HISTORY
OF
MERCHANT SHIPPING
AND
ANCIENT COMMERCE.

BY
W. S. LINDSAY.

IN FOUR VOLUMES.

VOL. IV.

With numerous Illustrations.

LONDON:
SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, LOW, AND SEARLE.
CROWN BUILDINGS, 188 FLEET STREET.
1876.

[All Rights reserved.]

LONDON:
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS,
STAMFORD STREET AND CHARING CROSS.

DIMENSIONS AND CALIBRE.

Paddle-Engines.

Screw-Engines.

CONTENTS.

]

ILLUSTRATIONS.[1]

[Pg xiii]

MERCHANT SHIPPING.

CHAPTER I.[Pg 1]

Modern investigation has confirmed the opinion that the knowledge of the ancients was more varied and extensive than has hitherto been generally supposed, and that there is indeed “nothing new under the sun.” Iron chain-cables, supposed to have been the invention of the present century, were, as already shown,[2] used by the shipowners of Tyre, while the iron-clad rams of to-day are but copies of the prows of the[Pg 2] war galleys of ancient Carthage, Rome, or Nineveh:[3] and, although, on the sculptures of Egypt and Assyria there is no trace of the application of wheels or machinery of any kind, as a propelling power, the mechanical knowledge ancient inventions exhibit leads to the conviction that other modes of propulsion than those of poles, oars, and sails must have been understood in remote ages. Indeed, Nature herself, at the dawn of knowledge, must have suggested to men widely removed one from the other, appliances for lessening manual labour, while some of these were undoubtedly carried into practice during the earliest period of the existence of the human race.

That such was the case may be reasonably inferred from the ancient stone sculptures exhumed by Layard and others, showing as these do beyond question that the people of Egypt, Assyria and Babylonia, when floating on bundles of reeds or on inflated skins, propelled them by the motion of their legs,[4] just as an animal swims by using its limbs for the purpose of propulsion in the water which supports it. In aquatic animals may be seen the types of almost every kind of machinery now adopted by man to lessen bodily toil. The cuttle-fish moves forward by fins, and backwards by ejecting water from a tube; whelks suggest the art of punting and towing; the value of paddles may be learned from ducks or other aquatic birds in their motion through the water, and the use of a folding feather from the lobster; while the combined action of the[Pg 3] paddle-wheel and screw-propeller will be found in the microscopic insects “Paramacium caudatum” and “Paramacium compressum.” The marine animals “Vebella” and “Physalia,” familiarly known as the “Portuguese men-of-war,” whose bodies resemble an inflated bladder, float on the water and are propelled by the wind acting on their extended membranes. Swans extend their feathers to sail with the wind; and, though that fairy-looking, fragile thing, the paper-nautilus, seems to be the sport alike of the gale and of the most gentle breeze, it possesses in itself the power of propulsion by projecting water.[5]

But the common fish of every sea would have suggested to man, in the most remote ages, a mode of supplementing manual labour: the fin giving him[Pg 4] the idea of a paddle or of an oar, and the tail teaching him the art of sculling, the principle in each case being the same: the tail, moving from side to side, by oblique pressure on the water, propels the fish forward along a diagonal line, the resultant of the forces acting from the right and the left sides of the fish, and is, thus, the chief instrument of motion, while the fins serve to direct and steady it.[6]

Nor, indeed, is there much doubt that the ancients were acquainted with the power of steam, though they cannot be said to have applied this knowledge to any useful purposes. A treatise is still in existence “On Pneumatics,” by Hero,[7] a philosophic mathematician who lived at Alexandria about B.C. 120, in which he gives an account of seventy-eight miscellaneous experiments, most of them probably adapted for the superstitious purposes of the heathen priesthood, but some also as certainly foreshadowing the definite application of steam as a[Pg 5] motive force. The following, we notice as, in themselves, of considerable interest.

“First,” he says (exper. No. 45), “let there be a cauldron with water in it and a covered top; and let a fire be lighted under it. From the cover let a tube run upward, and place at its extremity a hollow hemisphere, in like manner perforated. Then, if a light ball be cast into the middle of the hemisphere, the vapour (steam) raised from the cauldron through this tube will lift the ball so that it seems suspended.” This is no doubt an ingenious and amusing philosophical toy, but has no further value. His next experiment, however (No. 50), is of greater importance, not only as showing a clear and distinct appreciation of the motive power of steam, but because its principle is embodied in the well-known mode of driving potters’ wheels and in the modern turbine. He says, “Let a fire be lighted under a cauldron with water in it and covered with a lid; and attach to this cauldron a bent tube with the extremity fitting into a hollow ball. Opposite to the extremity of this[Pg 6] tube place a pivot fastened to the lid, and let the ball have various tubes communicating with it at opposite ends of the diameter, with their bendings at right angles (i.e., in opposite directions). Then when the fire is lighted, the steam passing through the first tube (i.e., from the cauldron) into the ball, will pass out through the bent tubes towards the lid, causing the ball to revolve after the fashion of dancing figures.”[8] This machine was called the Æolipile.

[Pg 7]

In these few words we have a clear indication of the power of steam, of the nature and effect of a vacuum, and of a rotatory engine moved by this force: we thus see that the ancients knew more than has been generally admitted of the wonderful power which, in our own time, has brought about the most extraordinary changes in the seats and centres of maritime commerce, affording to mankind a facility of intercourse between different nations, while at the same time increasing the wealth, and, what is of much more importance, promoting the comfort and happiness of the human race to an extent far beyond the dreams of the most sanguine enthusiast of any age or of any country.

From the uncontroverted facts here stated, there can be no doubt that Hero was the first to record, even if he did not invent, this mighty civilising instrument, and, if so, that Egypt was the land of its birth.

But many centuries elapsed before its power was applied to any useful purpose; indeed, as suggested, there is reason for supposing that this science was misapplied by the priests, and used as a means of deceiving the people by inducing them to believe it to be a miraculous power granted only to the professors of the craft of idolatry. “A fire,” says Hero (experiment No. 70), “having been kindled on a transparent altar, figures will appear to dance”[Pg 8] on a drum driven round by steam, “emitting sounds similar to those of a stringed instrument,”[9] which, according to Pausanias, “resemble the snapping of the strings of a harp;” thus, while delighting the young people of those days, as the ornaments in churches now do, these experiments became instruments of make-belief in the hands of the priests, who propounded as strange theories about their supernatural powers as the so-called philosophers of our own days still do, when they attempt to deal with the unrevealed mysteries of creation and of a still more mysterious hereafter.[10]

[Pg 9]

Although the Romans did nothing towards applying the knowledge of the power of steam to useful purposes, and little enough generally for the mechanical arts, the true value of the works of Hero and of the older mechanicians came to be appreciated in the dawn which succeeded the darkness of the Middle Ages. Then the youths of a generation, which had cast aside many of the superstitions of the ancients, and had found in the doctrines of Christianity a wider and nobler field for their genius and aspirations, began to study how the power Hero had described could be best applied for the benefit and happiness of mankind. Then, indeed, was the advent of an era wherein the foundation was laid of a fabric which, though slow in its erection, and not yet completed, is destined to eclipse all the other works of man. There can be, therefore, no subject affecting the transitory interests of the human race more worthy of the pen of the historian than the development of the power and usefulness of steam traced from that remote period to our own time, when we see in every quarter of the civilised world this power compassing land and ocean, affording profitable employment to myriads of the human race, and giving to the people of every nation and tongue rapid and easy intercourse.

[Pg 10]

“Although an old work on China,” remarks Mr. MacGregor,[11] “contains a sketch of a vessel moved by four paddle-wheels, and used perhaps in the seventh century, the earliest distinct notice of this means of propulsion appears to be by Robertus Valturius in A.D. 1472, who gives several woodcuts representing paddle-wheels,”[12] one of which is as follows.

There is, however, no mention of any vessel propelled by steam till M. de Navarette directed attention to this subject in a letter[13] received by him from Thomas Gonzales, Director of the Royal Archives of Simancas of Spain, with an account of an experiment of the year 1543, in which a vessel is said to have been propelled by something resembling a steam-engine.

The substance of this letter is to the effect that, in that year, one Blasco de Garay, proposed to the Emperor Charles V., the construction of an engine (ingenio) capable of propelling large vessels in a calm, and without the use of sails or oars. In spite of the[Pg 11] opposition this project encountered, the Emperor consented to witness the experiment, which was accordingly made in the Trinity, a vessel of 200 tons, laden with corn, in the port of Barcelona, on the 17th June, 1543. Garay, however, would not uncover his machinery, or exhibit it publicly: but it was evident that it consisted of a cauldron of boiling water (una gran caldera de agua hirviendo) and of two wheels set in motion by that means, and applied externally on each side (banda) of the vessel.

The persons commissioned by the Emperor to report on the invention seem to have approved it, commending specially the readiness with which the vessel tacked. The treasurer Ravago, however, observed that a ship with the proposed machinery could not go faster than two leagues in three hours; that the apparatus was complex and expensive; and that there was danger of the boiler bursting. The other commissioners maintained that such a vessel might go at the rate of a league an hour, and would tack in half the time required by an ordinary ship. When the exhibition was over, Garay removed the apparatus from the Trinity, depositing the wood-work in the arsenal at Barcelona, but retaining himself the rest of the machinery. Notwithstanding, however, the objections urged by Ravago, the Emperor was inclined to favour his project, but his attention at the time was engrossed by other matters.[14] Garay was, however, promoted and received a sum of money, besides the expenses of the experiment made at[Pg 12] Barcelona. The letter concludes with the following statement:—

“This is the substance of the despatches and of the original registers preserved in the royal archives of Simancas, among the State papers of the province of Catalonia, and of those of the Secretary of War (department of land and sea), in the said year, 1543.”

Mr. MacGregor, greatly to his credit, desirous of ascertaining whether this report (which, from the well-known accuracy of M. de Navarette on other subjects, had been accepted as correct) could be depended upon, visited Spain in September, 1857, and made a thorough investigation at Simancas, Madrid, and Barcelona into this interesting subject, but his inquiries (reported, at length, January, 1858, to the Superintendent of Specifications at the Great Seal Patent Office, and printed in Part II., “Specifications relating to Marine Propulsion”), convinced him “that there was not one particle of reliable evidence” in M. de Navarette’s assertion.[15]

[Pg 13]

An attentive consideration of the subject leads to the conclusion at which Mr. MacGregor has arrived. Even in the present day it would require an engine[Pg 14] and boiler of considerable size to propel a vessel of 200 tons three miles an hour; moreover, the novel and bulky machinery with which the experiment is said to have been made, could not have been erected in the ship or removed from her without attracting considerable public attention. Indeed, had such an experiment been made before the Spanish Emperor, and made successfully as the narrative leads us to suppose, a matter so important could hardly have lain dormant for any great length of time: whatever, therefore, Blasco de Garay’s invention may have been, it was evidently not a steam-engine practically applicable for any useful purpose.

Witzen, no doubt, in confirmation of Garay’s experiment, furnishes an illustration of a “Spanish bark without oars or sails,” but as, unfortunately, there is not a single line of letter-press beyond the few words quoted to throw the faintest light upon his drawing, it can only be supposed from the descriptive title that it referred to the vessel which Garay is said to have propelled. Indeed, De Garay’s whole story looks very much as if it was an invention of the Spaniards; Mr. Scott Russell,[16] as well as Mr. MacGregor, is of this opinion, and Mr. Woodcroft, no mean authority on such matters, states that, having made diligent inquiries at Simancas, he could find no trace of these documents, thus confirming the result of the more minute researches of Mr. MacGregor.[17]

[Pg 15]

About this period, however, frequent mention is made of other modes of propulsion besides those hitherto in use. J. C. Scaliger (who died 1558) published at Frankfort a short notice of a vessel to be propelled without oars. Bourne, in 1578,[18] says, in his own quaint style, “you may make a boate to goe without oares or sayle by the placing of certain wheeles on the outside of the boat in that sort that the armes of the wheeles may go into the water, and so turning the wheeles by some provision, and so the wheeles shall make the boate goe.” I. Bessoni, in 1582, describes a vessel with two prows, or rather two separate vessels attached to each other (not unlike the Castalia, now running between Dover and Calais), between which a frame is suspended on gimbles carrying at its lower end a circular reel worked by ropes and a winch whereby they can be propelled.[19] A. Ramelli, in 1588, furnishes a design of a flat-bottomed boat with a wheel on each side, turned by men working upon a winch handle.[20] Indeed, long before this, the celebrated Roger Bacon (A.D. 1214-1296) speaks of a “vessel which, being almost[Pg 16] wholly submerged, would run through the water against waves and winds with a speed greater than that attained by the fastest London pinnaces.”[21] Baptista Porta (the inventor of the magic lantern) published in his “Pneumaticorum Libri Tres,” Naples, 1601, many curious experiments on the power of steam, on its condensation, and on its relative bulk as compared with water. In one of these a vacuum is clearly indicated, the water being forced up by the pressure of the atmosphere from without.

David Rivault, Seigneur de Flurance near Laval, published “Les Éléments de l’Artillerie,” first in 1605 and secondly in 1668—and in this work he describes the power of steam in bursting a strong bomb-shell partly filled with water, tightly plugged, and then heated.

In 1615, Solomon de Caus (Engineer to Louis XIII.) published a treatise (“Les Raisons des Forces Mouvantes”) in which he shows he was well acquainted with the motive power of steam—as, in his fifth theorem, he says, “water will mount by the help of fire higher than its level:” he also shows, by an experiment, how a column of water may be driven up a tube to such a height as will balance the elasticity of the heated air confined in the boiler; and Arago, in his “Éloge de James Watt,” considers that this experiment, though of little practical use, “will make a noble figure in the annals of the steam-engine.”

In 1629, Giovanni Branca, an engineer of Loretto, applied steam to blow against vanes attached to the external rim of a wheel, and, doubtless, machinery with due mechanical contrivances could have been[Pg 17] impelled by it. He gives a picture of his machine in “Le Machine,” vol. nuovo, Pl. XXV.

In 1618, David Ramsay obtained a patent for an invention “to make boates for carriages running upon the water as swift in calmes and more safe in storms than boats full sayled in great windes;” and in 1630 he patented a plan “to make boats, ships, and barges to goe against the wind and tide;” and “to raise water from lowe pitts by fire”[22] (the steam-engine).

In 1637, Francis Lin and others patented a plan “to use and exercise upon the River Thames, and any other river within England and Wales, according to their owne way and inventing the sole drauinge and workinge up of all Barges and other vessels without the use of horses;” and, in 1646, Edward Ford proposed a similar plan for the navigation of rivers, and one whereby he could “bring little ships, barges, and vessels in and out of havens without or against any small wynd or tide, and transport souldiers and passengers without or against wynde yf the seas be not rough.”[23]

In 1652 (July 30th), Thomas Grant, Doctor of Physic, obtained a patent “for several instruments, whereof the first is an instrument very profitable when co[~m]on winds fayle for a more speedy passage of calmed shipps or other vessells upon the sea or great rivers, which may be called the wynds māty.”

