The steamship was preceded by smaller vessels designed for insular transportation, called steamboats. Once the technology of steam was mastered at this level, steam engines were mounted on larger, and eventually, ocean-going vessels. Becoming reliable, and propelled by screw rather than paddlewheels, the technology changed the design of ships for faster, more economic propulsion. Paddlewheels as the main motive source became standard on these early vessels (see Paddle steamer).
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Louisiana was laid down in mid-October 1861 by E.C. Murray in a new shipyard just north of New Orleans. The ship had two paddlewheels and two screws, each driven by its own engine. The paddlewheels were mounted one abaft the other in a center well. The screws were not intended for propulsion, but were to aid the two rudders in steering in the confined waters and unpredictable currents of the Mississippi.
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Screw propulsion had some obvious potential advantages for warships over paddle propulsion. Firstly, paddlewheels were exposed to enemy fire in combat, whereas a propeller and its machinery were tucked away safely well below deck. Secondly, the space taken up by paddlewheels restricted the number of guns a warship could carry, thus reducing its broadside. These potential advantages were well understood by the British Admiralty, but it was not convinced that the propeller was an effective propulsion system.
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The ship's wrought-iron paddlewheels were 16 feet in diameter with eight buckets per wheel. For fuel, the vessel carried 75 tons of coal and 25 cords of wood.Smithsonian, p. 618. Diagram of Savannah, showing lines and sail plan.
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She was long, was propelled by a pair of paddlewheels, and carried passengers on two decks. She was staffed by a crew of six. She was launched in 1888, one of approximately 20 steamships working the lake. She was lost on November 7, 1893.
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Crosshead ("square") engine of the Hudson River steamboat PS Belle The first marine steam engines drove paddlewheels. Paddles require a relatively high axle, that often also forms the crankshaft. For stability the main weight of the engine, i.e. its cylinder, is mounted low down.
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The Phoenix was built in 1845 in Cleveland, Ohio or Buffalo, New York. It was built with the then-new technology of twin screw propellers instead of side-mounted paddlewheels. The ship was long, with a beam of , a depth of and a displacement of 302 tons.
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Here, de Garay's invention introduced an innovation where the aeolipile had practical usage, which was to generate motion to the paddlewheels, demonstrating the feasibility of steam-driven boats. This claim was denied by Spanish authorities.Museo Naval, Catálogo guia del Museo Naval de Madrid, IX edición, Madrid, 1945, page 128.
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Mecdiye was a paddle frigate. She was long overall, with a beam of and a draft of . Her tonnage was 1,443 tons burthen. She was propelled by a pair of paddlewheels that were driven by a direct-acting steam engine, with steam provided by two coal-fired boilers.
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Taif was a paddle frigate. She was long overall, with a beam of and a draft of . Her tonnage was 1,443 tons burthen. She was propelled by a pair of paddlewheels that were driven by a direct-acting steam engine, with steam provided by two coal-fired boilers.
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Bararite forms tabular crystals. They are flattened, sometimes elongated, on {0001} (perpendicular to c). Christie reported tiny, transparent crystals of bararite that looked like paddlewheels and darts. Each had four barbs at 90°. The crystals reached up to 1 mm long, the barbs up to 0.2 mm wide.
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This first generation of steam warships were "paddle warships" (in the categories of frigate, sloop, gunvessel or other). They used paddlewheels mounted on either side or in the center. Paddle steamers were severely limited in the armaments they could mount. Paddle wheel propulsion also had very serious effects on sailing quality.
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Feyzâ-i Bahrî was a paddle frigate. She was long overall, with a beam of and a draft of . Her tonnage was 1,443 tons burthen. She was propelled by a pair of paddlewheels that were driven by a direct- acting steam engine, with steam provided by two coal-fired boilers.
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Saik-i Şadi was a paddle frigate. She was long overall, with a beam of and a draft of . Her tonnage was 1,443 tons burthen. She was propelled by a pair of paddlewheels that were driven by a direct-acting steam engine, with steam provided by two coal-fired boilers.
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Steam was supplied by an iron flue boiler at an average working pressure of 20 psi. The paddlewheels were 16 feet in diameter and 4 feet 10 inches wide, with fourteen 1-foot 10-inch width paddles. The vessel had an average speed of 8 and a maximum speed of 9 knots.
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Several coin-operated telescopes facilitated close-up views. The pilothouse, whistles, lights, and the ship's calliope were also located on the lido deck. In 1973, Streckfus Steamers converted the Admiral from steam to diesel power. The shafts for the paddlewheels were cut and removed to make way for port and starboard diesel propellers.
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The restaurant opened as Fulton's Crab House on March 10, 1996. Fulton's Crab House closed for major renovations in 2016 to be remodeled into a new restaurant, Paddlefish. As part of the renovation, the exterior was altered greatly, while retaining the original shape of the ship, and new smokestacks and paddlewheels were installed.
