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93-426: SS Xantho was a steam ship used in the colony of Western Australia as a pearling transport and mothership, as a tramp steamer , carrying passengers, including Aboriginal convicts and trade goods before she sank at Port Gregory, Western Australia in 1872. She was powered by a horizontal trunk engine , and was the first steamship to operate in north-western Australia. The wreck was forgotten until 1979 when it

186-452: 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". Steamships were preceded by smaller vessels, called steamboats , 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

279-599: 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 in July 1813. The first iron steamship to go to sea

372-443: A day when travelling at 13 knots (24 km/h; 15 mph). 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 150 pounds per square inch (1,000 kPa) and virtually all ocean-going steamships being built were ordered with triple expansion engines. Within

465-560: 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

558-430: A few further experiments until SS  Aberdeen  (1881) 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 125 pounds per square inch (860 kPa). These boilers had patent corrugated furnaces that overcame

651-551: A few years, new installations were running at 200 pounds per square inch (1,400 kPa). The tramp steamers that operated at the end of the 1880s could sail at 9 knots (17 km/h; 10 mph) with a fuel consumption of 0.5 ounces (14 g) 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. In 1890, steamers constituted 57% of world's tonnage, and by World War I their share raised to 93%. By 1870

744-473: 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

837-610: A given site must be familiar with the processes in play at that site to avoid the risk of misinterpretation. In some environments, animal activity can completely turn over the surface soil in as few as five to six years. The activity of earthworms , in particular, can contribute to the burial, and thus preservation, of artifacts dropped on the ground – but it also frequently blurs boundaries between natural and culturally disturbed soils, and can erase vertical stratification used for dating . Frost heaving may cause artifacts to rise or fall, depending on their heat conductivity , which

930-504: 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 ), 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,

1023-403: A long bush of soft metal was fitted in the after end of the stern tube. SS  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

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1116-428: A new approach in both archaeological method and conservation science. A pre- disturbance survey, re-inspection and test excavation was conducted by corrosion specialists, biologists and archaeologists under the overall direction of Dr M. McCarthy. The study found that the propulsion system and part of the stern were in uniformly good condition, although the rest of the remains were very fragile. The study also found that

1209-495: 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 RMS  Oceanic 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

1302-458: 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

1395-470: A reduction gear, rotate directly the propellers), or turboelectric (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

1488-406: A rudimentary knowledge of marine engineering. On reflection it became apparent that Broadhurst also used Xantho primarily as a sailing ship and would not have used the ship's engine other than to assist the vessel when proceeding against the wind, especially when entering the often difficult tidal harbours on the north-west coast. Further, with an eye to obtaining the lucrative subsidy for operating

1581-426: 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

1674-399: 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 and associated bearings were required. The stern tube contains the propeller shaft where it passes through

1767-515: A steamer to schedule on the coast, Broadhurst also appears to have made a point by steaming into port and thereby impressing a colonial administration crying out for steam transport on the coast. As a result of these findings, the Museum's Xantho exhibition entitled 'Steamships to Suffragettes' focusses as much on the people involved (including the Broadhurst's suffragette daughter Katharine) as it does on

1860-704: A two-masted steamship with 19th century mizzen, a tall funnel and what appear to be painted gunports ( a common decoration) or ventilation ports similar to those fitted to one of Xantho's Scottish contemporaries are dated by mid-west historian Stan Gratte to the arrival of Sammy Malay [Sammy Hassan] at Walga Rock and is also believed to depict the vessel. [REDACTED] Media related to Xantho (ship, 1848) at Wikimedia Commons 28°11′11″S 114°14′10″E  /  28.18652667°S 114.236225°E  / -28.18652667; 114.236225 Steam ship As steamships were less dependent on wind patterns, new trade routes opened up. The steamship has been described as

1953-476: Is a function of material. Freeze-thaw cycles can also disturb soils in several other ways, collectively called cryoturbation . Downhill creep may sort artifacts by mass or density, as may flooding. Drying of clays may cause deep cracks that are subsequently filled with surface material. Wetting and drying of clay may cause rocks to migrate to the surface. The action of winds on soil is especially common in desert environments. Anthropogenic climate change

