The first paddle steamer. The world's first steamer. The most famous steamers in history

What is a paddle steamer? A distant past, a turned page of history captured on faded black-and-white films, the film "Volga-Volga". “I know everything here…. Here's the first! " But in Switzerland, things are different. Here, real steamers still ply the waters of Lake Geneva - as they did a hundred years ago.

Looks like these Swiss invented a time machine on the sly! Otherwise, how to explain that not only architectural monuments, but also vehicles are preserved in their original form in this country? For example, steamers. Since the end of the 19th century, these ships began to conquer the water spaces of the whole world, and Lake Geneva, surrounded by high mountains, of course, did not stand aside. Already at the beginning of the 20th century, numerous tourists admired Mont Blanc and the Lavaux vineyards from the numerous snow-white liners.

Years passed, and even with regular maintenance, the steamers fell into disrepair. Outdated steam engines were replaced by diesel-electric ones. Some ships were written off altogether ... But the second round of tourist interest in the second half of the 20th century put all the accents in their usual place: steamers in Switzerland began to return to their original state. Steamships have received their rebirth.

As a result, today the waters of Lake Geneva are plowed by a flotilla of eight wheeled vessels, built between 1904 and 1927. Five of them have classic steam engines, and three are converted to diesel-electric motors that turn wheels. In total, 19 steamers are currently operating on the lakes of Switzerland - about a quarter of the total world number of such ships. There is only one steamer in operation in Russia.

Steamships on Lake Geneva perform not only sightseeing flights, but also play the role of public transport, connecting cities such as Geneva, Vevey, Montreux, Evian and Lausanne. That is, you can sail to France and back on a steamer. A day ticket will cost 64 francs, or 4,500 rubles. Discounts are available for families. And if you have a "single" ticket of the Swiss travel system, the so-called Swiss Pass, you do not need to pay anything - you will be welcomed on board with open arms.

The steamer "La Suisse" (translated from French - "Switzerland") is the flagship of the flotilla of the Geneva General Shipping Company. Length - 78 meters, gross weight 518 tons, capacity - 850 passengers.

The ship was built in 1910 at the shipyard swiss company "Sulzer" in Winterthur. It must be said that this company, founded in 1834, exists to this day, being a prominent player in the industrial machinery market.

Initially, like all steamers, Switzerland was coal-fired. Fortunately, the ship avoided replacing the steam engine with a diesel engine in the sixties, and has survived to this day almost in its original form. The ship was restored several times, the last time in 2009, so we can say that Switzerland is in great shape. Until the next overhaul, she still has to swim at least thirty years.

First class dining in all its glory. Lots of wood and red carpets are a true traditional luxury. How many rich and famous people sat at these tables?

For dear guests - expensive wine and great music.

What's inside? How does a car work? Instead of admiring the beauty of the mountains and vineyards, I dived down a narrow staircase into the engine room.

The steam engine is the heart of Switzerland. Engine power is 1380 horsepower.

The engine converts the energy of the water vapor into the reciprocating motion of the piston, and then into the rotational motion of the shaft on which the paddle wheels are fixed.

Where does the steam come from? Of course, from the boiler, that is, from the boiler. Previously, the furnaces of two boilers worked on coal, then on fuel oil - until one large boiler was installed in the seventies. By the way, twenty-four of these boilers were on the Titanic. After the last reconstruction, "Switzerland" furnaces were replaced with modern ones. The energy of burning diesel fuel is used to heat water these days.

Hot steam through pipes enters the cylinders of the steam engine.

All onboard electronics have also been replaced with modern ones. Electricity is produced by diesel generators with a water-cooled exhaust system. Due to this, the noise of diesel engines is absolutely inaudible on the deck.

But the principle of the steamer structure remained the same. The main thing here is the steam engine, which is a real work of art.

The machine uses a steam distribution mechanism with a Guch rocker.

The work of the machine is monitored by a senior mechanic. Its tasks include manual control of the engine.

The main parameter is steam pressure.

The steam engine has two cylinders, a large low pressure and a small high.

From the cylinders come rods that move the connecting rods, which, in turn, rotate the shaft.

All details are as good as new.

Having received the command from the captain on the intercom, which is duplicated on the machine telegraph, the mechanic Christian must slow down or accelerate the course of the car, performing a set of actions known to him alone. Yes, it's not poking buttons on the screen!

His assistant Yang performs simpler and dirtier operations, such as lubricating various components. The steam engine is a living machine, but it needs constant care. That is, he loves affection and lubrication.

Mechanical cylinder lubrication system.

All engine pivot joints are equipped with voluminous oil nipples.

Engine connecting rods at work.

What's up there? Let's go to the captain's bridge.

The first thing we see is the control room of the machine telegraph. "Full speed ahead!" Maximum speed "Switzerland" is 14 knots or 25 kilometers per hour.

The bridge offers a beautiful view of the waters of Lake Geneva. The drive of the giant steering wheel used to be mechanical, now it has been replaced by an electric one.

Modern navigation equipment will not let you go astray.

And the radar - to bump into an obstacle.

Today is a weekday, there are not many ships around and the captain can give the helm to the senior officer and pose a little.

Only the most experienced captain can steer a steamer - this is the highest level of qualification for sailors in Switzerland. Work twenty years on ordinary ships - and then, perhaps, they will give you a steamer!

But when you are the captain of a steamer, you can use the most powerful steam whistle with impunity. "Oooooooooo!"

"What do you think of your work?" Captain Patrick laughs. "Of course, the work is very responsible, but I love it. Why? You look around, and you will understand everything ..."

In the fall season, Switzerland makes a flight from Lausanne to Chillon Château twice a day, making eight stops along the way.

The round trip takes three and a half hours. Even if you are not allowed into the engine room, there is something to admire! Lake Geneva is one of the most beautiful places in Europe, and perhaps in the whole world.

From all sides huge mountains hang majestically.

On the port side are the Lavaux terraced vineyards, over 30 km long and listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Grapes have been grown there since the time of the Roman Empire, and, I must say, they ate the dog on this. Actually, it was there that I went on the steamer "Switzerland". But more about that next time!

UPD: Video from the ship

What is a steamer?

A steamboat is a watercraft vehicledriven by steam energy by rotating propellers or paddle wheels. The prefix SS, S. S. or S / S (for screw steamers) or PS (for paddle steamers) is sometimes used to denote steamships, but these designations are most often used to denote steamship.

The term steamer (steamboat) refers to small, island, steam ships operating on lakes and rivers, more often so called river ships. After the use of steam energy began to justify itself in terms of reliability, steam power began to be used on larger, ocean-going ships.

The history of the creation of the steamer

Who Invented the First Steamer?

Early attempts to equip a boat with a steam engine were carried out by the French inventor Denis Papin and the English inventor Thomas Newcomen. Papen invented the steam autoclave (like a pressure cooker) and experimented with closed cylinders and pistons pushed by atmospheric pressure, similar to the pump built by Thomas Savery in England during the same period. Papin proposed using this steam pump for operation on a wheeled boat and tried to sell his idea in the UK. It was unable to successfully convert the piston movement into rotational movement and its steam could not produce sufficient pressure. The Newcomen model managed to solve the first problem, but remained constrained by the limitations inherent in the engines of the time.