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The 1,221 ton ship, designed by John Edye, was built at Chatham Dockyard, and launched on 1 December 1849. Powered by a 400-horsepower steam engine which drove side-paddlewheels, she was originally rated as a 10-gun sloop, but was re-rated as 2nd class frigate in 1852, and carried 16 guns.
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Feyz-i Cihat a wooden-hulled paddle steamer. She was long between perpendiculars, with a beam of and a draft of . Her tonnage was 2,909 tons burthen. She was propelled by a pair of paddlewheels that were driven by a 2-cylinder marine steam engine, with steam provided by two coal-fired boilers.
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The boat had just pulled away from a dock near the neighborhood of Fulton, when all four boilers simultaneously suffered a catastrophic failure resulting in the total destruction of the ship from the paddlewheels to the bow. The ship drifted approximately 100 yards before sinking to the bottom of the Ohio river.Lloyd (1856), page 90.
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The 90-horsepower low-pressure engine was of the inclined direct-acting type, with a single cylinder and a stroke. Savannah's engine and machinery were unusually large for their time. The ship's wrought-iron paddlewheels were 16 feet in diameter with eight buckets per wheel. For fuel, the vessel carried 75 tons of coal and of wood.
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The paddle-wheels were in diameter and the four-bladed screw-propeller was across. The power came from four steam engines for the paddles and an additional engine for the propeller. Total power was estimated at 6 MW (8,000 hp). The specific requirements of the Eastern Company also vindicated Brunel's initial concept of using both paddlewheels and a screw.
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Raceway ponds are shallow ponds between 10 and 50 cm deep. They are less expensive to build compared to photobioreactors, and have low-energy-consuming paddlewheels to mix the circulate the culture. The culture is open to the atmosphere, thus allowing liquid evaporation to stabilize the temperature. They are widely used to culture several algae and cynobacteria.
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Painting of Lot Whitcomb The vessel was long, on the beam, with depth of hold. Her paddlewheels were in diameter. She had a single cylinder walking-beam steam engine, with a 17" bore and an 84" stroke. The engine generated 140 horsepower, which could drive the vessel at a rate of about 12 miles per hour.
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86, 91 The ship had a two-cylinder steam engine built by Wingate & Co. driving two paddlewheels. Her boilers provided steam to the engine at a working pressure of about . The engine produced a total of and the ship had a maximum speed of . The ship could carry a maximum of of coal, enough to steam at an average speed of .
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Savannah under both sail and steam power After leaving Savannah Harbor on May 22 and lingering at Tybee Lighthouse for several hours, Savannah commenced her historic voyage at 5a.m. on Monday May 24, under both steam and sail bound for Liverpool, England. At around 8a.m. the same day, the paddlewheels were stowed for the first time and the ship proceeded under sail.
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The dredge was pulled forward by the two deck gypsies and not propelled by the paddlewheels when dredging. In 1976, Captain Meriwether Lewis was given to the Nebraska State Historical Society and moved to Brownville one year later. It was dry-berthed along the Missouri River where it remains today. Captain Meriwether Lewis was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1989.
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Winfield, p. 1432 The ships were fitted with a pair of 2-cylinder oscillating steam engines, rated at 400 nominal horsepower, that drove their paddlewheels. The engines produced in service that gave them speeds of . The ships were armed with eight 32-pounder (56 cwt)"Cwt" is the abbreviation for hundredweight, 56 cwt referring to the weight of the gun.
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Sennett and Oram, p. 12. Unless otherwise noted, this article uses the later definition. Unlike the side-lever or beam engine, a direct- acting engine could be readily adapted to power either paddlewheels or a propeller. As well as offering a lower profile, direct-acting engines had the advantage of being smaller and weighing considerably less than beam or side- lever engines.
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Musham 1945. p. 32. Mounted in the bow was a four-pound wheeled cannon, used to announce the steamer's arrivals, departures and presence, as steam whistles had yet to be invented.Musham 1945. p. 31. Walk-in-the-Water was powered by a single cylinder, 73-horsepower crosshead steam engine with a bore and stroke, built in New York City by Robert McQueen.Musham 1945. p. 30 The engine was described as having "a curious arrangement of levers with as many cogs as a grist-mill", driving the paddlewheels, which were in diameter, through a series of gears. "Old-fashioned" coupling boxes between the main shaft and the paddlewheel shafts enabled the two paddlewheels to be individually engaged or disengaged. The boiler was built of copper, reportedly in length with a diameter of , with a single high smokestack.
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The schedule restrictions were loosened in 1919. For the first time, Stadt Zürich was taken out of the water in the winter of 1919 for maintenance issues (no meaningful defects were found). Between 1922 and 1939 renewals were necessary: Stadt Zürich received new boiler tubes, the roof of the upper deck is replaced, and the paddlewheels. In 1938 the first electric heating was installed.
