A Merchant and Sea Captain’s Bold Plan for Steam Power

The S.S. Savannah marked the end of the age of the sail. An engraving, before 1925, by an unnamed artist. The Boston Public Library. (The Boston Public Library/CC BY 2.0)

Robert Fulton is typically credited with creating the first successful steamboat, but he was far from the first to design and build one, as is often erroneously suggested. John Fitch had designed and built America’s steamboat two decades before Fulton, but the invention never grew commercially. It did, however, inspire others to pursue the use of steam power on the water.

A year before Fitch completed his steamboat in 1787, Fulton, who at the time was a painter (among his early works was Benjamin Franklin’s portrait), left for London to pursue a career in the arts. A few years later, his interests detoured toward science and engineering.

An 1803 bust of Robert Fulton by Jean-Antoine Houdon. (Public Domain)

After a decade in London, Fulton moved to Paris in order to further his steam-powered designs and assist the French Navy. He presented his submarine design, the Nautilus (the same name used decades later by the French novelist Jules Verne in his “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”). The French were interested, and Fulton worked to perfect the submarine for several years. Although the long naval experiment eventually floundered, Fulton was “a century ahead of his time in his conception of the mission of the submarine,” according to the United States Naval Institute.

While in Paris, Fulton met America’s Minister to France, Robert Livingston in 1801. Livingston had made his name during the American Revolution and would further his accomplishments by negotiating the Louisiana Purchase Treaty with fellow diplomat James Monroe.

Robert Fulton's 1806 submarine design for the U.S. government. (Public Domain)

Livingston encouraged Fulton to return to America and build steamboats. In 1806, Fulton made his return, and by the following year, his North River Steamboat of Clermont, more commonly referred to as Clermont, was a success. Around the same time, John Stevens, a fellow inventor interested in steam, designed and built the steamboat Phoenix. Steam had become the technological rage, but sail was still the practical method of maritime commerce and transportation.

The Merchant Prince and Ship Captain

A few years before Fulton returned to America, another American made his return from the British Isles. William Scarbrough, the son of a wealthy Carolinian, had received his education at the renown University of Edinburgh and made his return to Savannah, Georgia. He quickly became a prominent leader in the community, founded the shipping firm Scarbrough & Isaacs, and established himself as one of the young nation’s “Merchant Princes.”

While Scarbrough was establishing his wealth and spending it excessively, a young ship captain had a vision for the new method of sea travel. Moses Rogers had grown up on the coast of Long Island Sound in New London, Connecticut. The port city was a maritime hub of commerce, and Rogers was living up to his family name as a man of the sea. While Rogers was working the coastline and rivers of the northeast, he was also looking for a ship that could make history. Rogers, a believer in steam power, wanted to be the first to make the transatlantic crossing in a steam ship.

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Over the years, his work enabled him to make the acquaintance of numerous merchants in Georgia, one of them was Scarbrough, whom he convinced to back him financially for the historic proposition. Rogers came across a ship being built by New York’s East River Crockett and Fickett shipyard and informed Scarbrough that the packet being constructed by the well-known shipbuilder looked to be a worthy vessel. Upon receiving the news, Scarbrough made his move. He and several associates founded the Savannah Steam Ship Company in 1818.

The Savannah

Scarbrough purchased the ship before it was completed. Rogers had Stephen Vail, owner of Speedwell Ironworks in New Jersey, build the engine for the ship. Daniel Dod, a New Jersey mechanical engineer, built the boilers. The ship was named Savannah, and was a hybrid of both sail and steam. The power of the steam engine would be demonstrated by twin 16-foot paddle wheels on each side of the ship, which could be removed when wind power was sufficient.

Rogers brought his cousin, Stevens Rogers, into the business and maritime venture. Stevens was tasked with rigging and fitting the ship for the long voyage. The steamship’s “two-berth staterooms for its 32 passengers” were fitted with imitation marble floors, rosewood and mahogany paneling, tapestries, and full-length mirrors.

Diagram of SS Savannah showing lines and sail plan. (PD-US)

The three-mast, two-paddle wheel, 109-foot, 320-ton, yet elegantly styled vessel with an “inclined, direct-acting, low-pressure engine of 90 horsepower” and a smokestack protruding amidship, was launched on Aug. 22, 1818. She underwent several trial runs along the East River in February and March of 1819, with Scarbrough in attendance.

A Presidential Honor

Savannah was advertised as the future of oceanic sailing. There were, however, no takers. Aside from the crew members, the Savannah was an empty vessel. Even garnering a full crew proved difficult.

Moses and Stevens, as well as Scarbrough, needed to prove the ship’s worth to the world. A transoceanic voyage would do the trick. With a full crew, the Savannah was scheduled to set sail on May 20, 1819. But soon several crew members, wary of the ship’s reliability, bailed, leaving Stevens in search of new members. He visited his and Moses’s old haunts in Connecticut to find several seaworthy sailors who trusted him. The historic event was back on schedule.

