Steamship Skeptics And Sailing Ship Supporters

In the middle of the 19th century, sailing ships dominated the seas, used by merchants and the navies. Steamships were already making their presence felt, but they had not yet been granted wider use. Many of the steamships were converted sailing ships on which small and less powerful steam engines had been installed. This meant that the ships were not well equipped for the new type of propulsion and the fact that the steam engines themselves were plagued by frequent defects did not contribute to the enthusiasm for the new technology.

The American Admiralty was just as skeptical, even though it had already operated a good dozen converted sailing ships with steam propulsion. But these proved to be unreliable. There were constant problems with them and they regularly broke down. The engineers tried to counter this unreliability with ever more complex enhancements to the steam engines and propulsion. With little success, which only confirmed the skepticism of the naval officers. Even though merchant ships such as the Atlantic had already shown that steam propulsion could guarantee higher speeds and reliability, the navy did not consider this to be sufficient for its requirements.

Benjamin Franklin Isherwood, born in 1822, the son of a doctor from New York City, learned his trade quite early on in small mechanic workshops on the railroad and was hired by the US Navy to maintain the steam engines. This taught him a great deal about the workings and problems of ships.

When Isherwood was appointed Chief Engineer of the US Navy in 1861, the opinion that steamships were unsuitable for use in the US Navy had already become firmly established. Of the 90 warships, 21 were steamships. During the American Civil War, Isherwood then managed and supervised the design and construction of 600 ships. Although many of the ships were equipped with steam propulsion, Isherwood had little influence on the design of the ships themselves. As a result, they remained more or less sailing ships with steam propulsion. Literally, because they all still had sailing masts.

The change in thinking began when the Confederate destroyer steamship Alabama sank a Union merchant ship because it was more maneuverable and faster. In 1863, the Union awarded four contracts to create designs for warships that would be steam-powered, like the Alabama, and then built.

Isherwood was awarded one of the contracts for two ships and in 1863 designed the USS Wampanoag and the Amonoosuc, which was built in Brooklyn and then completed and commissioned in 1868. She was fitted with eight coal-fired fire-tube boilers, four with superheaters, housed in two boiler rooms, with two compound piston engines between them to drive the four-bladed 19-foot propeller. She was very heavily armed for her time with 17 guns.

The name refers to the autonym Wôpanâak or Wampanoag, which literally means “people of the first light”, “people of the east” and thus refers to the ritual sunrise over the eastern sea, the Atlantic.

What was special about the USS Wampanoag, however, was that Isherwood designed the drive train first and then designed the hull around it. At the same time, he made sure that the hull was designed to enable high speeds.

Before the ships could be completed, the Civil War ended in 1865 and debates ensued as to whether they should be finished. Isherwood’s ships in particular were the target of attacks because they deviated so much from the usual ship designs. Despite everything, they were completed at the end of 1867 and beginning of 1868 and presented to the US Navy.

The Idaho, one of the other designers’ ships, was so often defective that its seaworthiness tests could not be completed. The Madawaska, on the other hand, was so difficult to steer that it never reached its full performance. When Isherwood’s Wampanoag was tested, its maneuverability and unprecedented speed was higher than anticipated for its design. It also required only two men at the helm.

This meant that the American naval forces not only had the most modern warship in the world in their hands, but also, as Isherwood further thought, the possibility of using the ships in a completely different way. Up to this point, warships had mainly been used for harbor defense, blockades and individual actions. With the steamship, this doctrine could change and power far from the home coast could be projected. But the US Navy turned a deaf ear.

The Admiralty carried out an “objective” assessment of the qualities of the USS Wampanoag, which raised all kinds of doubts. The ratio between the grating surface on which the boilers stood and the hull surface submerged in the sea was criticized as disproportionate, the extreme length of the ship would prove to be insufficiently rigid and its length would make it a better target for enemy ships, which would also cause it to roll too much and be too difficult to manoeuvre, and the awkward positioning of the masts would make propulsion by the wind more difficult.

In fact, however, the practical operation of the USS Wampanoag had shown exactly the opposite. The authors of the study had not tested the ship under real conditions, but had only referred to the design drawings and inspection of the laid-up ship. The report to the responsible minister rejected the construction of further steamships for the navy.

Interestingly, there were other reasons given for opposing war steamships. Steamships were built with steel hulls, whereas sailing ships were built with wood.

We are of the opinion that because of the large supply of suitable timber at present available in the naval yards, the interests of the economy should be utilized, with wooden shipbuilding and their dependence upon it for livelihood, the resources of the country in respect to this material, and the possibility of building wooden ships of a limited size which shall be stable, efficient and economical, the 10 kt Lass of ships should be built of live oak frames, planked with yeallow pine.

Nor did the officers like the fact that this fundamentally changed the nature of the sailors and officers. Sailors only prepared for battle by scrubbing the deck and hoisting and lowering sails. On a steamship, however, the latter was no longer necessary. The steam engine took care of the propulsion. In the hierarchy, the engine officer suddenly became more important, and of course that didn’t work at all. Their familiar world was about to change, and they tried to preserve it for as long as they could.

The USS Wampanoag was renamed the USS Florida and was used as an accommodation ship for sailors in New London harbor before being sold.

Modern Times

It is obvious that there are historical parallels to modern times, as similar discussions are taking place in the transition from internal combustion vehicles to electric cars. Tesla was the first e-car manufacturer to optimize the body design around the new powertrain and open up new possibilities. The first cars looked like carriages with engines and are now very different from their predecessors. A similar transformation took place with the railroad, which were initially carriages on rails connected by chains.

The “objective” criticism voiced by skeptics is also often based on a lack of experience with the new technology. It should also not be forgotten that a change in technology is accompanied by a loss of identity for those affected. The petro-masculinity of combustion engines or the sailboat masculinity of US Navy officers threaten their own identity, reputation and standing in society and at work.

We think that today’s concerns and criticisms are unique, but a look at the past shows that similar things have already been raised in past technology breakthroughs. If you are aware of this, then you can take better action against the objections. And the result is always that the new technology eventually makes its way and replaces the old one.