Wimshurst in the spring of 1838, was launched on the 18th of October following, and made her first trip in May 1839. She was fitted with a screw of one turn placed in the dead wood, and propelled by a pair of engines of 80-horse power. The vessel was built under the persuasion that her performance would be considered satisfactory if a speed was attained of four or five knots an hour, where as her actual speed was nine and a half knots. The Lords of the Admiralty were invited to inspect the ship. At the second trial Sir Edward Parry, Sir William Symonds, Captain Basil Hall, and other distinguished persons were present.
The results were again satisfactory. The success of the Archimedes astonished the engineering world. Even the Surveyor of the Royal Navy found that the vessel could steer! The Lords of the Admiralty could no longer shut their eyes. But the invention could not at once be adopted. It must be tested by the best judges. The vessel was sent to Dover to be tried with the best packets between Dover and Calais. Mr. Lloyd, the chief engineer of the Navy, conducted the investigation, and reported most favourably as to the manner of her performance. Yet several years elapsed before the screw was introduced into the service.
In 1840 the Archimedes was placed at the disposal of Captain Chappell, of the Royal Navy, who, accompanied by Mr. Smith, visited every principal port in Great Britain. She was thus seen by shipowners, marine engineers, and shipbuilders in every part of the kingdom. They regarded her with wonder and admiration;yet the new mode of navigation was not speedily adopted. The paddle-wheel still held its own. The sentiment, if not the plant and capital, of the engineering world, were against the introduction of the screw. After the vessel had returned from her circumnavigation of Great Britain, she was sent to Oporto, and performed the voyage in sixty-eight and a half hours, then held to be the quickest voyage on record. She was then sent to the Texel at the request of the Dutch Government. She went through the North Holland Canal, visited Amsterdam, Antwerp, and other ports; and everywhere left the impression that the screw was an efficient and reliable power in the propulsion of vessels at sea.
Shipbuilders, however, continued to "fight shy" of the screw.
The late Isambard Kingdon Brunel is entitled to the credit of having first directed the attention of shipbuilders to this important invention. He was himself a man of original views, free from bias, and always ready to strike out a fresh path in engineering works. He was building a large new iron steamer at Bristol, the Great Britain, for passenger traffic between England and America. He had intended to construct her as a paddle steamer; but hearing of the success of the Archimedes, he inspected the vessel, and was so satisfied with the performance of the screw that he recommended his directors to adopt this method for propelling the Great Britain. His advice was adopted, and the vessel was altered so as to adapt her for the reception of the screw. The vessel was found perfectly successful, and on her first voyage to London she attained the speed of ten knots an hour, though the wind and balance of tides were against her. Afew other merchant ships were built and fitted with the screw;the Princess Royal at Newcastle in 1840, the Margaret and Senator at Hull, and the Great Northern at Londonderry, in 1841.
The Lords of the Admiralty made slow progress in adapting the screw for the Royal Navy. Sir William Symonds, the surveyor and principal designer of Her Majesty's ships, was opposed to all new projects. He hated steam power, and was utterly opposed to iron ships. He speaks of them in his journal as "monstrous."So long as he remained in office everything was done in a perfunctory way. A small vessel named the Bee was built at Chatham in 1841, and fitted with both paddles and the screw for the purposes of experiment. In the same year the Rattier, the first screw vessel built for the navy, was laid down at Sheerness. Although of only 888 tons burthen, she was not launched until the spring of 1843. She was then fitted with the same kind of screw as the Archimedes,that is, a double-headed screw of half a convolution. Experiments went on for about three years, so as to determine the best proportions of the screw, and the proportions then ascertained have since been the principal guides of engineering practice.
The Rattler was at length tried in a water tournament with the paddle-steamer Alecto, and signally defeated her. Francis Pettit Smith, like Gulliver, may be said to have dragged the whole British fleet after him. Were the paddle our only means of propulsion, our whole naval force would be reduced to a nullity.