The steamer was described and patented by the English physician John Allen in 1729. In 1736, Jonathan Halls received a patent in England for a Newcomen engine-driven steamboat (using a pulley instead of a drawbar and a ratchet latch to achieve rotational motion), but only James Watt's improvement in steam engines made the concept feasible. William Henry Lancaster, Pennsylvania, upon learning of Watt's engine on a trip to England, made his own engine. In 1763, he put it on a boat. The boat sank, and even though Henry made an improved model, he did not have much success, although he may have inspired others.

The first steam-powered ship, the Pyroscaphe, was propelled by the Newcomen steam engine; it was built in France in 1783 by the Marquis Claude de Geoffroy and his colleagues as an upgrade of an earlier 1776 Palmipède. During its first demonstration on July 15, 1783, the Piroscaf walked against the river Sona for fifteen minutes, until a technical failure occurred. The malfunction was probably not serious, as the ship is said to have made several more such trips. Following this, de Geoffroy tried to interest the government in his work, but for political reasons he was asked to build another version of the ship, now on the Seine in Paris. But De Geoffroy did not have the means for this, and after the events of the French Revolution, work on the project was stopped, as the inventor left the country.

Similar boats were made in 1785 by John Fitch in Philadelphia and William Symington in Dumfries, Scotland. Fitch successfully tested his boat in 1787, and in 1788, he started a regular commercial service along the Delaware River between Philadelphia and Burlington, New Jersey, and carried at least 30 passengers. This boat developed a speed usually from 11 to 13 km / h and covered over 3200 km during its short service. Fitch's boat was not a commercial success, as relatively good rail links were well organized on this route. The following year, the second boat served a 48 km tour, and in 1790 a third boat was tested on the Delaware River, before patent disputes discouraged Fitch from continuing the business.

At the same time, Patrick Miller of Dalswinton, near Dumfries in Scotland, developed double-hulled boats, propelled by hand with cranked paddle wheels located between the hulls, and even tried to interest various European governments in a giant version of warships, 75 meters long. Miller sent to King Gustav III of Sweden a working scaled-down model, 30m long, called the "Experiment". Then, in 1785, Miller hired engineer William Symington to build his patent steam engine that powered the boat's aft paddle wheel. The vessel was successfully tested at Lake Dalswinton in 1788 and was followed by a large steamer the following year. But Miller soon abandoned the project.

Steamers in the 19th century

Patrick Miller's failed project attracted the attention of Lord Dundas, CEO of the Forth and Clyde Canal Company, and at a meeting with the directors of the company on June 5, 1800, his proposal was approved for the use of Mr. Symington's steam-powered Captain Shank model ship ".

The vessel was built by Alexander Hart at Grangemouth and is powered by a Symington vertical cylinder engine and cabled power to a crank that drives paddle wheels. The Carron River trials in June 1801 consisted of towing vessels from the Forth River along the Carron River and from there along the Forth Clyde Canal, where they were successful.

In 1801, Symington patented the horizontal steam engine directly connected to the crank. He received support from Lord Dundas for the construction of a second steamship, which became known as "Charlotte Dundas", named after Lord Dundas' daughter. Symington has developed a new hull for his powerful horizontal crank-driven engine of a large paddle wheel, fenced off in the center of the ship's hull to prevent damage to the canal banks. The new vessel had a wooden hull and was 17.1 m long, 5.5 m wide and 2.4 m deep. The steamer was built by John Allan and the engine was built by Carron.

The maiden voyage took place on the canal in Glasgow on January 4, 1803, with Lord Dundas and some of his relatives and friends on board. The crowd was happy with what they saw, but Symington wanted to make improvements and another more ambitious test was done on March 28th. This time, Charlotte Dundas towed two 70 tonne barges 30 km away on the Fort Clyde Canal in Glasgow, and despite the "strong nasty wind" that stopped all the other canal vessels, it took only nine and a quarter hours to pass. which amounted to an average speed of about 3 km / h. Charlotte Dundas was the first practical steamer in the sense that it demonstrated the practicality of steam power for ships, and was the first steamer that began their continuous production and development.

American Robert Fulton attended the tests of the Charlotte Dundas and was intrigued by the steamer's potential. While working in France, he was an assistant and corresponded with the Scottish engineer Henry Bell, who may have given him the first model of his working steamer. He designed his own steamboat that sailed on the Seine River in 1803.


He later received the Watt steam engine, which was delivered to America, where he built his first real steamer in 1807. It was the North River Steamboat (later known as Clermont) and carried passengers between New York and Albany, New York. Claremont was able to fly 150 miles (240 km) in 32 hours. The steamer was powered by a Bolton-Watt engine and was capable of long-distance voyages. It was the first commercially successful steamboat to carry passengers on the Hudson River.

In October 1811, the ship designed by John Stephens, Little Juliana, operated as the first steam ferry between Hoboken and New York. Stevens' ship was designed as a twin-screw steamer in contrast to the Bolton-Watt engine at Claremont. This design was a modification of Stevens' previous steamship The Phoenix, the first steamer to successfully sail on the open ocean from Hoboken to Philadelphia.

Henry Bell's steamboat PS Comet in 1812 opened passenger traffic on the Clyde River in Scotland.

The Margery, launched at Dumbarton in 1814, became the first steamboat on the River Thames in January 1815, which surprised Londoners. It sailed from London to Gravesend until 1816, when it was sold to the French and became the first steamship to cross the English Channel. When he reached Paris, the new owners renamed it Elise and opened a steamship service on the Seine.

In 1818 "Ferdinando I", the first Italian steamship, left the port of Naples, where it was built.

The first sea steamer

The first steamer was Richard Wright's Experiment, a former French lugger; he, having departed from Leeds for Yarmouth, arrived at Yarmouth on July 19, 1813. The Tug, the first tugboat, was launched by the Wood brothers at Port Glasgow on November 5, 1817. In the summer of 1818, she became the first steamer to sail across North Scotland to the East Coast.

Use of steamers

The era of the steamer began in Philadelphia in 1787, when John Fitch (1743-1798) made the first successful tests of the 14 meter steamer on the Delaware River on August 22, 1787, in the presence of members of the United States Constitutional Convention. Fitch later built a larger ship carrying passengers and cargo on the Delaware River between Philadelphia and Burlington, New Jersey. His steamer was not financially successful and was closed after several months of service.

Oliver Evans (1755-1819) - Philadelphian inventor, was born in Newport, Delaware into a family of Welsh settlers. He developed an improved high pressure steam engine in 1801, but did not build it (patented in 1804). The Philadelphia Health Council was concerned with the problem of dredging and cleaning docks, and in 1805 Evans convinced them to contract him to develop a steam-powered dredge, which he called the Oruktor Amphibolos. The dredge was built but had only minor success. Evans' high pressure steam engine had a significantly high power-to-weight ratio, making it practical for locomotive and steamboat applications. Evans was so overwhelmed by the poor protection that US patent law gave to inventors that he ended up taking all of his technical drawings and sketches of inventions and destroying them to prevent his children from wasting their time in patent infringement litigation.

