href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@25544@[email protected]#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor pginternal" tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">[9] The smokestack is described as pivoted. The mainstay is double, setting up at deck, near rail, and forward of the foremost shrouds of the foremast to clear the stack and foremast.

The boilers were in the hold, but Marestier gives no dimensions. However, he comments that, in American steamers, the space for steam in the boilers varied from 6 to 12 times the capacity of the cylinder. He gives the Savannah's boiler pressure as 2 to 5 pounds per square inch and the maximum revolution of the wheels as 16 revolutions per minute. The boilers could burn coal or wood. Judging by Marestier's sketch of the ship, the stack was at the firebox end; the boiler or boilers were underneath the engine.

The log of the Savannah gives little useful technical information other than that the ship readily made 9 to 10 knots under sail in fresh winds, showing she could sail well. Under steam alone the log credits the ship with a speed of 6 knots; Marestier estimated her speed at 51/4 knots in smooth water. The log shows that she usually furled her sails when steaming, though on a few occasions she used both steam and sail. In her crossing from Savannah to Liverpool she appears to have been under steam for a little less than 90 hours in a period of about 18 days (out of the total of 29 days and 11 hours required to cross). There is no evidence of any intent to make the whole passage under steam alone, for the vessel was intended to be an auxiliary, with sails the chief propulsion.

Captain Collins states in his notes that the ship was built by Francis Fickett as a Havre packet, that she stowed 75 tons of coal and 25 cords of wood, and cost $50,000. Apparently quoting Preble[10] to a great extent, he also states that the engine developed 90 horsepower and had a 40-inch diameter cylinder with a stroke of 5 feet.

Preble states that the ship was purchased for conversion to a steamer after launching and gives statements by Stevens Rogers, sailing master of the Savannah, to the effect that the ship was built as a Havre packet and that the project ruined financially one of the investors, William Scarborough. Rogers, who made these statements in 1856, also said the ship was built by "Crocker and Fickett." Contemporary newspapers, quoted by Preble, state that the ship had 32 berths in staterooms for passengers.

Morrison[11] credits the building of the Savannah to Francis Fickett and says she was intended for the Havre packet run. He states that the vessel cost $50,000; that her paddle wheels, each with eight buckets, were 16 feet in diameter; and that she had canvas wheel boxes supported by an iron frame. Morrison also relates the history of the ship after her return from Russia—the removal and the sale of her machinery to James P. Allaire, the operation of the ship as a sailing packet between New York and Savannah under the ownership and command of Captain Holdridge, and her stranding and loss during an east-northeast gale on November 5, 1821, at Great South Beach, off Bellport, on the south shore of Long Island. He also states that the steam cylinder of her engine was exhibited at the Crystal Palace Fair in New York during 1853, and that the ship proved uneconomical due to the large amount of space occupied by the engine, boilers, and fuel, leaving little space for cargo. Morrison apparently used some of the statements made in 1836 and 1856 by Stevens Rogers, who was the sailing master on the famous voyage.

Tyler[12] names the stockholders of the Savannah Steamship Company, owner of the Savannah. The company was proposed by Capt. Moses Rogers, and its shareholders were William Scarborough, John McKenna, Samuel Howard, Charles Howard, Robert Isaacs, S. C. Dunning, A. B. Fannin, John Haslett, A. S. Bullock, James Bullock, John Bogue, Andrew Low, Col. J. P. Henry, J. Minis, John Sparkman, Robert Mitchell, R. Habersham, J. Habersham, Gideon Pott, W. S. Gillet, and Samuel Yates. Tyler establishes, by the company's charter, that the objective was to institute a New York-Savannah packet service, for which the Savannah was to be the first ship. He shows that, due to the economic depression of 1819, the Savannah sailed to Liverpool in ballast and without passengers. Her fuel capacity is given as 1,500 bushels (75 tons) of coal and 25 cords of wood. [It should be noted that 1,500 bushels of bituminous coal does not quite equal 75 tons.] Tyler quotes S. C. Gilfillan[13] as to criticisms of the engine and its design.

Partington[14] estimated coal consumption to be nearly 10 tons a day; remarked on the uneconomical arrangement of the ship, with the engine and boiler occupying the greater part of the space amidships, between fore and main masts; and located the axle of the paddle wheel "above the bends," that is, in the topsides above the wale. The description he gives of the unshipping of the wheels is that the pivoted blades were removed and the fixed blades, in horizontal position, were left on the shaft. This agrees with a Russian description referred to later. The logbook repeatedly speaks of "shipping" and "unshipping" the paddle wheels, indicating that the wheels were entirely removed from the shafts and stowed on deck.

Watkins[15] showed, by the account books of Stephen Vail, owner of the Speedwell Ironworks near Morristown, New Jersey, that the engine was built by Vail, but apparently to designs by Daniel Dod. The latter built the Savannah's boiler at Elizabeth, New Jersey, and made some parts of the engine, which he furnished, incomplete in some instances, to Vail. These account books, which were in the possession of John Lidgerwood of New York City in 1890, show the steam cylinder to have had an inside diameter of 403/8 inches and a 5-foot stroke. Reference in the account books to an error in Dod's draught of a piston proves that Dod designed the engine.

Watkins states that the engine was rated at 90 horsepower. He does not give the diameter of the pump cylinder, but, judging by the scaling of Marestier's drawing and by a rather indefinite entry in the Vail account book, it appears to have been between 17 and 18 inches. Quoting Captain Collins at some length, Watkins writes that the mainmast was placed farther aft than was usual in a sailing ship, and that the vessel had a round stern. Collins apparently based his opinion upon an unidentified "contemporaneous lithograph" and upon "all other illustrations of this famous vessel." Collins' conception of the appearance of the Savannah is shown in a drawing by C. B. Hudson that is reproduced as the frontispiece in Watkins' publication. A statement by Stevens Rogers that was published in