Ferry-boats of other types exist by the score, from barges upwards, propelled by an extraordinary assortment of contrivances, some of the older and quainter of which have been referred to in an earlier portion of this book. The historic Tyne ferries were withdrawn not long since for financial reasons, but an attempt is being made to restart them. The ferries at Glasgow and over the Mersey have each their own special features, and even the Thames has not always been without penny steamers. The Thames Steamboat Company and other organisations have made the experiment. The later effort of the London County Council to establish a service deserved a better fate, for the boats were well built and the engines were compact and powerful for their size.

The necessity of keeping open waterways which Nature wishes to close annually by freezing over, led to the invention of a species of vessel planned with that object. The most famous ice-breaker is the Ermack, launched in 1899 by Messrs. Armstrong, Whitworth and Co. for the Russian Government, for which she was designed by Vice-Admiral Makaroff. Many of the harbours of northern Europe are frozen over for the greater part, and sometimes the whole, of the winter, to such an extent that the ice attains a thickness of several feet; and navigation is at a standstill so far as those ports are concerned. The only way of keeping a channel open is to prevent the ice from freezing too thickly to permit of the passage of vessels, and this is done by keeping a vessel moving frequently up and down the channel to break the ice before it can freeze so thickly as to become impassable.

An ice-breaking ship, to perform its allotted task, must be both weighty and powerful, and capable of travelling at a speed sufficient to give her the required momentum so that she may break the ice by the sheer force of the blow she delivers when she rams it, and she must be strong enough to inflict and not sustain damage by the collision. Further, besides cracking the ice into fragments weighing a few score tons apiece, she must be able to slide upon the ice and crush it by sheer weight. The Ermack is 305 feet long, 71 feet beam, and 42 feet 6 inches deep. She had three screws aft and, when first built, had a fourth screw forward, the forefoot being considerably cut away to allow it to operate between the stem and keel. The idea was that the forward screw would agitate the water under the ice about to be struck and thus lessen the support the ice received from the water, and that it would also prevent an accumulation of ice under the ship’s bottom by creating a current of water towards the stern where the after propellers would throw the ice astern of the ship. This screw was found to be less useful than was expected, or rather it was discovered in practice that as good results could be obtained without it as with it in dealing with the massive Arctic ice, or any ice over a certain thickness, and when the ship was sent back to her builders a few years later to be lengthened, the forward propeller was taken out and not replaced. When the alterations were made the bow was severed in dry dock, and another bow having been built it was launched and floated into the dock and attached to the vessel. This bow is of a different shape from the other and has proved to be even more effective than the old one. Three screws aft are necessary in an ice-breaker of this size in order to give the power for the proper performance of her duties and also to enable her to be steered in very limited areas, greater steering facilities being obtainable by this means than by any other. The Ermack is fitted with three sets of triple-expansion machinery, having cylinders 25 inches, 39 inches, and 64 inches diameter, with a 42-inch stroke of piston, working at a pressure of 160 lb. The boilers are six in number, 15 feet in diameter by 20 feet long, working under forced draught. The machinery develops about 10,000 horse-power.

One of the Ermack’s feats was to rescue the coast defence armour-clad General Admiral Apraxine, which had got frozen in after stranding in the Baltic.

She finds no insuperable difficulty in smashing her way through ice 12 or 13 feet in thickness. The first piece of ice she ever attacked was drift ice about five feet thick, through which she went easily with her engines giving her little more than half-speed. The most serious test was against ice estimated at 25 feet thick, consisting of 5 feet of field ice, 9 feet of pack ice above it, and ice 11 feet thick, and perhaps more, below the field ice. Thick snow on top of thick field ice forms the most serious obstacle, the snow forming an immense cushion or ridge which becomes worse the more an effort is made to get through it. On another occasion she made her way by ramming through ice 34 feet in thickness. Another experience was to rescue eight of nine steamers which were nipped in the ice; the ninth was so badly squeezed by the ice that she sank before the Ermack could force her way to her.

A smaller ice-breaker, the Sampo, built by the same firm for Finland, has gone through sheet ice 12 inches thick at a speed of 8¹⁄₂ knots, and frequently through drift ice 10 or 12 feet thick.

