The technique of composite ship construction (
wooden planking over a
wrought iron frame) emerged in the mid-19th century as the final stage in the evolution of fast commercial
sailing ships.
Construction of
wrought iron hulled vessels had begun in the 1820s and was a
mature technology
A mature technology is a technology that has been in use for long enough that most of its initial faults and inherent problems have been removed or reduced by further development. In some contexts, it may also refer to technology that has not se ...
by the time of the launch of the
SS ''Great Britain'' in 1843. However, iron hulls could not be sheathed with
copper alloy (due to
bimetallic corrosion) and so would become festooned with drag-inducing weed during long voyages in the tropics.
The wooden planking of a composite ship allowed the
copper sheathing
Copper sheathing is the practice of protecting the under-water hull of a ship or boat from the corrosive effects of salt water and biofouling through the use of copper plates affixed to the outside of the hull. It was pioneered and developed by ...
essential for fast ocean crossings under sail while the iron frame made the ship relatively immune from
hogging and sagging, and took up less interior space than wooden framing.
The brief reign of composite
clipper
A clipper was a type of mid-19th-century merchant sailing vessel, designed for speed. Clippers were generally narrow for their length, small by later 19th century standards, could carry limited bulk freight, and had a large total sail area. "C ...
s as the fastest mode of transport between
Europe and
Asia was brought to a close by the opening of the
Suez Canal
The Suez Canal ( arz, قَنَاةُ ٱلسُّوَيْسِ, ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia. The long canal is a popular ...
in 1869 and ongoing improvement in the performance of
steam ships
A steamship, often referred to as a steamer, is a type of steam-powered vessel, typically ocean-faring and seaworthy, that is propelled by one or more steam engines that typically move (turn) propellers or paddlewheels. The first steamships ca ...
.
Composite construction was also used for some steamships. An idea of the proportion of composite ships built can be gained from the statistics for vessels constructed on the Clyde (and tributaries thereof) in 1869. Of the 206 ships launched there in the year, 22 were of composite construction, compared to 168 of iron and 16 of wood. Of the 22 composite vessels, 16 were sailing ships and 6 steamers.
Today only five ships of this type survive, in various states of preservation or decay.
*
''City of Adelaide'' (1864), Passenger Clipper, Transported to
Port Adelaide
Port Adelaide is a port-side region of Adelaide, approximately northwest of the Adelaide CBD. It is also the namesake of the City of Port Adelaide Enfield council, a suburb, a federal and state electoral division and is the main port for the ...
,
South Australia, in February 2014; currently on barge, awaiting selection of final shore-based location
*''
Cutty Sark'' (1869), Tea Clipper, Restored,
Greenwich,
England
*''
Ambassador
An ambassador is an official envoy, especially a high-ranking diplomat who represents a state and is usually accredited to another sovereign state or to an international organization as the resident representative of their own government or sov ...
'' (1869), Tea Clipper, Beached skeleton, Estancia San Gregorio,
Chile
*
HMS ''Gannet'' (1878), Naval
Sloop
A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular sa ...
, Restored,
Chatham
Chatham may refer to:
Places and jurisdictions Canada
* Chatham Islands (British Columbia)
* Chatham Sound, British Columbia
* Chatham, New Brunswick, a former town, now a neighbourhood of Miramichi
* Chatham (electoral district), New Brunswic ...
, England
* ''Darra'' beached wreck,
Ōtamahua / Quail Island
Quail Island ( mi, Ōtamahua or ) officially Ōtamahua / Quail Island is an uninhabited island within Lyttelton Harbour / Whakaraupō in the South Island of New Zealand, close to Christchurch. The island was given its European name by Captain Wi ...
,
Lyttelton Harbour / Whakaraupō, New Zealand
Darra - New Zealand Maritime Record
NZ National Maritime Museum . Retrieved 12 May 2018.
Further reading
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Composite Ship
Shipbuilding
Sailing ship components
Clippers