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Show FIRST TRANSATLANTIC STEAMER. Phe Was an American Vessel Using Both Sails and Steam. The first steamer to cross the Atlantic was an American vessel called the Savannah. Sa-vannah. She was a steamship, and used both sails and steam, and was built by Crocker & Fickett at Corlear'u Hook in New York city. The present belief is that she was built by a party of capitalists capital-ists who intended to sell her to r some foreign monarch. She was commanded by Captain Moses Rogers and was a ship rigged vessel of . nearly 400 tons. She had a horizontal engine, which was placed between her decks, and her boilers boil-ers were in the lower hold. It is generally admitted that the Savannah Sa-vannah sailed from New York in 1819, going to Savannah, her namesake, in seven days, four of which she used steam. There sh8 was chartered by the city corporation to go to Charleston to take President Monroe, who was then traveling through the states on a pleasure pleas-ure excursion. He failed to accept the invitation, and the boat returned to Savannah. Sa-vannah. After remaining at this port for some days and taking out parties of curiosity as well as pleasure seekers the Savannah sailed for Liverpool, reaching it after a voyage of 18 days, seven of which were mado under steam. The arrival of the strange looking vessel, ves-sel, with huge cloutU; of smoke ascending ascend-ing from her decks and obscuring her rigging, rig-ging, caused quite a commotion when 6he enteral? St. George's channel off the city of 'ork, and the commander of the British man-of-war lying in the harbor thought she was a vessel in distress dis-tress and sent two cutters to board her. Everything found all-right, however, the Savannah was allowed to proceed on her way, and thousands of people greeted her as she 6teamed up the Mer-Bey Mer-Bey to Liverpool with the American flag flying at her head. The Savannah then made a trip to Copenhagen, Cron-stadt Cron-stadt and St. Petersburg and then re-turned re-turned to this country, where she was relieved of her steam apparatus and for many years ran as a packet between New York and Savannah, finally going ashore and breaking up on Long Island. The Savannah was, of course, a side wheeler, and as it was impossible to carry a sufficient supply of fuel in her to keep up steam on a long voyage her wheels were removed during good sailing sail-ing weather and canvas substituted. The king of Sweden wanted to buy the boat when it was abroad,' but the deal went through. Now, those are the fact about the first steamship that ever crossed cross-ed the Atlantic ocean. Washington Star. |