Robert Fulton and Robert Livingston, who owned vast estates on the Hudson River in New York, met in 1802 and drew up an agreement to build a steamboat to serve the route between New York and Albany, New York on the Hudson River. They successfully secured a monopoly on navigation on the Hudson River after Livingston broke a preliminary 1797 agreement with John Stephens, who owned vast land on the Hudson River in New Jersey. Under the former agreement, the northern route along the Hudson River departed to Livingston and the southern route to Stevens, with the agreement to use the ships developed by Stephens for both routes. With the onset of a new monopoly, the Fulton and Livingston steamer, named Claremont after the Livingston estate, was able to make a profit. Among the doubters, Claremont has been nicknamed "Fulton's Folly." On Monday, August 17, 1807, Claremont's memorable maiden voyage up the Hudson River began. The vessel covered 240 km to Albany in 32 hours and traveled back in about 8 hours.

Fulton's success in 1807 was soon followed by the use of steamboats on major rivers in the United States. In 1811, the first continuous (still (in 2007) commercial passenger service) line received river steamers leaving the dock at Pittsburgh to sail down the Ohio River to Mississippi and New Orleans. In 1817, a consortium in Sackets Harbor, New York, funded the construction of the first American steamer, Ontario, to navigate Lake Ontario and the Great Lakes, which sparked an increase in lakeside commercial and passenger traffic. In his book Life on the Mississippi, river pilot and author Mark Twain described the operation of such vessels.

Types of ships and ships

By 1849, the shipping industry was entering a transition from sailing ships to steam ships and from timber structures to an ever-growing number of metal structures. There were basically three different types of ships in use: standard sailing ships of several different types, clippers and paddle steamers with blades mounted on the sides or stern. River steamers generally used rear-mounted paddlewheels and had flat bottoms and shallow hulls, being designed to carry large loads, mostly on flat and sometimes shallow rivers. Ocean paddle steamers generally used side wheel blades and used narrower and deeper hulls designed for cruising in stormy weather often found at sea. Ship hull design is often based on a clipper design with an additional brace to support the loads and deformations transmitted by paddle wheels when they come into contact with rough waters.

The first paddle steamer to sail the long ocean was the 320-ton and 30-meter SS Savannah, built in 1819 specifically to carry mail and passengers from Liverpool, England by ship. On May 22, 1819, a lookout on the Savannah saw Ireland after a 23-day sea voyage. The Aller Steel Works in New York supplied the Savannah's engine cylinder, while the rest of the engine and chassis components were manufactured by the Speedwell Steel Works in New Jersey. The 90-horsepower low-pressure engine was a straight-action oblique type, with one 100 cc cylinder and 1.5 m stroke. The Savannah's engine and equipment were unusually large for their time. The wrought iron wheels of the ship were 16 feet in diameter with eight ladles on each wheel. For kindling, the ship took on board 75 short tons of coal and 25 bundles of firewood.

The Savannah was too small to carry much fuel, and the engine was only intended for use in calm weather and to enter and exit the harbor. With favorable winds, only the sails were able to provide a speed of at least four knots. The Savannah was deemed unsuccessful commercially, the engine was removed from it, and she herself was transferred back to a regular sailing vessel. By 1848, steamships built by both American and British shipbuilders were already being used to serve passengers and deliver mail across the Atlantic Ocean, making 4,800 km of voyages.

Since paddle steamers generally required 5 to 16 short tons of coal (4.5 to 14.5 tons) per day to keep them running, they were expensive to operate. Initially, almost all sea steamers were equipped with a mast and sails in addition to the power of a steam engine and provided propulsion when the steam engine needed repair or maintenance. These steamers tend to focus on high value cargo, mail and passengers and have only moderate cargo capacity due to their increased coal load requirements. A typical paddle-wheel boat was powered by a coal engine, which required stokers to shovel coal into the furnaces.

By 1849, the propeller was invented and slowly introduced as iron was increasingly used in shipbuilding and the stress created by the propellers could now be withstood by ships. As the 1800s advanced, the use of wood and lumber in the construction of wooden ships became more expensive, and the production of the sheet iron needed to build an iron ship was much cheaper, as a large ironworks in Merthyr Tydville, Wales, for example, received iron. even more efficient. The propeller placed heavy loads on the stern of ships, and its use was not widespread until the completion of the transition from wooden steamers to iron ships in full swing in the 1860s. By the 1840s, ocean shipping was well established, as demonstrated by the Cunard Line and others. The last sailing frigate of the US Navy, Santi, left the stocks in 1855.

West Coast steamers

In the mid-1840s, the acquisition of Oregon and California opened the West Coast to American steamship navigation. Beginning in 1848, Congress subsidized the Pacific Shipping Postal Company $ 199,999 to organize regular mail, passenger, and freight routes in the Pacific. This regular route ran from Panama, Nicaragua and Mexico to San Francisco and Oregon. Panama City was the Pacific end of the railroad through Panama along the Isthmus of Panama. The contract for the delivery of Atlantic Ocean mail from the cities of the East Coast and New Orleans along the Chagres River in Panama was won by the American Postal Steamship Company, whose first paddle steamer, the SS Falcon (1848), was sent on December 1, 1848 to the Caribbean (Atlantic ) Portage terminal Panama Isthmus-Chagres River.

"California" (SS California) (1848) - first paddle steamer of the Pacific Postal Shipping Company, departed New York on October 6, 1848 with only partial loads with a seating capacity of about 60 first class passengers (about $ 300 fare) and 150 third class passengers (about $ 150 fare). Few kept all the way to California. The crew consisted of about 36 people. "California" left New York long before confirmation of the California gold rush reports reached the east coast. As soon as the California Gold Rush was confirmed by President James Polk in his Address to the United States on December 5, 1848, people rushed to Panama City to catch this California flight. California took in more passengers in Valparaiso, Chile, Panama City and Panama City, and on February 28, 1849, she arrived in San Francisco with about 400 passengers — twice the estimated passenger capacity. She did not take on board another 400 to 600 potential passengers wishing to get out of Panama City. California flew from Panama and Mexico after circumnavigating Cape Horn en route from New York.

The paddle steamer route to Panama and Nicaragua from New York, Philadelphia, Boston, through New Orleans and Havana was about 2,600 miles (4,200 km) and took about two weeks. Traveling across the Isthmus of Panama or Nicaragua usually takes about one week in a local canoe and mule back. The 6,400 km trip from San Francisco to Panama City can be done by paddle steamer in about three weeks. In addition to this time, en route through Panama typically had a two to four week waiting period to find a ship sailing from Panama City to San Francisco before 1850. Only in 1850, a sufficient number of paddle steamers appeared, capable of making regular trips across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

This was soon followed by other steamers, and by the end of 1849, paddle steamers such as the SS McKim (1848) were transporting miners with their supplies along the 201 km route from San Francisco up the vast Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to Stockton ( California), Marysville (California), Sacramento, etc. to get 201 km closer to the gold mines. Steam and non-steam tugs began operating in the San Francisco Bay shortly thereafter to make it easier for ships to get in and out of the bay.

