GUION'S FOLLIES: S.S. MONTANA & S.S. DAKOTA

Nothing gets credit like success, but failure is sometimes the reward of as honest endeavours as any that ever were crowned with success, and the abandonment of a project, even after a mint of money has been spent upon it, is often, as we believe it has been in this case, decided by considerations altogether apart from the question of the probable ultimate success of the plan. It is with many a broken wave like this that the highest tides of engineering improvement have risen, and if we appreciate the lessons this gigantic experiment is calculated to teach us, the result will be real progress towards the solution of the practical problem of marine water-tube boiler reliability .

The Nautical Magazine.

The Guion Line, of all companies,  then thought  it  would try for the  trophy  and built the Montana and Dakota  specially for that purpose, the  strangest  and weirdest vessels  ever put on to the  Western Ocean. Everything  was novel about  their design, from the curious hull with  the big tumble-home like a French battleship to  machinery and watertube  boilers working one hundred pounds pressure, and everything went wrong with them. Record breakers they were not; they could not even keep the comfortable average of the company's ships, and  it  was perhaps a relief to everybody  concerned with  the  Dakota was wrecked in 1877 and the  Montana in 1880.

A Century of Atlantic Travel.

No ship is designed and built  for  failure,  most indeed  are gifted at inception and birth with the enterprise,  expertise and  engineering  prowess of their  owners,  naval architects  and shipwrights that imbue them, if  nothing else,  with their collective  efforts and  enthusiasm.  In conception,  Guion Line  (a  name  as forgotten now  as much  as these vessels) surely  did not  lack  for the latter quality for these were to be nothing less  than record breakers and compete  on that most  demanding  of all steamship routes,  The North  Atlantic Ferry, and in spirit  of  the Victorian Age, do so with innovation and daring new technology and methods.   Yet, these two ships were doubtless  the biggest  flops, failures and follies  ever to  cross the Atlantic, and when they  were at long last completed, fated in their short careers by mishaps and tempests aplenty and coming to what many characterised as merciful ends just miles from one another  in the space of three years.  

Discover,  then,  Guion's Follies:

s.s. Montana  & s.s. Dakota

n.b.:  The kind  reader, at the onset of this  monograph,  shall be  forewarned, with apologies, at the complete lack of photographs, portraits  and full plans of  this pair. Perhaps befitting  their  benighted qualities,  the author has  been unable  to source any as if they earned, at least, complete ignominy 145 year after their passing.   

Guion Line advertising  card, c. 1878. Credit:  eBay auction photo.

After making a great reputation for themselves in the steerage business, this company had decided to cut into the cabin trade, which was then covered almost entirely by the Cunard, White Star and Inman Lines, and in 1873 they built two ships that were intended to capture the Atlantic Blue Riband and give the company the advertisement necessary for their entry into the new sphere of operations. For this purpose the Dakota and Montana were built, by Palmers of Jarrow, after the designs of John Jordon, the company's superintendent engineer.

Shipbuilding  & Marine Engineering International, May  1927.

Time and again in the  history  of the sea, particularly  since the introduction of  the  steamship,  the  most hopeless failures  have  in the  long  run  led  to important developments  later, a truism  which is  of little comfort to those who  have  financed the innovations.

Marine  Engineer and Motorship  Builder,  1948.

Long in advance  of  J.P.  Morgan's IMM and Carnival Corporation,  the application of American enterprise and capital  towards achieving what had always proved elusive  under the Stars and Stripes-- commercial  success on the  Ocean Highway-- was the  Guion Line,"  once of the most  prominent and successful of  North Atlantic lines whose ships sailed under the Red Ensign,  built on the  Tyne and Clyde, manned by largely  British officers and  crews, but  the product of American inspiration  and investment.

There exists a sore feeling in the United States, expressed in  endless newspaper articles as well as numerous official documents, on the subject of the Transatlantic trade being carried on almost  entirely in ships under the British flag. It is continuously  asserted that national jealousy in this country is so great as to  allow no growth of American enterprise among us, and that  this is the main reason why, among others, such a well-founded  and in every respect admirable establishment as that of the  steamers of the Collins line came to grief. The short history  of the unfortunate Collins Company has already been given in these pages, conclusively showing that 'British jealousy' had  not only nothing to do with the failure of this enterprise, but that, on the contrary, it received every possible aid on this side of the Atlantic, such powerful shipowning firms as that of Mr. William Inman aiding it in the most friendly and disinterested manner. 

Another striking proof of the same friendly international feeling is furnished by the success of one of the best- established lines of American steamers trading between England and the United States. The 'Liverpool and Great Western Steamship Company (Limited),' generally known as the 'Guion Line' of Atlantic mail steamers, is a strictly American enterprise, in which Englishmen have no share whatever. 

The Railway  News, 17 January 1880.

The advent of the steamship and the American Civil War ended the brief but glorious era  of  American achievement on the ocean highway, written on the spread canvas of Yankee-built  "clippers" and wrought by  American seamanship and commercial  zeal.  Of human cargo, the immigrant trade was its  staple, indeed  it would remain so for the  North Atlantic Ferry for a century.  

Credit: The Evening Post 28 December 1842.

Credit: Liverpool Mercury  7 November 1845.

It was specifically  to cater  to the burgeoning  Irish immigration to  America that the firm of Williams &  Guion was started in 1842 by John Stanton Williams (1814-1876)  and Stephen Barker Guion (1820-1885) which acted as New York agents for American sailing packets  on the  Liverpool-Queenstown-New York run, and initially working in conjunction with the Liverpool firm of Fitz Hugh, Walker & Co..  The  first advertisement for  their services  appeared in The Evening Post, 28  December 1842 and by November 1845 the line was known as The Black Star Line, not  to be confused with  the company of the same name founded  in Marcus Garvey in 1919.  Stephen Guion moved  to Liverpool in late 1851 and set up Guion & Co. to act as the line's representative  there and Williams, joined by William Guion, headed the  New York office.   By this  time, Black Star Line owned no  fewer than 18 ships and carried as many as 1,000 emigrants to New York in a week in summer.  

Credit: Liverpool Mercury, 5 December 1851.

The outbreak of the American Civil War in 1862 had the immediate  effect of  substantially curtailing immigration to the  United  States whilst the present of  Confederate Navy raiders on the North Atlantic  further imperiled operations so  that in 1863 the  Black Star Line ended operations.  Ended, too, was the sailing ship as  the  chief carrier of immigrants which  had already  been on the wane with  the establishment  of  the Inman Line in 1850, the  first steamship  company  to specifically cater to the carriage of steerage passengers.

Not  missing  a beat, Guion & Co. were appointed passenger  agents, in the United States as well as Great  Britain  and  Ireland, in 1863 for  the newly formed National Line,  initially  appointed  by Fernie  Bros.  For their  brief  Liverpool-New York service which  was  absorbed  into National Line. National emulated  Inman in catering to the immigrant trade thus Guion's experience and market  presence in that sector was invaluable to  National  in their  formative years as well as giving Guion  and Williams grounding in  the operation of screw steamships.  Immigration boomed after the American Civil War ended in 1865  and indeed the year before when National in their first full year  of operation, landed 14,633 passengers at New York.   Guion & Co., were also appointed managers of Cunard Line's new immigrant business in  1863 as well, a testament to their longstanding expertise in the trade.

It was  this immigrant trade, one that in many  respects they had built up, that inspired Guion and Williams to finally  set up a line of their own in  September  1865 which was, like most steamship lines of  the day ponderously  titled "Liverpool & Great Western Steamship  Company Ltd." but  which  everyone  called "The Guion Line"  from the onset, although American newspapers favoured "William & Guion Line."  

Credit: Buffalo Courier, 9 December  1865.

Making no little plans, Guion ordered four 2,869-grt, iron screw steamers from  Palmer's Iron Shipbuilding  Co.,  Jarrow-on-Tyne.  In the interim, four of Allan Line's  steamers (readily available when the  St. Lawrence was closed to winter navigation) were  chartered to begin operations immediately: Moravian, St. Andrews, St. George  and St. David.  

Moravian (Capt. T. Alton) made the  first  Guion Line sailing  from Liverpool  at noon on 9 November  1865, calling at Queenstown on the 10th and arriving at New York  on the  22nd. She sailed  on her  return crossing on the  28th, the company leasing Pier 37 East River as their New York terminal with  passenger booking  office  at 29  Broadway. 

Guion's first newbuilding, Manhattan of 1866.  Credit: The Mariners' Museum. 

Designed by  John Jordan, Guion's  newly appointed superintending engineer, the first of new ships, Manhattan, was launched at Jarrow on 15 May  1866.  At  2,865 grt, and measuring 335 ft. by 42.5 ft., her single screw machinery gave  a 10-knot  speed and she  had berths for  72 saloon and 800  steerage passengers.  Sailing on her  maiden voyage from Liverpool on 8 August and Queenstown the  next day,  she  went out  with 700  passengers, including a record 400 immigrants embarked at Queenstown.  

Nevada of 1869.  Credit: The Mariners' Museum.

Chicago followed in December 1866, Minnesota  in April 1867 and Colorado in January 1868. Another ship, the  larger Nebraska  (3,985 grt, 367 ft. by 42 ft.) had evidently been bought  on the stocks at Jarrow. and entered service  in June  1867.  The  first setback occurred in January  1868 when Chicago was stranded off  Roche's Point  and although  all her people were  taken off,  she  was a total loss,  and by some fortune, the new Colorado entered service just two days  later.   The  addition of the new Nevada (3,121grt) and Idaho in 1869 permitted  weekly  sailings in  both  directions and  Guion's steamers averaged  a credible 12½ days  on their  westbound  passages.

This line was established in August, 1866. It was formerly the Black Star Line of packet ships, which were run from Liverpool to New York for twenty-four years, carrying some sixty thousand passengers yearly, and never losing a ship or a life by accident. From 1866, when the steamship line was established, up to 1873 the line ran six steamers, each making eight round trips per year, carrying, on an average, six hundred passengers to New York and one hundred from New York each trip, making seven hundred passengers per round trip, or a total per year of thirty three thousand six hundred, and a grand total of passengers carried between 1866 and 1873 of fully two hundred and fifty thousand. 

The United Service.

Passenger carryings for 1870 on the Liverpool-New York route are illustrative of  a very  different "pecking order" of lines than the presumed Cunard/White Star  predominance later in the  century:

voyages  saloon  steerage  total

Inman           68          3,635   40,465    44,100

National       56          2,442    33,494   35,936

Guion           55          1,155    27,454   28,569

Cunard         70          7,638    16,871   24,509

The entire character and quality  of the Atlantic  liner changed out  of all  recognition in the two decades from 1870  to 1890-- compound and then reciprocating machinery, iron to steel hulls, oil lamps and candles to electric light,  basic passenger accommodation not too distant from those of sailing ship days  to "floating hotel" if not palace amenities and ships doubled in size and passages reduced from  10 to  six.  

Lines which  resisted change like Cunard initially risked being left behind whilst  others than embraced  it or changed their original focus, initially  thrived but ultimately  failed when the sheer cost of "keeping up"  proved beyond their means. So it was with Inman, National and Guion lines which,  unlike Cunard, embraced the evolving technologies  and to pay  for  them, changed their focus to what  was seen as the more remunerative or at least more consistent  saloon trade.  It is often presumed that the  immigrant  traffic was both  steady and  ever  increasing in numbers when  c. 1870-1890, the very time of the  development  of marine technology,  it  was at best uneven and often depressed, totally at  the whim of the ups  and downs of  the American economy during  this  period, not  the last of which was a sustained  depression beginning in 1873 preceded by  a general fall  off in  trans-Atlantic trade since the beginning of  the decade.  

Wyoming of 1870 in the Mersey; she and Wisconsin were the first pair of sister ships on the North Atlantic designed and built with  compound machinery. Credit: The Mariners' Museum.

Despite  their immigrant oriented trade, Guion embraced the first  great innovation of the  age: the compound engine if  for its very  economy.  In 1870, their  3,238-grt Wisconsin  and  Wyoming became the first pair of sister ships designed and built with the new  machinery, and significantly, to a new space saving  design by John Jordan.  Making their maiden voyages in July and November, they commenced remarkably  successful  careers lasting more  than two decades.   But tellingly two more  of the  type, to be named California and Utah were cancelled as  competition heated up.

The Oceanics thrust all existing passenger tonnage into the  shade. New ideas gave  them a standard  of accommodation which  rivals  hastened to copy and the compound engine which halved  coal expenditure and increased  cargo capacity appeared in an express liner for the first time.

British Passenger Liners of  the Five Oceans.

Doubtless  the  most important ships  to  be  introduced  to the  Atlantic  Ferry  since  Cunard's  Britannia-class  invented  it in 1840, the new Oceanic-class of the  equally new  White  Star  Line came on the  scene  in 1871  in such decisive  and dramatic fashion as  to usher in a new  era.  Although  somewhat star-crossed  at  the onset, the  quartet's  revolutionary accommodation  more than their  doubtless  speed and compound  machinery,  demanded  a  reply  from most.   Cunard, curiously  demurred,  and even more astonishingly  the initial replies  came from a trio of lines that  had hitherto largely  ignored the  heated competition and headlines of the  express  saloon trade  of the New  York run. 

Inman 's City  of Brussels (1869/3,100  grt)  had  already  teased  a  new  era  for  the  company,  making  an eastbound  run of 7 days 22 hours 3 mins. That was the  first  time a screw  steamer had bested a paddle-driven one and in 1872 her accommodation was rebuilt along  the  lines  of the  White  Star  quartet. 

National's Spain  and Egypt of 1871, at 4,500-4,650-grt, 426 ft./440 ft. by 43 ft.,  were the briefly  the largest  liners  in the  world  outside  Great  Eastern at  their  introduction and capable of a good but not record breaking  turn of speed (Spain clocking 8 days 13 hours from Queenstown to New York  in 1871), had impressive profiles of two funnels and four masts, huge cargo capacity, but  their accommodation of 120  saloon and  1,400  steerage paled compared to the  White  Star  quartet.  They, more than any other ships, inspired Guion Line to  respond.  

In the  newly  evolving world of competition on the  North Atlantic, Guion's  entry into it was the most impressive in its aims,  unusual in its results and largely  the inspiration of  Stephen Guion who, having decided to  cast his net  into  the  demanding  waters of the  New  York  express  trade, also  cast aside caution in a way few shipowners had ever done. Whereas the  Inman and National ships had been faster than previous  fleetmates,  those conceived for Guion were to  directly  challenge  the  White  Star  ships for speed,  employing a  host  of new and novel features to do so  in  machinery, hull and model and give John Jordan a demanding brief and  a free hand to satisfy it  and task Palmers to build a pair of ships  unlike any yet seen on the  Atlantic. 

On 27 May  1871 it was reported  that "Palmer's Iron and Shipbuilding Company (Limited) are preparing to build two screw steamers for the Guion line, running between Liverpool and New York, which for size and power will far surpass any vessel yet erected on the Tyne. The screws will be each 400 ft. long, and the engines will be 900 horse power nominal. The Guion line of emigrant steamers boasts some of the finest ships that steam out of Liverpool, all of which have been turned out of the Jarrow yard." (Railway News).  The contract  was signed  at beginning of  June, "for building  two magnificent  ships  for the  Guion line, the largest ever built  on the Tyne." (Aris's Birmingham Gazette, 3 June).

In a rather wonderful  write-up of Guion Line's results for 1871, the Shields Daily  Gazette of 29 January 1872 dropped the  news that the  new  ships would be named Montarno (sic) and Dakota:

The New York Herald, in article on the Guion line, says although yet a young line the Atlantic Ocean trade, it has become a fixed institution, and deservedly so. It employed, during 1871, seven steamships—the Wyoming, 3,430 tons; Wisconsin, 3,220 tons; Colorado, 3,125 tons; Idaho, 3,132 tons; Minnesota, 2,965 tons; and Manhattan, 2,965 tons. These steamers are staunch, comfortable, and make their voyages with commendable regularity, Sixty-two trips ware made each way during 1871 with the United States mails, never once missing the appointed day of sailing during the whole time to or from Liverpool bringing to New York 1,544 cabin and 26,601 steerage passengers, and taking to Liverpool 1,421 cabin and 4,057 steerage passengers; the work of the twelve months in this respect footing up 33,623, without the loss of single passenger accident, a fact which speaks well for the cars and management exercised on board the steamers this line. The cargoes carried from New York, consisting of cotton, wheat, cotton, corn, provisions, etc., amounted to 103,380 tons, and from Liverpool New York 88,589 tons general merchandise. The Guion Company will, the course of the present year, add two more splendid new steamers—via., the Montarno and Dakota to its already fine fleet of steamers. These now vessels, which are rapidly approaching completion, will, far build and general equipment are concerned, be two of the fastest and most commodious and comfortable ocean-going passenger steamers afloat. 

Not atypical for the era, the  construction of  the  new  ships was accomplished  in obscurity with only  the occasional press mention even in Jarrow, including the reminders of the relative commonplace deaths and injuries suffered by shipyard workers then, well before  the concept of "health and safety":

On Friday night last, a young lad, named Thomas Frazer, a rivet-heater in Messrs. Palmer and Co.'s shipbuilding yard, was taken to the Jarrow Memorial Hospital in a serious condition. It appears that he was employed in the hold of one of the Guion steamers, now being erected, and by some means he fell from the/staging between decks to the bottom of the hold, a distance of 33 feet. Drs. Wilson and Huntley attended to the unfortunate youth, but he expired about five o'clock next morning.—An inquest was held upon the body on Monday, and a verdict of 'Accidental death' was returned.

Jarrow Guardian and Tyneside  Reporter, 14 December 1872.

One of the most magnificent sights ever seen on the Tyne in the way of launches was witnessed on Thursday afternoon, when the magnificent screw-steamer Montana, the  largest merchant ship ever built on the Tyne, was launched from the building yard of Messrs. C. M. Palmer and Co. (Limited), Jarrow. 

The Montana has been built for the Messrs. Guion, of the Western Steam Shipping Company. She is 400 feet in length at her load line, has upwards of 43 feet of beam, and her depth from hurricane deck to keelson is 51 feet. She is fitted up with four decks, all of iron, two of  which are intended for passenger accommodation. Her engines, which have been made by Messrs. Palmer, are of 900 nominal horse-power, and her boilers are made upon an entirely new principle. The Montana is intended to ply between New York and Liverpool with goods and passengers. 

Owing to the publicity given to the intended launch several thousands of persons availed themselves of the opportunity of witnessing such a fine sight. The christening was gracefully performed by Mrs. J. Heron Maxwell, and immediately afterwards the ponderous vessel slid from the ways with as ease and grace as if it had been a child's toy. Six monster anchors, with chains of the strongest make, were required to 'fetch' the ship up, and prevent her sunning across the river. Tremendous cheers greeted the noble vessel as she settled herself in her future element. The launch was a very great success, and reflected the greatest credit on Mr. Ekieidge and his assistants. The Montana is a vessel of 4,000 tons measurement. 

Jarrow Guardian and Tyneside Reporter, 16 November 1872.

It was  reported on 31 May 1873 that the sister ship to Montana would  be launched  on  12 June  and  preceded  by her departure for Liverpool on the 4th.  Initial engine  trials  had been performed the  third week of May, "with most  satisfactory  results. Such  is the power of  the  engines  and screw,  that  the  river vibrated right across to Howdon as  the monster ships struggled and strained at her moorings at  the  jetty." (Jarrow  Guardian and Tyneside Reporter, 31 May). 

Mid June  1873 proved busy and memorable for Jarrow with  the  departure  on the 11th  of  Montana on her  trials and the launch,  the  following afternoon  of  Dakota. 

On Wednesday afternoon, the fine large and powerful ss. Montana, built by Messrs. C. M. Palmer and Co., Jarrow, for the Liverpool and Great Western Steam Ship Company, was taken out to sea from the Tyne for her trial trip. The Montana is by far the most powerful screw steamer built on the Tyne, her engines being nearly 1,000 h.p. The vessel was built from the designs of Mr. J. Jordan, superintendent of the Messrs. Guion line of steamers, and in the whole of the arrangements Mr. Jordan has endeavoured to secure great stability, carrying capacity, and speed, and the result of the initial trip on Wednesday showed that the designer and constructors had not failed in their endeavours. 

The trial consisted of  a run to the sea during which  the engines worked with the utmost smoothness, and  the vessel was 'as steady  as a rock."

Jarrow Guardian and Tyneside Reporter, 14 June 1873.

Among those aboard  for  the trials were Mr. Stephen Guion, Mr. J. Jordan, Mr. Nelsh (chief engineer superintendent for Palmers), "all of whom were exceedingly  satisfied with the results of  the run." 

Yesterday (Thursday) afternoon, there was launched from the building yard of Messrs. C. M. Palmer and Co., the second of the large steamers built by that firm for the Guion Company. A description of her mister ship, the Montana, which left the Tyne on the previous day for Liverpool, will found in another column. An immense concourse of spectators assembled on every available spot on side of the river, to see the monster vessel glide into her future element; not only so, but there being rather a great many ships moving up and down the river, and were obliged to bring too in order to let the great ship enjoy her maiden plunge in safety. Just before the ship began to shiver on the 'ways,' she was christened the 'Dakota' by Mrs. Barnes, wife of the secretary of Messrs Palmer's Co. The most intense excitement prevailed amongst the spectators as the giant ship slid from the ways, and as she settled in the water and showed her large and fine proportions, cheers of the most hearty description retie on every side. The launch was in every sense successful, and reflected great credit on Mr Wilson, the newly appointed shipyard manager. 

Jarrow Guardian and Tyneside Reporter, 14 June 1873.

Montana and her sister should  have  been faster  counterparts of  the  National  Spain  and Egypt, but proved ghastly  failures. Everything  about  them was novel,  and it is often claimed they  were  designed as  record-breakers,  though  expectations probably  centred on very  low fuel consumption and  a steady 13½ knots.  A ratio of  9⅓  beams to length and selection of the Palmer yard as buildings hardly  suggest intention that  Montana and Dakota should challenge the  White Star  and Inman 'greyhounds. Engines  were  a new type of compound,  lightly built and very complicated. The  water-tube boilers, the first of  their kind put into any large ship,  worked at 100-lb pressure which  was 35 more than the previous maximum. Hulls  had  an 8-foot tumblehome after the fashion of French battleships  of the period.