In the recital of the inventions of the Marquess of Worcester, 8th February, 1661, reference is made to one which was “applicable to make a boat that roweth or letteth, even against wind and stream to any part of the compass which way soever the streame runs or wind blows, and yet the force of the wind or stream causeth its motion.” But though[Pg 18] the Marquess has generally had the credit of having applied a power other than manual or animal labour for the purpose of propulsion, it has been doubted from the description of his invention if it was a steam-engine which could be applied to drive a boat.[24]

Petty, in 1663, used a double boat with success.[25] Chamberlaine and Bushnell, in 1678, had also their plans for propelling boats against wind and tide, while Hooke, in 1661, described windmills in which “we have all the main features both of the screw-propeller and feathering wheel.”[26]

[Pg 20]

From about this period much attention was[Pg 19] directed to the use of machinery for propulsion. Morisotus, moreover, who published his views in 1643,[27] speaks of the paddle-wheel as a mode of propelling vessels, known also, as he believed, to the ancients, and states that the simple machinery employed was the same in fact as was in his day used in mining operations in the Spanish Indies. Schefer, in his instructive and interesting work, also makes mention of a remarkable vessel described by Pancirolli (who wrote, in 1587, on naval and military matters) as resembling what he had seen in an old bas-relief of an Illyrian galley, a vessel apparently propelled by wheels similar in character to those in the above wood-cut, from Morisotus.

But, as no such clumsy vessel could have been employed in a seaway, her movements must have been confined to rivers or inland waters. It is just possible that such and similar vessels might at some period have been used for ferrying rivers[28] or lakes. Very extraordinary notions, however, appear to have been propounded about, and subsequently to, this period, and, as a matter of curiosity, I furnish one of these taken from Hollar’s engravings, which does not appear to have been noticed by any writer on this interesting subject. The original engraving, bearing date A.D., 1653, is to be found in the British Museum. Various details[29] are furnished by the inventor.

Besides the detailed explanation of this extraordinary[Pg 21] looking craft, which in “length is 72 feet, the height 12, the breadth 8,” there is beneath the print the following description: “The true and perfect form of the strange ship built in Rotterdam, 1653. The inventor of it doth undertake in one day to destroy a hundred ships, it can go from London to Rotterdam and back again in one day, and in six weeks to go to the East Indies, and to run as fast as a bird can fly. No fire, nor storme, nor bullets can hinder her unless it please God. Although the ships mean to be safe in their havens, it is in vain, for she shall come to them in any place. It is impossible for her to be taken unless by treachery, and she cannot be governed by any one but himself” (the inventor?). The motive power is not described, and there is no further trace of the ship, of which the illustration is a vertical section. She was built at the time when the Dutch were in the zenith of their power, and most likely proved as worthless as numerous other inventions since produced, though curious as showing the attention devoted at this period to wheels as a mode of propelling vessels.

However, we find in the records of our own Patent Office, that Englishmen were not behind the Dutch in curious and frequently very absurd inventions. Thus, in 1675, one Miller[30] patented a windmill fixed to a vessel’s deck to turn an endless rope, and thus, by “two toothed wheels,” to drive a couple of paddle-wheels. Such commonplace matters as storms at sea or adverse winds, still less the likelihood of the whole of the top weight he proposed[Pg 22] to erect on the deck of his vessels being blown or rolled overboard, do not appear to have entered into the fertile and imaginative brain of the inventor.

Again, in 1701, two gentlemen (whose names are not worth recording) proposed to have “vanes or sails arranged between two wheels on the same shaft,” the “sails or float-boards being so contrived as to be able to play in a given space, being fixed perpendicularly on the wheel and fastened by a cord or otherwise, so that when the wind blows from any quarter three-fourths of the sails catch the wind, and, by driving the wheel round, the sails, which are forced against the wind, come up edgeways, but when past the centre immediately turn to the breeze, and by that means produce a continued circular motion.”[31]

About the same period another invention, of a somewhat similar sort, was published by a person named Phillips, who proposed to erect between two tall masts “a windmill of altogether an original description.”[32] One is reminded when reading these grave proposals, of Don Quixote’s ludicrous exploit with the windmill, and considering the care Mr. Phillips seems to have bestowed upon his invention, he must have been quite as enthusiastic[Pg 23] and apparently as serious in his proposal as the hero of Cervantes in his knight-errantry. But all these schemes, and many others too numerous to mention, however impracticable and absurd some of them may have been, had the germ of the great invention more or less developed.

During Papin’s residence in England, 1681, he witnessed one of the interesting experiments made on the Thames, in which a boat constructed from the design of the Prince Palatine Robert, fitted with revolving oars or paddles, “left the King’s barge, manned by sixteen rowers, far astern in the race of trial.” This experiment suggested to him, in 1688, the idea of an engine, and led to his proposal of using gunpowder to create a vacuum under a piston, so that the piston would descend. Two years afterwards, 1690,[33] Papin describes a steam cylinder, in which a piston descends by atmospheric pressure when the steam below it is condensed, and among the subsequent uses of such a machine he mentions the propulsion of ships by “Rames volatiles” or paddle-wheels, the axles of which, he thought, might be turned by several of his cylinders acting alternately by the rack work shown in his drawing.[34]

[Pg 24]

In 1683, a little before Papin, Sir Samuel Morland, Master of Works to Charles II., wrote a treatise on the “Élévation des Eaux par toutes sortes de Machines,” &c., with four pages appended to it called “The Principles of the New Force of Fire, invented by Samuel Morland in 1682, and presented to His Most Christian Majesty in 1683.” In this work (still in MS. in the Harleian Collection of the British Museum), it is stated that “water being converted into vapour by the force of fire, these vapours shall require a greater space (about 2000 times) than the water occupied, and sooner than be constantly confined would split a piece of cannon.” It is remarkable that, so long before careful experiments had been made on the expansibility of water when converted into vapour, Morland should have given so near an approximation to the true amount (about 1750 times).

Thomas Savery, one of the most ingenious men of the age in which he lived, proposed (1696) a mode of raising water and occasioning motion “to all sorts of mill-work by the impelling force of Fire,”[Pg 25] adding,[35] “it may be very useful to ships, but I dare not meddle with that matter, and leave it to the judgement of those who are the best judges of maritime affairs.”[36]

In 1697, Papin (whose own invention had proved a failure) used Savery’s engine, which had been greatly improved by Newcomen in 1705 to propel a steam-boat on the Fulda.[37] In that year, too, Papin proposed to drive a vessel by paddle-wheels turned by the stream, and by boat-hooks which somehow pushed against or griped the bottom.[38] Chabert, in 1710, described a vessel with large paddle-wheels working in troughs cut through the hull;[39] and, in 1721, we read of a galley built in France with revolving oars fastened to a drum or wheel with paddle-vanes on hinges, capable of being set to any angle, and of being worked by 200 men,[Pg 26] the galley having three of these wheels on each side.[40] John Allan, in 1722, proposed a mode of navigating a ship, “by forcing water or some other fluid through the stern or hinder part, at a convenient distance under the surface of the water, into the sea, by proper engines placed within the ship.” He also proposed, as Papin had previously done, a machine with the power of “firing gunpowder in clauso,” with the view of navigating a ship in a calm.[41]

In 1736, Jonathan Hulls made some practical progress in the idea so long floating vaguely in the minds of his predecessors, and, on the 23rd December of that year, secured a patent for his invention “of a machine for carrying ships and vessels out of or into any harbour or river against wind and tide or in a calm,” of which the following is a sketch.

His specification[42] described how to drive a paddle-wheel[Pg 27] by converting a reciprocating rectilinear motion into a continuous rotary one. But though Hulls’ mode of obtaining a rotary motion was new and ingenious, and would, perhaps, enable a steam-boat in a calm to be moved through the water, moreover is the first steam-boat authentically recorded, it was probably not such as could be made practically useful for the general purposes of commerce, and I have been unable to find any record of this or of any such vessel having been so used. At the same time, it must be added that boats not unlike Hulls’ may now be seen trading in parts of the world remote from each other, as, for instance, on the Murray in South Australia, where various vessels, of which the following is an illustration, are employed, and on the upper Thames where one, at least, to my knowledge is now worked, which does not seem to be any very marked improvement on the boat of Jonathan Hulls.[43]

[Pg 28]

In 1756, Gauthier, a French mathematician, wrote a treatise on “Navigation by Fire,” which attracted the attention of the Venetian Republic.[44] But whatever merit some of these ingenious discoveries may have possessed, it was not till the 5th January, 1769, when James Watt obtained his patent, that any steam-engine could be effectually adopted in marine propulsion.

Among various other improvements in the steam-engine patented by him, the most important was one for causing the steam to act above the piston, as well as below it, described as the “double impulse,” or, now more commonly called, the double acting engine.[45] On the old principle, when the weight of the atmosphere had pressed down the piston, a valve opened in the bottom of the cylinder whereby a fresh supply of hot steam rushed in from the boiler, which, acting as a[Pg 29] pressure in excess of that of the atmosphere above the piston, combined with the weight of the pump rods at the other end of the lever, carried that end down, and of course raised the piston in the steam cylinder. The orifice for the emission of the steam having been then shut, and the cock opened for injecting the cold water into the cylinder, condensation took place, and another vacuum was made below the piston, which was again forced down by the weight of the atmosphere: thus the work was continued as long as water and fuel were supplied, and the steam-engine rendered capable of successful application for pumping purposes, a contrivance used even at the present day.[46] But the method contrived by Watt rendered the power of the engine much more effective by the use of a detached condenser, whereby the cooling of the cylinders by the injection of water was prevented and considerable economy obtained.[47]

Matthew Wasborough, however, an engineer of the city of Bristol, considering that something was still wanting to make the marine engine a proper instrument of propulsion in concurrence with Watt’s improvement of the double acting cylinder, obtained, on the 16th March, 1779, a patent for a practical mode of converting a rectilinear into a continuous circular motion; one of his objects being to adapt his invention “for moving in a direct position any ship or vessel.”[48]

[Pg 30]

His invention, however, did not answer, and was indeed superseded by that of James Pickard, 23rd August, 1780, who, shortly afterwards entering into partnership with Wasborough, patented a method of working a mill with a rotary motion by means of the present connecting rod and crank and a fly wheel, constituting the second important improvement in the steam-engine, and enabling it to be of really practical service in propelling vessels. In 1781 (25th October), James Watt obtained another patent for his newly invented method of applying the vibrating or reciprocating motion of steam or fire-engines to procure a continued circular motion round an axis so as to turn the wheels of mills or other machines. This invention is known as the “Sun and Planet” motion.[49]

In the same year (1781), the Marquis de Jouffroy is said to have constructed a steam-boat at Lyons 140 feet in length, and to have made with her several successful experiments on the Saone near that city. Mr. MacGregor, however, has made particular inquiries[50] into the authenticity of the claims of the Marquis, and, as no description of the machinery of this vessel is discoverable earlier than that given by himself thirty[Pg 31] years afterwards, when he petitioned for the use exclusively of steam-boats for fifteen years, these claims are, to say the least, very questionable, while, in a report on his improvements, the invention is said to be Rumsey’s, but more likely that of his own countryman Gauthier, whose death prevented his plans from being practically exemplified by the Venetian Republic. The French Revolution, however, supervening, the Marquis had not an opportunity of prosecuting his undertaking.

In 1785, Joseph Bramah, a man of great genius, and the inventor of the hydraulic press, obtained a patent for an hydrostatical machine and a boiler on a peculiar principle, in which the power of air, steam, or any other elastic vapour, might be employed for the working of engines. Another of his inventions is a mode of propelling vessels by the improved rotatory engine described in the specification, through the medium of either a paddle-wheel or what may be called a screw-propeller. Bramah shows a vessel with a rudder placed in the bow, and describes in his specification the nature of the “screw-propeller” and of its mode of action in minute and specific terms.[51]

[Pg 32]

Although there is no record of Bramah having put his proposal into practice, the description lodged by him at the Patent Office is interesting, as showing clearly an indication of the now so well-known screw-propeller. Moreover, in this invention, he obviously intended that steam should be used so as to give circular motion to the propeller shaft. Previously, however, to the time when he patented his invention, the rotatory screw as a mode of propulsion had been proposed by Watt, who, in 1770, suggested the application of a screw-propeller to be turned by a steam-engine.[52]

But more than half a century elapsed before the screw, now in almost general use, was practically applied; indeed, the first authentic record we possess of the marine engine itself having been successfully worked by paddle or any other means on board any vessel, dates no further back than 1787, although, between 1774 and 1790, Fitch and Rumsey were experimenting in America on boats (to which I shall hereafter refer) to work against streams.

In that year (1787) Mr. Patrick Miller, of Dalswinton in Scotland, a gentleman of position and fortune, published a pamphlet (given at length by Mr. Woodcroft[53] in his interesting and instructive work on steam navigation, with copies of Mr. Miller’s[Pg 33] drawings illustrative of his scheme), on the subject of propelling boats by means of paddle-wheels turned by men, working on a capstan with five bars, each 5 feet long, which drove a water-wheel, having the same object in view as Messrs. Fitch and Rumsey, then engaged on similar works on the other side of the Atlantic.

This wheel, of which the following is a sketch, drove the vessel in a calm from 3 to 4 miles an hour; and, as Mr. Miller judged the capstan the best mode of turning the wheel, he rejected for a time all other modes, believing manual labour so applied more to be depended on than any mechanical contrivances. For the purpose of his experiments he built, from first to last, eight boats of different kinds, expending no less than 30,000l. on them and their machinery. One was a treble vessel, or rather three boats fastened together, of which the following is a transverse representation of the fore part with the lower floats of the wheels at their full dip.

According to a written statement laid before the Council of the Royal Society, London, December 20, 1787, Mr. Miller made various excursions in this vessel in the course of that year; being[Pg 34] attended in most of these by a Mr. James Taylor, the tutor in his family, who, being a man of considerable genius, urged Mr. Miller to apply steam to drive the wheels of his boat. At last Mr. Miller was induced to employ a young hard-working operative engineer, named Symington, to carry out Mr. Taylor’s suggestion, and the combination of capital, energy, and genius with practical knowledge soon produced the desired results.

About this time Symington, who was employed at the lead mines at Wanlockhead, had succeeded in constructing a small steam-engine of a new description, originally intended for the purpose of propelling wheeled carriages, which he patented June 5th, 1787.[54]

His specification, accompanied by drawings, relates, 1, to heating the cylinder of a steam-engine; 2, loading the piston; 3, placing a fire round the cylinder; 4, a boiler; and, 5, “when rotatory motions of whatever kind are wanted, two ratchet wheels will be placed upon one or the same axis in such manner that, while the engine turns forward one wheel, the other will be reversed without impeding the motion or diminishing the power so as to be ready to carry on the motion by the time the other wheel begins to be reversed.”

As this engine was considered suitable for the purpose Mr. Taylor had in view, Symington[55] undertook[Pg 35] to perform the work and Mr. Miller agreed to employ him. When completed it was mounted in an oak frame and placed on the deck of one of Mr. Miller’s pleasure-boats, a vessel 25 feet long and 7 feet wide, with two wheels, to be tested on Loch Dalswinton. The engine performed its work beyond their most sanguine expectations, driving the vessel at the rate of 5 miles an hour, though the cylinders were only 4 inches in diameter. After being used in cruising about the lake for a few days, the engine was removed from the boat and conveyed to Mr. Miller’s house, where it remained as a piece of ornamental furniture for a number of years.

