Discussion Post: The Abbey Grange
Mar. 19th, 2017 07:01 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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sherlock60This week, the canon story we’re looking at is The Abbey Grange and the chosen topic is Sea Voyages.
A few facts:
🚢 The steam-powered ship was in regular use in many parts of the world before Victoria came to the throne, but the foundations of modern steamship travel date from the first decades of her reign. Improvements in technology and structural systems brought about a new generation of bigger, faster and more efficient ships, making possible the establishment of regular services across the North Atlantic, around the Mediterranean and to India and Australia via the Cape. [Paul Atterbury]
🚢 The 1830s… saw the founding of three major shipping lines, the British and American Steam Navigation Company, the Peninsular Steam Navigation Company and the Great Western Steamship Company… [The British and American Steam Navigation Company’s] transatlantic service was started in 1838 by...the Sirius. With 40 paying passengers on board, and 450 tons of coal, the Sirius sailed from Queenstown (now Cobh) in Ireland on 4 April. Four days later, her rival, the Great Western, sailed from Bristol and arrived in New York only four hours after the Sirius, having completed the crossing in 14 days and 12 hours. This event marked the start of the modern steamship era, and it established the famous Blue Riband contest for the fastest transatlantic passage by passenger ships. [Paul Atterbury]
🚢 A clipper was a very fast sailing ship of the middle third of the 19th century. They were fast, yacht-like vessels, with three masts and a square rig… Although clippers could be much faster than early steamships, they depended on the vagaries of the wind, while steamers could keep to a schedule. The steam clipper was developed around this time, and had auxiliary steam engines which could be used in the absence of wind. [Wikipedia]
🚢 The clipper domination was challenged when SS Great Western… began its first Atlantic service in 1837. She took 15 days to cross the Atlantic, as compared with two months by sail-powered ships. Unlike the clippers, steamers offered a consistent speed and the ability to keep to a schedule. The early steamships still had sails as well, though, as engines at this time had very inefficient consumption of fuel. Having sails enabled vessels like the Great Western to take advantage of favourable weather conditions and minimise fuel consumption. [Wikipedia]
🚢 The designer of the successful Great Western was the brilliant young Isambard Kingdom Brunel… ...in July 1839 the keel was laid in Bristol for a new iron 3270-ton super-ship, to be called the Mammoth. This was to be the most revolutionary ship of the early Victorian period. Designed for speed and comfort, she was also the first large ship to be screw-driven [that is, have a propellor], Brunel making the radical decision to switch from the conventional paddle wheels at a late stage in the building programme. When completed this ship, renamed Great Britain, was equipped with cabins and staterooms for 360 passengers and the largest and most lavish dining-room on any vessel afloat. It set the standard for large ocean liners for many decades to come... [Paul Atterbury]
🚢 By 1853, the Great Britain, refitted to accommodate up to 630 passengers, was operating an efficient London to Australia service, which she continued to do for nearly 20 years.
The continuing impact of the Great Britain encouraged Brunel and his backers to create one more ship. In 1854, work started… on the building of the Great Eastern. Designed to carry 4000 passengers and enough coal to sail to Australia without refuelling en route, the ship was 693 feet long, 120 feet wide and weighed over 18,900 tons.
