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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 engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be trans ...
s that typically move (turn)
propeller A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon ...
s 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 A prefix is an affix which is placed before the Word stem, stem of a word. Adding it to the beginning of one word changes it into another word. For example, when the prefix ''un-'' is added to the word ''happy'', it creates the word ''unhappy'' ...
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". Ships powered by internal combustion engines use a prefix such as "MV" for ''motor vessel'', so it is not correct to use "SS" for most modern vessels. As steamships were less dependent on wind patterns, new trade routes opened up. The steamship has been described as a "major driver of the first wave of trade globalization (1870–1913)" and contributor to "an increase in international trade that was unprecedented in human history".


History

Steamships were preceded by smaller vessels, called
steamboat A steamboat is a boat that is marine propulsion, propelled primarily by marine steam engine, steam power, typically driving propellers or Paddle steamer, paddlewheels. Steamboats sometimes use the ship prefix, prefix designation SS, S.S. or S/S ...
s, conceived in the first half of the 18th century, with the first working steamboat and paddle steamer, the '' Pyroscaphe'', from 1783. 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. It was an effective means of propulsion under ideal conditions but otherwise had serious drawbacks. The paddle-wheel performed best when it operated at a certain depth, however when the depth of the ship changed from added weight it further submerged the paddle wheel causing a substantial decrease in performance. Within a few decades of the development of the river and canal steamboat, the first steamships began to cross the Atlantic Ocean. The first sea-going steamboat was Richard Wright's first steamboat ''Experiment'', an ex-French lugger; she steamed from Leeds to
Yarmouth Yarmouth may refer to: Places Canada *Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia **Yarmouth, Nova Scotia **Municipality of the District of Yarmouth **Yarmouth (provincial electoral district) **Yarmouth (electoral district) * Yarmouth Township, Ontario *New ...
in July 1813. The first iron steamship to go to sea was the 116-ton '' Aaron Manby'', built in 1821 by Aaron Manby at the Horseley Ironworks, and became the first iron-built vessel to put to sea when she crossed the English Channel in 1822, arriving in Paris on 22 June. She carried passengers and freight to Paris in 1822 at an average speed of 8 knots (9 mph, 14 km/h). The American ship first crossed the Atlantic Ocean arriving in Liverpool, England, on June 20, 1819, although most of the voyage was actually made under sail. The first ship to make the transatlantic trip substantially under steam power may have been the British-built Dutch-owned ''Curaçao'', a wooden 438-ton vessel built in
Dover Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maidstone ...
and powered by two 50 hp engines, which crossed from Hellevoetsluis, near Rotterdam on 26 April 1827 to Paramaribo,
Surinam Surinam may refer to: * Surinam (Dutch colony) (1667–1954), Dutch plantation colony in Guiana, South America * Surinam (English colony) (1650–1667), English short-lived colony in South America * Surinam, alternative spelling for Suriname ...
on 24 May, spending 11 days under steam on the way out and more on the return. Another claimant is the Canadian ship in 1833. The first steamship purpose-built for regularly scheduled trans-Atlantic crossings was the British side-wheel paddle steamer built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel in 1838, which inaugurated the era of the trans-Atlantic
ocean liner An ocean liner is a passenger ship primarily used as a form of transportation across seas or oceans. Ocean liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes (such as for pleasure cruises or as hospital ships). Ca ...
. The , built in Britain in 1839 by Francis Pettit Smith, was the world's first screw propeller-driven steamship for open water seagoing. She had considerable influence on ship development, encouraging the adoption of screw propulsion by the Royal Navy, in addition to her influence on commercial vessels. The first screw-driven propeller steamship introduced in America was on a ship built by Thomas Clyde in 1844 and many more ships and routes followed.


