When steam power ruled the waves
QUESTION What was Britain’s first steam-powered ship?
IN 1794, Charles Stanhope, 3rd Earl Stanhope, built an experimental steam-powered vessel for the Admiralty. With an engine built by Walker and Dewar his ‘ambi-navigator’ of 200 tons was trialled between Deptford and Chatham in 1797 but rejected. The Navy Board stated in their report that ‘an invention of this kind could never be applied to any advantageous purpose in His Majesty’s Navy’.
In 1802 William Symington, under the patronage of Lord Dundas, of Kerse, constructed a steam craft for towing vessels along the Forth and Clyde Canal. Symington’s tug, the Charlotte Dundas, dragged two loaded boats – Active and Euphemia, weighing upwards of 70 tons – a distance of 19 and a half miles along the canal in six hours. The tug is said to have cost £3,000 and has been described as ‘the first practical British steamboat’.
The U.S. engineer Robert Fulton developed the world’s first commercially successful steamboat, the North River Steamboat, in 1807, which took passengers along the Hudson river from New York City to Albany. He subsequently built the Demologos, the first warship propelled by a steam engine. She was a wooden floating battery built to defend New York Harbor from the Royal Navy during the War of 1812. The vessel was renamed Fulton after his death.
The adoption of steam propulsion in the British Navy was a slow process. In 1821 engineers Isambard Kingdom Brunel and John Rennie persuaded the Admiralty to order the building of a wooden paddle steamer of 238 tons driven by an engine of 80 nominal horsepower. This vessel was HMS Comet and she was the first naval steamship to be built to Admiralty orders.
The Royal Navy began to use steamships in earnest during the Crimean War. HMS Warrior was the first iron-clad, steam warship built for the Royal Navy in 1860. Now beautifully restored, she is on permanent display in Portsmouth.
J. B. Cox, Plymouth, Devon.
QUESTION If you stand on the North Pole, where does your compass point?
IF YOU stood at the geographic North Pole your compass would point to Magnetic North. The geographic North and South Poles mark the opposite ends of a central axis upon which the Earth spins. Magnetic North is the point on the surface of Earth’s Northern Hemisphere at which the planet’s magnetic field points vertically downward. This point drifts around; it’s currently located just beyond the Canadian Arctic. It moves about because the Earth’s magnetic field is generated by the spin of the planet and the uneven movement of iron-rich fluid at its core.
Compass needles align with Earth’s magnetic field but, as you get closer to the magnetic North Pole, the field lines curve and your compass will behave increasingly erratically as the needle is trying to point straight down into the Earth.
Historically, polar explorers used to calculate the location of north by mapping the angle of the sun or the positions of stars. Today, Arctic explorers use GPS.
Dr Ian Smith, Cambridge.
QUESTION Are there any famous rock bands or musicians from the North Riding of Yorkshire?
WHEREAS Leeds and Sheffield have been hotbeds of English rock, North Yorkshire has always been somewhat more genteel. However, there are a few examples.
David Coverdale was your archetypal 1980s metal god with operatic vocals, tight leather pants and long flowing blond locks. He was born in Saltburn, near Redcar. Following a stint singing for Deep Purple he formed Whitesnake in London in 1978. He had major success in the 1980s with the songs Is This Love and Here I Go Again. Arthur Brown, aka ‘the god of Hellfire’, was born in Whitby, North Yorks.
Known for his operatic vocals and burning headgear, his band The Crazy World of Arthur Brown had a huge hit with Fire in 1968. It was No.1 in the UK and No.2 in the U.S.
If we’re looking for a band that actually formed in North Yorkshire, then there’s the alt-rock outfit Shed Seven which formed in York in 1990. Shed Seven are fronted by vocalist Rick Witter (born in Stockport) alongside York-born guitarist Paul Banks. They had several chart hits in the 1990s including the No.8 hit Going For Gold. They surprised the music world earlier this year when A Matter Of Time, their sixth studio album, became the band’s first No.1 chart album.
Chris Rea was born in Middlesbrough which is in North Yorkshire; though many of the inhabitants consider themselves Teesiders.
Richard Moss, Durham.