Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1895-04-05
THE SAVANNAH.

are practically ~impervious to the ~f1eroest
storm or the angriest sea. The awful
wreck of the Elbe does not lessen the
strength of this statement.
The possibility Of accident from fog or
otherwise does not take from the value
Of the demonstration of practical unsink-
ableness given by the Teutonic and Gas.
cogne. Travel by the great floating pal
aces of today Is quite as safe and almost az
speedy as in the palace cars of our rail-
roads.
But there are few persons who look at
those ocean giants Of steel and iron and
wood who know that a small American
vessel, the Savannah, flying the American
flag and manned by an American crew,
was the pioneer of ocean steam navigation
and demonstrated to the world the posi-
bility of arriving at such perfection in it,
or that the first voyage of a steamship
across the Atlantic was made 76 years ago
by the Savannah, an American built YES.
sci.
First Attempts.
Previous to the voyage of the Savannah
many vessels had been propelled by steam,
but only upon inland and coast waters.
Several experiments we're tried by John
Stevens, Fulton and others in 1902, 1903
and 1904, but it was not until 1907 that
Fulton, with the Clermont, and Stevens,
with the Phoenix, demonstrated on the
Hudson that the steam engine could be
practically and economically applied to
navigation. Five years afterward the first
steamboat was launched or the Clyde, in
England. Other countries quickly adopt.
ed the. new mode of marine propulsion,
and in 1914 the congress of the United
States passed a law authorizing the presi.
dent to have constructed zone or moro
steam floating batteries for the defense Of
the waters of the United States" Seven
months afterward, on Oct. Is, 1914, the
first steam warship was launched at
Browns %shipyard in New York city and
was called the Fulton, as a compliment to
the great designer.
The Savannah was a full rugged ship of
$50 tons burden and was built by Francis
Frickett, at Corlear's Hook, New York.
She was launched on Aug. 22, 1918, ana
twas intended to be used as a sailing
packet between New York and Havre."
But she was destined to have a far moro
remarkable career. Before she was
launched she attracted the attention of
Captain Moses Rogers, ''who had been as
ISOLATED with Fulton and Stevens in COM
handing several of the early steamboats,"
and he induced Messrs Scarborough &
Isaacs, a wealthy shipping firm of this
city, to purchase her and fit her with en-
gines, with a view of giving to this city
the credit of being the first to inaugurate
a transatlantic steamship line" The YES
sci was then furnished with one inclined,
direct acting, low pressure engine of 80
horse power. Those of the Campania, Luz
cania and other ocean steamships exceed
20, 900 horsepower. She was to be driven
with paddle side wheels, and these paddles
deserve particular notice. They consisted
of eight radial arms, held in place by one
fange, and were arranged to close togeth-
or like a fan. Each arm Of the paddle
was SO adjusted that it could be detached
from the shaft and taken on deck 'when
storm or other circumstance required it,
It is probably the only example of a steam.