SS Savannah (first Atlantic crossing with steam propulsion)
SS Savannah (primera travesía del Atlántico con propulsión de vapor)
- Date
- 1819 · confidence high
- Place
- Savannah, Georgia, United States
- Credited to
- Moses Rogers, Stevens Rogers and the Savannah shipowners
- Field
- Movement
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A three-masted sailing ship with an auxiliary steam engine and folding paddle wheels that crossed the Atlantic in 29 days, from Savannah to Liverpool, in 1819. It used steam for only some days of the voyage.
It is debated whether it is the 'first steamship' across the Atlantic: it used the engine about 10% of the time; Royal William (1833) did so almost entirely by steam.
What it led to
- proof that steam could cross the ocean
- mixed sail-and-steam ships
- regular steam crossings in 1838