ART – Learn about the transition from sail to steam through Posner maritime art. Examine the growing collection of paintings, half-models, and maritime artwork by noteworthy nineteenth and twentieth-century artists that comprise the Posner Collection. The family of Helen and Henry Posner, Jr. generously shared this collection, which SSHSA stewards.
To view more from the Posner Maritime Art Collection, check out SSHSA’s Virtual Museum.
“I will venture to affirm that history does not afford an instance of such rapid improvement in commerce and civilization as that which will be effected by steam vessels.”— Henry Bell (1806).
Student Learning Objectives
- Understand how works of art can teach us about the transitional period of sail to steam power.
- Explain why steam vessels were still sail-rigged in the late 1800s into the 1900s.
- Learn about how the transition from sail to steam power affected the immigrant trade.
- Understand the role played by newly developed ironclad naval vessels during the Civil War.
RMS Britannic & RMS Celtic at Queenstown, Ireland
by Parker Greenwood
Oil on canvas, 12″ x 18″
Let’s examine this painting by British artist and former Cunard Line Ship’s Officer Parker Greenwood. The Liverpool Directory listed Parker Greenwood as a mariner as early as 1881, and later as an artist. He received commissions from both the Cunard and White Star Lines. Greenwood is particularly known for his fine paintings of their transatlantic liners between 1880 and 1910. Although often referred to as George Parker Greenwood, his birth name was Parker.
This painting, c. 1884, depicts two White Star Line ships. The RMS Britannic, built in 1873 by Harland and Wolff of Ireland, tows the damaged RMS Celtic (1872) for repairs. The Roches Lighthouse, at the entrance to Queenstown, Ireland (now Cork Harbor) is on the right. Note the British paddle wheel tug to the right of Britannic. Also note the American courtesy flags on the foremasts of the still sail-rigged steamships.
If these were steam vessels why were they still sail-rigged and how and when did steam power take over?
First, let’s learn about the history of steam vessels. John Fitch was one of the pioneers of American steamboat transportation. With the backing of Philadelphia financiers, he built a 45-foot vessel. On August 22, 1787, before a group of delegates to the Constitutional Convention, Fitch had a successful trial of the vessel on the Delaware River. Next, he built a larger paddle wheel steamboat designed to carry passengers and freight. It made regularly scheduled trips between Philadelphia and Burlington, New Jersey. After a battle with James Rumsey over claims to invention, Fitch was granted a U.S. patent for steamboats on August 26, 1791, and a French patent the same year. Although Fitch successfully produced steam vessels, after building and operating costs, his vessels were not economically viable.
Robert Fulton, who did not launch a boat until after Fitch died, received more credit because he developed a commercially successful steamboat, the North River Steamboat (also known as Clermont). In 1807, that steamboat traveled on the Hudson River with passengers from New York City to Albany and back again, a round trip of 300 nautical miles, in 62 hours. The success of his steamboat changed river traffic and trade on major American rivers.
In 1819, the SS Savannah became the first steamship to sail across the Atlantic, but used sail for the majority of the voyage rather than steam. At the time, steamships would also be fitted with sails as an alternative source of power.
How long do you suppose it took to gain the confidence needed to give up back-up sails, masts, rigging, and crew? Wind power was free and using coal to power steam engines was costly, heavy, and took up valuable cargo space.
In the nineteenth century, the transition from sail to steam power had great effects on European immigration to the United States, shortening the voyage from a minimum of five or six weeks to just two weeks. It decreased variability in arrivals of ships. These two benefits also helped to reduce mortality. Although the number of passengers arriving in New York was increasing during the years 1852 to 1873, nativism, the economic downturn of 1857, and the outbreak of the Civil War saw immigration numbers fall overall. But with increase in the number of steamship voyages and an increase in the number of passengers per ship, almost 20 percent of immigrants arrived by steam power in 1858 and 31 percent in 1861. By 1873, a total of 97 percent of immigrants arrived in New York via steam-powered vessels.
The beginning of the end of sail took place in the years following the American Civil War (1861 – 1865). Naval ships, like the Yankee Monitor and the Confederate Merrimac were steam-powered, ironclad ships, that didn’t carry sail because they were always close to land. Some of the first steamships without sail were riverboats. The Union made effective use of them in the Civil War. Ironclad gunboats helped the Union Army to gain control of the Mississippi River in the west.