The accounts which appeared in the Scottish newspapers at the time[56] state that the first experiment was made on the 14th November, 1788, and with such success that it was resolved to repeat it on a larger scale upon the Forth and Clyde Canal. A double engine with cylinders 18 inches in diameter was consequently ordered to be built at Carron Iron Works, and, in November of the following year, it was fitted on board of another of Mr. Miller’s vessels and tried on Dalswinton Loch. As, however, the floats of the wheels gave way, it was not until the 26th of December, by which time stronger wheels[Pg 36] had been procured, that an opportunity was afforded for fairly testing the capabilities of this engine. From the accounts in the local papers of the period[57] the experiment appears to have answered thoroughly, though made under many disadvantages; a speed having been obtained of from 6½ to 7 miles an hour, which, in the words of the report, “sufficiently shows that a vessel properly constructed might accomplish 8, 9, or even 10 miles an hour easily.”[58]

Such was one among the first efforts made in steam navigation. That they were considered to be of practical value may in some measure be determined by the fact that Mr. Taylor’s widow was, a few years afterwards, awarded an annual pension of 50l., and that, in 1837, Lord Melbourne’s administration presented 50l. to each of his four daughters, who were in reduced circumstances, Mr. Symington having previously (1825), in answer to his memorial to the Treasury for a pension (he, too, being almost penniless), been awarded 100l. as a gift from the Privy Purse, and subsequently a further sum of 50l. Poor Symington![59] What a miserable return for labours of such inestimable value!

Mr. Miller having expended a large fortune on[Pg 37] these experiments, found it, no doubt, inconvenient to continue them, or having other projects in view, gave orders to dismantle the vessel in which his last experiment had been made, and laid her up with her engines at Bence Haven, at that time his property. More than ten years elapsed before Mr. Symington found another patron, indeed, it was not till 1801, that Thomas first Lord Dundas, employed him to fit up a steam-boat for the Forth and Clyde Canal Company, in which he was a large shareholder. Having availed himself of the many improvements made by Watt and others, Symington patented his new engine on the 14th of March of that year,[60] and fitting it on board the Charlotte Dundas, named after his lordship’s daughter, produced, in the opinion of most writers who have carefully and impartially inquired into this interesting subject, “the first practical steam-boat.”[61] Mr. Woodcroft has furnished a sectional drawing of this vessel of which the following is a copy on a reduced scale;[62] it[Pg 38] resembled in many respects the description of vessel suggested by Jonathan Hulls, but not till now practically applied.

In March 1802, the Charlotte Dundas made her trial trip on the Forth and Clyde Canal. Embarking at Lock 20 a party of gentlemen, including Lord Dundas, and taking in tow two vessels or barges of 70 tons burden, she accomplished the trip to Port Dundas, Glasgow, a distance of 19½ miles, in six hours, or at the rate of 3¼ miles per hour, although it blew so strong a gale right ahead during the whole day that no other vessel on the canal attempted to move to windward.[63] Lord Dundas entertaining a very favourable opinion of the experiment, recommended the adoption of Symington’s steam-boat in a letter of introduction to the Duke of Bridgewater, who gave him an order to construct eight vessels similar to the Charlotte Dundas to ply on his canal.

Elated by his success, Symington returned to Scotland to make arrangements for carrying out the orders of his Grace with the hope of realizing the[Pg 39] advantages his ingenuity and perseverance so well merited; but he was disappointed in his hopes, the Duke of Bridgewater died before the details of the agreement had been definitely arranged, and the Committee who had charge of the affairs of the canal after his death, came to the conclusion that it would not be advisable to use steamboats on it for fear of injury to its banks. We may presume that the Forth and Clyde Canal Company arrived at somewhat similar conclusions, for the Charlotte Dundas does not appear to have been again used.

Here it may be desirable to add that the Charlotte Dundas had an engine with the steam acting on each side of the piston (Watt’s patented invention) working a connecting rod and crank (Pickard’s patented invention)[64] together with the union of the crank to the axis of Miller’s improved paddle-wheel, thus combining for the first time the essential characteristics of the existing marine engines: nevertheless, she was laid up in a creek of the canal near to Bramford Drawbridge, where she remained for many years exposed to public view, as a curiosity—doubtless, also, as a warning to speculators![65]

[Pg 40]

Symington’s limited means were now nearly exhausted, and the little that remained was expended in defending himself from attacks made on him by the relations of Mr. Taylor for having patented, as they alleged, the inventions of that gentleman. But the contentions of rival parties, inter se, rarely deserve commemoration except for the elucidation of the truth. It is, however, to be regretted that each of those persons who respectively contributed to the maturity of this invention, did not reap more material advantages from it in return for the time and labour they bestowed in perfecting a machine which has done so much for the benefit of mankind.

In 1797, an experiment in canal steam navigation, copied no doubt from Symington’s original boat, was made in the neighbourhood of Liverpool, which is alluded to as follows in the Monthly Magazine for July of that year:—“Lately, at Newton Common in Lancashire, a vessel, heavy laden with copper slag, passed along the Sankey Canal without the aid of haulers or rowers, the oars performing eighteen strokes a minute by the application of steam only! After a course of 10 miles the vessel returned the same evening by the same means to St. Helens whence she had set out.”

While these experiments were being made with success in Great Britain, and especially in Scotland, there were not wanting claimants—some of them of somewhat earlier date—to this great invention in other and distant parts of the world. To that of Gauthier we have already referred. In 1776, a countryman of his, Guyon de la Plombiere, suggested[Pg 41] the use of a steam-engine for propelling a vessel;[66] and, in that year, the Marquis de Jouffroy states he used, besides the one already mentioned, a steam boat (40 feet long and 16 feet wide) on the Doubs, with propellers moved by a chain from a single cylinder and counterpoise, which opened and closed like louvre boards;[67] applying, in 1780, an engine to his boat with a duck-foot propeller, two cylinders, inclined at an angle, and turned by a chain round a barrel.[68]

In 1782, Dixblancs sent to the Conservatoires des Arts et Metiers a model of a steamboat moved by a chain of floats carried on wheels at its sides turned by a horizontal cylinder;[69] and in 1796, it is stated that one Seraffino Serrati, an Italian, had some time previously placed a steam-boat on the Arno, near Florence.[70]

The Americans, as already stated, had, also, at an early period turned their attention to new modes of propelling vessels. In 1784, James Rumsey mentioned to General Washington a project of steam navigation, but, having been refused a patent in Pennsylvania, came to England and succeeded in inducing a wealthy countryman of his own, then resident in London, and others, to disburse the expenses of an experiment, for which he obtained a[Pg 42] patent in 1788. The particulars of his plan are given at length by Mr. Woodcroft[71] and will also be found in the Rolls Chapel Reports.[72] They were altogether impracticable for any useful purpose. In 1786, Mr. John Fitch, also an American by birth, proposed to use vertical oars worked by cranks turned by a horizontal steam-engine of which the following is an illustration.[73]

Although the Legislature of the State of Pennsylvania had, in 1784, turned a deaf ear to the applications of Messrs. Rumsey and Fitch, these gentlemen, in the following year, obtained from the Legislatures of Virginia and Maryland the exclusive right to run steamboats on the waters of those States, while Pennsylvania and New York having, in 1786, granted to Mr. Fitch himself similar exclusive rights, he in that year made a trial of his machine at Shepherdstown, Pennsylvania, in a boat of 9 tons, obtaining, it is said, the speed of 4 or 5 miles an hour against the current of the Potomac. In 1787, Mr. Fitch[74] built another vessel, 12[Pg 43] feet beam, and 45 feet long, with a 12-inch cylinder, the mode of propulsion being somewhat similar, in which he is reported[75] to have made the trip from Philadelphia to Burlington at an average rate of[Pg 44] 7 miles an hour. In 1790, he completed another and a larger boat, propelled in a different manner: and, by referring to the Federal Gazette and Philadelphia Advertiser, of 26th July, 1790, the following advertisement will be found: “The steam-boat sets out to-morrow morning at ten o’clock from Arch Street Ferry, in order to take passengers for Burlington, Bristol, Bordingtown, and Fenton:” there is, therefore, no doubt that this boat actually traded with passengers on the Delaware.

But a glance at the second boat built by Fitch, of which the following is an illustration, will show that the grasshopper paddles which he now employed, however well they may have answered for a time on the smooth waters of the Delaware, were not adapted for the general purposes of navigation any more than the treadles in his first invention.[76] Indeed, Fitch himself did not follow up the line of steam service he had commenced at so early a date, but on the invitation, as he alleged, of the French Government,[Pg 45] he soon afterwards visited Paris with the view of constructing vessels on his plan. As he was not, however, supplied with the necessary funds (no doubt arising from the fact that the French engineers were not satisfied with the practicability or desirability of his mode of propulsion) no vessel on his plan was built in France, and he was obliged to return to the United States, at the expense of the American Consul. As no further mention is made of vessels fitted on the plans[77] suggested by Fitch,[Pg 46] it may be inferred that they were not adapted for practical or useful purposes, or that the machinery was too complicated or too expensive to work remuneratively.

In 1791, John Cox Stevens, of New York, commenced improvements on steam navigation; but it was not until 1804 that any of these were carried into practice; and even after an expenditure, as he states, of “twenty thousand dollars,” and the constant devotion “of thirteen years of the best period of his life” to the project, he admits that his attempts were on the whole unsuccessful. These consisted of a plan for propelling a boat 25 feet long and 5 feet wide, by a rotatory engine, on the axle of which revolved a wheel, like a windmill or smoke-jack, worked at the stern, but he found it impossible to preserve a sufficient degree of tightness in the packing of the engine. A second modification of his rotatory apparatus proving on trial no better than the first, he had recourse to Watt’s engine, omitting the beam, and having a cylinder 4½ inches diameter with a nine-inch stroke; the boiler, which was only 2 feet long, 15 inches wide, and 12 inches high, consisting of no less than forty-one copper tubes, each an inch in diameter. This boat (which is interesting as the first in which we have a direct account of the use of tubular boilers) was tried in May 1804, and attained a velocity of 4 miles an hour.[78] After having made repeated[Pg 47] trials with her, his son undertook to cross from Hoboken to New York, when, unfortunately, as she approached the wharf, the steam-pipe gave way. The boiler having also been damaged, he constructed another with the tubes placed vertically, and for this, perhaps the only portion of his invention worth securing, he, in the year 1805, obtained a patent in England,[79] where he then resided.

While Fitch and Stevens were employed in the manner I have described, another American citizen, Oliver Evans, an ingenious mechanic, was endeavouring to mature a plan for using steam of a very high pressure, to be employed in propelling waggons on common roads, and in an account of his plans which he published in 1786,[80] he suggests a mode of propelling vessels by steam. From this circumstance he has been regarded by some authors as the contriver of a practicable steam-boat: his pretensions, however, rest solely on his own allegations. He states that, in 1785, he placed his engine, used to cleanse docks, in a boat upon wheels, the combined weight being equal to 200 barrels of flour, which he transported down to the water, and, when it was launched, he fixed a paddle-wheel to the stern, and drove it down the Schuylkill to Delaware and up the Delaware to the city, “leaving all the vessels going up behind me at least half-way, the wind being ahead.”

In 1794, one Samuel Morey, of Connecticut, is[Pg 48] said to have built a steam-boat which he propelled at 5 miles an hour on the Connecticut River, and, in 1797, he built another, with side wheels, at Bordentown, New Jersey, which was publicly exhibited and made a passage to Philadelphia, but which does not appear to have been afterwards employed.

In 1793, Robert Fulton, of whose exertions in the development of steam-engines and their early application to useful purposes[81] the Americans are justly proud, is said to have conceived some time previously the idea of propelling vessels by steam. It was not, however, until 1796 that any of his inventions were brought under notice: when, in that year, his plan for using small canals as a means of transit and for raising and lowering vessels on them by inclined planes was published. In the same year, 1796, it is said that he also suggested and used an apparatus for propelling vessels under water, to be employed in war,[82] but it was not until 1798 that he tried successfully to propel a boat with a steam-engine and a four bladed screw-propeller.[83] That he had shown an early taste for mechanical pursuits there can be no doubt, and, in 1801, when Napoleon contemplated the conquest of England, we know that Fulton made the friendly proposal to convey the legions of French soldiers who were to invade our shores by means of rafts propelled by steam; but, though the Emperor rejected the proposal[Pg 49] as chimerical, Fulton, by his intercourse with the French Government, was afforded an opportunity of becoming intimately acquainted with Mr. Livingston, at that time Minister of the United States at Paris, with whom he frequently conversed on the subject of steam navigation, these communications having in the sequel very important results.

Mr. Livingston, who had previously been associated with Stevens in the United States in experiments and in various plans for promoting steam navigation, entered readily into the proposals of Fulton, and, on his suggestion, a boat was built on the Seine, the engine for which was ordered in England. This experimental boat, 66 feet long, and 8 feet wide, was completed in 1803. When on the point of making her first trial, the weight of the machinery broke the boat in two and both sank. They were, however, soon raised and the necessary repairs were shortly completed, but, on trial, the boat did not move with as much speed as Mr. Fulton expected.

Before describing Fulton’s further experiments, it may be convenient to direct attention to a statement made by Symington soon afterwards in the newspapers of the period, which remains uncontradicted, for the purpose of showing that whatever merit is due to Fulton, his information was derived from others.

There is, indeed, no doubt that, in 1802, when Symington was conducting his experiments under the patronage of Lord Dundas, a stranger came to the banks of the Forth and Clyde Canal and requested an interview, announcing himself as Mr. Fulton of[Pg 50] the United States,[84] whither he intended to return, and expressing a desire to see Mr. Symington’s boat and machinery, and to procure some information of the principles on which it was moved, before he left Europe. He remarked that, however beneficial the invention might be to Great Britain, it would be of more importance to North America, considering the numerous navigable rivers and lakes of that continent, and the facility for procuring timber for building vessels and supplying them with fuel; that the usefulness of steam-vessels in a mercantile point of view could not fail to attract the attention of every observer; and that, if he was allowed to carry the plan to the United States, it would be advantageous to Mr. Symington, as, if his engagements would permit, the constructing or superintending of the construction of such vessels would naturally devolve upon him. Mr. Symington, in compliance with the stranger’s request, caused the[Pg 51] engine fire to be lighted, and the machinery put in motion. Several persons entered the boat, and along with Mr. Fulton were carried from where she then lay, to Lock No. 16 on the Forth and Clyde Canal, about four miles west, and returned to the starting-place in one hour and twenty minutes, being at the rate of six miles an hour, to the astonishment of Mr. Fulton and the other gentlemen.[85]

Mr. Fulton obtained leave to take notes and sketches of the size and construction of the boat and apparatus; but he never afterwards communicated with Mr. Symington. From the concurrent testimony of Mr. Jacob Perkins, and the oaths of those present in the boat during the experiment, it is evident that Fulton availed himself of the information obtained from Symington, and ordered from Messrs. Boulton and Watt of Birmingham, a steam-engine for propelling a boat intended to be built in the United States.[86]

In 1806 Mr. Fulton, in conjunction with Mr. Livingston, commenced building a steam-boat in America, in the yard of Charles Brown on the East (Hudson) River. She was decked for a short distance only at stem and stern. The engine was open to view, and a house, like that of a canal boat, was raised to cover the boiler and the apartments for the passengers and crew. There were no wheel-guards. The boiler was set in masonry. She was launched in the spring of 1807, and the engines ordered from Boulton and Watt[87] were[Pg 52] fixed in that boat. The engine differed very little from that of the Charlotte Dundas, whose piston had a four-foot stroke, with a cylinder 22 inches in diameter, while that of the Clermont (as the American boat was named, after the residence of Mr. Livingston on the Hudson) had also a piston with a four-foot stroke, and a cylinder 24 inches in diameter. Such similarity in the dimensions of the engines could hardly have arisen from a mere accident.