Screw-propeller steamers

The key innovation that made ocean-going steamers viable was the change from the paddle-wheel to the
screw-propeller A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust up ...
as the mechanism of propulsion. These steamships quickly became more popular, because the propeller's efficiency was consistent regardless of the depth at which it operated. Being smaller in size and mass and being completely submerged, it was also far less prone to damage.
James Watt James Watt (; 30 January 1736 (19 January 1736 OS) – 25 August 1819) was a Scottish inventor, mechanical engineer, and chemist who improved on Thomas Newcomen's 1712 Newcomen steam engine with his Watt steam engine in 1776, which was fun ...
of Scotland is widely given credit for applying the first screw propeller to an engine at his Birmingham works, an early
steam engine A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be trans ...
, beginning the use of a hydrodynamic screw for propulsion. The development of screw propulsion relied on the following technological innovations. Steam engines had to be designed with the power delivered at the bottom of the machinery, to give direct drive to the propeller shaft. A paddle steamer's engines drive a shaft that is positioned above the waterline, with the cylinders positioned below the shaft. SS'' Great Britain'' used chain drive to transmit power from a paddler's engine to the propeller shaft - the result of a late design change to propeller propulsion. An effective
stern tube The stern is the back or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite the bow, the foremost part of a ship. Orig ...
and associated bearings were required. The stern tube contains the propeller shaft where it passes through the hull structure. It should provide an unrestricted delivery of power by the propeller shaft. The combination of hull and stern tube must avoid any flexing that will bend the shaft or cause uneven wear. The inboard end has a stuffing box that prevents water from entering the hull along the tube. Some early stern tubes were made of brass and operated as a water lubricated bearing along the entire length. In other instances a long bush of soft metal was fitted in the after end of the stern tube. ''Great Eastern'' had this arrangement fail on her first transatlantic voyage, with very large amounts of uneven wear. The problem was solved with a lignum vitae water-lubricated bearing, patented in 1858. This became standard practice and is in use today. Since the motive power of screw propulsion is delivered along the shaft, a thrust bearing is needed to transfer that load to the hull without excessive friction. SS'' Great Britain'' had a 2 ft diameter gunmetal plate on the forward end of the shaft which bore against a steel plate attached to the engine beds. Water at 200 psi was injected between these two surfaces to lubricate and separate them. This arrangement was not sufficient for higher engine powers and oil lubricated "collar" thrust bearings became standard from the early 1850s. This was superseded at the beginning of the 20th century by floating pad bearing which automatically built up wedges of oil which could withstand bearing pressures of 500 psi or more.


Name prefix

Steam-powered ships were named with a prefix designating their propeller configuration i.e. single, twin, triple-screw. Single-screw Steamship SS, Twin-Screw Steamship TSS, Triple-Screw Steamship TrSS. Steam turbine-driven ships had the prefix TS. In the UK the prefix RMS for Royal Mail Steamship overruled the screw configuration prefix.


