A Palanquin in India
There have been various modifications of the litter, familiar examples being the funeral bier and the modern stretcher. Another development is the palanquin, a distinctive form of transport in the East.
The Santa Maria, the Niña and the Pinta
The Santa Maria, the Niña and the Pinta The most famous ships that ever sailed the seas The Niña, shown in the foreground, was the smallest of the three, but in her Columbus returned to Spain after the Santa Maria was wrecked, and the captain of the Pinta seemed tempted to prove unfaithful.
The Monitor
The first armoured ship to mount a turret. This is the ship that fought with the Merrimac the first battle between armoured ships.
The Man-drawn sledge
Sledges have played an important part in polar exploration, and were used,in varying degree, by Sir W.E.Parry , Sir John Franklin, and other early explorers of the Arctic.
Velocipede
Johnson's Hobby Horse, 1818
Although pedal-operated carriages were known in the Middle Ages (during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries many light vehicles of this type were introduced), the earliest form of the bicycle was the hobby-horse, or ‘dandy-horse' as it was sometimes called. This consisted of two wheels mounted in a kind of frame with a saddle for the rider, who was seated sufficiently low to be able to propel the vehicle forward by striking his feet on the ground. The earliest machines of this kind were in use about 1810 but their riders were so ridiculed that ' hobby horses' went out of use. In 1818 an improved form was patented by Baron von Draisin France, and brought over to England in the same year by Denis Johnson, a coachmaker of Long Acre, who called it the‘pedestrian curricle.’ It consisted of a wooden bar, or back-bone, mounted on two wheels, the front one being pivoted in a fork to allow the machine to be steered and balanced. The machine was propelled by the rider leaning his elbows on a padded support, and alternately striking the road with his feet. In this way, a speed of 10 miles an hour sometimes could be maintained on the level. Riders generally 'coasted' downhills, but when a hill had to be ascended the machine was carried on the rider's shoulders! A hobby-horse weighed about 50 pounds and cost about £10.
The Savannah
The first steamship to cross the Atlantic.
The famous Beeton Humber bicycle ordinary, 1884
'Bone-shaker' bicycle, 1869
In 1839 Kirkpatrick Macmillan, a blacksmith of Courthill, Dumfriesshire, fitted pedals and cranks to the rear wheel, but again the machine was a failure. About 1864 Pierre Lallement, of Paris, adopted a front-wheel drive by fitting cranks and pedals, and, strange to say, this ‘bone-shaker,' as it was called, became the first popular bicycle The back-bone was of solid iron, and the wooden wheels had iron tires. It was introduced into England in 1868, and large numbers were made and used. In 1869 wire-spoked wheels were introduced by E.A.Cowper, and in the following year solid rubber tyres,and ball bearings in 1878.
Lawson's Bicyclette, 1879
Coach
Racing
Mail Coaches Racing - Something Wrong with the Opposition Coach
Tandem
old times sketch
The Stage Coach - Old Times
Tandem
The Great Eastern
A ship that was built half a century too early. This huge vessel, built in 1857, was designed to make the voyage from England to Australia without refuelling. She never made the voyage to Australia, but was used to lay the Atlantic cable. She was ahead of her time, for engines had not developed to the point where she could be properly propelled.
The Steamship Oceanic
This ship may be said to be the first of the transatlantic liners, for in her, for the first time, great concessions were made for the comfort and convenience of the passengers.
The Great Britain
An awkward and unsuccessful ship. She proved, however, when she was wrecked, that for ship construction iron is stronger than wood, and proved, too, that double bottoms, bulkheads, and bilge keels, which were new departures when she was built, were most desirable in ships of her size.
The Great Republic
The greatest clipper ship ever built. Unfortunately, before she made her first voyage she caught fire and had to be sunk. She was refloated and refitted, but never made a voyage in her original rig. When new masts were put in her they were made smaller than the first ones. Still she turned out to be one of the very fastest of the clippers.
The Ariel, 1866
Which, with the Fiery Cross, Taeping, Serica, and Taitsing, sailed what was, perhaps, the greatest race ever run. After sailing 16,000 miles from Foo-Chow, China, to London, the Ariel, Taeping, and Serica docked in London on the same tide, the Taeping the winner by only a few minutes. The other two were only two days behind, although the first three took 99 days.
An American Coasting Schooner
Square-rigged ships have largely disappeared because, among other things, their crews were large. These schooners, which sometimes have four or five masts, can be handled by small crews and consequently are able to continue to vie with steam.
The Amaranthe
A British warship of 1654. This ship is an excellent example of the ships that were in use just before the jib began to put in its appearance. The lateen sail on the mizzenmast is similar to the one used on the caravels, but both the rigging and the hull are greatly refined as compared with the ships of the time of Columbus.
