . . . 155 7,570 3 207 67 83,167 225 90,944 404 Steam 26 1,183 65 12,400 389 751,668 480 765,251 1594 '89- Sail . . . 150 7,529 9 782 32 41,313 191 49,624 260 Steam 35 1,579 66 9,879 379 736,412 480 747,888 1558 ,896 ) Sail . . . 161 7,519 5 792 36 37,709 202 46,020 228 Steam 17 591 79 11,593 398 750,106 494 762,290 1543 1897 Sail . 183 8,317 2 232 34 28,48' 219 37,030 169 Steam 33 1,581 63 9,974 366 658,646 462 670,201 1451 898 Sail 196 8,813 6 798 40 8,456 242 18,067 75 Steam 20 765 8o 13,654 546 996,814 646 1,011,233 1565 1899 } Sail . . . 165 7,342 2 182 6o 11,757 227 19,281 85 Steam . 29 1,497 64 12,184 534 1,152,999 627 1,166,68o 1861 1900 Sail . . 159 8,718 5 420 46 8,598 210 17,736- 84 I Steam 64 3,809 86 16,375 476 1,102,890 626 1,123,074 1794 1901 Sail . 146 7,826 2 174 54 22,118 202 30,118 149 Steam . 83 5,479 14 2,474 469 1,115,227 566 1,123,180 1984 1902 k Sail . . . 142 7,479 .. 63 25,985 205 33,464 163 Steam 71 4,098 32 5,870 476 1,109,511 579 1,119,479 1933 1903 Sail . . . 139 7,637 .. .. 6o 15,077 199 22,714 114 Steam 68 4,034 3 537 538 943,333 609 947,904 1556 ' 19114 ! Sail . 161 8,626 .. . 51 15,166 212 23,792 112 c Steam 52 2,961 5 827 519 1,016 324 576 1,020,112 1771 1905 5 Sail . . 130 7,962 .. .. 36 7,125 166 15,087 91 Steam . 45 1,840 2 147 567 1,204,293 614 1,206,280 .964 1906 5,731 2 330 42 148 14,871 100 f Steam 114 6,242 1 79 6 I,,810 771 1,428,793 1853 1,422,472 1707 1 Sail . I21 7,017 .. .. 45 8,228 166 15,245 92 1 Steam , 196 15,069 .. 629 1,182,566 825 1,197,635 1452 1908 Sail . . . 108 4,931 I 97 58 18,468 167 23,496 141 Steam . 142 9,056 I 483 415 591,298 558 600,837 1077 1909 Sail . . 75 3,362 44 11,020 119 14,382 121 Steam . 92 3,880 .. .' 383 752,424 475 756,304 1592 The above table is based upon information supplied to Lloyd's Registry by the Registrar-General of Shipping. ' As no actual returns are available for the gross tonnages for the years from 1860 to 1879 inclusive (only net tonnages having been recorded), the gross for these years are only approximate, and are based on the relation of urCIas to yet for the years 1883 and 1900 Number, Tonnage and Description of all Vessels (exclusive of War Vessels) of 100 Tons and upwards. STEAM VESSELS. SAILING. See also:Grand Total. Flag. Wood. Composite. Iron. Steel. Total. Wood. Composite. Iron. Steel. Total. No. Tonnage. - (Net Ton- nage of Sailing Vessels and Gross Tonnage of Steamers. ) No. Net Gross No. Net Gross No. Net Gross No. , Gross No. Net Gross No. Net No. Net No. Net No. Net No. Net Ton- Ton- Ton- Ton- Ton- Ton- Net Ton- Ton- Ton- Ton- Ton- Ton- Ton- Ton- nage. nage. See also:page, nage. nage. Rage. Too- nage. nage. nage. nage. nage. nage. Rage. nage, Rage. British I United Kingdom . 81 6,597 12,153 II 1,031 3,7351536 503,396 900,300 6,832 9,692,61815,851,495 8,46010,203,64216,767,683 399 63,427 4 801 202 209,312 352 475,256 957 748,796 9,417 17,516,479 756,887 1,291,354 *Colonies .357 52,919 91,650 25 6,08410,637 267 113,555 189,447 7z8 584,329 999,620 1,377 613 149,481 10 5,746 46 27,356 32 21,878 701 204,461 2,078 1,495,815 Total . 438 59,516103,803 36 7,11514,3721803 616,9511,089,747 7,56010,276,947 16,851,115 9,837 10,960,52918,059,0371012 212,908 14 6,547 248 236,668 384 497,134 1658 953 25711,495 19,012,294 American Sea 402 131,292 201,055 2 848 953 168 189,999 278,881 501 749,506 1,161,030 1,073 1,071,645 1,64.1,9191605 984,855 32 38,010 64 96,8181701 ,119,686 2,774 2,761,605 `Northern al.es 28 3,386 5,788 912,92617,464 251 21 19,394 24,564 533 1,591,030 2,104,741 563 1,623,350 2,146,769 ,3 2,128 43 109,850 43 109,850 606 2,256,619 (United States) Philippine iLslands 1 130 27 11,420 17,484 20 8,964 14,803 76 23,900 38,326 13 2,128 89 40,454 Total . 430134,678206,843 1213,904 18,66S 216 220,813 320,929 1,054 2,349,500 3,280,574 1,712 2,718,895 3,827,0141618 986,986 .. .. 32 38,010 107 206,668x7571,231,664 3,469 5,058,678 See also:German . 1 80 171 209 85,899 143,985 1,612 2,330,471 3,815,162 1,822 2,416,459 3,959,318 30 13,537 3 484 37 43,950 286 315,897 356 373,868 2,178 4,333,186 See also:Norwegian 77 17,623 30,627 21 3,685 5,748 312 139,617 248,365 902 698,703 1,137,266 1,312 859,628 1,422,006 395 175,592 3 1,879 252 285,228 103 129,828 753 592,527 2,065 2,014.533 French . 16 1,370 2,750 .. .. .. 229 161,338 273,735 630 673,678 1,171,687 875 836,386 1,448,172 400 72,421 .. .. 18 17,918 172 343,769 590 434,108 1,465 1,882,280 Italian .... 13 564 I,843 .. .. 211 172,339 287,461 226 425,301 698,255 450 598,204 987,559 434 125,787 •. .. 138 149,409 58 57,898 630 333,094 I,oSo 1,320,653 IJapanese . . 306 47,513 78,053 8 3,265 4,755 124 136,339 208,692 408 539,644 855,477 846 726,761 1,146,977 5 2,245 5 2,245 851 1,149,222 tDutch 7 536 945 . .. 59 21,616 35,955 466 585,670 946,149 532 607,822 983,049 x4 2,420 2 2,264 7 4,062 73 23,398 96 32,144 628 1,015,103 Swedish . 27 3,068 4,93710611,523 20,662 373 169,585 279,985 458 280,287 476,924 964 464,4.63 782,508 475 119,613 8 2,179 7 6,842 18 6,937 508 135,571 1,472 918,079 *t See also:Russian . . . 13 1,164 2,011 6 691 1,286 238 78,870 135,205 385 321,891 552,026 642 402,616 690,528 556 141,790 5 3,372 25 34,634 13 17,001 599 196,797 1,241 887,325 Austro-Hungarian 2 133 241 1 146 248 46 23,362 38,359 316 462,313 738,881 365 485,954 777,729 2 250 .. x 792 1 258 4 1,300 369 779,029 Danish 8 1,430 2,431 3 346 561 113 36,749 79,139 429 355,039 580,697 553 393,564 671,828 282 47,242 . 5 4,164 23 13,328 310 64,734 863 736,562 Spanish . 4 211 481 1 144 220 206 105,245 171,985 300 353,953 574,062 511 459,553 746,748 62 14,484 1 543 3 2,944 2 741 68 18,712 579 765,460 (Greek 7 502 903 .. .. .. 114 56,958 96,049 177 255,338 402,232 298 312,798 499,184 109 27,970 .. ., r 427 110 28,397 408 527,581 Belgian . . .. 24 11,315 20,037 135 183,021 275,876 159 194,336 295,913 3 556 .. .. I 874 2 2,295 6 3,725 165 299,638 4 622 .. .. .. 933 .. .. Brazilian . .. 59 33,681 53,434 250 108,901 178,991 313 143,204 233,358 66 14,959 1 338 2 2,249 1 849 70 18,395 383 251,753 tTurkish . I' 685 1,436 .. .. .. 77 54,243 85,098 54 14,510 25,672 142 69,438 112,206 Igo 63,663 .. .. .. .. .. Igo 63,663 332 175,869 See also:Argentine 2 217 359 .. •. .. 31 9,591 15,749 162 72,827 123,597 195 82,635 139,705 27 7,213 .. .. 8 5,169 37 11,334 72 23,716 267 163,421 Chilean . 7 468 820 .. 24 15,370 24,224 67 57,238 89,843 98 73,076 114,887 22 12,994 .. .. 18 22,005 1 1,332 41 36,331 139 151,218 Portuguese . . . 