SS Savannah
Savannah
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| History | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Savannah |
| Namesake: | Savannah, Georgia |
| Owner: | Scarborough & Isaacs |
| Builder: | Fickett & Crocker |
| Cost: | $50,000 ($774,239 today) |
| Launched: | 22 Aug 1819 |
| Completed: | 1819 |
| Maiden voyage: | 28 Mar 1819 |
| In service: | 28 Mar 1819 |
| Out of service: | 5 Nov 1821 |
| Fate: | Wrecked at Long Island, 5 November 1821 |
| Notes: | First steam-powered vessel to cross the Atlantic, 24 May-30 June 1819 |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Hybrid sailing ship/sidewheel steamer |
| Tonnage: | 320 tons |
| Length: | 98 ft |
| Beam: | 25 ft |
| Draft: | 14 ft |
| Installed power: | 90 HP |
| Propulsion: | Sails, plus 1 × inclined direct-acting 90HP steam engine driving 2 × 16 ft paddlewheels |
| Sail plan: | Ship-rigged |
SS Savannah was an American hybrid sailing ship/sidewheel steamer built in 1818. She is notable for being the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean, a feat that was accomplished from May to June 1819, although only a fraction of the distance was covered with the ship under steam power. The rest was sailed by wind power. In spite of her historic voyage, Savannah was not a commercial success as a steamship and was converted back into a sailing ship shortly after returning from Europe.
Savannah was wrecked off Long Island in 1821. No other American-owned steamship would cross the Atlantic for almost thirty years after Savannah's pioneering voyage. Two British sidewheel steamships, Brunel's SS Great Western and Menzies' SS Sirius, raced to New York in 1838, both voyages being made under steam power alone.
Savannah was originally built as a sailing packet at the New York shipyard of Fickett & Crockett. While the ship was still on the slipway, Captain Moses Rogers persuaded Scarborough & Isaacs, a wealthy shipping firm from Savannah, Georgia, to purchase the vessel, convert it to a steamship and gain the prestige of inaugurating the world's first transatlantic steamship service.
Savannah was therefore equipped with a steam engine and paddlewheels in addition to her sails. Moses Rogers himself supervised the installation of the machinery, while his brother-in-law Steven Rogers (no blood relation) oversaw construction of the ship's hull and rigging.
Given that the craft had sails and did not rely exclusively on steam engine-driven paddles, some sources contend that the first ocean-going steamship was the SS Royal William, launched several years later, in 1831. The Royal William was the first vessel to cross the ocean almost entirely from steam engine power. Another claimant is the British-built Dutch-owned Curaçao, which used steam power for several days when crossing the Atlantic both ways in 1827.
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Wikipedia