As the boom in high-yielding passenger, mail and freight traffic to and from California grew, more paddle steamers were commissioned - eleven by the Pacific Postal Steamship Company alone. The trip from California via Panama by steamboat took, if without waiting for a free seat on the ship, about 40 days, which was 100 days less than by carriage or 160 days less than the route around Cape Horn. About 20-30% of California's Argonauts are believed to have returned to their homes, mostly on the East Coast of the United States via Panama, the fastest route. Many have returned to California after registering their business in the East with their wives, family and / or lovers. The most heavily used route was through Panama or Nicaragua until 1855, when the completion of the Panama Railway made the Panama Route much easier, faster and more reliable. Between 1849 and 1869, while the first transcontinental railroad across the United States was completed, about 800,000 travelers took the Panama route. Most went east via Panama in paddle steamers, mule carts and canoes, and later on the Panama Railroad through Panama. After 1855, when the Panama Railway was completed, the Panama Route became the fastest and in a simple wayto get to California from the US East Coast or Europe. Most of the California-related goods were still transported on the slower but cheaper sailing route through Cape Horn. The wreck of the steamer Central America (Gold Ship) during a storm on September 12, 1857 and a loss of about $ 2 million in Californian gold indirectly led to the financial panic of 1857 (Panic of 1857).

Steamship navigation, including passenger and freight traffic, grew exponentially for decades before the outbreak of the civil war. This also led to economic and human losses, in addition to those caused by snags, shoals, boiler explosions and human errors.

During the American Civil War, the Battle of Hampton Roads, often referred to as either the Battle of the Monitor and Merrimack or the Battle of the Battleships, was fought over two days (March 8-9, 1862) using armored steam ships. The battle took place at Hampton Road, on the Virginia roadstead, where the Elizabeth and Nansemond rivers meet the James River just before entering the Chesapeake Bay, adjacent to Norfolk. This battle was part of an effort by the Confederate States of America to break the Allied naval blockade that cut Virginia off from all international trade.

The civil war in the West was fought to gain control of major rivers, especially the Mississippi and Tennessee, where wheeled ships were used. Only the Union had them (the Confederates captured several, but could not use them.) Scout ships and battleships participated in the Battle of Vicksburg. USS Cairo - battleship that survived the Battle of Vicksburg. Commercial river shipping, suspended for two years due to the blockade of Mississippi by the Confederates until the victory of the northerners at Vicksburg, was resumed on July 4, 1863. The victory of the Eads-class battleships and the capture of New Orleans by Farragut secured the river to the Union of Northern States.

Although Union forces gained control of the tributaries of the Mississippi River, river travel continued to be thwarted by the Confederates. The ambush of the J. R. Williams steamer carrying shipments from Fort Smith to Fort Gibson along the Arkansas River on July 16, 1863, demonstrated this. The steamer was destroyed, the cargo was lost, and the small Allied escort fled. However, these losses did not affect the military achievements of the North.

The worst of all shipping accidents occurred at the end of the civil war in April 1865, when a steam boiler exploded on the steamer Sultana, overloaded with Union soldiers returning from southern captivity, killing more than 1,700 people.

River transport

For much of the 19th century and early 20th century, paddle steamers dominated the Mississippi River merchant shipping. Their use generated a rapid development of the economy of the port cities. Agricultural and raw materials were being developed that were easiest to transport to markets, and communities along major rivers flourished. This success of the steamers led them to penetrate inland, where Anson Northup in 1859 became the first steamer to cross the border between Canada and the United States along the Red River. They also took part in major political events, such as when Louis Riel hijacked the steamer International at Fort Garry, or Gabriel Dumont took over the steamer Northcote at Batos. The steamers were so highly respected that they became state symbols. The steamer Iowa (1838) is included in the Iowa seal because it symbolizes speed, power and progress.

At the same time, the expanding steamboat traffic has had a serious negative impact on the environment, especially in the Middle Mississippi Valley, between St. Louis and the confluence of the river with Ohio. The steamers consumed a lot of wood for fuel, and the forests in the river floodplain and on the banks were cut down. This led to the unfortified banks, the ingress of silt into the water, which made the river shallower and, therefore, wider and caused an unpredictable, lateral displacement of the river channel along a wide, ten-mile floodplain, endangering navigation. Ships designed to catch snags to keep canals clear had crews who sometimes cut down large trees or more off the banks, exacerbating the problem. In the 19th century, flooding in the Mississippi became a more serious problem than when the floodplain was filled with trees and shrubs.

Most of the steamers were destroyed by boiler explosions or fires, many were drowned in the river, and some of them are now buried in silt as the river changed its course. From 1811 to 1899, 156 steamboats sank into driftwood or crashed on the rocks between St. Louis and the Ohio River. Another 411 were damaged by fires, explosions or were crushed by ice during this period. One of the few surviving Mississippi steamers from that period with a wheel aft, the Julius C. Wilkie, operated as a museum ship in Winona, Minnesota, until it was destroyed by fire in 1981.

From 1844 to 1857, luxurious steamer palaces carried passengers and cargo across the North American Great Lakes. The Great Lakes passenger steamers reached their zenith during the century from 1850 to 1950. "Badger" (SS Badger) is the latest of the once numerous passenger car ferries operating on the Great Lakes. A unique style of bulk carrier known as the lake truck was developed in the Great Lakes. St. Marys Challenger, launched in 1906, is the oldest operating steamer in the United States. It is powered by a marine 4-cylinder reciprocating steam engine. However, the steam yacht Gondola is even older and still operates at Coniston Water in the UK.

Steamers also sailed the Red River in Shreveport, Louisiana after Captain Henry Miller Shreve cleared the congestion.

The oldest operating steamer

The Belle of Louisville is the oldest operational steamer in the United States, and the oldest operational Mississippi-style steamer in the world. It left the stocks under the name "Idlewild" in 1914 and is currently located in Louisville, Kentucky.

Steamers currently

Five large commercial steamships currently operate on the inland waterways of the United States. The only remaining overnight cruise ship is the American Queen, carrying 432 passengers and cruising the Mississippi, Ohio, Cumberland and Tennessee rivers for 11 months a year. Other daytime steamboats: "Chautauqua Belle" on Lake Chautauqua (New York); Minne Ha-Ha at Lake George, New York; "Belle of Louisville" in Louisville, Kentucky, working on the Ohio River; and Natchez in New Orleans, Louisiana, operating on the Mississippi River.

During World War II, the Kaiser's Richmond Shipyards in Richmond, California (Kaiser's facility) had four shipyards located in Richmond, California and one shipyard in Los Angeles. The Kaiser also had other shipyards in Washington and other states. They were operated by Kaiser-Permanente Metals and Kaiser Shipyards. Richmond Dockyards were responsible for the production of most of the Liberty ships during World War II, 747 ships more than any other shipyard in the United States. The Liberty ships were chosen for mass production because their somewhat outdated design was relatively simple, and the components of their triple expansion steam piston engine were simple enough to be manufactured by several companies that were not highly needed for other parts. Shipbuilding was given high priority to supply steel and other essential components, as German submarines sunk more ships before 1944 than any shipyard in the United States could build. US shipyards built about 5,926 ships during World War II and more than 100,000 small ships made for the US Navy's naval units.

