Coal, Steam and Ships
Engineering, Enterprise and Empire on the Nineteenth-Century Seas
Science in History Series

Crosbie Smith explores the trials and tribulations of first-generation Victorian mail steamship lines, their passengers, proprietors and the public. Eyewitness accounts show in rich detail how these enterprises engineered their ships, constructed empire-wide systems of steam navigation and won or lost public confidence in the process. Controlling recalcitrant elements within and around steamship systems, however, presented constant challenges to company managers as they attempted to build trust and confidence. Managers thus wrestled to control shipbuilding and marine engine-making, coal consumption, quality and supply, shipboard discipline, religious readings, relations with the Admiralty and government, anxious proprietors, and the media - especially following a disaster or accident. Emphasizing interconnections between maritime history, the history of engineering and Victorian culture, Smith's innovative history of early ocean steamships reveals the fraught uncertainties of Victorian life on the seas.

Introduction: coal, steam and ships; Part I. North Atlantic Steam: 1. 'Trust in the promises of God': the moral and spiritual credibility of steam navigation; 2. 'The character of fine workmanship': making Clydeside's marine engineering reputation; 3. 'A swarm of projectors': promises of North Atlantic steam navigation; 4. 'This noble vessel': realizing the promises of transatlantic steam; 5. 'Giving rich promise of serious intentions': Mr Cunard's line of steamers; 6. 'Proprietor of the Atlantic Ocean': politics and patronage on the seas; Part II. Westward for Panama: 7. 'Mail-coaches of the ocean': the West India Company project; 8. 'A most perilous enterprise': Royal Mail Steam Packet's vulnerabilities; 9. 'In highly creditable order': RMSP's new board of management in action; 10. 'She was one mass of fire': reading the maiden voyage of the Royal Mail Steamer Amazon; 11. 'An uncompromising adherence to punctuality': Pacific Steam from Valparaiso to Panama; Part III. Eastward for India and China: 12. 'Built on a large, commodious and powerful scale': forging P&O's Eastern Mail Steamship system; 13. 'So great a cloud of obloquy and mistrust': locking and unlocking the secrets of a maritime empire; 14. 'A more desirable result in the performance of the vessel': P&O's mail steamers in action; Part IV. Engineering an Oceanic Economy: 15. 'She would be perfectly stable and strong': rival systems of engineering economy; 16. 'The engines were imperfect': Pacific Steam's coal economy; 17. 'A constant succession of unfathomable and costly experiments': making credible the marine compound engine; 18. 'The modern Clyde ships': economy and power for ocean steam navigation; Epilogue: 'The sovereignty of the seas' – the maritime system builders.

Crosbie Smith was Professor of History of Science at the University of Kent until he retired in 2014 to concentrate on research. Two of his books have won the History of Science Society's Pfizer Award: The Science of Energy (1998) and Energy and Empire (Cambridge, 2009), which he co-wrote with Norton Wise.