Rainbow (1837 ship)

The Rainbow was an iron paddle-wheel steamer for passengers and cargo, built in 1837 by John Laird in Birkenhead, England for the General Steam Navigation Company. The engines were produced by George Forrester and Company from Liverpool. It was said to be the largest iron steamer of its day[1], and the fastest.[2] It covered 190 nautical miles in 14 hours during a passage to Antwerp.[3] The ship has been described as "a landmark in naval architecture" and had "influence on Brunel", who traveled to Antwerp on the Rainbow.[4] It is seen as a "precursor of the ocean-going iron steamer".[5]

Rainbow, 1840 watercolour by Van Treslong Prins from the collections of the Royal Museums Greenwich
History
Name: Rainbow
Owner: General Steam Navigation Company
Builder: John Laird
Completed: 1837
Out of service: 1869
Fate: scrapped
General characteristics
Type: iron paddle steamer
Tonnage: 582
Length: 190 ft (57.91 m)
Beam: 25 ft (7.62 m)
Depth: 12.8 ft (3.90 m) depth of hold
Installed power: 2 90 HP engines built by George Forrester and Company
Propulsion: 2 paddle wheels (diameter 21.6 ft (6.58 m)

The ship was intended to travel between London and Ramsgate, but also made voyages between London and Antwerp. Later she was used for the cargo trade between London and Le Havre. She was scrapped in 1869.[2]

Sir George Biddell Airy, the Astronomer Royal, conducted experiments on board the ship about the influence of an iron hull on the workings of the compass.[3]

Notes
  1. Lindsay, William Schaw (1876). History of Merchant Shipping and Ancient Commerce Volume 4 (2013 ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 90. ISBN 9781108057653.
  2. Description of the Birkenhead Iron Works belonging to Messrs. Laird Brothers. From "The Practical Magazine," June 1874. Chiswick Press. 1874. p. 10.
  3. Various; Authors, Various (1839). "Iron Steamers.- The Rainbow". The Nautical Magazine and Naval Chronicle: 192. ISBN 9781108053938. Retrieved 2 March 2018.
  4. Pugsley, Alfred (1980). The Works of Isambard Kingdom Brunel: An Engineering Appreciation. Cambridge University Press. p. 138. ISBN 9780521232395.
  5. Smith, Edgar C. (1938). A Short History of Naval and Marine Engineering (2013 ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 100. ISBN 9781107672932.
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