Qualla: Caloric Ship Ericsson

Caloric Ship Ericsson: Introduction

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Four cylinders, each fourteen feet in diameter. That was the audacious heart of the Ericsson, a wooden side-wheel paddle steamer completed in 1852 whose inventor believed he could replace the most dangerous technology of his age. John Ericsson -- the Swedish-American engineer who would later design the ironclad USS Monitor -- wanted to prove that heated air could do what steam did, without the explosions that killed boiler operators by the hundreds. The ship cost half a million dollars, attracted the New York City Council to its trial run, and ultimately failed. But it failed magnificently.

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Caloric Ship Ericsson: The Genius and the Gamble

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

High-pressure steam boilers were the deadliest technology of the mid-19th century. They powered industry, transportation, and warfare, and they blew up with appalling regularity. John Ericsson's answer was the caloric engine, which replaced pressurized steam with heated air. The ...

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Caloric Ship Ericsson: The Trial on the Harbor

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

On January 11, 1853, the Ericsson steamed from New York Harbor to Sandy Hook with members of the press and the New York City Council aboard. The four working cylinders, paired with four supply cylinders of 11.5 feet in diameter, drove the ship's side-mounted paddle wheels at a sp...

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Caloric Ship Ericsson: Sinking and Second Life

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

In April 1854, the Ericsson encountered a squall near Jersey City while returning from a trip to Washington, D.C. A coal port had been left open to facilitate waste removal, and the vessel took on water and sank in the shallow harbor. It was an ignominious end for a ship that had...

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Caloric Ship Ericsson: The Graveyard of the Pacific

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Ericsson's final chapter played out far from New York Harbor. Sailing under a different name after her conversion, the vessel met her end when she was blown aground at the entrance to Barkley Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. This stretch of coast...

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