Image: 'Basilisk', paddle sloop, 6 guns, towing stern-to-stern with 'Niger', screw sloop, 14 guns RMG PY0944

Description: 'Basilisk', paddle sloop, 6 guns, towing stern-to-stern with 'Niger', screw sloop, 14 guns Inscribed: “Towing stern to stern each vessel exerting her utmost power in opposite directions. This trial of power between the Paddle Wheel & Screw took place in the English Channel on the 20th June 1849, and lasted one hour in which time the ‘Niger’ towed the ‘Basilisk’ at the rate by patent Log, or 1.466 Knots per hour. Both ships constructed by Oliver Lang Esqre Royal Dock Yard Woolwich”. Details are also listed, one ship described on each side of the inscription. ‘Basilisk’ is on the left and ‘Niger’ on the right. This trial was one of several carried out that summer which effectively sealed the fate of paddle propulsion (see Winfield (2014) ‘British Warships in the Age of Sail 1817-1863’, p.343). The ‘Smith’s screw’ specified under ‘Niger’ in the inscription refers to the self-taught engineer Francis Pettit Smith, who in 1836 took out a patent for propelling vessels by means of a screw revolving beneath the water at the stern. SLR2375 is a wooden model, dated 1835, of Smith’s soon-to-be patented screw propeller, from which was later built the one fitted to SS ‘Archimedes’ – the world's first screw-propelled steamship – and thus subsequently had a profound influence on ship development, prompting Brunel to fit one to his SS ‘Great Britain’ and eventually encouraging the adoption of screw propulsion by the Royal Navy. Lang was from 1826-53 Master Shipwright at Woolwich, responsible for the vast majority of early designs for steam paddle vessels, beginning with the ‘Comet’ in 1821/2, which was the Royal Navy’s first effective steam-powered vessel. The Museum holds many plans signed by him. Signed H. Sewell R.N. on a piece of floating debris in the foreground. H.M.S. Basilisk (common paddle) H.M.S. Niger (Smith's screw) towing stern to stern each vessel exerting her utmost power in opposite directions This trial of power between Paddle Wheel & Screw took place in the English Channel on 20th June 1849...
Title: 'Basilisk', paddle sloop, 6 guns, towing stern-to-stern with 'Niger', screw sloop, 14 guns RMG PY0944
Credit: http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/140891
Author: Edward J Powell; J R Jobbins?); Sewell, H (artist)
Permission: The original artefact or artwork has been assessed as public domain by age, and faithful reproductions of the two dimensional work are also public domain. No permission is required for reuse for any purpose. The text of this image record has been derived from the Royal Museums Greenwich catalogue and image metadata. Individual data and facts such as date, author and title are not copyrightable, but reuse of longer descriptive text from the catalogue may not be considered fair use. Reuse of the text must be attributed to the "National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London" and a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-SA-3.0 license may apply if not rewritten. Refer to Royal Museums Greenwich copyright.
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