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2046-484: Is altering, and in some cases accelerating, natural disturbance processes. At Nunalleq on the southwest coast of Alaska , a four-century-old Yup'ik site is under threat from the thawing of permafrost and rising storm surges of the Bering Sea . The permafrost had preserved items normally subject to rapid decomposition, including wooden objects and grass-woven baskets and mats. Since excavation at Nunalleq began in 2009,

2139-515: Is any change to an archaeological site due to events which occurred after the site was laid down. Disturbances may be caused by natural events or human activity, and may result in loss of archaeological value. In some cases, it can be difficult to distinguish between features caused by human activity in the period of interest, and features caused by later human activity or natural processes. The soil scientist Francis D. Hole identified nine natural processes resulting in soil disturbance, including

2232-514: The Anstruther and Leith Steamship Company for crossings of the Firth of Forth between Leith and Aberdour . In 1860, she was sold and relocated to Scarborough, North Yorkshire . In July 1864, Xantho was sold again, and her register transferred to Wick , from where she was permitted to take excursions to sea. In early 1871, Xantho was sold to metal merchant Robert Stewart of Glasgow , who replaced

2325-515: The Board of Trade (under the authority of the Merchant Shipping Act 1854 ) would not allow ships to exceed 20 or 25 pounds per square inch (140 or 170 kPa). 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

2418-453: The Cold War (eg. Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov ), because of needs of high power and speed, although from 1970s they were mostly replaced by gas turbines . Large naval vessels and submarines continue to be operated with steam turbines, using nuclear reactors to boil the water. NS Savannah , was the first nuclear-powered cargo-passenger ship, and was built in the late 1950s as

2511-677: The East Coast to the West Coast of the United States began on 28 February 1849, with the arrival of SS  California in San Francisco Bay . The California left New York Harbor 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

2604-573: 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 clippers . Another partial solution was the Steam Auxiliary Ship – a vessel with a steam engine, but also rigged as

2697-696: The reciprocating steam engine , 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 and cheaper to build. 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

2790-401: The 1960s. Most steamships today are powered by steam turbines . 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 (with a late design change shortly before her keel

2883-528: The Aboriginal prison at Rottnest Island back to their home near Cossack and Roebourne . In November 1879, whilst travelling down from the pearling grounds to Fremantle Xantho shipped a cargo of lead ore from Port Gregory , an outlet for the Geraldine Mine on the nearby Murchison River . Overloaded, her hull badly corroded and her deck planking opened by the tropical sun, Xantho began to take on water on

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2976-527: 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 , 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

3069-579: 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

3162-463: 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

3255-517: The Liverpool to New York route. RMS  Titanic was the largest steamship in the world when she sank in 1912; a subsequent major sinking of a steamer was that of the RMS ; Lusitania , as an act of World War I . Launched in 1938, RMS  Queen Elizabeth was the largest passenger steamship ever built. Launched in 1969, Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2) was the last passenger steamship to cross

3348-619: The UK, according to English Heritage , ploughing with powerful modern tractors had done as much damage in the last six decades of the twentieth century as traditional farming did in the previous six centuries. Recreational activity on a site may damage archaeology in a number of ways. Amateur metal detectorists may disturb or remove artifacts. Travel over the ground surface, whether by foot, animal, bicycle, or motorized vehicle, can cause artifacts to be broken, crushed, or moved. Campfires can contaminate sites and cause smoke damage to rock art , and

3441-448: The US, removal of artifacts from federal and state lands without a permit is a crime, regardless of whether the artifacts are dug up or found on the surface. Collecting on private land requires written permission of the landowner, and may be subject to additional state and federal laws governing historic preservation . Disturbing human remains , including ancient skeletal remains , is a crime, as

3534-426: 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

3627-436: 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 1.28 pounds (0.58 kg) 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

3720-435: 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

3813-444: 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. 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