On the other side of the Atlantic, whenever a severe winter is experienced, many of the Canadian and United States lake and coast ports are only kept open by means of ice-breaking ferry-steamers. Of the latter type is the Scotia, built by Armstrong, Whitworth and Co. for the carriage of railway trains across the Straits of Canso to and from Port Mulgrave, Nova Scotia. She is 282 feet in length, and on the rails laid on her decks she is capable of taking a load of nine Pullman cars, and can also accommodate an express locomotive and tender weighing as much as 118 tons. She has an ice-breaking propeller and a rudder at each end, and has two sets of triple-expansion engines of 1200 horse-power each. Her speed is rather over twelve knots.

About four years ago the ice-breaking and surveying steamer Lady Grey was launched by Messrs. Vickers, Sons, and Maxim at Barrow-in-Furness for the Canadian Government, and performed some exceedingly effective work, particularly in the St. Lawrence River or in duties associated with the Marine and Fisheries Board. A larger and faster vessel being required, the builders were asked to provide a steamer which, while preserving all the qualities of an ice-breaker, should yet be able to attain a speed of seventeen knots, and be capable of use for a variety of purposes. The Earl Grey was launched in June 1909, and besides fulfilling these requirements has been engaged in the passenger traffic across the Northumberland Straits. She has been fitted with special quarters, enabling her to be employed as an official yacht by the Governor-General. Provided with a cut-water or schooner stem with a short bowsprit, an elliptical stern, and two steel pole schooner-rigged masts, which rake considerably, and having been designed with a graceful sheer, she has more of the appearance of a large yacht than an ice-breaker intended to be able to make her passages in all sorts of weather and under widely varying conditions. The hull is built with extraordinary strength; the frames are very closely spaced in order to take up the thrust of the pack ice which in winter may sometimes be piled round the vessel; the shell plating is of unusual thickness, and the outer skin is double right fore and aft along the water-line and to the bottom of the keel in the fore body, where the friction of the ice tends in the case of ice-breaking steamers to wear away the material. The ordinary practice of this and all other ice-breakers, in whatever part of the world, is to utilise their weight to break the ice by rising upon it and crushing it. In order to possess as great a weight as possible, large tanks are built into the fore part of the Earl Grey which can be filled or emptied at a rate of 250 tons an hour. The vessel is also equipped for breaking ice when going astern, the counter having been suitably strengthened to resist the shocks; while to secure the rudder from injury it has been built into the form of the ship so that her movements are not impeded by the ice-floes. The Earl Grey is 250 feet in length, 47 feet 6 inches beam, 17 feet 7 inches depth, and 3400 tons displacement. She has accommodation for fifty first-class passengers and twenty in the second class, and under these circumstances winter ice-breaking excursions may yet become the vogue among those in search of a new sensation.

The introduction of steam-propelled vessels was objected to by sailing-yacht owners, but the advantages of auxiliary power in yachts intended for cruising overcame all opposition, and in the course of a few years the number of yachts of all rigs, even cutters, fitted with auxiliary power, steadily increased. Machine-driven yachts are intended as cruisers. A few steam-yachts had paddle-wheels, the latter being specially favoured for all vessels intended for Government or for Royal use, where sea-going qualities were required. One of the most notable of this type was the Victoria and Albert, built to the order of her Majesty the late Queen Victoria, which was, at the time of her launch, one of the finest yachts afloat. Among the earliest of the Royal yachts was the screw steamer Fairy, which was built for the late Queen in 1845 at the Thames Iron Works, Shipbuilding and Engineering Company’s yard at Blackwall, then owned by Messrs. Ditchburn and Mare. This was the first iron vessel owned by the British Government. Her dimensions were: length 144·8 feet, breadth 21 feet 1¹⁄₂ inches, draught 6 feet, displacement 210 tons, horse-power 416, and speed 13·21 knots.

It is only fitting that the finest Royal yachts afloat intended purely for pleasure purposes should be at the disposal of the monarch of the leading maritime nation, and the latest Royal yachts built for the late King Edward merit this description. They are the present Victoria and Albert and the Alexandra, the latter built in 1908. Other modern Royal yachts of note are the German Emperor’s Hohenzollern, which is heavily armed and can be utilised as a fast cruiser if necessary, and the Russian Pole Star and Standart.