But whatever information Fulton derived from Symington, he claimed no patent for the assumed discovery. On the first trial of the Clermont her speed was 5 miles an hour. Fulton perceiving that her paddles entered too deep into the water had them removed, and placed nearer the centres of the wheels. He afterwards made a further trip in her, leaving New York at one o’clock on Monday, and arrived at Clermont, the seat of Mr. Livingston, at one o’clock on Tuesday, performing in twenty-four hours a distance of 110 miles. On the voyage from Clermont to Albany, a distance of 40 miles, the time was eight hours, equal on the average of both passages to nearly 5 miles an hour.

The Clermont was soon afterwards lengthened and considerably improved in appearance and usefulness—indeed, almost wholly rebuilt. Her hull was covered from stem to stern with a flush deck, beneath which two cabins were formed, surrounded by double ranges of berths, and fitted up for comfort in a manner then unexampled. Her dimensions now were, “Length, 130 feet; breadth, 16½ feet; with an engine of only eighteen horse-power,[88] though her[Pg 53] burden was 160 tons, the boiler being 20 feet long, 7 feet deep, and 8 feet broad; the axle of her paddle-wheel was cast iron, but it had no outer support; the diameter of the paddle-wheels was 15 feet, and the paddles were 4 feet long, dipping into the water 2 feet.”

It appears from a paragraph in the American Citizen (newspaper) of the 17th August, 1807,[89] that Mr. Fulton’s original intention was to ply with his boat on the Mississippi; but the passenger trade on the Hudson then offered greater inducements. Various accounts have been given of the performances of the Clermont, but, without referring to these, it is better to furnish Fulton’s own description of the trial, which he gave in a letter addressed to the above newspaper,[90] as this is more[Pg 54] likely to be accurate than any other account, and has never been contradicted; indeed, had his statements been exaggerated, they would certainly have been questioned at the time, the more so that his great experiment was bitterly opposed by the owners of all the sailing-vessels then employed on the Hudson.

The following is a representation of the Clermont as she appeared on the Hudson after being improved,[Pg 55][91] and where she continued to ply with goods and passengers between New York and Albany for some years.

But though the Clermont was unquestionably a great practical success, and the first boat in the world regularly and continuously engaged in passenger traffic, she encountered many difficulties in her commercial operations.[92] In overcoming these difficulties and persevering with his novel undertaking, much credit is due to Robert Fulton; and though he was not, indeed he never claimed to be, the inventor of the steam-engine as applicable to marine propulsion, the manner in which various English authors of note have written,[93] and the tone in which an eminent English engineer has spoken of him, do not become men in their positions.[94] If[Pg 56] we do not consider it necessary to be generous to the genius or, rather, to the persevering industry of men of other nations, we ought at least to be just, and not to overlook important facts or allow our judgment to be biased, because the man whose labours we are describing was not a countryman of our own.

Even when the fact is clearly established, and there is, without doubt, every reason to suppose that Fulton borrowed largely from Watt, Pickard, and Symington, and, it might be added, from his own countrymen, Fitch and Rumsey, this ought not to detract from his merit in putting all the inventions of these men and others together, and in first applying them to practical and useful purposes. He did what no other man had done before him; he commenced and continued to run the steam-ship which now traverses every river, every coast, and every ocean, and which, of all the inventions of man, is the mightiest harbinger of peace and good-will among nations the world has ever seen. If his was a combination of the inventions of others, if he were a “quack,” it was only on a small scale compared to those persons who combine the inventions of men of all nations in the magnificent steam-engines of the present day. Do we, however, think less of any one of these engines when we see it in motion, and know that that beautiful machine, more like a living thing than any other work of man, is not the invention of any one man, or of any one nation? And ought we to think less highly of Robert Fulton when we know the labour he bestowed to collect the inventions of the age in which he lived, the hardships he endured to put them into[Pg 57] operation, and the difficulties he had to overcome in applying them to useful purposes?

That these difficulties were very great, so great indeed that to most men they would have been insurmountable, may be known from the fact that the Clermont was often, intentionally, run into by rival vessels on the river Hudson, and that the legislature was compelled to pass a law punishing by fine and imprisonment any person who attempted to destroy or injure her. Nor did his troubles end here. When the State of New York, convinced of the practical utility of his invention, granted him the exclusive privilege of navigating its rivers for a certain number of years, he was harassed by numerous law suits, and at last so thoroughly broken down by the oppressive influence of men of capital, who were either interested in the sailing-vessels, or in other inventions, that the State, in deference to the opinions of those sticklers who grudged him the merit of his labours, rescinded its concession, and passed a resolution that the boats built by Fulton were in substance the invention of his countryman, Fitch; a most unjust decision, as both of Fitch’s models, as I have shown, were valueless, while Fulton’s were practicable.

But, to whomsoever the invention belonged, the merit of first permanently developing its power and usefulness belongs to Robert Fulton. He it was who showed how it could be made not merely an instrument of vast importance to mankind, but also an immense source of profit to all who adopted it, though he himself, if reports be true, derived no advantage from it, but died in 1815 very poor and almost[Pg 58] broken-hearted through the persecution of jealous and narrow-minded rivals, leaving his family in greatly embarrassed circumstances, but at the same time leaving behind him an everlasting memorial of his energy and perseverance, and an enduring stigma on those who had taunted him with a “Fulton’s folly.”

The application of the new power to the propulsion of vessels was rapidly followed up in America, and, in 1809, the first steamboat was launched on the St. Lawrence of which an account at the time appeared in the Quebec Mercury.[95]

In the spring of 1813, a second boat of increased dimensions was launched from the banks of the St. Lawrence. She was 130 feet in length of keel, and 140 feet on deck with a width of 24 feet, and by the account given by the Mercury she made the passage from Montreal to Quebec in twenty-two and a half[Pg 59] hours, notwithstanding that the wind was easterly the whole time and blowing strong. But though the Swiftsure, for such was her name, beat the most famous of the sailing packets on the line (fourteen hours in a race of thirty-six hours), her owners do not seem to have been very confident of her movements under all circumstances or of the number of passengers who would patronize her, for she was advertised to “sail as the wind and passengers may suit.” The success of the Clermont for the purposes of passenger traffic on rivers soon, however, spread to other countries.

[Pg 60]

CHAPTER II.

During the progress in America of the art of practically applying steam to marine propulsion the[Pg 61] people of Europe were making slow but important improvements in the models of their vessels, and in the development of that art for the purposes of navigation.

In these improvements the mechanics on the Clyde took the lead, establishing there a reputation for the construction of marine engines and more especially of ships adapted to receive them, which they have ever since maintained. In the early part of this century the river Clyde in the vicinity of Glasgow was a scarcely navigable stream, with few or no vessels at its chief port, and these, small craft of not more than 40 tons, drawing, at most, only 5 feet of water when laden. Indeed, my own recollection of that now important river goes back to the time when one could wade across it among the stones at the foot of the old Broomielaw Bridge, and when a small but lucrative salmon fishery was carried on from the two “fishing huts,” then the site where a dock now receives ships of the largest description, and where massive quay walls and numerous warehousing sheds occupy the once verdant grass banks of its southern shore. To the energy and intelligence of the Corporation, and, in later years, through the laudable exertion of a Trust, chosen from members of that body and other citizens of Glasgow, may, in a great measure, be attributed the extraordinary rise and prosperity of a city now possessing an inland navigation and a stream harbour unsurpassed, perhaps, in Europe. Indeed, from the time when James Watt, in 1766,[96] erected in Glasgow his first[Pg 62] model of a steam-engine and there laid the foundation of a power which has since revolutionized the commerce of the world, its citizens seem to have specially directed their genius to the development of this mighty agency, their first and necessary step being the improvement of the approaches to their city by the deepening of the Clyde.

But it was not till the beginning of the present century that any real progress was made in the maritime pursuits of the people of Scotland. In 1800, Henry Bell, then resident at Helensburgh, first laid before the British Government his inventions for the improvement of steam navigation. The Board of Admiralty, however, so far from expressing any desire to promote his views, discouraged them, as they did thirteen years afterwards, when the subject was again urged upon their attention. Naturally anxious that his invention should be practically tested on a scale sufficiently extended, Bell forwarded, in 1803, a detailed account of his method of propelling vessels against wind and tide by steam power, to most of the European Governments, and also to the Government of the United States of America. He found, however, that his plans were received no better abroad than at home: while it further seems probable that the Government of the United States had either given or shown them to Fulton, who was then engaged in endeavouring to induce his countrymen to assist him in starting[Pg 63] trading steamers on their lakes and rivers, where such vessels were admirably fitted for the profitable development of their vast natural inland resources.

Mr. Fulton evidently knew how Mr. Bell had been employed, for he opened a correspondence with him, and, in the course of it, requested him to call on Mr. Miller of Dalswinton, and on Mr. Symington, and to send him a drawing and description of their last boat with the machinery. These were sent out, and Fulton, some time afterwards, answered that “he had constructed a steamer from the different drawings of the machinery forwarded to him by Bell, which was likely to succeed with some necessary improvements.” This letter Bell sent to Mr. Miller for his information. As the matter, however, to which it refers is one of considerable importance, it is desirable to state the facts as related by Mr. Bell himself in a letter which appeared in the Caledonian Mercury in 1816, wherein he says, referring to the communication he had received many years previously from Mr. Fulton:

“This letter led me to think of the absurdity of writing my opinion to other countries, and not putting it into practice in my own country; and from these considerations I was [a]roused (sic), to set on foot a steam-boat, for which I made a number of different models before I was satisfied. When I was convinced they would answer the end, I contracted with Messrs. John Wood and Company, shipbuilders, in Port Glasgow, to build me a steam-vessel according to my plan: 40 feet keel, and 10 feet 6 inches beam, which I fitted up with an engine and paddles, and called her the Comet, because[Pg 64] she was built and finished the year that a comet appeared in the north-west part of Scotland. This vessel is the first steam-boat built in Europe that answered the end, and is, at this present time, upon the best and simplest method of any of them, for a person sitting in the cabin will hardly hear the engine at work. She plies on the Firth of Forth, betwixt the east end of the great canal and Newhaven near Leith. The distance by water is 27 miles, which she performs in ordinary weather in three and a half hours up, and the same down.”

In another communication, Bell says, “when I wrote to the United States’ Government on the great utility that steam navigation would be to them on their rivers, they appointed Mr. Fulton to correspond with me.”

No merit, as the inventor of the present system of steam navigation, can, however, be conceded to Bell more than to Fulton; nor for any progress beyond the improvements of which he had obtained cognizance from the previous experiments of Messrs. Miller, Taylor, and Symington. In fact, there can be no doubt, from existing drawings, that Symington’s Charlotte Dundas was superior in mechanical arrangements to either Fulton’s Clermont or Bell’s Comet. But what Fulton and Livingston accomplished in the United States, Bell effected in his own country; each was, therefore, instrumental in the introduction, for commercial purposes, of steam navigation.[97]

Though Mr. Bell had completed his Comet in January, 1812, more than six months elapsed before[Pg 65] he announced to the public, through the medium of an advertisement in the local papers of the period,[98] his intention to employ her for trading purposes on the Clyde. The notice is a modest but curious and interesting document. He does not profess to make more than one passage each day between Glasgow and Greenock, a distance of 22 miles, and, doubtful of its pecuniary success, he informs the public that he intends to continue “his establishment at Helensburgh Baths,” to which the Comet will carry passengers on her return journey from Greenock[Pg 66] This little vessel, of which the following is an illustration as she appeared on the Clyde passing Dumbarton, was designed and constructed by Mr. John Wood, shipbuilder, Port Glasgow. She was 40 feet in length of keel, and 10½ feet beam; her engines (which cost 192l.) were 4 horse-power; and her draught of water 4 feet. She continued to ply for a short time between Glasgow and Greenock, but under many difficulties.[99]

Though the engine of the Comet was only of 4 horse-power, driving two small wheels, one on each[Pg 67] side, it must, however, have performed its work, on the whole, exceedingly well to have propelled a vessel of 30 tons burthen at the rate Mr. Bell states in his letter published in the Caledonian Mercury.

But the Comet does not appear to have proved remunerative to her enterprising owner on the line on which he had placed her.[100] The prejudice raised against steam navigation by rival interests, which Fulton had previously experienced on the Hudson, was equally strong on the Clyde, and seriously injured Mr. Bell’s first undertaking. He was consequently obliged to withdraw her from this station and to employ her for some months as an excursion-boat on the coasts of Scotland and Ireland, extending his cruises to the shores of England when the weather permitted, to show the superior advantages of steam-boat navigation over other modes of transit to the public, many of whom viewed her with feelings of mingled awe and superstition. Afterwards he transferred her to the Forth, where she ran for a considerable time between the extremity of the Forth and Clyde Canal and Newhaven, near Edinburgh. Here she seems to have done her work most efficiently, for Mr. Bell states that she made the voyage, a distance of 27 miles, on the average, in three and a half hours, being at the rate of more than 7½ miles an hour.[101]

[Pg 68]

Although the Comet at first proved commercially unsuccessful, there is no part of Europe where the progress in the construction of steamers has been either so great or so astonishing as on the Clyde. From a silvery salmon stream it has become in half a century by far the largest and most important shipbuilding river in the world; but, alas, its once limpid stream has long since ceased to be either silvery or pure.[102] Ancient historians have told us[Pg 69] that when the first Punic war roused the citizens of Rome to extraordinary exertions in the equipment of a fleet for the destruction of the maritime supremacy of Carthage, the banks of the Tiber resounded with the axe and the hammer, and that the extent of the ship-building operations then carried on was a matter not merely of surprise, but of wonder. How insignificant, however, was that sound when compared with that of the steam hammer and the anvil and the din of the work now to be heard on the banks of the Clyde. For miles on both sides of the river stupendous ship-building yards line its banks, employing tens of thousands of hardy and skilled mechanics earning their daily bread, as God has destined all men to do, by “the sweat of their brow,” relieved from oppressive taxation, and free from anything approaching the thraldom of slavery, the curse of ancient Rome. Along those banks there is now annually constructed a much larger amount of steam tonnage than in all the other ports of Europe combined, those of England alone excepted. What a contrast to the days of Henry Bell!—days almost within my own recollection.

By comparing the Clyde with the Tiber, both in themselves comparatively insignificant rivers—the one made important by the power of the Cæsars, the[Pg 70] other by the wisdom and energy of the Clyde trustees, it is to be hoped that more than one lesson may be learned from the character of the employment on their respective banks. The clamour on the Tiber when Rome resolved to achieve maritime greatness, indicated war, terrible war, with Carthage; but the sounds on the Clyde proclaim a mission of peace and good-will among nations, for nearly all the ships constructed there are destined to carry to other lands the fabrics of our workshops and the products of our mills, and with them the civilizing and enlightening influence resulting from the skill and genius of our artisans.[103]

[Pg 71]

Should, however, the necessity arise, these numerous ship-building yards and thousands of mechanics could instantly be made available for the construction of vessels of war. If, therefore, a large naval force be still unhappily necessary, [and I am far from saying that it is not], should we not take into consideration, when we frame our naval estimates, the vast resources we have at our command in our private yards,[104] (infinitely greater as these are than those of all other nations in Europe combined), for producing on an emergency, whatever extra number of vessels of war we may then require? Our private building yards are in themselves the bases of a great fleet.[105]

[Pg 72]

But the Admiralty are slow to learn. At the commencement of the century they declined even to consider the benefits to be derived by the application of steam, and even forty years afterwards, when everybody except themselves had become alive to its advantages, they refused to apply this new and now mighty power to our war ships of the line.