In Canada, Terrace, British Columbia (BC) celebrates river vessels"Built on the banks of the Skina River, the city depended on steamers for transportation and trade in the 20th century. The first steamer to enter Skina was the Union. It happened in 1864. In 1866, Mumford ) tried to climb the river, but was only able to reach the Kitsumkalum River. No one succeeded until 1891, only the Hudson Bay stern-wheel steamer Caledonia managed to pass Kitselas Canyon and reach Gazelton. Several other steamers were built around the turn of the 20th century. partly due to the growing fishing industry and the gold rush.

Steamers equipped with stern wheels became the instrumental transport technology for the development of Western Canada. They were used on most of the shipping lanes of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia and the Yukon at one point or another, usually replaced by the expansion of railways and highways. In the more mountainous and remote regions of the Yukon and British Columbia, operating stern-wheeled steamers continued well into the 20th century.

The simplicity of these vessels and their shallow draft made them indispensable for pioneers who were otherwise virtually cut off from the outside world. Because of their shallow, flat-bottomed construction (Canadian designs of western river stern-wheeled steamers typically require less than three feet of water to sail), they could dock almost anywhere along the riverbank to pick up or drop off passengers and cargo. Fodder steamers also proved to be vital in construction railwayswhich eventually replaced them. They were used to transport goods, rails and other materials for the construction of camps.

Simple, versatile locomotive-type boilers installed on most stern-wheeled ships after about the 1860s could be fired with coal if available in densely populated areas such as the lakes of the Kutenays and Okanagan regions of southern British Columbia, or wood in more remote areas as did the steamers of the Yukon River or northern British Columbia.

The hulls are generally wooden, although iron, steel, and composite hulls have gradually outstripped them. They were internally reinforced with a series of built-in longitudinal rails called "keelsons". Further stability of the hull was achieved by a system of "deflection rods" or "deflection nets", which were reinforced in keelsons and brought up and beyond the vertical masts, called "deflection pillars", and back down.

Like their counterparts on the Mississippi and its tributaries, and vessels on the rivers of California, Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Alaska, Canadian stern-wheeled vessels generally had a fairly short term service. The harsh conditions of use and the inherent flexibility of their shallow wooden hulls meant that relatively few of them served more than ten years.

In the Yukon, two vessels survive: the SS Klondike at Whitehorse and the SS Keno at Dawson City. Many abandoned shipwrecks can still be found along the Yukon River.

In British Columbia, the Canadian Pacific Railroad (CPR) built the steamer Moya in 1898 and operated until 1957 on Lake Kootenay in southeastern British Columbia. It has been restored and exhibited in the village of Kaslo, where it is used as a tourist attraction in the immediate vicinity of the Kaslo Information Center. The Moyi is the world's oldest intact stern paddle steamer. While SS Sicamous and SS Naramata (steam tug and icebreaker) built by the Canadian Pacific Railroad at Okanagan Landing on Okanagan Lake in 1914 survived in Penticton at the southern tip of Okanagan Lake.

"Samson the fifth" (SS Samson V) is the only Canadian stern-wheeled steamer, preserved afloat. It was built in 1937 by the Canadian Federal Department of Public Works as a ship to clear logs and debris from the lower Fraser River and to maintain docks and navigation aids. Fifth in the line of snags on the Fraser River, Samson V has engines, paddlewheel and other components that were transferred to him from Samson II (1914), currently SS Samson V is moored on the Fraser River as floating museum in its home port of New Westminster, near Vancouver in British Columbia.

The oldest operating steam vessel in North America is the RMS Segwun. It was built in Scotland in 1887 for cruise routes on Lake Muskoka in the eponymous county in Ontario, Canada. Originally named "SS Nipissing", it was transformed from an onboard paddlewheel steamer with a running beam engine to a double-propeller steamer rotating in opposite directions.

It is believed that engineer Robert Furness and his cousin, physician James Ashworth became the owners of the steamboat operating between Hull and Beverly after they were granted British Patent No. 1640 dated March 1788 for "a new invented machine for working, towing, accelerating and facilitating the navigation of ships, boats and barges and other vessels on the water. " James Oldham, a member of the Institute of Civil Engineers (MICE), described how well he knew those who built the F&A in his lecture entitled "On the Rise, Progress, and the Present Situation of the Hull Shipping Company", which he read on September 7, 1853 at 23 meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in Hull, England With the first commercially successful steamboat in Europe, Henry Bell's Comet (Comet) in 1812, the steamboat system on the Firth of Clyde began a rapid expansion, and the steamboats were in operation for four years on inland Loch Lomond, as a harbinger of the lake steamers that still grace the look of Swiss lakes.

On the Clyde itself, during the ten years since the launch of the "Comet" in 1812, there were almost fifty steamers, and steamship traffic began along the Irish Sea in Belfast and in many British estuaries. By 1900, there were over 300 steamboats on the Clyde.

Humans had a particular fondness for the Clyde steamers, small steam freighters of traditional design designed for use on Scottish canals and for the highlands and islands. They were immortalized by Neil Munroe's stories of the Vital Spark and the film Maggie, and a small number are currently preserved for continued steam navigation in the western highlands.

From 1850 through the early decades of the 20th century, Windermere, in the English Lakes Region, was home to many elegant steamboats. They were used for private parties, watching yacht races or, in some case, for delivery to work via the train connection at Barrow-in-Furness. Many of these beautiful ships were saved from destruction when steam went out of fashion and part of the collection is now in the Windermere Steamship Museum. The collection includes the SL Dolly (1850), believed to be the world's oldest powerboat, and several classic Windermere longboats.

Today, the 1900s SS Sir Walter Scott is still sailing on Loch Catherine, while the PS Maid of the Loch is being rebuilt at Loch Lomond. the old operating passenger yacht SY Gondola (built 1859, restored in 1979) on the English lakes, sailing daily during the summer season on Lake Coniston Water.

The paddle steamer Waverley, built in 1947, is the last survivor of these fleets, and the last paddle steamer in the world. This vessel makes all-season cruises around Britain every year, and passed the English Channel (English Channel) to commemorate its predecessor, built in 1899, sunk at the Battle of Dunkirk in 1940.

After the Clyde, the Thames estuary became a major growth area for steamboats, beginning with the Margery and Thames in 1815, both of which came from the Clyde. Before the railways set in in 1838, steamboats were a surefire role for many sailing ships and rowing ferries, with at least 80 ferries that operated until 1830 from London to Gravesend and Margit, and upstream to Richmond. By 1835, the Diamond Steamship Mail and Passenger Company, one of several popular companies, reported that it carried over 250,000 passengers in a year.

The first steamer with a metal hull, the Aaron Manby, was laid down at the Horsley Ironworks in Staffordshire in 1821 and launched at the Surrey Docks at Rotherhithe. After testing on the Thames, the ship sailed to Paris, where it was operated on the Seine River. Three similar iron steamers followed over the course of several years.

The SL (Steam Boat) "Nuneham" is an authentic Victorian steamer built in 1898 and operated on the non-tidal upper Thames by the Thames Steam Packet Boat Company. He is anchored at Runnymede.

SL Nuneham was built at the Port of Brimscombe on the Thames-Severn Canal by Edwin Clark. It was created for the company of the Salter brothers in Oxford for the regular transport of passengers between Oxford and Kingston. Sissons' original triple expansion steam engine was removed in the 1960s and replaced diesel engine... In 1972 SL Nuneham was sold to a London shipowner and arrived at Westminster Pier for service at Hampton Court. In 1984, the ship was sold once again - now virtually ownerless - to French Brothers Ltd in Runnymede as a restoration project.