Amongst the celebrated Royal yachts of the past belonging to foreign rulers are the iron paddle-steamer Faid Gihaad, built in 1852 by Messrs. Ditchburn and Mare for Said Pasha, the then Khedive of Egypt. She was a flush-decked barquentine, 285 feet in length between perpendiculars, 318 feet over all, with a breadth of beam of 40 feet and a tonnage of 2200. Her engines were of 800 horse-power and were built by Messrs. Maudslay and Field. She was equipped as a war vessel and carried an armament of two 84-pounder pivot guns, twelve 32-pounder broadside guns on the upper deck, and fourteen 32-pounders on the main deck. Like everything else that the Pasha indulged in, the Faid Gihaad illustrated his taste for luxury. Externally the vessel was painted white from the water-line, below which she was copper-coloured. The stern was ornamented with a gold scroll, and each paddle-box had a crescent and star in gold. Three years before the building of the Faid Gihaad there was constructed at Alexandria, by order of Said Pasha, a steam-frigate called the Sharkie, which was sent to this country to be fitted with steam-engines and a screw propeller. She was 220 feet in length, was rigged as a second-class frigate, and had engines of 550 horse-power by Miller and Ravenhill. These were capable of driving her nearly 11 knots an hour. Her armament consisted of 36 guns of heavy calibre. The furniture and panelling of the cabins were richly inlaid with ivory and mother-of-pearl, which may have admirably suited the taste of Said Pasha in these matters, but can hardly have conduced to the efficiency of the vessel as a fighting machine.

In the days when the Papal States were a power in the land and his Holiness was not a voluntary prisoner in the Vatican, the then occupant of St. Peter’s chair was the possessor of a very fine armed screw steam-yacht, the Immacolata Concezione. She was built by the Thames Iron Works and Shipbuilding Company, with engines by Messrs. J. Seaward and Co. of Millwall. She carried eight brass 18-pounder guns, and was a three-masted full-rigged ship of some 627 tons burden. The engines were of 160 nominal horse-power and 300 indicated, and were capable of giving her a speed of 13 knots an hour.

Among other famous iron vessels which were either specially built or employed as Royal yachts in the middle of the last century may be mentioned the Jerome Napoleon, constructed by M. A. Normand at Havre for the late Prince Napoleon, afterwards Emperor of the French; the Peterhoff, built by Messrs. Ditchburn and Mare at Blackwall in 1850 for the late Emperor Nicholas of Russia, which was wrecked on her outward voyage to the Baltic; the Falken, built at Deptford in 1858 by Messrs. C. Langley for the late King Frederick VII. of Denmark. She was an iron schooner-rigged vessel 127 feet in length, and could steam at 10 knots an hour. The Miramar was a favourite yacht with the late Empress of Austria. The Russian Imperial Yacht Livadia was circular and shallow, and is the only large turbot-shaped yacht afloat. These yachts, however, have been gradually superseded by vessels of a thoroughly modern type. As a case in point, the Princess Alice, owned by H.S.H. the Prince of Monaco, and constructed by Messrs. R. and H. Green at Blackwall in 1891, is built of steel frames with teak planking, her bottom being covered with copper sheeting. Thus in her general finish she is one of the finest specimens of marine architecture on the composite principle which ever took the water. Unlike most Royal yachts, she is used not merely for pleasure but also for scientific research, for the Prince of Monaco is well known for his contributions to the scientific knowledge of ocean depths and all that pertains thereto. The expeditions which he has organised, and most of which he has conducted in person, are invariably made on this yacht, which is splendidly equipped for the purpose. In order that she may be able to cover a large radius of action, she is fitted with an unusual coal capacity and can store in her bunkers sufficient to carry her 3700 miles. Under steam alone she can make 9 knots an hour, and with steam and sail combined she has been known to attain to nearly 12 knots an hour.

The Safa-el-bahr, designed and constructed in 1894 by Messrs. A. and J. Inglis of Glasgow for his Highness the Khedive of Egypt, is also a steel-built two-decked yacht. She is schooner-rigged, and is fitted with three-stage expansion engines with cylinders 18 inches, 29 inches, and 48 inches in diameter, giving a piston stroke of 36 inches. These are supplied with steam at a pressure of 160 lb. from two boilers having a heating surface of 2300 square feet, and give an indicated horse-power of 1200, with a speed of 14·1 knots per hour. Her tonnage under yacht measurement is 677 tons. She has a length of 221 feet, breadth 27·1 feet, depth 17·3, with a draught of 12 feet.