Happily, however, the great invention made its way without Government aid. Private enterprise carried into execution what the Admiralty would not even consider. In 1813 a steam-boat was built at Leeds, and was started to run between Norwich and Yarmouth in the months of August or September of that year. This was the second steam-vessel launched in British waters. In the same year a steamer was launched at Manchester and another at Bristol. In October 1814 another steamer commenced to ply on the Humber. In December of that year the first steamer was seen on the Thames; she was put in[Pg 73] motion on the canal at Limehouse; and, early in 1815, a vessel with a side lever engine of 14 horse-power, constructed by Cook of Glasgow, made her way from that city to Dublin, and thence round the Land’s End to London. Though encountering great opposition from the Thames watermen, from time immemorial an obstructive class of men, she, nevertheless, commenced and successfully carried on a passenger traffic between that city and Margate. Cook had, in the previous year, in association with Bell, built two other steam-vessels, one of which, named the Glasgow, became in power and efficiency the standard at that time for river steamers.

The public now began to appreciate the value of steamers. Prejudice vanished and travellers by them increased with such rapidity that, in 1816, it was not unusual for 500 or 600 passengers to enjoy, in the course of one day, water excursions on the Clyde.[106]

It is, however, not a matter for surprise that[Pg 74] steamers, when first placed on rivers for passenger traffic, were viewed with great jealousy by watermen, and that, on the Hudson and especially on the Thames, they were strenuously opposed. The traffic on the Thames had for centuries afforded profitable employment to large numbers of semi-seafaring men who, though not “sailors” in the usual acceptation of the term, could nevertheless be made much more useful on board our ships of war in an emergency than any other class in the community. To suggest any changes whereby their number might be reduced was sure, as has been the case for ages, to rouse the patriotic feelings of the people of England lest there should be a scarcity of men to man their fleets. Thus, on the repeal of the navigation laws in 1849, the special clause inserted in the Bill to reserve the coasting trade from the competition of foreign ships and foreign seamen, was solely on the ground of “preserving a nursery for British sailors,” and five years elapsed ere that clause was expunged. When, therefore, the British Legislature, at so recent a period, considered it necessary to pass an enactment for the preservation of seamen in England, as if any law could retain them here if they were desirous of improving their condition by accepting employment elsewhere, it is not surprising that the watermen, bargemen, and others, who obtained their livelihood on the Thames, should have found many sympathisers in 1815, when they affirmed that their “trade would be ruined by the introduction of steamers.” Nor can we wonder that men, in their humble position of life, could not see that the greater facilities afforded for intercourse between London and Margate and other towns on[Pg 75] the banks of the river would, so far from reducing their means of employment, tend very materially to increase them.

Previously to the time when David Napier introduced a steamer, the Marjory, to ply on the Thames, the passenger traffic of the river had been carried on by rowing boats, and sailing-craft of various descriptions. Those which made the more distant voyages to Margate, Ramsgate, and Deal were sailing-vessels, most of them carrying cargo as well as passengers, while many were merely barges, called Hoys, of which the following is an excellent illustration from Mr. E. W. Cooke’s interesting collection of the vessels on the Thames. But the great bulk of them were wherries, while the larger class having a[Pg 76] mast and sails, plied between Greenwich, Woolwich, Erith, or Gravesend. A few were state barges—ornate structures—belonging to the Lord Mayor and Corporation, or to the different livery companies or ancient guilds, in which for centuries the members made frequent excursions to Richmond or Hampton Court on the one hand, and Greenwich or Blackwall on the other. Jovial pleasant parties they were, especially at that season of the year, when the horse-chestnuts in Bushy Park were in bloom, and whitebait was in its prime at Greenwich. One of these richly decorated barges, almost rivalling the celebrated bucentaur of Venice, I have copied from the drawings of Mr. Cooke as a relic of bygone days.

But these have all now passed away, though the cargo barges, and some of the wherries may still be seen on the river. Steamers supply their places,[Pg 77] and from the time when Napier, in 1815, started his “fire-boat,” steam navigation on the Thames, as on all other navigable rivers, has made a steady, if not, at first, a rapid progress.

On the 28th June, 1815, the first steamer arrived at Liverpool from the Clyde. She was built for the purpose of carrying on the passenger traffic between the Mersey and Runcorn. On her passage round she called at Ramsey, in the Isle of Man, whence she started early in the morning, and arrived at Liverpool about noon of the same day. This vessel, the particular dimensions and details of which it is difficult now to trace, was noteworthy in more ways than one. She was not merely the first regular steamer on the Mersey, but she was, also, in reality the pioneer of the fleet of steamers which now ply with so much regularity between Liverpool and the numerous ports on the English, Irish, and Scotch coasts.

The second steamer, introduced to the waters of the Mersey in 1816, was intended to supply communication for passengers and goods between Liverpool and Chester by means of the canal, an object she effectually accomplished.

The first application of steam for the purpose of towing vessels—now an important and invaluable part of the numerous services rendered by steam to navigation—was made in October 1816, when the Harlequin was towed out of the Mersey by the Charlotte, a steamer which, in the summer of the same year, had been placed as a ferry-boat to run between Liverpool and Eastham. But the first steamer specially built at Liverpool for the purpose of a ferry was named the Etna, which, early in April[Pg 78] of that year, began to ply between Liverpool and Tranmere. She was 63 feet long, with a paddle-wheel placed in the centre, her extremities being connected by beams, and her deck 28 feet wide over all. This primitive vessel initiated the mode of transit by means of the ferry-boats which now bridge the Mersey.

It was not, however, till the year 1819 that the Admiralty of the day became alive to the importance of steam navigation, nor were they likely, even then, to have awakened from their slumbers had not Lord Melville and Sir George Cockburn urged on the Government the great value of steam-power for towing their men-of-war.[107] In that year the first steam-vessel was built for the Royal Navy. She was named the Comet, and her dimensions were 115 feet in length, 21 feet in breadth, and 9 feet draught of water, being propelled by two engines of 40 horse-power each, manufactured by Boulton and Watt.

In 1818, Mr. David Napier, a name more associated than any other in Great Britain with the early development of the marine engine, having for some years previously been giving his attention to the propulsion of vessels by steam, launched the Rob Roy from the yard of Mr. William Denny, of[Pg 79] Dumbarton.[108] She was only 90 tons burthen, with engines of 30 horse-power, but, to the credit of her builder, she traded between Glasgow and Belfast, carrying with great punctuality the mails and passengers for two consecutive years without requiring any repairs; and although the first regular sea-going steamer which had been built in either Europe or the United States of America, her success was complete. Subsequently, the Rob Roy was transferred to the English Channel to serve as a packet between Dover and Calais. Soon afterwards Messrs.[Pg 80] Wood, of Port Glasgow, built for Mr. David Napier, who had by this time removed to London, a boat named the Talbot, of 120 tons. She was fitted with two engines of 30 horse-power each, of his own construction, and proved in all respects the most perfect steam-vessel of the period. This was the first vessel placed upon the now celebrated line carrying the mails and passengers between Holyhead and Dublin.

The value of the steam-engine having now been fully established as a means of propelling vessels at sea with safety, and of performing voyages with a regularity hitherto unknown, Mr. Napier found comparatively little difficulty in inducing capitalists to join him in the project of constructing various vessels for a regular line of steam traffic between Liverpool, Greenock, and the city of Glasgow. Three vessels were, consequently, built—the Robert Burns of 150 tons, the Eclipse of 240 tons, each being fitted with two engines of 30 horse-power, and the Superb, also of 240 tons with two engines of 35 horse-power each. These vessels proved successful, and the line thus established in 1822 has continued ever since.

New coasting lines soon followed, and, in lieu of the Leith smacks, once so celebrated, the James Watt was constructed to ply between London and Leith. She was the largest steamer that had yet been built, being 448 tons measurement, fitted with engines of 50 horse-power each, by Boulton and Watt. Her paddles were moved, not directly by the engines, but, through the interposition of toothed wheels, rendering the number of revolutions of the axis considerably greater than that of the paddles, so that, with the exception of the low proportion of her[Pg 81] propelling power to the tonnage, she possessed many, if not most, of the qualities of the steamers of even the present day. The Soho followed the James Watt on the same line, and proved equally successful.

In 1826 the first of the so-called leviathan class of steamers, the United Kingdom (of which the following is an excellent illustration) was built by Mr. Steele of Greenock for the trade between London and Edinburgh. She was 160 feet long, with 26½ feet beam, and engines of 200 horse-power by David Napier, and was considered the wonder of the day. People flocked from all quarters to inspect and admire her.[109]

[Pg 82]

Although these two lines of regular steam communication between Liverpool and the river Clyde, and between London and Edinburgh were now successfully established, and proved of considerable importance in the encouragement of steam navigation elsewhere, some years elapsed before those rapid strides were made in its adaptation as a propelling power which have rendered it one of the wonders of the present age. Indeed, this power would probably[Pg 83] never have made such an extraordinary advance had iron not been adopted instead of wood for the construction of our ships.

Hitherto, and throughout all ages, timber alone had been used in shipbuilding. The forests of Lebanon supplied the naval architects of Tyre with their materials; Italy cultivated her woods with unusual care, so that sufficient trees might be grown for the timber, planking, and masts of the ships of its once powerful maritime republics; and, in our own time, how often have we heard fears expressed that Great Britain would not be able to continue the supply of sufficient oak for her royal dockyards, much less for her merchant fleets! Yet, when shrewd far-seeing men, no further back than the year 1830, talked about substituting iron for the “ribs” of a ship instead of “timbers,” and iron plates for “planking” instead of oak, what a howl of derision the public raised!

“Who ever heard of iron floating?” they derisively enquired. It is true they might have seen old tin kettles float on every pool of water before their doors almost any day of their lives, nay, floating even more buoyantly than their discarded wooden coal boxes; but such common-place instructors were beneath their notice. Timber-built ships had from time immemorial been in use by every nation and on every sea, and had bravely battled with the storm from the days of Noah, and were these, they sneeringly asked, to be supplanted by a material which in itself would naturally sink? Such was the reasoning of the period; and indeed, the best of the arguments[Pg 84] against the use of iron rested on scarcely more solid foundation.[110]

It could not be gainsaid that a frame of iron was infinitely stronger than a frame of wood, which, in fact, has no strength in itself, for the longitudinal timber ends are only butted to each other, and obtain their power of resistance solely by means of the horizontal planks and the trenails which bind them together. Nor could the obstructives deny, though they argued the point, that the ribs when welded with the iron plates riveted to them, formed a hull vastly superior in strength, and much less liable to leakage than any similar body of wood, however well constructed. They must also have seen, by its displacement of water when afloat, that an iron hull was the more buoyant of the two. But these arguments, however unanswerable, were long ere they produced conviction; the fact that iron does not float, and the impression that it could not be made to do so safely, offered almost insuperable difficulties in the way of building vessels of that material; and when it was argued that they would “rip up” if they struck upon a rock, or bulge into a shapeless mass if driven on a sand bank, the opponents of progress[Pg 85] raised objections which could be answered only by practical experience.

Hitherto only a few very small vessels or barges had been constructed of iron, and these neither on a scale nor of a class to practically refute the objections which had been raised against the use of iron for ship-building purposes. It is true that so far back as 1809 Richard Trevethick and Robert Dickenson proposed a scheme for building “large ships with decks, beams, and sides, of plate iron,” and even suggested “masts, yards, and spars, to be constructed of iron in plates with telescope joints or screwed together:”[111] and in 1815, Mr. Dickenson patented an invention for vessels, or rather boats, “to be built of iron, with a hollow watertight gunwale.”[112] But, as these inventors or patentees did not put their ideas into practice, no other person (if, indeed, any other person gave even a passing thought to the subject) was convinced that any craft beyond a boat or a river-barge could be constructed of iron, much less that, if made in the form of a ship, this material would oppose more effectual resistance to the storms of the ocean, or, if dashed upon the strand, to the angry fury of the waves, than timber, however scientifically put together. But though no available substance can withstand the raging elements with less chance of destruction than plates of iron riveted together in the form of a boiler (the principle on which iron ships are now constructed), the public could not then appreciate[Pg 86] their superior value; and it was not until 1818 that the first iron vessel was built by Thomas Wilson, at Faskine, on the banks of the Monkland Canal, eleven miles from Glasgow: this vessel, appropriately named the Vulcan, is even now (1875) employed on the Clyde in the conveyance of minerals from the Forth and Clyde Canal.

Three years afterwards a steam-engine was, for the first time, fitted into a vessel built of iron. She was named the Aaron Manby, and was constructed in 1821 at Horsley, for the joint account of Mr. Manby and Captain Napier, afterwards Admiral Sir Charles Napier. She was sent in parts to London, where they were put together, and when complete was despatched to France under the command of Captain Napier. Another iron steam-vessel, intended for the navigation of the Seine, soon followed; but, in consequence of the prohibitory French navigation laws, with respect to foreign bottoms, the different parts of this vessel were, in this case, sent to France instead of to London, and put together at Charenton. Mr. Manby prepared in a similar manner two others, and shortly afterwards the building of iron vessels was commenced by an engineer at Paris for the same trade. The speculation, however, proved unfortunate.

The Shannon Steam Packet Company was the next to employ iron steamers in river navigation. The first, built by the Horsley Company in 1824, proving very successful, was immediately followed by others.

As the success of these vessels was gradually determining the problem of the suitableness of iron to ship-building purposes, and was drawing attention[Pg 87] to the subject, Messrs. Fawcett and Preston established at Liverpool a building yard in connection with their engine factory under the direction of Mr. Page, and constructed several small vessels entirely of iron.[113] Mr. Laird, of Birkenhead, proceeding upon a larger scale, prosecuted this branch of naval architecture with uninterrupted prosperity.[114] Mr. Fairbairn, afterwards Sir William Fairbairn, also took part, at an early period, in cultivating the new art; and ranks with those to whose influence and skill it was first indebted for public confidence. Removing from Glasgow, where he had commenced business, he established himself at Millwall, on the Isle of Dogs, and there became one of the principal constructors of iron vessels upon the Thames. His efforts proving successful, other eminent engineers pursued the same branch of art with the like results; among them may be mentioned Messrs. Miller and Ravenhill, whose vessels were considered at the time to be of exquisite workmanship and beauty of form; and Messrs. Ditchburn and Mare, who built a considerable number of iron vessels, including the Fairy, the tender[Pg 88] to the Queen’s yacht, her form and speed gaining them a high reputation.

In 1832, Messrs. Laird were bold enough to carry into practice the theory of iron vessels for ocean navigation; and in the course of that year the firm of MacGregor, Laird, and Company built the Elburkah, of 55 tons, as consort to the Quorra in her expedition up the Niger.[115] These enlightened firms justly considered that, whatever objections might be urged against vessels built of iron, they would at least possess equal sea-going qualities and, in some branches of trade, peculiar advantages. Combining strength and lightness of draught, the Elburkah would be better adapted than any vessel built of wood for the exploration and navigation of African rivers:[116] nor were they deceived in their calculations. Immediately afterwards Messrs. Laird of Birkenhead commenced the construction of another iron vessel, the Lady Lansdowne for the navigation of Lough Derg, River Shannon. In 1834 they built the Garry Owen, destined to run between Limerick and Kilrush. This vessel (125 feet long and 21 feet 6 inches wide, propelled by two engines of 45 horse-power each) was unfortunately, or perhaps, under the circumstances, fortunately for the progress of science, driven on shore with various other vessels during a strong gale on her first voyage; she, however, sustained comparatively little injury, while[Pg 89] nearly all the others, which were built of wood, were totally wrecked or seriously damaged: this important fact, as a practical answer to one of the most reasonable objections raised against iron vessels, gave remarkable impulse to their increase.