Nothing on this scale had even been considered before, and when she was finally broken up in 1888, the Great Eastern was still the largest ship in the world. [Paul Atterbury]
🚢 In 1840, Cunard Line’s RMS Britannia began its first regular passenger and cargo service by a steamship, sailing from Liverpool to Boston… In 1870, the White Star Line’s RMS Oceanic set a new standard for ocean travel by having its first-class cabins amidships, with the added amenity of large portholes, electricity and running water. The size of ocean liners increased from 1880 to meet the needs of immigration to the United States and Australia. [Wikipedia]
🚢 SS Ophir was a 6814-ton steamship owned by the Orient Steamship Co., and was fitted with refrigeration equipment. She plied the Suez Canal route from England to Australia during the 1890s, up until the years leading to World War I, when she was converted to an armed merchant cruiser. [Wikipedia]
🚢 Some statistics for ‘typical’ vessels travelling from Britain to Australia:
1852 EARLY STEAMSHIP
Name of vessel: Chusan
Route: Southampton Saint Vincent, The Cape, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney
Speed: 8 knots [9.21 mph]
Voyage: 80 days
Length: 190 feet (57.9 m)
Passengers: 40
Tons: 690
1883 CLIPPER SHIPS
Name of vessel: Samuel Plimsoll
Route: London to Sydney direct
Speed: 15 knots [17.26mph]
Voyage: 72 days
Length: 241 feet
Passengers: 427
Tons: 1459
1888 AGE OF STEAM
Name of vessel: SS Australasian
Speed: 17 knots [19.56mph]
Voyage: 50 days
Length: 360 feet (109.7m)
Passengers: 640
Tons: 3662
1909 (PASSENGER LINER)
Name of vessel: SS Osterley
Route: London to Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane via Suez
Speed: 18 knots [20.71mph]
Voyage: 45 days
Length: 553 feet (168.5m)
Passengers: 270 first class, 120 second, 700 third
Tons: 12,129 [Australian National Maritime Museum]
🚢 The very beginnings of cruise travel can be traced back to 1837… when the Peninsular Steam Navigation Company (later renamed P&O) was founded. In 1839 Samuel Cunard… with the paddle-steamer Britannia founded the British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company (later renamed the Cunard Line). The first ‘real’ cruise is said to have been offered in 1858 aboard the P&O steamship Ceylon… the ship was not fitted for passengers and so facilities were very basic. Refitted in 1881, the Ceylon became the first purpose-built passenger ship. Such ships began to offer trips to the Canary Islands, the Norwegian fjords and the Mediterranean, and by the late 19th century, wealthy travellers could sail from Europe as far as the West Indies. [Dorling Kindersley]
Some useful resources:
Steam & Speed: The Power of Steam at Sea By Paul Atterbury, on Victoria and Albert Museum.
Passenger Ships to Australia A comparison of vessels and journey times to Australia between 1788 and 1900. On Australian National Maritime Museum.
The Journey - by Sailing Ship On The Maritime Museum of Tasmania website.
The Journey - After Sail On The Maritime Museum of Tasmania website.
Journeys to Australia: 1850s–70s An index of pages on Museums Victoria.
Steamship On Wikipedia.
Victorian Technology By Paul Atterbury, on the BBC website.
Ocean liner: The 19th century
SS Great Britain By Ben Johnson, on Historic UK.
The Great Eastern On The Dictionary of Victorian London.
List of ocean liners On Wikipedia.
The Last Surviving Transatlantic Ocean Liners On Oppositelock.
1860-1902: Victorian shipbuilding On Mashable. Some really great photographs.
Paddle steamer On Wikipedia.
Cunard Line On Wikipedia.
White Star Line On Wikipedia.
Inman Line On Wikipedia.
List of clipper ships On Wikipedia.
Clipper On Wikipedia.
P&O Cruises: 19th century On Wikipedia.
British and American Steam Navigation Company On Wikipedia.
Great Western Steamship Company On The Ships List.
Great Western Steamship Company On Wikipedia.
SS Great Western On Wikipedia.
SS Great Eastern On Wikipedia.
Ships and Boats: 1840-1950 A PDF on Historic England.
Steam yacht On Wikipedia.
Ocean Crossings 1870-1969 On The National Museum of American History website.
Women & The Sea Timeline on The Mariners' Museum.
Voyages - emigrants on the ocean On Norway-Heritage.
Ships & Travel in the 19th century On Development of Sailing Ships.
Maritime Nation 1800-1850 On The National Museum of American History website.
Passage East By Ian Marshall, on the New York Times website.
The reality of shipwreck By George P. Landow, Professor of English and the History of Art, Brown University. Part of Images of Crisis, on The Victorian Web.
Thomas Cook History On Thomas Cook.
A different world: Travel tips for that most intrepid of species, the Victorian lady tourist By Catherine Eade, on Mail Online.
Victorian Era Ships and Boats Development On Victorian-Era.org
London: the 19th century port On PortCities.
Australian History Live!: Eyewitness Accounts from the Past By Ian Warden. The link should take you to the section Trespassing Through Extravagant Sea-Realms: Victorian-era sea voyages to Australia. But it is a preview on Google Books, so it may or may not work for you.
DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Cruise Guide to Europe and the Mediterranean By Dorling Kindersley. The link should take you to the section The Victorian Era. But it is a preview on Google Books, so it may or may not work for you.
Please feel free to discuss this topic in the comments.
Please also feel free to comment about the canon story itself or any related aspects outside this week’s theme. For example, any reactions, thoughts, theories, fic recs, favourite adaptations of the canon story… Or any other contribution you wish to make. And if you have any suggestions for fic prompts springing from this week's story, please feel free to share those in the comments as well.