British Passenger Liners  of  the Five  Oceans.

The whole of the designing for the hull, for the engines, and for the boilers has been in the hands of John Jordan, Esq., the company's able superintendent engineer, who is well known as having been the first chief surveyor of the Liverpool Registry of Iron Vessels, and from his connexion with several other successful marine engineering enterprises.

The  Nautical Magazine.

Few ships  tested new ideas and concepts more that Montana and Dakota, but their conception was  neither  reckless  or  ill-conceived in many  respects and as such, firmly  in the spirit of  technical innovation backed by  private capital that defined The Victorian Age that created the modern world. Indeed, many  of their  notable innovations, including watertube  boilers, and hull design,  were soon proved in many succeeding vessels.  Had these engineering marvels been successfully accomplished in  Montana and  Dakota,  these ships  would be held  as exemplars of the best in  Victorian engineering  and  marine architecture and the name of John Jordan, Stephen Guion and Palmers elevated to  the pantheon of steamship  design  and construction.   

Instead,  as rare failures in Victorian enterprise,  they  were  quickly  consigned  to the  almost shameful anonymity that age  afforded such follies.  Indeed, it is remarkable that  no photographs or paintings of these  vessels, other  than tellingly  of Dakota's demise,  appear  to have published  or  extent  today, even in contemporary  journals, almost as if pretending they  never existed or not  worthy  of  being recalled. 

On the commencement of the Guion Line, the charge of the engine department was placed under the superintendence of Mr. Jordan, who was responsible for the vessels during construction until after the building of the Montana and Dakota. He continued in the position until the year 1876, when he resigned, and was succeeded by the present superintendent, Mr. J. G. Hughes, since when the noted vessels Arizona, Alaska, and Oregon have been added to the fleet.

The Atlantic Ferry: Its Ships, Men, and Working.

It  was to  overcome this  handicap  that  the Guion Company, in 1872,  instructed their  Superintendent  Engineer, Mr.  John Jordan, to design, and Palmers to build the quaintest freaks which  ever  ran on the regular Atlantic Service.

The Nautical Magazine.

Montana and Dakota  were, like all of Guion's  ships  to date, designed  by John Jordan,  the company's  superintendent engineer, in cooperation with  Palmer's  own naval architects.  Palmer's Iron Shipbuilders and Guion's Superintending Engineer John Jordan (who held the position from  the onset of the company,  beginning  with Manhattan in 1866) had formed a worthy and capable team and  despite Guion's low profile immigrant  trade,  their  ships could hold their  own with  the  best specimens of British  naval architecture and marine engineering of the  period.  

Jordan set about his task with  relish but adopted more new  ideas than, in retrospect,  was prudent.

The Power of  the  Great Liners.

Having set out  to capture  their  fair  share  of  the  high paying saloon trade on the  New York run, the single most  competitive of all steamship routes,  Guion handed John Jordan and Palmer's a specification  that  was  as  daunting as  it  was daring: two 4,300-ton ships measuring 400 ft. by 43 ft. (largely  constrained by existing lock dimensions  in Liverpool docks) capable of  a sustained 17-knot  speed  when the average on the route was 14.5  knots and indeed comparable to  Wyoming  and Wisconsin.   

In Guion's quest for  records,  it  should  noted  that  in 1872 the westbound record was  held by  Adriatic which set  a 7-day  23-hour 17-min. mark at average  14.41 knots and  Baltic claiming the eastbound record of  7 days 20 hours 9 mins. at 15.12 knots. This compared to Guion's Wyoming's best westbound performance  of 9 days 17 hours  32 mins. and eastbound  of  8 days 7 hours 30 mins. So clearly an entirely  new class  of vessel, machinery and  performance was  required  to  even attempt to compete for records.  Montana and Dakota were intended  to be just  that. 

Measuring 4,321 tons (gross) and 2,578 tons (nett), (Montana) and 4,332 tons (gross), 2,482 tons (nett) (Dakota)   and with  principal dimensions of 400.5 ft. (length b.p.) and 43.7  ft. (beam), these were substantial vessels for their  time although considering the years it  took to  them to actually enter  service, their  distinction as to  relative  size diminished   with time. At  launching, Montana was  the fourth largest liner behind Nationals Egypt and Spain and Inman's City of Montreal. By the time Dakota was launched she was sixth largest, behind the recently  completed Inman Line's  City of Chester and City  of Richmond and  she  was the largest ship sent down the ways  from a Tyneside  yard save Whampoa.   Each ship had  four  complete decks, all of iron construction,  two of which had passenger accommodation and it was 51 ft.  from keel to hurricane deck.  

We have said that the construction, the modelling, of this vessel is peculiar. It is so in every respect. Except the Dakota there is no other Atlantic-going mail steamer afloat like her. The first thing which the observer on looking at her from the outside is not the want of any fineness of lines or mould, but the presence of a peculiar carvel built bilge, denoting at once great power of buoyancy. This extends almost the whole length of the ship, at least as far forward and as far aft as to where the lines are gracefully drawn in at the stern and bow respectively, the latter being long and hollow, and constructed in such a manner as to be capable of easily throwing the water off instead of allowing it to come on deck.

Liverpool Journal  of Commerce, 28 September 1875.

The most remarkable aspect of the  ships' appearance was the  pronounced  "tumblehome"of  their hulls, the maximum beam at the  waterline  being a full eight-feet greater  than  at hurricane deck level. This  facilitated the  unique siting and arrangement of their  watertube boilers and  side coal bunkers as well as placing the  machinery  and boilers  as  deep in the  hulls as possible, both  for stability  and more space  topside, although  that was surely  mitigated by their  quite narrow  dimensions on the upper two passenger  decks.  To give a  smooth underwater surface to lessen water resistance, the hull plating was made flush in carvel fashion.  

She is clinker built, her sides being smooth, to offer the least resistance to the water, Her model, designed by Mr. Stephen B. Guion, the managing director of the line and the superintendent engineer, is peculiar in the formation of her ends and her sides, she having long, hollow bow, intended to throw the water off instead of allowing it to come aboard the ship, while the sides are, as nautical men term it, 'tumble home sides,' having a 'fall  in' of seven feet on each side from the turn of  the bilge;  this formation is  calculated to combine great strength with safety. 

New York Daily Herald, 18 July  1875.

Then, too, their bows were of a whole  new design  and configuration being  long and "hollow" (concave) in profile with the idea of  flinging the  water away  from the  bows rather than  letting it wash over the  decks which  was  the  prevailing custom which employed  "turtlebacks" forward to  allow this.  Here, too,  the choice was influenced  by  the  decision to site the cabin accommodation and saloon forward where it was obviously desirable to keep it as dry as possible  in bad weather. In practice, however, the bows were too  low and the higher main deck  extended forward so  that it wound up  being a breakwater for any shipped seas,  causing, if  anything, a wetter forepart in head seas. 

On going on board the Montana, however, the appearance between her and other ocean-going steamers becomes at once apparent. The deck you walk on is iron, the seats are iron, the hand rails iron, the wheel-house iron; in fact iron is predominant, and it is only where wood was indispensable that it has been brought into requisition. 

The Montana, besides carrying the ordinary life-saving apparatus, has eight large and commodious lifeboats on the 'hurricane deck, each of which is fully equipped with oars, sails, etc., ready for being put overboard in a few minutes in case of emergency. The Montana  is also, we may just state, different to other ships—being constructed with watertight bulkheads from main deck to keel. 

Liverpool Journal  of Commerce, 28 September 1875.

These were the first ships  actually  designed to  mitigate  the  risk  of  fire  at sea  by supplanting wood, wherever possible,  by iron. The whole of the  superstructure,  decks, masts and even  deck furniture was made of iron.  

Cross section through engine  room. Credit: The Atlantic Ferry.

Of all their unique  features, Montana and Dakota's machinery aroused the most interest and created  the most problems. For  the  new ships, John returned to  the "hybrid"  arrangement of compound engines, this  time employing three not  two cylinders to produce  the  substantially  increased horsepower (900 n.h.p.) the  designed  speed demanded. 

The compound engines were of  similar form  to those  of Wyoming and Wisconsin, but  had three  cylinders and two cranks.  The 60 in  diameter vertical HP cylinder connected to the forward crank,  and also operated the pumps by  means  of crosshead driven levers. Two LP cylinders of  113 in diameter were place horizontally and both  connected  to  the after crank. A stroke of  42 in.  applied to all cylinders. In order to negotiate lock gates the beam was set at 43 ft. causing problems in the fitting of  two  such  horizontal cylinders. The  solution adopted was to connect both  cylinders by  means of two  piston  rods, one above  and one below the crankshaft. Such  an arrangement  saved space compared with two crossheads and connecting rods,  but there  were still limits on available room and the  engine was  a tight  fit. In fact the crankshaft had to be placed slightly starboard of the ship's centre  line. Whether the  propellers  was, therefore,  off-centre or the  shafting was aligned to  connect to  a centrally positioned  propeller is  unknown.

Corliss valves, which  had performed successfully aboard the earlier  vessels, were  again adopted, but trouble was  experienced due  to  the bending of  the valve rods during  the  delivery voyage of  Dakota. The valve  rods on both ships were made  more substantial, but neither set of engines  really  lived up to expectation and  the  design speed  could never  be achieved.  

The Power of the  Great Liners.

... the whole arrangement was exceedingly complicated and inaccessible.

Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, May 1927.

Engine room layout. Credit: The Atlantic Ferry.

Engine room side  elevation. Credit: The  Atlantic  Ferry.

Too complicated by half, too lightly  built  and crammed into too small a space, Montana and Dakota's  engines  caused  as  much  problems as their boilers,  each having  breakdowns on their  maiden and delivery voyages respectfully  and Montana suffering a broken crank  in 1878. 

Yet, Montana  and Dakota's most innovative (and most conspicuous failure) were  their radical  watertube boilers.   Here Jordan, in quest of the  required horsepower to produce 17  knots yet achieve  some  measure of fuel economy, set upon the largely untried high  pressure (100 psi vs. the  prevailing 70-75 psi) watertube boiler and did so against the strenuous advice of Palmers.  Indeed, so new  was this technology that Montana was the first major passenger liner so  fitted.  Moreover, these were constructed of  iron  and owing  to the  limits  on the  thickness  of iron  boiler plating (that in Wyoming and Wisconsin was some 1¼ inches thick!) even with 70 psi, these had  to  be  made in smaller diameter and  consequently  more of  them (10 in all) had to be installed, all in  the confines of  a 80 ft. by  43 ft. boiler room. 

Cross section of hull (left) showing the unique tumblehome and side bunkers, (centre)  front of watertube boilers and (right) side cross-section showing tubes. Credit: The  Engineer.

Boiler design of that  form was in its infancy and  many  practical difficulties existed.  Each ship was  to have ten boilers arranged back-to-back in two rows  of  five. Stokeholds were in the wings running the whole length of the 80  ft. boiler room. There was no dividing  wall between the  two  rows of  boilers, the flame space being common to each back-to-back pair, providing what would be classed as double ended boilers. A single uptake some 80 ft. long extended the whole  length of  the  boiler  room  and led to a single oval funnel.

A total of 35 tubes 15 in. Long and 15 in diameter was fitted  in each boiler, the tubes being in five rows with  an inclination of 9 in.  Vertical tubes connected the main tubes at their ends, allowing for water  circulation  and for steam to rise  to  the steam space in the  top row. The  two  vertical sections nearest the boiler  front  were set apart  for feed heating, cold feed entering at the top  with  warm feed passing to the main tube  system at the bottom. At least that was the intention, but  reality  proved different. Three steam superheating drums 3 ft. diameter  and 30 ft. long were positioned in the  uptakes, two horizontally and one vertically. 

The Power of the Great Liners.

Cross-section of boiler room and watertube  boilers. Credit: Engineering. 

The nature of the  failure  of  Montana's watertube boilers was the object of much  discussion in the  engineering journals of the day, the  general consensus being that  the  deficiencies were in  relative  minor  aspects and could  have  been  rectified  with  a longer and more substantial trials  period.

Without waiting for reports from those who had observed  the trials, the owners of Montana decided  that  the boilers, and those of  Dakota under  construction, had  to be replaced. The total cost exceeded 60,000, but the loss of  earnings  and  prestige  must have been greater. Failures  during  the  delivery  voyage related to steam being  generated in the feed heating tubes, this  forcing out water from those and some other tubes. These  overheated, resulting in  failure. Subsequent tube failure  during the  trials related to problems of even  feed water supply throughout  the  tube  system. Had  the boilers been thoroughly tried  before  they were in Montana the  problems might have been solved but  the  Atlantic  'Blue Riband' waits  for no shipowner and that factor  seems to have outweighed other  considerations.  Novelty deserves a try but John Jordan seems  to have tried too hard, or maybe he  was  pressed too hard.

Power of  the  Great  Liners.

Indeed, the cause of the watertube  boiler was  enormously  set back  by the Montana's boldness which was, in the  wake of immediate failure,  met by a quick  decision to abandon  the system entirely, which had its basis  in the practical considerations of  owners and shipyard to  get the ship delivered and into service. In  the end, it was decided  to  rip out the  watertube boilers of both Montana and Dakota  (hers having been installed prior to launching)  and replace them with  conventional boilers. 

A very able article, from which some of the particulars given above have been drawn, appeared in the Nautical Magazine on the subject of the Montana's boilers, and it is there suggested that the cause of the explosion of the inner tube on the bottom row was the absence of a sufficiently large steam connection between the top or steam- holding chambers to counteract the inequality of pressure in them  It will be noted that the feed-pipes for all the sections are common to one feed water chamber; and, supposing any inequality of steam pressure to exist, the water would of course be forced from the chamber containing the highest pressure to those containing a lower pressure. The steam pipes connecting the upper chambers were 2 inches diameter, and the area of the fire-grate under each section was about 7 square feet. A very simple calculation shows that these 2-inch pipes were very small if any large difference in pressure were to be equalised. 

Another explanation, and one which appears quite reasonable, was advanced by Mr. John Watt; he calculates that the grate surface assumption that the steam would drag the water upwards from the bottom tubes , leaving them exposed to the fire, does not seem exaggerated. 

Whichever of these explanations be correct  it is evident, in the light of the experience now gained, that the failure of these tubes in the Montana's boilers proceeded from easily preventable causes, because in a future design the feed water arrangement could be omitted , and the steam connections to equalise the pressure in the different sections could be enlarged; the vertical necks for the escape of the steam could be much increased in area; and it is possible that if these alterations had been effected upon the Montana, a result very nearly approaching success would have been obtained. Indeed it was most unfortunate in the interests of science that no further experiments were made with this vessel; she was condemned after a series of trials extending altogether over not more than five or six days.

Whichever of these explanations be correct, it is evident, in the light of the experience now gained, that the failure of these tubes in the Montana's boilers proceeded from easily preventable causes, because in a future design the feed-water arrangement could be omitted, and the steam connections to equalise the pressure in the different sections could be enlarged; the vertical necks for the escape of the steam could be much increased in area ; and it is possible that if these alterations had been effected upon the Montana, a result very nearly approaching success would have been obtained. Indeed it was most unfortunate in the interests of science that no further experiments were made with this vessel; she was condemned after a series of trials extending altogether over not more than five or six days.

Transactions of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects v. 17 1876

As reboilered with conventional  boilers,  Montana and  Dakota's steam plant comprised six boilers, working at 80 p.s.i., heated by thirty-six furnaces.  

As showing some idea of the ponderousness of the Montana's machinery, we may state that the diameter of her shaft is 23 inches, and with the screw making 60 revolutions in a minute, it is computed that she can make 16 knots an hour, as with an average of 50 revolutions, and her engines working at three-quarter speed, she attained a speed of 14 to 15 knots an hour. 

The funnel, or "smoke stack," which is 50 feet high. and 15 feet oblong, is another ponderous piece of workmanship. The sheet iron used in its construction weighed between 2.5 and 3 tons, and a medium-sized horse and cart could be driven through it were it in a horizontal position.

The rig of the Montana is that of a brig, and though her masts—which are entirely of iron appear rather stunted, they are capable of spreading more canvas in the shape of square sails, jibs, and staysails, than any full-rigged ship. 

Liverpool Journal  of Commerce, 28 September 1875.

Credit: eBay  auction photo.

The accommodation of these ships was originally  mooted to  have as many  as 200  saloon, 200 second cabin (an innovation for Guion Line) and 1,200 steerage passengers.   As completed, Montana had  accommodation for  approximately 72 saloon, 108 second cabin and 1,200 steerage  passengers but when  finally in service, this  was  cited was 64 saloon, 68 second and 1,200 steerage.  Dakota being listed as  having 60  saloon, 90 second cabin and 900 third.  So rather  than make a real impact on Guion's saloon carryings, they  in fact  had  no appreciably greater accommodation in this  class than Wisconsin and  Wyoming (listed as 76 saloon, 100 second cabin and 800 steerage)  and indeed, respective  to  their size, had  a very  small passenger capacity and given the market conditions  prevailing on the  North Atlantic during  their  short careers,  seldom, if ever, came close  to  sailing at  capacity in  any event. 

The design of the Montana was an entirely new one, differing in essential features from nearly all other Atlantic steamers. In the Montana the old fashion of having the saloons and best cabins placed in the stern of the ship-adopted somewhat blindly after the example of the Royal Navy, where it has a good reason to exist-was set aside, and the abode of the first-class passengers was made amidships, where, as is well known, the rolling and pitching of the vessel is felt less than in any other part. This necessitated, of course, a rearrangement of the space allotted for the engines, which was most successfully accomplished, the lowering of the heavy machinery of propulsion contributing to the steadiness of the ship. 

The Railway  News, 17 January 1880. 

One of these ships' many  innovations was the decision to site the saloon and accommodation well  forward  of midships, the idea being to  isolate it from the noise, heat  and vibration of  the machinery whilst still affording  the full width  of  the hull for the dining  saloon with cabins right forward of it.  This was on Upper Deck and the  house extended  forward quite  a bit to  accommodate  this with the smoking room and music room  situated in their own houses on Hurricane Deck which  was otherwise  uncovered and  acted  as  the main  promenade  deck. 

The hurricane deck extends 300 feet on top of the upper deck, that is to each end, as far as to where it terminates by the formation of the spaces at the bow and stern. On this deck there are four large powerful patent steam winches, made by Messrs. R. Daglish, of St. Helen's, Lancashire, which is used in working the ship, discharging and loading cargo, and being otherwise utilised so as to save a large amount of manual labour. The hurricane deck in fine weather affords a splendid promenade for the passengers, there being a clear and uninterrupted space on both sides. From this deck the staterooms and the intermediate and steerage passengers' apartments are approached. 

Liverpool Journal  of Commerce, 28 September 1875.

Easily accommodating the reduced number of saloon passengers  in one sitting, the 100-seat dining saloon on Upper  Deck was, as per  the custom of the  era, also the principal day lounge and also fitted with  bookcases to  serve as the library, as well as being provided  with  a  piano.  "The ceiling of the saloon is a pure white with a gold bordering; the panelling of the sides of the cabin being also white with gold 'pointings.' The couches and cushions are covered with scarlet velvet, and are such as the most fastidious lounger desire, while the presence of a well-fitted plate chest, supplied by Messrs. Elkington and Co., is a sufficient guarantee that the epicurian has been considered." 

In connection with the cabin accommodation it is only necessary to say that everything is luxurious and comfortable, and nothing which forethought and liberality could do have been left undone or neglected. 

Liverpool Journal  of Commerce, 28 September 1875.

In saloon class, there  were just 14 outside staterooms and 16 inside  staterooms  and two special  staterooms, each with  two berths  each, settee  and washstand.  "The sleeping apartments of the cabin passengers are forward of the dining saloon, and are shaped and upholstered with exquisite taste. The sleeping berths are fitted up with marble wash basins, etc.; the berths are in tiers of two and three, whilst there is a neat couch on one side of the room. " (Liverpool Journal  of Commerce, 28 September 1875).

The intermediate passengers apartments—dining saloon and sleeping berths—occupy the after part of the ship, and for taste and comfort compare favourably with those on board any other American mail steamer. 

The accommodation for the steerage passengers 'tween decks is lofty and well ventilated—in fact, throughout the entire ship ventilation has been most honestly and scrupulously attended to. 

The officers' rooms are amidships, and in close proximity to the Bridges, whilst the crew, firemen, and coal trimmers are located aft. The ice-house, which is situated in the after part of the ship, is capable of containing sufficient supplies of fresh provisions for from 1,200 to 1,400 people for 21 days, totally Irrespective of salt and preserved stores. Of course, in order to supply the menu for the passengers and crew, there are galleys, bakehouses, butcher's shop, a vegetable store, indeed everything 111 on board that should be on any well-appointed mail steamer —that is, the culinary arrangements on the Montana are as complete as those of any first-class hotel. 

In connection with the accommodation for passengers, we may state that the Montana has ample space for 80 cabin, 120 second cabin, and 1,400 steerage passengers.

The saloon is situated forward of the funnel, and is sumptuously fitted. She can accommodate 72 saloon passengers, 108 in the second and 1,200 steerage passengers, and all the modern improvements have been adopted for their comfort.

New York Daily Herald, 18 July  1875.

Reboilered, the Montana and Dakota commenced Atlantic service in 1875, but neither came anywhere to accomplishing the expected 17 knots. Jordan's innovation design but there were no prizes for just  trying, competition on the  Atlantic was too severe. It  was probably  a relief to the Guion Line  when Dakota was wrecked off  Anglesey  in 1877 and her sister near  the same spot three  years later. 

Power of the Great Liners.