But strong prejudices, unreasonable doubts, and real difficulties had still to be overcome before the suitableness of iron ships for ocean navigation could be established. Another of the chief and more tenable objections to the extended use of iron vessels was the perturbation of the compass. Moreover, one or two unfortunate accidents had been attributed to this cause, though this more, probably, served as a plausible excuse for bad seamanship or negligence. In the course, however, of a few years iron packets began to be used along our coasts; and the art of building them advanced gradually towards perfection. Iron vessels soon afterwards, therefore, acquired a merited confidence.

Their superiority had become apparent to the more intelligent persons of the period who directed their attention to engineering and maritime pursuits. In 1833 and 1834, Mr. Fairbairn launched two passenger steamers of iron to ply on the Humber between Selby and Hull. Mr. Manby also built one of considerable dimensions for general purposes; and in 1837 Messrs. Laird built two iron vessels of about 350 tons and 60 horse-power each, ordered[Pg 90] by the East India Company for the navigation of the River Indus. In the same year Messrs. Laird constructed for the General Steam Navigation Company an iron vessel, the Rainbow,[117] to ply between London and the outports. In that year Muhammed Ali placed upon the Nile an iron steamer built by the same firm, while they also launched from their yard the iron vessels in which Colonel Chesney explored the course of the Euphrates, and which, having been shipped in pieces, were put together by Birkenhead artisans on the banks of that river.

Though the value of iron was now fully established for shipbuilding purposes, many years elapsed ere that material came into general use for the construction of over sea sailing vessels, the principal objections being the greater liability of the compass to err,[118] and the difficulty of preventing[Pg 91] animalculæ and sea-weeds from adhering to the bottom. But these difficulties were in time overcome, and iron vessels propelled by sails are now nearly as common as steamers built of that material. Experience by degrees successfully met almost every objection; and science was again triumphant over prejudice and ignorance. Iron had been made not merely to float, but to ride buoyantly over the crest of the wave, amidst the raging elements.

Mr. Laird was followed by other builders of iron vessels at Liverpool; the high estimation in which they were held having led to a constantly increasing demand for them. About this time Messrs. Tod and MacGregor, of Glasgow, began to take a leading position in this occupation; the Princess Royal, long engaged on the line between Glasgow and Liverpool, and launched from their yard, having been one of the finest and fastest iron packets of her time.

From that period iron shipbuilding on the Clyde increased with great rapidity, but the most magnificent specimen of an iron ship of any description produced at that time was the Great Britain, to[Pg 92] which reference will be made hereafter, constructed by Mr. Patterson at Bristol, for the Great Western Steam Packet Company.

For the information of the general reader, I may here state that the advantages of iron vessels consist principally in their durability, strength and safety, increased capacity for stowage, greater economy, and salubrity.[119] With regard to the perturbations of the compass, Professor Airy, previous to the time when Mr. Evans made his report, had published a very concise series of instructions for correcting the compass on board of iron ships; and the progress of science now bids fair to obviate any difficulty whatever ensuing from this cause. Prior to experience it was apprehended that the saline property of the sea-water would tend to corrode the iron, and, further, that this metal would be rapidly destroyed by oxidation. But experience has shown that the effect of salt water on iron alone is so small as hardly to bear a comparison with its effect upon iron in connection with wood. This remarkable difference has been observed in iron vessels in which timber had been used for the keel; the bolts driven through the keel to form its proper connections having been so rapidly acted on as almost to destroy them before the external iron plates of the hull had been perceptibly diminished in thickness: it is further of importance that the vessel should be kept in use[Pg 93] rather than be laid up in ordinary. Vessels built in the earliest stage of this art, subsequently to that of building mere canal-boats, bore many years’ service with little need of repair, and remained in a perfectly good condition for a longer period than that to which the durability of wooden vessels ordinarily, and under similar circumstances, extends. But there is a great difference in iron plates, some are inferior and soon oxidize, while others, as will be presently shown, last for many years. As the inner surface of the plates may be almost wholly protected from oxidation, it is only from the external wear that danger may be apprehended. But, though the outer surface of the metal can be protected in a great measure from corrosion, yet iron vessels are subject to the disadvantage of having their speed diminished, after a short period of service, by the adhesion and growth of animal and vegetable matter. A coating of red lead is not a perfect preventive against this mischief, and various other scientific substitutes have been used of late; so that it cannot be doubted but this inconvenience will disappear altogether before scientific appliances. A perfectly protective varnish for the in sides of iron ships and a coating which shall effectually prevent the adhesion of animal and vegetable substances to the exterior, are desiderata of great value,[120] and will, we may hope, continue to receive the careful consideration of scientific men.

All the facts yet known with regard to the superior[Pg 94] durability[121] of iron ships are highly satisfactory. It is a consideration not to be overlooked that large ships may be rendered more durable than small vessels; for, as the weight of the hull is generally determined in a certain proportion to the whole displacement, and the plates of iron are much thicker in a large than in a small ship (the oxidizing causing an uniform waste of metal), the durability will be in proportion to the amount of wear the plates of the respective vessels can bear without danger to the ship.

But the superior strength of iron ships depends not merely upon the quality of the material employed, but also on the mode of combining it. The strength of wrought iron is well known and its power of resisting strains in almost every direction is a matter of universal experience, add to which, that its resistance to lateral pressure increases in a much higher ratio than the quantity of material. Hence, almost any amount of strength may be given to a large fabric; certainly, enough to bear the pressures and strains to which ships are exposed, with much less liability to injury than wood. With plates of iron of a substance fitly proportioned to the magnitude of the fabric, and with joints properly formed, the sides of ships have been found capable of resisting, in a remarkable manner, forces for which the strength of[Pg 95] timber would be quite insufficient. A substance of plates sufficient to constitute this amount of strength generally, is also able to bear concussions of great force with much less hazard than timber. The uninjured state in which the Great Britain was found in Dundrum Bay, after being wrecked and lying on the beach several months during winter, exposed to various storms, proved the correctness of these views, which more extended experience has since confirmed. Experience has also demonstrated that unless the concussion takes place with extreme violence, mere indentation of the metal is generally the greatest injury sustained. Beyond this, the strain sometimes breaks off the heads of a few rivets without opening the seam, but it is uncommon for the rivets to be drawn if the metal and workmanship are good. In the case where an iron ship strikes upon a sharp pointed-like crag of rock or coral reef with considerable force, it frequently happens that a hole is made through the plate; but even when such an accident occurs the damage is generally local, the parts not immediately subject to the concussion remaining unhurt. No general leakage is, therefore, consequent on such an accident, as would be the case in all vessels built of wood.

As the hull of an iron ship is both thinner and considerably lighter[122] than that of a wooden ship, an[Pg 96] iron ship of the same external dimensions as a wooden one has both greater capacity for stowage and greater power to support the weights which may be put into her. These differences vary in some degree with the dimensions and form of the ship, being greater in proportion to the increased dimensions of the ship. They may, of course, be determined by computation; but, in all cases, an iron ship will carry considerably more cargo than a wooden one of the same external dimensions.

Again, the consideration of economy must not be omitted in any comparison of the merits of ships built entirely either of timber, or of iron. The economy begins with the construction, for the original cost of an iron ship is less than that of a wooden one, and, apart altogether from her superior capacity for cargo, it runs on with the course of the ship’s service as the result of several causes; as, for instance, the smaller amount and less expensive character of repairs: moreover, as it is not even yet known how long iron ships will last, the precise saving from their use cannot be estimated. On the other hand, the period of service of mercantile timber-built ships is defined. If they reach or exceed thirty years’ service, they must be ships of the very highest class as to quality[123], and must, indeed, within that[Pg 97] period have undergone frequent and very expensive repairs. As iron ships are not subject to the same decay, at the same time that accidental damages are generally repaired at a much less cost, every item saved by the diminished charge for repairs is clear profit.

But with all these advantages, a considerable time elapsed before the Admiralty could be induced to consider the desirability of constructing any Government steamer of iron, or of even allowing the large private trading vessels engaged in the conveyance of the mails to be built of that material. They had objections of their own applying specially to the ships under their control, and very plausible objections too, in their opinion, compared with those originally raised by an ignorant public. A shot, they said, would penetrate an iron vessel with much greater ease than a wooden one, while the shot holes could not be as effectually plugged, if indeed they could be plugged at all. Wood, they argued, when pierced, would rapidly contract and leave a very small opening for water to get through, whereas a shot would make a clean cut through an iron plate which could not be thus expeditiously filled, and if it did not tear away the whole of the plate, would leave a gap as large as a “barn door.” However, a little experience[124] soon showed their arguments to be fallacious, and when[Pg 98] they found that the engines of a paddle-wheel steamer, and, especially, the paddles themselves, offered conspicuous targets to an enemy, and that it was impossible to make the stern-frames of their wooden ships sufficiently strong to withstand, without serious leakage, the vibration of the screw, they abandoned, though reluctantly, the paddle-wheel, and at length gave up, also, vessels of wood for the purposes of war. These resolutions were, however, only carried into practice after vast sums of money had been expended on the “reconstruction” of a wooden British Navy, for which, in one year alone, and that so lately as 1861, when almost everybody except themselves saw that iron must supersede timber, they demanded from Parliament (and carried their vote) no less than 949,371l. to replenish the stock of wood in the dockyards: a sum far in excess of any previous vote for that material.[125]

[Pg 99]

While the art of steam navigation made rapid progress, the ingenuity of engineers had been constantly directed to the improvement of the paddle-wheels; and the above drawing of one, with “feathering paddles,” patented by Mr. Galloway in[Pg 100] 1829,[126] represents the most perfect of any wheel in use at that period, and has not been materially improved on since then. But, at that time also, a substitute for the paddle was seeking practical solution. The screw, as a means of propulsion, had been suggested long before the steamboat had been brought into use. Indeed, its principle was known at a very early period in the use of an oar for sculling, and could, as already explained, be seen in the movements of the tail of a fish.

Though my faith in the reports of the genius and early inventions of the Chinese has frequently been rudely shaken in the course of my investigation of their reputed discoveries, I may remark that Mr. MacGregor, for whose opinions I entertain no ordinary respect, states, in the paper he read to the Society of Arts,[127] that “the use of the screw-propeller may be of an indefinite antiquity,” and adds that “a model of one was brought from China in 1680, which had two sets of blades, turning in opposite directions.” It was not, however, until 1729, that we have any authentic account of a plan of propulsion, in any way approaching the valuable invention now so largely in use. In that year an ingenious Frenchman, M. Du Quet, described a contrivance by which a screw turned by the water in a stream, wound up a rope for towing vessels, of which the annexed (p. 101) is an[Pg 101] illustration.[128] In 1745, Masson describes an apparatus for working an oar at the stern of a vessel so as to give it a “sculling” motion; in 1746 Bougner mentions that “revolving arms, like the vanes of a windmill,” were tried for the propulsion of vessels, and, in 1770, as already incidentally noticed, the celebrated Watt speaks of using a screw-propeller, of which the annexed is a sketch, to be turned by a steam-engine.[129]

In 1779, Matthew Wasborough, to whose genius we are indebted for many inventions in connection with marine propulsion, patented a “new invented machine or piece of mechanism which, when applied to a steam-engine or any reciprocal movement, produces a circular or rotative motion without the medium of a water-wheel;” Joseph Bramah, of whose invention I have already spoken in detail, speaks of (1785) a wheel with inclined fans or wings, similar to the fly of a smoke-jack, which may be turned round either way under water, causing the ship to be forced backward or forward,[130] and, in 1798, he tested the application[Pg 102] of a screw in a boat, of which the annexed, copied from Mr. MacGregor’s instructive paper, is an illustration.

In 1800, Edward Shorter patented an invention which he called “a perpetual sculling machine,” having the action of a two-bladed propeller, and which, two years afterwards, was experimented upon in H.M. Ships Dragon and Superb.[131] Various other experiments followed. But, in May 1804, Mr. J. Stevens, of the United States, put to sea with a steam-boat propelled by a screw, turned first by a rotatory engine, and then by Watt’s reciprocating engine; and, as this small craft steamed from Hoboken to New York, she has by some writers been considered the first sea-going screw of which there is any certain account. Richard Trevethick, in 1815, patented “a worm or screw revolving in a cylinder at the head, sides, or stern of a vessel,” as also a “stuffing-box, inclosing a ring of water.”[132] In the following year Robert Kinder applied for a patent for a shaft and screw (almost on the exact plan now in use) with “a shoulder formed upon it so as to work in a water-tight manner through a stuffing-box of the common or well-known form, which stuffing-box and shaft are made to pass through the end of the vessel, just above its ordinary water-line, and is thereby affixed to it.” (See “Specifications of Marine Propulsion,” Part I. p. 64.)

Many other proposals for propelling vessels by[Pg 103] means of the screw were subsequently made and most of them were patented.[133] Two were tried on a small scale in France by Captain Delisle, a Frenchman, in 1823, and by a countryman of his, M. Frédéric Sauvage, in 1832.[134] In 1833, Mr. Robert Wilson, a Scotchman, afterwards manager of[Pg 104] the firm of Nasmyth and Co., at Patricroft near Manchester, brought under the notice of the British Admiralty the screw “perfect in all its details” as a means of propulsion, which he says he invented in 1827, and which he states[135] the officers of the Woolwich Dockyard, in their official report, rejected because “it involved a greater loss of power than the common mode of applying the wheels to the side.” No great efforts, however, seem to have been made to bring the screw into practical use until 1836, when Captain John Ericsson, C.E. (a native of Sweden, who had established himself in London in partnership with the Messrs. Braithwaites), fully demonstrated its merits according to a plan which he patented on the 13th of July of that year,[136] and carried out successfully.

Instead, however, of launching to the public gaze a vessel on a large scale fitted with his plans, he made a model boat of about 20 inches in length, into which he placed a small engine, and floated her in a large bath over which a steam boiler had been fitted for the supply of hot water. From this boiler a pipe projected to within a foot of the water, where it was branched off by a swivel joint and connected with the engine in the boat. The steam when admitted put the engine in motion, and also the propeller, which at once sent the boat forward with considerable rapidity.

