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Contributions from
The Museum of History and Technology:
Paper 21
The Pioneer Steamship Savannah:
A Study for a Scale Model
Howard I. Chapelle
The Pioneer Steamship
SAVANNAH:
A Study for a Scale Model
The original plans of the pioneer transatlantic steamer Savannahno longer exist, and many popular representations of the famousvessel have been based on a 70-year-old model in the United StatesNational Museum. This model, however, differs in several importantrespects from contemporary illustrations.
To correct these apparent inaccuracies in a new, authentic model,a reconstruction of the original plans was undertaken, using assources the ship's logbook and customhouse description, a Frenchreport on American steam vessels published in 1823, and Russiannewspaper accounts contemporary with the Savannah's visit to St.Petersburg on her historic voyage of 1819. The development of thisresearch and the resulting information in terms of hermeasurements and general description are related here.
: Howard I. Chapelle is curator of transportation inthe United States National Museum, Smithsonian Institution.
The United States National Museum has in its watercraft collection arigged scale model purported to be of the pioneer transatlanticsteamer Savannah. For many years this model was generally acceptedas being a reasonably accurate representation and was the basis forcountless illustrations. Curiously enough, the model (USNM 160364)does not agree with the published catalog description[1] as to theside paddle wheels. Neither does it agree with the material in theMarestier report,[2] which is accepted as the only source for acontemporary picture of the Savannah.
The recent naming of an atomic-powered ship in honor of the famoussteamer greatly increased popular interest in the pioneer ship and itssupposed model. Consequently, the National Museum undertook theresearch necessary to correct or replace the existing model. Thisresearch has been carried out by the staff of the Museum'stransportation division with the aid of Frank O. Braynard of theAmerican Merchant Marine Institute, Eugene S. Ferguson, curator ofmechanical and civil engineering at the Museum, and others.
The Savannah crossed from Savannah, Georgia, to Liverpool, England,in the period May 22 to June 20, 1819; and proceeded to the Baltic,where she entered at St. Petersburg (now Leningrad), Stockholm, and afew other ports. On her return she reached Savannah on November 30,and on December 3 she sailed for Washington, D.C., arriving onDecember 16. Her original logbook now on exhibition in the