First ocean-going steamships

The first steamship credited with crossing the Atlantic Ocean between North America and Europe was the American ship , though she was actually a hybrid between a steamship and a sailing ship, with the first half of the journey making use of the steam engine. ''Savannah'' left the port of Savannah, Georgia, US, on 22 May 1819, arriving in Liverpool, England, on 20 June 1819; her steam engine having been in use for part of the time on 18 days (estimates vary from 8 to 80 hours). A claimant to the title of the first ship to make the transatlantic trip substantially under steam power is the British-built Dutch-owned ''Curaçao'', a wooden 438-ton vessel built in
Dover Dover () is a town and major ferry port in Kent, South East England. It faces France across the Strait of Dover, the narrowest part of the English Channel at from Cap Gris Nez in France. It lies south-east of Canterbury and east of Maidstone ...
and powered by two 50 hp engines, which crossed from Hellevoetsluis, near Rotterdam on 26 April 1827 to Paramaribo,
Surinam Surinam may refer to: * Surinam (Dutch colony) (1667–1954), Dutch plantation colony in Guiana, South America * Surinam (English colony) (1650–1667), English short-lived colony in South America * Surinam, alternative spelling for Suriname ...
on 24 May, spending 11 days under steam on the way out and more on the return. Another claimant is the Canadian ship in 1833. The British side-wheel paddle steamer was the first steamship purpose-built for regularly scheduled trans-Atlantic crossings, starting in 1838. In 1836 Isambard Kingdom Brunel and a group of Bristol investors formed the Great Western Steamship Company to build a line of steamships for the Bristol-New York route. The idea of regular scheduled transatlantic service was under discussion by several groups and the rival British and American Steam Navigation Company was established at the same time. ''Great Western's'' design sparked controversy from critics that contended that she was too big. The principle that Brunel understood was that the carrying capacity of a hull increases as the cube of its dimensions, while water resistance only increases as the square of its dimensions. This meant that large ships were more fuel efficient, something very important for long voyages across the Atlantic. ''Great Western'' was an iron-strapped, wooden, side-wheel paddle steamer, with four masts to hoist the auxiliary sails. The sails were not just to provide auxiliary propulsion, but also were used in rough seas to keep the ship on an even keel and ensure that both paddle wheels remained in the water, driving the ship in a straight line. The hull was built of oak by traditional methods. She was the largest steamship for one year, until the British and American's ''British Queen'' went into service. Built at the shipyard of Patterson & Mercer in Bristol, ''Great Western'' was launched on 19 July 1837 and then sailed to London, where she was fitted with two side-lever steam engines from the firm of
Maudslay, Sons & Field Maudslay, Sons and Field was an engineering company based in Lambeth, London. History The company was founded by Henry Maudslay as Henry Maudslay and Company in 1798 and was later reorganised into Maudslay, Sons and Field in 1833 after his sons ...
, producing 750 indicated horsepower between them. The ship proved satisfactory in service and initiated the transatlantic route, acting as a model for all following Atlantic paddle-steamers. The
Cunard Line Cunard () is a British shipping and cruise line based at Carnival House at Southampton, England, operated by Carnival UK and owned by Carnival Corporation & plc. Since 2011, Cunard and its three ships have been registered in Hamilton, Berm ...
's began her first regular passenger and cargo service by a steamship in 1840, sailing from Liverpool to Boston. In 1845 the revolutionary , also built by Brunel, became the first iron-hulled screw-driven ship to cross the Atlantic. The SS ''Great Britain'' was the first ship to combine these two innovations. After the initial success of its first liner, SS ''Great Western'' of 1838, the Great Western Steamship Company assembled the same engineering team that had collaborated so successfully before. This time however, Brunel, whose reputation was at its height, came to assert overall control over design of the ship—a state of affairs that would have far-reaching consequences for the company. Construction was carried out in a specially adapted
dry dock A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...
in Bristol, England. Brunel was given a chance to inspect
John Laird John Laird may refer to: * John Laird (American politician) (born 1950), California State Senator * John Laird (footballer) (1935–2016) Australian rules footballer * John Laird (philosopher) (1887–1946), Scottish philosopher * John Laird (ship ...
's (English) channel packet ship ''Rainbow''—the largest iron- hulled ship then in service— in 1838, and was soon converted to iron-hulled technology. He scrapped his plans to build a wooden ship and persuaded the company directors to build an iron-hulled ship. Iron's advantages included being much cheaper than wood, not being subject to dry rot or woodworm, and its much greater structural strength. 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 Britain''s 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. Over several months, Smith and Brunel tested a number of different propellers on ''Archimedes'' in order to find the most efficient design, a four-bladed model submitted by Smith. When launched in 1843, ''Great Britain'' was by far the largest vessel afloat. Brunel's last major project, the , was built in 1854–57 with the intent of linking Great Britain with India, via the
Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( af, Kaap die Goeie Hoop ) ;''Kaap'' in isolation: pt, Cabo da Boa Esperança is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is t ...
, without any coaling stops. This ship was arguably more revolutionary than her predecessors. She was one of the first ships to be built with a double hull with watertight compartments and was the first liner to have four funnels. She was the biggest liner throughout the rest of the 19th century with a gross tonnage of almost 20,000 tons and had a passenger-carrying capacity of thousands. The ship was ahead of her time and went through a turbulent history, never being put to her intended use. The first transatlantic steamer built of steel was , built by
Allan Line Royal Mail Steamers The Allan Shipping Line was started in 1819, by Captain Alexander Allan of Saltcoats, Ayrshire, trading and transporting between Scotland and Montreal, a route which quickly became synonymous with the Allan Line. By the 1830s the company had offic ...
and entering service in 1879. The first regular steamship service from the
East Coast East Coast may refer to: Entertainment * East Coast hip hop, a subgenre of hip hop * East Coast (ASAP Ferg song), "East Coast" (ASAP Ferg song), 2017 * East Coast (Saves the Day song), "East Coast" (Saves the Day song), 2004 * East Coast FM, a ra ...
to the West Coast of the United States began on 28 February 1849, with the arrival of the in
San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the big cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland. San Francisco Bay drains water from a ...
. The ''California'' left
New York Harbor New York Harbor is at the mouth of the Hudson River where it empties into New York Bay near the East River tidal estuary, and then into the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast of the United States. It is one of the largest natural harbors in t ...
on 6  October 1848, rounded Cape Horn at the tip of South America, and arrived at San Francisco, California, after a four-month and 21-day journey. The first steamship to operate on the Pacific Ocean was the paddle steamer ''Beaver'', launched in 1836 to service Hudson's Bay Company trading posts between Puget Sound Washington and Alaska.


