Note 167 — Chapter IV

Dr. Lardner, in his “Encyclopædia” and elsewhere, had more than once expressed the opinion that no steam-ship would ever be able to make so distant a voyage as that of crossing the Atlantic, without recoaling. Having entered on details with regard to this important question in a lecture he delivered at Liverpool in December 1835, I consider it desirable to give the following extract from it, as reported in the Liverpool Albion of the 14th of that month, the matter being one of considerable historical interest:

“Steam Communication with America.—Dr. Lardner then proceeded to observe that one of the grandest projects which had ever occupied the human mind was at present in the progress of actual accomplishment. He meant that of constructing a great highway for steam intercourse between New York and London. Part of the highway was in process of formation. It consisted of several stages—that of the railroad from London to Birmingham; that from Birmingham to Liverpool, and the steam intercourse with Dublin; but there was another stage—that from Dublin to Valentia—which had as yet hardly been thought of. Ireland was a country which, with all her political disadvantages, was blest by nature with a vast number of physical advantages, and among the rest he might reckon a vast number of excellent harbours. No country in the world could boast of so many fine and spacious ports, bays, and roadsteads. She had many harbours on her west coast, which would serve admirably as stations for steam conveyance across the Atlantic; but Valentia had been selected as the extreme westerly point suitable for that purpose. It was a fine anchoring ground by an island of that name on the coast of Munster. The distance from Dublin to this point was under 200 miles, which might be traversed in about eight hours. The nearest point of the Continent of North America to this point of Ireland was St. John’s in Newfoundland. The distance between the two was about 1900 miles, thence to Halifax in Nova Scotia there would be another run of 550 miles, and from that to New York would not exceed the admissible range; but touching at Halifax would be desirable for the sake of passengers. The only difficulty would be as to the run from Valentia to St. John’s; and the voyage from Dublin to Bordeaux and back, a distance of between 1600 and 1700 miles, with the same stock of coals, came very near this distance. It must be observed that westerly winds blew almost all the year round across the Atlantic. They were produced by the trade winds being the compensating cause that restored the balance which these served to destroy, according to that beautiful principle in nature which always provides a remedy for any derangement in the deranging cause itself. As a last resource, however, should the distance between Valentia and St. John’s prove too great, they might make the Azores a stage between, so that there remained no doubt of the practicability of establishing a steam intercourse with the United States. As to the project, however, which was announced in the newspapers of making the voyage directly from New York to Liverpool, it was, he had no hesitation in saying, perfectly chimerical, and they might as well talk of making a voyage from New York or Liverpool to the moon. The vessels which would ultimately be found the best adapted for the voyage between this country and the United States would be those of 800 tons, which would carry machines of 200 horse-power, and would be able to stow 400 tons of coal. To supply a 10 horse-power, daily required an expenditure of a ton of coals, and, consequently, 200 horse-power would require 20 tons of coal daily; but if the vessel carried 400 tons of coal only, it would not be practicable to undertake a voyage which would require the whole of that quantity. They must make an allowance of 100 tons for contingencies. Thus, in reckoning the average length of the voyage which might be undertaken by such a vessel, we might safely calculate upon 300 tons of coal, which would be sufficient for fifteen days, and it might fairly be concluded that any project which calculated upon making longer voyages than fifteen days without taking in a fresh supply of coals, in the present state of the steamboat, must be considered chimerical. Now, the average rate of speed of the Mediterranean packets was 170 miles per day, and the utmost limit of a steam voyage might be taken at 2550 miles; but even that could not be reckoned upon.”

It is, however, fair to the scientific memory of Dr. Lardner to state that, in the eighth and last edition of his “Steam-engine, Railways,” &c., 1851, pp. 294-309, he declares that he never stated that a “steam voyage across the Atlantic was a physical impossibility:” the more so, that he was of course well aware of the previous voyages of the Savannah and Curaçoa; what he did say (especially at the meeting of the British Association at Bristol in 1836) was “that the long sea voyages which were contemplated could not be maintained with that regularity and certainty which are indispensable to commercial success by any revenue which could be expected from traffic alone, and that, without a government subsidy of a considerable amount, such lines of steamers, although they might be started, could not be permanently maintained.”