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Stern view of the steamer Alpena Built in 1866, by the Thomas Arnold of Gallagher & Company of Marine City, Michigan, the Alpena was 197 feet in length, 27 feet in breadth, with a depth of 12 feet. It was rated at 654 tons displacement. The vessel was driven by a steam engine, and photographs of the vessel show its walking beam suspended above the paddlewheels.
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Smaller, paddlewheels were fitted, and improvements were made to the steering. Upon arriving in the US, Towle filed a claim for $100,000 under the laws of salvage, claiming that his efforts had saved the ship. The case was taken to court, and he was awarded the sum of $15,000, quite a considerable sum for that period. Scientific American published an account of the incident and a description of Towle's device.
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Another vessel running on the same route was the Sea Bird, which on September 7, 1858, caught fire en route and was destroyed, with the loss of two lives.Downs, Art, Paddlewheels on the Frontier—The Story of British Columbia and Yukon Sternwheel Steamers. at 27-29, Superior Publishing, Seattle, WA 1972 Fortunately the Hunt was not far behind her and was able to take off her surviving passengers and crew.
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In the late 1990s she was used as a main filming location for the TV-show Nash Bridges. In October 1999, Eureka entered San Francisco Drydock for a $1 million restoration project focusing on the vessel's superstructure—the above-water portions of the vessel. A significant portion of that restoration was the replacement of the boat's "kingposts"--four large wooden structures that support the paddlewheels and upper decks.
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Admiral Porter started an effort on March 14 to go up the Yazoo Delta via Steele's Bayou, just north of Vicksburg, to Deer Creek. This would outflank Fort Pemberton and allow landing troops between Vicksburg and Yazoo City. Confederates once again felled trees in their path, and willow reeds fouled the boats' paddlewheels. This time the Union boats became immobilized, and Confederate cavalry and infantry threatened to capture them.
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The last of those patents (No. 150,956), issued in May 1874, was for an innovative design that he had introduced in a canal boat in 1872. Lured by a $100,000 prize, he entered the boat in a New York State-sponsored contest to design a viable steam propulsion system for use on the state's canals. Hunter's design featured two stern-mounted, vertically oriented paddlewheels that rotated in opposite directions, in order to control wake.
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His fault was that he had left a green hand at the helm while he left the wheelhouse to eat dinner.Downs, Art, Paddlewheels on the Frontier—The Story of British Columbia and Yukon Sternwheel Steamers, at 21-22, Superior Publishing, Seattle WA 1972 Captain Rudlin was faulted for not reboarding Enterprise from Rithet to take action to manage the evacuation of the vessel, but unlike Insley, he continued to receive command assignments from C.P.N.
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There is also a large picture window at the stern of the boat on the lower deck where guests can watch the authentic paddlewheels in action. The La Crosse docks alongside a barge designed to look like and old sidewheel style showboat. This serves an office and gift shop. Sometime in the night of April 14–15, 2010, the La Crosse Queens office sank into the Mississippi river leaving most of the barge underwater.
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Savannah was fitted with an auxiliary steam engine and paddlewheels in addition to her sails. Moses Rogers himself supervised the installation of the machinery, while his distant cousin, and later brother-in-law, Stevens Rogers oversaw installation of the ship's rigging and sails. Since Savannah crossed the Atlantic mainly under sail power some sources contend that the first transatlantic steamship was the , crossing in 1833. It used sail only during boiler maintenance.
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Before leaving in tow, heavy timber bracing were installed inside the steamer, and the sides of the vessel were covered over with rough lumber. Reportedly the paddlewheels were also removed, but this cannot have been so, as photographs taken after Olympian was wrecked show the wheels still in place. While in tow of Zealandia, Olympian went aground in Possession Bay. Olympian ended up laying broadside on the beach embedded in gravel to a depth of .
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The dustpan dredge is mounted in front, with winched cables on either side to hold the ship in place during dredging operations. The paddleboxes are located about 2/3 of the way down the hull. The pump that operated the dredge was located in a forward position, with its steam power plant located just aft of its position. One of the ship's paddlewheels has been removed, and is on display on the museum grounds.
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Pacific was powered by two side-lever engines built by the Allaire Iron Works of New York, each of which had a and , delivering a speed of . The running gear was designed in such a way that if one engine failed, the remaining engine could continue to supply power to both paddlewheels. Steam was supplied by four vertical tubular boilers, with a double row of furnaces, designed by the Line's chief engineer, John Faron.Morrison, p. 412.
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Fire broke out on board at around 4pm, causing the steam engines and the ship's giant paddlewheels to stop. The steamer, which was 4–5 miles offshore, quickly became engulfed in flames and smoke, and the passengers panicked while trying to board the lifeboats. Many jumped overboard into the water, which was reported to be too cold for anyone to survive in it. Despite rescue efforts, over 60 people died in what was one of Wisconsin's deadliest transportation disasters.
