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Original Articles

TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCE AND INNOVATION: THE DIFFUSION OF THE EARLY STEAMSHIP IN THE UNITED KINGDOM, 1812–34

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Pages 42-61 | Published online: 22 Mar 2013

References

  • Palmer , S. 1982 . “ ‘”The most indefatigable activity”, the General Steam Navigation Company, 1824–50’ ” . In Journal of Transport History 3rd ser., 3 2. We are grateful for the helpful comments of anonymous referees
  • Gardiner , R. 1993 . The Advent of Steam: The Merchant Steamship before 1900 London 6
  • Starkey , D. J. “ ‘The Industrial Background to the Development of the Steamship’, in Gardiner ” . In The Advent of Steam 127 – 35 .
  • Porter , G. R. 1851 . Progress of the Nation 319 – 20 . London
  • Dodd , G. 1867 . Railways, Steamers and Telegraphs. A Glance at their Recent Progress and Present State London 122
  • Kennedy , J. 1910 . The History of Steam Navigation 2nd edn, (Liverpool, 1905), 1; In the same vein see R. A. Fletcher, Steam-ships: The Story of their Development to the Present Day (London
  • 1818 . Observations on the utility of applying Steam Engines to Vessels etc. See for example Henry Bell, (Glasgow, 1813); G. Dodd, An Historical and Technical dissertation on Steam engines and Steam Packets, etc (London,; W. Symington, A Brief History of Steam Navigation (Edinburgh, 1829); B. Woodcroft, A Sketch of the Origin and Progress of Steam Navigation (London, 1848); H. Philip Spratt, The Birth of the Steamboat (London, 1958); P.J.G. Ransom, The Archaeology of the Transport Revolution 1750–1850 (Tadworth, 1984)
  • Smith , E. G. 1997 . A Short History of Naval and Marine Engineering (Cambridge, 1938); D. Griffiths, Steam at Sea, Two centuries of Steam Powered Ships (London, 10–32
  • Erin It is easy to dismiss early steamships as being of small dimensions. However, as early as 1826 the Liverpool-built, 500 tons gross, was launched. See Kennedy, The History of Steam Navigation, 41
  • 1829 . British Parliamentary Papers (hereafter, BPP), XVII, 191
  • Kennedy . History of Steam Navigation 12
  • 1958 . Margery For example the launched at Dumbarton in 1814 and regarded as the first ‘steam packet’ on the Thames was sold to French owners in 1816 for service on the river Seine. Likewise the Rob Roy, again Dumbarton built, was purchased by the French government in 1823 for use on the Calais-Dover route. The Aaron Manby, generally accepted as the first steamboat to be constructed of iron, launched on the Thames in 1822 went almost immediately into French ownership. See Pratt, Birth of the Steamboat, 92–5; 104–5, 113–6; W.H. Chaloner and W.O. Henderson, ‘Aaron Manby, builder of the first iron steamship’, Transactions of the Newcomen Society, 29 (for 1953–5), 77–91
  • 2005 . The Atholl A complication that arises in relation to statistics of early steamships is that there was no requirement to register a vessel if it was below 15 tons, or if it did not go to sea but operated only ‘within the confines of the port’. Any returns of shipping registered in a port would exclude these, whereas a return of shipping belonging to a port should be more comprehensive. However, the extent to which compilers of early official lists observed such precision of definition is unclear. Nor does it seem that regulations on tonnage and usage were strictly enforced. of some 80 tons operated by the Perth Steam Packet Company between 1822 and 1835 and which made some voyages ‘beyond the confines’ seems not to have been registered. A vessel named the Hero belonging to the Tay Steam Packet Company and in service from 1823 was not registered until 1836. See J. Colin Blain, ‘The Perth Steam Packet Company and the Atholl: An Example of the Life of an Early Steamship company and its Ship’, Mariner's Mirror, 91:4 410–20
  • BPP , 1835 XLVII, 581–3
  • BPP, 1829, XVII, 198–203 and 1830, XXXI, 278
  • Kennedy , N. W. 1933 . Records of the Early British Steamships. Section I. Catalogue of Steamships built in the UK to 1840 Liverpool (Kennedy's Catalogue may not be exhaustive and it is possible that there were other locations of steamship building
  • Steam-engine makers were to be found in most mining and industrial areas. Their numbers expanded once Watt's patent had expired
  • 1855 . Thames The classic example of this is the Port Glasgow-built which in 1815 undertook the voyage to London via the Irish Sea, around Land's End and through the English Channel, stopping at many locations en route. An account of the voyage and the publicity it generated is provided in an account published some forty years after the event. ‘Captain Dodd at Sea’, Chamber's Journal, Jan-Jun, 257–60
  • Hoskins , H. L. 1926 . ‘The First Steam Voyage to India’ . Geographical Review , 16 , no. 1 106–16
  • Glasgow . The Steam-boat Companion Glasgow vi
  • Whyman , J. 1981 . ‘Water Communications to Margate and Gravesend as coastal resorts before 1840’ . Southern History , 3 , 123–5
  • O'Brien , F. T. 1973 . Early Solent Steamers: A History of Local Steam Navigation 48 – 9 . Early Solent Steamers: A History of Local Steam Navigation and 146
