DBWI: Steamships?

This may sound like a stupid idea, but what if someone discovered a way to use steam engines to propel ships? Would steamships somehow be able to compete with sailing vessels or is that ASB?
 
Steam ships were the primary form of ocean/river transportation from the late 1840s until the beginning of the 20th Century. Steam engines had been adapted to power river vessels as early as the 1730s, and ocean-going ships from 1819 onward. There are still a few steam powered ships afloat to this day, although not many. The steam engine did effectively end the days of sailing ships by the end of the 19th Century.
 

NothingNow

Banned
Steam ships were the primary form of ocean/river transportation from the late 1840s until the beginning of the 20th Century. Steam engines had been adapted to power river vessels as early as the 1730s, and ocean-going ships from 1819 onward. There are still a few steam powered ships afloat to this day, although not many. The steam engine did effectively end the days of sailing ships by the end of the 19th Century.
Dude, DBWI stands for Double Blind What If; as in Steamships were never Invented/made practical. you don't even have an excuse being here for 3 years.
 
Dude, DBWI stands for Double Blind What If; as in Steamships were never Invented/made practical. you don't even have an excuse being here for 3 years.

My previous answer still stands. The original poster asked if steam ships would be able to compete with sailing ships if steam engines were adapted to propel ships. My response answered the question using OTL history.
 

NothingNow

Banned
My previous answer still stands. The original poster asked if steam ships would be able to compete with sailing ships if steam engines were adapted to propel ships. My response answered the question using OTL history.
But That takes everything out of it. This is supposed to be an intellectual exercise about it possible developing in another TL.
You Just have to use your Imagination.:eek:
 

NothingNow

Banned
OOC:Also welcome to AH.com Sampe! Sorry about that stuff up top.

IC: Well yeah It'd be Possible if Navarro* type Engines hadn't beaten them to the Punch. Delay that by 20 years and Steam might become practical for use. I mean It would have come into service before the Development of Nuclear power Instead of Alongside.

OOC: Navarro Engines are OTL's Diesels.
 
Well, it took a long time to get full potential out of the Navarro engines. As recent experiments have shown, a high-pressure tight steam engine could probably have been possible as early as 1860. We might have seen ships without help mast and sails as early as 1880.

You know that the last sailing ships (that Ålander shipping company in Mariehamn, what was the name) was phased out of big shipping in the early 50s. Of course, they were more or less out after ww1 ended in 1921, but the post-ww2 shortage and poverty and large transport (refugees, returned plundered goods, rebuilding effort) needs made them viable again.

Hell, I can see a few small coastal old-style sailing (cloth and wooden masts!) ships coming in now and then with non-priority shipments (mostly lumber from the archipelagos) from my office here in Stockholm. Of course, they all have Navarro help engines.

Still, steam engines take a lot of fuel. Even if you use high-quality coal, you still need a LOT to cross the Atlantic without the aid of sails. Imagine the size of the luxury liners if they had to store all that coal when crossing!

Perhaps the economy would be far worse if shipping did not have the range given by Navarro engines combined with the low cost of modern light metal wind cathers (I refuse to call those blinds on various contraptions sails!)
 
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