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The 1907 Otunui Paddleboat operated on the Whanganui River until the 1940s in her original form as a tunnel screw riverboat. Lost from her mooring in a flood she was refloated in the late 1960s and rebuilt as a sternwheeled jetboat. Around 1982 she went overland to Lake Okataina and was converted to the sidepaddle vessel as she is today. Currently operating on the Wairoa River at Tauranga, this , diesel powered vessel with hydraulic drive for the paddlewheels offers scenic cruises and charters.
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The Gay Head was built in 1891 in Philadelphia for the New Bedford, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket Steamboat Co.Banks, Charles E., The History of Martha's Vineyard, Mass., Volume I. (Dukes County Historical Society, 1911) It was 701 tons, 203 feet long, 34 foot beam, a draft of 5½ feet, with encased paddlewheels. The engine was built by Pusey & Jones Co. in Philadelphia.Turner, Harry B. The Story of the Island Steamers (The Inquirer and Mirror Press, 1910) It was the largest sidewheeler ever operated by the company.
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In 1871 she was sold to John D. Howard of Superior, Wisconsin, and she was officially registered in Superior. On November 17, 1871 Lotta Bernard was torn from a dock in Grand Marais, Minnesota and was blown ashore, sustaining damage to her hull, rudder, paddlewheels and her boiler. She was eventually refloated and taken to Duluth for repairs. On November 28, 1872 while carrying a cargo of flour, feed and grain, Lotta Bernard broke her rudder chains in a snowstorm and beached near Ontonagon, Michigan.
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Fulton's design solved several of the problems inherent in warships powered by paddlewheels which led to the adoption of the paddle-steamer as an effective warship in following decades. By placing the paddlewheel centrally, sandwiched between two hulls, Fulton protected it from gunfire; this design also allowed the ship to mount a full broadside of guns. The steam engine offered the prospect of tactical advantage against sail-powered warships. In a calm, sailing ships depended on the manpower of their crews to tow the ship from the boats, or to kedge with anchors.
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The ship had a beam of 28 feet (48 feet overall), a draft of 10 feet 6 inches, and measured 750 tons gross. The ship was powered by a 400HP walking beam engine with a single boiler and possessed paddlewheels 30 feet in diameter. The Cumberland was built for Northern Railway of Canada, the parent company of the Toronto and Lake Superior Navigation Company, to run between Duluth, Minnesota and Collingwood or Owen Sound, Ontario, and was named For Fred W. Cumberland, Northern Railway's general manager. The ship first saw service in May 1871.
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Imitation paddlewheels on each side of the pavilion makes it look like a paddle steamer. The pavilion has a sophisticated drainage system which channels rainwater through four hollow pillars, which is finally released into the lake through the mouths of four dragonheads. The boat design of the pavilion may relate to a quote attributed to Wei Zheng, a Tang dynasty chancellor. He is said to have told Emperor Taizong that "the waters that float the boat can also capsize it", implying that the people can not only support an emperor, but can also topple him.
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La machine de Marly by Pierre-Denis Martin, 1723. Providing a sufficient water supply for the fountains at Versailles had been a problem from the outset. The construction of the Marly hydraulic machine, actually located in Bougival (where its inventor Rennequin Sualem died in 1708), driven by the current of the Seine moving fourteen vast paddlewheels, was a miracle of modern hydraulic engineering, perhaps the largest integrated machine of the 17th century. It pumped water to a head of 100 meters into reservoirs at Louveciennes (where Madame du Barry had her chateau in the 1760s).
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Henry Bell had become interested in steam-propelled boats, and corresponded with Robert Fulton to learn from the Charlotte Dundas venture. In the winter of 1811/1812 he got John and Charles Wood of John Wood and Company, shipbuilders of Port Glasgow, to build a paddle steamer which was named the Comet after the "Great Comet" of 1811. The 28 ton craft was long and broad. It had two paddle wheels on each side, driven by engines rated at : at a later date the twin paddlewheels were replaced by a single paddlewheel on each side.
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Magwitch is injured in a struggle with his nemesis, who is pushed down to his death by the ship's paddlewheels, and captured, then sentenced to death. Magwitch had spoken to Pip of his lost daughter, and Pip's suspicion that she is Estella is confirmed by Jaggers. Pip visits Magwitch, now dying on death row, and tells him of her fate, and that he, Pip, is in love with her; Magwitch passes away, a contented man. Stricken by illness and with his expectations gone, Pip is taken home and nursed back to health by Joe Gargery.
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The California Steam Navigation Company idled most of its fleet immediately upon its organization to eliminate excess capacity, and raised prices to return profitability. Senator was one of the ships that was chosen to continue her service between San Francisco and Sacramento in 1854. Her paddlewheels were damaged in 1855, and she sat idle until May 1856 when she returned to her route on the Sacramento River. Struggling to find profitable uses for all the ships that were consolidated into the California Steam Navigation Company, Senator's owners expanded to coastal routes.