Although the Navy started experimenting with steam as early as the War of 1812, steam-powered ships were required to have sails until the 1880s. The Navy transitioned away from sails in the 1890s with the first battleships.
The Monitor had a new feature: in her center, a gun turret replaced what would have been a mast. At the same time, the conservative British Admiralty tried to replace the fixed guns on their ironclad warships with rotating turrets. But masts and rigging interfered with the field of fire of a turret. The Monitor did not experience that problem.
Yet the British clung to sail. They built several ships with both turrets and masts. Even though it was not as effective. Finally in 1871, sixty-four years after Robert Fulton’s steamship was a commercial success, the British Navy launch the first ocean-going warship without any sail — the HMS Devastation. The Devastation set the pattern for future British sea power, but masts were still to be found on many merchant and passenger ships well into the 1900s, a full century after the first ocean-going steamboats.
Scroll through the detailed images of SS Britannic towing SS Celtic by George Parker Greenwood and other paintings below from the Posner Maritime Art Collect for more detail on this transitional period of sail to steam power.
SS Drenthe
signed “DGY”
Oil on canvas, 25″ x 33″
This painting depicts a single-funneled steamship, with two masts and a clipper bow, cutting through stormy seas under a gray-clouded sky. The unidentified artist signed the painting “DGY.” The Drenthe, a steamer of 2,296 tons, was built at Newcastle, England in 1875. Her dimensions were 295 x 36 x 26 feet. According to the annually published American Lloyd’s Register, which provides information on all seagoing, self-propelled merchant ships of 100 gross tonnes or greater, Drenthe was owned by Ruys and Hoven at Rotterdam, the Netherlands from 1877 to 1883. The house flag flying from the mainmast looks like that of Ruys and Sons, of Rotterdam, c. 1883.
Scroll through the images below for more detail.
SS Kätie
by Antonio Jacobsen
Oil on canvas
Alexander Stephen and Sons of Glasgow, Scotland built the steamer Kätie, of 1880 (2790 tons), along with Martha, of 1884 (2107 tons), for the Stettiner Lloyd Line of Germany (1880-1886). This line took immigrants from Stettin (now Poland) to New York, stopping at Scandinavian ports. When Stettiner Lloyd became insolvent, Stephen and Sons took Kätie back. Interestingly, Kätie sailed for the Furness Line in 1887; then was renamed the Dunkeld in 1890.
SS Dunkeld, ex Kätie, struck a rock and sank off Lobos Island on March 25, 1895, while carrying a load of coal from Cardiff, England for Buenos Aires. The French Steamer Portena rescued all except the Third Mate and Steward, who were afraid to swim for a lifeboat.
This is quite an unusual painting for Jacobsen because he usually painted ships in profile. He has shown Kätie with a barkentine rig, a sailing vessel with three or more masts, and one funnel. Kätie appears stopped to pick up a pilot, as Pilot Schooner Number 11 (probably Phantom, of New York) is depicted on the left side of the painting. The American Flag flies from the foremast, indicating Kätie is en route to New York and the Stettiner Lloyd house flag flies from the main mast. The house flag has the American flag in the canton area, which is quite unusual. Jacobsen created this painting in 1885.
Scroll through the images below for more detail.
Student Assessment Questions
Download the pdf of the Student Assessment Questions.
- What can visual arts teach us about steamships?
- What do all these paintings have in common? How do they differ?
- Explain how these paintings illustrate the move from sail to steam power. Why use both?
- How did the move from sail to steam affect immigration to the U.S. from Europe?
- Explain why it took so long to move from sail to steam.
Additional Resources
For more information on ironclad gunboats, check out this PBS Learning Media lesson on this battle using Ken Burns’s documentary The Civil War.
View images of battleships from the Naval History and Heritage Command.
Education Standards
4 ( Grades: K-12 ): Understanding the visual arts in relation to history and cultures
National Standards for History
5.2A.3 Identify the turning points of the Civil War and evaluate how political, military, and diplomatic leadership affected the outcome of the conflict.
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