Was it the dream boat of the future or a "Steam Coffin?" Many people thought that Davy Jones's locker was the only destination for the S.S. Savannah. Yet this elegant ship was the first steam-powered vessel to cross and recross the Atlantic Ocean, returning without an engine bolt or screw out of place. The brave ship excited the interest of the King of Sweden and Norway, the Czar of Russia and our fifth President, James Monroe. It caused envy in the British Navy and fooled several worthy captains into thinking it a vessel on fire. The ship's daring commander, Captain Moses Rogers, had chosen Stephen Vail to build the Savannah's engine.

In 1818, when Stephen was building the mill in Savannah, he decided to travel to Charleston to seek new business for Speedwell. On the way down on the steamboat Charleston, he became friendly with its captain, Moses Rogers. They went together in Charleston to see the comedy The Soldier's Daughter. On March 14, back on board, Stephen wrote in a little handmade diary, three inches by five inches, that they spent a pleasant afternoon over a bottle of wine. Three weeks later he again "Enjoyed myself with him in a Satisfactory and sociable manner." There were several meetings after that, at breakfast or tea, on the boat or in Savannah.

The two men found much in common. Rogers was a highly respected captain and navigator with an excellent knowledge of engineering. He also had a daring record of firsts in the history of steamboating and had been associated with Robert Fulton and Colonel John Stevens. Rogers was thoroughly convinced that the future of navigation lay with steam, not sails. Stephen, of course, not only understood steam engines thoroughly, but was always interested in new ideas that brought business. No doubt they discussed the captain's dream of sailing a steamer across the Atlantic. Perhaps Stephen promised to build the engine at that time.

The Savannah Steamship Company
May 7, 1818

Rogers sought backing from the wealthy shipping interests in Savannah. He likely wooed them with the idea that the first steamship should sail from their port, then one of America's most prominent. He was soon rewarded. The Savannah Steam Ship Company was formed to support this "laudable and meritorious experiment." On May 7, the same day the sale of stock was announced, the captain had his financial backing.

To expedite the project, Rogers bought a packet already under construction at Fickett & Crockett shipyard at Corlears Hook, New York. She was about 100 feet long by 25 feet 10 inches, 320 tons and well designed to withstand Atlantic storms. Yet she was only the size of a modern tug or fishing trawler.

Rogers selected carefully. It is said that he passed on every piece of machinery himself. Daniel Dod of Elizabeth, formerly of Mendham, New Jersey, was to design the engine based on a patent he held and to make two boilers. James P. Allaire, whose iron works was formerly owned by Robert Fulton, was to cast the huge cylinder, one of the largest made up to that time. Stephen was to assemble most of the engine and, as it turned out, became responsible for the final installation of the machinery on the ship.

What a revolutionary ship she was for her times - a sailing vessel with an auxiliary steam engine that operated paddle wheels! When the weather was unfavorable for sails, the engine could take over the job.

For use under steam, she had a 17-foot bent smokestack that could be swiveled in any direction according to the wind. On each side she had a wheel made of wooden paddles linked by iron chains; when used as a sailing ship, the paddles could be compressed like a fan and the side wheels secured on the deck.

The paddle boxes were made of canvas so as not to interfere with the wheels' movement. The copper boilers were laid in a horizontal rather than a vertical position to distribute their weight evenly in the ship. These boilers had a secret design to prevent the salt from the boiled water from caking on the sides. The anchor had iron chains instead of rope, an improvement in shipbuilding just beginning to appear.

Though the exterior smokestack and paddle wheels looked strange to some eyes, the interior received universal praise. No expense had been spared for the passengers' accommodations. The state cabin had mahogany wainscoting, rosewood and brass decorations and full-length mirrors carefully placed to create the illusion of space. It resembled a pleasure yacht more than a transatlantic ship.

Building the Savannah's Engine

The Speedwell Iron works employed the talented designer and draftsman Samuel Carson, who had been trained in London by sons of Matthew Boulton and James Watt who invented the steam engine. In addition to being a skilled model maker and blacksmith, he owned a complete collection of tables, dimensions and calculations for steam engines. He must have been invaluable in the building of the Savannah's engine. In fact, Stephen noted in his account book that he once paid Carson $4 a day for ten days "at Drawing and other things," a very high salary in those days.