Long-distance commercial steamships

The most testing route for steam was from Britain or the East Coast of the U.S. to the Far East. The distance from either is roughly the same, between , traveling down the Atlantic, around the southern tip of Africa, and across the Indian Ocean. Before 1866, no steamship could carry enough coal to make this voyage and have enough space left to carry a commercial cargo. A partial solution to this problem was adopted by the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O), using an overland section between Alexandria and Suez, with connecting steamship routes along the Mediterranean and then through the Red Sea. While this worked for passengers and some high value cargo, sail was still the only solution for virtually all trade between China and Western Europe or East Coast America. Most notable of these cargoes was tea, typically carried in
clipper A clipper was a type of mid-19th-century merchant sailing vessel, designed for speed. Clippers were generally narrow for their length, small by later 19th century standards, could carry limited bulk freight, and had a large total sail area. "C ...
s. Another partial solution was the Steam Auxiliary Ship - a vessel with a steam engine, but also rigged as a sailing vessel. The steam engine would only be used when conditions were unsuitable for sailing - in light or contrary winds. Some of this type (for instance ''Erl King'') were built with propellers that could be lifted clear of the water to reduce drag when under sail power alone. These ships struggled to be successful on the route to China, as the standing rigging required when sailing was a handicap when steaming into a head wind, most notably against the southwest monsoon when returning with a cargo of new tea. Though the auxiliary steamers persisted in competing in far eastern trade for a few years (and it was ''Erl King'' that carried the first cargo of tea through the
Suez Canal The Suez Canal ( arz, قَنَاةُ ٱلسُّوَيْسِ, ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia. The long canal is a popular ...
), they soon moved on to other routes. What was needed was a big improvement in fuel efficiency. While the boilers for steam engines on land were allowed to run at high pressures, the
Board of Trade The Board of Trade is a British government body concerned with commerce and industry, currently within the Department for International Trade. Its full title is The Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council appointed for the consideration of ...
(under the authority of the Merchant Shipping Act 1854) would not allow ships to exceed . Compound engines were a known source of improved efficiency – but generally not used at sea due to the low pressures available. ''Carnatic'' (1863), a P&O ship, had a compound engine - and achieved better efficiency than other ships of the time. Her boilers ran at but relied on a substantial amount of superheat. Alfred Holt, who had entered marine engineering and ship management after an apprenticeship in railway engineering, experimented with boiler pressures of in ''Cleator''. Holt was able to persuade the Board of Trade to allow these boiler pressures and, in partnership with his brother Phillip launched ''Agamemnon'' in 1865. Holt had designed a particularly compact compound engine and taken great care with the hull design, producing a light, strong, easily driven hull. The efficiency of Holt's package of boiler pressure, compound engine and hull design gave a ship that could steam at 10 knots on 20 long tons of coal a day. This fuel consumption was a saving from between 23 and 14 long tons a day, compared to other contemporary steamers. Not only did less coal need to be carried to travel a given distance, but fewer firemen were needed to fuel the boilers, so crew costs and their accommodation space were reduced. ''Agamemnon'' was able to sail from London to China with a coaling stop at Mauritius on the outward and return journey, with a time on passage substantially less than the competing sailing vessels. Holt had already ordered two sister ships to ''Agamemnon'' by the time she had returned from her first trip to China in 1866, operating these ships in the newly formed Blue Funnel Line. His competitors rapidly copied his ideas for their own new ships. The opening of the
Suez Canal The Suez Canal ( arz, قَنَاةُ ٱلسُّوَيْسِ, ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia. The long canal is a popular ...
in 1869 gave a distance saving of about on the route from China to London. The canal was not a practical option for sailing vessels, as using a
tug A tugboat or tug is a marine vessel that manoeuvres other vessels by pushing or pulling them, with direct contact or a tow line. These boats typically tug ships in circumstances where they cannot or should not move under their own power, suc ...
was difficult and expensive – so this distance saving was not available to them. Steamships immediately made use of this new waterway and found themselves in high demand in China for the start of the 1870 tea season. The steamships were able to obtain a much higher rate of freight than sailing ships and the insurance premium for the cargo was less. So successful were the steamers using the Suez Canal that, in 1871, 45 were built in Clyde shipyards alone for Far Eastern trade.


