Last(ing) Iron Ships- Iron vs. Steel in Shipbuilding by OlafT. Engvig
T
he common view has generally sailing in her as part of the ship's history, Karl Kortum, the late director of the San held that old iron is an inferior but more importantly, I asked for help. A Francisco Maritime Museum, was one of substance to steel. During the group of volunteers signed on, and together the few who shared my views. He concurred 1880s, steel emerged as the prewe restored the sailing steamship. During that the world's maritime heritage had sufferred shipbuilding material, once it could the restoration, I was particular about in- fered unnecessarily because, for more than be produced in mass quantities and compete vestigating Hansteen's hull plates. Riveted a century, authorities had been arguing the opposite and acting on price, and with that accordingly: as soo n transition, the iron as newer tonnage of shipbuilding era was steel was available, doomed. Laboratory they scrapped their rests and the practiiron vessels. cal knowledge gained from ships in use led When most of the to the conclusion that surviving iron sh ips were built, the wo rld a ship made from steel h ad no telephones, was both lighter and typewriters, electric stronger than iron (or lights, combusrionwood, for that matter) and therefore could engine cars, or radios, withstand much more and a considerable wear and tear without part of the world had yet to be discovered by having to be repaired or aba ndoned. With l'HO TO BY OLAF ENGV IG explorers. The older these assumptions, it New research, starting with a study of the H ansteen, has shown that iron is superior to all iron-built tonnage was accepted as fact other material for shipbuilding. No other historic vessel of the same age has survived in a that is still with us as that iron ships were similar condition, with its hull more or less intact since construction. hulks or restored ships lesser-quality vessels pre-dates these inventions. They are among the oldest original iron than their steel sister ships. Nor until recently repairs were easily spotted from the inside, has research shown tharship-qualitywrought structures left in the world, together with bur it was the newer plates of steel which iron, produced during the Victorian era, was some locomotives, bridges, and other static were badly corroded to just a few millimeters. in many ways a superio r material to steel and, iron structures, first and foremost represented This observation was quite the opposite of above all, is much more resilient. what I had been told to expect. I understood by the Eiffel Tower in Paris. When I started the restoration of my Ships of iron have survived a hundred that this was important new knowledge but years in sub-Antarctic waters with little or first ship, the 1866 Norwegian iron-built could find no publications in support of my Hansteen, I was told by authorities as well as no attention aside from some vandalizing findings. I decided to conduct a thorough attempts. a government-employed antiquarian that I In the frigid waters ofNew Fortuna scientific study myself, and the Hansteen was was foolish for trying to save "a few old iron Bay, South Georgia (Antarctica), the hulk of well suited for such an inves tigation. plates" and a ship that old. Shortly beforethe collier Bayard still remains nearly 100 Of the ship's 128 hull plates I replaced hand, however, I had a ship surveyor from twenty-six. N ineteen were steel plates that yearsafter sheran agro undinJune 1911. The the classification foundation Der Norske had been replaced during the ship's active Bayard was a 1,335-gross-ton, three-masted Veritas measure the hull-plates of the same years. C ur-outs of these replaced plates barque of 220 feet, built of iron by Vernon ship. He was amazed and reported that there and angle iron were sent to a laboratory for & Son, Liverpool, in 1864 for worldwide was "plenty of thickness left in these plates." analysis. The laboratory results were exactly trading. After Ocean Whaling of Larvik, The Hansteen was already scheduled to be as I anticipated from studying her records No rway, was granted whaling concessions scuttled, bur when the owner learned that from h er original construction and repair in 1909 at Ocean Harbour, New Fortuna he could get away with selling the floating history. Almost eigh ty percent of the hull Bay, the Bayard was taken to South Georhulk for the symbolic price of one Norwegian of this old ship still consisted of her original gia with her holds filled with coal. She was krone (about 25 cents), he was m ore than wrought iron plates. The common notion tied up at the pier and became the whaling happy to sign the deed over to me. I then of "no-good, rusty old iron" would have to station's coaling depot until she broke away became the sole owner of 200 tons of old be modified, but for a long time I was met in a severe storm on 6 June 19 11. The Bawrought iron and began having nightmares with a rather indifferent attitude in regards yard drifted across the bay and grounded that the ship wo uld si nk in O slo Harbor. to my findings about the issue of iron versus on rocks, where she sits today. The hull of Thar did not happen. this iron vessel looked much the same at steel as a shipbuilding material. Instead, I wrote an article on the ship When I set out to share my conclusion the beginning of the twentieth century as that included the story of King Oscar II that old iron lasts much longer than steel, she did at the century's end. She was builr
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SEA HISTORY 133 WINTER 2010-11