Over the years, French Brothers have meticulously restored the original specification. A similar Sissons triple expansion engine was found in a museum in America, shipped to the UK and installed, along with a new Scottish coal-fired boiler designed and built by Alan McWeane of Keighley, Yorkshire. The superstructure has been remodeled with original design and elegance, including a raised roof, wood-paneled saloon and an open upper deck. The restoration was completed in 1997, and the launch was granted an MCA passenger certificate for 106 passengers. SL Nuneham was commissioned by French Brothers Ltd but operated under the flag of the Thames Steam Packet Boat Company.

Steamers in Europe

Built in 1856, PS Skibladner is the oldest steamboat still in operation, serving towns along the shores of Lake Mjøsa in Norway.

In Denmark, steamboats were a popular means of transportation in earlier times, and were mainly used for recreational purposes. They were adapted to carry passengers over short distances along the coastline or across large lakes. Built in 1861, PS Skibladner ranks second as the oldest steamer in service and cruises on Lake Julsø near Silkeborg.

The 1912 steamer TSS Earnslaw continues to make regular sightseeing cruises on high-altitude Lake Wakatipu, near Queenstown, New Zealand.

Swiss lakes are home to a number of large steamers. On Lake Lucerne, five paddle steamers are still in service: Uri (1901) (built in 1901, 800 passengers), Unterwalden (1902) (1902, 800 passengers), Schiller "(1906) (1906, 900 passengers), Gaul (1913) (1913, 900 passengers, fastest paddle steamer on European lakes) and City of Lucerne (1928) (1928, 1200 passengers, last steamboat built for Swiss lake). There are also five steamers, converted, as is done with some old ships, into diesel wheeled ships on the shores of Lake Geneva, two steamers on Lake Zurich, and the rest on other lakes.

In Austria, the vintage paddle steamer Gisela (1871) (250 passengers) continues to operate on Lake Traunsee.

Steamers in Vietnam

Seeing the enormous potential of steam ships, the Vietnamese emperor Minh Mang tried to replicate the French steamer. The first test in 1838 was unsuccessful as the boiler was out of order. The project manager was chained and two officials Nguyen Trung Mau and Ngo Kim Lan from the Ministry of Construction were jailed for false reports. The project was again entrusted to Hoang Van Lich and Wo Hui Trin. The second test two months later was successful. The Emperor generously gifted two new performers. He noted that although this machine could be purchased in the West, it was important that his engineers and mechanics could become familiar with modern technology, so no expense was spared. Encouraged by the success, Minh Mang ordered engineers to study and develop steam engines and steamers to power his navy. By the end of Minh Manga's reign, 3 steamers were produced, named Yen Phi, Wan Phi and Wu Phi. However, his successor was unable to sustain the industry due to financial problemscomplicated by the years of social unrest caused by his rule.

The first Russian steamer

2015 marks the 200th anniversary of the first steamboat built in Russia.

The maiden voyage of the first Russian steamer took place on November 3, 1815. But this event had a long history.

Steamercalled a vessel equipped with a piston steam engine as an engine. Coal was used as an energy carrier in the steam engines of the ships, later - oil products (fuel oil). Currently the ships are not under construction, but some are still in operation. For example, in Russia the oldest passenger ship is the steamship N. V. Gogol ”, created in 1911, was in operation until 2014. Now this steamer is located in the city of Severodvinsk, Arkhangelsk region.

Steamer "N.V. Gogol"

Background

Back in the 1st century. AD Heron of Alexandria proposed using the energy of steam to give the body movement. He described a primitive bladeless centrifugal steam turbine - "eolipil". In the XVI-XVII centuries. devices were created that did useful work due to the action of steam. In 1680, the French inventor Denis Papin announced his invention of a steam boiler with a safety valve ("Papa's boiler"). This invention brought the creation of the steam engine closer, but he did not build the machine itself.

In 1736, English engineer Jonathan Hulse designed a ship with a stern wheel powered by Newcomen's steam engine. The vessel was tested on the Avon River, but there is no evidence of this and no test results.

The first reliable test of the steamer took place on July 15, 1783 in France. The Marquis Claude Geoffroy d'Abban demonstrated his "Piroscaf" - a ship powered by a horizontal single-cylinder double-acting steam engine that rotated two paddle wheels located on the sides. The demonstration took place on the Sona River, the ship traveled about 365 m in 15 minutes. (0.8 knots), after which the engine broke down.

The name "pyroscaf" in France and some other countries has long been used to define a steam vessel, a steamer. The steamer was also called in Russia. In France, this term has survived to this day.

In 1787, the American inventor James Ramsay created and demonstrated a boat powered by a water jet that used steam energy. In the same year, John Fitch demonstrated his first steam vessel, Perseverance, on the Delaware River. The movement of this vessel was carried out by two rows of oars, which were powered by a steam engine. And in 1790, Fitch and Voigt built an 18-meter steam boat with an original propulsion system in the form of oars, which repeated the rowing movements of a duck's legs. The boat cruised between Philadelphia and Burlington during the summer of 1790, carrying up to 30 passengers.

Fitch's steamer 1790

The first steamer to be used successfully was built by Robert Fulton in 1807. It cruised the Hudson River from New York to Albany at a speed of about 5 knots (9 km / h).

Steamer device

In steamers, the propeller is mounted on the same shaft as the steam engine. In turbine steamers, the propeller is driven primarily through a gearbox or electric transmission.

Charles Parsons' experimental vessel "Turbinia" (in the museum)

In 1894, Charles Parsons built an experimental ship "Turbinia" powered by a steam turbine. The tests were successful: the ship reached a record speed of 60 km / h. Since then, steam turbines have been installed on many high-speed ships.

The most famous steamers in history

"Amazon"

The largest wooden steamer of all time was the "Amazon" (England), created in 1851. The length of its hull was 91 m. The ship was destroyed in a fire in 1852.

"Titanic"

On April 14, 1912, the Titanic, the world's largest passenger steamer of that time, collided with an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean on its first voyage and sank within 2 hours and 40 minutes.

"Skibladner"

The oldest steamer in the world still in service is the Norwegian paddle steamer Skibladner, built in 1856. It cruises on Lake Mjøsa.

Steamships in Russia

The first steamer in Russia was built at the Charles Byrd factory in 1815. It made voyages between St. Petersburg and Kronstadt.

Charles (Karl Nikolaevich) Bird (1766-1843) - Russian engineer and businessman of Scottish descent, the first builder of steamships on the Neva.

Memorial plaque installed at the Byrd factory

He was born in Scotland and came to Russia in 1786. He was an energetic and educated engineer. Managed to organize a plant, which eventually turned into one of the best foundry and mechanical enterprises. It made furnaces for sugar refineries, crankshafts, blades and steam engines. It was at this plant that the first steamer in Russia was built, which was named "Berd's steamer". Over time, the plant became part of the Admiralty Shipyards.

Byrd received the privilege to build steamships with great difficulty. It was first provided by Emperor Alexander I in 1813 to the American inventor of the steam engine, Robert Fulton. But he did not fulfill the main condition of the contract - for 3 years he did not commission a single vessel. This contract went to Byrd.