A few facts:
🚢 The steam-powered ship was in regular use in many parts of the world before Victoria came to the throne, but the foundations of modern steamship travel date from the first decades of her reign. Improvements in technology and structural systems brought about a new generation of bigger, faster and more efficient ships, making possible the establishment of regular services across the North Atlantic, around the Mediterranean and to India and Australia via the Cape. [Paul Atterbury]
🚢 The 1830s… saw the founding of three major shipping lines, the British and American Steam Navigation Company, the Peninsular Steam Navigation Company and the Great Western Steamship Company… [The British and American Steam Navigation Company’s] transatlantic service was started in 1838 by...the Sirius. With 40 paying passengers on board, and 450 tons of coal, the Sirius sailed from Queenstown (now Cobh) in Ireland on 4 April. Four days later, her rival, the Great Western, sailed from Bristol and arrived in New York only four hours after the Sirius, having completed the crossing in 14 days and 12 hours. This event marked the start of the modern steamship era, and it established the famous Blue Riband contest for the fastest transatlantic passage by passenger ships. [Paul Atterbury]
🚢 A clipper was a very fast sailing ship of the middle third of the 19th century. They were fast, yacht-like vessels, with three masts and a square rig… Although clippers could be much faster than early steamships, they depended on the vagaries of the wind, while steamers could keep to a schedule. The steam clipper was developed around this time, and had auxiliary steam engines which could be used in the absence of wind. [Wikipedia]
🚢 The clipper domination was challenged when SS Great Western… began its first Atlantic service in 1837. She took 15 days to cross the Atlantic, as compared with two months by sail-powered ships. Unlike the clippers, steamers offered a consistent speed and the ability to keep to a schedule. The early steamships still had sails as well, though, as engines at this time had very inefficient consumption of fuel. Having sails enabled vessels like the Great Western to take advantage of favourable weather conditions and minimise fuel consumption. [Wikipedia]
🚢 The designer of the successful Great Western was the brilliant young Isambard Kingdom Brunel… ...in July 1839 the keel was laid in Bristol for a new iron 3270-ton super-ship, to be called the Mammoth. This was to be the most revolutionary ship of the early Victorian period. Designed for speed and comfort, she was also the first large ship to be screw-driven [that is, have a propellor], Brunel making the radical decision to switch from the conventional paddle wheels at a late stage in the building programme. When completed this ship, renamed Great Britain, was equipped with cabins and staterooms for 360 passengers and the largest and most lavish dining-room on any vessel afloat. It set the standard for large ocean liners for many decades to come... [Paul Atterbury]
🚢 By 1853, the Great Britain, refitted to accommodate up to 630 passengers, was operating an efficient London to Australia service, which she continued to do for nearly 20 years.
The continuing impact of the Great Britain encouraged Brunel and his backers to create one more ship. In 1854, work started… on the building of the Great Eastern. Designed to carry 4000 passengers and enough coal to sail to Australia without refuelling en route, the ship was 693 feet long, 120 feet wide and weighed over 18,900 tons.
Nothing on this scale had even been considered before, and when she was finally broken up in 1888, the Great Eastern was still the largest ship in the world. [Paul Atterbury]
🚢 In 1840, Cunard Line’s RMS Britannia began its first regular passenger and cargo service by a steamship, sailing from Liverpool to Boston… In 1870, the White Star Line’s RMS Oceanic set a new standard for ocean travel by having its first-class cabins amidships, with the added amenity of large portholes, electricity and running water. The size of ocean liners increased from 1880 to meet the needs of immigration to the United States and Australia. [Wikipedia]
🚢 SS Ophir was a 6814-ton steamship owned by the Orient Steamship Co., and was fitted with refrigeration equipment. She plied the Suez Canal route from England to Australia during the 1890s, up until the years leading to World War I, when she was converted to an armed merchant cruiser. [Wikipedia]
🚢 Some statistics for ‘typical’ vessels travelling from Britain to Australia:
1852 EARLY STEAMSHIP
Name of vessel: Chusan
Route: Southampton Saint Vincent, The Cape, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney
