SS Agamemnon (1865)

Agamemnon
History
United Kingdom
Name	Agamemnon
Namesake	Agamemnon
Owner	Ocean Steam Ship Co
Operator	Alfred Holt Ltd
Port of registry	Liverpool
Route	Liverpool to China and the Far East
Builder	Scott & Co, Greenock
Yard number	116
Launched	6 October 1865
Identification	UK official number 54924 code letters JKGB
Fate	Scrapped 1898
General characteristics
Type	cargo and passenger steamship
Tonnage	2,270 GRT, 1,550 NRT
Length	309.3 ft (94.3 m)
Beam	38.8 ft (11.8 m)
Depth	20.6 ft (6.3 m)
Installed power	300 hp
Propulsion	compound steam engine, single screw
Sail plan	3-masted barque
Speed	10 knots (19 km/h)

SS Agamemnon was one of the first successful long-distance merchant steamships. She was built in 1865 to trade between Britain and China, and competed with tea clippers before and after the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. She brought together three improvements in steamship design: higher boiler pressure, an efficient and compact compound steam engine, and a hull form with modest power requirements.

Before Agamemnon, steamships were not a practical commercial option for trade between Britain and the Far East. The amount of coal that they needed to carry left little space for cargo. Agamemnon could steam at 10 knots (19 km/h), consuming only 20 tons of coal a day. This was substantially less than other ships of the time – a saving of between 14 and 23 tons per day was achieved.^[1] This enabled her to steam to China with a coaling stop at Mauritius on the outward and return journey.

This was the first of five Blue Funnel ships to be named after Agamemnon, the king of Mycenae during the Trojan War. Later examples include a motor ship Agamemnon built in 1929, which in the Second World War was converted into an auxiliary minelayer.