Right: detail of a steamer
A paddle steamer is a ship or boat driven by a steam engine that uses one or more paddle wheels to develop thrust for propulsion. A steam engine is a Heat engine that performs Mechanical work using Steam as its Working fluid. Marine propulsion is the act of moving a floating object over or through water It is also a type of steamboat. A steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving a Propeller Boats with paddle wheels on the sides are termed sidewheelers, while those with a single wheel on the stern are known as sternwheelers. Paddle steamers usually carry the prefix "PS". Although generally associated with steam power, paddleboats, or paddlewheelers have also been driven by diesel engines, animal power, or human power.
The paddle wheel was the first form of mechanical propulsion for a boat, but has now been almost entirely superseded by the screw propeller and other, more modern, forms of marine propulsion. A propeller is essentially a type of fan which transmits power by converting Rotational motion into Thrust for propulsion of a vehicle such as an
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Paddle wheels
The paddle wheel is a large wheel, generally built of a steel framework, upon the outer edge of which are fitted numerous paddle blades (called floats or buckets). Steel frame usually refers to a building technique with a " Skeleton frame" of vertical Steel Columns and horizontal I-beams constructed In the water, the bottom quarter or so of the wheel is underwater. Rotation of the paddle wheel produces thrust, forward or backward as required. Thrust is a reaction force described quantitatively by Newton 's Second and Third Laws. More advanced paddle wheel designs have featured feathering methods that keep each paddle blade oriented closer to vertical while it is in the water; this increases efficiency.
Types of paddle steamer
There are two basic ways to mount paddle wheels on a ship; a single wheel on the rear, known as a stern-wheeler, and a paddle wheel on each side, known as a side-wheeler.
Stern-wheelers have generally been used as riverboats, especially in the United States, where they still operate for tourist use on the Mississippi River and some other locations. A riverboat is Ship designed for Inland navigation. These vessels are usually less sturdy than ships built for the open seas with limited navigational and The United States of America —commonly referred to as the The Mississippi River is the second longest River in the United States, with a length of from its source in Lake Itasca in Minnesota to On a river, the narrowness of a stern-wheeler is preferable.
Side-wheelers, meanwhile, have also been used as riverboats, but also commonly as coastal craft. While wider than a stern-wheeler, due to the extra width of the paddle wheels and their enclosing pontoons, a side-wheeler has extra maneuverability since the power may be directed to one wheel at a time.
Early developments
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. Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (born c 80–70 BC died after c 15 BC was a Roman Writer, Architect and Engineer (possibly praefectus fabrum 5-7), where he describes multi-geared paddle wheels working as a ship odometer. An odometer (often known colloquially as a mileometer or milometer) is a device used for indicating Distance traveled by an Automobile or other The first mention of paddle wheels as a means of propulsion comes from the 4th-5th century military treatise De Rebus Bellicis (chapter XVII), where the anonymous Roman author describes an ox-driven paddle wheel warship:
| “ | Animal power, directed by the resources on ingenuity, drives with ease and swiftness, wherever utility summons it, a warship suitable for naval combats, which, because of its enormous size, human frailty as it were prevented from being operated by the hands of men. De Rebus Bellicis is a 4th or 5th century anonymous work about war machines used by the Roman army of the time In its hull, or hollow interior, oxen, yoked in pairs to capstans, turns wheels attached to the sides of the ship; paddles, projecting above the circumference or curved surface of the wheels, beating the water with their strokes like oar-blades as the wheels revolve, work with an amazing and ingenious effect, their action producing rapid motion. This warship, moreover, because of its own bulk and because of the machinery working inside it, joins battle with such pounding force that it easily wrecks and destroys all enemy warships coming at close quarters. [1] | ” |
A successful paddle wheel warship design was not made in China until Prince Li Gao in 784 AD, during an imperial examination of the provinces by the current Tang emperor. The Tang Dynasty ( Middle Chinese: dhɑng (June 18 618&ndashJune 4 907 was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by [2] The Chinese Song Dynasty (960 - 1279 AD) issued the construction of many paddle-wheel ships for its standing navy, and according to historian Joseph Needham:
". The Song Dynasty ( Wade-Giles: Sung Ch'ao was a ruling dynasty in China between 960&ndash1279 CE it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms The Song Dynasty ( Chinese: 宋朝; Pinyin: Sòng cháo 960 - 1279) of China was a ruling Dynasty that controlled China proper Noel Joseph Terence Montgomery Needham, CH, FRS, FBA ( December 9, 1900 – March 24 1995) was a British . . between 1132 and 1183 (AD) a great number of treadmill-operated paddle-wheel craft, large and small, were built, including stern-wheelers and ships with as many as 11 paddle-wheels a side,” [3].