1873

The successful launching of Montana and  Dakota proved  rather uniquely to be the last trouble free aspect of their  entire and short  lives, both their completion and subsequent  careers  proving  as  challenging as  any  in the history  of  steam navigation. And, unlike many fated ships, their  very  innovation  aroused more  than the usual interest, both among the public  and within  shipping  and marine  engineering  circles so  that  their  failings were even more noteworthy.  

Here, it should be noted at  the onset  of  the story  of Montana and  Dakota  that the  Victorian Age  that produced them was not used  to failure yet at the  same time  did not  dwell on it,  either.  Today, when the popular  press delights in  the failings  and foibles  of  human  endeavour,  that of  the  Victorian England did  not,  hence much of  the subsequent story  of  these  ships' vicissitudes  was not widely covered except in trade  journals.  So that  during their  ensuing and quite remarkable two years between launching  and final entrance into service, they  largely  disappeared from  sight in terms of  public awareness.   

The Montana was the first ship to be completed with this novel machinery equipment, and was to be tried on the passage round from the Tyne to Liverpool. Thirteen hours out she began to blow out boiler tubes, injuring firemen and causing something like a panic on board. Before she had been at sea 38 hours five of her ten boilers were out of action, and it was decided to put into Portsmouth for temporary repairs. Finally, she made Liverpool, but the Board of Trade refused to give her a passenger certificate at Newcastle, and at Liverpool they insisted on a six-day trial before they would pass her. She was tried in a gale, when she certainly had an opportunity of proving herself a fine seaboat, but once again the tubes began to blow out in several of her boilers, and it was wisely decided to remove these boilers and substitute ordinary cylindrical steam generators. The Dakota thus never actually put to sea with her water-tube boilers.

Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering International, May 1927.

Completed in June 1873 and under Capt. James Price, Montana's trials appear to have been successfully run on the 11th although details were few and all trials back  then were usually  described as "successful," an adjective  that perhaps was last employed in her case as well!  Nonetheless,  the engines  performed  adequately,  as noted  by  the Nautical Magazine of 1873: "The engines in the Montana acted very well, and, considering the pressure carried, drove the vessel at a great speed." In reality, a speed of approximately 15 knots was achieved, hardly the stuff  of records. Successful  enough that  she  was duly  dispatched from the Tyne on 11 June on her delivery voyage  to Liverpool. Her subsequent voyage and ensuing further trials  were the object of  a meticulous  accounting published in the same publication: 

On the 11th June, at 5.30 p.m., the Montana left Tynemouth, for Liverpool. As this was the first trial under way, it was arranged that the engines should not be worked at more than 44 revolutions until the morning. 

At 6.30 a.m., on the 12th, that is, after being under way, but not at full speed, for only thirteen hours, the lower tube in the five-tube section of one of the feedheaters burst, scalding one fireman, and frightening all the others . The rupture was longitudinal, and extended more than 2 ft. in length, and the plate at one side opened out, but fortunately with the lips of the opening directed towards the uptake.

At 3 p.m., on the same day, another tube gave out in a similar portion, in another boiler, but with the crack athwart the tube.

At 5.30 p.m., got under way again, with steam at 50 lbs., and the engines making 40 revolutions, the two boilers shut off , and keeping the fires well away from the feedheater tubes .

At 8 p.m., had shut off the damaged sections of the two boilers, and had got steam up in these boilers.

At 10.20 p.m., a third tube gave out, cracked across.

At 10.30 p.m., a fourth tube gave out, cracked across.

June 13th, 7.30 a.m., a fifth tube gave out, cracked across.

The vessel had been now only thirty-eight hours under way, and five of the ten boilers had given out , all at the same place, viz., the lower tube of the five-tube feedheater section, and the failure of the others was expected, it was decided to make for Portsmouth, after having shut off the damaged row of tubes in these five boilers . Arrived at Portsmouth at 5 p.m., on the 13th .

At Portsmouth the damaged tubes were repaired, and the five-tube feedheater sections was connected to the boiler proper, leaving only one section, viz ., that with three tubes as feedheater.

Left Portsmouth at 7.30 p.m., on the 18th, and arrived off the Mersey on the 20th , at 2.20 p.m.

From Portsmouth to Liverpool everything seemed to work satisfactorily, and although the trial was but a short one, some who had entertained doubts as to the success of the plan were beginning to have more confidence in it, and all that was wanted now was a lengthened trial, such as a run to New York and back, to establish the reliability of the boilers .

At Liverpool, the boilers were thoroughly examined, the manhole doors being all removed . It was found that all except the lowest row of tubes were perfectly clean inside. The tubes rest upon four brick walls, containing the cast-iron framing, which divide each boiler into four furnaces, and over each of these walls in the bottom tubes there was a deposit of dirt, rust, waste, and such scraps incident to new boilers. These were thoroughly cleaned before getting up steam again.

On the 26th August the Montana left Liverpool, at 1.15 p.m., to have a six days' trial  under steam, for the satisfaction of the Board of Trade, whose surveyor at Newcastle, Mr. Parker, had refused a passenger certificate for the vessel until a proper trial of the boilers at sea had been made. Mr. Parker came round with the steamer from Newcastle, and accompanied her again on her final trip. Captain Grant , R.N., from the Admiralty , and Captain Forster, R.N., chief emigration officer at London, went on the trial, to report on the performance of the vessel, and Mr. Brooker, chief engineer, from the Admiralty, and Mr. Carlisle, another Board of Trade surveyor, also went officially, to report on the performance of the engines and boilers .

Our readers will perhaps remember that we had a severe gale on the 27th and 28th. The Montana was in the worst of it, about 200 miles west of the Fastnett, and behaved admirably as a sea boat.

The boilers went on all well until at 3 a.m., on the 28th , the bottom tube, fourth from the front in one of the boilers, cracked in the same manner as those in the feedheater section had done in the previous trial. The crack went round the tube at what was supposed to be the weld. The weather was so bad, and the tubes so unreliable, that it was determined by Mr. Jordan to put the vessel about at daylight, and return to Liverpool, he having then decided that the boilers would not do. The vessel had been out only thirty-eight hours, the same length of time that elapsed before deciding to run for Portsmouth on the first trial.

The vessel arrived in the Mersey on the 29th, at 2 p.m. The same night, while the vessel was lying at anchor, another tube cracked, this time longitudinally, as the first one on the former trial had done. All the others having cracked athwart the tube where the weld had been, the tubes being made in two lengths, and welded together in the centre. The owners of the Montana, without waiting for the reports of the officers who had gone on the trial, decided to remove the boilers, and to replace them by common cylindrical boilers. They at the same time decided to treat the sister ship, the Dakota, in the same way, although the water-tube boilers had been made for her also, to condemn them without a trial.

It  was widely  cited in engineering  journals and indeed  in the  above  article in The  Nautical Magazine that the  boilers were not inherently defective  in design or  construction but rather in specifics in their  feed system and could have  likely  been made right.  For the proponents  of the watertube  boiler, Montana  represented two  setbacks--  both  the initial failing and the natural hasty decision,  bordering  on  panic,  by their originators to "throw in the towel"  after two  disappointing, if brief (totalling but 72  hours  of  underway  steaming) trials.    In any event,  few large ships  had failed  so  utterly  on their  trials as did  Montana, setting up an ensuing  career that  seemed just as  star-crossed. 

In the meantime, Montana  was a disappointment  and  embarrassment to her  owners and builders. The  Nautical Magazine  even feeling  obliged to  write: "It may be necessary here to state that Messrs. Palmer and Co. were merely the contractors for this work , and that , from the first , they gave all the opposition they could to the adoption of the design , and that they have no claim to any merit there may be in the invention , and that they are in no way responsible for the result."  Indeed, the vessel  rather disappeared from all mentions in the  general press while  she was  put right. 

Even on returning from her trials on 29 August 1873, Montana managed to ram her stem into the south end of Prince's Landing Stage, "doing considerable damage,  no. 1 bridge being displaced. The steamer was supposed not to have  sustained any  damage." (Liverpool Journal of Commerce, 30 August ).  By  3 September  she  was safely  berthed  across the river  at Birkenhead's East Float dock, but  shifted  to  West Float  by  the end of the month and by the  end of November,  back at East Float and ended the year in West Float.   Designed and built to be  a recordbreaking liner,  Montana had  been reduced  to  being shifted from one empty  berth  to another  in  the dreary  confines of  Birkenhead docks. 

1874

Montana's ensuing reboilering  and  other  alterations  were  accomplished  in  obscurity within the  confines  of Birkenhead and Liverpool  docks and  she spent  half the year being shunted from one berth  in one dock  or another. By 5 January 1874 she was reported to  be at East  Float, Birkenhead,  and by the month's end back at  West Float.  In early February  Montana  was towed across the Mersey  to  Sandton Dock.  She  shifted  there on 23 March  to dry dock and then shifted to  berth  in Huskisson Dock in April and back at Sandton by  early  May and again in Huskisson by the 23rd.   Montana was at least giving  a steady  trade  to  the Liverpool  tugs. By the time she was listed to be in Sandton Dock on 4 June,  her listed  commander had  changed  to Capt. W. Forsyth.   It there  that another  misfortune  occurred  when her  boatswain was killed when he fell into a hold:

An inquest was held yesterday by Mr. C. S. Samuel, the deputy borough coroner, on the body of William Jenkins, thirty- four years of age, a boatswain on board the Montana (s), which was lying in the Sandon dock. On Monday afternoon the deceased fell into the hold of the vessel, a distance of thirty-two feet, and was killed on the spot. It is supposed he was seized with a fit of giddiness, which caused him to lose his balance. The jury posed returned a verdict of 'Accidental death.'

Liverpool Daily Post, 18 June 1874.

Finally,  at least, it seemed that  Montana had been put  to rights and ready  to commence her  career. Replacing Idaho for her  announced departure from Liverpool on 17 June 1874 as of  4 June, Montana (Capt. W.  Forsyth) departed Liverpool on her  maiden voyage  "with a number of passengers, for New York." (Liverpool Daily Post, 18 June). Instead, she got  as far as Queenstown and "had  to put  back in consequence of  the disablement of a portion of  her  machinery."  She arrived back  at Liverpool the  evening of the 19th. It was further reported on the 22nd that she had put  back "in consequence of cylinders being defective." (Daily News). She was later berthed in Birkenhead  East Float and her outbound cargo was transshipped to Idaho which sailed  on the  20th.

Dakota, of course, too,  had to have  her watertube boilers which had been innovatively installed before launching and now that  proved an additional corrective measure to remove and replace.  It was not until  October  that  she was finally  ready  for trials.  

This magnificent screw steamer, recently launched from the building yard of Messrs Palmer and Co sailed from the Tyne on Monday, and after getting her compasses finally adjusted by Mr Hutchinson, of Sunderland, she proceeded on her voyage to Liverpool.  A few days previously the Dakota made her trial trip and gave every satisfaction, her avenge speed being 15 knots an hour, and in consequence of her screw not being entirely submerged the full speed of the vessel could scarcely ascertained. She commanded by Captain Guard, late of the Wisconsin,’old captain in the service of the Guion Company. The Dakota is sister ship to the Montana, which was launched from the same yard about eighteen months ago, and is the largest, and with the exception of the  Whampoa, the longest ship ever turned out of the yard. 

She will  shortly be  put upon the  line between Liverpool and New York,  and it  is  confidently  expected she  will be the  swiftest  steamer on the passage. 

Jarrow Express, 3 October  1874.

It was hoped to get a speed of 17 knots out of the Dakota and her sister ship. When the Dakota was finally ready for sea she gave every promise of attaining this speed without difficulty, but on the way round to Liverpool the low-pressure engines gave out through the Corliss valve rods bending due to their being of too light a construction. The low-pressure engines were disconnected and all sail was set in order to keep the ship off the land. The high-pressure engine was kept going for a time, but after a short while a supplementary steam pipe burst. 

Shipbuilding  & Marine Engineering International, May  1927.

Dakota, Capt. James Guard,  "had engine trouble on the way  to Liverpool," (North Atlantic Seaway, Vol. 2) but an incident not reported in the  press. On 2 October 1874 she arrived at Alfred Docks, Birkenhead.

With her  engines repaired,  Montana undertook a trial  trip from Liverpool on 17 November 1874. There seemed no end of mishaps with Montana and on 2 December 1874 whilst being shifted from East Float to the  graving dock in Birkenhead, "came into collision with  a foreign barque,  and sustained damage."

So the year ended with both sisters still not in service, as dismal a prospect as  ever befallen not one but two  new ships, one of which had not  made it  past Queenstown and the  other yet  to  leave the  confines of Birkenhead docks.   

1875

In the throes of some pretty serious problems in rectifying a myriad  of faults, Montana and Dakota largely vanished from the news, reflecting an era when  the press did  not  dwell or indeed  relish misfortune especially  encountered  in  worthy endeavour.   By February 1875 the only announced  changed in their status was that Dakota's commander was now listed  as being Capt.  Marshall with  Capt Guard now actually  commanding Wyoming.

Credit: American Register, 3 April 1875.

Getting Montana and Dakota finally into service occupied more than half of  the year.  A advertised maiden departure  for Montana from Liverpool, under Capt. J.  Beverley scheduled initially for 3 March 1875 and  then 17th, but this  never occurred. Indeed,  on 3 April the  maiden  voyages of Dakota  (7 April under  Capt.  Marshall)  and Montana (14  April)  were advertised, and  they,  too,  never  took  place.  By 19 June, Guion were advertising a 7 July departure from Liverpool for Montana under Capt. Guard and this was, at last,  accomplished.  

Finally ready  to enter service, Montana's  chief officers  under Capt. James Allport Guard ("who has never had an accident  of any kind," and formerly  commanding Wyoming, Idaho, Nebraska and Nevada) were Chief Officer Quinn, Second Officer Gleig, Third  Officer Hughes, Fourth Officer  Hughes, Purser Robert  Thorpe, Chief Engineer John White, Second Engineer Kermode, Chief John Mitchell and Chief Surgeon Dr. O'Leary.

With absolutely no mention in the press  other  than recording her  departure, Montana   finally successfully  sailed from Liverpool  on 7 July 1875 for  New  York,  some two years behind schedule. Calling at Queenstown the next day, she arrived  at New  York on the 17th with a small list of 34 cabin and 72  steerage  passengers.  The New York  press  certainly showed more interest in her  than that in her  native  England.

The new screw steamship Montana, of the Williams & Guion line, which arrived at this port yesterday afternoon, after a passage of about eight days and a half from Queenstown to Sandy Hook, is, perhaps, the pioneer of a new style of ocean going passenger and freight steamers. She is clinker built, her sides being smooth, to offer the least resistance to the water. Her model, designed by Mr. Stephen B. Guion, the managing director of the line and the superintendent engineer, is peculiar in the formation of her ends and her sides, she having long, hollow bow, intended to throw the water off instead of allowing it to come aboard the ship, while the sides are, as nautical men term it, tumble home sides,  having a "fall  in of seven feet on each side from the turn of  the bilge;  this formation is  calculated to combine great strength with safety.    

The following are her principal dimensions: length over all, 425 feet; breadth of beam of main deck, 45 feet; depth of hold, 33 feet. She has four decks, including the hurricane deck. She is brig rigged and can show a large amount of canvas when she has her staysails and trysail set. Her enthusiastic commander says she can sail like a witch and believes she can beat anything crossing the Atlantic.

She came across working her engines at three-quarter speed, with an average of fifty revolutions of her screw, which gave a result of fourteen knots an hour. With sixty revolutions it is computed she would make sixteen knots. Her engines are of the direct acting compound class. with one high pressure cylinder inverted, two low pressure cylinders horizontal, with surface condensers. One cylinder is of 60 inches diameter and two are of 113 inches, the engines are 900-horse power nominal, but may be worked up to 4,200. Her shaft is 23 inches in diameter. 

The saloon is situated forward of the funnel, and is sumptuously fitted. She can accommodate 72 saloon passengers, 108 in the second and 1,200 steerage passengers, and all the modern improvements have been adopted for their comfort.

New York Daily Herald, 18 July  1875.

Leaving left New York  on 27 July 1875, Montana  got into Queenstown  at 11:00 a.m. on 5 August and Liverpool the next day.

From Liverpool on 18 August 1875 and Queenstown on the 19th, Montana  had 62 cabin and 66 steerage passengers, and arrived at New York on the 28th.

Montana cleared New  York on the afternoon of 7 September 1875, only  to run aground in the  North Channel, near Buoy No. 3.   With the  help of  five  tugs, she was pulled free at 11:15 a.m. the following morning  and, undamaged,  proceeded to sea. Calling at Queenstown on the 17th at 5:00 a.m., Montana arrived at  Liverpool on  the  18th.

Credit: Liverpool Journal of  Commerce, 28  September 1875.

New York, Sept. 14. The passage across the Atlantic in the summer mouths is considered by the majority of people who have done trips to be one of the most enjoyable treats in store for those who have tried and have tired of the "humours "of the land. But the pleasure is more than doubly enhanced when the voyage is made in a steamer in which everybody has confidence and which is under command of a gentleman of experience, skill, and urbanity. 

The Montana, Captain James A. Guard—a name which is indelibly marked on the records of the Guion line in connection with the almost total destruction and ultimate safety, some years ago, of the company's steamer Nebraska, whilst on the voyage from New York to Liverpool—left the Mersey for this port with a large number of intermediate, and steerage passengers on Wednesday, the 18th august. The day was beautifully fine, the wind blowing gently from the north-west. There were a large number of ships of all sizes, both steam and sailing, in the river as the Montana passed out to sea.  

The run down the Channel was made without any incident worth noting, and Queenstown was reached early next morning, where the National Company's steamer England had just arrived from Liverpool. Whilst laying in the harbour the Nevada, which had become disabled a few days previously whilst on the homeward voyage, passed us in charge of two steam tugs, both vessels exchanging the usual courtesy of dipping flags. After waiting for some time the steamer United States came alongside with the mails and a number of passengers from Queenstown. These having been transferred, we quietly stood away from where lies 'Passage in many a wood,'  towards 'the land of the setting sun,' Roche's Point and Daunt's Rock were soon passed, as were also the gently wooded slopes and golden corn fields which appear to vie with each other in making the neighbourhood of Queenstown one of the gardens of Ireland. Gradually, however, the scene changes, and from the pastoral quiet and beauty we come upon scenes of a more decided turn. We were leaving a sight at once picturesque and charming behind, and approaching one of wild and rugged grandeur. No two coast lines of Ireland agree so well in their configuration as thorn of the north and the west. Take Farr Head, the Giant's Causeway, and Dunluce away, and place in their stead two or three of those bold and jutting and frowning headlands that sentinel the Coast from the old Head of Kinsale to the Fastnet, and the fraud upon nature—if nature ever can be defrauded—would, to say the least, be almost imperceptible. But we are digressing. 

Passing the Fastnet a scene of the wildest, yet most picturesque, character opens out. From the coast, and as far as the eye can penetrate into the interior, there is nothing to be seen but broken and abrupt ranges of lofty mountains — the Western Highlands of Ireland, where 'Hills peep o'erhills and Alps on Alps arise.' And towering heavenwards penetrate the skies.  Every gap in the range looks like a Duuloe and every mountain a Mangerton. But this scene was too good and inspiring to last: this sublime panorama of nature commenced to fade away as the sun began his downward course and to throw his golden glory over the waves of the Atlantic. 

We were now clear away from land, from hills tinged with green and gold, and were bowling along steadily to the westward. The sea was as smooth as a mill-pond, but underneath that apparent smoothness was the long continuous Atlantic roll. 

During the night and all Friday the Montana encountered a very strong head wind, a rough sea, and occasional heavy squalls, which, combined, were enough to test the sea-going qualities of any vessel that ever was built. The Montana took matters quietly and unreluctantly, as did the passengers, many of whom had been at sea before, who were now for the first time on board a ship that did not roll or pitch, considering the sea that was on at the time. On Saturday morning the weather abated considerably, and the passenger crowded the hurricane deck, several new faces turning up after a probationary touch of mal de mer.

On Saturday afternoon the weather was misty with a thick drizzling rain, and the wind ahead. About half-past four o'clock three or four large shoals of porpoises passed by the ship, affording  infinite amusement to many of the passengers by their 'buck' jumps in the water. A cry of 'shark,' however, aroused the motherly care of a fair-haired frau, who, seizing one of her offspring by the back of the neck, having one in her arms at  the same time, hurried below, and stayed there until the was convinced that her 'scare'  was unfounded. Speaking about porpoises, there was a good laugh on board at the absurdity of a statement in one of the Liverpool papers of the 18th, to the effect that the Germanic, evidently with a 'Jonah' on board, passed through shoals of whales on the Banks on her August trip to New York. If the writer in the Daily Post saw one whale it must have been when he was shaving. 

The incidents of Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday are of such a nature as to merit but little notice. The wind was still unfavourable, but this did not prevent the Montana making good headway, and, though the sea was still restless, the vessel was as stiff as a church as she passed through the water. 

Wednesday morning broke bright and clear, and the sea was as calm and unruffled as a mountain lake. During the forenoon a large number of fishing boats were passed on the Banks. The winds, of which there had been very little during the day, died away completely towards evening, and the sea became like an illimitable sheet of silver. There was not a motion on board the ship, and the only noise (?) was the frantic attempt of a young German to get music out of a wheezy accordion. However, despite the futility of his attempts, there were a number of young and old, grave and gay, enjoying the light fantastic on the hurricane deck. Although this steamer was forging rapidly ahead, yet she was so still and so motionless that several passengers were at one time under the impression that the was still—becalmed, They were not, however, to be Ancient Mariners, nor was the Montana to be their "Painted ship upon a painted ocean." for towards midnight the wind drew up from north-west, and on Thursday morning the ship was bowling along bravely against a heavy turbulent sea and a baffling head wind, yet with from 53 to 54 revolutions of the screw—the pitch of which by the-by, 34 feet—she ran on an average 12½ knots per hour, with an almost entire freedom from motion. From Thursday up to Friday at noon the Montana ran her 15 knots an hour with perfect ease.