Speed: 8 knots [9.21 mph]
Voyage: 80 days
Length: 190 feet (57.9 m)
Passengers: 40
Tons: 690
1883 CLIPPER SHIPS
Name of vessel: Samuel Plimsoll
Route: London to Sydney direct
Speed: 15 knots [17.26mph]
Voyage: 72 days
Length: 241 feet
Passengers: 427
Tons: 1459
1888 AGE OF STEAM
Name of vessel: SS Australasian
Speed: 17 knots [19.56mph]
Voyage: 50 days
Length: 360 feet (109.7m)
Passengers: 640
Tons: 3662
1909 (PASSENGER LINER)
Name of vessel: SS Osterley
Route: London to Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane via Suez
Speed: 18 knots [20.71mph]
Voyage: 45 days
Length: 553 feet (168.5m)
Passengers: 270 first class, 120 second, 700 third
Tons: 12,129 [Australian National Maritime Museum]
🚢 The very beginnings of cruise travel can be traced back to 1837… when the Peninsular Steam Navigation Company (later renamed P&O) was founded. In 1839 Samuel Cunard… with the paddle-steamer Britannia founded the British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company (later renamed the Cunard Line). The first ‘real’ cruise is said to have been offered in 1858 aboard the P&O steamship Ceylon… the ship was not fitted for passengers and so facilities were very basic. Refitted in 1881, the Ceylon became the first purpose-built passenger ship. Such ships began to offer trips to the Canary Islands, the Norwegian fjords and the Mediterranean, and by the late 19th century, wealthy travellers could sail from Europe as far as the West Indies. [Dorling Kindersley]
Some useful resources:
Steam & Speed: The Power of Steam at Sea By Paul Atterbury, on Victoria and Albert Museum.
Passenger Ships to Australia A comparison of vessels and journey times to Australia between 1788 and 1900. On Australian National Maritime Museum.
The Journey - by Sailing Ship On The Maritime Museum of Tasmania website.
The Journey - After Sail On The Maritime Museum of Tasmania website.
Journeys to Australia: 1850s–70s An index of pages on Museums Victoria.
Steamship On Wikipedia.
Victorian Technology By Paul Atterbury, on the BBC website.
Ocean liner: The 19th century
SS Great Britain By Ben Johnson, on Historic UK.
The Great Eastern On The Dictionary of Victorian London.
List of ocean liners On Wikipedia.
The Last Surviving Transatlantic Ocean Liners On Oppositelock.
1860-1902: Victorian shipbuilding On Mashable. Some really great photographs.
Paddle steamer On Wikipedia.
Cunard Line On Wikipedia.
White Star Line On Wikipedia.
Inman Line On Wikipedia.
List of clipper ships On Wikipedia.
Clipper On Wikipedia.
P&O Cruises: 19th century On Wikipedia.
British and American Steam Navigation Company On Wikipedia.
Great Western Steamship Company On The Ships List.
Great Western Steamship Company On Wikipedia.
SS Great Western On Wikipedia.
SS Great Eastern On Wikipedia.
Ships and Boats: 1840-1950 A PDF on Historic England.
Steam yacht On Wikipedia.
Ocean Crossings 1870-1969 On The National Museum of American History website.
Women & The Sea Timeline on The Mariners' Museum.
Voyages - emigrants on the ocean On Norway-Heritage.
Ships & Travel in the 19th century On Development of Sailing Ships.
Maritime Nation 1800-1850 On The National Museum of American History website.
Passage East By Ian Marshall, on the New York Times website.
The reality of shipwreck By George P. Landow, Professor of English and the History of Art, Brown University. Part of Images of Crisis, on The Victorian Web.
Thomas Cook History On Thomas Cook.
A different world: Travel tips for that most intrepid of species, the Victorian lady tourist By Catherine Eade, on Mail Online.
Victorian Era Ships and Boats Development On Victorian-Era.org
London: the 19th century port On PortCities.
Australian History Live!: Eyewitness Accounts from the Past By Ian Warden. The link should take you to the section Trespassing Through Extravagant Sea-Realms: Victorian-era sea voyages to Australia. But it is a preview on Google Books, so it may or may not work for you.
DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: Cruise Guide to Europe and the Mediterranean By Dorling Kindersley. The link should take you to the section The Victorian Era. But it is a preview on Google Books, so it may or may not work for you.
Please feel free to discuss this topic in the comments.
Please also feel free to comment about the canon story itself or any related aspects outside this week’s theme. For example, any reactions, thoughts, theories, fic recs, favourite adaptations of the canon story… Or any other contribution you wish to make. And if you have any suggestions for fic prompts springing from this week's story, please feel free to share those in the comments as well.