  • 1866 . Local Records; or Historical Register of Remarkable Events which have occurred in Northumberland and Durham. Local Records; or Historical Register of Remarkable Events which have occurred in Northumberland and Durham. For details of river ferry services on the Thames, Mersey, Clyde and Humber see Table 5. On the Tyne a passenger service between Newcastle and Shields began as early as May 1814; see J. Sykes, (vol. II, 81. We are grateful to Adrian Osler for this reference
  • Porter , G. R. 1838 . The Progress of the Nation The Progress of the Nation (part 3, 48
  • Harcourt , F. 1991 . “ ‘Ownership & Finance 1820–1850: the Case of Ireland’ ” . In Anglo-Dutch Maritime Relations 1700–1850 Edited by: Bruijn , J. R. and Morzer Bruyns , W. F.J. Leiden 88
  • Armstrong , J. and Bagwell , P. S. 1983 . “ ‘Coastal Shipping’ ” . In Transport in the Industrial Revolution Edited by: Aldcroft , D. H. and Freeman , M. J. Manchester 163
  • Armstrong , J. and Williams , D. M. 2007 . ‘The Steamship as an Agent of Modernisation 1812–40’ . International Journal of Maritime History , 19 See, 145–160
  • Thomas , P. N. 1983 . British Steam Tugs 12 – 13 . Wolverhampton
  • 1827 . BPP , : 1829 XVII, 201–2. A locally published return lists 24 steam boats registered in Newcastle in 1827. The majority were of small tonnage, suggesting they functioned as tugs. W. Fordyce, An Accurate List of Ships and Steam Vessels Registered in the Port of Newcastle (Newcastle
  • Kenwood , A. G. and Lougheed , A. L. 1982 . Technological Diffusion and Industrialisation before 1914 London 123
  • The diffusion of the steam engine in the late eighteenth century had been inhibited by the patents held by Boulton and Watt
  • Craig , R. S. 1971 . “ ‘Capital formation in shipping’ ” . In Aspects of Capital Investment in Great Britain, 1750–1850 Edited by: Higgins , J. P. and Pollard , S. 141 London C.H. Feinstein, ‘Capital formation in Great Britain’, in P. Mathias and M. Postan, eds, Cambridge Economic History of Europe, VII, pt 1 (London, 1978), 65. An interesting discussion of ship costs is to be found in S.P. Ville, English Ship-owning during the Industrial Revolution (Manchester, 1987), 47–52
  • Palmer , S. 1978 . “ ‘Experience, experiment and economics: factors in the construction of early merchant steamships’ ” . In Ships and Shipbuilding in the North Atlantic Region Edited by: Matthews , K. and Panting , G. (St John's, Newfoundland, 234
  • Ibid.
  • Bagwell , P. S. 1974 . The Transport Revolution from 1770 London 68
  • Bagwell , P. S. 1971 . “ ‘The Post Office Steam Packets, 1821–36, and the Development of Shipping on the Irish Sea’ ” . In Maritime History I 8
  • Kennedy . The History of Steam Navigation 41
  • Jackson , G. 1992 . “ ‘Operational problems of the transfer to steam: Dundee, Perth and London Shipping Co, c. 1829–1845’ ” . In Scotland and the Sea Edited by: Smout , T. C. 161 – 2 . Edinburgh
  • 1817 . BPP Select Committee on Explosions on board Steam Boats, (433) VI, 37
  • The History of Steam Navigation As early as 1821, vessels on the Leith- London service were providing sleeping accommodation for 100 passengers. See Kennedy, 36
  • 1839 . BPP Report on Steam Vessel Accidents, (273), XLVII, appendix, 120
  • Yui , Tsunehiko and Nakagawa , Keiichiro , eds. 1985 . Business History of Shipping Tokyo On the shift to joint stock company finance and organisation associated with steam shipping see E. Green, ‘Very Private Enterprise: Ownership and Finance in British Shipping. 1825–1940’, in 221–4; Harcourt, ‘Ownership & Finance’, 83–7
  • Kennedy . The History of Steam Navigation 36
  • Armstrong and Bagwell, ‘Coastal Shipping’, 165
  • Lloyd , L. 1989 . The Port of Caernarfon 1793–1900 Caernarfon 217
  • Owen , J. R. 2002 . ‘The Post Office Packet Service, 1821–37: Development of a Steam Powered Fleet’ . Mariner's Mirror , 88 :2 155–75. This paragraph is largely based on Owen's study
  • Dover provided cross-Channel foreign services but these were not to be compared with the longer-distance services of Falmouth and Harwich
  • Owen, ‘The Post Office Packet Service’, 158
  • Armstrong , J. and Williams , D. M. 2005 . “ ‘The Steamboat and Popular Tourism’ ” . In Journal of Transport History 3rd ser., 26 71
  • Two decades later when the railway was introduced, railway companies found that passenger traffic was their chief money-earner. They soon copied the steamship in cashing in on excursions
  • Jackson . See ‘Operational problems of the transfer to steam’; Blain, ‘The Perth Steam Packet Company’; Palmer, ‘Experience, experiment and economics’
  • Neal , F. 1969 . “ ‘Liverpool Shipping in the Early Nineteenth Century’ ” . In Liverpool and Merseyside: Essays in the economic and social history of the port and its hinterland Edited by: Harris , J. R. 175 – 6 . London
  • Pearson , F. H. 1894 . The Early History of Hull Steam Shipping Hull new edn, (Goole, 1984), 2
  • Neal . ‘Liverpool Shipping’, 175
  • Harcourt , F. 1992 . “ ‘Charles Wye Williams and Irish Steam Shipping, 1820–50’ ” . In Journal of Transport History 3rd ser., 13 2
  • Harcourt . ‘Ownership & Finance 1820–1850’, 88–9
  • Palmer . ‘The most indefatigable activity’, 2–23

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