In 1543 the Spanish engineer Blasco de Garay in Barcelona made an experimental vessel propelled by a paddle-wheel on each side, worked by forty men. Blasco de Garay (1500 – 1552 was a Spanish navy captain and inventor Barcelona ( Catalan bəɾsəˈlonə Spanish baɾθeˈlona is the capital and most populous city of the Autonomous Community of Catalonia In the same year he showed Carlos I of Spain (also known as Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, a new idea - a ship propelled by a giant wheel powered by steam, but Carlos was not interested in it. Carlos I may refer to Charles V Holy Roman Emperor, who as king of Spain was known as Carlos I Carlos I of Portugal Charles V (24 February 1500 &ndash 21 September 1558 was The Holy Roman Emperor (Römischer Kaiser or Römisch-Deutscher Kaiser Romanorum Imperator was the elected monarch ruling over the many varying numbers of states [4][5]
In 1787 Patrick Miller of Dalswinton invented a double-hulled boat, which was propelled on the Firth of Forth by men working a capstan which drove paddles on each side. Patrick Miller of Dalswinton, just north of Dumfries (1730-1815 was a Scottish banker and shareholder in the Carron Company engineering works and an enthusiastic The Firth of Forth ( Scottish Gaelic: Linne Foirthe) is the Estuary or Firth of Scotland's River Forth, where it flows [6]
The first paddle steamer was the Pyroscaphe built by Marquis Claude de Jouffroy of Lyon in France, in 1783. Pyroscape was an early experimental Steamship build by Marquis de Jouffroy d'Abbans in 1783. Claude-François-Dorothée marquis de Jouffroy d'Abbans (1751&ndash1832 is claimed by the French as the first inventor of the Steamboat. ||-||} Lyon, also known as Lyons in English is a city in east-central France. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. It had a horizontal double-acting steam engine driving two 13. 1 ft (4 m) paddle wheels on the sides of the craft. On July 15, 1783 it steamed successfully up the Saône for fifteen minutes before the engine failed. Events 1099 - First Crusade: Christian soldiers take the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem after the final Year 1783 ( MDCCLXXXIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or Political events interrupted further development.
The next successful attempt at a paddle-driven steam ship was by the Scottish engineer William Symington who suggested steam power to Patrick Miller of Dalswinton. A steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving a Propeller Scotland ( Gaelic: Alba) is a Country in northwest Europethat occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain. William Symington (1764–1831 was a Scottish Engineer and Inventor, and the builder of the first practical Steamboat. Patrick Miller of Dalswinton, just north of Dumfries (1730-1815 was a Scottish banker and shareholder in the Carron Company engineering works and an enthusiastic [6] Experimental boats built in 1788 and 1789 worked successfully on Lochmaben Loch. Lochmaben ( Gaelic Loch Mhabain) is a small town in Scotland, and site of a once-important castle In 1802, Symington built a barge-hauler, Charlotte Dundas, for the Forth and Clyde Canal Company. BARGE, the Big August RecGambling Excursion is a yearly convention held in Las Vegas during the first weekend of August The Charlotte Dundas is regarded as the world's "first practical Steamboat " the first towing steamboat and the boat that demonstrated the practicality of steam power The Forth and Clyde Canal crosses Scotland, providing a route for sea-going vessels between the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Clyde at the narrowest part It successfully hauled two 70-ton barges almost 20 miles (30 km) in 6 hours against a strong headwind on test in 1802. There was much enthusiasm, but some directors of the company were concerned about the banks of the canal being damaged by the wash from a powered vessel, and no more were ordered.
While Charlotte Dundas was the first commercial paddle-steamer and steamboat, the first commercial success was possibly Robert Fulton's Clermont in New York, which went into commercial service in 1807 between New York City and Albany. Robert Fulton ( November 14, 1765 &ndash February 24, 1815) was a U The first commercially successful Steamship of the Paddle steamer design North River Steamboat (later known as the Clermont) The City of New York Albany is the Capital of the State of New York and the County seat of Albany County. Many other paddle-equipped river boats followed all round the world.
