East Dennis, Mass. – Paintings by James Edward Buttersworth and Antonio Jacobsen and scrimshaw by Edward Burdett and Josiah Sheffield are some of the headliners at Eldred’s annual .
Al Southwick: When steam power conquered the sea
Al Southwick
On April 23, 1838, the British ship, Sirius, steamed into New York Harbor after a 17-day journey from Cork, Ireland. It was the first to cross the Atlantic entirely by steam power and it set off a competition among shipping interests.
For the next 20 years, the Atlantic trade was seen as the golden route to fame and riches. It proved to be the watery graveyard of many hopeful entrepreneurs.
Ships then were mostly sailing ships or steam-powered side-wheelers with auxiliary sails. They were slow and cumbersome and had a hard time meeting strict schedules. Among the men who planned to change that was Edward Knight Collins. The Collins Line would prove to be the unluckiest steamship line ever launched, but it also made maritime history with its radical new vessels.