As private yacht-owning is a pastime in which only the wealthy can indulge, and as almost all private yachts are built to suit the fancy of their owner, a considerable individuality is displayed by them. They range in size from vessels not bigger than a ship’s boat to ocean-going liners. The Winchester, the latest boat of her class yet devised, is a triple-screw turbine yacht, bearing a strong resemblance to a torpedo boat. Her dimensions are: length 165 feet, breadth 15³⁄₄ feet, depth 9³⁄₄ feet, and displacement 180 tons. She was built in 1909 for Mr. W. P. Rouss, a prominent member of the New York Yacht Club, by Messrs. Yarrow and Co. of Scotstoun. The propelling machinery consists of three Parsons marine steam turbines constructed by Messrs. Yarrow. She has two Yarrow water-tube boilers, and her furnaces are fitted to burn oil fuel. The hull is of steel. At her trials at Skelmorlie she easily maintained a speed of 26³⁄₄ knots, which was ³⁄₄ of a knot in excess of the speed stipulated in her building contract; and it was believed that a much higher rate could have been achieved, as 250 lb., the full working pressure of her boilers, was not reached, the high pressure of her high-power turbine being only 160 lb.

The Iolanda, of about 2000 tons yacht measurement, was built for an American owner in 1908, and was then stated to be the second largest privately owned yacht in the world. She was both constructed and engined by Messrs. Ramage and Ferguson, Ltd., Leith. Her length over all is about 305 feet; beam 37 feet 6 inches; depth 23 feet. Her twin-screw machinery is of the triple-expansion four-crank type of 3000 to 4000 indicated horse-power. Her boilers are partly cylindrical marine return tubular and partly water-tube. This combination, the first installed in any yacht, affords the advantage of being able to raise steam and get under way at practically a moment’s notice, or provides additional speed at short notice when required, while the bunker capacity of some 550 tons gives the yacht a very extensive ocean-steaming radius. She is provided with motor and steam launches, quick-firing guns, electric-lighting apparatus, which is accredited as being the largest ever installed in a private yacht, and includes arrangements for manipulating the Marconi wireless telegraphy.

Among eccentricities of design in steamboats may be mentioned cigar ships, vessels shaped like birds, early submarines, double-hulled boats, and numerous other extravagances. One of the earliest submarines was contrived by a Dutchman named Hollar, about 1653, but whether this wonderful vessel ever got beyond the imaginative or paper stage is unknown. There is a picture of it in the British Museum. This singular craft was to be 72 feet in length, 12 feet high, and 8 feet beam, with a wheel in the centre where it “hath its motion.” The description says it was built at Rotterdam. The inventor undertook in one day to destroy 100 ships. “It can go from London to Rotterdam and back in one day, and in six days can go to the East Indies, and can also run as fast as bird can fly.” “No fire, no storm, no bullets can harm her unless it please God.” There is no further trace of her.

The first submarine which achieved any measure of success was that of David Bushnell, an American, who devised it in the hope of blowing up a British warship and failed egregiously. Bushnell, who was born at Saybrook, Conn., in 1742, devoted a large amount of attention to submarine warfare. His idea was to fix a small powder magazine to the bottom of a vessel and explode it by means of a clockwork apparatus. He constructed a tortoise-shaped diving boat, made of iron, and containing sufficient air to support a man for half an hour. This boat, called the American Turtle, was propelled by a sort of screw or oar worked from inside. It could be immersed by admitting water through a valve in the bottom, and lightened by pumping the water out again. She was tried, without success, against the British warship Eagle in New York harbour, and a later attack on the Cerberus left that frigate unharmed, but blew up an American schooner and some of her crew.

The Gemini twin steamer, invented by Mr. Peter Borrie, was a double-hulled boat, launched in the summer of 1850. The keels and stems were not placed in the centre of the hulls but towards the inside of them, thus making the water-lines very fine on the inside. This was intended to diminish the tendency of the water to rise between the hulls. The inner bilges were much fuller than the outer ones, the idea being to afford a greater degree of buoyancy on the inside, in order to support the weight of the deck. The steamer was 157¹⁄₂ feet long over all, and 26¹⁄₂ feet broad on deck. Each hull was 8¹⁄₂ feet broad, with a space 9¹⁄₂ feet between them. The frames were of angle iron, and the keels were formed by carrying the plates downwards, so as to form channels for the bilge-water inside the hulls. This arrangement was intended for river craft of this type, but for sea-going vessels drawing more water the inventor planned keels of iron bars, with the garboard-strakes riveted upon them in the customary way. The plating was not carried to the top of the frames on the inner side of the hulls, except at the space in the middle for the paddle-wheel, but was carried up to the deck, thus forming an arch between the two hulls, which were bound together with stays. The hulls were divided into water-tight compartments. The vessel was two-ended and could travel in either direction without turning. There was a rudder at each end, placed in the centre of the opening between the two hulls. It was constructed somewhat in the manner of the balanced rudder of later years, as it was affixed, to a vertical shaft in such a way that it was divided into two unequal parts, and when left free would accommodate itself to the vessel’s motion. The steamer was estimated to carry from 800 to 1000 passengers.