1 116 178 1 6o 102 16 7,387 11,909 59 41,290 66,920 77 48,853 79,109 101 23,208 2 2,042 5 4,994 5 830 113 31,074 190 110,183 Chinese .... 9 2,030 3,290 I 1,468 2,330 20 17,170 25,920 38 37,356 58,880 68 58,024 90,420 .. .. .. 68 90,420 Uruguayan . . . 1 206 374 .. .. .• 5 1,394 2,503 30 28,721 45,834 36 30,321 48,711 8 5,196 1 793 6 5,744 3 2,968 18 14,701 54 63,412 Cuban . . . . 13 3,973 5,916 .. .. .. 15 5,569 9,484 26 26,596 43,010 54 36,138 58,410 6 1,035 .. .. .. .. 6 1,035 60 59,445 Mexican . . . 5 967 1,413 .. .. .. 6 1,926 3,067 30 14,587 24,257 41 17,480 28,737 14 3,405 .. •. .. .. 2 473 16 3,878 57 32,615 Rumanian . . .. .. .. .. .. 3 144 404 19 26,546 31,284 22 16,690 31,688 1 285 .. .. .. .. .. .. 1 285 23 31,973 Peruvian x 10 210 .. .. .. 1 810 1,249 11 4,544 9,132 13 5,364 10,581 33 10,243 3 2,288 7 7,276 1 1,199 44 21,006 57 31,587 Siamese . . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. a 7,792 12,607 11 7,792 12,607 .. .. .. .. .. In 12,607 See also:Sarawak 1 46 120 .. .. .. x 181i 300 4 2,191 3,653 6 2,426 4,073 .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 6 4,073 .. .. .. .. .. 6 1,750 3,006 1 ro6 16o 7 1,856 3,166 5 692 .. ,. .. .. .. .. ..5 692 12 3,858 Haytian . . . . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 5 2,017 3,387 5 2,017 3,387 .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 5 3,387 Other countries:- 1 See also:Bulgaria, See also:Colombia, See also:Costa Rica, See also:Ecuador, Egypt, Ifonduras, 4 420 667 1 551 756 13 6,50g 9,265 24 5,360 11,392 42 12,840 22,080 22 6,580 .. .. .. .. 2 571 24 7,151 66 29,231 See also:Liberia, See also:Montenegro, See also:Nicaragua, See also:Oman, See also:Panama, See also:Persia, Salva- J dor, See also:Samos, See also:Zanzibar, &c. Total 1407,278,068 84 1 9 84 2,987169,8 79 55412,192,7293,675,240115,849120,532,33833,093,992 22,008 23,046,12237,290,695589212,093,274 43 22,729 821 873,35912941,634,708$0504,624,070130,058 41,914,765 * Excluding Vessels trading on the See also:Caspian Sea, and Wooden Vessels trading on the Great Lakes of North America. t In the See also:absence of satisfactory information numerous small sailing vessels (belonging chiefly to See also:Greece, See also:Turkey, See also:Southern Russia and the Dutch East Indies) are not included. $ Excluding See also:Japanese sailing vessels of under 300 tons net. tons built in 1900 made up 12 % of the whole tonnage. In 1890 there were no vessels built whose displacement exceeded 9000 tons; in 1900 such vessels constituted % of the whole, and about % of the whole were over 16,000 tons. The year 1908 was notable for the number of large vessels launched; to British and 4 German vessels were launched whose tonnage averaged about 15,000 tons each, their tons displacement being about 50 % greater. In 1910 there were afloat more than 8o vessels exceeding 12,000 tons, and having an average tonnage of more than 15,500 tons each (see Table XI. page 885). Six of these vessels were over 20,000 tons and had an average gross tonnage of 25,640 tons each. The tonnage of the largest vessels has almost continuously increased, and vessels with a tonnage of 45,000 tons are now being built, the fully loaded displacement of the vessels being more than 50,000 tons. Fig. 4 shows the tonnage of wood, composite, iron and steel vessels added to the Register year by year since 1860, and figures Tonnage for a number of the years are given in Table I. The built of tonnage of wood and composite vessels added in 186o wood, Iron was 161,180, increasing to 166,210 tons in 1865 and and steel. then falling away at a fairly uniform rate until in 1880 only 19,938 tons were reported, and since that date practically no increase in output of this class of tonnage has taken place. The tonnage of iron ships produced in 186o was about 63 % of that of wood ships; while wood shipbuilding fell off, iron shipbuilding increased, and in 1870 the tonnage of iron ships was more than five times that of wood and composite ships. The out-put of iron ships increased until 1883, when a maximum of 856,990 tons was reached. Steel had now come into use, and iron shipbuilding fell away rapidly, amounting only to 50,579 tons in 1888; this figure fell to 10,679 tons in 1895, and since then very few vessels have been built of iron. Steel, which had been used in shipbuilding to a limited extent for See also:special purposes for some eight years, came into use for the hulls of merchant ships in the later 'seventies. In 188o the tonnage built—38,164 tons—was 4Z % of that of iron ships, by 1885 the ratio was 6o %, and in 1890 the tonnage of steel ships, 913,484 tons, was just 20 times that of iron ships. From that date the statistics of steel shipbuilding are practically those of steam vessels above given. From Table II., which gives the See also:distribution of ownership of existing merchant vessels and other vessels, excepting warships, it The appears that the total tonnage of the world's shipping, ld's excluding vessels under too tons and the wood vessels on wo worlds , the Great Lakes of America, is about 42 millions. Of this shipping tonnage total, rather less than one-ninth is in sailing vessels, and and dtstrl- the remainder in steam vessels. Taking the number of See also:button of. ships instead of their aggregate tonnage, the sailing vessels are 27 % of the whole. Out of the 42 million tons, Great Britain and her colonies own about 19 millions, or 451% of the whole, 18 millions being steamers and million sailing vessels.ti amongst the countries owning shipping in proportion to Denmark each with about 1.8 The leading particulars as to the distribution of ownership of the merchant shipping throughout the world for 1873, 1890, 1900 and 1910 respectively are represented graphically in the See also:block diagrams given in fig. 5, which have been constructed from particulars given in Table II. and similar tables for the other years named. The total tonnage owned in these years, excluding vessels under loo tons and wood vessels on the Great Lakes of America, is represented by squares drawn to scale, in duplicate, and divided up their ownership. Parts of each holding are shaded in the squares on the right so as to show what portion is sailing tonnage and what steam tonnage, and in the squares on the left so as to show the distribution of the total as regards materials of construction in each See also:country. The total tonnage owned is given for each year named, and the percentages owned by various countries are tabulated between the pairs of squares. The tonnage of the shipping of the world has advanced at an increasing rate for many years; the character of this advance may be gathered from the data given in fig. 5. In 1873 Great Britain and her colonies owned 43.25%, and in 1890 52.35%; but although the advance in the shipping of Great Britain and her colonies has continued approximately at the same uniform rate, such has been the increasing rate of the advance of the world's shipping that the percentage owned by the British Empire fell to 49.1% in 1900 and to 45.36 in 1910. This increasing rate of advance of the tonnage of the world's shipping is shown by Table III. The remarkable rate at which the shipping of the United States and Germany has advanced will also be seen. Year. 1873. 