SS President
History | |
---|---|
Owner | British and American Steam Navigation Company |
Port of registry | United Kingdom |
Route | Atlantic crossing |
Builder | London, Curling & Young |
Laid down | November 23 1838 |
Launched | December 9 1839 |
Maiden voyage | 1 August 1840 |
Out of service | March 1841 |
Fate | March 1841, lost with all aboard under unknown circumstances |
General characteristics | |
Tonnage | 2,350 GRT |
Length | 243 ft (74 m) |
Beam | 41 ft (12 m) |
Sail plan | 3 masts |
SS President was a British
President was the second liner owned by British and American and was noted for her luxurious interiors. Designed by
On 11 March 1841, President cleared New York bound for Liverpool on her third eastbound voyage. She was overloaded with cargo to compensate for her roll. President was last seen the next day struggling in a gale.[1] Her disappearance was major news for several months and even Queen Victoria followed the story.[4]
Development and design
British and American recognized from the beginning that frequent sailings were required and that the line needed a fleet of steamers for its new transatlantic service. As soon as the line’s first unit, British Queen was delivered, British and American ordered the President. The plan was that by 1840, either President or British Queen was to depart each month for New York.[1]
As designed by Macgregor Laird, President was 500 GRT larger than British Queen, then the largest ship. Her opulent interiors were in sharp contrast to the sparse accommodations of Cunard’s fleet. Great American wanted passengers to feel they were in a luxury hotel rather than at sea. The saloon measured 80 feet by 34 feet and was in Tudor Gothic style. The corridor aft to the regular staterooms was a picture gallery, with ten oil paintings depicting scenes about Christopher Columbus. The regular staterooms could accommodate 110 passengers and another 44 forward in Servants cabins. The two-berth regular cabins were seven feet by seven feet. Her exterior decoration included a figurehead of George Washington.[4]
President’s wooden hull was subdivided into watertight compartments. However, it was not as robust as Great Western or the new Cunard vessels just entering service. After just two round trip voyages, she required refit after stormy seas weakened and twisted her hull. President was top-heavy and rolled excessively because she was constructed with a third deck on top of a hull with almost the same waterline dimensions as British Queen.[4]
Relative to her size, President was significantly less powerful than her rivals. As a result, her 1840 voyage times were disappointing. This problem was compounded in 1841 when President’s paddle wheels were modified with non-feathering paddles. Tests in 1830 demonstrated that feathering paddles improved speed by 25% in smooth water and over 50% in rough seas. British American failed to secure the rights to use the patented design and removed the feathering paddles before President left on her first 1841 voyage in order to avoid litigation.[1]
Service history
President’s maiden voyage in August 1840 lasted 16.5 days and averaged only 8.4 knots (15.6 km/h)
Departing Liverpool in February, under Captain
The caption of the color print showing the ship in the storm reads as follows: "THE STEAM SHIP PRESIDENT, the largest in the world, LIEUT. ROBERTS, R.N. Commander of her last voyage from NEW YORK to LIVERPOOL. As last seen from the Packet Ship ORPHEUS, Capt.COLE, in the terrific gale of March the 12th 1841 at 3 o'clock P.M. Lat. 39, 46___Long. 71 bearing N.E. by E. by compass bearing East.___"
"In the inquiry before the British Consul on June the 5th 1841___Capt. Cole of the Packet Ship Orpheus, stated that when he last saw the President she was rising on the top of a tremendous sea pitching heavily and laboring tremendously___She was then situated in that dangerous part of the Atlantic Ocean about midway between the Nantucket Shoal and the St. George's Bank, just where the Gulf Stream strikes soundings, and where the waves rise about straight up and down & as high as a four or five story house___And further that it was his belief that the President did not survive the gale, but foundered with all on board and that all perished before sundown on the 13th or in less than twenty four hours after he last saw her, most probably in the terrible night of March 12th 1841."
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Gibbs, Charles Robert Vernon (1957). Passenger Liners of the Western Ocean: A Record of Atlantic Steam and Motor Passenger Vessels from 1838 to the Present Day. John De Graff. pp. 37–41.
- ISBN 9780470136003. Retrieved 27 December 2009.
- ^ Robinson, Robb (January 2009). "The Cookman Story: Reform in Hull and the United States" (PDF). FAR HORIZONS – to the ends of the Earth. Maritime Historical Studies Centre, University of Hull. Retrieved 27 December 2009.
In March 1841 the liner, SS President, then reputedly the largest steamship in the world, disappeared without trace in the vast tracts of the still wintry Atlantic, sometime after leaving New York en route for Liverpool. The SS President was the first steamship to founder on the transatlantic run and there was universal lamentation for the 136 crew and passengers.
- ^ ISBN 0-06-095549-X.
- ^ ISBN 1-57488-458-1.
- ^ "The Liverpool Mercury". 28 February 1840.
- ^ "The Manchester Courier". 3 October 1840.
- ^ http://www.cnrs-scrn.org/northern_mariner/vol15/tnm_15_3_53-71.pdf Northern Mariner Volume 15 (2005) pg 65 (Canadian Nautical Research Society)