Whether in the sailing days or since, the crossing of the Channel between Dover and Calais has been attended with an amount of misery altogether disproportionate to the shortness of the voyage. It is therefore not surprising that inventors have at one time and another attempted to design vessels which should give the maximum of speed and comfort and the minimum of sea-sickness. The English Channel Steamship Company, Limited, was formed in 1872 to adopt the plan of a steam-ship designed by Captain Dicey, and construct the steam-ship Castalia. His idea was that two large hulls should be used, and placed at such a distance apart that each should act as an outrigger to the other, and the whole structure should remain comparatively steady. The Castalia was built by the Thames Iron Works Company. She was 400 feet long, and each hull had a beam of 20 feet, with a depth of hold of 20 feet. The distance between the two hulls was 35 feet, and they were united by strong girders. The hulls were very sharp at the ends, and flat in the floors, and the draught of water was only 6 feet. The inner sides of the hulls had a freeboard of 14 feet, and the uniting girders were slightly arched, but a difference in the methods of fixing them to the hull was made, compared with previous experience with double-hulled vessels. In former attempts to solve the problem of the navigation of twin steamers, the connecting beams had usually been placed in such a way that their ends extended under the decks of the hulls. This in the case of wood was manifestly a plan which did not permit of a very large vessel or of a certain limit of strength being exceeded. Captain Dicey’s scheme in adopting the arched form of girder was to utilise to the utmost the strength of the iron, and bind with the utmost rigidity the whole structure together. Where the girders entered the hulls the upper part was just under the deck; the girders were carried right across to the outer sides of each hull, additional strength being provided by bolting every girder to a bulkhead. The space between the hulls was decked over, and allowed ample accommodation for passengers. Each hull carried a powerful engine for driving a large paddle-wheel, the wheels being placed with a space between them amidships between the two vessels. The vessel could be steered at either end, thus obviating the necessity of turning, and a navigating bridge extended across the tops of the two paddle-boxes. It was even claimed that the ship would be large enough to carry railway trains across the Channel, but this does not seem to have been tried. As she drew only a trifle over 6 feet of water she could enter the harbours on either side of the Channel at any state of the tide, and though she was steady enough as a sea boat she was too slow, and was withdrawn from service.

A double-hulled boat of a somewhat different type, and from which great things were expected, was the Calais-Douvres. Her principal features were to be an increase in speed and stability, and by means of the steadiness of her double hull, the abolition of sea-sickness. She was an enlarged Castalia. The expectation of her owners on these points was not realised and after a few trips she was withdrawn from service and replaced by another and more efficient vessel of the ordinary type.

To the category of magnificent failures there should be added the steam-ship Bessemer, launched at Hull in 1874 and designed by and named after Mr. (afterwards Sir) Henry Bessemer. The object her designer had in view was to mitigate the horrors of the cross-Channel passage, and to accomplish this he fitted his boat with a spacious saloon which, by means of a series of pivots and a gyroscope, would remain in a level position without oscillation, no matter how much the vessel might roll or how rough the weather might be. These arrangements worked perfectly in theory, but immediately the Bessemer went to sea for her trials and the test became a practical one, it was discovered that she must be relegated to a conspicuous place among the successes that might have been. Everything about her was on a lavish scale. A peculiarity was that she had four paddle-wheels, two a side, an experiment that has never been successful. Her form also was against her, and in dirty weather she would have been a wet ship, difficult to steer, and almost helpless.

On her private trial trip the Bessemer attained a speed of eleven knots in crossing from Dover to Calais, but was thirty-five minutes in getting alongside the French pier.