1890. 1900. 1910. World's tonnage 17,545,563 22,151,651 29,043,728 41,914,765 (tons) . . . World's tonnage 1 taking 1873 as See also:I00 I00 126 165 240 Average .. 1.5 % 2.4 % 3.8 % ase rate of TABLE III.—Rate of Increase of the World's Shipping. °A 1 per annum from t 873 Proportion owned 43.25 % 52.35 % 49.1 % 45.36 % by Britain Proportion owned 14.27 % 8.23 % 9'47 % 12.06 by United States . . Proportion owned 5.88 % 7.08 % 9.13 % 10'34 by Germany Table IV. gives the output, for the year 1909, of merchant and other vessels throughout the world, excluding warships, all ships of less than too tons and the wood vessels of the Great World's Lakes of North America. The block diagrams in fig. 6 are cutput constructed in the same way as the diagrams in fig. 5, g.nd of ship s. are arranged to show the output of the principal ship- building countries of the world in 1900 and in 1909, the reference square for scale representing one-tenth the amount of that of fig. 5. The total output for the year 1900 was 2,343,854 tons, of which 1,509,837 tons, or 65%of the whole, was built in the United Kingdom; 303,339 tons or 13 % was built by the United States of America; 9.4% by Germany and 5.4% by France. In 1909 the total output was 1,551,532 tons, of which 971,113 tons or 63.5% was built in the United Kingdom; 178,402 or 11.5 °A was built in the United States of America; Germany built 8.1'A; France only 3%; the output of Holland and See also:Belgium has risen from 1.38% in 1900 to 4.34% in 1909; and See also:Japan appears with 2.98 % instead of about •6 % in 1900.
American Shipping.—Under the See also:Registration Laws of the United States vessels may be (a) registered ; (b) enrolled; or (c) licensed. The proportion of vessels coming under these three headings as given by the United States See also:Commissioner' of Navigation, 3oth See also:June 1909, is shown in Table V.
It will be seen that the Registered Tonnage includes
only vessels engaged in the Foreign Trade and in See also:Whale See also:Fisheries, which amount in the total to 16J3 vessels of 887,505 tons and include the smallest vessels See also:crossing the St See also:Lawrence equally with ocean liners. Two hundred
1IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
vessels built in and added to the register of the United Kingdom during each
year from 1860 to 1910. " See also:Minnesota," " See also:Manchuria," " See also:Mongolia, ' See also:Siberia and
Next to Great Britain, the largest shipowning country in the world " See also:Korea " on the Pacific, and the " St See also: Whether Country in which Sail or Built. Steam. roo 200 400 Goo 800 1000 2000 Total 100 200 400 too too 100o 1500 2000 3000 4000 5000 7000 10,000 Total. No. Tonnage. to to to to to to and to to to to to to to to to to to to to No. Tonnage. 199. 399. 599. 799. 999. 1999. above. 199. 399. 599. 799. 999. 1499. 1999. 2999. 3999. 4999. 6999. 9999 14,999• No. Tonnage. Sail I .. .. ~_ .. 1 120 1 8 I .. .. .. .. .. .. 10 2,790 11 2,910 United Kingdom . . # Steam 47 86 23 17 24 44 35 44 37 62 17 7 7 452 968,203 452 968,203 Total r .. .. .. r 120 48 94 24 17 24 44 35 44 37 62 17 7 9 462 970,993 463 971,113 - - 'British Colonies f Sail 18 S I • . " .. .. 24 4,656 . 16 2q 4,656 . Steam. 14 5 .. .. .. 19 3,347 3 1 r .. 6,871 25 10,218 ( Total . 32 10 1 .. .. 43 8,003 3 .. 1 1 .. .. .. .. .. 1 .. .. 6 6,871 49 14,874 `America (United Sail 2 2 4 4 1 -- I 14 9,21'3 1 1 4 2 .. .. .. .. .. 8 6,86o 22 16,153 States) Steam. . . 2 . 3 I _- .. 6 2,048 4 7 2 i 1 3 1 5 6 3 10 5 .. 48 160,z0r 54 162,249 Total . 4 5 4 4 2 .. I 20 11,341 4 7 3 --- 5 5 1 5 6 3 10 5 .. 56 167,061 76 178,402 2 - Sail I .. .. .. .. .. 5 S .. .. 1 .. .. .. .. r 3,870 1 3,870 Germany ( Steam. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 11 4 2 6 5 4 4 11 3 6 6. .. .. 62 121,438 62 121,438 Total 16 9 2 6 5 4 5 11 3 6 6 .. .. 73 125,308 73 125,308 t 3 30 6,877 30 6,877 Holland and Belgium Sail 27 .. ( Steam. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 7 6 z 3 .. 5 2 6 3 2 1 .. 37 60,507 37 60,507 Total . .. J .. .. .. 34 6 2 3 . 8 2 6 3 .. 2 1 .. 67 67,384 67 67,384 ( Sail tJapan . . Steam 4 1 5 1,023 5 .. 3 I 1 .. .. .. 1 .. 2 3 .. r6 45,246 21 46,269 Total . 4 1 .. .. .. .. 5 1,023 5 .. 3 I 1 .. .. .. 1 .. 2 3 .. 16 45,246 21 46,269 Sail 12 2 .. .. .. .. 14 2,174 14 2,174 France . . . . . 1 .. .. .. ... .. .. r 143 2 r 5 s I .. 2 3 19 43,748 ?0 43,891 Steam Total . 13 2 .. .. .. 15 2,317 2 I 5 I I .. 2 3 1 1 r I 19 43,748 34 46,065 Sail . . 2 I .. .. •3 549 3 549 Norway Steam. .. '' • . • . _ - __--_ .. rr 7 4 8 2 12 1 45 30,741 45 30,741 Total . . 2 , .. .. .. .. .. 3 549 11 7 4 8 2 12 •. 1 .. 45 30,741 48 31,290 Sail 9 I .. .. .. .. .. 10 1,605 2 .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 2 305 12 1,910 Italy Steam, • ' 1 .. 1 107 2 .. .. .. .. .. .. 3 5 26,569 6 26,676 Total 10 r .. .. .. 11 1,712 2 .. .. 2 .. 3 .. 7 26,874 18 28,586 i ~ Sail .. ~ .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. Austria-Hungary . . Steam .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 4 2 .. 4 .. 4 .. .. 16 21,235 16 21,235 r Total . . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 4 2 .. .. 4 2 .. .. 4 .. 16 22,235 16 22,235 Denmark . Sail . . . 4 4 668 • 1 1 I 2 6 6,548 4 668 Steam. r 6 6,548 Total . . 4 .. .. .. 4 668 1 .. I 1 1 2 .. .. .. .. .. 6 6,548 10 7,216 Sweden Steam. r .. .. .. .. .. 1 189 .. 4 1 I r .. .. .. 1 .. .. 8 6,233 9 6,422 Total 4 .. .. .. .. 4 534 4 1 1 1 .. .. .. r - .. .. 8 6,233 12 6,767 Russia 1 Sail 5 1 .. .. .. .. .. 6 1,040 .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 6 1,040 . Steam. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ' Total . . 5 x 6 1,040 - - - - 1,040 Other Countries Sail 3S0 I 310 5 4,673 Steam. 2 2 228 x 2 3 4,445 Total . . 2 1 .. .. .. .. .. 3 533 x.. .. .. .. .. 2 .. .. .. .. .. 3 4,445 6 4,983 - Totals Sail . . . 56 13 5 4 1 1 8o 20,760 35 13 2 1 4 5 r .. .. - - .. G1 20,702 141 41,462 1,502,985 758 1,510,070 Steam. 25 8 r r 35 7,085 95 118 43 40 42 71 46 71 57 72 39 19 10 723 Total . . 81 21 6 4 2 I 115 27,845 130 131 45 41 46 76 47 71 57 72 39 19 10 784 1,523,687 899 1,551,532 'Excluding wood vessels built on the North American lakes. '(Excluding Japanese sailing vessels under 300 tons net (if any) built in Japan. See also:Note.-The above figures for sailing vessels are based on net tonnage, and those for steam vessels on gross tonnage. Y o G t11 a, A e- ti2o ,3 Sc See also:ate L _ i oOo,000 Tons See also:Sleet Iron. Wo061b7Con/wsite 2Q-1 32-5" Stearn Sar,Zcn.9 586 41 4 1' See also:Gera( Brita,nj Colonaes52-3S—, U.S.Hmerica 8.2 tlorway .___ .725 France 4r2 Italy__ __ 369 wederac 243 Holland Y/ recce enlrcd.rA • /2Y_ See also:Rust ro-Hanyary /•22 OtheryCoun.triea a6e Steel 60.3o Wood & Iron Com7,.os i to 2546 /4.24X. Greet tBeitain4Colonaca 49'/0 U.S. AMC See also:reed.__. 9.47 Ge See also:rota ny .9" I3 orway sOS o en mark 1.79 not ro-Ilunyary_--. __43 recce titer Cowniries-_-_3 68. Sailing //-03 y nor.oay . -4.61 France 4 ,ltaly----a-,3 if daft. re .-_2Y4 ,.Hot tanel 2.42 ~: Sweden___' -__. 2•I9 A. s tro Hu nyary _ _sea See also:ea in . s-42 t rL m.o, rk____ /.76 Greece. __ _126 t harCountriea- s62 Sasliny 23 07. Steam Y7 .o SaiLin9 YS-33 % Grea tBri tainbtCotonaes 43 25 t1.SATnerica /427 Italy ss Norway . _ 6 3 Germany. 86 F~rance____ jlo(Zg Russia. 2-24 Greece 2•o6 .3wedera. . -96 Denrruark __-03 OtherCoun.tr.ies Z.23 Class. Sailing. Steam. Canal. See also:Barge. Total. No. Tons. No. Tons. No. Tons. No. Tons. No. Tons. (a) Registered:- 445 225,376 490 575,226 .. .. 665 77,921 5,600 878,523 Foreign trade Whale fisheries 25 5,682 8 3,300 . . .. .. .. 33 8,982 Total . 470 231,058 498 578,526 .. .. 665 77,921 1,633 887,505 (b) Enrolled:- 3799 1,391,965 6,327 4,099,087 745 $0,951 2769 767,839 13,640 6,339,842 Coasting trade See also:Cod and See also:mackerel fisheries 341 33,232 91 7,979 . . • • • • • . 432 41,211 Total . . 4140 1,425,197 6,418 4,107,066 745 80,951 2769 767,839 14,072 6,381,053 (c) Licensed:- 4672 50,986 4,241 58,470 .. .. 156 1,744 9,069 1It,200 Coasting trade Cod and mackerel fisheries 43o 3,835 484 5,162 .. .. .. .. 914 8,997 Total 5102 54,821 4,725 63,632 .. .. 156 1,744 9,983 120,197 Grand Total . 9712 1 1,711,076 11,641 4,749,224 745 80,951 3590 847,504 25,688 7,388,755 documented in the United States, and the See also:division is based on the trade on which the vessels are employed, and not as in the United Kingdom on the character of the vessels and their fitness to engage in trade to distant countries or on more local service. By the United States Navigation Laws all trade between American ports no matter how far they are separated-such as New York to See also:San Francisco, or from either of these ports to See also:Honolulu or See also:Manila-is declared to be coasting trade. None but United States vessels are allowed to engage in this trade, which in recent years has developed so rapidly as to employ the main part of the American Mercantile Marine; it demands large numbers of ocean-going vessels, and many vessels have been transferred from the Foreign Trade to meet the de.nand. Lloyd's Register for 1909-1910 gives the following figures for United States shipping, excluding all vessels under too tons and all wooden vessels on the Great Lakes :- Number. Tons. On Sea Coasts . . 2899 2,791,282 Northern Lakes . 583 2,118,276 Philippines . . . 1o8 44,254 3590 4,953,812 Large numbers of American vessels are not included in the American Returns-such as yachts, boats and lighters employed within the Steel Wood x Iron, Composite 93.21 0 65 6.74 ~o % noF Br,Ta,n 4l COIC rII P!6442 US America 42.94 Gor.:,any... 9.40 Prance 3'.44 Italy . -.. 2 46 Holland l.:. 138 & Svlgiumf Norway 421 D24/40r((- .19 0tber (. ough,es t. 8o sreamn 88 .y4 Steam Sailing 97.33 287 2 . Steel Wood ' Composite 98.21 79% (GreQZ`BrilaLnl63~ fig, Colonies s ITS America,.... n.•50 Germany 8.06 olland e v.34 &Belgium) Japan 2.98 France 2.99 ~orva y 2 oa Italy 1-64 Austria-Xungciry 1.93 -OtherCountries 19 M\\\\ r.gre/.\\\\\\\\ \\\\\\\\\\.4997\\\\~1 ~I ~ w\\~afw....~.._zr.l... ~: T:K::zzzz te Scale 100,000 TOILS. on the figures given in Lloyd's Register; see notes appended to Table IV. STATISTICS] No. of Ships. Tons. Atlantic and Gulf Coasts. 17,203 3,500,394 See also:Porto Rico 83 8,740 Pacific 3,378 915,357 See also:Hawaii 43 10,1 so Northern Lakes 3,199 2,782,481 Western Rivers 1,782 162,663 i Total 25,688 7,388,755 Year. Total Tons. Increase in Ten Years. Documented. Tons. Percentage. 1790 478,377 1800 972,492 +494,115 +103'3 18io 1,424,783 +452,291 +46'5 1820 I,280,167 -144,616 - I0.I 1830 1,191,776 -88,391 -6.9 1840 2,180,764 +988,988 - +82.9 1850 3,535,454 +1,354,690 +62•I 186o 5,353,868 +1,818,414 +51'4 1870 4,246,507 -1,107,361 -2o•6 188o 4,068,034 -178,473 -4'2 1890 4,424,497 +356,463 +8.8 1900 5,164,839 +740,342 +16.8 Increase in Three Years. Tons. Percentage. 1903 6,087,345 +922,506 +17.9 1906 6,674,969 +587,624 + 9.7 1909 7,388,755 +713,786 +10.7 1900. The increase of the general commerce of the United States in these periods was, however, so vast that, notwithstanding the great increases of tonnage, increasing proportions of the tonnage were absorbed by the home or coastwise trade, and the percentage of United States shipping, carrying United States commerce to foreign ports was steadily reduced, as shown by Table IX. From 1895 to 1908 very great progress was made in the output of ships in the United States; in 1901 a maximum of 483,489 tons was 877 reached; decreases occurred until 1905, when a minimum of 330,316 tons was reported, but a rapid recovery took place; and in 1908 the unprecedented American total of 614,216 tons was made. In 1909 the output fell off. Out of a total of 1247 vessels of 238,090 tons, built and documented during the year ending June 30, 1909, Period. Average Tonnage Average percentage Average percentage of Ships built per of United States of United States Annum in the Commerce carried in tonnage trading in United States. United States Ships. United States Ports. 