In those years, steamers were called in the English manner "steamboat" or "pyroscaf". So the first Russian pyroscaf "Elizabeth" was built in 1815 at the Charles Byrd factory and launched in the presence of a large crowd of people and in the presence of members of the royal family in the pond of the Tauride Palace. The ship has demonstrated good driving performance.

What did the first Russian steamer look like?

The first Russian steamer "Elizaveta"

The steamer had a length of 18.3 m, a width of 4.57 m and a draft of 0.61 m. A James Watt balancer steam engine with a capacity of 4 liters was installed in the hold of the vessel. from. and a shaft speed of 40 rpm. The machine powered side wheels 2.4 m in diameter and 1.2 m wide, each having six blades. The single-burner steam boiler was heated with wood.

A brick chimney towered above the deck of the ship, which was later replaced by a metal chimney with a height of 7.62 m. The chimney could carry a sail with a favorable wind. The speed of the steamer is 10.7 km / h (5.8 knots).

The first regular flight of "Elizabeth" took place on November 3, 1815 on the route St. Petersburg - Kronstadt. The steamer spent 3 hours 15 minutes on the way, the average speed was 9.3 km / h. The return flight due to worsening weather took 5 hours and 22 minutes.

P.I. Rickord

But for the first time he called a steam ship "steamer" in 1815. Peter Ivanovich Rikord (1776-1855) - Russian admiral, traveler, scientist, diplomat, writer, shipbuilder, statesman and public figure. He also described in detail this first voyage and the ship itself in the magazine of 1815.

A little more about Charles Byrd and ships in the Russian Empire

Byrd's steamers were engaged in passenger and freight transport... The use of steamships was much more convenient and faster than sailing ships, so almost all transportation ended up in Byrd's hands. In 1816, a second steamer of improved design with an engine power of 16 liters was launched. from. Since 1817, regular passenger flights began to be performed twice a day.

Byrd established a steamship connection between St. Petersburg and Revel, Riga and other cities. He owned river steamship building throughout Russia, had the right to monopoly construction of ships for the Volga - private individuals could not build their own steamers without Byrd's permission. The organizer of the first steamer on the Volga was Vsevolod Andreevich Vsevolozhsky (1769-1836) - Astrakhan vice-governor, actual chamberlain, retired guard captain, state councilor.

D. Dow “Portrait of V.A. Vsevolozhsky "(1820s)

The exclusive imperial privilege belonged to Byrd until 1843: only this plant was engaged in the construction and operation of steam ships in Russia.

Steamships were built in Russia until 1959.

FIRST RUSSIAN STEAMER

In 1815, the first steamer was built in Russia. This significant event for the national shipping took place in St. Petersburg at the Byrd plant. Scotsman Charles Byrd arrived in Russia in 1786. At first, he worked as an assistant to Karl Gascoigne, also a visiting specialist in Petrozavodsk at the Alexander Cannon Foundry. Later in 1792, together with his father-in-law, another Scotsman, Morgan organized a partnership. One of the enterprises of the partnership was the foundry and mechanical plant, later called the Byrd plant.

At that time, the monopoly on the production of steamships was given by Alexander I to Robert Fulton, who was the inventor of the steam engine. But since for 3 years Fulton did not build a single steamer on the rivers of Russia, the privilege for construction passed to Charles Byrd.

The Scotsman got down to business in earnest, and already in 1815 in St. Petersburg at the Byrd's plant was built the first Russian steamer, named "Elizabeth". The ship, called in the English manner "pyroscaf" or "steamboat" became the ancestor of Russian steamships. As an engine on the "Elizabeth" used a balancing steam engine Watt, the power of which was 4 horsepower, and the shaft speed - forty revolutions per minute. The steamer was equipped with 6-blade side wheels 120 cm wide and 240 cm in diameter. The length of the “Elizabeth” was 183 cm, width 457 cm, and the draft of the vessel was 61 cm. The steam boiler for one furnace was fired with wood, from which there was a chimney made of brick, which was later replaced with metal. Such a pipe could serve as a basis for a sail, its height was - 7.62 m. "Elizaveta" could reach speeds of up to 5.8 knots (almost 11 km / h).

The steamer “Elizaveta” was tested for the first time on the pond of the Tauride Garden and showed good speed there. Subsequently, Charles Byrd continued to promote his invention. For example, he invited St. Petersburg officials for a boat trip. During the trip along the Neva, the guests were entertained and treated, but, in addition, the route included a visit to the plant.

The first regular flight of the steam boat "Elizabeth" from St. Petersburg to Kronstadt departed on November 3, 1815. It took 3 hours 15 minutes to get there, and a little more than 5 hours back because of bad weather. There were thirteen passengers on board. Later, "Elizabeth" began to regularly walk along the Neva and the Gulf of Finland, and with the light hand of P.I. Rikord's English name "steamboat" was changed to the Russian "steamer". Rikord was one of the first to compose a detailed description of the first Russian steamer "Elizaveta". Thanks to the success of his invention, Charles Byrd received several large government orders and created his own shipping company. The new steamships carried both cargo and passengers.

http://www.palundra.ru/info/public/25/

FIRST STEAMS

The beginning of the use of steam engines "on the water" was 1707, when the French physicist Denis Papin designed the first boat with a steam engine and paddle wheels. Presumably, after a successful test, it was broken by boatmen, afraid of competition. Thirty years later, the Englishman Jonathan Halls invented the steam tug. The experiment ended unsuccessfully: the engine was heavy and the tug sank.

In 1802, the Scotsman William Symington demonstrated the steamer Charlotte Dundas. The widespread use of steam engines on ships began in 1807 with the flights of the passenger steamer "Claremont", built by the American Robert Fulton. Since the 1790s, Fulton has taken up the problem of using steam to propel ships. In 1809, Fulton patented the Claremont design and went down in history as the inventor of the steamboat. The newspapers reported that many boatmen closed their eyes in horror as the "Fulton monster," spewing fire and smoke, moved up the Hudson against the wind and current.

Already ten to fifteen years after the invention of R. Fulton, steamships seriously pressed sailing ships. In 1813, two factories for the production of steam engines started operating in Pittsburgh, USA. A year later, 20 steamers were assigned to the port of New Orleans, and in 1835 there were already 1,200 steamers working on the Mississippi and its tributaries.

By 1815 in England on the river. Clyde (Glasgow) already operated 10 steamers and seven or eight on the river. Thames. In the same year the first sea steamer "Argyle" was built, which made the passage from Glasgow to London. In 1816 the steamer "Majestic" performed the first voyages Brighton-Le Havre and Dover-Calais, after which regular sea steam lines began to open between Great Britain, Ireland, France and Holland.

In 1813, Fulton turned to the Russian government with a request to grant him the privilege of building a steamer he had invented and using it on the rivers of the Russian Empire. However, Fulton did not create steamers in Russia. He died in 1815, and in 1816 the privilege granted to him was revoked.

