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~ Steamship Washington & Hermann ~

One of our Volunteers has sent in an article on Steamship Washington and Hermann
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Contributed by Bill Kerchof


Oil painting by James E. Buttersworth
Mary Anne Stets photo
Donated by Bill Kerchoff Steamship

The 250 steamship Washington (right) and Hermann launched at New York in 1847, were the first practical American transatlantic steamships. With modified sailing rigs to supplement the 470-horsepower, single-cylinder engines, they could travel at nine and a half knots, which was slower than the Canard liners. Designed to comply with the mail subsidy provisions of the Postal Act of 1845, they operated successfully between New York, Southampton, England, and Bremen, Germany, until the U.S. Mail contact expired in 1858. Uneconomical without a subsidy, the two ships were sold to West Coast owners and ended their days in the Pacific. The Washington was broken up in 1864 and the Hermann was wrecked off Japan in 1869. They depicted in New York Bay in this oil painting by James E. Buttersworth. (M.S.M. 38.561; Mary Anne Stets photo)


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