1810 102,452 . . .. 1810-182o 89,797 . 1820-1830 89,372 90.2 88.2 183o-184o 118,960 83'9 68.7 1840-1850 185,309 78.1 66.6 1850-1860 366,603 71.2 65.4 1860-1870 299,690 38'1 50.4 1870-1880 253,800 26.2 29.0 188o-1890 220,197 15.2 2I.0 1890-19001 235,698 11.2 22.5 1901-1903 I 462,824 8'7 22.0 1904-1906, 375,868 11.5 22.3 1907 471,332 1o•6 22.0 1908 614,2161 9.8 22.0 1909 238 090 2 95 2z 0 - i Maximum recorded. 2 Lowest for ten years. 61,000 tons consisted of barges and canal boats, nearly 30,000 tons consisted of sailing vessels, 798 vessels of 47,353'tons are classed as river steamers, 17 steamers of 84,428 tons were built in the Great Lakes, and only 6 steam vessels of 16,427 tons were built for ocean trade, while no vessel was registered as built for the foreign trade. See also:Canadian Shipping.-A steamboat service between See also:Montreal and See also:Quebec was commenced in See also:November 18091 two years before the ' Comet " was set to work on the Clyde, and in 1816 the steamer Frontenac commenced running on the Lakes and a number of other vessels followed. During the middle of the 19th century See also:Canada turned out large numbers of wooden ships, the output in 1874 being 487 ships of 183,010 tons. As wood shipbuilding diminished the output fell off. In 1900 only 29 steam and sailing ships of over loo tons were built, amounting in the 'aggregate to 7751 tons. Afterwards improvements took place, and in 1907 59 vessels of 38,288 tons were launched. Among the largest ships built in Canada are the passenger and freight vessel " See also:Harmonic " of 5240 tons gross, and the " Midland Prince," a cargo vessel of 6636 tons gross-both built at See also:Ontario. Smaller vessels are built to pass through the canals from the lakes to the sea, such as the See also:Haddington " of 1603 tons built at See also:Toronto. Japanese Shipping.-Recent years have seen a considerable development of shipbuilding in Japan. Several small vessels were built previous to 1898, but in that year the " Hitachi See also:Marti," a steamer of 6000 tons, was built by the Mitsu Bishi See also:Works. Lloyd's Register Reports show that in the five-year period 1895-1899 there were launched 61 ships with a tonnage of 45,661; in 1900-1904, 279 ships (tonnage 138,052); and in 1905-1909, 414 (tonnage 252,512). The figures quoted by various authorities for the amount of ship-ping owned in Japan vary considerably, particularly as regards sailing vessels. Large numbers of wood sailing vessels are, however, passing away, their places are being taken by steel steamers of the highest class in great variety and increasing tonnage, and the finest and fastest vessels now on service in the Pacific Ocean are Japanese liners built in Japan. Lloyd's Register shows that in 1900 Japan I possessed 503 steam vessels of 524,125 tons gross, while in 1908 she 1 possessed 861 steam vessels of no less than 1,150,858 tons-an increase of 120% in eight years. German Shipping.-For many years the mercantile marine of Germany has progressed at a very great rate, large numbers of vessels being built in Germany and in the United Kingdom for German owners. The average output in Germany per annum from 1895 to 1899 was 84 ships of a total tonnage of 139,000 tons; from 1900 to 1904, 114 ships of 204,600 tons; and from 1905 to 19091 149 ships of 241,000 tons. The total net tonnage owned in 1870 was about 982,000 tons, and this was doubled by 1900, i.e. in thirty years. The total tonnage of Germany in 1900 was 2,905,782 tons, taking gross steam and net sailing tonnage; in 1910 the total on the same basis was 4,333,186 tons, an increase of nearly 50% in the ten years.' IV. MERCHANT VESSELS Sailing Ships.-Generally speaking, so far as the distribution of sails is concerned, except as regards the abolition of studding-sails, the sailing ships of to-day differ little from those which existed in the middle of the 19th century, and in the case of many types at a much earlier period. The change from wood to iron and steel resulted, of course, in some changes Coasts employ 67 % of the number and 47 % of the tonnage; the Great Lakes 12 % of the number and nearly 38% of the tonnage. The total includes a great number of wooden sailing vessels as shown by Table VII., which also shows that the coasting trade employs over 1,000,000 tons of wooden steamships and over 3,000,000 tons of steel steamships (Enrolled and Licensed vessels), while the steel Steam. Tons. Sailing. Tons. No. No. Barges. No. Tons. 3590 847,504 72,277 5,644 687,924 81,659 448 22 185, 728 45, 330 9135 107 1,281,064 198,954 9712 1,711,076 7,388 ,755 Tons. Total Documented Vessels . 11,641 4,749.224 Grand Total . . 25,688 Vessels. 644 2I 2804 121 Registered- Wood . Metal Enrolled and Licensed- Wood . Metal . 349 149
71,474 507,052
9,431 1,712
1,084,690 3,086,008
steamships in the Foreign Trade only reach a total of just over 500,000 tons (Registered Vessels).
Though the American Mercantile Marine has greatly varied in the rate of its growth (see Table VIII.), very great increases have taken place from time to time, and after 1880 the average rate of increase was very considerable, the increase in thirty years amounting to 3,300,000 tons or over 8o%. In the nine years 1900-1909 the increase was 2,220,000 tons, which is more than 40 % of the total in
limits of any harbour; canal boats and barges without sails or motive power employed entirely within any See also:State; barges and boats on the rivers and lakes of the United States which do not carry passengers and do not trade to any foreign territory. None of these vessels are registered, enrolled or licensed. A See also:census of shipping taken in 1889 revealed the fact that at that date the tonnage of these undocumented vessels amounted to just half the total shipping of the United States; since then their numbers have greatly decreased because of the improved means of transport by See also:rail.
The distribution of the total documented shipping on the coasts of the United States in 1909 is shown by Table VI. The Atlantic
SHIP
in rig, to suit the longer and larger vessels; and steel masts, with See also:wire rope standing rigging and various labour-saving appliances, have been introduced. The larger ships also carry steam winches for various purposes, steam windlasses, and steam steering gear, but the general appearance of the vessels has changed very little.