Friday morning was bright and bracing, and from the general bustle on board it was evident we were fast approaching the land—the native home of some, the adopted of others, and the migratory of many. Only one opinion, however, was expressed by those who were going out for the first time. They would not be disheartened ; they would rough it out; and, as one young fellow remarked, "Please God, if I'm spared, I'll have my brothers and sister out next year, and after that the old people will come."

At 1 30 p.m. the Montana was slowed, and the pilot came on board about 200 miles from New York. Our voyage was now practically at an end and some hours after Staten Island—a lovely place  when looked at from the sea—was passed. No great length of time intervened before the Montana was off pier 46, after accomplishing a very rapid and a very successful run from the Mersey to New York. before leaving the ship the passengers expressed themselves highly pleased with the ship and the accommodation provided for them on board. We cannot close without remarking upon the excellent discipline of the ship, from the captain downwards, all of whom are men worthy of the responsible position they are entrusted with. 

Liverpool Journal  of Commerce, 28 September 1875

Dakota, too, finally  entered service that summer.  Under Captain William Forsyth, her principal officers were First Officer  T.H. Lamb, Second Officer A.G. Duffy, Third Officer Cruickshank, Fourth Officer John James, Chief Engineer W. Council, Chief Steward Dempsey and Surgeon Dr. Collins. 

Dakota's maiden voyage  commenced  from Liverpool  on 21 July  1875 and Queenstown the following day and with 32 cabin and 50 steerage passengers, she arrived  at New York at 6:00 p.m.  on the 31st.  She  was opened for  public inspection the week of 2  August.

The New York Times of  2 August 1875  provided  a good  description of  the  new Guion liner:

The steam-ship Dakota, of the Williams & Guion Line, arrived in port on Saturday, after having completed her first trip between Liverpool and New  York. The Dakota, which is a sister vessel to the Montana, is a full brig rigged steamer of 2,562 tons register, and was built at Newcastle-on-Tyne, by Palmer & Co., in 1874. She is 425 feet long, and 45 feet in breadth of beam, the depth of hold being 35 feet. She has three cylinders, one of 60 inches diameter, and two of 113 inches diameter, with 45 inches stroke, and  her engines are of 900-horse power, nominal, and capable of being ran up to 3,600, each boiler being capable of sustaining pressure of eighty pounds to the square inch. She has six boilers, heated by thirty- six furnaces, and also two small engines, by which the boilers are tiled, and there are besides separate donkey engines for every winch. The diameter of the screw is twenty-one feet, with twenty-eight feet pitch, and the average speed of the steamship is stated at sixteen knots an hour.

The Dakota has first class accommodations for eighty persons, second class for 120, and steerage for 1,500. Contrary to the usual rule, the state-rooms and saloon are built in the forward part of the vessel. The former are superbly furnished and well lighted, while the latter is fitted up with a library and a large case with plate-glass doors, in which the magnificent salver service of the steam-ship is exhibited. 

Casting off from Pier  46,  North  River,  at noon on 10  August  1875  on her the return  portion of  her maiden  voyage, Dakota got into Queenstown at 10:00  p.m. on 19th,  landing mails and a few passengers  there and proceeded  to Liverpool after a 30-minute call and arrived in the  Mersey the following day. 

Dakota,  from Liverpool  on 1  September 1875, called at Queenstown the next morning  day and went out with 125 cabin and 50  steerage  passengers.  She passed Montana for  the first time, on the 10th, 510 miles east  of Sandy  Hook, and arrived at New York on the  11th.

With a good mail  consignment of 24,500 letters and 46  bags  of  newspapers,  Dakota cleared New York on 21 September 1875 and made Queenstown at 5:20 a.m. on the 30th: "The Guion Company's mail steamship Dakota, the  latest  addition to  their magnificent  fleet, arrived in the  harbour  from New  York  yesterday morning, after a rapid  run of little over eight  days. Having landed a large mail she proceeded for Liverpool, all  well."(Cork Examiner, 1 October).  She reported  passing a large iceberg on the 25th.  

Montana's next scheduled departure for New York, on 29 September  1875, was  a remarkably dismaying  episode in every  respect.   For no announced or  reported reason, she  did  not  clear Liverpool until the next day and proceeding direct  to  New  York, skipping the call at Queenstown.  It  was reported on  5 October that  she  had  been "compelled to  be put back on Oct. 4,  for  what  reason  is not  known." (New  York Tribune,  5 October). On the 8th, Guion Line  advised  the Post  Office Department that "on account of  the injuries  sustained by the  steamship  Montana,  scheduled to sail on the 19th inst.,  with  mails for Europe, she will not be dispatched on that  day." The details of Montana's aborted voyage were not  made known until a number of her passengers, re-accommodated aboard  Dakota's next  westbound  voyage, arrived  in New York.  Dakota and National Line's Spain accompanied each  other all the  way  across the  Atlantic, departing Liverpool on 13 October, calling at Queenstown the next day and  arriving at New York late on 26th. 

The steamship Dakota, of the Williams &  Guion line of transatlantic steamers, arrived and anchored in the stream yesterday evening opposite her dock, having on board, besides her regular complement of passengers, a number of those who had been transferred to her from the steamer Montana, of the same line, which had been obliged to put back to Queenstown in a disabled condition. 

From the statements made by several of the cabin passengers who were landed in the city the following account was obtained of the causes leading to the return of the Montana to port after starting on her outward voyage and the dangers to which all bands were subjected through the recklessness and foolhardiness of the commander. In the first place, it should be noticed that on the same day on which the Montana sailed there were three other steamers belonging to opposition lines to start, and there appeared to be a mutual understanding--so say the passengers- among the captains that the voyage between the three steamers should be looked upon as a transatlantic race, with a proviso, as was generally understood, that the Montana was to be the first in at New York. In order to accomplish this it seemed to be admitted that she would have to exert her utmost powers, and the Captain and other officers, appreciating the situation, certainly did not fail to do their utmost, even under the most adverse conditions to command success, even in the face of the expostulations of the whole of the passengers and the actual mutiny of the crew, as the sequel will show. 

However, the story of the voyage is better told in the language of one of the cabin passengers, which may be taken as a general sample of what is related by others. This gentleman says, after referring to matters already mentioned: 'After leaving Queenstown the weather began to get exceedingly rough, the wind and sea increased, and there was every sign that our voyage for the first part would be an extremely rough one. There were, however, but few who felt any fear about ultimate success. In fact, all on board were confident that the ship would safely arrive at her destination.

We had probably gone about 200 miles from Queenstown when the wind increased to a gale and the sea rose mountains high, sweeping the deck fore and aft as each wave struck us on the bow. We were at the time driving at full speed, and while we sometimes rode over the seas, we more often cut through them, receiving, the full force of the shock of tons of water dashed on the upper deck and against the sides. Still the speed was maintained, although it was freely remarked by all on board that the captain H appeared to be running ugly chances in not slowing up. For all this no one appeared  to  be frightened notwithstanding that we must have been going at a rate of fully twelve knots an hour. The gale seemed to increase in fury, if possible, and the ship was unable to rise to the waves, but buried her stern at each pitch, receiving as she did  each time sounding and telling blows on her forward deck, which shook her timbers from bow to stern, and making her shiver as though at each next successive shock she must fall to pieces. 

The passengers all through the night were kept awake by the ceaseless din as well as by their fears, which had by this time become thoroughly roused. As may be expected in such a case they all grouped together in the saloons and discussed the probable and possible chances of finally weathering the storm. Among the women, as can readily be supposed, there was the greatest consternation some were weeping, some were praying while others called upon their husbands and friends to make the captain go back; or as they caught the bur. den of the talk which tended to demonstrate that a slower rate of speed would the better insure safety, to compel him to order the engines to be slowed ap. The captain was called upon to listen to the remonstrances of the passengers. but he persistently refused to take any heed of the prayers made to him to return. All night he still kept on meeting and receiving the full force of the seas, and as the morning (Saturday) broke the forward portion of the deck, by the continued pounding of the waves, was stove, in and the water rushed down into the hold as each sea broke over the ship.

The saloon and staterooms were flooded on the lee side, and it was found that all the lower compartments were filled with water. The pumps were set going but they were constantly becoming choked with portions of the cargo and baggage which had become loosened, in the shape of feathers, bagging and other matter, and were consequently of but little use. In fact it began to be felt on every hand that there was but little hope left unless the sea should moderate or speedy return be made to port. To all this, and in spite of every argument that could be presented, the Captain still kept on his course, and at very nearly the gained speed. Finally, however, the ship was laid to, and for several hours attempts were made to set matters straight, after which the Captain again resumed the voyage at a rate of about tour knots an hour.

The sailors, engineers, firemen and others--had by this time begun to realize the situation, and looked at the state of affairs in a very serious light. They gathered together in twos and threes, and shortly after came to the conclusion that 11 would be not only unwise and dangerous, but fool hardy to proceed on the voyage of yet 2,700 miles in the then condition of the ship when there was a port to be made by returning, which was only a day or day and a half sail off. They, therefore, refused to work unless the ship was headed back for the port and  80 shortly left, The purser summoned them aft and calling the roll, asked each Inan as his name was called. "Do you refuse to work ,The reply was almost universal, "Yes, sir, unless we go eastward.' The Captain was undecided what to do in the premises, and at first tried to intimidate the men, saying, "Well. I can afford to lay here for a week; let the fires go down and drift around." Neither party appeared to be willing to make a concession, and we Iny rolling and pitching in the trough of the sea, waiting, 'Micawber' like, for something to turn up in the shape of an agreement; but, for over half a day, nothing was gained. The crew were threatened with bread And water for rations: but the threat had no effect, for the men well knew the Captain had no power to entorce it.

They even went so far as to speak of getting out the longboat, and said, further, that they knew where the provisions and other stores were kept and would help themselves. The passengers were becoming despairing. Night was again approaching and the sea once more appeared to be increasing instead of abating. Then, too, the attitude of the crew was adding increased anxiety to the officers and passengers. Finally the passengers held a formal meeting and adopted the following.

Note to Captain Captain Gerard,  steamer Montana Sir-We beg leave to submit to you the following considerations: First--The crew of the Montana refuse to do duty. Second--The vessel herself has eighteen feet of water in her hold. Third The drinking water has become contaminated, and its use is deleterious. Fourth- -We are only 300 miles from Queenstown.

In view of these considerations, while earnestly expressing our confidence in yourself and your officers, we ask you so return at once to Queenstown. 

The Captain, in answer to the committee which presented the above, replied that as it was then eleven o'clock at night, and the ship had been rolling around for so long, he felt inclined to a give the crew another chance to resume their duty, but that, if they still refused he should feel it incumbent on him to return to Liverpool or Queenstown. An hour or so elapsed, and, it being found that the men were still as determined as ever not to proceed, the steamer was at last headed back 'much to the relief and satisfaction of every soul on board. The Montana arrived in the Mersey on Wednesday morning, but still, even at her dock, was compelled to keep the pumps going. An examination showed that the iron plates which covered the forward deck were broken by seas as though they had been simply match wood.

On arrival in port the passengers became extremely anxious in regard to their baggage. It was found to be all mixed up, smashed and floating around in the hold. It was only by the most persistent fishing that any articles could be recovered. On application to the company for compensation for the losses sustained, the only answer received was that 'they could do nothing for us beyond forwarding us to New York in the Dakota.' 

During our voyage out here we have had time to consider and discuss the causes of the troubles we had to undergo, and it appears to be the general opinion that the vessel was driven at too great a speed in the heavy seaway in order to accomplish a quick passage; that the captain and officers had not sufficient command over the crew: that, during the four hours of the Friday night when the storm was raging at its worst, the fourth officer, whose watch it was, was asleep in the wheelhouse, instead of attending to his duty; that the crew had no confidence in their officers, and that the Montana is of peculiar build and is unseaworthy.

There were many other reasons for the disaster advanced, but these are the post likely to be real.

New York Daily Herald,  26 October 1875.

The Williams & Guion steamship Dakota, which arrived off Sandy Hook at 5 a. m. yesterday, got aground on the bar and did not anchor opposite her dock until 8 p.m. A part of her passengers, who sailed from Liverpool on Sept. 30 on the sister ship Montana for this port, but were compelled to return to Queenstown on account of a disaster to the latter vessel, were landed by the tugboat Seymour at Pier No.46, N. R., last evening. 

They told a story unusual in the history of steamers crossing the Atlantic, of a mutiny which occurred on board of the vessel. Their statement was to the effect that the Montana, which should have left Liverpool on Sept. 29, through some unexplained cause did not leave until the following day, and that it was generally understood that a race was to take place between that vessel and the steamers of the White Star and Inman lines. The Montana, contrary to her printed notice, did not stop at Queenstown, but in spite of the requests of her passengers, and in the face of a heavy wind, kept on her way at the rate of thirteen or fourteen knots an hour. At times the bow of the vessel war buried in the sea, and tons of water came pouring upon- the forward deck with such force as to shake the steamer from stem to stern. Finally the iron plates in front of the anchor deck were beaten in, and water began to pour into the first and second compartments. The dining saloon and some of the state rooms were flooded, the forward hold soon filled, while the compartments above and below the hold were receiving large volumes of water. The pumps were set in motion, but finally it was announced that there was 17 feet of water in the first two compartments. The crew then demanded to return to port, and insisted that they would not work the ship unless she was headed eastward. 

'Then,' said Wm. Oothout, a cabin passenger, to a Tribune reporter, 'it became a question as to who was master, commander or crew. Capt. Guard said he would starve them into submission. And the vessel floated with the waves for 12 hours. Then, as the crew passed the purser, he put the question to them,' Will you work the steamer west ward!' and 60 of them, nearly all-answered ' No.' The cause of the trouble was talked over among officers, passengers, and men, and all agreed that the vessel was faulty in construction and could not withstand a heavy sea, and that the only way was to return to port.

J. H. Cowan of Savannah, another passenger, stated that at this juncture a meeting of about 18 cabin passengers was held at night, and they all protested against proceeding further. They waited upon the captain, and finally he consented to put into Queenstown, where they arrived on Oct. 4.

It was then discovered that the baggage of the first and second cabin passengers had been destroyed. This comprised articles of jewelry, silks, velvets, and other property of great value, and as the passengers' trunks had been broken open, their contents were mixed together indiscriminately and the greater part ruined. A demand for their value was made upon the firm of Guion & Co. at Liverpool, but payment war refused, and many persons have brought suit to recover. Mr. Cowan said that all his baggage, valued at $550, had been destroyed, and he was penniless, yet he could not obtain any redress. On Oct. 13, the Montana's passengers embarked on the Dakota for this port. The weather, according to the passengers' statements, has not been unfavorable, or the seas tumultuous. Yet they say that the steamer has had her bow stove in, in the same place as the Montana, and that the pumps have been kept going continually for several days past.

They declare that these two vessels are wrongly constructed and are unseaworthy. They are built upon a new plan, which it was supposed would insure greater speed, and their bows are made concave instead of convex. Complaints were also made of the treatment which the passengers received..

The following statement of a passenger on board of the vessel is by sixteen other cabin companions:

For the first time in the history of the ocean mail service a downright mutiny has occurred on the Atlantic. The firemen and sailors of the Montana flatly refused to do duty, and threatened to seize the provisions, to take the longboat, and to return to Queenstown, from winch they were distant only 300 miles. From about 11 o'clock on the morning of Oct. 2 to 2 a. m. of Oct. 3 a large mail steamer lay rolling in the trough of the sea, literally at the mercy of the waves, and in the storm, the darkness. the mutiny, and the helplessness, our hearts began to fail. All the preceding night the vessel had been driven full speed in the teeth of a gale, and by morning, though no one yet seems to know how, had shipped into her hold some 18 feet of water. When the pumps were tried they would not work.

At what hour the leakage began it is impossible to ascertain, for there was no watch below decks, and the captain was asleep in his room. It had continued long enough, however, to bring down the bow very perceptibly; and in those heavy seas it was scarcely, possible to make five knots an hour without submerging it. Then the crew, having no confidence in the seaworthiness of the Montana, refused to go westward against a head wind. At 2 a. m. on Oct. 3 we turned our faces toward Liverpool, which we reached early on the morning of Oct. 6, after a delay of 18 hours at Queenstown.

We had escaped danger, but had suffered lose. Our luggage was a total wreck. After soaking and floating in the water, it had broken itself in pieces daring the 15 hours that we lay rolling in the trough of the sea, and was scattered about the bottom of the hold. No a whole trunk, not a half trunk remained. All that that could be seen was splinters of wood and wet, torn, and stained garments.

One of the Guion Company's officers for 30 years has been familiar with the elects of disasters at sea. told me that he had never seen such complete destruction of property. Saloon baggage, intermediate baggage, steerage baggage, all were mixed and ground up together. Some of the steerage passengers were removing their household goods to Western homes; one young fellow. with his mother and sister, had 20 trunks and boxes. Many poor persons have lost almost all that they possessed. Nevertheless, we were patient and expectant that the Company would indemnify us. On the day after our return sent a clerk down to the steamer to get inventories and valuations of our losses; but when asked for indemnification they positively and unconditionally refused.

Naval men say that the occasion, if not the cause of all our troubles, is to be found in the faulty construction of the Montana. There has been a good deal of talk in Liverpool about the seaworthiness of the vessel, which was built this sear. and has never before been tried in a storm. Her principal peculiarity is that her bow and some 15 feet of her forward deck are six feet lower than her main deck, so that where the main deck ends and the forward deck hegins there is an upright iron partition.

The consequence is that when the wind is strong ahead and heavy seas are shipped the water does not spread wit and roll off, but dashes itself with great force against this perpendicular partition, and falls over the main deck. When the vessel driven in such a wind, the power of resistance must be immerse. or the partition will give way. It almost gave way during the night of Oct. 1, as a part of it did during the night of Oct. 16, on the Dakota. Indeed, twice on the Dakota we have been in imminent peril. On the morning of Oct. 17 we stopped and lay in the trough of the sea for 8 hours while the damage was repaired. And had the captain of the Montana proceeded on his way to New- York, with her forward deck stove in, and 18 feet of water in her hold, as he wished and purposed to do, nothing but continued fair weather could have saved us from, to say the least, very serious danger. There is not an officer on board the Dakota who does not ridicule and condemn the construction of her bow. One of them said to me, 'That bow will never do: it is against common sense.' The Liverpool Board of Trade will be appealed to, and a strict investigation in expected.

Complaints  are then made that  candles are used for lighting the  staterooms, that  the saloon port-holes leak, the  staterooms are wet, the officers of  the steamers are discourteous  and the means  of access to  the vessels are inadequate  and dangerous.

New York Tribune, 26 October 1875.

Credit: New York  Times, 26 October 1875.

The publicity  arising from Montana's  voyage was  disastrous, including  a lead editorial in the  New York Times, 26 October 1875:

The story of the last voyage of the steamship Montana gives a glimpse of one of the dangers to which passengers on board our long, narrow, ocean steamers are exposed when the officers happen to be reckless and the weather bad. The Montana, soon after leaving Queenstown on her way to New York, was met by a strong westerly gale. It was understood that her Captain was anxious to beat two rival steamers that sailed on the same day. At any rate, he drove his vessel at her fastest speed directly into the heavy head seas. Like all steamers of the present popular model, the Montana plunges through a head sea, instead of riding over it, as an old-fashioned full-bowed ship would do.

The iron turtledecks which are placed over the forecastle of nearly all the newest ocean steamers, show how tremendous are the blows which they are expected to receive from the tons of water shipped over the bows in heavy weather, blows which would crush a wooden deck, and which occasionally bend and flatten even the iron turtle-decks. The Montana was subjected to the terrible strain incident to driving her into seas that poured over her decks until she began to leak in a very uncomfortable way. The crew, not caring to have their lives risked in this way, mutinied and refused to work unless the Captain put back to Queenstown. The passengers joined their entreaties to the demand of the crew, and the Captain finally yielded. The Montana reached Queenstown and Liverpool in safety, but she was unable to resume her voyage. Her passengers had baggage ruined by the water, and the Captain had the pleasing consciousness that his own folly had led him into a dilemma in which his only escape was to yield to the demands of a mutinous crew.

The public has not yet forgotten that an American steamer of the Philadelphia line was nearly lost a year or two ago because her Captain persisted in driving his ship at full speed against a heavy sea, precisely as did the Captain of the Montana. The Captain of the Philadelphia steamer was washed overboard, and the command was taken by a sailor among the passengers, who ordered the engines to be slowed, and saved the ship from the destruction that was otherwise inevitable. Every Winter steamers arrive at this port which have been in imminent danger from this criminally reckless practice of keeping the engines at full speed, no matter what may be the weather or the direction of the sea. The Montana belongs to a line which has borne a reputation for careful management. If she has thus been put in imminent peril by the recklessness of her Captain, the owners will doubtless find no further use for his services.

At any rate, unless the account of the voyage of the Montana, which we have published should prove to be entirely incorrect, she will not be patronized by cautious travelers until she is commanded by some officer who has not conclusively shown his unfitness for his place.

Dakota  sailed on schedule from New York  on 2 November 1875 but on the 6th the U.S.Marshal's office in New York  seized the  vessel  on a libel against Guion Line issued by Judge Blatchford over claims for damages filed by passengers for ruined luggage.  That very day, Guion Line posted a bond of $21,000 to release Dakota which duly arrived  at Queenstown on  11 November  1875. En route, she  reported passing  the  waterlogged and  abandoned barque Sarpedon, on the  6th.

Resuming service but under  a new master, Capt. Charles James Beddoe,  Montana departed Liverpool on 11 November 1875 and Queenstown the next  day,  having aboard 19 cabin and 31 steerage passengers, and reaching New York on the 22nd. On the  24th, the  following statement  appeared in the  New  York Tribune:  "In behalf of the owners of the steamship Montana, which returned to Liverpool in answer to the demands of the passengers and crew, the statement is made that on the  discharge of the cargo at Liverpool, it was found to be in good not package being wet or damaged. The vessel, it is asserted, was put in dry dock and found in good condition, the only damage being to the forward deck and hatchway, through which some water found its way."