Throughout the summer and early fall, Stephen, Carson, and about eight or ten others labored on their assignment at Speedwell. Stephen, the perfectionist, wrote every expense in an account book. The assignment must have exasperated him. When Allaire's cylinder arrived in August, 1818, for the meticulous and rigorous job of boring, Stephen reported going "5 feet 5 inches into it and it proved bad." Dod's designs for the piston rod and air pump were inaccurate; both had to be lengthened. The bolts for the paddle wheels would not fit. These delays also made Rogers nervous and he moved with his family to Morristown to be closer to the engine work. He had hoped to see the Savannah completed before winter. But in December ice formed around the hull and Rogers moved the unfinished ship from Elizabethtown to the New York side of the river to prevent it from being frozen in place or damaged from ice floating down the Raritan River. Stephen moved his men directly on board the ship. Thousands of handmade screws were cut and inserted. Pounds of candles were burned to the ends of their wicks.

At last, near the end of February, 1819, the Savannah was ready for the test runs that would prove her worth.

A Wary Public

The New York Mercantile Advertiser of March 27, 1819, wrote this admiring account:

By an advertisement in this day's paper it will be seen that the new and elegant steamship Savannah is to leave our harbor to-morrow ... With admiring hundreds have we repeatedly viewed this prodigy, and can also bear witness to the wonderful celerity with which she is moved through the water. On Monday last a trial was made of her speed, and although there was at no time more than an inch of steam upon her, and for the greater part not a half inch, with a strong head wind and tide ahead, she went within half a mile of the anchoring ground at Staten Island and returned to Fly Market Wharf in 1 hour and 50 minutes. When it is considered that she is calculated to bear 20 inches of steam and that her machinery is entirely new, it must be evident that she will with ease pass any of the steamboats upon our waters.

The Savannah left New York on March 28 and arrived at her namesake port on April 26, the immediate object of curiosity and approval. Later, President James Monroe boarded her to make an inspection cruise of the city's forts and defenses along the Savannah River, accompanied by Secretary of War John C. Calhoun. The delighted President suggested that the government should buy the Savannah and put her into service along the coast of Florida, which was being plagued by pirates from Cuba.

Despite the extensive favorable publicity, efforts to obtain passengers and cargo for the ocean voyage were completely unsuccessful. At first, it was also impossible to assemble a crew. No doubt both potential passengers and crew noted the heavy black coal smoke emitted from the stack and feared the sparks from the soft pine wood used to start the boilers.

Most sailors had heard the nickname "Steam Coffin." Some believed that the paddle wheels would be hazardous in a storm even if lashed to the deck; others feared the engine would break loose. In the end, Stevens Rogers, sailing master and first officer - no blood relation to Moses but later a brother-in-law - had to find a crew in New London, where he and the Captain had been born and were trusted.

An Historic Voyage Begins
May 22, 1819

Finally on May 22, 1819, the Savannah "put to sea with steam and sails" on the historic trip that would take her to England, Sweden and Russia with stops in Norway and Denmark before returning home.

Moses Rogers well understood the reaction of uninformed persons seeing for the first time the Savannah sailing with bare poles under steam. He eagerly awaited for the first European to react, which happened off the coast of Ireland. An attendant at a signal station spotted the Savannah and immediately assumed she was on fire.

The speedy British revenue cutter Kite was dispatched to the rescue. However, the Kite found herself chasing the Savannah for four or five hours before she caught up to her, enabling the "rescuing" Lt. Bowie to board her and discover the incredible truth. As can be imagined, the newspapers told and retold the story to delight their readers - ever expanding on the length of the chase and the prowess of the American vessel and her captain. A Russian newspaper not only changed the locale of the chase to Scotland, but also claimed that the Kite never caught up. Actually, the most amusing part of the incident was not revealed until years later in separate accounts by Stevens Rogers and A. Thomas, a fireman on board. The only way the Kite could stop the Savannah was by firing several warning shots across her stern!

The Savannah reached Liverpool in 29 days and 4 hours, a good but not exceptional time, due in part to bad weather. The steam engine performed faultlessly, having been in use for part of the time on 18 days. Captain Rogers was hailed as another Columbus. The British press was extremely generous in praise for its design and concept. Stevens Rogers later recalled that the ship's officers "were treated with marked attention" and invited to visit shipyards, machine shops, factories and other places usually out of bounds to strangers. In return, of course, many British officers and newspapermen were invited to scramble around the deck and peer cautiously into the engine room.

The British Admiralty and the British Cabinet, however, were less delighted with the thought that the Americans had gotten ahead of them. They also were concerned about rumors that the steamship was to be a gift from the United States to the Russian Czar or that Jerome Bonaparte had hired the Savannah to free his exiled brother from St. Helena.

Captain Rogers visited the London home of the American Ambassador to England, Richard Rush, where he was warmly greeted. Like all the American ambassadors Rogers was to meet, Rush felt a tremendous national pride in the Savannah's achievement. Perhaps with the help of Mrs. Rush, Rogers bought a white china tea set with delicate green and gold decoration for Bethiah Vail.