Barges.—Rivers and canals abound with barges of various types, such as the Thames barge, the See also:Tyne wherry or keel, and the Dutch galliot or See also:pink. The Thames barge, which may be taken as a representative vessel of this class, has a length of from 70 to 8o ft., and a carrying capacity of from too to 120 tons on about 6 ft. draught. Like the Dutch galliot, she is provided with See also: For example, on the east coast of England lighters of about 500 tons carrying capacity are used in the coal trade. The system has been carried much farther on the Great Lakes of North America, where cargo barges are in use of over 350 ft. in length, and approaching 5000 tons displacement when loaded. On the east coast of the United States barges, built sometimes of wood and sometimes of steel, are employed, carrying from 2000 to 4000 tons of coal, oil, See also:grain, &c. Smacks or Cutters.—This type of rig is still largely adopted in the merchant service for small vessels, usually called smacks, of a length, say, from 6o to 90 ft., and a displacement from 150 to 200 tons. They are single-masted, sharp-built vessels, provided with fore-and-aft sails only, and fitted with a running bowsprit; they have no standing jib stay. Such vessels were at one time generally used for coasting passenger traffic. The term " cutter " is also applied to an open sailing boat carried on board ship. Schooners, Brigs and Brigantines.—A schooner (fig. 7, Plate I.) is usually a two-masted vessel, with yards only on the foremast and fore-and-aft sails on the main. The foresail is not See also:bent to the yard, but is set flying. In some cases there are no yards at all and the schooner is then called a fore-and-aft schooner, a schooner with yards being sometimes called a square-rigged schooner. Before the days of steam, two- and three-masted schooners, known as " Fruiterers," were extensively employed in the See also:fruit trade from the Western Islands, Italy, See also:Malta and other See also:orange-growing countries to London. In the 'fifties as many as three hundred were thus employed ; they kept their place till the 'eighties, and some even yet survive the introduction of steam as a motive power. They were beautifully modelled craft, and very fast under canvas. A brig is a two-masted vessel having yards, or square-rigged on both masts. A brigantine is a two-masted vessel having the foremast square-rigged, as in a brig, the main mast being rigged as in a schooner. Much of the coasting trade of the world is carried on by schooners, brigs and brigantines. These vessels were formerly employed in the Baltic, and to some extent in the West Indies and the Mediterranean. Schooners such as the above are usually from 8o to too ft. long, 20 to 25 ft. broad, to to 15 ft. deep, and have a gross tonnage of 130 to 200 tons. Brigs are generally larger, varying in tonnage from 200 to 35o tons; they are from 90 to 115 ft. long, from 24 to 30 ft. broad, and from 12 to 18 ft. in depth of hold. Brigantines usually occupy, as to size, a position intermediate between schooners and brigs. Vessels somewhat larger than two-masted schooners and brigs, but of a similar form, are often rigged as three-masted schooners and as the so-called barquentines. The former is like a schooner with a third or mizzen mast added, this being rigged fore and aft, as is the main mast. The latter resembles a brigantine with a third mast added, which is also fore-and-aft rigged. The two rigs thus very nearly resemble each other; both types are square-rigged on the foremast, and fore-and-aft rigged on the main and mizzen; but while in the former the foresail is set flying, in the latter it is bent to the yard.
Larger vessels than these are sometimes fitted with four, five, six and even seven masts, as fore-and-aft schooners. A large number of vessels fitted in this manner are much in favour for the coasting trade of America. Fig. 8 (Plate I.) shows the " Helen W. See also: An interesting vessel of this class was the seven-masted schooner, " See also: She was 215 ft. long, and her tonnage was 1250 old measurement, or 938 new measurement. The " Witch of the Wave " on her best voyage made the passage from Whampoa to See also:Dungeness in 90 days, the best day's run being 338 knots in 24 hours, a very remarkable performance. Later, in 1856, the " See also:Lord of the Isles " See also:beat the two fastest American clippers then existing in a' race from China to Great Britain, one of them only by a few minutes; her length was 183 ft., and her tonnage, new measurement, 630. It is noteworthy that the competition in bringing the early teas home from China, started between British and American ships, was carried on subsequently between British ships alone. In the memorable race of 1866 from Foo-Chow co London, five ships, the " Ariel," " Taeping," Serica," " Fiery Cross " and " Taitsutg " took part. The first three left Foo-Chow the same day—the " Ariel " first, followed 20 minutes later by the " Taeping " and " Serica " together. The vessels separated and lost one another till they reached the English Channel, when the '' Ariel " and " Taeping " got abreast, and raced to the See also:Downs, the tormer arriving some ten minutes before the latter, the " Serica '' reaching the Downs a few hours later. These three occupied 99 days on the voyage ; the " Fiery Cross " and " Taitsing " took two days longer, making the passage from Foo-Chow to the Downs in tot days. The best day's run on the passage for all these ships differed but little, the " Fiery Cross " showing a slight superiority in this respect, having run 328 knots in the 24 hours. The time occupied in the above voyages was beaten in 1869 by the " See also:Thermopylae " and " Sir See also:Lancelot," both British ships and of composite build; the times occupied by their passages were respectively 90 days front Foo-Chow to Dungeness for the former, and 88 days from Foo-Chow to Deal for the latter, each taking one day more to get into the docks. The dimensions of the " Thermopylae " were 212 ft. by 36 ft. by 21 ft. depth of hold, and of the " Sir Lancelot " 1972 ft. by 331 tt. by 21 ft. The best day's run of the " Sir Lancelot " was 354 knots In 24 hours. Shortly before the above voyage the Thermopylae " made the passage from London to Melbourne in an unprecedentedly short time, namely, 62 days from See also:Gravesend to port See also:Phillip harbour. With the opening of the Suez Canal and the general introduction of steam, the demand for exceptionally fast sailing vessels of these types has very considerably diminished, and, indeed, almost ceased to exist. The type of cargo sailing ship usually met with to-day is better illustrated by fig. 9 (Plate I.), which represents the " Victoria See also:Regina," built of iron in 1881 at See also:Southampton: she is 270 ft. long and has a gross tonnage of 2006. Ships with four and five masts were employed by several countries during the 19th century. Sometimes, in the case of four-masted ships, these were square-rigged on the fourth or mizzen mast, and sometimes fore-and-aft rigged; in the latter case they were called four-masted barques in Great Britain and shipentines in America. Five-masted ships are sometimes square-rigged on the fourth mast and fore-and-aft rigged on the fifth mast, and sometimes fore-and-aft rigged on both of these masts. The Naval Chronicle, vol. vii. (1802), contains particulars of the French See also:privateer " L'Invention,' which was captured by the British ship " Immortalite "; she was rigged as a tour-masted ship, carried 26 guns, and had a See also:complement of 220 men. It is remarkable how little her rig differs Irom that of modern vessels. A five-masted vessel is described in the same number of the Naval Chronicle which was square-rigged on the foremast and fore-and-aft rigged on the other four masts; she was apparently a forerunner of the American five-masted schooner of the present day. The shipentine clipper " Great Republic," built in 1853, is noteworthy as being the first ship fitted with double topsails, now so generally adopted. She was 305 ft. long and her tonnage was 3400; she could spread 40,500 square ft. of canvas, excluding stay-sails; she had four decks and was built of wood, though her framing was diagonally braced with iron. The shipentine " Madeleine" built in France in 1896, is almost identical in rig to the " Great Republic ": her length is 321 ft. and her gross tonnage 2892. A five-masted barque " France, " built in Glasgow in 1890, is 361 ft long said has a gross tonnage of 3942. As further examples of the large sailing ships built in recent years may be mentioned the " Astral " and " See also:Potosi.' The " Astral " was built by See also:Arthur See also:Sewall & Co. at Bath, See also:Maine, in 1900, for the oil trade. She is a full-rigged four-masted ship, 332 ft. long, 451 ft. beam, 26 ft. moulded depth, gross tonnage 3292, and intended to carry 1,500,000 gallons of oil in cases of 10 gallons each from the .United States to See also:Shanghai, returning with cargoes of See also:sugar, See also:hemp, &c. The masts and yards of this vessel, as well as the hull, are of steel. The five-masted German barque " Potosi," built in 1895, which is 366 ft. long, has a gross tonnage of 4027 and a dead-weight capacity of 6200 tons; she has a splendid record of See also:quick passages, one reducing the record from See also:Portland See also:Bill to See also:Iquique to 62 