Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1879-02-18
EARLY STEAM NAVIGATION ON THE
ATLANTIC,

There exists general impression that
steam navigation across the Atlantic is of
quite modern date, and that the enterprise
was not dreamt of by the first builders of
steamships. 1t is belief which arose, no
doubt, from the fact that the esta tablishment
ofsregu'ar steam routes between this coun-
try and America, with hours of departure
and arrival as punctual, or nearly so. as
railway trains, is within the memory of
mlddle-aged men, and all the more
strongly impressed on account of the op-
position it encountered, and the ridicule
its predicted success met with on the part
OF many persons, even scientific authori-
ties. However, the belief is altogether
erroneous. The idea of crossing the broad
Atlantic in steam propelled vessels is as
old as the steamers themselves, and the
first inventor entertained it most dis
tinctly. Poor John Fitch, of Philadel-
phia, already referred to as ''the inventor
OF what really was the first practical
steamer, expressed, in the clearest posi-
BILE manner, his belief that mercantile
ships, as well as men-ofwar, propelled by
steam power, could run between Europe
and America, and, in fact over all the
seas OF the globe. In remarkable letter
addressed to friend, one David Ritten
house, OF whom he had to beg now and
then the loan of a five pound note to carry
on his steamboat experiments, he said, on
one occasion, "This, sir, whether | bring
1t to perfection or not will be the mode of
crossing the Atlantic, in time, for packets
and armed vessels 1t is lamentable to
think of the fate of this true mechanical
genius, falling in. the end into despair
through the most abject poverty. Gotten
have seen him, - relates a PHILADELPHIA
acquaintance, Mr.. Thomas Cope, stalk
ing about like troubled spectre, with
downcast eyes and lowered countenance.
his coarse soiled linen peeping through
the elbows of tattered garment The
way in which his friends and contem-
poraries looked upon the dreamer of uni
versal steam communication is graphically
told by the same writer. Speaking of a
visit he once paid to John Wilson, his
boat builder, and Peter Brown, black
smith, who forged the rough. .engines of
the little steamer which actually ran on
the Delaware for eighteen months, at the
rate of eighty miles day, without being
appreciated, Mr. Cope tells this story of
his friend John Fitch: eAfter Inducing
himself for some time in his never-fafling
u,
the memorable words, We'll, gentlemen,
although l shall not live to see It, YOU will
see the time when steamboats, will be pre-
ferred to all other means of conveyance.
especially for passengers He then re-
tired, on which Brown, turning to Wilson,
exclaimed in tone of deep sympathy.
Poor fellow what a pity he is crazy. ~
Poor John Fitch fed from contumely and
starvation by midnight jump into the
Allegheny in 1898, just at the time when
the first successful English steamer, the
Charlotte Dundas, was beginning to earn
{ tame and money on the Fourth and Clyde
Canal.
The prediction of John Fitch that
steamers would one day cross the Atlantic,
received Its first fulfillmens in 1919. 1t
was IN the summer of this year that an
American vessel, the Savannah, arrived
at Liverpool from Savannah, Georgia,
having traversed the Atlantic Ocean in
thirty days, partly sailing and partly
steaming. The event created very little
attention at that time, the Savannah being
small boat of 300 tons, and rugged as
sailing vessel, while her steam power was
regarded as purely auxiliary; so much so,
that the engines, and even the paddles,
were removable. Her passage being of
the same duration as that of the fine
liners which had been built to carry on
intercourse between Great Britain and
the growing population of the United
States, twas but natural that slight in
terest should have been taken in the first
voyage of the first Atlantic steamer, and,
having repeated it once or twice without
proving commercially successful, the Sa-
vannah was Withdrawn from the route to
seek better fortune on the Mississippi No
less than nine years elapsed before another
ship furnished with steam power followed
the example OF the Savannah in attempt
ing an Atlantic voyage. This time the
venture came from the Netherlands. 1t
seems highly probable that the sight of
the Caledonia, which Mr. James Watt
junior, brought in the springof 1917 from
the Clyde, to take up the Rhine, staying
for little while at Rotterdam, had con
siderable effect in stimulating the interest