Vulcan (ship)

Vulcan

Replica of the Vulcan

Ship data flag  United Kingdom Ship type Lighter home port Glasgow Owner Forth and Clyde Canal Company Shipyard Thomas Wilson, Glasgow Launch May 1819 Whereabouts Wrecked in 1873

Ship dimensions and crew length 20.27 m ( Lüa )

The Vulcan was the first ship with an iron hull. It was a self- propelled ship pulled across the Scottish canals by horses.

history

In 1816 the Forth and Clyde Canal Company, which had already successfully adapted a new technology with Charlotte Dundas in 1801 , decided to build a boat with a hull made entirely of iron. In 1818 the shipbuilder Thomas Wilson (1781–1873) was commissioned to build the ship. The boat was 20 m long and had a flat hull suitable for sailing on the canals.

The shipyard was located outside of Glasgow in Faskine, Airdrie on the banks of the Monkland Canal . The individual iron plate fragments of the hull were riveted together using cover plates. Two blacksmiths were employed to make the parts. Since there were no rolling mills at that time , the individual plates had to be forged. The iron came from the Monklands Steel Company.

The Vulcan was launched in May 1819 and served as a passenger barge between Edinburgh and Glasgow. It was later converted into a barge and scrapped in 1873. A replica of the Vulcan was made in Glasgow in 1988 and can now be seen in Summerlee Heritage Park .

Web links

• Image of a model of the Vulcan from the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich

literature

• Edgar C. Smith : A Short History of Naval and Marine Engineering. Cambridge 1937, p. 98.
• Fred M. Walker: Ships and Shipbuilders: Pioneers of Design and Construction. 2010, ISBN 978-1-84832-072-7 , p. 47.