While Capt. Moses and Sailing Master Stevens were scrambling to ready the ship, Scarbrough and his wife, Julia, were scrambling to get their mansion completed before the ship’s launch. The mansion called “Scarbrough House” was to host now-President James Monroe and other prominent federal and local officials. The house was designed by British architect, William Jay, in Greek Revival architecture. The reason for Monroe’s visit was not to survey Scarbrough’s elegant house, however, but his ship. The visit was also part of a “good will” tour of the Atlantic states.

After his state visit in Charleston, South Carolina, Monroe arrived at Scarbrough House in Savannah, staying the night on May 10. The following day, the president, along with 25 officials, boarded the SS Savannah and steamed down the Savannah River. The gathering dined aboard the ship, and Monroe was pleased with the vessel, suggesting to Scarbrough that it be presented at Washington after the Atlantic crossing.

The Historic Voyage Begins

Although the Rogerses had planned for May 20, the launch was delayed for two days. Even after the delay, the ship was still relatively short-staffed with a crew of only 19. Perhaps luckily, due to the limited crew, there were no passengers for the transatlantic voyage.

It was during this week in history, on May 22, 1819, that SS Savannah hove up its anchor and on May 24 fully began its journey as the first steamship to ever cross the Atlantic Ocean. Her first destination was Liverpool, England. A week into the voyage, a Capt. Livingston, of the schooner Contract, witnessed Savannah steam by, but thought she was on fire due to the smoke coming from the stack. Livingston noted that “she went faster with fire and smoke than we possibly could with all sail set.” The newspaper Georgian that quoted Livingston explained that it “was nothing less than a steamboat crossing the western ocean, laying her course, as we judge, for Europe; a proud monument of Yankee skill and enterprise. Success to her.”

In 1944, the US government issued a postage stamp commemorating the SS Savanah's transoceanic voyage. (Public Domain)

The voyage was successful as the Savannah arrived in Liverpool 27 days after launch, although not before being stopped by an Irish vessel. Just as Capt. Livingston believed the Savannah had been on fire, so had the telegraph operator at Cape Clear, Ireland. The cutter Kite was dispatched, but it proved difficult to catch up to the “ship on fire.” After firing a few signal shots, Stevens, alerted to the intention of the Kite, stopped the Savannah. Upon explanation the Americans moved on to the English port.

A European Tour

The paddle steamer proved to be a curious sight for the British. She was even investigated by a British sloop-of-war due to rumors that the Savannah had come to rescue Napoleon Bonaparte from his exile on St. Helena.

From England, she steamed and sailed to Elsinore, Denmark, and then to Stockholm on Aug. 22, where U.S. Ambassador Christopher Hughes had scheduled a tour of the ship for the king of Sweden, Karl XIV Johan, and other royal dignitaries. Capt. Moses Rogers was offered payment of $100,000 worth of goods for the ship. Moses declined.

From Stockholm, Savannah arrived in St. Petersburg to much fanfare. The ship’s first passengers were the Scottish Thomas Graham, 1st Baron Lynedoch, and his grand nephew. Lynedoch was enamored with the vessel and gifted Stevens an engraved gold snuff box and Moses a silver tea kettle. More prominently, however, was a gift from Czar Alexander I, who gifted Moses two iron chairs and a large gold watch that “kept excellent time.” Alexander offered a large sum for the ship, but Moses declined, primarily because the purchase was on the condition that Moses, Stevens, and the crew remain in Russia. Nonetheless, Moses felt the mission of the Savannah had been accomplished.

The solid silver kettle presented by Baron Lynedoch to Moses Rogers. (Public Domain)

“I have satisfied the world that the thing is practicable; as I am in Europe, I wish to circulate the fame of my ship and of my country as far and as widely as possible and nothing gives me more pleasure than to show my ship to all people,” he said.

The Savannah left St. Petersburg for Kronstadt, and then steamed and sailed for Copenhagen, then Arendal, Norway before heading back into the Atlantic. After approximately 10,000 miles, the Savannah arrived back in the United States.

Misfortune, Tragedy, and Honor

Misfortune, however, would rule the day for Savannah: both the ship and the city. In 1820, the city suffered a horrific fire on Jan. 11 that destroyed between 400 and 500 structures and “practically wiped out” the city’s business district. The ship was seen more as a spectacle than the future of shipping and proved only profitable once its engine and paddlewheels were removed and it became a sailing vessel for commerce. The fire, investment, and extravagant lifestyle had sunk Scarbrough into debt. His prospects sank further when the Savannah ran aground and was lost near Fire Island along the southern coast of Long Island in November of 1821. Sadly, that same month, Capt. Moses Rogers died of yellow fever.

The Scarbrough House, though, survives and is now the home of the Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum in Savannah, Georgia. Moses, and his cousin Stevens, are remembered as pioneers in steam, and two of the great sea captains of their era. The Savannah remains heralded as the hybrid steamship that accomplished what many thought impossible.

The Scarbourgh House in Savannah, Georgia. (Jud McCranie/CC BY-SA 4.0)

Steam would eventually displace sail and become the future of shipping. Perhaps, like Fulton’s vision of the submarine, the visions of Moses, Stevens, and Scarbrough were simply too far ahead of their time.

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