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3906-553: The engine and its conservation. Xantho was the first steamship to operate in north-western Australia, and in that role she impacted both visually and socially on indigenous groups like the Jaburrara, Martuthunira, and Ngarluma people, who lived in the hinterland of Nickol Bay . Although no European illustrations of the ship exist, there are several examples of Aboriginal rock carvings at Inthanoona Station inland from Cossack that appear to be Xantho . Rock art at Walga Rock showing

3999-495: The engine and other prominent parts of the wreck were unlikely to last another fifty years. Anodes were applied to the engine in order to slow corrosion and commence the treatment process. In April 1985, the engine was removed from the wreck site in the context of an excavation of the stern and then transported to a treatment tank at the Museum in Fremantle. Under the direction of corrosion specialists Neil North and then Ian MacLeod,

4092-623: The engine by electrolysis . A working model of the engine was produced by Bob Burgess using engineering drawings of the original produced by steam engineer Noel Millar. The model has allowed the Crimean War gunboat engine type, of which the Xantho engine is the only known surviving example, to be studied in operation. The engine was then disassembled under the leadership of conservator R. (Dick) Garcia who had considerable experience in dismantling and restoring arms from WWII. As they were removed, each of

4185-415: The engine was already ten years old when fitted to the former paddle-steamer, and it was found to have been running backwards to drive the ship forward. Its rotation was, as a result, contrary to the maker John Penn's requirement, resulting in increased wear. When it was disassembled by the Museum's team, loose nuts were found lying in one cylinder and repairs to the engine were found to be very rudimentary. It

4278-425: The engine was initially inundated in a solution of sodium hydroxide to prevent further corrosion, while experiments as to the most effective method of removing the 2.5 to 5 centimetres (0.98 to 1.97 in) layer of concretion from the engine iron work were performed. By March 1993, 2,500 kilograms (5,500 lb) of concretion had been removed, while 48 kilograms (106 lb) of chlorides had been extracted from

4371-459: The engine's components were individually re-treated before it was gradually reassembled in the Museum's exhibition gallery as a 'work in progress' display. By 2006, the conservation and reconstruction was complete and the engine could be turned over by hand. A schematic showing the engine in action has also been produced and it can be viewed on the engine reconstruction section of the project website. The boiler relief valve, which collapsed during

4464-411: The first screw propeller to an engine at his Birmingham works, an early steam engine , 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

4557-574: The heat of a fire can cause rock to spall . Visitors may intentionally move artifacts, either to examine and share them with others, or in an attempt to protect them; this results in a loss of archaeological context which could provide insight into when, where, and how items were used. Vandalism may include defacing rock art, sculpture , or structures; digging; and removing artifacts. In some cases, later civilizations have chosen to modify, deface, or destroy relics of older peoples, particularly when these objects honor political or religious figures that

4650-425: 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 SS  Archimedes , 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

4743-429: 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

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4836-749: The later society has denounced. At burial sites, notably including the tombs of Ancient Egyptian royals, grave robbers have often removed valuable artifacts and otherwise disturbed sites in the process. Improper archaeological practices can also damage artifacts and context. In many cases, disturbance created by later human activity on a site will have its own archaeological value. Some sites have been used, abandoned, and re-used many times, often for different purposes, with layers from more recent periods of use sometimes cutting through or obscuring those of older periods. Building materials may be scavenged and reused as well. Recognized archaeological sites are generally legally protected against human disruption. In

4929-489: The movements of animals and plants (known as bioturbation , and including burrowing , root growth and treefalls ); freezing and thawing; movement under gravity (including earthflow and rockslides ); swelling and shrinking of clays ; the actions of wind and water; the growth and dissolution of salt crystals; and movement caused by earthquakes . Different sites are subject to different degrees, combinations, and interactions of these processes, and archaeologists working with

5022-402: The needs of the human migration to the United States and Australia. RMS  Umbria and her sister ship RMS  Etruria 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

5115-573: The newly formed Blue Funnel Line . His competitors rapidly copied his ideas for their own new ships. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 gave a distance saving of about 3,250 nautical miles (6,020 km; 3,740 mi) on the route from China to London. The canal was not a practical option for sailing vessels, as using a tug 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