days. In 1902 the five-masted ship-rigged vessel " Preussen," of 5081 tons gross, was built in Germany (wrecked at See also:Dover in November 1910), followed in 1906 by the five-masted barque " R. C. Rickmers " of 5548 tons gross, 441 ft. long over all, 53 ft. 8 in. beam, 30 ft. 5 in. depth of hold; her displacement when loaded is about 11,400 tons, of which 8000 tons are cargo. She carries 50,000 sq. ft. of canvas, and on her first voyage reached a speed of 15* knots for a short time under sail alone, maintaining 13 knots for long periods. Although fitted with auxiliary steam power the " R. C. Rickmers " usually See also:trusts wholly to canvas on her ocean voyages, and may thus be considered the largest sailing vessel afloat in 1910. As instances of the times occupied on the voyages of modern sailing ships the following may be given: 66 days from Iquique in See also:Chile to the English Channel by the British ship " See also:Maxwell," gross tonnage 1856; 29 days from See also:Newcastle, New South See also:Wales, to See also:Valparaiso by the British four-masted ship " Wendur," 2046 gross tonnage; 30 days from the See also:Lizard to Rio de Janeiro by the British ship " See also:Salamanca," of gross tonnage 1233; and 78 days from Dover to Sydney for the same ship; 153 sailing days for a voyage round the world, made up of 5o days from See also:Cardiff to Algoa Bay, 28 days from Algoa Bay to Lyttleton, and 74 days from Lyttleton to the Lizard, by the British ship " Talavera," gross tonnage 1796; 59 days from Cape See also:Town to Iquique by the British ship " Edenballymore," of gross tonnage 1726; 88 days from San Francisco to See also:Queenstown by the British four-masted barque " Falls of Garry," of gross tonnage 2102; and 69 days from Scilly to Calcutta by the " See also:Coriolanus," gross tonnage 1074. Amongst the voyages recorded recently by German ships the following may be enumerated: 58 days from the English Channel to Valparaiso by the four-masted barque " Placilla," gross tonnage 2845; 71 days from the English Channel to Melbourne by the barque " Selene," gross tonnage 1319; and 69 days from the English Channel to See also:Adelaide by the four-masted barque " See also:Hebe," of gross tonnage 2722. Although alterations in the rigs of ships have not caused much difference in their appearance over a very long period, a number of changes have been made, mostly for the purpose of saving labour. The See also:mechanical reefing of topsails and top-gallant sails was introduced about 1858, but only remained in favour for a few years; double topsails, on the other hand, first used in the four-masted American shipentine clipper " Great Republic," have held their own, and double top-gallant sails have since been adopted. Until about 1875 almost all ships carried studding-sails, but since this date they have been gradually discontinued, and at present are usually only to be found in training vessels, and now and again in square-rigged yachts. As already stated, wire rope has been adopted for standing rigging, and deadeyes and lanyards have given place almost universally to rigging screws. Masts and the heavier yards have been made of iron for many years, and more recently of steel, and the lower masts and top masts have in a number of cases been made in one length; when constructed in this manner the mast is termed a pole mast. This arrangement is very common in America, where the latest steel sailing ships are so fitted. Most large sailing ships carry a steam boiler or boilers, and engines are provided for all sorts of purposes, for which hand labour used to be commonly employed. The result of this and other labour-saving arrangements has been to effect a very considerable reduction in the number of hands carried. As indicating the nature of the change which has taken place, it may be mentioned that whereas a l000-ton ship of the East India Company in the middle of last century had a crew of 8o all told, a modern four-masted barque of 2500 tons has a total complement of 33 only. As to the employment of sailing ships, there can at the present day be seen at most large shipping ports a number of sailing ships of various types and sizes. Some of the largest ships are employed in the jute trade of India, the grain trade of See also:California, British See also:Columbia, &c., the See also:nickel ore trade from New See also:Caledonia and the nitrate trade of Chile. From Great Britain they usually take out coal, which, however low freights may be, may in nearly all cases be relied on. Sailing ships are sometimes provided with auxiliary steam propelling machinery of low power to save cost of tugs in getting in and out of harbour, to make headway when becalmed, and to increase the safety of the vessel. In the early days of steam, all sea-going vessels retained their rig, and the machinery fitted was only regarded as auxiliary. In Sailing the " Savannah "—the first steam vessel to cross the ships with Atlantic—the paddle wheels were portable; they were auxiliary removed and packed up on board in case of See also:bad weather Qowet. or when attempting a long voyage, but were replaced and used for getting into port after crossing the Atlantic. The screw propeller was found preferable in such cases, as it offered less obstruction than paddle wheels when the sails were set and the engines stationary; but the resistance offered by the screw when not in use led to various devices for either lifting it completely out of the water, or for " feathering " the blades and fixing them fore and aft, so as to offer less obstruction in going through the water. Auxiliary power is of great advantage to vessels engaged in See also:seal or whale fishing as it enables them to avoid See also:ice floes, and to proceed through open channels in the ice as opportunity offers. In 1902, six such vessels—all barque rigged, and one fitted with a lifting propeller—hailed from Dundee, and a few others hailed from Norway, from Newfoundland and from New See also:Bedford, U.S.A. Several navies have employed vessels fitted with auxiliary steam power for training purposes, such as the Chilean training ship " General Baquendo " built in 1899 of steel, sheathed with teak and coppered; she is 240 ft. long, 454 ft. broad, and of 2500 tons displacement on a mean draught of 18 ft.; she has a large spread of canvas, and under steam alone is equal to a speed of 13 knots. In recent years the internal combustion motor has been adopted in some cases in place of the steam engine as a source of auxiliary power, especially in the smaller classes of sailing.ships, and in many cases it has made the employment of such vessels remunerative once more. Should the heavy oil engines introduced in 1910 prove sufficiently simple and reliable for auxiliary power in the larger vessels, vessels so fitted might compete successfully with See also:tramp steamers in certain trades. Steamships.—Of merchant steamships, vessels of all sizes are to be met with, from a small See also:launch to the stately Atlantic See also:liner of over 30,000 tons gross and 25 to 26 knots speed, and the huge cargo ship of over 20,000 tons gross and 15 knots speed. They are employed on every service for which sailing ships are used, and upon others for which sailing ships are not employed, and they monopolize nearly the whole of the passenger traffic of the world. The passenger vessel is provided with airy and spacious accommodation for her living freight above water, while the upper part of the cargo vessel is cut down as much as possible consistent with due See also:provision for safe navigation at sea. The passenger ship thus becomes a lofty vessel, especially amidships, while the cargo ship appears long and low lying. Apart from this broad difference, the various sizes of merchant steamships have in general no bold characteristic features like sailing ships; they possess different deck structures. and certain See also:differences in form, but, to the ordinary See also:eye, a photograph of a vessel of, say, l000 tons, apart from details of known size that may serve to See also:fix the scale, may often be taken to represent a vessel of even ten or twenty times the size. Types of Steamships.—A steam vessel may be little more than an open boat with the boiler and engines placed amidships if intended for river use, and may be of any shape necessary to suit local conditions and fulfil the services required. Vessels which proceed to sea must be decked over to prevent them from being " swamped " and built of a suitable form to make them otherwise seaworthy; the height of the deck above water, or the freeboard, will be increased, and the sides carried up above the deck; these topsides meet at the extremity of the vessel, and as the size of the vessel increases or larger seas have to be encountered the topsides are covered in forward and aft to turther improve the sea-keeping qualities of the vessel: If only a short portion is so covered in, the covering is often rounded off along its sides and is then termed a turtle back, or See also:monkey forecastle, when fitted forward, and a turtle back, or See also:hood, when fitted aft; if made larger and of sufficient height above the upper deck to be serviceable for accommodation forward it is called a top gallant forecastle, and aft a poop. It is frequently desirable to build up cabins or other accommodation across the middle of the ship beneath the bridge, forming what is called a bridge house. Instead of fitting a turtle back or hood aft, a break is sometimes made in the upper deck and the after portion is raised a step higher than the midship portion, the after portion is then called a raised quarter deck. If a poop be extended forward to join the bridge house it is called a long poop. In very many cases when a top gallant forecastle is fitted, the See also:gap which occurs between this forecastle and the bridge house is partly shut in at the sides by the ship's topside plating; the space so formed is then called a well, and the ship a well-decked ship. Vessels arranged as above described are illustrated by See also:figs,. 