Seagoing paddle steamers
The first sea-going trip of a paddle steamer was that of the Albany in 1808, which steamed from the Hudson River along the coast to the Delaware River. The Hudson River, called Muh-he-kun-ne-tuk, the Great Mohegan by the Iroquois, or as the Lenape Native Americans called it in Unami The Delaware River is a river on the Atlantic coast of the United States. This was purely for the purpose of moving a river-boat to a new market, but the use of paddle-steamers for short coastal trips began soon after that.
The first paddle-steamer to make a long ocean voyage was the SS Savannah, built in 1819 expressly for this service. The SS Savannah was the first ship to cross the Atlantic Ocean using Steam engines on the voyage Savannah set out for Liverpool on May 22, 1819, sighting Ireland after 23 days at sea. Liverpool ( is a City and Metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary Events 334 BC - The Greek army of Alexander the Great defeats Darius III of Persia in the Battle of the Granicus. Year 1819 ( MDCCCXIX) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar in the Gregorian Calendar (or a Common year This was the first powered crossing of the Atlantic, although Savannah also carried a full rig of sail to assist the engines when winds were favorable. In 1822, Charles Napier's Aaron Manby, the world's first iron ship, made the first direct steam crossing from London to Paris and the first seagoing voyage by an iron ship anywhere. Admiral Sir Charles (John Napier KCB RN ( 6 March 1786 – 6 November 1860) was a British Naval officer Aaron Manby was a landmark vessel in the science of Shipbuilding.
In 1838, Sirius, a fairly small steam packet built for the Cork to London route, became the first vessel to cross the Atlantic under sustained steam power, beating Isambard Kingdom Brunel's much larger Great Western by a day. Cork (Corcaigh is the second largest city in the Republic of Ireland and the island of Ireland 's third most populous city after Dublin and Belfast London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. Isambard Kingdom Brunel, FRS (9 April 1806 &ndash 15 September 1859 (ˈɪzəmbɑrd ˈkɪŋdəm brʊˈnɛl was a British Engineer. Origins Isambard Kingdom Brunel 's idea was that steam would replace sail power on the regularly-scheduled trans-Atlantic "packet boat" services which had Great Western, however, was actually built for the transatlantic trade, and so had sufficient coal for the passage, Sirius having to burn furniture and other items after running out of coal. [7] The Great Western’s more successful crossing however began the regular sailing of powered vessels across the Atlantic. Beaver was the first coastal steamship to operate in the Pacific Northwest of North America. Statistics Power 2 x 35 hp (26 kW) Boulton & Watt Steam engines driving two 13' (4m- diameter paddlewheels The Pacific Northwest is a region in the northwest of North America (the term refers to the land not the ocean
Paddle steamers helped open Japan to the Western World in the mid-19th century. The Sophia Jane was the first Paddle steamer to operate in Australian waters Matthew Calbraith Perry ( April 10, 1794 &ndash March 4, 1858) was the Commodore of the U The Black Ships (in Japanese, 黒船 kurofune) was the name given to Western vessels arriving in Japan between the 15th and 19th centuries
The largest paddle-steamer ever built was Brunel's Great Eastern, but it also had an additional screw propulsion and sail rigging. History Concept After the Great Exhibition of 1851 which had publicized Australia's wealth and natural resources waves of people were eager to emigrate from It was 692 feet (211 m) long and weighed 32,000 tons, its paddle-wheels being 56 ft (17 m) in diameter.
In oceangoing service, paddle steamers became obsolete rather quickly with the invention of the screw propeller, but they remained in use in coastal service and as river tugboats, thanks to their shallow draught and good maneuverability. A propeller is essentially a type of fan which transmits power by converting Rotational motion into Thrust for propulsion of a vehicle such as an The Eppleton Hall is a 1914 built paddlewheel Tugboat, which is now preserved at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park in
Modern paddle steamers
Few original paddle steamers remain in existence, and those that do are mainly preserved for tourists or as museums. Vancouver (vænˈkuːvɚ is a coastal Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page Some paddle steamers still operate on the Mississippi River, and Willamette River,[8][9] as do a few in the United Kingdom and elsewhere in Europe. The Mississippi River is the second longest River in the United States, with a length of from its source in Lake Itasca in Minnesota to The Willamette River (pronounced) is a Tributary of the Columbia River.
