The Colonial Clippers

J. St. A. Jewell.

The Introduction of Iron in Shipbuilding.

IT was the introduction of iron, as the chief material for the building of ships, that contributed more than anything else to the supremacy of the British Mercantile Marine.

Iron killed the competition of our American cousins, who, as long as wood was the chief factor, were able to give us a hard fight as to which should lead the world in shipbuilding. Yes, it was the advent of iron, more than the North and South War, more than the sinkings of the Alabama, more than any slump in freights or foolish shipping legislation on the part of the United States, and more even than our adoption of Free Trade, which made the British nation the carriers of the world.

Many people think, and they have been fostered in their belief by the good old conservative wood and hemp sailor, that iron also sounded the knell of the sailing ship. This is, of course, to a certain degree true, yet sail continued to flourish for 50 years after the advent of iron, and up to the late nineties no finer ships had ever been built or sailed than the iron clippers from the Clyde and other British shipyards.

It was the deterioration of the man before the mast which the advent of steam brought about, and the cutting of freights induced by coal, the cry for bigger ships and more luxury, and also, that soulless modern institution, the company manager, which drove sailing ships down and down in the trade of the world; these and the growing desire for mechanical speed, which have invaded almost every department of life, killed the windjammer.

But in iron, as in wood, sail had a zenith to reach before the decline set in, and through the last half of the nineteenth century the ports of the world were crowded with magnificent iron full-rigged ships and barques, such as it would have been hard to improve upon with all our new knowledge of wind pressure, streamlines, and least resistance curves.

The Drawbacks and Advantages of Iron.

Like everything else iron had its drawbacks as well as its advantages. At first its effect upon the deviation of the compass caused many a stranding and many a disastrous shipwreck. Then too, though an iron ship can be driven into a head sea in a way no dare-devil of a Yankee driver would have dared to attempt with his soft-wood clipper, iron has not the buoyancy of wood, and the sight of a modern four-poster’s main deck when running before the westerlies would have made a Black Ball skipper rub his eyes with astonishment. As a preventative of weed and barnacles, no anti-fouling has yet been discovered which can compete with copper, and thus an iron hull, especially if it had been long in certain well-known localities, was ever a handicap to a vessel’s speed through the water. Iron ships have never been able to equal their wooden sisters in light winds, and this chiefly owing to the trouble of foul bottoms.

The three chief advantages of an iron ship were firstly, that her hull would stand unlimited driving, especially into a head sea; secondly, she had more room for cargo than a wooden ship of the same size; and thirdly, she was safer from that dreaded scourge at sea—fire.

Increase in the Size of Ships.

The chief change brought about by iron has been the increase in the size of ships. The old-style shipowner held that a very big ship was a very big mistake.

When the Jason, a 1500-ton ship, went out to Calcutta at the beginning of the seventies, Patrick Keith, of Gladstone, Wyllie & Co., wrote to the Carmichaels, her owners, saying that she was far too big a ship for the Indian trade, and that Smith’s smart little 1000-ton “Cities” were quite large enough. Yet on her last voyage to the Hooghly, 20 years later, the Jason was by far the smallest deep-water sailing ship in the port of Calcutta.

The difficulty of working wood in big sizes kept down the tonnage in the old days, but with the introduction of iron this difficulty was at once removed. And iron masts and yards in the place of Oregon pine, and wire in the place of the tremendous hemp shrouds, solved the problem of rigging strain—thus, with sail as with steam, the first result from the use of iron was the steady increase in individual tonnage.

Sail Plan Alterations.

Iron masts and wire stays caused a big change in the sail plan of the full-rigged ship. The increased strength led at first to a certain amount of over-masting as well as over-carrying of sail, with the result that many a new clipper was dismasted on her maiden voyage. 1874 was a specially disastrous year in this way. No less than seven ships lost their masts bound out to Australia, and the Loch Ard was twice a victim. It was her maiden voyage, and she lost her “gossamer,” as Joseph Conrad poetically calls it, before she had cleared the land. She put back to the Clyde and refitted, only to again lose her masts running the easting down. About this date also a great number of iron ships were posted as missing, notably the Africa, Asia, Loch Laggan (ex-America), Cairo and Great Queensland. No doubt some of these losses were due to dismasting.

It was not only that the ships were tremendously lofty, but their yards became squarer and squarer, until it was found that stunsails were a luxury. In fact, partly for this reason and partly owing to the competition of steam and the resulting need for economy, flying kites of all descriptions were given up and by the early eighties even a fore topmast stunsail was looked upon as a curiosity.

The lesson of rigging strain had to be learnt with the iron clippers, just as it had had to be with the early wood clippers, but it was not long before the seas were crowded by perfectly sparred iron ships. Specially worthy of mention for perfection of sail plan were Carmichael’s beautiful main skysail clippers, such as the Golden Fleece, Jason, Mermerus, Thessalus, Argonaut and others.

Double topsail yards were followed before very long by double topgallant yards, then came the eclipse, and the seas became covered with stump topgallant mast horrors and that pathetic sight, the full rig ship masquerading as a barque.

I give a mainyard table, which may be of interest as showing the development of width in sail plans.

The “Ironsides,” First Iron Sailing Ship.

The first vessel to be constructed of iron was launched in 1838, and appropriately named the Ironsides. She was built at Liverpool by Messrs. Jackson, Gordon & Co., and in appearance differed very little from wooden ships of that date. She was very short, with heavy stern and low bow, out of which cocked an extremely long bowsprit and jibboom, whilst her masts in contrast to her hull seemed to rake the heavens. However she was the pioneer of the new material and at one time her picture was a common sight in shop windows. It is doubtful if she was altogether a success, and iron ships were still a rarity 20 years later.

The “Martaban.”

In 1853, an iron sailing ship was launched from the yard of John Scott, of Greenock, with intercostal plates and stringers. This was the Martaban, of 743 tons register, built for the well-known firm of Carmichael. Her specifications were the product of the brains of Matthew Orr, brother-in-law of the first Thomas Carmichael, and of John Ferguson, who was afterwards a member of Barclay, Curle & Co., the famous shipbuilders. The Martaban was classed nine years A1 at Lloyd’s, being rated equal to a nine years wooden ship.

At that time Lloyd’s had no rules or class for iron ships, so they retained Martaban’s original specification as a basis for their rules concerning iron ships. That the Martaban was a success is proved by the fact that she received £4 a ton for a cargo of coffee and cotton from Bombay to Havre, and was offered a Diplomé d’Honneur at the local exposition for delivery of her cargo in perfect condition.