Credit: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London
Caloric Ship Ericsson, burthen 2200 tons, Built for John B Kitching & Associates, A B Lowber, Commander
The Ericsson was built to test Captain John Ericsson’s theory of a ship driven by hot air instead of steam. The idea proved a failure and she was given an ordinary steam engine. The caloric engine was economical in its consumption of fuel, but was very expensive to build and was of a great size (Rogers, S. ‘Freak Ships’, p68-71)
