PS Savannah
PS Savannah
‘Cross-Channel and Coastal Paddle Steamers’ by George Frank Burtt
The first actual attempt at Atlantic steam navigation was made in 1819, when a Colonel Stevens despatched from New York an auxiliary steamer named the SAVANNAH. It was built by Croker and Fickett, New York, as an ordinary sailing vessel, but was soon afterwards fitted with engines and boilers and steamed from the city of Savannah on the 25th May, 1819, arriving in Liverpool on the 20th June.
Steam power was used on six days, the paddle wheels being so designed that they could be unshipped, so as not to interfere with her sailing.
The engines of the SAVANNAH consisted of an inclined direct acting cylinder, 40 inches diameter, and 5 feet stroke. The boiler pressure was 10 lb. per square inch, and the vessel could maintain, without sails, a speed of six knots.
Eventually the machinery was removed and she continued as a sailing vessel until wrecked off Long Island in 1822.