A further  refutation of some of  the comments published in  New  York  press was published in the Liverpool Journal of  Commerce, 29 November 1875:

The following account is taken from the New York Commercial Advertiser of Tuesday, October 26: 

The remarkable experience at sea of the steam. ship Montana, of the Williams and Guion Line, the alleged mutiny of the crew and partial wrecking of the vessel (as described by a sensational writer who happened to be on board), is all much more truthfully, if not as graphically told, in the following statement from an old sea officer in reply to a report in one of the morning newspapers:—

I observed in your columns a letter purporting to have been written by a passenger on the Montana, giving an account of that steamer's performance from the time she left Liverpool on the 1st inst., till her return to that port six days later. Having myself been one of her passengers, and quite conversant with all the facts from actual observation, and probably as capable of forming an intelligent opinion as the writer in question, I unhesitatingly pronounce the entire letter a gross exaggeration, and in many particulars unqualifiedly untrue.

We sailed in company with two steamers—not three—neither of which can be called fleet and there certainly was no occasion for the Montana to race in order to beat them had such been the captain's desire. As proof that she was not driven at dangerous or unusual speed I need only mention that by the writer's own showing the ship was only two hundred miles west of Queenstown when the accident occurred—that we had then been 48 hours out from Liverpool, and had come right on without touching at Queenstown—that the latter place is two hundred and forty miles from the former, consequently four hundred and forty was our entire distance in eight and forty hours steaming—a little over nine knots per hour. 

Now, at no time was there anything more than a moderate gale. Indeed, a very moderate as your readers will understand when I tell them that all the ship' which we saw going to the eastward were carrying their full sail. Now, if the gale had been 'terrible' ships could not have carried more than their reefed topsails—a fourth of their sail—consequently we had only the fourth of a  'terrible' gale. Again, your 'letter writer' states that the ship 'rushed on at  speed of 13½ knots,' which certainly is remarkable in the face of "terrible gale," and, though she has a reputation for great speed, and her owners know what she is capable of, I doubt if the most sanguine have ever hoped for such wonderful results. 

The fact is we experienced an ugly old seas caused  by westerly gales, which had been blowing for fifteen days, in consequence of which the captain prudently reduced the speed of the ship (it must be understood that for twenty-four hours after leaving Liverpool we had comparatively smooth water, and the ship was driven at her full speed, the latter four and twenty hours not more than half speed, and averaging altogether about nine knots), when, had he been ambitious to excel and unmindful of the interests committed to his charge, he could have forced his ship on at the rate of thirteen or fourteen knots.

The breaking of the anchor deck hatch and plates and plates (not the deck of the ship at all, and hardly can he called a part of her construction) was simply a misfortune, and in no way impaired the seaworthiness of the ship or endangered her in the least. The water, which was all in before any one was aware of it, was confined to the fore compartments, and was insignificant in weight compared with the displacement of the ship, she having little or no cargo in these compartments. The moment water was discovered the ship was stopped promptly and instantly, and the steam pumps put in action. The ship of course lay in the trough of the sea, but so steady that a cup and saucer lay on the table for hours without support The water was quickly reduced in the short space of two or three hours to four or five feet, which should have demonstrated that there could be no 'hole in the  bottom' as the passengers would have was the case, and so persisted in declaring till after the anchor was dropped in Liverpool. At no time were the 'pumps kept going to keep the water down.' They were used for the purpose of pumping the water out, and had it not been for the feathers obstructing the water courses leading the water to the pumps the balance of the water would have been taken out of her in another half hour.

The seamen were not in a state of mutiny, and nothing of the kind ever 'stared us in the face.' Their conduct, however, was most reprehensible, and that of the saloon passengers more so, for some of them mixed with the disaffected seamen. bringing to the saloon from them the most alarming and absurd reports, and finally encouraged them in their refusal of duty, till the ship's head was put about for Queenstown. I think the least said about the memorial the better. Captain Guard is an able and experienced seaman—has been in the most trying situations at sea that it is possible for a captain to be, and yet has always brought his ship safely to port. Our case was nothing in comparison to these, and I for one feel that in interfering with his freedom of action and discipline of the ship at sea, it was, to say the least, a great breach of courtesy and unmistakable meddling with the internal organisation of the ship. 

The passengers were not kept on board the ship in Liverpool against their wishes. The tender came alongside as soon as the anchor was dropped, and the passengers were at liberty to avail themselves of a passage on shore if they pleased. Three times during the day the tender visited the ship, and I never heard till last evening that the slightest restraint was platted on our freedom of action, but, on the contrary, a steamer was placed at our disposal. 

To those who are compelled to cross the Atlantic, whether on business or pleasure, I will just say to them that I have been on her in all weathers, and pronounce her a magnificent success. She is remarkably steady, very fast, end wonderfully strong. The position of her saloon is level, almost forward, which does away absolutely with the sickening odour of the machinery and that ever-to-be-remembered—shall I say gyratory—motion which we all have experienced on those long, full-powered ships to our peat discomfort and proper digestion. In reading the Herald's account of this affair in to-day's issue, I am constrained to believe that the reporter has been imposed upon by some one never on board the Montana—certainly not on the passage referred to. He speaks of 'leaving Queenstown.' We aid not touch at Queenstown, did not go anywhere near it, but took almost a mid-parallel course after passing the Tuskar. 

Montana left New York on 29 November 1872 (with a mail consignment totalling 30,480 letters), and after calling at Queenstown on 10  December at 4:20 p.m.,  arrived at Liverpool the  next  day. 

Departing Liverpool on 26 November 1875, Dakota called at  Queenstown at 4:00 p.m. the  next day with 14 cabin and 57 steerage passengers aboard,  reaching New York on 6 December.  En route  she came to  the  assistance of the brig Isabella Heldon, on the 4th, bound from Liverpool to Prince  Edward Island,  which had run  out  of provisions and water and whose crew was dire straits.  Dakota sent over a boat commanded by First Officer Lamb with water  and  foodstuffs and the  operation took about five  hours  to  accomplish in "moderate gale conditions". 

With another good  mail consignment of 34,349 letters and  41 bags  of newspapers,  Dakota  cleared New  York on 14 December 1875 and made Queenstown at 10:00 a.m. on the 23rd, arriving home on Christmas  Eve. 

In 1875, Montana completed 3 westbound and 3  eastbound  crossings and Dakota  completed 4 westbound and 4 eastbound crossings.  

1876

Clearing Liverpool on 5 January 1876 and Queenstown the next day,  Dakota made New York  on the  16th with but 29  passengers aboard.  Another source of  income… from the carriage  of American beef to England… was catered to starting that year and on the 18th, the New York  Herald reported that  the Guion liners Nevada,  Wyoming and  Dakota had  been fitted with  refrigerators, measuring 40 ft. long  by  28  ft. wide and nine-ft.  high, and to date, had  carried 148  tons  to  England with  two more ships,  including Montana, to be similarly  fitted. 

The sisters continued to earn their  U.S. Mail  contract and Dakota took out  40,423  letters and 41  bags of newspapers on departure  from New York on 25 January  1876.  She called at Queenstown at 10:20  a.m. on 4 February and proceeded to Liverpool, arriving there the following day.

Montana  commenced the  New Year with her departure,  commanded  by Capt. Beddoe, from Liverpool on 19 January  1876 and Queenstown the following  afternoon for New York  where she  arrived on the  30th with  only 15 cabin and  27 steerage  passengers  to her  credit. 

As seemed  customary  in  those days,  eastbound sailings  were only  documented  in their  carriage  of mails rather  than number of  passengers,  and when Montana cleared  New York  for  Queenstown and Liverpool on 8  February 1876, she had 35,113 letters and 48  bags of newspapers. It was another stormy  crossing  for  the  ship and  on arrival off  Queenstown on the  18th, "there  being  a hard gale from the  south  and  a  heavy sea," she could not call there and proceeded direct to Liverpool.  There, on the  22nd,  the Woodside Ferry steamer  Cheshire,  "whose  career has  been  a very chequered one," (Liverpool Mercury),  collided with Montana  anchored  in the  Mersey,  causing considerable damage to the  ferry's paddle boxes and occasioning  panic among some passengers  aboard, but  damage to Montana was confined to  bending her  stem. 

Dakota, although scheduled for a 23 February 1876  departure from Liverpool for New York  appears not have  made the  voyage. Similarly cancelled  was Montana's 8 March sailing. Indeed, both ships were laid up until autumn.

Capt. James Price.  Credit: Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Resuming service,  Dakota, now commanded by Capt. James Price,  cleared the  Mersey on 20 September 1876 and Queenstown the next day  and made New York  on the  30th. For Queenstown and Liverpool,  Dakota  cast off from Pier 46 North  River at 8:00 a.m. on 9 October and calling at Queenstown at 7:00 a.m. on the  19th, arrived at Liverpool on the  20th.

Montana finally sailed  from Liverpool on 5 October 1876 for  New York and from Queenstown at 3:00 p.m. the  next day, picking up  passengers stranded there from  fleetmate Idaho, disabled with a machinery  breakdown.  Montana reached New York on the 18th. The Mersey-bound Montana left New York at 10:00 a.m. on the 24th, arriving  Liverpool on 3 November.

Departing Liverpool on 1 November 1876 and Queenstown on the  2nd, Dakota reached New York on the  11th.  Clearing  New York  on the 21st, Dakota called  at Queenstown at  5:00  p.m. on 3 December, and arrived at Liverpool the following day.

Montana departed Liverpool on 15 November 1876 and Queenstown on the  16th to arrive at New  York  on the  25th. Departing  New York on 5 December at 8:30 a.m., heavy  weather there once  again caused Montana  to skip calling at Queenstown and she passed Holyhead at noon on  the  15th en route to Liverpool. 

Credit: New  York Daily Herald, 27 December  1876.

Proving these ships'  resolutely  star-crossed careers, Dakota ended 1876 with a singularly miserable voyage to New York  which commenced on 13 December 1876 and instead  of getting her 14 cabin and 21 steerage  passengers  there in time for Christmas, did not arrived  until 8:30 a.m. on the 26th after "furious gales, with  high head seas, the  entire passage, one  day's run  being but 70 miles." (New  York  Daily Herald, 27  December). 

Alter a rough and trying voyage of twelve days the steamship Dakota, of the Williams & Guion line, arrived, three days behind her usual time, at Pier No. 46 North River, at half-past eight o'clock yesterday morning. She bore evidence of having labored through severe seas. The smoke stack was whitened to the top by spray that dashed over it. Three boats were stove in by a cross sea, and a furled foresail was pulled from its lashings and torn into ribbons.

In the absence of Captain Price a Herald reporter interviewed the purser, Daniel Hamilton, who said: 'The voyage was rough throughout. We encountered severe westerly gales and for two days a hurricane was blowing and tremendous seas were running. In all my life I never saw such seas as we had during the voyage. We left Liverpool on the 13th inst., and we did not call at Queenstown, as traffic lately has been a bit slow.

The ship did not roll very much. We had fourteen cabin and twenty-one steerage passengers, and can safely say not one of them got wet. The seas washed the deck, but none of them got below.'

The New York Daily Herald, 27 December 1876.

In 1876, Montana completed 3 westbound and 3  eastbound  crossings and Dakota  completed 4 westbound and 3 eastbound crossings.  

1877

 

Starting the New Year on the second  day of it, Dakota cast off from Pier 46 North  River at 7:00 a.m. on 2 January 1877 and calling at Queenstown at 6:30 p.m. on the  11th, proceeded to  Liverpool where  she  arrived the next day.

Guion Line's  1877  programme and the first sailing under  a new  contract  carrying the  Royal Mails, was commenced upon R.M.S. Montana's departure  from Liverpool on 3 January and Queenstown the following  day.  Making the  crossing  over  in 8 days 18 hours, Montana reached New York at 7:00 a.m. on the 13th, but missed the tide and a tug  conveyed her passengers and mail into the harbour  from outside  the  Bar. 

Credit: New York Tribune, 23 January 1877.

Montana  was  not a happy ship below decks and  the  fractions and  frictions that were  apparent during the  "mutiny"  the previous  year,  rose again to the surface during  her New York turnaround:

Ill-feeling has existed for some time on board the steamship Montana of the Williams & Guion Line, between some of the sailors and firemen. They been divided into two factions, which have frequently come into collision. Yesterday, two of the leaders of the opposing factions, John Quinn and John Kelly, met upon the deck. Without any words, they attacked each other, and Quinn, finding he was being worsted, stabbed Kelly over the eye, inflicting a dangerous wound. Quinn was arrested by Officer Van Buskirk of  the Steamboat Squad.

Last evening a number of seamen came into collision with the firemen in the forecastle. Some were knocked down, others struck with shovels and missiles, and a were fight ensued, which the officers could general only quell by threatening to shoot the rioters. In the melee John McSorley, one of the seamen whose duty it was to watch the entrance to the forecastle, was knocked down, and trampled upon, so that he beaten, was taken up insensible and removed to the ship's hospital. There his wounds were pronounced dangerous. Upon regaining consciousness he declared that his injuries had been inflicted by Christopher Smith, Patrick Brady, and William Curran, firemen, who were arrested by Sergeant Gaslin, Roundsman Buckley  and Officer Mullen of the Steamboat Squad. Several of the men who in the affray received severe cuts and participated bruises. Tue firemen are said to have been particularly violent.

This is the same steamship upon which a mutiny occurred on the Atlantic two years ago, and the captain of the vessel was compelled to return to port on account of the refusal of the Bremen and sailors to do duty unless the construction of the vessel was altered. The change was afterward made. Some of the mutineers are said to be the men now under arrest, and Sergeant Gastlin said that he heard stories of the men threaten to organize another mutiny as soon as the steamer should be at sea. He anticipates further trouble, and more arrests will be made at an early hour to-day, before the steamer sails, if the riotous crew shall not become submissive to discipline..

New York Tribune, 23 January 1877.

Montana sailed from New York on 23 January  1877 without  further  incident and called at Queenstown at 8:30 p.m. on the  31st and proceeded to Liverpool,  arriving the  next  day. 

Clearing Liverpool on 24 January  1877, Dakota was considerably  delayed at Queenstown, where  she arrived  at 12:15 p.m. the next waiting  for weather delayed mails and did  not get away  until 7:20 p.m.. The passage across was no less "wintry" and encountering strong westerlies all the way, she did  not  make New  York until 4 February where  she  landed 52 passengers.

Back when steamship departures from New York where tide dependent, Dakota left New York at 3:00 p.m. on 13 February 1877. Her departure was newsworthy for her carriage  of the body  of the exiled Irish revolutionary John O'Mahony home to Ireland which was conveyed to  the pier in a procession through crowd thronged streets.  "On board the  steamer suitable  arrangements had been made for the reception of  the body, which  was deposited  in a stateroom, with flowers above and around  it. The Irish flag hung beneanth  the American from the staff at the dock, and an Irish  streamer floated from the mainmast  of  the Dakota."(New York Tribune,  14  February).  When Dakota reached Queenstown at 4:00 a.m. on the 23rd, O'Mahony's coffin was removed to a tender to convey  ashore  and  by train onwards to  Cork.  "The deputation expressed their  thanks to the Guion Company  for conveying the body  free  of  charge; but  omitted  to  give thanks to Captain Price, of  the  Dakota, who, when  asked for  an American flag,  declared he  was a loyal Englishman, and could not encourage  such  proceedings." (Liverpool Daily Post, 24 February).  Dakota made Liverpool on the  24th.

Leaving Liverpool on 14  February 1877, Montana made a  quick call the next  day  at Queenstown, arriving at 3:50 p.m.  and proceeding to New York  at 4:30  p.m.  where  she  got  in on the  24th. The Mersey-bound Montana cleared New  York at 10:00 a.m.  on 6 March  and making good  time, made Queenstown at 9:00 p.m. on the  14th and Liverpool the next  day.

 

Shortly after sailing  from Liverpool on 7 March 1877, Dakota collided with the schooner  Royalist in  the Mersey but with minor damage to both  ship.  Departing Queenstown the following day at 9:00 p.m., Dakota arrived at New York at 11:00 a.m.  on the  17th with 48 passengers, "after a splendid  winter passage of 8 days and 19 hours." (New York Daily  Herald,  18 March). 

Departing New York at  3:00  p.m.  on 27 March  1877, Dakota  had aboard the rescued captain and crew  of  the three-masted schooner Rivulet which had been rescued  after their  ship  foundered in  a storm off South America and taken to New York,  having spent two days in  a lifeboat until spotted by  the American barque Lorena.  Dakota called at Queenstown on the morning  of 7 April and arrived in the  Mersey the following  day.  With passengers scarce amid  the  American depression, Guion Line  began to  transport sheep and cattle in their  liners  to England in addition to refrigerated beef and on this voyage,  she  brought in 2,300 quarters of beef and  500  live sheep.  

From Liverpool on 28 March 1877,  Montana put  into Queenstown from noon to 4:10  p.m. to take  on passengers  and mail and  proceeded to  New  York, arriving there on 6 April where she landed a total of 18 saloon, 14  second cabin and 55 steerage passengers. Off  for Liverpool at  3:00 p.m. on the 17th 1877, Montana put in a very slow crossing, not  reaching  Queenstown until 3:00 a.m. on the 28th and  Liverpool the next  day.  She  continued to bring in meat  supplies from America,  bringing in 2,200  quarters of chilled beef and 600 sheep.  

Fire broke out aboard Montana the morning of  2 May 1877 lying in Huskisson Docks, damaging three bales of cotton before it was extinguished by the  ship's own crew  in advance of  the arrival of  the fire  brigade.

The situation on  the North  Atlantic run in consequence  of  the lingering depression in America was  such  that on 11 April 1877 at a meeting in Liverpool  Inman, Guion,  National and White Star  lines agreed that  effective  1 May they would dispatch ships  fortnightly  instead  of weekly, thus laying  up  half their respective  fleets or rotating  the  ships. Only Cunard maintained their  weekly mail  service.  

An immediate  casualty  of this appears  to  have been Dakota's  scheduled sailing from Liverpool on 18  April 1877  which  did not take  place and she  was to  have to have embarked at Queenstown  two  members of  the  delegation which had accompanied  the body  of Col. O'Mahony to Ireland for burial.

Credit: amlwchhistory.co.uk

Resuming service, Dakota (Capt.  James Price) departed Liverpool  at 5:45 p.m. on 9 May 1877,  with 218 passengers, 109 officers and crew  and 1,800  tons of cargo aboard.  She went aground at Bull's Bay, near  Point Lynas, off the  Welsh coast, at 10:30 p.m. as reported by telegram by the Underwriters Association:

The steamer Dakota went ashore at Bull's Bay, near Point Lynas, about 10 30 p.m. on Wednesday. Weather hazy. All passengers saved. The company have despatched a tug at 10 30 this (Thursday) morning to render assistance, and have also sent persons by rail way to attend the passengers.

By Friday, 11 May 1877, the Liverpool papers provided full details including interviews from passengers aboard the  stricken vessel:

The accounts which we have been able to obtain from some of those who arrived throw but little further light upon the cause of the miscalculations which led to the disaster. It appears that the error had been discovered before the vessel ran upon the rock, and land was distinctly sighted. The engines were at once reversed, and though the disaster could not then be averted the consequences were very much mitigated, inasmuch as the vessel struck with little force, and, in fact, as has been described, simply glided in upon a smooth rock, where she lay with her bow considerably elevated. This circumstance, addled to the fact that the sea was tolerably calm at the time, tended to allay much of the commotion inevitably attendant upon disasters of the kind. Finding that there was no hope of relief otherwise, and having due regard to the safety of life above all other considerations, Captain Price, who throughout had co with the pilot in navigating the vessel, at once directed rockets to be fired to attract the attention of those on shore. The signals were in a short time seen by the coastguard, by whom the rocket apparatus was brought into requisition, and a line reached the vessel from the shore.

A communication having been thus established some seamen were sent ashore along the rope to arrange for the transference of others if necessary. This means of communication, however, was only availed of for the luggage. Boats were lowered; and there was at this point some disposition to panic and confusion, some of the firemen, amongst others, having evinced a disposition to make a rush to occupy the boats, Captain Price, however, at once announced his determination to shoot the first man, except the appointed crew, who should enter a beat until all the women and children had been landed. This prompt step at once served to restore confidence, and the women were all lowered down into the busts and safely landed.

In the same way the men were also conveyed ashore. The baggage, with little exception, was meantime secured, and passel along the rope, which extended to the shore. Being at a distance from a railway station, the passengers, of course, suffered some inconvenience; but they found refuge in various places until arrangements were made for their conveyance to the train.

Liverpool Daily Post,  11 May  1877.

Shortly before midnight, to the consternation of all on board, the steamer stranded on the East Mouse Rocks, situate about a mile to the west of the port of Amlwch, and not far from Point Lynas. From a telegram received last evening it appears that as soon as the steamer struck, rockets were fired, which attracted the attention of the coastguard, whose station was but a short distance from where the steamer stranded and the whole of the crew and passengers were rescued by the life-saving apparatus and by a ship's boat, and safely landed. Attention was then directed to the saving of cargo, it soon becoming apparent that grave doubts as to the steamer being got off' were justified by the perilous position in which she lay. These labours were continued until yesterday at noon, when the vessel parted and went down stern foremost. The captain and a number of men who were working on board at the time had a very narrow escape..

The Dakota, a passenger steamer belonging to the Guion line, ran on the East Mouse, near Amlwch harbour, late on Wednesday night, and has become a total wreck. She left Liverpool for New York on Wednesday evening, Captain Price, an old and experienced officer of the company, being in command. There  was a pilot on board, and about 300 passengers, a large number of them being Germans. At a quarter past ten, the night being very dark but clear, the ran dead on the East Mouse, a small reef about 200 yards from Amlwch harbour, and close to the coastguard station. The firing of rockets and the exhibition of signals of distress were promptly responded to by the coastguard, who with but little delay succeeded in connecting the lifesaving apparatus with the vessel, and by its means safely bringing off the greater portion of the passengers, the others being landed by the ship's boats, an operation which occupied about three hours. The rescued passengers walked to Amlwch, where accommodation was provided for them at the Disorben Arms and other hotels, several private residents also generously extending their hospitality to the strangers so unexpectedly cast into this quiet little seaport. 