The reception in Sweden was, if anything, more enthusiastic than in England. Crown Prince Oscar visited the ship. The American Ambassador Christopher Hughes arranged steaming parties for dozens of Counts and Barons. Like Rush, Hughes was ecstatic when writing to Secretary of State John Quincy Adams.

We now have in our port the Steam Ship Savannah, of Savannah, Captain Moses Rogers. This proud triumph over what has been considered insurmountable difficulties, as well as over the doubts and the sneers of incredulous and envious Europe has really afforded me an impayable gratification.

Rogers had an audience with King Charles XVI, formerly Napoleon's Marshall Jean Baptiste Bernadotte. Although the king was short of cash - he offered a generous trade for the Savannah: $100,000 worth of hemp and iron from Lapland's rich deposits, to be delivered free in New York, Philadelphia and Boston. Rogers, however, did not accept. Although the ship was said to have cost about $36,000 to build and $30,000 more to fit with machinery, these figures do not include salaries and operational costs. The original investment of the Savannah Steam Ship Company was $50,000; the final cost could have been more than double. Perhaps Rogers was hoping for a higher offer, and one in cash.

Another offer was accepted, however. Sir Thomas Graham, Lord Lynedoch, a celebrated British general, once Wellington's second-in-command, had been visiting the King. He asked if he and his young cousin and heir, Robert Graham, could become passengers on the trip to Russia. From Lord Lynedoch's diary we learn that the Savannah was most comfortable and sailed well and that the paddle wheels could be put in place or removed swiftly. "About 12 noon it fell calm ... Took in the sail and put out the paddles and sailed by steam at great advantage." While the paddle wheels were being put in place, he stood on deck with his watch in hand. When the full job was done in only 15 minutes, he exclaimed: "I blame no man born in the United States for being proud of his country, and were I a young man, I would go there myself." When the wheels were taken in at midnight, he again timed the operation and noted happily that "took in our paddles in ten minutes."

On the five-day voyage to St. Petersburg the ship set a new record of hours under steam - 25 hours out of 86.

The reception in Russia was once again wildly enthusiastic, and steaming parties were arranged for the Court. Czar Alexander Pavlovich made Rogers a fabulous offer: exclusive steamboating rights over all Russian waters. It was even higher than the monopoly Robert Fulton had sought but failed to gain before his death. Yet Rogers regretfully declined; as a devoted family man, he could not accept such a far-off assignment.

Financial Failure

In October 1819, the Savannah started the long trip home, making brief stops at Copenhagen and at Arendall, Norway. On November 30, she anchored once more in Savannah, a noble marine experiment completed. Yet for all the effort and talented thinking lavished on her, she was a financial failure. Steamboats on a river were one thing: ocean-going steamships another. Not until 1838, when the British Sirius and Great Western crossed the Atlantic under continuous steam would the public trust themselves or their cargo to this new type of ship. No other American steamship succeeded until the Massachusetts in 1845.

The outcome, or course, was a great disappointment for Stephen Vail. His bill for $3527.84 was never paid. In December 1819, he traveled "14 days very tedious voyage" to Savannah to try to collect. On December 17, he wrote Bethiah about his concern: "See Mr. Duning and he promises to do all he can to aid me in getting My Pay for the S Ship debt but I have my dubts."

Rogers tried to sell the Savannah in Washington but the government was not interested, and although President Monroe had been enthusiastic the year before, he gave no help now. The Savannah Steam Ship Company, in financial difficulties after a great fire in their city, sold the ship stripped of all her steam-related machinery, which ironically released much more space for cargo. Even though under a new captain she became a successful commercial venture, the Savannah came to a tragic end. After only two brief years she ran aground off Long Island and broke into pieces.

The Savannah excited comment and curiosity wherever she went, leaving us with newspaper and other eyewitness accounts, letters from officials, paintings and lithographs - some inevitably more accurate than others. Unfortunately, no actual drawings or working models have been found. History is specially indebted therefore to Jean Baptiste Marestier, a French naval engineer, for the drawings and detailed descriptions he made of the Savannah; to such bureaucratic necessities as registration papers; to Stevens Rogers for the Log-Book and his much more revealing memoirs of 1838; and to Stephen Vail for his precise account book. This valuable document not only records the work done by the Speedwell Iron Works, but confirms the work done by his friends Daniel Dod and James P. Allaire.

Stephen Vail may have received nothing more than a tea set for his wife, but his firm's reputation for work in marine engineering was greatly enhanced and he had the great satisfaction of being part of a daring American experiment that made Europeans take notice.