The beginning of the 19th century and in Russia is marked by the construction of the first ships with steam engines. In 1815, the owner of a mechanical foundry in St. Petersburg, Karl Byrd, built the first paddle steamer "Elizabeth". A 4-liter Watt steam engine manufactured at the plant was installed on the wooden "Tikhvinka". from. and a steam boiler that powered the side wheels. The car was doing 40 revolutions per minute. After successful tests on the Neva and the passage from St. Petersburg to Kronstadt, the steamer made voyages on the Petersburg-Kronstadt line. The steamer covered this route in 5 hours 20 minutes at an average speed of about 9.3 km / h.

Construction of steamships began on other rivers in Russia. The first steamer in the Volga basin appeared on the Kama River in June 1816. It was built by V.A. Vsevolozhsky's Pozhvinsky iron foundry and ironworks. With a capacity of 24 liters. from., the steamer made several experimental voyages along the Kama. By the 20s of the 19th century, there was only one steamer in the Black Sea basin - "Vesuvius", not counting the primitive steamer "Pchelka" with a capacity of 25 hp, built by Kiev serfs, which two years later was carried through the rapids to Kherson, from where and made flights to Nikolaev.

START OF DOMESTIC SHIPBUILDING

Despite all the unfavorable conditions that delay the possibility of the implementation and distribution of Russian inventions, the works of Russian innovators back in the 18th century. in the construction of steam engines and metallurgy contributed to the introduction of steam and iron shipbuilding in Russia. Already in 1815, the first Russian steamer “Elizaveta” made voyages between Petersburg and Kronstadt, a car; which with a capacity of 16 liters. from. was manufactured in St. Petersburg at the Byrd plant. In 1817, the first Volga-Kama steamships and vehicles for them were built in the Urals. At the Izhora Admiralty Plant in 1817, a steamer "Skoriy", 18 m long, with a 30 hp engine was built. from. and in 1825 the steamship "Provorny" with a machine with a capacity of 80 liters. from. The first ships on the Black Sea were Vesuvius (1820) and the 14-gun steamer Meteor (1825).

On the basis of the experience of building small steamers that served for port needs and for the carriage of goods, in 1832 the military steamer "Hercules" was built. It was equipped with the world's first improved steamer without a balancer, built by innovative Russian technicians. Such machines appeared in England only in the late thirties of the XIX century. In 1836, the first wheeled 28-gun steamer-frigate "Bogatyr" with a displacement of 1340 tons, with a machine with a capacity of 240 hp, was built. with., manufactured at the Izhora plant.

The beginning of the use of steam engines "on water" was in 1707, when the French physicist Denis Papin designed the first boat with a steam engine and paddle wheels. Presumably, after a successful test, it was broken by boatmen, afraid of competition.

Thirty years later, the Englishman Jonathan Halls invented the steam tug. The experiment ended unsuccessfully: the engine was heavy and the tug sank.

In 1802, the Scotsman William Symington demonstrated the steamer Charlotte Dundas.

The widespread use of steam engines on ships began in 1807 with the flights of the passenger steamer "Claremont", built by an American Robert Fulton. Since the 1790s, Fulton has taken up the problem of using steam to propel ships. In 1809, Fulton patented the Claremont design and went down in history as the inventor of the steamer.

The newspapers wrote that many boatmen closed their eyes in horror when "Fulton's monster"spewing fire and smoke, moved along the Hudson against the wind and current.

"Claremont"

Already ten to fifteen years after the invention of R. Fulton, steamships seriously pressed sailing ships. In 1813, two factories for the production of steam engines started operating in Pittsburgh, USA. A year later, 20 steamers were assigned to the port of New Orleans, and in 1835, 1200 steamers were already operating on the Mississippi and its tributaries.

By 1815 in England on the river. Clyde (Glasgow) already operated 10 steamers and seven or eight on the river. Thames. In the same year the first sea steamer "Argyle" was built, which made the passage from Glasgow to London. In 1816 the steamer "Majestic" performed the first voyages Brighton - Le Havre and Dover - Calais, after which regular sea steam lines began to open between Great Britain, Ireland, France and Holland.

The first steam ship in Europe "Comet" in 1812.

In 1813 Fulton turned to the Russian government with a request to grant him the privilege to build a steamer invented by him and use it on the rivers of the Russian Empire. However, Fulton did not create steamers in Russia. He died in 1815, and in 1816 the privilege granted to him was revoked.

The beginning of the 19th century and in Russia is marked by the construction of the first ships with steam engines. In 1815, the owner of a mechanical foundry in St. Petersburg, Karl Byrd, built the first paddle steamer "Elizabeth". A 4-liter Watt steam engine manufactured at the plant was installed on the wooden "Tikhvinka". from. and a steam boiler that powered the side wheels. The car was doing 40 revolutions per minute. After successful tests on the Neva and crossing from St. Petersburg to Kronstadtthe steamer made voyages on the line Petersburg - Kronstadt. The steamer covered this route in 5 hours 20 minutes at an average speed of about 9.3 km / h.

Russian ship of the Byrd shipyard.
Construction of steamships began on other rivers in Russia.

The first steamer in the Volga basin appeared on the Kama River in June 1816. It was built by Pozhvinsky iron foundry and ironworksV. A. Vsevolozhsky. With a capacity of 24 liters. from., the steamer made several experimental voyages along the Kama.

By the 20s of the 19th century, there was only one steamer in the Black Sea basin - "Vesuvius", not counting the primitive steamer "Pchelka" with a capacity of 25 hp, built by Kiev serfs, which two years later was carried through the rapids to Kherson, from where and made flights to Nikolaev.

Major Siberian gold miner Myasnikov. received the privilege of organizing a shipping company on the lake. Baikal and the rivers Ob, Tobol, Irtysh, Yenisei, Lena and their tributaries, in March 1843. launched a steamer "Emperor Nicholas I"with a capacity of 32 liters. from., which in 1844 was brought to Baikal. Following it, the foundation was laid and in 1844 the construction of the second steamer with a capacity of 50 liters was completed. s., named "The Heir to the Tsarevich",which was also transferred to the lake. Baikal, where both steamships were used for transportation.

In the 40-50s of the 19th centurysteamers began to regularly sail along the Neva, Volga, Dnieper and other rivers. By 1850, there were about 100 steamers in Russia.

In 1819, the American sailing postal ship "Savannah", equipped with a steam engine and removable side wheels, sailed from Savannah, USA, to Liverpool and made the transition across the Atlantic in 24 days.The Savannah used a single-cylinder, low-pressure, single-acting steam engine. The power of the car was 72 hp, the speed during engine operation was 6 knots (9 km / h). The steamer used the engine for no more than 85 hours and only within the coastal zone.

"Savannah"

The Savannah flight was conducted to assess necessary fuel supplies on ocean routes, since sailing supporters argued that no steamer could hold enough coal to cross the Atlantic. After the ship returned to the United States, the steam engine was dismantled, and the ship was used until 1822 on the New York - Savannah line.

In 1825, the English paddle steamer Enterprise, using sails with a favorable wind, made a voyage to India.

Largest paddle steamer in navy history "Great East"

The first flight around Europe made in 1830-1831. small Russian steamer "Neva". Leaving Kronstadt on August 17, 1830, the Neva arrived in Odessa on March 4, 1831, spending 199 days on the flight. The duration of the voyage was due to the lengthy stay in ports due to severe winter storms.

 

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