Triple expansion engines

Throughout the 1870s, compound-engined steamships and sailing vessels coexisted in an economic equilibrium: the operating costs of steamships were still too high in certain trades, so sail was the only commercial option in many situations. The compound engine, where steam was expanded twice in two separate cylinders, still had inefficiencies. The solution was the triple expansion engine, in which steam was successively expanded in a high pressure, intermediate pressure and a low pressure cylinder. The theory of this was established in the 1850s by John Elder, but it was clear that triple expansion engines needed steam at, by the standards of the day, very high pressures. The existing boiler technology could not deliver this. Wrought iron could not provide the strength for the higher pressures. Steel became available in larger quantities in the 1870s, but the quality was variable. The overall design of boilers was improved in the early 1860s, with the Scotch-type boilers - but at that date these still ran at the lower pressures that were then current. The first ship fitted with triple expansion engines was ''Propontis'' (launched in 1874). She was fitted with boilers that operated at - but these had technical problems and had to be replaced with ones that ran at . This substantially degraded performance. There were a few further experiments until went into service on the route from Britain to Australia. Her triple expansion engine was designed by Dr A C Kirk, the engineer who had developed the machinery for ''Propontis''. The difference was the use of two double ended Scotch type steel boilers, running at . These boilers had patent corrugated furnaces that overcame the competing problems of heat transfer and sufficient strength to deal with the boiler pressure. ''Aberdeen'' was a marked success, achieving in trials, at 1,800 indicated horsepower, a fuel consumption of of coal per indicated horsepower. This was a reduction in fuel consumption of about 60%, compared to a typical steamer built ten years earlier. In service, this translated into less than 40 tons of coal a day when travelling at . Her maiden outward voyage to Melbourne took 42 days, with one coaling stop, carrying 4,000 tons of cargo. Other similar ships were rapidly brought into service over the next few years. By 1885 the usual boiler pressure was and virtually all ocean-going steamships being built were ordered with triple expansion engines. Within a few years, new installations were running at . The tramp steamers that operated at the end of the 1880s could sail at with a fuel consumption of of coal per ton mile travelled. This level of efficiency meant that steamships could now operate as the primary method of maritime transport in the vast majority of commercial situations.