One of the most extraordinary vessels ever designed was that known as the Connector. She was not rigid, but was built of sections which could be joined together, so that she would bend in accord with the motion of the waves. The joints were constructed by giving to the after end of all sections (but the last) a concave form so that it would overlap the convex bow of the adjoining section. These were joined and hinged by massive iron bolts resting in stout wrought-iron sponsons built into the ship’s sides and framework. If necessary one of the sections could be disconnected and the other three joined up. As each section was fitted with a fore and aft rig, like a cutter, it could make its way under sail alone if necessary. The engine was contained in the hindmost section, which really pushed the other three along. She was intended to be used as an iron screw collier in the London and North-East coast coal trade. Each section was to act as a lighter, and could be left where desired, while the others were sent to their respective destinations, to be picked up again in turn when it was desired to reunite the vessel, and send her for another cargo. The advantage claimed for this peculiar system was that vessels of very light draught, and of length far greater than hitherto and carrying the largest cargoes, might be used without the danger of breaking their backs, or even straining, the yielding of the joints neutralising that liability; also that their great length, light draught, and narrow midship section, permitted unprecedented speed, while the facility for detaching part of the vessel in case of collision, fire, sudden leakage, or grounding with a falling tide, would afford a means of saving life and a portion of hull and cargo, when otherwise all would be lost. A company called the Jointed Ship Company was formed to exploit this novelty in ship construction. Like other experimental schemes it was not a success, the theory of the designers and the practice of Father Neptune not being in accord.

The Winans cigar ship, as her name indicates, was shaped like a huge cigar. Messrs. Winans began experimenting in the ’fifties at Baltimore with a view to ascertaining the amount of water-friction sustained by surfaces of differing smoothness at various speeds, the relative resistance of proportions and speeds, and whether any advantages were to be gained from spindle-shaped vessels as compared with ordinary vessels. These experiments resulted in the launching in October 1858 at Ferry Bay, Baltimore, of a spindle- or cigar-shaped vessel having about its middle a ring bearing flanges set at an angle calculated to strike the water and propel the vessel. She had four powerful engines placed amidships, and rudders at both ends measuring 4 feet by 3 feet. She was 16 feet in diameter at the widest part and 180 feet long, and it was expected she would cross the Atlantic in four days; she belied those expectations. The owners stated that she was designed “to obtain greater safety, despatch, uniformity, certainty of action, as well as economy of exportation by sea.” They believed that “by discarding sails entirely, and all the necessary appendages, and building the vessel of iron, having reference to the use of steam alone, these most desirable ends may be even still more fully attained than by vessels using both sails and steam.” They continue: “The vessel we are now constructing has no keel, no cutwater, no blunt bow standing up above the water-line to receive blows from the heaving sea, no flat deck to hold or bulwark to retain the water; neither masts, spars, nor rigging.” The plan and position of the propelling wheel were supposed to be such that its minimum hold of the water would be much greater in proportion to tonnage than the maximum hold of the propelling wheel or wheels in ordinary steamers. The engines were high pressure with a cut-off variable from one-sixth to full stroke; combined, they were to exert threefold more power in proportion to displacement of water than those of the most powerful steam-packets then built. Her boilers were of the locomotive type, consuming 30 tons of coal in twenty-four hours, the smoke, &c., being carried away by two funnels. She was divided into several water-tight compartments. With 200 tons of coal on board she was to displace about 350 tons of water, and accommodate about twenty first-class passengers and the United States mail, with room to spare for small valuable packages, specie, &c. The same principles and properties which were to adapt the vessel to high average speed were claimed to be also adapted to the cheap, safe and sure transportation of freight as compared with vessels using sails only or sails and steam combined. There was a railed-in space on her upper surface for the deck.

Messrs. Winans’ first cigar ship, though not fulfilling all the hopes formed of her, was, on the whole, sufficiently successful to encourage the continuance of the experiments, for in the two following years she was severely tested both for speed and seaworthiness in all sorts of weather. Another vessel was built at St. Petersburg in 1861 with a submerged screw propeller at the stern, which gave so much more satisfactory results than the revolving belt apparatus that Messrs. Winans were encouraged to order a third spindle ship. This was built by Mr. John Hepworth of the Isle of Dogs, and was named after her inventor, Mr. Ross Winans. This boat was 256 feet in length with a diameter and depth of 16 feet, and was circular in form throughout. The top of the vessel was strengthened for 130 feet amidships by four longitudinal ribs of steel which supported the deck, and also rendered the top as strong to resist tension and other strains as the bottom. Internally there were iron ribs running round the vessel 4 inches deep and 3 feet apart in the engine and boiler room, and 7 inches deep and spaced 6 feet elsewhere. The bottom and side plates were of iron, were thicker amidships than at the end, while the bottom was further strengthened and protected outside the skin plates by a plate of iron 1 inch thick and 33 inches across at its widest and diminishing to a point at the ends. The skin plates of the top were of toughened steel ³⁄₈ inch thick amidships. The two screw propellers, one at either end, were 22 feet in diameter and were only half immersed in the water, though it is difficult to imagine what advantages were supposed to be gained by incomplete immersion, seeing that the exposed part represented so much dead weight to be carried, to say nothing of the other drawbacks. A space 48 feet 6 inches long amidships was devoted to the engines and boilers. Each of the four boilers had a fire-box, and was surmounted by two vertical cylinders containing vertical tubes; while the centre portions of the boilers were tubeless to allow of more ready cleaning and a better circulation. A fan increased the draught and also the ventilation of the ship. The engines were surface-condensing. The problem of allowing the longest possible stroke was ingeniously solved. Above each of the three jacketed steam cylinders was a shaft, carrying two cranks and working by the sides of the cylinder, the piston-rods passing the shaft and connecting with a cross-head above, which was connected with the cranks by two rods. The three engines were joined by a system of return cranks and a peculiar coupling, which prevented cross-strains from the transmission of power from engine to engine, and from the shafts of the different engines getting out of line. The ship could carry coal for twelve days at normal consumption. On deck it carried two masts and two funnels, all having a considerable rake aft.