How the steamer got into her present position is a matter which surprises everybody who has visited the scene of the wreck. She appears to have got a considerable distance out of the ordinary track, and, hugging the shore too closely, to havee been endeavouring to make her way through the narrow channel which divides the East Mouse from the mainland. 

Yesterday, Captain Price and the crew were engaged in endeavouring to remove the heavy baggage, but about noon the vessel broke in two, and her stern part went down, those on board having a narrow escape, and reaching shore by the life saving apparatus. The lifeboat was in attendance daring the time the passengers and crew were being taken off, and the exertions and promptitude of the coastguard in their successful endeavours to save life, and avert  disaster which might have equalled that which occurred at the loss of the Royal Charter, which was wrecked on the same line of coast, are very highly commended  on ail sides.

Several of the passengers left for Liverpool by the afternoon train; and at night a special train was run from Amlwch for their convenience.

The officers of the Dakota are naturally somewhat reticent about furnishing information as to the cause of the disaster; but no such reticence was shown by the passengers, many of whom were most anxious to volunteer an account of their brief voyage and its well-nigh tragic termination. One of them, a burly, good-humoured Scotchman, told our reporter-.'I had heard a good deal about the Dakota as being a first-rate, fast, and safe steamer, and having a good commander, and I was foolish enough to delay going by earlier boats to wait for her to take me across the ferry. We left Liverpool comfortably enough about six o'clock on Wednesday afternoon a large proportion of our living cargo being German emigrants. About half-past nine, I went on deck in my slippers to have a look at the coast and see what kind of a night it was. The night certainly was very dark, but there was neither mist nor fog, and a glimpse of the coast line could, I thought, be got now and then.'

About ten minutes after ten, seeing a light ahead, I went forward to the look-out to ask what the light was. Instead of finding, as I expected, an officer with a gold band round bis cap, I came across a lad dressed in dirty canvas clothing. What light might that be, my lad ? ' I asked him 'Holyhead, I believe,' was his answer. I went below, and was just going to turn in, when I heard, all of a sudden, a noise as if the vessel was scraping up the side of a rock. I suspected something was wrong, and on deck I ran, and I was not long without company, as most of the passengers turned out very sharply.

Rockets were fired, and in a bit we saw lights from houses on shore, which we after wards found out was the coastguard station. By this time there was an awful scene on deck. No one appeared to know what to do, there were too many. masters; too many orders were given; and, I am sorry to say, there was too much swearing, the oaths being enough to sink the ship. The Germans seemed not to understand what wag going on, and in what position and danger they were placed, and the poor women and children were shrieking and crying enough to break one's heart.

At last, the lifesaving apparatus was connected from the coastguard station, and, one by one, the women were put into the cradle and pulled across to land--a distance, I should gay, of about 150 yards. One woman, in her terror and excitement, left her little baby below, and cried out for it when in the cradle One of the crew took it ashore. Some of the male passengers also got ashore in the cradle, but many of us went in the ship's boat, which landed us in a very nasty place, there being almost the face of the rock to get up. When I got ashore I found no one to look after the poor women and children, who were huddled together in the cold bleak morning, crying bitterly; and after vainly ex postulating with some of the crew, I took them under my charge, and on we tramped together over wall and through heather almost up do our knees to Amlwch, and reached the Dinorben Arms at half peat two. What the captain and officers were doing all this time I cannot gay; bat I noticed a cabin passenger, evidently himself a naval officer, giving directions which helped a good deal to clear the passengers away.

The place where we landed was most dangerous for any vessel to be near, and if there had been any wind on a good many passengers would have never reached land."

The crew of the vessel, together with the cabin and steerage passengers, arrived at Lime-street station at midnight, under the charge of Mr. Rameden, the passenger who, upon the intimation received by the company in the morning, had proceeded immediately to Amlwch. It was evident from the appearance of the passengers that every care had been taken to conduce to their comfort. The cabin passengers were taken to the London and North Hotel, where a hearty meal was in readiness for them, and was as eagerly devoured. The steerage passengers were sent to lodgings previously provided for them, and the crew, nearly 100 in number, were despatched to the Sailors' Home.

The captain of the vessel and his principal officers remain at Amlwch. Whatever the fright the passengers received in consequence of the sudden stranding of the vessel, there seems little of melancholy left upon the countenances of those who were 20 providentially saved. Mr. Ramsden, whose geniality and kindness in his attention to the shipwrecked population was manifestly appreciated by eager inquiries by almost one and all after their arrival at the station, could of course have made only a cursory inquiry into the cause and the consequences of the disaster, bat he speaks highly from hearsay of the conduct of all. The captain, upon the lowering of the boats from the davits, directed that the women passengers should first be rescued, and he enforced his mandate by a threat that any one of the firemen or crew who dared enter a boat without his permission should be shot by himself.

The landing, however, took place without the necessity to resort to such extreme measures, and the crew and passengers were accommodated as comfortably as was possible in the small and  almost benighted village (in Wales it is called a town) of Amlwch. Mr. Ramadan left Amlwch last evening at seven o'clock, and though he admits that the vessel's stern was under water he denies that the ship had parted. He however, not doubt that the Dakota can ever be recovered. The crew and passengers will stay in Liverpool until Saturday, and them be shipped on board  the Wisconsin, bound for the same destination as the Dakota.

Liverpool Mercury, 11 May 1877.

It is said that the compasses on board the steamer were much affected by the electricity attending the storm which passed over the Welsh coast on Wednesday afternoon, and it is supposed the man at the wheel was thereby misled, and guided the ship on to the shore where she struck. Some of the German emigrants who returned to Liverpool are in great distress, in consequence of having lost everything which they possessed, and yesterday afternoon some of them, who had been temporarily lodged in Duke-street, were seen in the public thoroughfares wringing their hands and crying like little children over the results of the disaster. It is due to the company to ray that everything has been done, as far as possible, to alleviate the sufferings of the emigrants, and hopes are entertained that much of their luggage will yet be recovered, though necessarily much damaged by water.

Liverpool Mercury, 12 May  1877.

'The catastrophe, serious enough as it is, was not without one ludicrous feature at least. A part of the cargo consisted of three Russian bears which were being exported to America, and every attention was paid to the rescue of these as well as to the human inhabitants of the vessel. On board was the 'commodore' butcher of the Guion fleet, who takes charge of the beasts imported from the United States, and to his let it fell to induce the animals to be conveyed to shore. But Bruin was obstinate,  and so far declined the proffered services as to show his claws, and use them too. Two of them, we were, at length, conveyed to terra firma, by a boat, but the third thrown into the water by the, butcher, who, after suffering some severe became desperate, and ultimately landed safe. 'The oaths were enough to sink a ship,' spoken of in the narrative of a passenger, are supposed to have been used during the struggle to save the lives of these valuable but inappreciative beasts.

Liverpool Mercury,  12 May 1877.

The wreck of Dakota. Credit: Merseyside Maritime Museum.

Early reports stating  that  Dakota's stern had  broken off and sunk  the day after the accident, proved to be untrue. On 12 May 1877,  it  was reported  by  the Liverpool Salvage Association that Dakota's bow was high up on the  rocks, her stern submerged by 30 ft. at lower water, with  a 30  degree list, fore foot ripped off and bottom plating badly ripped and the hull filled  with  water. That day the Liverpool Daily Post added that "there  is  little hope of getting her off. With  good  weather  it  is  believed that  a large  portion of  the cargo  will  be saved."

On 16 May 1877, the Liverpool Post reported:   "The Guion steamer Dakota, which went on shore on the coast of Anglesy, on a voyage to New York, remains in the same precarious condition she occupied when she took the ground. The general impression is that she must inevitably break in pieces, and the owners, in anticipation, apparently, of that event, have advertised that the peremptory sale of the wreck will take place at the saleroom, Walmer-buildings, Water street, on Friday, at noon. Should, however, the present fine weather continue, a considerable salvage of the cargo is expected." On the 18th, the wreck of  Dakota, which cost £120,000 to build, was sold for £1,400.

The wrecked Transatlantic mail steamer Dakota, which still lies, it is said, in an unbroken state on the rocks on the coast of Anglesey, was yesterday sold by public auction, at the rooms of Kellock, shipbrokers, Water-street, for £1,400. It may be stated that the vessel was originally valued at about £105,000 and £80,000. The room in which the sale took place was very much crowded, a large portion of the company being no doubt attracted by mere curiosity. Mr. C. W. Kellock officiated as auctioneer, and, having read the terms of tale, announced that the underwriters offered 50 per cent. upon all cargo that was recovered, of which the estimated value of the amount still on board was no less than £25,000. After a short space a bid of £100 was made, which led to a succession of bids by advances of £250 till £500 was reached. The biddings then proceeded by advances of up to £1,000. The bidding was confined at this stage to three persons, to one of whom, Mr. John Lidder, of Manchester, the wreck was finally knocked down at £1.400. It is understood that Mr. Lidder represents Mr. J.King, of Manchester, who is a well-known purchaser of property of this description. The floated off, and that if bad weather were to set in general impression n among experienced persons who attended the sale was that the vessel cannot be the chances of effecting much salvage would be greatly diminished.

Liverpool Daily  Post, 19 May 1877.

Credit: Liverpool  Mercury, 25 May 1877.

Prior to the convening of the Board of Trade inquiry into  the ship's  loss, Capt. Price  made the following deposition:

The Dakota proceeded on her voyage from Liverpool at 5.45 p.m. on the 9th inst., the weather being dark and occasionally hazy. At 7.30 p.m. set course W. by N ¾ N. northerly. At 8.6 p.m., the North- West Lightship was a beam, distance about one mile. At 9.50 p.m. passed Point Lynas a-beam, distance about 24 miles.

At 9.55 p.m., ordered the course to be altered to N.W. A W. Instead of porting the helm, the men at the wheel starboarded. Having whited a short time to see if my orders wore carried out, and not being certain, I then went on the and touched the standard compass, finding her head W. by S. I sent the junior officer aft to make them port the helm, which he did. The pilot then came to me, and said the land was on the port bow. I ran to the forward bridge and found the engine stopped by order of the second officer (the officer of the deck), and put astern full speed. Having had the engines reversed, but not sufficiently long to stop her way, she struck on a reef of rocks inside the East Mouse, and remained fast about 170 yards from the cliff. Immediately signalled for assistance, which was given by the Coastguard with the lifesaving apparatus, which, with our own bouts and the Bull Bay lifeboat, landed all the passengers and crew safely.

The  inquiry closed on 31 May  1877 and  attached  blame on the loss of Dakota, for  "carelessness in various degrees to Captain Price  and the second and fourth officers,  but  did  not consider that  negligency  or  incompetency had been proved  to an extent warranting the withdrawal  of their certificates."

The Court having carefully inquired into the circumstances of the above-mentioned Shipping casualty, finds that the stranding of the steamer Dakota was due to the helm having been starboarded by mistake when the vessel was too near to the land, and to toe mistake not having been discovered time to prevent the vessel going ashore. The Court is farther of opinion that James Price, the Master, David Cruikshank, the Second Officer, and John James, the Fourth Officer of the vessel, are to blame for having allowed the vessel to get too close inshore, and for not having discovered until too late that the helm had been starboarded instead of ported. It accordingly reprimands them for their want of due care in the navigation of the vessel, but returns to them their certificates. 

Shipping and Mercantile Gazette, 21 June 1877.

Artifacts salvaged from the wreck of Dakota.  Credit:  People's Collection Wales.

The accident  to Dakota was also owing,  in part,  to  the now  forgotten, and  even at  the  time,  archaic, manner in which  many  of the biggest passenger steamers were still, as ships were  in ancient times, from the stern of ship, far distant  from the watch  officers on fore and, in many cases, midships "navigation  bridges"  and  communication was as awkward and cumbersome  as  the method of making course  changes which entailed a  succession of orders passed down the length of the ship.  This  practice came in  for  considerable  criticism in a  lead article in  Nautical Magazine:

Bridge Steering Gear by  Captain Miller

The advantage of steering steamers from the bridge, is to most people with any nautical knowledge, so self evident, that it is difficult to understand how it is

that there are yet many fine steamers that adhere to the old method of steering at the after end of the ship. This was the case with the large steamer Dakota, of the Guion Line, recently lost on the East Mouse, a few hours after leaving Liverpool. What a picture of bungling, consequent on her steering arrangements, came out in evidence. The captain, on No. 2 bridge in the waist, suddenly makes out the lights on the land, and thinking he was too close, gives the order to No. 1 bridge, abaft the foremast to port; the 2nd officer, who has charge of No. 1 bridge, telegraphs the order to No. 3 bridge, situated aft about 30 feet from the wheel-house, and the 4th officer, whose station was on No. 3 bridge, whistles the signal to the helmsman, whom he cannot see, and with whom he has no other means of communicating except by leaving his station and going to the wheel-house. Of course some time naturally elapses, for when a ship of the Dakota's length is going 14 knots, it takes considerable time before she can be made to feel the effect of any change in the helm, especially where, as in the present case, the helm is worked by the slow process of hand. The captain, however, ultimately discovers that the lights that were on his port, are now on his starboard bow, and becomes conscious of the fact that the helm has been put to starboard instead of port. He then sends the 4th officer to the wheel-house to see the helm ported, and when that officer reaches there, some altercation takes place between him and the helmsman, as to whether the helm had been put to port or starboard. The captain becoming anxious and impatient, ultimately rushes aft himself to see why his orders are not executed, and the 2nd officer, probably becoming alarmed at seeing the ship running on to the land, leaves his station on No. 1 bridge, and goes on No. 2 to find the captain. In the mean time, this fine steamer that had cost £105,000, runs on to the rocks, and becomes a total wreck.

This serious loss may therefore very fairly be placed to the debit of the old method of steering at the after end of the ship, for had the ship been steered on the bridge, none of the bungling that took place could have occurred. The moment the captain gave the order to port, he could then have seen for himself as soon as a spoke of the wheel was moved, whether his order was understood, and whether it was being promptly carried out. He could also have assisted, as the exigency of the moment required it, to carry out his own order, and without having to leave his proper post of duty on such a delicate occasion. Judging from all the circumstances of the case, there can be no doubt, if the captain's order to port had been promptly obeyed, which would have been the case had the vessel been steered on the bridge, the ship would have run clear. The course at the time the order was given, was W. by N. N., and the ship went on shore with her head in a S.W. direction. If, therefore, there was time for the helmsman to starboard, and get the ship's head about 6 points in the wrong direction, and still port the helm in time to be able to dispute the fact with the 4th officer, that the helm had not been put to starboard-if there was time, I say, for all this, before the ship struck the rocks, then there must have been ample time to have avoided them, if the order to port had been promptly obeyed, and even time to have brought the ship's head direct off shore.

In this ship, the duty of seeing that the ship made her course, was apparently left to a junior officer, and the standard compass was on No. 3 bridge, where the 4th officer was stationed to conn the ship. The 2nd officer again was stationed on No. 1 bridge, with a steering telegraph to No. 3, but on what bridge the communication with the engine-room was, did not transpire. To comment on these arrangements, does not properly belong to my subject; I shall therefore not enter here into any discussion of their disadvantages, but simply state in passing that, in order to lessen risks, avoid collisions, and promote safe and accurate navigation, every steamer of any reasonable size, ought to have one navigating bridge, from which the captain, or officer in charge, commands the ship. On this bridge the ship ought to be steered, and it ought to have on it wheel-house, chart-room, elevated standard compass, telegraph to engine-room, fog-whistle, and also some simple mechanical contrivance connected with the engines, to show when they move a-head and when they turn a-stern. To place a person in command on a bridge where these requisites to prompt action and correct navigation are absent and scattered all over the ship, is like chaining a man down to some spot with his hands tied behind him, expecting him to face a number of enemies, and holding him responsible if he allows them to surround him. All that any man could do in such a case would be to bellow out, and all that a person in charge on such a bridge can do, when he is being surrounded by inattention, mistakes, misunderstandings, and blunders, is to bellow out also, but whether his bellowing will be heard, or if heard understood, is quite another question, as going 14 knots against even a moderate breeze will create such a bellowing on a ship's deck, as will entirely neutralize any powers of bellowing that the person in charge may be possessed of.

Instead of having the standard compass in some other part of the ship, and left to a junior officer to see that the ship makes her course, it contributes much more to accurate navigation, to have a transparent elevated compass fixed on the bridge, that the person in charge while pacing it, by a slight elevation of the eye, can check the steering, and satisfy himself that the course is being made good. The action of the compass also is much better in this part of the ship, and, as experience teaches, is the only proper place for a standard.

With a bridge thus furnished, the person in charge of it has something like full command of the ship. When he gives any important order connected with her safe navigation, he can without leaving his natural station, and without having to depend on blundering messengers, or on the perfect working of telegraphs which sometimes go wrong before repairs are thought necessary, or break down at some critical moment when least expected, he can, I say, see for himself that his orders are actually carried out. The giving of an order from the bridge by a person in command of the movements of a large steamer, bearing on her safe navigation, is only discharging one-half of his duty, the other and equally important half to life and property, is to see himself that his order is promptly and properly executed; but where the means of doing this are so spread over the ship, as appears to have been in the case of the Dakota, it is, of course, an impossibility, as the means are placed completely outside of his range.

Now  a solitary  sister, Montana, left Liverpool for New  York on 23 May 1877, and calling at Queenstown the next day,  arrived at New York the evening of 1 June, only  to come into collision with  the schooner yacht Eddy in the Lower Bay:

As the steamer Montana, from Liverpool, was the Bay at 10 o'clock last night, when off coming up West Bank she ran into the schooner yacht Eddy, carrying way the jib boom, bowsprit, and cutwater of the  yacht. The port bows were broken in and the schooner began to leak badly. The steamer did not stop to ascertain what had been done, or if any assistance was wanted, went on damage, her course. As soon as the wreck was cleared the schooner was found to be in a sinking condition, and was taken in tow by a fishing schooner and towed to Staten Island.

New York Tribune, 2 June 1877.

From New York on 12 June 1877, Montana called at Queenstown at noon on the 21st and arrived at Liverpool on  the 22nd.

Clearing Liverpool on 11 July 1877 and Queenstown the following day,  Montana went out with 31 cabin and 160 steerage passengers, including Stephen Barker Guion and daughter.   It was a difficult passage especially  for  the time of year, with strong  westerlies and heavy head seas all the way to the  Grand Banks and then  "frequent  fogs" on the  way  down to New York where  she arrived on the  20th.  

Casting off  from Pier 53 North River  at 9:00 a.m. on 31 July 1877,  Montana numbered among her passengers 50 skilled American carpenters to  be  employed by R. Niell  &  Sons, of  Manchester, for a six-month  contract, earning six  shillings a day  and advance of their  passage  fare of  $26."The New York Carpenters' Trade Union unsuccessfully endeavoured to dissuade the men from leaving, but one of them declared that it was not so much low wages that drove them from the United States as the perpetual strife with employers. Large crowds assembled to witness their departure." (Liverpool Mercury,  4 August 1877).  Montana made Queenstown at 2:00 a.m. on 10  August.  Strikes in America  caused  her  arrive at Liverpool with not  a single quarter of  beef aboard.

The westbound  Montana left Liverpool on 22 August and Queenstown the following  afternoon,  having aboard a rare capacity  list in cabin class,  and arrived at New York on the 31st. Clearing  her  berth at 8:00 a.m. to make the tide, Montana left New York  on 11 September with a mail consignment totalling 22,130  letters, 263  registered letters  and  35  bags of newspapers. She arrived on the Mersey  on the 22nd.

Departing  Liverpool on 3 October 1877 and Queenstown at  2:00  p.m. on the  4th, Montana made New York on the  12th. The loading of the ship  for her return crossing was  enlivened on the 16th when the lighter W.A. Palmer, laden with cotton to be embarked aboard, capsized and although her crew  was rescued, the bales floated down the North River and immediately set upon by "a swarm of dock  thieves"  who attempted to retrieve the  bales and only  to be fought  off  by police  in a two-hour  riverfront battle. In the end, most of  the cotton was  pulled out  of the  river  only to  catch fire  and in the  end, the whole consignment, worth $5,000,  was destroyed.

Montana sailed from New York 23 October 1877 at 6:00 a.m. and  had a fast trip  across, getting  into  Queenstown at 7:00 a.m. on 1  November, meeting her outbound fleetmate Wisconsin there. 

Credit: The New York Times, 23 November 1877.

New York-bound again, Montana passed out  of  the Mersey on 7 November 1877 and Queenstown the  following  day and did  not  arrive at New York until 8:00 p.m. on the 21st, encountering heavy gales and head seas all the way  across and landing what  must  have been 57 passengers thoroughly glad to  be off her.

The Montana began her voyage at noon of Nov. 7. She had fine weather down the Channel, but on leaving the Irish coast ran into a storm on Nov. 9 the barometer began to fall and all the indications of a tempest were observed. The storm came on rapidly, and from its beginning raged with great vigor.

The velocity the wind phenomenal and the sea rose in waves that dashed over the steamer. At times there were squalls that threatened to break the vessel to pieces. The storm reached its height on the night of Sunday, Nov. 11. During the whole day 'the green water,' one of the officers of the Montana remarked, broke over her guards and bow. In the evening a 'living gale' sprang up, and was so severe that thought the steamer would be unable to survive it. The barometer fell to a remarkably low point, marking for a long period only 28.40. The sea ran immensely high, and swept the decks of the steamer. The  wave broke six of the life-boats on her deck, dashing them from their davits and against the bulwarks, rendering them valueless. A succeeding wave wrecked the wheel house and a third stove in the housing above the engine room. The ship labored greatly under the extreme force of the blows continually inflicted upon her, and rolled no that it was hard for those on board to move about. To add to the trouble of the mariners they had to run the steamer by dead reckoning. From Nov. 9 until Monday last not an observation was taken. On the latter date the weather moderated, and the sun was seen at intervals. The rest of the passage was quiet and uneventful. Capt. Beddoe, the commander of the Montana, in praised highly for his skill, which is attested by his success in bringing his vessel safely through tempests that drove other steamers back to port, and have delayed about a week most of those that kept on their course.