[Pg 105]

Finding that his invention was likely to succeed when put into practical operation on a larger scale, Ericsson’s next step was to order Mr. Gulliver, a boat-builder at Wapping, to construct for him a boat of wood which he named the Francis B. Ogden. She was 45 feet long and 8 feet wide, drawing 2 feet 3 inches of water. In this vessel he fitted his engine and two propellers, each of 5 feet 3 inches diameter. The result of her first trial went far beyond his most sanguine expectations. No sooner were the engines put at full speed, than she shot ahead at the rate of more than 10 miles an hour, and maintained that speed without a single alteration requiring to be made in her machinery;[137] nor were her capabilities as a tug less surprising. This miniature steamer, tested first by a schooner of 140 tons burden, towed her at the rate of 7 miles an hour during slack water on the Thames; and afterwards by the large American packet-ship Toronto, moving on with her astern at a speed of more than 5 miles an hour. The next experiment was made in the presence of the Lords of the Admiralty, who, accompanied by Sir William Symonds, Sir Edward Parry, and Captain Beaufort, had embarked in their barge to witness the novelty, and judge for themselves as to its efficiency and practical value. They were minute in their inspection, and as they did not, and in fact could not, offer any valid objections to his invention, Captain Ericsson felt confident that they would soon order the construction of a war-steamer on the new principle. In this, however, he was disappointed, though[Pg 106] he had given them a very practical proof of its value by towing them in their barge at the rate of 10 miles an hour for a considerable distance—a speed which must have astonished their Lordships. The unseen and comparatively noiseless propeller, although it had furnished the most convincing proofs of its power, failed to propitiate their favour. Scientific theorists had informed the Board that the invention was constructed upon erroneous principles, and full of practical defects (one being that a ship thus propelled would be unsteerable), while engineers as a body regarded its failure as an event so certain as to preclude any speculations of its success. In a word, when publicly discussed, the general opinion was that the vast loss of mechanical power would prevent it from being employed as a substitute for the now old-fashioned paddle-wheel![138]

While Ericsson was making his experiments in the Francis B. Ogden, Mr. Thomas Pettit Smith, who, on the 31st of May, 1836, had taken out a[Pg 107] patent for a “sort of screw or ‘worm,’ made to revolve rapidly under water in a recess or open space formed in that part of the after part of the vessel commonly called the dead rising or dead wood of the stern,”[139] was also at work with his invention, and, in the following year, put it into practical operation. His first trial, made in a small vessel of 6 tons burden, with an engine the cylinder of which was 6 inches diameter and 15 inches stroke, was considered by a few far-seeing persons so satisfactory,[140] that they applied for, and obtained on the 29th of July, 1839, an Act of Parliament for incorporating a company called the Steam Ship Propeller Company, to enable them to purchase “certain letters patent,” that is, the screw-propeller of T. P. Smith.

The first successful application of this screw-propeller, on a large scale, was to a vessel called the Archimedes, constructed under the direction of the patentee of the screw, Mr. Smith. Her burden was 237 tons, and her mean draught of water 9 feet 4 inches; the diameter of the cylinder 37 inches, and the length of the stroke of the piston 3 feet; her screw-propeller consisted of two half threads of an 8 feet pitch, 5 feet 9 inches in diameter; each was 4 feet in length, and they were placed diametrically opposite to each other, at an angle of about 45 degrees on the propeller shaft. The propeller itself passed through a hole cut in the dead wood, immediately before the rudder; the keel being continued under the screw. The performance of the[Pg 108] engines averaged twenty-six strokes per minute, the revolutions of the screw at the same time being 138⅖. The calculations of the inventor were that, provided there was no slip or recession, the vessel ought to advance 8 feet for every revolution of the screw, or 12·60 miles per hour. But the utmost speed ever obtained by the Archimedes, under the power of steam alone, was 9·25 nautical miles per hour, showing a loss by recession of rather less than one-sixth under the most favourable circumstances. The Archimedes was not, however, a fair illustration of the screw-propelling principle, as her steam-power was not great enough to drive a screw sufficient for the size of the vessel. Nevertheless, in her subsequent trials from Dover to Calais against the Widgeon, the fastest paddle-steamer on the station, the superior value of the screw-propeller was proved. Although in the first three or four experiments the Widgeon had the advantage by a few minutes, in the subsequent trials, both vessels having set the whole of their sails, the Archimedes, carrying much more canvas than the Widgeon, on a run of 26 miles from Dover to Calais, close hauled, accomplished this distance in nine minutes less time than the Widgeon. Upon the return voyage to Dover, with a fresh breeze abeam and all sail set, the Archimedes, with a speed of ten knots per hour, performed the distance in five and a half minutes less time than the Widgeon.

These experiments decided the practical value of the screw. They proved that the Archimedes was slightly inferior to the Widgeon in light airs, in calms, and in smooth water; but, as the steam power of the[Pg 109] former was ten horses less, and her burthen 75 tons more than that of the Widgeon, it is evident that in such vessels the propelling power of the screw alone was equal, if not superior, to the ordinary paddle-wheel. In this respect, therefore, Mr. T. P. Smith’s invention might be considered completely successful. It was evident from the second trial that, in steaming against even a light wind, the low masts and snug rig of the Widgeon gave her an advantage over the Archimedes with loftier masts and heavier rig; but, on the last two trials, the power of the sails operated favourably for the Archimedes, as she then beat the Widgeon, and made the passage between Dover and Calais in less time than it had ever previously been performed by any of Her Majesty’s mail packets. On this occasion the Archimedes went from Dover to Calais in two hours and one minute, and returned in one hour and fifty-three and a half minutes.[141]

Although the successful performances of the Archimedes brought the screw into more general notice, it does not appear that she was ever employed as a trading vessel. After several experiments she lay for a long time in the East India Dock advertised for sale, and her spirited proprietors, who had been so instrumental in promoting the introduction of the[Pg 110] screw-propeller, lost all the capital they had invested in this important undertaking.

As the Widgeon and Archimedes differed materially in size and form, an exact comparison could not be made by them between the performance of the screw and that of the paddle; but the result of these trials nevertheless showed (especially when the peculiar fitness of the screw for war purposes was taken into consideration) the propriety of having a further and fairer trial of this novel instrument. With this object in view the Rattler was ordered to be built,[142] and, that the experiment might be conclusive so far as a trial could be made between two vessels, she was constructed on the same lines as the Alecto (her after part being lengthened for the insertion of the screw), and fitted with engines of the same power, and on a plan which had been previously tried with paddle-wheel vessels.

The river trials of the Rattler lasted from October 1843 to the beginning of 1845, and showed that the screw-shaft might be advantageously reduced in diameter, and the blades by about one-third of their length, an alteration which greatly reduced the weight of the screw, and facilitated the operation of shipping and unshipping it, while rendering unnecessary the wounding to so great an extent of the after part of the vessel. Before, however, this last point[Pg 111] was decided (it not being evident that the good performance of the shorter screw was not attributable to the greater clearance which the reduction of its length had caused), the screw aperture was partly filled up in a temporary manner, so as to leave the shorter screw the same clearance as the longer one had originally. The result of this experiment proved that the aperture in future vessels might be constructed of very moderate dimensions without lessening the propelling power of the screw.

These trials clearly showed that the screw, as an instrument of propulsion in smooth water, is not inferior to the paddle-wheel. But further experiments were considered necessary to establish its superiority in all respects. In the early part of the year 1845 the Rattler proceeded, in company with the Victoria and Albert and the Black Eagle, from Portsmouth to Pembroke. When rounding the Land’s End, and steaming against a strong head wind, both these vessels, as might be expected, showed a great superiority, their power being much greater than the Rattler’s in proportion to the resistance, and their paddle-floats being constructed on the feathering principle. This comparative failure of the Rattler left an unfavourable impression as to the efficiency of the screw against wind and sea in heavy weather, and this impression continued for several years, although when next tried in a run from the Thames to Leith, she showed in respect to speed a decided superiority over one of the paddle-wheel vessels employed in that trade, whose power as compared with her tonnage was greater than that of her competitor. Before joining the squadron under the command of Rear-Admiral[Pg 112] Hyde Parker in July 1845, the Rattler was employed to tow the Erebus and Terror to the Orkney Islands on their fatal expedition to the North Pole, and she seems to have performed that duty to the entire satisfaction of Sir John Franklin.

In following the progress of the screw as applicable to the propulsion of merchant vessels, and its use in other countries, I must now recur to the period when Ericsson was making his experiments on the Thames. At that time an intelligent gentleman, Captain Robert F. Stockton, of the United States Navy, was on a visit to London. Being of an inquisitive turn of mind, like most of his countrymen, and fond of scientific pursuits, he watched with great interest the trials with the screw then in progress, and having obtained an introduction to Ericsson, he accompanied him on one of his experimental expeditions on the Thames. Unlike the Lords of the British Admiralty, who allowed eight years to elapse before they built their first screw-propeller, the Rattler, Captain Stockton was so strongly impressed with the value and utility of the discovery, that, though he had made only a single trip in the Francis B. Ogden, and that merely from London Bridge to Greenwich, he there and then gave Ericsson a commission to build for him two boats for the United States, with steam machinery and propeller as proposed by him. Stockton, impressed with its practical utility for war purposes, was undismayed by the recorded opinions of scientific men, and formed his own judgment from what he himself witnessed. He, therefore, not only ordered the two iron boats on his own account, but at once brought the subject before[Pg 113] the Government of the United States, and caused various plans and models to be made at his own expense, explaining the peculiar fitness of the new invention for ships of war. So sanguine was he, indeed, of the great importance of this new mode of propulsion, and so determined that his views should be carried out, that he encouraged Ericsson to believe that the Government of the United States would test the propeller on a large scale; Ericsson, relying upon these promises, abandoned his professional engagements in England, and took his departure for the United States. But it was not until a change in the Federal administration, two years afterwards, that Captain Stockton was able to obtain a favourable hearing. Orders were then given to make the experiment in the Princeton, which was successful. The propeller, as applied to this war-vessel, was similar in construction to that of the Francis B. Ogden, as well in theory as in minute practical details.

One of these boats, named, after her owner, the Robert F. Stockton, was built of iron by Messrs. Laird of Birkenhead, and launched in 1838. She was 70 feet in length, 10 feet wide, and drew 6 feet 9 inches of water. Her cylinders were 16 inches diameter with 18 inches stroke, and her propeller 6 feet 4 inches in length. On her trial trips on the Thames, made in January of the following year, she accomplished a distance of 9 miles (over the land) in 35 minutes with the tide, thereby proving the speed through the water to be between 11 and 12 miles an hour. On her second trial, between Southwark and Waterloo bridges, she took in tow four laden barges,[Pg 114] with upright sides and square ends, having a beam of 15 feet each, and drawing 4 feet 6 inches of water. One of these was lashed on each side, the other two being towed astern, and, though the weight of the whole must have been close upon 400 tons, and a considerable resistance was offered, also, by their form, the steamer towed them at the rate of 5½ miles an hour in slack water, or in 11 minutes between the two bridges, a distance of 1 mile.

These experiments having been considered in every way satisfactory, the Robert F. Stockton, of which the following is an illustration, left England for the United States in the beginning of April 1839, under the command of Captain Cram, of the American merchant service. Her crew consisted of four men and a boy, and, having accomplished the voyage under sail in forty days, Captain Cram was presented with the freedom of the city of New York for his daring in crossing the Atlantic in so small a craft, constructed only for river navigation.

[Pg 115]

In 1840, Captain Stockton sold this vessel to the Delaware and Raritan Canal Company, permission having been obtained (being British built) by a special Act of Congress, to run her in American waters, and her name was at the same time changed to that of the New Jersey. For many years she was in constant work as a steam-tug on the rivers Delaware and Schuylkill during the winter months, as she was capable of towing through the drift ice, where paddle-wheel steamers are of little use.

If we except the small vessel tested by J. Stevens[143] between Hoboken and New York in 1804, the New Jersey was the first screw-propelled vessel practically used in America, numerous experiments with the screw having been previously made without success, and she certainly was the first used for commercial purposes. The importance of the screw as a propeller having now been fully admitted in America, 150 vessels of a similar description were in less than ten years from that time employed in the United States; most of which continued to be in active operation in the carrying trade, returning large profits to their owners, particularly those employed on the great North American Lakes. Indeed, in 1848, thirteen screw-propelled vessels were employed on Lake Ontario, and only nine paddle-wheel steamers.

It is not my province to decide to whom the honour of the invention of the screw is due. It had engaged, as has been shown, the attention of various men in different countries for more than a century[Pg 116] before it was applied to any useful purpose, and, like most other great inventions, has evidently been the production of many minds. I can, therefore, only deal with it as has been done in the case of the steam-engine itself, in its application to marine propulsion, by inquiring who it was that first, by practical tests, showed its superiority to the paddle-wheel, and that, for the purposes to which it has been applied, it could maintain such superiority over all other modes of propulsion. As this appears to me to be the only way in which this question can be fairly treated, I shall venture to state that, if Robert Fulton of America and Henry Bell of Glasgow are entitled, as I think they are, to be considered the first who put the paddle steamer into practical and continuous employment (I hold that James Watt and Robert Symington were its true inventors), it may, with equal justice, be said that to Captain Ericsson, Mr. Pettit Smith, and Mr. Woodcroft, the credit is chiefly due of having put the screw into working order so as to show how it could be profitably employed for the purposes of commerce or of the arts of war, though, at the time when Smith and Ericsson were practically illustrating the power of the screw, in their respective forms, that of Mr. Woodcroft, though well known, had not then been tried. In fact, his invention bears date antecedent to that of either of the others,[144] and proved equal, if not superior, when tested; indeed, it must have been[Pg 117] considered so by the Admiralty, as it was fitted in the royal yacht Fairy, which, with the exception of the Rattler, and the Bee, of thirty tons, was the first screw-propeller in Her Majesty’s Navy: it was also about the same time applied to H.M.S. Dwarf. Mr. Woodcroft’s “varying-pitch screw-propeller,” patented by him in February 1844, of which the following is an illustration, was, certainly, in advance of any other at that time, and is, I believe, still considered the best and most useful type. In the account of it furnished by its able and ingenious inventor, it is said to be the “only propelling instrument of any description which has the peculiar and inherent property of acting with an increased impulse against the water from the leading part, first taking its action against the water to the end, however long or short such propeller may be upon its axis.”

However, be that as it may, when an impartial review is taken of all the facts, it may be said of Messrs. Woodcroft, Ericsson and Smith that, while each may be regarded as the individual author of[Pg 118] their respective plans, conceiving as they did their designs apart from each other, we are indebted to them conjointly for this most valuable invention.

While the relative merits of the paddle-wheel and screw were being tested, the attention of scientific men was necessarily directed to the different forms of ships or lines best adapted to the various requirements of maritime commerce, which the introduction of steam had either created or materially developed. Vessels of every conceivable form, and of varied dimensions, have been in use from the earliest ages: we have had, of one sort or another, canoes, coracles, barges and yachts, coasters and Indiamen, with frigates and line-of-battle ships such as they were, almost from the dawn of history, and no doubt their owners and builders bestowed much thought and exercised considerable skill in their construction, so as to suit the varied purposes for which they were required; but it is only within our own time that a thorough scientific knowledge has been invited to aid in the construction of our merchant ships.

That knowledge has become much more necessary now than it ever was before. To construct an useful and first-class steam-vessel, we must first build a hull adapted to receive machinery, and then erect suitable engines and boilers with an appropriate propelling apparatus, combining the whole into a form such as will insure safety and speed, the requisite space for the crew, machinery, fuel, and stores, with accommodation for passengers and their numerous wants, and, also, sufficient space for a remunerative cargo.

To embrace to the utmost advantage these various[Pg 119] essential qualities in a merchant-vessel, the trade in which she is to be employed requires to be considered with her mercantile capabilities in relation to cost and speed. These calculations must be carefully gone into so as to obtain an approximate estimate of the commercial advantage with regard to the cost of freight per ton, that attends the employment of ships suitably constructed for the service in which they may be employed as compared with vessels of inferior adaptation. By this investigation, the comparative financial balance of outlay and expenditure and, consequently, the income to be expected from one vessel as compared with another, may be equitably apportioned. Such considerations as these are essential to success, and cannot be neglected by any shipowner who understands his business. They will not only conduce to an effective direction and management of mercantile shipping, and of financial economy, but, also, in case a vessel fails to fulfil an assigned service, the degree in which such failure may be attributable to faults of original construction (producing a low scale of locomotive efficiency), or to defective management or to imperfect navigation, may be determined. Moreover, steamship proprietors, especially, would thus be enabled to ascertain the relative value of their stock, not, indeed, as respects the intrinsic value of the respective ships, but as respects their relative working properties and consequent value for any special service. Each vessel might thus be assigned its most appropriate duty, and ships, manifestly unsuitable for one line of trade, might be otherwise employed or disposed of, instead of being put on services which they are constructively[Pg 120] inadequate to perform. For example, a vessel may be well suited for the economical conveyance of cargo at eight miles an hour, but, being employed upon a service demanding a higher rate of speed, and failing to attain this, is held to be inefficient, while the value of the ship becomes unduly depreciated, and incapacity of direction, the real cause of the failure, escapes due observation.