5208-419: 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

5301-557: The paddle engines with a second-hand Crimean War -era two-cylinder, non-condensing trunk engine built (or assembled) in 1861 by John Penn . Stewart also lengthened the vessel's stern and fitted a propeller and a new boiler. The Crimean War-type gunboat engine and those built to the same design in the ensuing years were the first high-pressure, high-revolution, mass-produced engines made for use at sea. The type also used Whitworth's Standard Thread throughout, allowing for interchangeability of parts. The refurbished, schooner-rigged Xantho

5394-451: The paddle steamer Beaver , launched in 1836 to service Hudson's Bay Company trading posts between Puget Sound Washington and Alaska . 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 14,000 to 15,000 nautical miles (26,000 to 28,000 km; 16,000 to 17,000 mi), traveling down

5487-453: 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

5580-431: The permafrost layer has receded 1.5 feet (0.46 m), and storm waves have torn away 35 feet (11 m) of the site. Throughout the northern latitudes, the warming climate is revealing previously unknown archaeology, while simultaneously threatening to destroy it. These sites must be prioritized for rescue archaeology . Farming, construction, habitation, and resource extraction are leading causes of site disruption. In

5673-773: 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 and powered by two 50 hp engines, which crossed from Hellevoetsluis , near Rotterdam on 26 April 1827 to Paramaribo , Surinam on 24 May, spending 11 days under steam on

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5766-459: The prefix TS . In the UK the prefix RMS for Royal Mail Steamship overruled the screw configuration prefix. The first steamship credited with crossing the Atlantic Ocean between North America and Europe was the American ship SS  Savannah , 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

5859-501: The re-evaluation of the ship itself, the research led to a realisation that its purchase, despite its age and its many deficiencies, was a bold and logical stroke typical of an entrepreneur with great vision, but lacking the necessary access to financial and logistical support. Being mass-produced, for example, spare parts were readily available (a spare connecting-rod was found in the ship's engine room) and being very simple, easily accessible and compact, repairs could be effected with only

5952-526: The revolutionary SS  Great Britain , also built by Brunel, became the first iron-hulled screw-driven ship to cross the Atlantic. 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

6045-478: 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

6138-527: 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

6231-511: 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. Throughout the 1870s, compound-engined steamships and sailing vessels coexisted in an economic equilibrium:

6324-588: 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 carriers or submarines . Disturbance (archaeology) A disturbance

6417-603: The time. Her boilers ran at 26 pounds per square inch (180 kPa) 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 60 pounds per square inch (410 kPa) 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

6510-485: The treatment process was recently reconstructed by Alex Kilpa of the Museum's conservation unit. He is currently reconstructing what appears to be a Chaplin's Patent Distilling Apparatus with Steam Pump . The wreck of Xantho presented many anomalous features requiring explanation, as did the engine when it was excavated from its layers of concretion and then disassembled. Apart from the hull being 23 years old and worn out,

6603-531: The vessel and the manner in which he operated the ship. This in turn led to an attempt to understand his entrepreneurial style and, given his remarkable propensity for failure, his staff and his support structures. These included his family, notably his remarkably talented wife Eliza Broadhurst and their son Florance Broadhurst . One result of this archival research was a reassessment of Broadhurst, who like Xantho , had been roundly dismissed as two of Western Australia's greatest colonial-era failures. In respect of

6696-404: 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 and powered by two 50 hp engines, which crossed from Hellevoetsluis , near Rotterdam on 26 April 1827 to Paramaribo , Surinam on 24 May, spending 11 days under steam on

6789-659: The way down the coast. After returning to Port Gregory she struck a sandbar and sank. The wreck lay forgotten until 1979 when, with the aid of local fishermen, it was located by the Maritime Archaeological Association of Western Australia, the volunteer wing of the Department of Maritime Archaeology at the Western Australian Museum . At the time, iron and steam shipwrecks were effectively a new class of maritime archaeological site. These sites required

6882-474: The way out and more on the return. Another claimant is the Canadian ship SS  Royal William in 1833. The British side-wheel paddle steamer SS  Great Western 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