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Marine grasshopper engine One of the most important uses for the grasshopper engine was as a marine engine for paddle steamers. After Evans' unsuccessful experiments with the Oruktor Amphibolos, the first successful grasshopper engine was that of the first commercially successful steamboat, the of 1812. In marine use, the grasshopper engine was termed the 'half-lever' engineThe marine analogue of the beam engine being termed the 'lever engine' and used a pair of low-set levers, one each side of the cylinder. This gave a low centre of gravity for stability and a high crankshaft, suitable for driving paddlewheels.
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She docked at Stearns' Wharf on her Santa Barbara port calls and Culverwell's Wharf at San Diego. When partner Chris Nelson retired in October 1876, Goodall, Nelson, and Perkins Steamship Company was reorganized as the Pacific Coast Steamship Company. In July 1877, Orizaba was switched to the San Francisco to Portland route, but was switched back to her old San Francisco to San Diego routing in November 1877. By 1881 her old technology left her slower than more modern propeller-driven ships so she was refit with new boilers and new paddlewheels, increasing her speed to 13.5 knots.
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The boat was built by Alexander Hart at Grangemouth to Symington's design with a vertical cylinder engine and crosshead transmitting power to a crank driving the paddlewheels. Trials on the River Carron in June 1801 were successful. This first boat may have been named Charlotte Dundas and the trials apparently included towing sloops from the river Forth up the Carron and thence along the Forth and Clyde Canal. There was concern about wave damage to the canal banks, and possibly the boat was found to be underpowered on the canal, so the canal company refused further trials.
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When he presented his imposing wooden model he impressed the king with his detailed description of its operation, and convinced that Sualem understood the problem to be tackled, Louis XIV commissioned him to immediately begin construction. The resulting huge Machine de Marly, engineered by Arnold de Ville, lifted the waters from the Seine to the Versailles palace, in this case higher. The machine included 14 paddlewheels to power over 200 pumps that forced water up a network of pipes to an aqueduct. It took 30 years to complete in 1684 and remained in use until 1817 before subsequent modification.
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After consultation with Joshua Field, Brunel set the power of the two sets of engines so that the Great Eastern's paddlewheels provided about a third of the total mechanical propulsion, with the screw propeller providing the majority. She also had six masts (said to be named after the days of a week – Monday being the fore mast and Saturday the spanker mast), providing space for of sails (7 gaff and max. 9 (usually 4) square sails), rigged similar to a topsail schooner with a main gaff sail (fore-and-aft sail) on each mast, one "jib" on the fore mast and three square sails on masts no. 2 and no.
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The engine was modified such that it could be disconnected from the paddlewheels and used to drive the centrifugal 'whirlpool' pump. The pump was capable of pumping water at a rate of , but tests showed that was sufficient, and the 'zandboor' took only a couple of minutes to penetrate through to the wreck. It was also found that the sand did not collapse once the diver descended through the drilled hole into the cavity excavated by the machine. Unfortunately, the wreck remained heavily silted up, with the depth of water varying between a high of (in 1873) to a low of (in 1868 and again in 1884).
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Perhaps to counter charges that the Confederate Navy was responsible, by its inaction, for the failure of the forts to turn back Farragut's fleet, Commander John K. Mitchell, second in command under Commodore Whittle, pointed out several shortcomings of Louisiana, any one of which would have seriously compromised her fighting ability. :1. The arrangement of the paddlewheels meant that the after wheel was always in the wash of the other, with the result that its power was wasted. :2. The wash also created an eddy at the rudders, making it impossible to steer. :3. The gun ports were too small to allow either elevation or traverse.
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When the Columbia River was frozen, Armstrong built the vessel on a set of shipways constructed directly on the ice. When the boat was finished, Armstrong cut around the outline of the vessel in the ice, and the boat settled into the water. Two sources state Klahowya was built for the Columbia River Lumber Company, while another source states Klahowya was intended for the increasing tourist trade in the Golden region.Downs, Art, Paddlewheels on the Frontier -- The Story of British Columbia and Yukon Sternwheel Steamers, at 112, Superior Publishing, Seattle WA 1972 Multiple use steamboats were common, and use for lumbering would not have been necessarily inconsistent with tourist applications.
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For all the attention devoted to passenger comforts, the directors of the Collins Line well understood that the success of their venture depended primarily upon speed. After a careful study of the powerplants of the Cunard Line, Baltic was fitted with a pair of 96-inch cylinder, 10-foot stroke side-lever engines built by the Allaire Iron Works of New York. The engines produced about 500 horsepower each and delivered a speed of between 12 and 13 knots. The running gear was designed in such a way that if one engine failed, the remaining engine could continue to supply power to both paddlewheels.