New York Times, 23 November 1877.

Having an easier time of it eastbound, Montana  reached  Queeenstown  on 7 December 1877 at 4:00 a.m., having departed New York at 11:00 a.m. 27 November 1877.   

Squeezing in one more crossing before the year was out, Montana embarked her  passengers at 11:00 a.m. off Prince's Landing Stage on 22 December 1877 and cleared Queenstown the following  day for New York. After "a splendid run  of eight days and  a few hours," (New  York Daily  Herald,  1 January 1878), Montana  arrived the morning of New Years Eve.  

In 1877, Montana completed 9 westbound and 8  eastbound  crossings and Dakota  completed 2 westbound and 3 eastbound crossings.  

1878

Montana cleared New York on 8 January 1878 for home, passing fleetmate Nevada 147 miles from Sandy Hook and getting into Queenstown at 3:35 p.m. on the  17th and Liverpool the following day.  Among her cargo were 1,000 quarters of beef and 246  quarter  of  mutton.

Having departed Liverpool  on 26 January 1878, Montana called at Queenstown on the 27th and made New York  on 6 February.   Commencing  her eastbound  crossing from Pier 53  North River  at  noon on  the  12th, Montana put  in a slow passage, arriving at Queenstown at  8:40 p.m. on the 21st  and getting  into the Mersey  the following  day at 2:00 p.m., reporting "very heavy  weather  on the  passage, losing some of her  boats,  etc.; the  vessel is slightly  damaged." (Liverpool  Mercury, 25 February). 

For New York, Montana cleared Liverpool  on 2 March 1878 and Queenstown on the 3rd and arrived there on the  12th. Eastbound, she left on the 19th  and  her  mail consignment comprised 36,509 letters and 41 bags of  newspapers and after calling at Queenstown at 12:10 a.m. on the  28th, returned to the Mersey  on the 29th.

Although  Montana  and Dakota had certainly not fulfilled  their expectations or specifications, the loss of Dakota prompted  the contracting of a replacement  and a new relationship with John Elder & Co. of  Glasgow, ending  Guion's longstanding relationship with Palmers,  who after the  dismal  results with Montana and Dakota got out  of  the  passenger ship business entirely  and concentrated on naval contracts.   John Elder, on the board of Guion Line, cut  a deal to build, at cost, a much larger replacement for the lost  Dakota  which was announced in March 1878, already  to be named Arizona. 

Both westbound from Liverpool on 6 April 1878, Montana and Cunard's  Russia, called the  following day at Queenstown. Montana number among her 133 passengers "S.B. Guion" and daughter Miss C. Guion.   Montana got into New York on the  15th. She beat the Cunard  liner in by 16 hours.

Clearing Pier 46, North River, at 10:00 a.m. on 23 April 1878, Montana's departure was advertised the  previous  day  in the New York Times, reminding readers that the  Guion "steamers carry  only [first  cabin] passengers each, and the wants of this limited number are studied  and fully  attended to." She went with a  good saloon list as well  as 28,881 letters and 46 bags of  newspapers and made Queenstown at 11:00 p.m. on 2 May and  Liverpool  on  the  3rd.

Westbound  once  again, Montana passed out  of  the Mersey on 11  May  1878, clearing  Queenstown on  the 12th.    And once again, it was Montana  and Russia crossing together, each leaving Queenstown within  two  and half hours  of  one another.  Montana, passing  Sandy  Hook at 10:30 p.m. on the 20th, beat the  Cunarder in by eight hours,  averaging over  12 knots with a best day's run of 367 miles on the 18th.

Casting off from Pier North River  at 2:00 p.m. on 28 May 1878, Montana went out with a big  mail consignment of 33,698  letters and 42 bags of newspaper and full saloon list. Calling at Queenstown at 9:20  a.m. on 7 June, she arrived  at Liverpool  the following day. Russia and Montana again crossed together, the  Cunard liner making  Queenstown at  4:55 p.m. on the  7th.

Just  prior to  her departure for  New York on 15 June 1878,  Montana, lying in the river, off Woodside, was struck  by  the  schooner  Ocean Maid (100 tons) which sank within ten minutes but all her crew rescued. The Guion liner, undamaged, was able to  sail on schedule.  Among her passengers was a group of 222  Mormons, emigrating  to Utah, many of whom were from Glasgow and  Greenock; "the majority of  the emigrants were young  and blooming girls,  aged 18 to 24." (The Herald). Most of  the others  (110 in all)  were from Berne,  Switzerland.  That summer season match-up between Montana and Russia continued, with both clearing  within a few hours  of each other on the 16th,   Again, the Guion liner had  the best of it, arriving at New York at 10:00 a.m. on the 25th followed by Russia at 2:00  p.m..   This despite "a slight accident to the machinery  of  the Montana caused  her  to  anchor  for  about  two hours to make  repairs,"  before  coming  up the Bay. 

The  day  before departure for England, Montana's officers presented Capt. Charles J. Beddoe with  a silver cup  in recognition of  his  service, this  being  his final  voyage  prior  to retirement after 30 years at sea.   He  took out Montana the next  morning at 6:00 a.m.  on 2 July 1878 on a very  well patronised sailing,  having  a  record  114 saloon passengers, the most yet  carried by a Guion Line steamer and with  every cabin booked. It alas proved  another  star-crossed voyage the ship which finally came into  Queenstown at 12:10 p.m. on the 17th, a week overdue, after she broke her  main engine  crank shaft in mid Atlantic on the 8th. Her  engineers  managed  a temporary  repair (after seven attempts) so she  could  resume passage at  about  six  knots. 

This steamer arrived in the river yesterday from New York, seven days overdue. As already stated, the cause the delay was an accident her machinery. She left New York on the morning of the 2nd inst., on the 8th the crank-shaft of one of the engines broke, and the remainder of tho voyage had be made with one engine going half speed. The weather, fortunately, was favourable and calm, and no serious difficulty was the navigation of the steamer  which covered from 104 miles to 148 daily after the accident. After the Montana  had been reported in sight tugs were sent to her  assistance,  but  they  were not required. Those passengers who did  not  disembark at Queenstown were off taken off the steamer by  the  tug Knight  Templar about  fifteen miles  from Liverpool.  

Prior to being taken off,  a  congratulatory address was presented to Captain  Beddow,  the master  of  the  Montana  bearing testimony  to his skill, care  and efficiency  as  a  navigator, and to  the  skill  of the  chief engineer  of  the steamer, and expressing the passengers' thankfulness to Captain Beddoe  for his  untiring attention to  the security  and comfort. 

Manchester Evening News, 20 July 1878.

Montana arrived in the Mersey on 19 July 1878 and her remaining passengers and 980 quarters of frozen beef.

Now  commanded  by  Capt. Jones, Montana's  originally  scheduled next departure for  New  York on 20 July was put forward a  week to the 27th, but this was soon cancelled owing to the need to cast a new  shaft and effect other repairs. 

Montana finally  resumed service on sailing from Liverpool on 24 August 1878 and from Queenstown the  next day. She arrived at New York at 4:00 p.m.  on 2 September. Clearing Pier 38 North River at  3:00 p.m. on 10  September,  Montana arrived at Queenstown at 6:40 a.m. on the 19th and proceeded to Liverpool, getting in the next day. 

From Liverpool on  28 September 1878 and  Queenstown the following  day (clearing at 7:30 a.m. with 111  passengers aboard),  Montana was once again  New  York-bound and put  in a fine passage across, arriving off  Sandy  Hook at 6:40 a.m.  on 7  October, logging 7  days 23 hours from Daunt's  Rock. 

It was another early, tide  dependent, departure  for Montana's  officers, crew  and passengers on 15 October 1878,  clearing  Pier 38  at  7:00 a.m..   The Guion Line advertisements at the time summed  up  the considerable  virtues  of  booking  passage  in Montana  and her  fleetmates: "These steamers and built of iron, in water tight compartments, are furnished with every requisite to make passage across the Atlantic both safe and agreeable, having bath-room, smoking-room, drawing room, piano, and library: also, experienced surgeon, stewardess, caterer on each. The staterooms are all on deck, thus insuring those greatest of all luxuries at sea, perfect ventilation and light." (New York Times 11 October). Montana made  Queenstown at 9:50 a.m. on the 24th and  arrived  at  Liverpool the next  day.

Montana's next crossing  to New York  commenced  from Liverpool on 2  November  1878, and calling at Queenstown on the 3rd, she got into New York on the  11th. Noon on 19th found Montana  casting off from Pier 38 North River  for Queenstown and  Liverpool, arriving at the  former at 3:00 a.m. of the 29th and the later reached the following  day. Whilst anchored in Mersey upon arrival, Montana's anchor  was fouled by  the  steamer  Times from Belfast, but undamaged. 

Getting in another voyage before the  year was out, Capt.  Jones took  Montana out of  the Mersey  on 7  December  1878, calling at Queenstown the  next day and made New York on the  16th. With her passengers embarking  the  previous  evening, Montana left New York  at 5:30  a.m. on Christmas Eve and came into the Mersey  early on the 4th. Among  her cargo was 2,700  quarters of  beef, 500  sheep and 500  pigs.

In 1878, Montana completed 9 westbound and 10  eastbound  crossings.  

1879

Montana left  Liverpool on 11 January  1879 and Queenstown the next day and had a slow passage across, not reaching New York until the 23rd, reporting encountering strong westerly  gales the  entire passage.  

Sailing from New York on 28 January 1879,  Montana made Queenstown at 3:30 p.m.on  7  February,  arriving Liverpool the following day. That time of year, the ship's carryings of  American meat was far more  impressive  than her  passenger figures and she came in with 2,750 quarters of beef and 1,100 carcasses of mutton, "which  is about  the largest quantity ever carried  in a single steamer." (Liverpool Daily  Post, 10 February). 

After her annual drydocking  and overhaul,  Montana resumed service upon her  departure from Liverpool (Queenstown the next day) on 15 March 1879.  She did not get into New York until the 27th, bringing in 46 immigrants only 15 cabin passengers.  Noon on April Fool's  Day saw Montana casting off  from Pier 38 North  River and calling at Queenstown at 9:45 p.m. on the  11th, arrived at Liverpool the  following day.

Although initially scheduled to sail  again on 26  April  1879, this was  cancelled and  Montana did not  depart  again for New York  until 21 June,  calling at  Queenstown on the 22nd.  Despite  the  time  of year,  she  had  a difficult  passage, with  "strong W and WSW  winds, with  high head seas, throughout  the passage, and arrived at New York at 6:30 p.m.  on 1 July. Departing New  York at  11:30 a.m. on the 8th, Montana called  at Queenstown at 9:00 a.m. on the 17th and "proceeded for  Liverpool immediately"where she arrived the  next day.

Now commanded by Capt. Henry Gadd, Montana cleared Liverpool 26 July 1879 and Queenstown the following  day.  New York was reached at 1:25 p.m. on 5  August.  With what the  New  York Times called "a comparatively small" passenger list,  Montana sailed eastbound at 12:30 p.m. on the 12th, and did so almost  without one  of her  firemen  who made an  astonishing  effort to get aboard  after  she  had  cleared her berth:

When the steam-ship Montana, of the Guion Line, started from her pier, at the foot of King street, yesterday afternoon. bound for Liverpool, it was noticed that one of her crew, a fireman, named William Lynch, had been left behind. The vessel was a short distance out in the stream when the belated and seaman, in a tipsy condition, made his appearance, and without waiting to reflect,  and being apparently determined  to reach  his ship  at all hazards,  quickly  three off his  cap and jacket and plunged  into  the  river. Handicapped as he was by his heavy clothes and boots, be proved himself an excellent swimmer, but the distance between him and the Montana was become gradually increasing, and it was feared that he might become exhausted. A boat went to his assistance. To the astonishment of all he declined the proffered aid, but  a half  a minute later another  boat,  belonging  to the Guion Steam-ship Company, came  alongside  the swimmer and picked him up. At the same time the Montana,  which was veering around to turn her  bow down stream, slacked up, and in a very  few minutes the dripping fireman was  on board  his  vessel. The  ship was delayed  about  five minutes.

New York  Times,  13 August 1879.

The Guion steamship Montana had swung off from her pier in the North River on Tuesday afternoon, to begin her voyage to Liverpool, when breathless, red-faced sailor dashed on to the pier. He watched the ship slowly moving outward for moment, as if in doubt what to do. Then his resolution was apparently formed. Stripping off his jacket, have he tossed it to a friend, and with the remark, I'll her yet!" he sprang into the water. He sank out of sight for a moment, and when he came to the surface he was thirty yards away.

An exciting group of spectators watched the man's reckless plunge, and as he struck out in the wake of the ship, now almost to the New Jersey side, many predictions were made that he would sink exhausted in the strong current The friend who stood on the pier, was unmoved. said he, Bill'll make her, I know him." A rowboat in the swimmer's course, and he clambered into it, and, taking the he tried to overtake his ship. He got alongside of her, but no response was made to his calls to be taken aboard. Then he sprang into the water, and his comrades on the ship, seeing his peril, threw him line, and hauled him on board, dripping and exhausted.

New York  Herald,  14 August 1879.

Passing the  Fastnet at 9:10 p.m. on the 21st, Montana arrived at Liverpool 23 August  1879.

Among those embarking in Montana  at  Liverpool on 30 August 1879 was  George  Hazael, the long  distance  runner, bound for the  world's  long  distance championship  in New  York.  Clearing Queenstown on the  31st, Montana made New York  at 8:00 p.m. on 8  September where she landed 297 passengers. Montana commenced her eastbound crossing at 4:00 p.m. on 16 September 1879 and  made Queenstown on the  25th  and Liverpool  the next  day.

Credit: New  York Daily Herald, 17 October 1879.

"A Steam-tender, with  the Saloon Passengers, for  the  Montana, will leave  the Prince's Landing  Stage, punctually at Half-past Eleven  a.m.,  this  day (Saturday), 4th  inst.,"  so read the sailing announcement in  the  Liverpool  Daily  Post of  4  October  1879.  Clearing  Queenstown at 4:00 p.m. the  next  day and finally got into  New York  on the 15th after what the New York  Daily  Herald  called "A Terrible  Voyage":

The steamship Montana, of the Guion line, left Liverpool for this port on the 4th of October, and reached here on Wednesday night after encountering a storm of very unusual severity. The ship was in a perilous position for a short time and there was great alarm and excitement among the passengers. Two lives were lost- -one of a passenger and the other a member of the crew. The men were washed overboard and drowned. A narrative of the terrible storm by a passenger, and a statement from the purser will be found below:

'We left Liverpool on the 4th of October,' said one of the passengers to a reporter,' in a westerly wind, the breeze being fresh and fine. We had fogs and it was cold, but all went well until Friday, the 10th. On the 9th, however, there was 3 strong breeze from the southeast. It was cloudy and it was evident that a storm was coming up. On Friday, the 10th-an unlucky day, indeed, on this occasion the wind continued strong and there was a heavy southerly swell. This was the beginning, as we afterward found, of one of the most terrible storms over experienced in the Atlantic at this time of year. All Friday night it was very rough, and when we turned out next day we found the gale increasing to an awful extent. It was almost a miracle that enabled the ship to live through it. On Saturday morning her position was in latitude 45 deg. 24 min., longitude 50 deg. 56 min.

The wind had shifted to the northeast and was blowing a hurricane. It was almost impossible to have breakfast or to get about the ship. The sea was running mountains high and the wind was blowing with terrific force.

I and five others who ventured on deck were able to get to the smoking room by hanging on to the rails. From there we could watch the storm by holding fast to stationary objects. The captain had been obliged to put the ship before the wind as a measure of safety. She was fairly flying over the waves, but seemed to ride beautitully and safely over them. I managed to get up on the bridge with the second officer, and while holding on for dear life I could not but wonder at the terrible fury of the storm. One moment the ship would be lifted up by a gigantic wave, and the next we would drop down into the trough of the sea, imprisoned by walls of water on all sides.

Every few moments a terrific wave would strike us with a shock that made the vessel tremble from stem to stern. After running before the gale for some time and finding it increase the captain decided upon going about and heaving to. In a few words he warned the sailors to look out for their lives, He ordered the engines stopped, and then caused the wheel to be put hard down. Then the.engines were started slowly, aud to turn the ship about was to go directly in the teeth of the gale. As the seas struck us the great ship's course was changed, and as she wore around she careened over so that her beam ends were under. They tell me that even the captain held his breath as the ship went through the trough of the sea. The position at this critical interval was as dangerous as it could be, and had a heavy sea struck us at this time we would probably have gone to destruction. At this time I and three others were in the smoking room, and we thought it was all over.

In the saloon a terrible scene was taking place. Panic-stricken passengers were crying and screaming and ladies were fainting. To make matters worse a sea was shipped, into the engine room, which sent a puff of steam into the saloons with a hissing sound. This caused an alarm of fire, and for a short time there was terrible excitement.

Heavy seas continued to break over us, and at quarter past one a gigantic wave washed away large lifeboat, crushing it into a thousand pieces. Later on, others were damaged, until only one seaworthy boat was left.

At the time the first boat was crushed the first loss of lite occurred. Two steerage passengers were standing near the funnel. The same wave. which smashed the boat swept them away. One of them managed to grasp the rail just as he was going over.

He was quickly rescued, but his companion wan never seen again. I do not know his name, but he was travelling alone. He lived in Pennsylvania Shortly after this, while the sailors were trying to secure the foresail, another heavy sea dashed over us. One of the sailors, named Michael Higgins, was swept overboard and drowned, and another was badly hurt. At eight p.m. the fury of the hurricane had in nowise abated. The sails had been cut or blown away, one of the funnels dismantled and the wheelman's place on the bridge broken up. During the night there was not much sieep among the passengers. The ship's bell kept tolling with the pitching of the ship, and the scene was a dismal one. The engine had been kept going just enough to keep the ship's head in the right position.

The only other noteworthy incident of the voyage was the relief of a starving crew which we ran across on the 6th of October. We sighted a bark flying signals of distress, and found her to be the Perseverance, of Bristol, bound from an American port to Bristol. She had been sixty-three days at sea and had run short of provisions. For fifteen days they had had nothing but ship bread and water.' 

From a statement made to a Herald reporter afterward by the ship's purser it appears that the unfortunate passenger who was lost was named E. Simpson. He was forty years old. The purser also states that only one of the ship's boats was lost and another damaged.

New York Daily Herald, 17 October 1879.

On Friday and Saturday last, while off the Banks of Newfoundland, very heavy weather was experienced by the Guion steam-ship Montana, which arrived on Wednesday afternoon. A severe westerly gale blowing all Friday night, and the high head seas which opposed her, retarded her progress considerably. A great deal of water was shipped, but no damage was done until 1 o'clock on Saturday afternoon, when a tremendous sea broke over the upper decks near the smoke stack. E. Simpson,a steerage passenger, who was walking on the port side of the deck, was washed overboard, and a companion, who had had taken refuge under the lee of a funnel, saw him struggling in the trough of the sea. The alarm was given immediately, but nothing could be done to save the man. A seaman named Thomas Higgins was also missing. There is no doubt that he was swept overboard at the same time the passenger was lost. The  heavy sea washed away one of  the starboard life-boats and smashed in another on the port side.

New York Times, 17 October 1879.

Departing New York at 10:00 a.m. on 21 October  1879, Montana got into Queenstown on the 30th and  Liverpool the next day

Montana cleared the  Mersey on 8 November 1879 and Queenstown at 11:00 a.m.  the  following day and reached New York on the  17th. Her eastbound crossing, commencing at 2:30 p.m. on the 25th, arrived at Queenstown at 5:30 a.m.on  5 December and Liverpool the  following day. Among her cargo landed there  was 120 tons of beef and 14 tons of  mutton. 

A planned  last crossing of  the year, from Liverpool, on 13 December 1879 was cancelled and Montana's annual overhaul brought forward. 

In 1879, Montana completed 7 westbound and 7  eastbound  crossings.  

1880

Embarking her passengers at 3:00 p.m. on 10 January 1880, Montana left Liverpool on her  first sailing  of  the year.   That season, her  opposite number in the Cunard  fleet for Saturday sailings  would  be  Gallia and both  called the  next  day  at Queenstown, Montana leaving  there at  6:00  p.m., later than usual  and presumably waiting for mail.  She  reached  New  York on the 20th.  Getting  away at 8:00 a.m. on the  27th, Montana made Queenstown at 5:00 p.m. on 5 February and  Liverpool the following day.  She came in well laden with American meat, totalling 2,600  quarters  of beef and 1,000  carcasses of mutton. 

From Liverpool on 14 February 1880 and leaving Queenstown the next  day  at 2:00 p.m., Montana  arrived at New York on the 25th after experiencing "very severe  gales" all the way  to  the Grand Banks as did  all five other  steamers arriving  that  day. Together they came in with 1,782 immigrants, with 150 aboard the Guion liner.  

Clearing New York at noon 2 March 1880, Montana went out with 2,600 quarters of beef and 1,000 carcasses of  mutton for  Liverpool  among her  4,000-ton cargo, but  having only  18 cabin and seven steerage passengers aboard. Calling at Queenstown at 11:15  a.m. on the 12th, Montana ran onto the rocks around 3:00 a.m. the next  day  off Anglesea Coast, Church Bay, about  four miles from Holyhead,  remarkably  just  miles from where  Dakota met a similar  demise. 

Credit:  Liverpool  Daily Post,  15 March 1880.

A very serious disaster, which, it is feared, will involve the total loss of a fine Transatlantic mail boat, occurred to the Guion steamer Montana, on Saturday morning, near Holyhead, During the prevalence of a fog the steamer, which was on her homeward passage from New York to Liverpool with several passengers, the mails, and a large general cargo, ran in upon the rocks at Church Bay, on the Anglesey coast, about four miles from Holyhead, and has since lain there in a very precarious position. There has been, happily, no loss of life connected with the disaster. The accident placed the passengers in no immediate peril as the ship remained intact, the sea being tolerably smooth and the distance to the shore inconsiderable, though there was some difficulty in landing close to the place of the disaster. The occurrence took place about three o'clock on Saturday morning, the vessel having left Queenstown on the previous day. The passage from Queenstown was, generally speaking, a good one, and up to an advanced hour of the night there was but little appearance of fog.