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no subject
Date: 2017-03-19 03:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-03-19 03:35 pm (UTC)This actually suddenly puts a whole different perspective on ABBE's ending. Perhaps Holmes was right to let Crocker go. If he truly was a bad'un, his ship would go down with him on it - saves the cost of a trial ^_^
Hope everything went well yesterday, and continues to go well today ^^
no subject
Date: 2017-03-19 03:41 pm (UTC)Move went smoothly. Internet's back. Now it's just finishing the unpacking and getting re-stocked and used to new things.
no subject
Date: 2017-03-19 05:21 pm (UTC)/still remembers my shuddering horrors from the end of FIVE
no subject
Date: 2017-03-19 05:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-03-19 06:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-04-01 07:46 pm (UTC)The Mashable photos are great. (Hey, there's even a Portland OR shipyard in there! But it doesn't say which shipyard, or even which chunk of river it was on, boo.) Interestingly, these suggest that sail continued to be a going concern throughout the whole of the 19th century, and that the transition to steam was nowhere near as neat as "clipper -> steam clipper -> steam" implies.
Ah, the Historic England pdf covers that: sail had no fuel bills, and also smaller crews, and so sail was economically competitive for a good long while. However, in some situations steam always had an advantage, f'rex any passage using the Suez Canal (because of prevailing winds), or any voyage where a predictable schedule was an advantage.
Okay, here we go! Windjammers. "Windjammers were mainly built from the 1870s to 1900, when steamships began to outpace them economically, due to their ability to keep a schedule regardless of the wind." Everyone always talks about clipper ships as being the height of sail, as if there's nothing worth mentioning after that, but fuck yeah, windjammers. (I am apparently going to liveblog this pdf, sorry-not-sorry.)
...and whew, I was starting to worry that I had seriously fucked up the Royal Navy's oil/coal transition in my ABBE story.
I had not realized that the development of tramp steamers was so intimately connected to the telegraph!
...wait, what, why was there a German admiral in charge of anything in the Orkneys, let alone scuttling an entire fleet? *long research digression* Welp, it's now very clear that I've never read a naval history of WWI.
Aaaaaaand I'm done liveblogging that pdf, aren't you glad?
Hints for Lady Travellers is proving frustrating to lay hands on. It's long out of copyright, so surely there's a digitized copy somewhere? But I cannot find one, nor will my various libraries promise to acquire the reprint for me via ILL. *pouts* But this Spectator article contains more of the original hints, mostly different from those in the Mail article.
My, but these ships had more ignominous ends than those hype-filled beginnings forecast. The Great Britain was converted entirely to sail (!!) before she was through with her commercial life, and the Great Eastern never made it as an ocean liner, and instead had a second career as a cable-laying ship, before becoming a floating "hoarding" (which is a new word for me, yay!), and eventually becoming "an early example of breaking-up a structure by use of a wrecking ball," oh dear, what a thing to be known for. But most ships have guttingly sad ends. (Which is why I'm not fucking around with your "last chance to see" link about ocean liners.)
I am boggled that in the 1880s it was commercially viable to ship frozen meat to markets halfway around the world. I just... what?
And the PortCities article about the various London docks is gold, thank you so much for including it. I have tried before to make sense of the London dockyards, but was always quickly overwhelmed.
no subject
Date: 2017-04-04 01:09 am (UTC)Well, searching Google for the image elsewhere gives the info that the photograph shows the shipyard of the Peninsula Shipbuilding Company. Does that help?
I was rather impressed by your liveblogging of the pdf ^__^ I can only admire your previous knowledge and your curiosity. Welp, it's now very clear that I've never read a naval history of WWI. D’you know, I haven’t either? What a coincidence ^^
Hints for Lady Travellers is proving frustrating to lay hands on. It's long out of copyright, so surely there's a digitized copy somewhere? Yes, I thought that too. But no… Thanks for the Spectator link though - that’s great ^__^
I am boggled that in the 1880s it was commercially viable to ship frozen meat to markets halfway around the world. The Victorian era is continually surprising, isn’t it?
And I’m so glad you found the PortCities article so useful ^_^
no subject
Date: 2017-04-04 03:16 am (UTC)But it was a fascinating search! Here, have an amusing account of the first launching of a completed steamship by the Northwest Steel Company. I assume "without a hitch" was meant literally, not figuratively.
:: D’you know, I haven’t either? What a coincidence :: Ah, so that's why it's so much fun to chat with you! Our shared ignorance of WWI naval history! I knew it must be something.
:: The Victorian era is continually surprising, isn’t it? :: It is, rather. :-)
no subject
Date: 2017-04-04 02:17 pm (UTC)