History of Steam Navigation in South America
Following James Watt’s invention of the steam engine in the late eighteenth century, inventors set to work to develop steamships to allow for faster and more reliable cross-oceanic transportation. The first steamer, Savannah, set sail in 1819 to cross the Atlantic from Savannah, Georgia, to Liverpool in twenty-five days; this caused an uproar in the maritime world. Soon, steamers were sailing to India (Enterprise in 1825) and Australia (Sophia Jane in 1831) from England (Duncan 257-58).
Steam navigation gained momentum in South America early in its development. Argentine general José de San Martín, a leader in the independence movements of Argentina, Chile, and Peru, joined forces with Chilean Bernardo O'Higgins and other revolutionary leaders to mobilise forces along the Pacific coast to beat back Spanish resistance along the Pacific coast; this focus on naval supremacy brought awareness of the importance of developing a maritime culture.
The Scottish naval commandor Lord Cochrane, invited by O'Higgins to become admiral of the first Chilean navy in 1818, imported a steamship of his own invention, the Rising Star, to Valparaíso in May, 1822; according to Lord Cochrane, it was the first steamer to enter the Pacific. The travel writer Maria Graham (later Lady Callcott) was one of the passengers on the steamer's first journey up the Pacific coast, and she recorded her experience in her Journal of a Residence in Chile during the Year 1822:
“Yesterday morning I rode early to the port, on Lord Cochrane's invitation, to join a party which was to sail with him in the vessel, the Rising Star, to his estate of Quintero, which lies due north about twenty miles .... The admiral went on board with me about ten o'clock. The first thing I did was to visit the machinery, which consists of two steam engines, each of forty-five horsepower, and the wheels covered so as not to show in the water from without. The vessel... only arrived in these seas this year. It was no small delight that I set my foot on the deck of the first steam-vessel that ever navigated the Pacific.”
Cochrane's steamship suffered repeated mechanical difficulties, unfortunately, so his plans to launch a steamship route were ultimately abandoned.
Other South American nations saw the advantages of steam navigation as well. In the 1820s, Colombian President Francisco de Paula Santander was particularly keen given his country's double access to the Pacific and the Caribbean, and worked with Congress to support proposals for steamship patents along the coast. As a result, the second steamship intended for the Pacific was imported from England: the Telica, which landed at Guayaquil in 1825, but was accidentally destroyed in an explosion soon afterwards.
References:
General San Martin at the Battle of Chacabuco from Chilean National Library, 1817. Retrieved from http://www.memoriachilena.gob.cl/602/w3-article-98274.html. Accessed July 22, 2020. Public Domain - Chile.
Lord Thomas Alexander Cochrane (1775-1860) from Chilean National Museum of History, 1815. Retrieved from http://www.memoriachilena.gob.cl/602/w3-article-71975.html. Accessed July 22, 2020. Public Domain - Chile.
Rising Star from Chilean National Museum of History, 1819. Retrieved from http://www.memoriachilena.gob.cl/602/w3-article-71977.html. Accessed July 23, 2020. Public Domain - Chile.