In 1860, Captain George Peacock, F.R.G.S., formerly a London merchant, and then residing near Exeter, invented a yacht in the shape of a swan. Her title, the Swan of the Exe, was displayed on a banneret, the brass rod of which was held in the swan’s beak. This mechanical bird was 17 feet 6 inches in length, with a maximum beam of 7 feet 6 inches, and its height from the keel to the top of the back was 7 feet 3 inches. Its neck and head, which were gracefully curved, rose 16 feet above the water. Its long neck had to do duty as a mast for supporting by means of halliards the two wings, each of which consisted of a double lateen sail. The halliards passed through gilt pendant blocks, attached to a ring, fastened round the neck just below the head. The vessel itself consisted of twin boats beneath the water-line, there being an oblong compartment in the centre, though viewed from the front or side it appeared to consist of one hull only. She had two powerful webbed and feathering feet, constructed of steel, to propel her. These were placed between the keels or hulls, and worked by a lever attached to a contrivance such as is seen on old-fashioned hand fire-engines, operated by two or four persons as required. With two oars which she could also carry, her fishtail-shaped rudder, her feet, and her wings, she could get up a speed before the wind of five miles an hour. She was only intended for ornamental waters or inland lakes. Her interior fittings suggested those of a first-class railway carriage, with plate-glass windows at the sides, &c. Her centre table was big enough for ten persons to dine comfortably at, and at night it could accommodate a mattress upon which to sleep. A description of her at the time adds: “In the table are small apertures which open to the water underneath, and thus afford the opportunity of fishing while sitting at table. Any aquatic prey thus obtained may be dressed in a multum-in-parvo cooking apparatus on board, the smoke from which is conveyed through the bird’s neck, and out at its nostrils. In the breast of the bird is a ladies’ cabin fitted up as a boudoir.” The Swan was of about 5 tons register, and when fully stored and carrying 15 persons, only drew 17 inches of water. About the only thing of which the inventor had not thought was to make one eye green and the other red, to represent ship’s lights.

The only ship of her kind ever built with a hot-air engine was the Ericsson, named after her inventor and generally called the Caloric, because of her peculiar engines. These had four immense cylinders which drove paddle-wheels 32 feet in diameter, the energy being transmitted by a contrivance Ericsson invented and termed the “regenerator.” The shape of the furnaces and the small amount of fuel they required, together with the absence of boilers, enabled a greater amount of space to be devoted to the accommodation of merchandise and passengers. The vessel was 250 feet long, 40 feet broad, 31 feet deep, and had a gross tonnage of 1920. She was built in 1852, of wood, and was asserted to have made a speed of 12 knots an hour on her trial trip, but she never came anywhere near this subsequently.

The absence of funnels and the presence of two large paddle-boxes made her one of the most extraordinary vessels ever seen. She made one slow journey across the Atlantic to Liverpool and back to America, and after another set of caloric engines had been tried in her with about as much success, in regard to her speed, as the first, she was fitted with engines of the ordinary type.

Three other inventions which have not yet passed the experimental stage are the Hydrocurve, the Hydroplan, and the Hydroplane.

The hydroplan is a motor-boat carrying two enormous propellers, one above the stem and the other above the stern, which revolve in the air and not in the water. The vessel is said to have been invented by a gentleman named Fortanini, and with a 70-horse-power motor is claimed to have attained, on Lake Maggiore, two or three years ago, a speed of 40 miles an hour. For all practical purposes the hydroplan may be described as a “skimming dish” hull gliding on the surface of the water, its draught being a few inches only.

