Savannah (steamboat)
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 1818 |
| Completed: | 1818 |
| 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, transiting mainly under sail power from May to June 1819. In spite of this historic voyage, the great space taken up by her large engine and its fuel at the expense of cargo, and the public's anxiety over embracing her revolutionary steam power, kept Savannah from being a commercial success as a steamship. Originally laid down as a sailing packet, she was, following a severe and unrelated reversal of the financial fortunes of her owners, 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 laid down 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 an auxiliary steamship and gain the prestige of inaugurating the world's first transatlantic steamship service.
Savannah was then fitted with an auxiliary steam engine and paddlewheels in addition to her sails. Moses Rogers himself supervised the installation of the machinery, while his unrelated brother-in-law Steven Rogers oversaw construction of the ship's hull and rigging.
Since Savannah crossed the Atlantic mainly under sail power some sources contend that the first trans-Atlantic steamship was the SS Royal William, launched in 1831. It used sail only during boiler maintenance. 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