A Corvette of 1780
This ship shows the new sail plan overcoming the old. The masts carry topsails, topgallantsails, and royals, and what was formerly a lateen sail on the mizzenmast has become a spanker. Furthermore, while the ship carries jibs, she has not yet parted with her spritsails.
A 16th-Century Dutch Boat
It was on boats of this type that the jib seems first to have been used. To-day in Holland one sees a similar boat, called a schuyl, which is almost identical with this, except that it utilizes a curved gaff at the top of the mainsail.
The American Frigate Constitution
A Whaling Bark
With a lookout at the masthead these ships cruised all over the earth in the first half of the 19th Century.
An English Warship of the Time of Henry V
By the time this ship was built hulls had grown considerably in size over what they had been at the time of William the Conqueror, and the era of lavish decoration was well under way. The numerous decks of this ship were not unusual for the time.
A Few Types of Sailing Ships Common in European and American Waters
A Gloucester Fisherman
Such schooners as this are common in the New England fishing fleets. They are seaworthy and fast, and probably the men who sail them are the greatest seamen of our time.
Robert Fulton’s Clermont
The first completely successful steamboat ever built. Others built before the Clermont were made to go, but this ship carried passengers for years.
A British East Indiaman
These merchant ships, which sailed from England to the Far East, were almost as much like warships as they were like merchantmen. They were finely built, but they took their time on their voyages out and back.
A Cargo Liner
A cargo liner is a freight ship that sails on scheduled dates and routes, and is different in this from a “tramp” which takes what cargoes it can at any time and to any port.
The Leviathan
Formerly the German liner Vaterland, and taken over by the United States during the World War.
A European Side-wheeler
These steamers are often seen in European waters and are widely used as excursion boats.
The Majestic
Formerly the German liner Bismarck. It is now the property of the White Star Line.
The Pharos at Alexandria
One of the seven wonders of the ancient world, and one of the first great lighthouses.
The Homeric
A British liner belonging to the White Star Line.
A Large Egyptian Ship of the 18th Dynasty
The overhanging bow and stern were common on most early Egyptian ships, and the heavy cable, stretched from one end of the hull to the other and supported on two crutches, was used to strengthen these overhanging ends.
A British Line-of-Battle Ship, 1790
This awkward ship is one of the type that made up the great fleets that fought, for instance, at Trafalgar. Nelson’s flagship, the Victory, is of this type.
The Deutschland
Formerly the holder of the transatlantic record.
A Few Types of Sailing Boats to Be Found Around the World
A Floating Dry Dock
And a ship undergoing repairs.
The Spray
In which Captain Joshua Slocum circumnavigated the globe.
A Battle Cruiser
A ship carrying the heaviest of guns but lacking the heavy armour of the dreadnaughts. Its speed is greatly superior to that of dreadnaughts.
An Experiment of 1924
This ship, designed by a German, is propelled by the wind blowing against the two strange towers. These towers are rotated by a motor with the result that, according to the Magnus law, the pressure of the wind becomes greater on one side of each tower than on the other, thus tending to move the ship. It seems hardly likely, at the time this book goes to press, that this application of a formerly unused physical law will revolutionize the propulsion of ships.
An Oil Tanker
These ships have come to the seas in very recent years. They are used only for the transportation of oil, and are owned largely by the great oil companies.
An Airplane View of the U. S. S. Langley
An airplane carrier. In order to build the great flying deck the funnel had to be led to the port side, where it projects only slightly above the deck.
The Mauretania
A British liner of the Cunard Line.
The Tillamook Rock Light Station
This great rock, which lies about a mile off the coast of Oregon, was formerly a spot of terrible danger to ships. Great difficulties had to be overcome in order to erect this lighthouse, but now its 160,000-candle-power light is visible, in clear weather, for eighteen miles.
The Berengaria
A former German ship now belonging to the Cunard Line.
H. M. S. Dreadnaught
The first all-big-gun ship, and the one that gave its name to present-day battleships, which are universally called dreadnaughts or super-dreadnaughts.
The Detroit
This 35-foot motorboat made the voyage from Detroit, Michigan, to St. Petersburg, Russia.
Bearings and Points of Sailing
A Tramp Steamer
Perhaps the hardest-working machine ever designed by man, and undoubtedly the most romantic of all steam-driven ships.
Using a Pelorus
This apparatus consists of a movable plate marked with compass bearings, set in a stand. The observer sets the plate to correspond to the standard compass, and then sights across it in determining the compass bearings of points ashore from which he wishes to learn his exact position.
The Paris
The greatest French Merchant ship, operated by the French Line.
Bishop Rock Lighthouse
On a cluster of rocks off the Scilly Islands near the entrance to the English Channel where converge the most important of all the world’s shipping lanes.
A Whaleback
A strange type of cargo steamer once common on the American Great Lakes, but gradually disappearing.