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Engraving of the elevation plan and section of a steam-boat, 1827 SS Kuru at the early 20th century in Tampere, Finland A steamship, often referred to as a steamer, is a type of steam-powered vessel, typically ocean-faring and seaworthy, that is propelled by one or more steam engines that typically move (turn) propellers or paddlewheels. The first steamships came into practical usage during the early 1800s; however, there were exceptions that came before. Steamships usually use the prefix designations of "PS" for paddle steamer or "SS" for screw steamer (using a propeller or screw). As paddle steamers became less common, "SS" is assumed by many to stand for "steamship".
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Portland was built in 1947 and delivered to the Port of Portland on August 29 of that year. She was operated as a tug by both Willamette Tug & Barge and Shaver Transportation until she was retired in 1981. By that time, the Port of Portland was serving oil supertankers from Alaska that were too large for Portland to assist, and container ships with bow thrusting capabilities that reduced the need for tug assistance. Built at a time when steam paddlewheels were giving way to more modern propulsion systems, Portland was originally proposed as a diesel-powered screw-driven vessel, but at the request of the Columbia River Pilots Association she was built with more traditional propulsion.
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The principle of moving water with a screw has been known since the invention of the Archimedes' screw, named after Archimedes of Syracuse who lived in the 3rd century BC. It was not until the 18th century however, and the invention of the steam engine, that a practical means of delivering effective power to a marine screw propulsion system became available, but initial attempts to build such a vessel met with failure.Fincham, pp. 339–341. In 1807, the world's first commercially successful steam-powered vessel, Robert Fulton's , made its debut. As this vessel was powered by paddlewheels rather than a propeller, the paddlewheel thereby became the de facto early standard for steamship propulsion.
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Annerly was the first American steamer to run on the upper Kootenay river.Newell, Gordon R., ed., H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest, at 4-5, 249, Superior Publishing, Seattle, WA 1966 Annerly first arrived at Fort Steele, BC, then the principal settlement in the region, in May, 1893.Downs, Art, Paddlewheels on the Frontier -- The Story of British Columbia and Yukon Sternwheel Steamers, at 105-107, Superior Publishing, Seattle, WA 1972 During the navigation seasons (generally fall and spring) of 1893 through 1895, Annerly was operated from Jennings, Montana north up the Kootenay River across the international border into British Columbia to a point on the river known as North Star Landing, upriver from Fort Steele.
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Marshall, Don, Oregon Shipwrecks, at 297, Binford and Mort, Portland, OR 1984 Farrell sank with only her bow and capstan showing above the water.Downs, Art, Paddlewheels on the Frontier – The Story of British Columbia and Yukon Sternwheel Steamers, at 108-09, Superior Publishing, Seattle WA 1972 While Farrell was later raised and repaired, and repaired, business declined sharply on the route as traffic shifted over to newly completed railways, causing Farrell to be laid up at Jennings from 1899 to 1901. In 1901 A. Guthrie & Co. bought Farrell for $6,000 to use in construction of the Great Northern Railway to Fernie, BC. In the fall of 1901, the railway construction was complete, and Farrell was laid up again.
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The practical limit on the length of a wooden-hulled ship is about 300 feet, after which hogging—the flexing of the hull as waves pass beneath it—becomes too great. Iron hulls are far less subject to hogging, so that the potential size of an iron-hulled ship is much greater. In the spring of 1840 Brunel also had the opportunity to inspect the , the first screw-propelled steamship, completed only a few months before by F. P. Smith's Propeller Steamship Company. Brunel had been looking into methods of improving the performance of Great Britains paddlewheels, and took an immediate interest in the new technology, and Smith, sensing a prestigious new customer for his own company, agreed to lend Archimedes to Brunel for extended tests.
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Widgeon proved to be slightly faster than Archimedes in smooth seas, but Chappell concluded that as the latter had a lower horsepower-to-weight ratio, the screw propeller as a means of propulsion had proven "equal, if not superior, to that of the ordinary paddle- wheel."Fincham, pp. 346–348. This finding was more decisive than it may appear, because from a naval perspective, screw propulsion had only to prove itself approximately equal in efficiency to paddlewheel propulsion, as paddlewheels had well recognized shortcomings in military use. These included the exposure of the paddlewheel and its engines to enemy fire, as well as the reduction of space available for the placement of cannon which impinged upon a warship's broadside firepower.
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Unfortunately, the Art Nouveau equipment of the salon also was dismantled and replaced by a simple wood veneer. During restorations of 1989/90 and 2003/04, the ship's interior was returned into its original appearance using historically sourced material, so that a similar room experience is given today. In 1960 and 1967 main revisions in the dock had been done. In the 1980s, the two remaining paddle steamers on Lake Zürich – Stadt Rapperswil and Stadt Zürich – had been replaced by modern diesel powered ships on daily service; practically they are in service on Sundays, except as of 1986 summer season and again since 2003/4. Urgent repairs to the decks, tail digging trenches disguising, boilers and paddlewheels were made from 1979 to 1981.