The Washington Irving, built in 1912 by the New York Shipbuilding Company, was the biggest passenger-carrying riverboat ever built with a capacity for 6,000 passengers. Characteristics The quadruple-decker At a capacity of 6000 passengers it was the biggest passenger-carrying riverboat ever built The New York Shipbuilding Corporation (or New York Ship for short was founded in 1899 and opened its first shipyard in 1900 It was operated on the Hudson River from 1913 until it was sunk in an accident in 1926. The Hudson River, called Muh-he-kun-ne-tuk, the Great Mohegan by the Iroquois, or as the Lenape Native Americans called it in Unami
PS Waverley, built in 1947, is the last sea-going paddle steamer in the world. History The Waverley was built in 1946 as a replacement for an earlier PS Waverley of 1899 that took part in the WW II war effort as a minesweeper This ship sails a full season of cruises every year from ports around Britain, and has sailed across the English Channel to commemorate the sinking of her predecessor of 1899 at the Battle of Dunkirk. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located The Battle of Dunkirk was the defense and evacuation of the British and Allied forces that had been separated from the main body of the French defenses by the German advance
PS Skibladner is the oldest steamship in regular operation. PS Skibladner is a Paddle steamer operating on the lake of Mjøsa in Norway. A steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving a Propeller Built in 1856, she still operates on lake Mjøsa in Norway. Mjøsa is Norway 's largest lake as well as the one of the deepest lakes in Norway and in Europe as a whole after Hornindalsvatnet. Norway ( Norwegian: Norge ( Bokmål) or Noreg ( Nynorsk) officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Constitutional
PS Adelaide is the oldest wooden-hulled paddle steamer in the world. Built in 1866, she operates from the Port of Echuca, on Australia's Murray River, which has the largest fleet of paddle steamers in the world. Echuca is a town located on the banks of the Murray River in Victoria, Australia. The paddle steamer Curlip is currently being reconstructed in Gippsland Australia. PS Curlip was a Paddle steamer built in a Tabbara Sawmill in 1889 by Samuel Richardson and his sons Gippsland is a large rural region in Victoria, Australia. It begins immediately east of the suburbs of Melbourne and stretches to the New South Wales border
The Elbe river Saxon Paddle Steamer Fleet in Dresden (known as "White Fleet"), Germany, is said to be the oldest and biggest in the world, which over ca. The Elbe ( die Elbe Low German: de Ilv) is one of the major Rivers of Central Europe. The White Fleet ( Weisse Flotte in German) of Dresden, Germany is the oldest and biggest Paddle steamer fleet in the world 700. 000 passengers per year. [10] The 1913-built Goethe is the last one on the Rhine river. The Rhine (Rhein Rijn Rhin Reno Rain Rhenus is one of the longest and most important Rivers in Europe at 1320 kilometres (820 mi with an average discharge It is the world's greatest sidewheeler with a 2-cylinder steam engine of Template:Convert/HP, a length of 83 m and a height above water of 9,2 m.
Switzerland has a large paddle steamer fleet, most of the "Salon Steamer-type" built by Sulzer in Winterthur or Escher-Wyss in Zürich. Switzerland (English pronunciation; Schweiz Swiss German: Schwyz or Schwiiz Suisse Svizzera Svizra officially the Swiss Confederation Winterthur (pronounced Ger /vɪntərtur/ Eng /tʊər/ is a city in the canton of Zurich in northern Switzerland. Zürich (, Zürich German: Züri, Zurich, Zurigo; in English generally Zurich) is the largest city in Switzerland and capital of the There are five active and one inactive on Lake Lucerne, two on Lake Zürich, and one each on Lake Brienz, Lake Thun and Lake Constance. Lake Lucerne ( German: Vierwaldstättersee, lit "Lake of the Four Forest Cantons " is a Lake in central Switzerland, the Lake Brienz (Brienzersee is a Lake just north of the Alps, in the Canton of Berne in Switzerland. Lake Thun (Thunersee is a Lake just north of the Alps, in the Bernese Oberland in Switzerland. Under the designation Lake Constance or Lake of Constance ( German Bodensee) one summarizes the three independent bodies of water Obersee Swiss company CGN operates a number of paddle steamers on Lake Geneva. Compagnie Générale de Navigation sur le lac Léman (commonly abbreviated to CGN) is a public Swiss company operating boats on Lake Geneva connecting Lake Geneva or Lake Léman (Lac Léman Léman Lac de Genève is the second largest freshwater Lake in Central Europe in terms of surface area (after Their fleet includes three converted to diesel electric power in the 1960s and five retaining steam. A number of vehicles use a diesel-electric Powertrain for providing locomotion. One, Montreux, was reconverted in 2000 from diesel to an all-new steam engine. It is the world's first electronically remote-controlled steam engine and has operating costs similar to state of the art diesels, while producing up to 90 percent less air pollution.