Era of the ocean liner

By 1870 a number of inventions such as the screw propeller, the compound engine, and the triple-expansion engine made trans-oceanic shipping on a large scale economically viable. In 1870 the White Star Line’s set a new standard for ocean travel by having its first-class cabins amidships, with the added amenity of large portholes, electricity and running water. The size of ocean liners increased from 1880 to meet the needs of the human migration to the United States and Australia. and her sister ship were the last two Cunard liners of the period to be fitted with auxiliary sails. Both ships were built by John Elder & Co. of Glasgow, Scotland, in 1884. They were record breakers by the standards of the time, and were the largest liners then in service, plying the Liverpool to New York route. was the largest steamship in the world when she sank in 1912; a subsequent major sinking of a steamer was that of the , as an act of World War I. Launched in 1938, was the largest passenger steamship ever built. Launched in 1969, ''
Queen Elizabeth 2 ''Queen Elizabeth 2'' (''QE2'') is a retired British ocean liner converted into a floating hotel. Originally built for the Cunard Line, the ship, named as the second ship named ''Queen Elizabeth'', was operated by Cunard as both a transatlantic ...
'' (QE2) was the last passenger steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean on a scheduled liner voyage before she was converted to diesels in 1986. The last major passenger ship built with steam turbines was the ''
Fairsky The Turbine Steamship ''Fairsky'' was a one-class Italian-styled passenger ship operated by the Sitmar Line, best known for service on the migrant passenger route from Britain to Australia from May 1958 until February 1972. After a 20-month lay- ...
'', launched in 1984, later ''Atlantic Star'', reportedly sold to Turkish shipbreakers in 2013. Most luxury yachts at the end of the 19th and early 20th centuries were steam driven (see luxury yacht; also Cox & King yachts). Thomas Assheton Smith was an English aristocrat who forwarded the design of the steam yacht in conjunction with the Scottish marine engineer Robert Napier.


Decline of the steamship

The decline of the steamship began after World War II. Many had been lost in the war, and marine diesel engines had finally matured as an economical and viable alternative to steam power. The diesel engine had far better thermal efficiency than the
reciprocating steam engine A reciprocating engine, also often known as a piston engine, is typically a heat engine that uses one or more reciprocating pistons to convert high temperature and high pressure into a rotating motion. This article describes the common featu ...
, and was far easier to control. Diesel engines also required far less supervision and maintenance than steam engines, and as an internal combustion engine it did not need boilers or a water supply, therefore was more space efficient. The Liberty ships were the last major steamship class equipped with reciprocating engines. The last Victory ships had already been equipped with marine diesels, and diesel engines superseded both steamers and windjammers soon after World War Two. Most steamers were used up to their maximum economical life span, and no commercial ocean-going steamers with reciprocating engines have been built since the 1960s.