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The Company required that the ship be able to dock at Calcutta, where navigation was restricted by the shallow Hooghly River which required a draught of no more than . Brunel calculated that the ship would be able to carry enough coal to steam from Calcutta to a British port while not exceeding that draught, while if the ship took on coal for the final leg of her homeward voyage at Trincomalee instead she would be able to transit the Hooghly with a full load of passengers and cargo while drawing . This would leave around half of the top-most blade of the screw clear of the water, greatly reducing the thrust it developed and the efficiency of the engines. Thus when operating at lighter loads and shallow draughts, the Great Eastern would require paddlewheels.
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The Columbia River begins at Columbia Lake, flows north in the trench through the Columbia Valley to Windermere Lake to Golden, British Columbia. The Kootenay River flows south from the Rocky Mountains, then west into the Rocky Mountain Trench, coming within just over a mile (1.6 km) from Columbia Lake, at a point called Canal Flats, where a shipping canal was built in 1889. The Kootenay then flows south down the Rocky Mountain Trench, crosses the international border and then turns north back into Canada and into Kootenay Lake near the town of Creston.Downs, Art, Paddlewheels on the Frontier—The Story of British Columbia and Yukon Sternwheel Steamers, at pages 100-112, Superior Publishing, Seattle, WA 1972The same river is spelled "Kootenay" in Canada and "Kootenai" in the United States.
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Drawing showing the "New Eldorado", the Fraser Canyon Gold Rush 1860 drawing of gold seekers embarking for Fraser Canyon Gold Rush 1860 drawing of a miner, apparently unsuccessful, returning from Fraser Canyon Gold Rush Enterprise arrived in Victoria in the middle of August 1858. 'Other steamboats that arrived at Victoria at almost the same time that summer were Wilson G. Hunt, Martin White, and Maria.Downs, Art, Paddlewheels on the Frontier -- The Story of British Columbia and Yukon Sternwheel Steamers, at 28-29, Superior Publishing, Seattle WA 1872 Enterprise with other American steamboats obtained a license from the governor of British Columbia to operate in British territory. Enterprise was the second steam-powered vessel to operate on the Fraser River, and had been brought up to Victoria in July 1858.
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In 1889, Armstrong had Marion shipped by rail on two flat carsDowns, Art, Paddlewheels on the Frontier -- The Story of British Columbia and Yukon Sternwheel Steamers, at 103-105, 113, 117, 125, 128, Superior Publishing, Seattle, WA 1972 to Revelstoke, British Columbia, an important junction where the transcontinental line of the Canadian Pacific Railway made one of its two crossings of the Columbia River. From Revelstoke, a steamboat could navigate south down the Columbia River to the Arrow Lakes and on the lakes proceed far to the south, near the international border, where spectacular mining discoveries were being made in the late 1880s. Near the southern end of the lakes was a little settlement called Sproat's Landing. Armstrong put Marion on the Revelstoke-Sproat's Landing route, running in opposition to the catamaran steamer Despatch, the only other steam vessel then in operation on the Arrow Lakes.
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A breakwater in the National Harbor of Refuge At 5 am on 5 February, Ice Boat No. 3, under the command of Captain W. F. P. Jacobs, arrived at the Delaware Breakwater "under orders to convey a fleet of ice- bound steamers, tugs, barges and schooners up to Philadelphia." In the National Harbor of Refuge between the two breakwaters, No. 3s paddlewheels became jammed by ice, and unable to maneouver, the vessel was dragged by the ice floes over a recently sunken barge, the Santiago, one of whose broken masts pierced the ice boat's hull below the waterline. Within minutes, water had extinguished No. 3s furnaces and the order was given to abandon ship. Unable to launch a lifeboat because of the surrounding ice, the crew were forced to leap for safety onto the ice floes, the ice boat sinking shortly thereafter, at about 6 am.
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By the time of John Moncure Robinson's retirement as president of the company in 1893, the Old Bay Line had upgraded its fleet with propeller-driven, steel-hulled steamers equipped with modern conveniences such as electric lighting and staterooms with private baths. The Georgia introduced in 1887 was the first Old Bay Line boat to have a modern screw propeller instead of old-fashioned side paddlewheels and the Alabama launched in 1893 was the company's first steel- hulled vessel. Robinson served the Old Bay Line as president for 26 years (1867–1893), longer than any other person in the company's history.. The halcyon days of the 1890s were the company's heyday, under president Richard Curzon Hoffman (the grandfather of noted author Walter Lord), when the prosperous line's gleaming steamships were heavily patronized by passengers enjoying the well-appointed staterooms and Chesapeake Bay culinary delights while dining to the accompaniment of live music. The nightly menu on board included oyster fritters, diamondback terrapin, duck, and turkey.