In USSR, the river paddle steamers of the type Iosif Stalin (project 373), later renamed as type Ryazan class steamship, were built until 1951. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 Ryazan class steamship (formerly Iosif Stalin class) is a class of Russian river passenger ships It is named after the city of Ryazan. Between 1952 and 1959 ships of this type were build for Soviet Union by Obuda Hajogyar Budapest factory in Hungary. In total, 75 type Iosif Stalin/Ryazan paddle steamers were build. Few of them still remain in active service, as in 2007. [11][12] Iosif Stalin/Ryazan paddle steamers are side-wheelers. They are 70 m long and can carry up to 360 passengers.
A small paddle steamer fleet operates on the lake of Como, Italy, mostly but not only for touristic purposes. Como is a City in Lombardy, Italy, north of Milan. Situated at the southern tip of the south-west arm of Lake Como, it
The restored paddle steamer 'Waimarie' is based in Wanganui, New Zealand. Wanganui is an urban area and district on the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand. New Zealand is an Island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses (the North Island and the South Island The Waimarie was built in kitset form in Poplar, London in 1899, and originally operated on the Whanganui River under the name 'Aotea'. Poplar is an area of the East End of London in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The Whanganui River is a major river in the North Island of New Zealand. Later renamed, she remained in service until 1949. She sank at her moorings in 1952, and remained in the mud until raised by volunteers and restored to begin operations again in 2000. [13]
See also
Notes
- ^ De Rebus Bellicis (anon. A steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving a Propeller The Black Ships (in Japanese, 黒船 kurofune) was the name given to Western vessels arriving in Japan between the 15th and 19th centuries The Song Dynasty (宋朝 960–1279 CE provided some of the most significant technological advances in Chinese history, many of which came from talented statesmen The PA Denny is a long three-deck paddle wheel steamer that cruised the Kanawha River in the eastern United States for nearly three decades as a tour boat ), chapter XVII, text edited by Robert Ireland, in: BAR International Series 63, part 2, p. 34
- ^ Needham, Volume 4, Part 3, 31.
- ^ Needham, 476
- ^ Kurlansky, Mark. 1999. The Basque History of the World. Walker & Company, New York. ISBN 0-8027-1349-1, p. 56
- ^ Dayton, Fred Erving (1925), “Two Thousand Years of Steam”, Steamboat Days, Frederick A. Stokes company, p. 1, <http://sdr.lib.umich.edu/cgi/m/mdp/pt?seq=265&view=image&size=100&id=mdp.39015020219674&u=1&num=1>
- ^ a b Smiles, Samuel (1884). Samuel Smiles ( 23 December, 1812 &ndash 16 April, 1904) was a Scottish author and reformer Men of Invention and Industry. Gutenberg e-text.
- ^ Men of Iron : Brunel, Stephenson and the Inventions That Shaped the Modern World by Sally Dugan ISBN 978-1405034265
- ^ Str. Portland
- ^ Oregon Maritime Museum
- ^ http://www.saechsische-dampfschiffahrt.de/?sprache=en (the biggest and oldest)
- ^ Russian river ships (in English)
- ^ Russian passenger river fleet (in Russian)
- ^ Whanganui River Boat Centre
References
- Needham, Joseph (1986). Science and Civilization in China: Volume 4, Part 3. Taipei: Caves Books, Ltd.
Dictionary
paddle steamer
-noun
- (nautical) A steam-powered vessel propelled by one or two paddle wheels
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