6975-499: The way out and more on the return. Another claimant is the Canadian ship SS  Royal William in 1833. The first steamship purpose-built for regularly scheduled trans-Atlantic crossings was the British side-wheel paddle steamer SS  Great Western built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel in 1838, which inaugurated the era of the trans-Atlantic ocean liner . SS  Archimedes , built in Britain in 1839 by Francis Pettit Smith ,

7068-431: Was also effectively operated as a tramp steamer , taking whatever cargoes and passengers she could. In that role she became Western Australia's first coastal steamship. Xantho subsequently made two round trips between Fremantle , Batavia (now Jakarta ), Geraldton and Broadhurst's pearling camps at Port Hedland and Banningarra (on Pardoo Station ). Xantho also transported a number of north-west Aboriginal men from

7161-424: Was also found that the pumps could not be disconnected and they ran constantly, resulting in great wear on the valve stems. They were also situated in the stern of the ship, rendering them useless when out of trim forward as Xantho was on her final voyage. The boiler relief valve was an outdated gravity variety and not the spring type generally used at sea to avoid problems as the vessel pitched and rolled. There

7254-554: Was an English aristocrat who forwarded the design of the steam yacht in conjunction with the Scottish marine engineer Robert Napier . By World War II , steamers still constituted 73% of world's tonnage, and similar percentage remained in early 1950s. The decline of the steamship began soon thereafter. 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

7347-466: 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 in Bristol , England. Brunel was given a chance to inspect John Laird 's 213-foot (65 m) (English) channel packet ship Rainbow —the largest iron- hulled ship then in service—in 1838, and

7440-479: Was by far the largest vessel afloat. Brunel's last major project, SS  Great Eastern , was built in 1854–1857 with the intent of linking Great Britain with India, via the Cape of Good Hope , 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

7533-402: 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

7626-452: Was fitted with two side-lever steam engines from the firm of Maudslay, Sons & Field , 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 's RMS  Britannia began her first regular passenger and cargo service by a steamship in 1840, sailing from Liverpool to Boston. In 1845

7719-409: Was found. Subsequent investigations by the Department of Maritime Archaeology at the Western Australian Museum , in concert with the Museum's Department of Conservation and Restoration saw the trunk engine recovered in 1985. In the ensuing years it was gradually restored for display at the museum. Xantho was built in 1848 as a paddle steamer by William Denny & Brothers . The vessel was used by

7812-557: 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 150 pounds per square inch (1,000 kPa) – but these had technical problems and had to be replaced with ones that ran at 90 pounds per square inch (620 kPa). This substantially degraded performance. There were

7905-405: Was laid down) and was soon followed by all subsequent liners. Most larger warships of the world's navies were propelled by steam turbines burning bunker fuel in both World Wars, apart from obsolete ships with reciprocating machines from the turn of the century, and rare cases of usage of diesel engines in larger warships. Steam turbines burning fuel remained in warship construction until the end of

7998-486: 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

8091-478: Was no condenser for recycling the used steam back into the boiler. All this made Broadhurst's decision to purchase Xantho for use in very saline waters, on a coast where fresh water supplies were practically non-existent and where there were no engineering facilities, the nearest workshops being in Surabaya or Melbourne, difficult to understand. This in turn required an understanding of his reasons both for purchasing

8184-558: Was offered for sale in October 1871 and was purchased by Charles Edward Broadhurst , a Manchester -born entrepreneur involved in colonial ventures in northwest Australia. Xantho was brought to Western Australia via the Suez Canal and the Straits Settlements for use by Broadhurst as a transport and mother vessel for pearling operations . Using the engine to enable her to sail into difficult harbours and against wind and tide Xantho

8277-416: 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

8370-641: 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 SS  Savannah first crossed the Atlantic Ocean arriving in Liverpool, England, on June 20, 1819, although most of

8463-456: 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 SS  Buenos Ayrean , built by Allan Line Royal Mail Steamers and entering service in 1879. The first regular steamship service from

8556-399: Was the change from the paddle-wheel to the screw-propeller 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 of Scotland is widely given credit for applying

8649-566: 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. The key innovation that made ocean-going steamers viable

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