1970–present day

Most steamships today are powered by
steam turbine A steam turbine is a machine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Charles Parsons in 1884. Fabrication of a modern steam turbin ...
s. After the demonstration by British engineer Charles Parsons of his steam turbine-driven yacht, '' Turbinia'', in 1897, the use of steam turbines for propulsion quickly spread. The Cunard RMS ''Mauretania'', built in 1906 was one of the first ocean liners to use the
steam turbine A steam turbine is a machine that extracts thermal energy from pressurized steam and uses it to do mechanical work on a rotating output shaft. Its modern manifestation was invented by Charles Parsons in 1884. Fabrication of a modern steam turbin ...
(with a late design change shortly before her keel was laid down) and was soon followed by all subsequent liners. Most capital ships of the major navies were propelled by steam turbines burning bunker fuel in both World Wars. Large naval vessels and submarines continue to be operated with steam turbines, using
nuclear reactors A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a fission nuclear chain reaction or nuclear fusion reactions. Nuclear reactors are used at nuclear power plants for electricity generation and in nuclear marine propulsion. Heat from nu ...
to boil the water. NS ''Savannah'', was the first nuclear-powered cargo-passenger ship, and was built in the late 1950s as a demonstration project for the potential use of nuclear energy. Thousands of Liberty Ships (powered by steam piston engines) and Victory Ships (powered by steam turbine engines) were built in World War II. A few of these survive as floating museums and sail occasionally: SS ''Jeremiah O'Brien'', SS ''John W. Brown'', '' SS ''American Victory'', SS ''Lane Victory'', and SS ''Red Oak Victory''. A steam turbine ship can be either direct propulsion (the turbines, equipped with a reduction gear, rotate directly the propellers), or
turboelectric A turbo-electric transmission uses electric generators to convert the mechanical energy of a turbine (steam or gas) into electric energy, which then powers electric motors and converts back into mechanical energy that power the driveshafts. Tur ...
(the turbines rotate electric generators, which in turn feed electric motors operating the propellers). While steam turbine-driven merchant ships such as the ''Algol''-class cargo ships (1972–1973), ALP Pacesetter-class container ships (1973–1974) and very large crude carriers were built until the 1970s, the use of steam for marine propulsion in the commercial market has declined dramatically due to the development of more efficient diesel engines. One notable exception are LNG carriers which use boil-off gas from the cargo tanks as fuel. However, even there the development of dual-fuel engines has pushed steam turbines into a niche market with about 10% market share in newbuildings in 2013. Lately, there has been some development in hybrid power plants where the steam turbine is used together with gas engines. As of August 2017 the newest class of Steam Turbine ships are the ''Seri Camellia''-class LNG carriers built by Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) starting in 2016 and comprising five units. Nuclear powered ships are basically steam turbine vessels. The boiler is heated, not by heat of combustion, but by the heat generated by nuclear reactor. Most atomic-powered ships today are either
aircraft carrier An aircraft carrier is a warship that serves as a seagoing airbase, equipped with a full-length flight deck and facilities for carrying, arming, deploying, and recovering aircraft. Typically, it is the capital ship of a fleet, as it allows a ...
s or
submarine A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...
s.


See also

*
Steamboat A steamboat is a boat that is marine propulsion, propelled primarily by marine steam engine, steam power, typically driving propellers or Paddle steamer, paddlewheels. Steamboats sometimes use the ship prefix, prefix designation SS, S.S. or S/S ...
* Paddle steamer * History of the steam engine * International relations of the Great Powers (1814–1919)#Travel * List of steam frigates of the United States Navy * Bibliography of early American naval history * Lake steamers of North America


Notes


References


Bibliography

*
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*Bennett, Frank M. (1897). ''The steam navy of the United States''. Warren & Company Publishers Philadelphia. p. 502.
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* Bradford, James C. (1986). ''Captains of the Old Steam Navy: Makers of the American Tradition, 1840–1880''. Naval Institute Press, p. 356,
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*Canney, Donald L. (1998). ''Lincoln's Navy: The Ships, Men and Organization, 1861–65''. Naval Institute Press. p. 232
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*
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*
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* Lambert, Andrew (1984). ''Battleships in Transition, the Creation of the Steam Battlefleet 1815–1860''. Conway Maritime Press. *
Mahan, Alfred Thayer Alfred Thayer Mahan (; September 27, 1840 – December 1, 1914) was a United States naval officer and historian, whom John Keegan called "the most important American strategist of the nineteenth century." His book '' The Influence of Sea Power ...
, n (1907). p : ''From sail to steam: recollections of naval life''. Harper & Brothers, New York, London, p. 325
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E'Book

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Further reading


Book


External links

*{{Commons category-inline, Steamships
Transportation Photographs Collection
- University of Washington Library Steamships Steam engines Steam engine technology