1o, 13, 14, on Plate II.; they include most of the vessels in the coasting trades of Europe, and many of the smaller and See also:medium sized ocean-going cargo vessels. In larger vessels the forecastle, bridge and poop decks are frequently joined to form a light continuous going vessels to or from warehouses, and are frequently fitted so that they can tow one or more dumb barges. Many sea-going vessels are built to carry a particular cargo on one voyage and a general cargo on the return voyage. This usually results in their having certain features which adapt them for the special cargo, and do not interfere materially with their carrying a general cargo at remunerative rates. Ordinary cargo ships, or " Ocean Tramps " as they are called, do. a very large portion of the world's cargo-carrying. They are mostly built of steel, and their usual speed is from io to i i knots. In the early 'nineties well-decked vessels formed a large proportion of the total number; but ten years later comparatively few of this type were being built, and these were principally intended for the coal trade, or were comparatively small vessels for coasting purposes. Partial awning-decked steamers, again, FIG. ii.—General arrangement of ore-carrying steamer " Vollrath Tham." i. Hold. 4. Skip, or bucket. 7. Officers' quarters. to. Coal bunker. 2. Discharging trunk. 5. Discharging doors. 8. Stores. II. Loading See also:hatch. 3. Electric See also:crane. 6. Crew's space. 9. Engine and boiler room. 12. Slopes to discharging doors. which were much in favour at the same period, gave place, a See also:decade later, to other types; and vessels having a raised fore-deck went entirely out of fashion, the tendency being to revert to flush-deck vessels, having short poop, bridge house and forecastle. Modern Developments.—The last few years have been remarkable for great development in special types of cargo vessels. While the vessels have frequently been specially designed to meet the built according to the requirements of the accommodation for 'I requirements of the particular trades on which they are to be passengers, &c. ! employed, certain general features apply to the lines of their develop- Barges.—The simplest cargo steamer is the steam barge or lighter, See also:meat: often merely a long narrow See also:box of wood or steel made small enough i. In order to accommodate the maximum cargo possible in vessels in See also:section to pass through locks and canals, with the ends of convenient size, the lines of the vessels have been filled out, giving fashioned more or less abruptly, and spaces allotted aft for ! block co-efficients which are frequently over 8o % and in some of the the machinery and forward for the crew. For service on Great Lake freighters have reached 88 rivers and estuaries they are made larger and wider as the circum- 2. Such portions of the ship above the water as do not contristances of draught and dock or See also:wharf accommodation permit, the See also:bute usefully to carrying cargo, but would be measured for registered bottoms being generally See also:flat in order that they may ground safely tonnage, are cut down to the smallest amount consistent with the in tidal See also:waters; thy, are used for transferring cargoes of sea- provision of sufficient reserve of buoyancy and stability. structure. The vessel is then termed a shade-decked vessel—if the ship's sides up to this level are not completely closed in. In still larger ships the sides are completely built in, the deck made stronger, other decks or deck houses are fitted above it, and the ship is called an awning decked, spar decked, shelter decked or three decked vessel—according to the details of her construction. Above these strong steel decks light See also:promenade decks, See also:sun decks and boat decks are Cargo-ships. 3. To provide for a return See also:journey without a cargo, in addition to the double bottom and See also:peak tanks, large water ballast tanks are provided abreast of and above the cargo spaces, and arranged so that when ballasted down the metacentric height of the vessel is not excessive. Much of the ballast is carried in side or wing tanks extending to the upper or main deck, or in triangular tanks beneath the main deck, ballast See also:discharge valves or pipes being arranged so that the tanks may be emptied by gravity when practicable. 4. The holds have been cleared of obstructions—such as pillars, hold beams and See also:web frames—so that the stowage space for the cargo is unbroken, the necessary strength being given by a heavier system of framing of the ship and by the construction of the wing or side tank bulkheads.
5. To facilitate rapid handling of cargo, hatches have been increased in size and number, and special appliances fitted for rapidly loading and unloading the vessel--particularly, large numbers of derricks or craneg, with convenient steam or electric winches.
Several well-known types of cargo vessels have thus been produced, such as the " Mancunia " built by Messrs W. See also: On a draught of 23 ft. 9 in. her displacement is about 12,000 tons and dead-weight capacity over 8000 tons, while as regards space she has a stowage capacity of more than 400,000 cub. ft. These results are obtained on the low net register tonnage of 2245 tons, the gross tonnage being 4590 tons. The vessel has continuous upper and main decks, and the underside of the wing tanks carried by the cantilever frames is at such a slope that coal will naturally See also:stow close up on being dumped into the hold. The triangular wing tanks take 1350 tons of water ballast and the double bottoms and the fore- and after-peaks take 185o tons. The " Herman Frasch," a modern American cargo vessel of 3804 tons, gross, built in 1909 by the Fore River Shipbuilding Co., Quincy, Massachusetts, for the See also:sulphur trade, is a single-decked vessel, with triangular side ballast tanks and fitted with a short forecastle which carries the windlass gear, a bridge-house well forward to accommodate captain and navigating officers, a poop for firemen and crew, and cabins above the poop for the engineer officers. Her dimensions are: length 345 ft., breadth 48 ft. 3 in., depth of hold 27.1 ft. At a draught of 23 ft. 6 in. her displacement is 8i70 tons, of which 6125 tons may be dead-weight carried. Her engines are of 2100 I.H.P., are fitted right aft, and give her a speed of 10.5 knots. An interesting cargo vessel of a different type is the " Vollrath Tham," recently completed by Messrs See also:Hawthorn, See also:Leslie & Co. for the Swedish ore trade. She is 387 ft. long, 56 ft. 6 in. beam, depth 30.9 ft., tonnage 5826 tons, gross, and dead-weight capacity 8000 tons. Instead of the usual open hold arrangement she has been divided into a See also:series of hoppers and automatic discharging holds, and fitted with to electric discharging See also:cranes. Trunks are provided in each hold, through which buckets or skips of two tons capacity can be lowered into position beneath discharging doors under the cargo hold. (Fig. 11 shows the general arrangement of this vessel.) Great Lake Freighters.—The greatest development of cargo handling the world has yet seen is, however, to be found in North America, where the Great Lake freighters have been built to meet the rapidly growing trade in iron ore, coal and grain. Some of these vessels are 600 ft. or upwards in length, 6o ft. beam, and 32 ft. moulded depth, and on a draught of 20 ft. can carry 12,500 tons of coal or ore or 450,000 bushels of grain. The hatches of these vessels are 12 ft. apart, and are so wide that the holds are self-stowing. The holds are quite unobstructed fore and aft, and built with flat bottoms and vertical sides, so that practically the whole of the ore canoe removed by clam shell grabs. For loading, the vessels are brought alongside huge stacks of ore stored on long lofty piers called ore docks; these docks are provided with shoots from which the cargo is run into the ships by gravity, thus loading large vessels in two hours. When unloading at the See also:Cleveland end of the voyage the cranes and transporters fitted ashore can hoist out the cargo of 12,500 tons in ten hours, using grabs of 5 to 15 tons capacity. The propelling machinery is placed right aft and develops from 1800 to 2200 H.P., giving a speed of from 10 to 12 knots. They are well equipped with auxiliary machinery including steam steering gear, steam winches and hoists, pumps and electric light. The wheel-house and bridge are fitted at the after end of a short forecastle; the officers are accommodated forward and the crew aft, both being provided with excellent quarters (see fig. 15, Plate II., and fig. 16). Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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