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Rossland was the third steamboat built by the Canadian Pacific Railway for its steamboat lines running in the lakes of the Kootenays. She was designed by the superintendent of the C.P.R.'s Lake Service, the accomplished steamboat man James W. Troup to be an express passenger and tourism boat, intended to make the 256 mile round trip from Arrowhead to Robson and back in one day.Downs, Art, Paddlewheels on the Frontier -- The Story of British Columbia and Yukon River Sternwheel Steamers, at 125, 128 and 130, Superior Publishing, Seattle, WA 1972 Rossland was built at Nakusp at the shipyard owned by the master builder Thomas J. Bulger and his sons James M. and David T. Bulger. Most inland steamers of the Pacific Northwest were built with a flat bottom with as shallow a draft as possible so that they could move as far up the many shallow rivers to reach gold fields, farms or other areas where transportation was needed and roads or railroads were absent or inadequate.
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Canal Flats at the south end of Columbia Lake The canal was part of a scheme by English/Austrian entrepreneur William Adolf Baillie Grohman in the 1880s to breach Canal Flats and divert water from the upper Kootenay River into the Columbia system, thereby sufficiently lowering the level of Kootenay Lake to reclaim the rich alluvial plain in the Creston area and open up a north-south navigational system from Golden to Montana. The scheme was abandoned under pressure from the Canadian Pacific Railways, concerned about its Columbia River crossings, and from settlers around Golden who feared that their farmlands would be flooded.Downs, Art, Paddlewheels on the Frontier -- The Story of British Columbia and Yukon Sternwheel Steamers, at 101-113, Superior Publishing, Seattle, WA 1972 Baillie-Grohman had to settle for building a canal and lock system between the two rivers, completed in 1889. Only two ships ever passed through the canal; in 1895 the sternwheeler Gwendoline successfully navigated the canal from the Kootenay River to the Columbia River, followed in 1902 by the North Star.
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Her flat-bottomed hull was made of iron plate fastened to angle-iron ribs. There was one deck, of wood, and a bowsprit. The ship's distinctive profile boasted a single funnel. The engine was of the oscillating type, designed and patented (British Patent No 4558 of 1821) by Aaron Manby. The paddlewheels: were 12 feet (3.7 m) in diameter but only 2.5 feet (76 cm) wide, because the vessel's maximum beam was limited to 23 feet (7.0 m) for service on the Seine. Defying the prevailing wisdom of the day, the iron-hulled vessel not only floated but made 9 knots (10 mph, 17 km/h) and drew one foot (30 cm) less water than any other steamboat then operating.Dumpleton 2002:18fKemp 1979:1 After trials in May 1822, Aaron Manby crossed the English Channel to Le Havre under Napier’s command on 10 June, at an average speed of 8 knots (9 mph, 14 km/h), carrying passengers and freighted with a cargo of linseed and iron castings.
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This birds-eye tourist map, published in 1913, gives a rough idea of the potential significance of a shipping canal at Canal Flats, roughly in the center of valley shown on this map. The Baillie-Grohman Canal was suggested by the unusual geographic setting of the sources of the Columbia and the Kootenay Rivers. The Columbia River begins at Columbia Lake, flows north in the Rocky Mountain Trench through the Columbia Valley to Windermere Lake to Golden, BC. The Kootenay River flows south from the Rocky Mountains, then west into the Rocky Mountain Trench, coming within just over a mile from Columbia Lake, at a point called Canal Flats, where a shipping canal was built in 1889. The Kootenay then flows south down the Rocky Mountain Trench, crosses the international border and then turns north back into Canada and into Kootenay Lake near the town of Creston, BC.Downs, Art, Paddlewheels on the Frontier -- The Story of British Columbia and Yukon Sternwheel Steamers, at pages 100-112, Superior Publishing, Seattle, WA 1972The same river is spelled "Kootenay" in Canada and "Kootenai" in the United States.
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Ox-powered Roman paddle wheel boat from a 15th-century copy of De Rebus Bellicis The use of a paddle wheel in navigation appears for the first time in the mechanical treatise of the Roman engineer Vitruvius (De architectura, X 9.5–7), where he describes multigeared paddle wheels working as a ship odometer. The first mention of paddle wheels as a means of propulsion comes from the fourth– or fifth-century military treatise De Rebus Bellicis (chapter XVII), where the anonymous Roman author describes an ox-driven paddle-wheel warship: A 15th-century paddlewheel boat powered by crankshafts (Anonymous of the Hussite Wars) Italian physician Guido da Vigevano (circa 1280–1349), planning for a new crusade, made illustrations for a paddle boat that was propelled by manually turned compound cranks. Paddle boat, by the Italian artist-engineer Taccola, De machinis (1449): The paddles wind a rope fixed to an anchor upstream, thus moving the boat against the current. One of the drawings of the Anonymous Author of the Hussite Wars shows a boat with a pair of paddlewheels at each end turned by men operating compound cranks.
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