Interviews with the passengers who arrived in Liverpool on Saturday night by the steam tug Sea King, which was the first vessel which reached the stranded steamer, enable as to state that according to the report of those who were latest on deck there was starlight up to one o'clock in the morning, though there was some appearance of a low lying haze or a fog gathering. The vessel was under the charge of Captain Gadd, a commander, it is said, of great experience, who enjoyed the fullest confidence of his employers, and graduated with them from fourth officer until he attained command, which he has for many years held to the greatest satisfaction of the company. As the captain remains by the ship, and has not yet made his authoritative statement, it would be premature in the absence of his explanations, which will be submitted in the usual course to formal inquiry, to suggest further reason for the disaster than may be found in the weather conditions at the time of the casualty. It is said, however, that when the passengers and others were aroused in consequence of the striking of the vessel it was both foggy and very dark.

The master, and Captain O'Neill, the second officer, were both on the bridge at the time. There was also on board the vessel a Liverpool pilot who would take charge of the steamer coming into this port, but is said not to have bad responsibility to the navigation when the accident occurred. There were not many passengers on board-- only twenty-three in all; as, although accommodation frequently cannot be found for all the applicants for berths on the outward voyage, on the return passage there are sometimes only a small number of passengers of those on board the Montana all were saloon passengers, with the exception of a few intermediate, and of the total number only six were females.

The passengers were all in bed when the vessel struck, and only some of them were aroused by the shock. The vessel bumped heavily three or four times, and after a hard grating along the rocks became fixed forward with a list of about twenty degrees to port, the fore compartment becoming time partly full of water. The tide  was  falling at the  time.  Dr.  F.H.  Girdner was the first  of  the passengers who reached the deck, and he states that the captain at once directed him to arouse the remainder of the passengers in case it should be necessary to take to the boats. The precaution was then promptly taken to prepare the boats for lowering. The close position of the ship to the land was speedily ascertained, and the captain and officers were able to allay the anxiety which was naturally felt by many under the circumstances. The passengers say that there was no panic whatever, and speak in unqualified terms of the consideration displayed by the captain and officers on the occasion, and the discipline and steadiness of the crew.

As soon as the exact lie of the land, and the circumstances of the case were fairly ascertained, opportunity was afforded to those who wished to do so at once to make for the shore in the boats. After the passengers had dressed and prepared themselves two boats were dispatched. The third officer and the pilot went with the first boat which was despatched, and which contained six ladies and some children. This boat made for Holyhead, where the occupants were safely landed, and received due attention. In the second boat, which was under the charge of the fourth officer, a number of the male passengers embarked. This boat made straight for the shore, and a landing was effected among the rocks, from whence the people proceeded inland, and sought shelter in some peasants' cottages. Later on, when the tide was lower, these latter passengers returned to the ship. Meantime cannon were tired at intervals on board the steamer, and blue lights and general signals of distress displayed.

The lights from the stranded vessel were sighted at a quarter-past five by the master of the Sea King, who was on his way to Holyhead at the time to take a ship in tow. She at once bore down towards the Montana, and the passengers who had returned to the steamer, together with a large contingent of the crew and the general baggage, were all safely transhipped to the tug, which then made for Holyhead, where the female passengers were embarked. The mails were also conveyed to Holyhead. The Sea King arrived at the Liverpool Landing-stage about ten o'clock on Saturday night, where Mr. George Kamden, the manager of the passenger department of the company, awaited them and made every arrangement for their comfort.

Among the passengers was one lady who had already experienced the vicissitude of shipwreck immediately before her arrival in New York, where she embarked on the Montana soon after her rescue. Though some of the passengers were naturally somewhat discomited by the mishap and the rough experiences of the day, they appeared to be quite sensible that the best had been done under the circumstances and every sedulousness shown for their comfort.

Liverpool Daily Post, 15 March 1880.

The Montana has got into a position from which it is believed she cannot be extricated. She has her stein nigh and dry at low water, and eighteen feet deep at high water, with her stern always floating. She draws twenty-one feet forward, and to be got off with the cargo that she has on board she must be floated fully three feet before she will slide of the rock. She has an estimated cargo of 4,000 tons, consisting chiefly of fresh meat, American bacon, cotton, and general goods, and in addition to this she has water in her fore compartment and forehold. As the water fell yesterday afternoon she had listed fully twelve feet on her port side.

She now lies about two miles inside Carmel Head, about four and a half from Holyhead Breakwater and six from Skerries Island. At two o'clock on Saturday morning the otticers noticed the railway company's steamer passing from Holyhead to Dublin, the South Stack light being subsequently sighted and the North Stack fog gun heard. It was hazy all the night, but after that a very thick fog came on, and the Montana, it is believed, instead of keeping outside the Skerries, the usual course, must have slid in between the Holyhead Breakwater Light and the Skerries Light, observing, neither, and then have gone straight on the rocks. When she grounded the boatswain's mate swam ashore and secured rope. Both passengers and crew seem to have been well conducted, and arrangements were at once made to land the former.

One boat put off, in charge of the third and landed the passengers safely in Holyhead. Another put off for Church Bay, but those whom it bad on board returned to the ship at daybreak. The steam tug Sea King was not long in coming to render assistance, and all passengers and crew, with the exception of the officers and two men left in charge, were taken on board by her. The ship's stores and valuables, mail bags and baggage, were also transferred to the Sea King to be taken to Holyhead, from whence  they were again conveyed, with passengers and crew, to Liverpool during Saturday. The Trinity steamer Stella, which was afterwards the first to arrive, was employed for two hours in trying to tow the steamer off, but without the slightest sign of success.

The master and officers are still with the vessel, and an attempt to float her is to be made by the Liverpool Salvage Company. The scene of the wreck is comparatively but short distance from the spot where the Dakota, of the same line, went ashore about two years ago

Liverpool Daily Post,  15 March 1880.

The first salvage  tug arrived on the  scene on 14  March  1880, to begin taking what  cargo could be saved and, when lightened,  it might  be possible to  pull Montana  off for although  she  was full of water forward, her  stern was still afloat in high  tide  although some  water  had  entered her  after  hold by that  time.

The Liverpool Salvage Association's Hyena was despatched on Saturday, together with all necessary appliances, to the assistance of the Montana, and on Sunday the reported that she had arrived at No. 2 hold, which the found full of water. The discharge was proceeding rapidly. An attempt to tow off the vessel at Saturday night's tide was unsuccessful, a considerable discharge of cargo being first found necessary. Up to yesterday morning the vessel was still afloat aft, but some water had penetrated to the after hold. Two steam pumps were sent to the vessel on Saturday night.

Liverpool Mercury, 15 March 1880.

The Liverpool Salvage Association have been busily engaged since Saturday in saving the cargo of the screw steamship Montana (Guion Line), which stranded in Church Bay, near Holyhead, between three and four o'clock on Saturday morning last, under circumstances fully related yesterday. The underwriters reported yesterday that No. 2 hold was full of water, and 38 attempt made to tow the vessel off on Saturday night had failed, a considerable discharge of cargo being first found necessary. Up to Sunday morning the vessel was still afloat aft, but some water bad penetrated to the after hold. The vessel filled shortly after noon on Sunday, and settled down aft on the rocks. At high water the taffrail was covered, and her bow was well out of the water. 

The portion of the cargo saved consisted of 480 quarters of beef and 109 carcasses of sheep, which were sent to London by rail on Sunday, and 40 quarters of beef, which were sent to Liverpool. The quantity of meat reported shipped was 2624 quarters of beef, and 1100 carcasses of sheep. There was also a large quantity of the cargo found dry, and the discharge was progressing as rapidly as possible. The vessel was lying heavily on the rocks, and the under boiler's funnel was set up about six inches, but there were no signs of straining on the deck or sheer..

Liverpool Mercury,  16 March 1880

According to the latest information received from the stranded steamer Montana it is considered that her position has not at all improved within the last two days. The tides are gradually receding, and the floating of the vessel is at present impracticable. So far rapid progress has been made in saving the cargo, most of which has been in good condition, and the salvors are now energetically engaged at the steamer saving whatever they can. All attempts to drag the vessel off have proved ineffectual, and it is considered now that no further endeavour in this direction can be made until the end of next week, when the spring tides will have set in. The weather so far has been favourable, but should it take a turn the chances are that the vessel will go to pieces.

Liverpool Daily  Post, 17 March 1880.

The Liverpool Salvage Association have been actively engaged in saving the cargo of the Montana since the date of the previous report, but it has been found impossible to move the vessel, although fair weather and a smooth sea afforded every opportunity for that purpose. All further attempts to float her will be postponed till the approaching spring tides at the end of nest week. The vessel is very strongly built, and strong hopes of saving her are entertained, if the fine weather should continue.

Liverpool Mercury, 17 March 1880.

It appears from the latest reports concerning the steamer Montana that salvage operations are being rapidly pushed forward, and with much success. The chances of the vessel's ultimate floating is considered improbable by many, though others are as sanguine as formerly. Fortunately, however, the weather during the last day or two has been favourable, but no attempt at getting the vessel off can possibly be made for at least over week yet.

Liverpool Daily  Post, 20 March 1880.

In a remarkable feat of  salvage, Montana was eventually  extracted  from the  rocks and  floated off. On 27 March 1880 it was reported that Montana had been floated off and "placed in a  good  position on mud at the top of  the new harbour, Holyhead."  She remained there for temporary repairs to  be effected so they she could be towed to  Liverpool for assessment and more  permanent  repairs. It was stated at the time that Montana was the largest ship yet to be  successfully  floated off after grounding on rocks:

A good deal of interest has been aroused by the successful operations carried out in reference to the mail steamer Montana, which went ashore recently in Church Bay, and threatened to become a total wreck. The magnitude of the undertaking may be estimated when it is considered that the Montana is a vessel of 4,600 burthen, with a depth of hold of 43 feet to the ceiling, or nearly 50 feet to the spar deck, and engines of 900 nominal horse- power. She had also very large cargo on board at the time of the accident, 80 that the total weight was enormous. It is believed that she is the largest ship in the world that has ever been floated off after grounding upon rocks in the way the Montana did. 

The work was carried out by the Liverpool Salvage Association, who seat down to Holyhead four powerful pumps in charge of Mr.Marsh, while two similar pumps in charge of. Mr. Lindsay were sent from Glasgow, the whole being placed under the of Mr. Williamson. That the work of temporarily stopping the leaks was well carried out is shown by the fact that during the time the vessel was being towed from Holyhead to Liverpool only one pump was required to keep her clear of water. On the arrival of the vessel in the Mersey she was taken into the Alfred lock, and towed up the Great Float to the graving dock, where she now lies. In order to provide against any emergencies a diver was in readiness to go down at any moment while the vessel was settling down an the blocks, and the wreckage staff of the  association on board till she grounded.

Liverpool Daily Post, 13  April 1880.

Credit: Liverpool  Mercury, 25 May 1877.

The official Board of Trade inquiry into Montana's standing was convened  in Holyhead on 10 April 1880.

An inquiry was held on Saturday by Mr. Raffles, assisted by Captains White, R.N., Wilson, and Castle, on behalf of the Board of Trade, into the stranding of the steamship Montana, in Church Bay, Holyhead, about the 13th ult, Mr. Paxton represented the Board of Trade, and Mr. Hill (Hill and Dickinson) appeared for the master and owner. In opening the case Mr. Paxton said the Montana, British steamship, having been built Jarrow-on-Tyne in 1873. Her length was 400.4 feet, and she was fitted with three engines of 900 horse-power combined. Her owners were the Liverpool and Great Western Steamship Company, Liverpool, the manager being Mr. Stephen Guion, of Rumford-street. On the 2nd March she left New York with crew of 111 hands, all told, 23 passengers, and a general cargo.

At that time she was in good seagoing order. She proceeded safely on her voyage, and arrived at Queenstown on the 12th. Queenstown was left behind on the same day at 2.15 p.m., and the South Stack Light was sighted at 1.30 a.m. on the 13th bearing S.E. The master then calculated his distance at fourteen miles, and the ship was then going on course N.42 deg. E. The weather shortly afterwards commenced to thicken, and by about 2,15 a.m. it had become so dense that two men were put on the lookout forward. Soon after the gun on the South Stack Light heard.

At about 2.30 a.m., the weather having become worse, the engines were, according to the statements of the captain and second officer, reduced to half-speed, and afterwards to slow. The master had stated that, thinking be would get outside the range of the Skerry Light, he altered his course to E. for about five minutes; then, finding the weather became still thicker, he altered it back to N. K., being very much the same course as before. About a quarter of an hour after he saw something black on the starboard bow, and he took it to be a fog bank.

Not being quite certain, however. he ordered the helm hard-a-starboard and the engines to be reversed full-speed astern. Instead of going around, the vessel seemed to have gone heavily on to the land in Church Bay, and there she remained fast. The boats were launched, and the passengers and mails were taken off the ship by the tug Sea King, and the Montana was left in the bay. Subsequently she was floated, and was now on her way to Liverpool.

No lives bad been lost and no property in the shape of luggage. The inquiry at this stage was adjourned until to-day.

Liverpool Daily Post,  12  April 1880.

The Montana left Holyhead on Saturday in tow of three powerful steam tug, and arrived in the Mersey early yesterday morning, when she docked in one of the Birkenhead docks for overhauling and repairs, Upon the stranding of the steamer the powerful steam pumps of the Liverpool Salvage Association were despatched to her, and by means of these most of the bulk grain was got out while the vessel was still in a sunken condition, being brought up by the pumps and passed over wire sieves so fine as to catch the particles the grain, whilst allowing the water to escape. Under the direction of Mr. Wimshurst, one of the association's wrecking staff, the vessel having been floated, was beached opposite the admiral's house in Holyhead harbour, where more cargo was taken out and the injuries to the hull of the steamer were temporarily repaired, in order to enable her to be brought round to Liverpool.

Liverpool Daily Post, 12 April 1880.

On 11 April 1880 Montana arrived at 5:00 a.m.  in tow by five tugboats in the  Mersey and taken into the West Float, Birkenhead,  for  repairs and put into the graving dock there. 

Capt. Henry Gadd appeared  as a witness in the inquiry  on 12 April  1880:

The captain, who was called as a  witness, said the last light captain, seen on the Irish coast was the South Arklow, and that was at a quarter to ten at night at a distance of eight wiles. The ship was then steering course N., 42 E. by the standard compass. The night was clear and fine. At 1 20 in the morning the South Stack was made, bearing S.E., the speed of the vessel being between 13 and 14 knots. About 2 15 or 230 a fog came out and the weather became very thick, and the engines were reduced to balf speed. At 2 30, when. witness supposed them to be a long way outside of the Skerries, the course was altered to E. by was the N. standard That compass, coarse, bat the magnetic course E. by however, was only continued about resumed. five minutes, Just and then the previous course was before this they heard the fog-gun on the South Stack, and the speed was slowed to about five knots. 

Five minutes  afterwards witness saw something black about three or four points on the thing starboard bow, and the second officer, whom he consulted, expressed an opinion that was a bank, He, however, ordered the helm to be put hard-a-starboard, and the engines were stopped time had and reversed full speed. Nothing up to that time had been reported by the men on the look-out, but one of them then shouted ' Land right ahead.' The vessel at that moment struck straight end on at a spot north of the Olyger Point. He did not  feel justified in backing her off, because he did know what damage she had sustained, and because, had he done so, she might have gone down head foremost. The shock was so slight that the unaware of it, and bad to be awakened. The boats were got out in about in a quarter of an hour, and  the orders he gave were  carried  out very  quickly.  

Liverpool Mercury, 13 April 1880.

On 14  April 1880 the Board  of Inquiry released their findings and  found Montana's  Capt. Henry Gaad "in default" as to his navigation of the  ship  and suspended his masters license for  six months:

Mr. Raffles, in delivering the judgment of the court, said they found is utterly impossible to reconcile the conflicting testimony of the various witnesses, nor did they feel that it was necessary in to pronounce absolutely where the truth lay order to enable them to arrive at a conclusion upon the conduct of the master. They found that Montana was stranded in consequence of the master having neglected to make doe allowance for the ebb tide before and after passing the South Stack, a danger which must have been well known to- him. 

As to whether the stranding was caused by any wrongful act or default on the part of the master, the court wag of opinion, upon the evidence, that the master mast have been taking a more easterly course than he calculated when he was abeam of the South Arklow light vessel, and, as he stated, distant about eight miles. As he approached the South Stack he got two bearings, and bed he calculated the course and distance run between the two bearings it would have given him the correct distance from the light.

The court was further of opinion that the master ought never to have steered east until he was convinced that be had passed the Skerries, and be should have taken a cast of the lead before he did so, but when he heard the gun ea unexpectedly from the North Stack it was absolutely imperative upon him without any delay to have used the lead. Had he done so be would have found that he wag dangerously pear to the Welsh coast, sod in all probability might have avoided the casualty. 

It was urged on the master's behalf, as an excuse for not using the lead, that he thought himself so far out of the range of the Skerries, but the court could not admit the excuse. Commanding so large a ship, on whose safe navigation so many lives depended, it was the bounden duty of the master to use every precaution in the power of the navigator, and for having thus failed in his duty the court was compelled to find him in default. 

In regard to the speed at which the vessel was going from two a.m. the court, as already stated, found it difficult to reconcile the evidence; but if the evidence given by the engineers was to be believed, the court felt bound to say that so soon as the weather became at all thick it was the duty of the master, especially being near the land, to reduce speed, and the master stated that he had done so. But whether the truth upon this point lay with the master and second mate, or with the engineers, the court found the master in default for not making due allowance for the tide, as he was bound to do, and for not using his lead, sad suspended his certificate for six calendar months, granting him, it he should desire it, a first mate's certificate during the period of suspension.

Liverpool Mercury, 15  April 1880.

Credit: Glasgow Daily Mail, 12 June  1880.

Salvaged but not saved, Montana was damaged beyond economic repair  and  on 10 June 1880 was offered for  sale, at auction, on the  24th, by C.W. Kellock &  Co.,  shipbrokers,  at their sale room in Liverpool.  The bidding was brisk with 36 offers, with that of Messrs. Lamb and Clasper, of Sunderland, of £7,800 ultimately the  highest.   

On 12 July 1880 the owners, master and crew of the steam tug Sea King were awarded their claim of £300 from Guion Line for  their  services in rescuing passengers  and mail from Montana at the time of her  grounding. 

Credit: Sunderland Daily Echo, 3 August 1880.

Departing Liverpool in tow at 3:00 a.m. on 3 July 1880 for Sunderland, Montana  arrived on the 9th and berthed in the South  Dock. On the 27th it was announced  that "the whole  of the  costly  furnishings  of saloons, cabins and staterooms" would be sold  at  auction which was later announced to be held on 10-11 August. Although there  were some reports in local Sunderland papers  that  Montana  might be repaired and sold for further  trading,  on  7 August it  was confirmed she  would  be  broken up and on 9 October  it was reported that  "a good many  hands  are employed breaking up  the s.s.  Montana." The  sale, by auction, of the  ship's "valuable iron masts, 110 ft. by 2 ft. 6 in.", 1 powerful  steam windlass and "2 splendid multitubular marine boilers, each 9 ft. diameter, little worse than new,"  was advertised  on 13 September 1881  and  that  was  the last  that  was  heard  of Montana as the auctioneer's hammer  came down on a  singularly star-crossed  career.  

In 1880, Montana completed 1 westbound and 1  eastbound  crossing.  

s.s.  Montana 1875-1880

Completed 33 round voyages

Steaming 190,278 nautical miles

s.s. Dakota 1875-1877

Completed 11 round  voyages

Steaming 63,426 nautical miles

Thus ended the  short lives of Montana and Dakota--flawed  in concept and fated in career like  few other liners, their very anonymity perhaps their saving grace.  Even their similar demises, within miles of one another, has been characterised by  some as being  "a  relief" to their owners. Few ships had more expected of  them and more dismissed by those  who  even bothered to chronicle their  end or reflect on their promise.  Ships are what their designers, builders, officers and crews make  of them and Palmers  never built another  liner again and Guion Line,  although  fulfilling their  ambition for recordbreakers with  Alaska,  Arizona and Oregon,  were out  of  business by 1894, having spent themselves on the insatiable quest for  domination of the  Atlantic Ferry,  which Montana and Dakota failed so miserably to obtain.  

Built by Palmer's Iron Shipbuilding Limited, Jarrow-on Tyne, yard nos. 282 (Montana)  and 283 (Dakota).

Gross tonnage       4,321  (Montana)

                                 4,332  (Dakota)

Length: (b.p.)        400 ft.

              (o.a.)         405 ft.  

Beam:                     43.7 ft. 

Machinery:           single screw three cylinder one 60" dia. high pressure and two 113" dia. low                                     pressure, 42" stroke, 900 i.h.p.,   originally 10  watertube boilers 100 psi,

                                 then  six Scotch boilers, 80 psi, coal-burning.           

Speed:                   14.5 knots service

                                15 knots trials  (Montana)                                 

Passengers:            64 saloon 68 second cabin 1,200  steerage (Montana)

                               60 saloon 90  second cabin 900 steerage (Dakota)

The Atlantic Ferry, A.J. Maginnis, 1900.

British Passenger Liners  of  the  Five Oceans, Vernon Gibbs, 1966.

A Century of Atlantic Travel, Frank C. Bowen, 1930.

The History of North Atlantic Steam  Navigation, Henry  Fry, 1896.

North Atlantic  Seaway, Vol. 2, N.R.P. Bonsor, 1977.

Power of the Great Liners, Denis Griffiths,  1990.

The Engineer

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Transactions of the Royal Institution of Naval Architects

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The Mariners' Museum

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© Peter C. Kohler