For some time past some attention has been directed to the trials, on the Illinois River, of a curious type of aquatic motor, named the hydrocurve. Instead of ploughing through the water, the hull of the hydrocurve displaces the water, not sideways as with an ordinary type of vessel, but downwards from the surface, each particle of water being moved in one direction only. According to a report published in the Popular Mechanic of Chicago, this curious vessel on her first trial made a speed of 35 miles an hour. In a further test she achieved 1¹⁄₈ mile in 1 minute 30 seconds, or, roughly speaking, 45 miles an hour. She is 40 feet in length and carries an 80-horse-power motor. The bottom of the boat is concave, lengthways and across.

The theory that with an increase in speed the tendency of a ship is to rise, so that when travelling at a fast rate she will draw less water than when going slowly, and consequently will have less resistance and less skin friction, has attracted the attention of naval architects for many years. So far as theory is concerned, there is nothing to prevent a vessel being built on this principle, but when it comes to considering stability, it is another question altogether. The principle is based upon the well-known theory that if the hull of a vessel be made flat in the bottom and inclined slightly, so that it forms an inclined plane, the vessel will rise to an extent governed by the speed at which it travels. The Rev. C. M. Ramus, of Rye, Sussex, in 1872 improved on this theory by making a flat bottom in two inclined planes, one behind the other, so that each should have an equal lifting power. The Admiralty tested several models made by him, but without satisfactory results, probably due to the comparative inefficiency of the screw-propelling machinery of the period. An American engineer, named Fauber, taking advantage of improved propelling machinery, designed a vessel on these lines with hydroplanes attached directly to the bottom, and a year or two ago it carried six persons at a speed of 35 miles per hour. If a vessel of this size can be constructed and retain its stability, there is no reason why one of much greater size should not be built. The development of the principle is that the planes should be placed at some distance below the bottom of the hull, so that when the vessel travels at a considerable speed, it shall rise out of the water and be supported by the planes, which shall skim along the surface. This, however, can only be achieved at present by sacrificing stability to speed. An improvement in construction is to shape the bottom of the hull like a very wide letter V, with a series of planes underneath. It is claimed that an ocean liner can be built on this system, carrying six propellers arranged in three pairs, and that the necessary air would be pumped under the vessel by the action of the propellers as she travelled along.

A steamer on wheels, but intended to travel on the water, was invented a few years since by a Frenchman named Bazin. He constructed a model, which worked well and was on the scale of one-twenty-fifth of the liner he hoped to see built some day. The model consisted of four pairs of hollow wheels or discs, each wheel being in appearance like two immense soup-plates set face to face and set on edge. These wheels were caused to revolve, thereby reducing the friction of the water to a minimum, and the vessel was propelled by a screw. The decks, being built on a framework over the axles, had space for ample accommodation, and in order that the speed of the ship should not suffer it was intended to carry no cargo. A vessel on this plan was constructed and launched on the Seine. The platform was 126 feet long by about 40 feet wide, and each wheel was about 32 feet in diameter and about 10 feet at its greatest width. The total weight of the boat was about 280 tons. The boat proved her utility when tried. The inventor estimated that an ocean-going liner constructed on this system would easily cross the Atlantic at a rate of thirty knots an hour.

It is impossible to say what the development of the steam-ship will be in the future. The piston engine has probably reached its utmost development, or very nearly so, and much more in that direction is not to be expected. Naval architects are already considering whether the existing lines of the steam-ship are the best for speed, and a design has been brought out for a steamer constructed on what are known as tetrahedral lines. There has recently been described in the Scientific American a vessel, a model of which has been constructed, designed upon this tetrahedral principle. It is contended that this form for ships offers less resistance than any, and that by it alone can the greatest attainable speed at sea be reached. Yarrow boilers with Schultz turbines are recommended for vessels of this type.

A proposal for fast Atlantic travelling, which has not gone beyond the paper stage, is that three long narrow hulls should be built parallel to each other and supporting the main body of the hull. The inventor claims that the method would enable a greater speed to be attained than by any existing liner, and at a less cost; but readers who have followed the development of the steam-ship will recollect that this suggestion provides a curious parallel to the experiments of Patrick Miller with his triple-hulled boats in the eighteenth century.

Few, however, will doubt that, great as have been the changes in shipbuilding and steam-propulsion during the last hundred years, there will be changes as great in the present century.

The Evolution of Floating Docks, 1800-1910.