[Pg 121]

CHAPTER III.

While Great Britain is entitled to the credit of the invention of the marine steam-engine with its auxiliaries, the paddle-wheel and screw, and of having first put both into practical, if not in the earliest stages remunerative, operation, America may, on her part, justly claim the making of many improvements on them, and the turning the new motive power to profitable account with greater rapidity than England.

[Pg 122]

To the Americans we owe the modification of Watt’s engine still in use in their vessels: to them we are also indebted for engines of long stroke with the necessarily long crank, and the further peculiarity of upright guides for the piston-rod instead of the old parallel motion. They likewise first introduced the paddle-wheel with divided floats by which the resistance of the water was rendered more uniform, and the concussion of the common paddle-wheel avoided. But, above all, they were the first to improve the form of steam-vessels by substituting a fine entrance and a clean, clear run for the round or bluff bows and full sterns previously prevailing. By these important alterations, and by making the length of their vessels eight and, occasionally, ten times their beam, they succeeded, even during the infancy of marine steam propulsion, in raising the rate of progress from 9 to 13 miles an hour, and in giving to the world lines for the modelling of ships vastly superior to any hitherto adopted.

But nature has afforded our great Transatlantic rivals marvellous facilities for the development and rapid increase of vessels propelled by steam, not possessed by ourselves. The lakes[145] of America are,[Pg 123] in fact, extensive inland seas, affording in themselves an almost unlimited source of profitable employment to vessels propelled by steam. Their shores are lined with sheltered bays and natural harbours, with waters unusually free from rocks and shoals, while, in their immediate vicinity, are vast tracts of rich lands requiring only the industry of man to render them subservient to his wants, while the surrounding forests at the same time produce some of the finest pine timber in the world.

Great cities, such as Chicago,[146] Buffalo, Detroit, Michigan, Milwaukie, Toronto, and Kingston, besides numerous towns and villages, now line their banks, while those lakes which have no natural navigable communication with each other are now connected by means of canals, so that vessels from the Atlantic can penetrate for upwards of 2000 miles into the interior, in fact, to the most remote habitable regions of North America.[147] Short canals, also, overcome the natural obstacles presented to navigation by the rapids of the[Pg 124] St. Lawrence and the Falls of Niagara; and, while, on the one hand, the Erie canal of 363 miles in length connects that lake with the River Hudson, and consequently with the Atlantic Ocean, the Ohio Canal, 334 miles in length, on the other hand, brings it into connection with the Gulf of Mexico by way of the great rivers Ohio and Mississippi: thus, with the Welland Canal,[148] the connecting link between the other lakes and Ontario, there is navigable communication throughout the whole of the vast continent of North America, extending from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico, a distance of upwards of 3000 miles. All these lakes are now well supplied with lighthouses, buoys, and beacons to insure the safety of the large fleets of shipping employed on them. There are, also, numerous spacious harbours, many of them built of stone, as also breakwaters, the waves on these lakes during gales of wind being hardly less formidable to navigation than those of the ocean.

But if the lakes of North America are vast in extent, the navigable rivers are even more gigantic, and afford still wider fields of remunerative employment for steamers.[149] Indeed, until steam-ships were[Pg 125] launched on their surface, many of these rivers were altogether unnavigable, and some of them unexplored. Those of my readers who have not visited America, can form only a very imperfect idea of her mighty streams. Some of them, as may be seen by reference to a map of the United States, have their source in the northern parts of the Rocky Mountains, and discharge themselves by the Gulf of St. Lawrence into the Atlantic, while others rising in the west of these mountain ranges flow into the Pacific. Those which have their sources to the east of the Alleghany Mountains find their way by various routes, and through luxuriant valleys, some of them of enormous extent, to numerous outlets on the shores of the Atlantic and on the north-eastern portion of the Gulf of Mexico, while the rivers comprehended under the head of the Mississippi and its tributaries, which spring from that great valley between the Alleghany and the Rocky Mountains, likewise pour their huge volumes of water into the Mexican Gulf, with New Orleans as the chief entrepôt of their now gigantic commerce. The former rivers, upwards of one hundred in number, afford an aggregate amount of more than 3000 miles of ship and boat navigation. But the latter, embracing the parent Mississippi, the Missouri, the Ohio, Arkansas, Red River, and various[Pg 126] other tributaries pouring their waters into the giant stream, constitute an aggregate length of no less than 44,000 miles![150] Large steamers now ascend to Pittsburg, a distance of 2000 miles from the Gulf of Mexico. The Missouri, which joins the Mississippi 18 miles above the city of St. Louis and about 1200 miles from the gulf, has an uninterrupted navigation of 2532 miles from its mouth; its tributaries being the Gasconade, navigable for 150 miles; the Osage for 500 miles; the Chariton for 300 miles; the Tansas for 200 miles; and the Yellowstone for 800 miles; while the Moine, which flows into the Mississippi 130 miles above the Missouri, is supposed, with its tributaries, to be navigable for a distance of 1500 miles.

Such are a few, but a few only, of the many navigable rivers which pour their waters into the Mississippi; there are many others whose names our space precludes the possibility of our even mentioning. To the north and the west, we have the St. Lawrence, a river second only to the Mississippi, with a course of upwards of 2000 miles, receiving the waters of about thirty others of considerable size; and, though navigable itself for large sea-going vessels only as far as Montreal, a distance of 880 miles from the Atlantic, it is extensively used in its upper portion under the name of the St. Mary’s River, where, among the islands with which it is studded and the numerous rapids with which it is impeded, it is navigated by vast rafts of timber and by fleets of strong flat-bottomed boats expressly built[Pg 127] for the purpose, and well-known as the Canadian batteaux.

Then we have the River Hudson (on which the first vessel in America propelled by steam was employed), small in itself compared to those I have named, but important from its connection with New York, and the extent and value of its trade; and most interesting to the traveller, from its beautiful scenery. This river is navigable for ships of large burden up to the town from which it derives its name, about 120 miles above New York, and for vessels of smaller draught of water to Albany and Troy respectively 30 and 34 miles further. To the north we have the Penobscot with a course of 300 miles from the bay of that name in the State of Maine, navigable for large vessels to Bangor, a distance of 50 miles, and the Kennebach River with a course of 230 miles, navigable for 40 miles from the sea, as also the Merrimac of 200 miles in length, and the Connecticut, which, after a course of 450 miles through a highly cultivated and fertile country, discharges itself into Long Island Sound.

To the south there is the important River Delaware, of 310 miles in length, navigable for vessels of the largest class to Philadelphia, a distance of 40 miles, and the Susquehanna flowing into the Chesapeake, which, though the largest river in the important and productive State of Pennsylvania, is more celebrated for the beauty of its scenery than for the facilities it affords for navigation. There is also the Patapsco, navigable to Baltimore for vessels drawing 18 to 20 feet of water; the Patuscent, navigable for 60[Pg 128] miles from its mouth; and the Potomac, navigated by vessels of the largest class to Washington, a distance of 103 miles from Chesapeake Bay; as also the Rappahannoc, navigable for 110 miles to the town of Fredericksburg, besides the James River and various others of greater or less importance extending along the line of coast from Chesapeake Bay to the western shores of the Gulf of Mexico.

But, beyond the vast facilities these immense lakes and rivers afford to a maritime commerce capable of development to an extent far beyond the conception of the most sanguine enthusiast, there is the extensive seaboard of that great continent, studded with harbours, and containing some of the most magnificent bays and the largest and safest roadsteads to be found in any part of the world. Take, for instance, the line of coast extending northwards from Chesapeake Bay to the Gulf of St. Lawrence: that bay, itself, has safe anchorage for an untold number of vessels; and, to the northward, there are numerous other bays and sheltered sounds, affording natural facilities for the formation of harbours more commodious than any which works of art alone, however costly, could possibly supply. From among these the Americans have been able to select many admirable sites for their trade emporiums,—in themselves also natural harbours of refuge of the finest description, completely sheltered from the surge of the ocean, and, therefore, not requiring for their protection the expensive breakwaters of Plymouth, Portland, or Cherbourg; where, along[Pg 129] the margin of projecting tongues of land or within out-lying islands, vessels of the largest description can anchor in safety, or be moored alongside jetties erected at a trifling expense, where, too, they can discharge their cargoes into warehouses with almost as much ease as they could do in the London or Liverpool docks. These natural advantages, amply illustrated as they are in the case of New York, a city evidently destined to rival, if not to surpass, any city of either ancient or modern times, London not excepted, struck the writer with surprise and wonder. Situated on the southern portion of the island of Manhattan, New York is washed on the east by the sound separating it from Long Island,[151] and on the west by the estuary of the River Hudson, while the bay itself, which is nine miles in length and five miles in breadth, has a communication with the Atlantic through a strait two miles in width, between Staten Island and Long Island, completely sheltered from the ocean and forming a magnificent deep-water basin, with abundant quays and jetties on its eastern, western, and southern margins: here vessels of any size can deliver their cargoes into the heart of the city at all times and in perfect safety.

Proceeding further north we reach Boston Bay, more celebrated than any other place in the history of the War of Independence, a thoroughly sheltered inlet of about 75 square miles in extent, inclosed by two necks of land so nearly approaching each other as to leave only a narrow entrance communicating directly with the Atlantic, with deep water[Pg 130] close in shore where numerous wharves are erected as in the case of New York. Further north, we reach Narraganset Bay, and, within it, the town of Newport and its finely sheltered roadstead forming one of the most superb natural harbours in America; also Penobscot Bay into which the river of that name flows, and Passamaquoddy with its excellent roadstead receiving the waters of the River St. Croix, the boundary between the United States and the Dominion of Canada.

With such magnificent bays, harbours, roadsteads, lakes, and rivers all ready formed by the hand of Nature to receive an almost unlimited extent of shipping, and, at the same time, peculiarly adapted for the employment of steamers, it is not a matter for surprise that the Americans should have directed their genius and energy to this new branch of industry and their skill to the rapid development of the power of steam, affording them as it did extraordinary means of opening out hitherto unknown branches of commerce and new sources of almost unbounded wealth. More conversant at this period than any other nation with the most approved style of shipbuilding, and possessing an abundant supply of materials at a comparatively low price, they were able, when steam-vessels were first introduced, to construct them at a lower cost than any other people; and if they had not the same facilities for obtaining steam-engines, these could easily be obtained from England.

From the time therefore that Fulton[152] launched the[Pg 131] Clermont at New York, and proved, by her performance in 1808 on the Hudson, that vessels propelled by steam could be made a source of profitable employment, they were increased with a rapidity and employed to an extent, especially during the first quarter of this century, far in excess of Great Britain. Besides the Clermont, launched in 1807, Mr. Charles Brown, an enterprising shipbuilder of New York, built in that year, also for the navigation of the Hudson, the Car of Neptune of 295 tons, and the Rareton, of 120 tons, named after the river on which she was employed. In 1811, he launched the Paragon, of 331 tons, which was likewise employed on the Hudson, and, in 1812, the Firefly, to trade between New York and Newburg, as well as the Jersey, ferry-boat of 118 tons, employed in the same year by the Ferry Company for the conveyance of passengers between New Jersey and the city of New York.

In 1814 the Americans launched their first steam-ship on the great waters of the Mississippi, at once showing the practicability of ascending that mighty river by accomplishing on her trial trip, immediately[Pg 132] after she was built, a distance of 700 miles against the current. In 1818, they started a steam-boat to ply between New York and New Orleans, and, from that time, vessels of this description, steadily, and we may say rapidly, increased on their coasts and rivers. Their first steamer on the lakes was the Orleans, a two-masted vessel built at Pittsburg in 1811, but some time elapsed before any other steamer appeared on the Lakes, their then limited trade offering little inducement for profitable employment; hence, when the Walk-in-the-Water—a most characteristic name—commenced to trade on Lake Erie in 1819, there was no one to furnish her with a cargo except the American Fur Company. In 1827, the waters of Lake Michigan were first ploughed by steam, a boat having made an excursion to Green Bay, and in 1832, another steam-boat reached Chicago with troops, that site being then in course of clearance and settlement: in the following year, there were eleven boats on the lakes at a cost of 360,000 dollars, carrying in that year (1833) 61,480 passengers, and earning in freight 229,211 dollars. In 1834, seven new boats were launched, making eighteen in this service during that year; and in 1840, the number of boats trading between Buffalo, Chicago and other ports west of Detroit, their trip between these two places occupying fifteen days, had increased to forty-eight. Such was the beginning of the steam-boat traffic on the great North American lakes.[153] In the following woodcut[Pg 133] may be seen a fair illustration of one of these early vessels.

But it was on the rivers and along the sheltered bays on the coast that the new mode of propulsion made at first the most rapid progress. From the time when the pioneer boat ascended the Mississippi, steam-ships rapidly increased in number and in size, as well as in the power of their engines, so that, so early as 1832, there were no less than 900 arrivals of steamers at New Orleans from the upper country, and in 1834, there were 234 steam-vessels running on the Mississippi and Ohio, the large majority of which were built at Pittsburg and Cincinnati.

The navigation, however, of these great rivers was for many years attended with almost endless difficulties and dangers. In the Ohio and other western waters of the United States, though the current does not average more than three miles an hour, there were rapids where, in some instances, it attains a velocity of from seven to eight miles. There were also numerous sandbanks, most of which[Pg 134] have now been removed, whereon the boats frequently took the ground and were detained until the next rise of water, sometimes for even three and four months. In the upper waters, too, the floating ice during the spring of the year occasioned many disasters, and is still a danger not to be prevented. But the greatest danger arose from what was known as “snags,” stumps of trees which, from the falling in of the banks, are carried down the river until they lodge, with one end resting in the mud or sand, and the other rising to the surface sometimes so concealed as to baffle the utmost precaution in avoiding it. Among the sixty-six boats lost in the navigation of these western rivers during the years 1831-2-3, while seven were wrecked by ice, fifteen stranded and abandoned, fifteen destroyed by fire, and five wrecked by collision with other boats, no less than twenty-four were “snagged.”

But, besides the “snags,” there are dangers, though of somewhat less importance, arising from other falling trees, known by the name of “sawyers,” trees which have sunk with an inclination down the stream, the action of the current upon them causing a continual vertical vibration, whence their name. Generally, when a boat going down stream strikes a sawyer, she will pass over it with little or no injury as its inclination is in the direction of the boat’s movement. But the danger, here, differs from that of the “snags.” Their inclination is up the river, their ends sometimes projecting above the surface at low water, or when the river is at a higher stage, remaining just sufficiently beneath the surface to be still more dangerous. Boats going down stream,[Pg 135] therefore, encounter very great peril, and it has frequently occurred that, when the “snag” lies at a great inclination, the end rises when struck and not only pierces the hull but passes up through all the decks.

These dangers are increased by the remarkable fluctuation in the depth of the water in the rivers, which is sometimes so great, as to admit the navigation of the largest vessel, and again so small, as to render it impossible to construct vessels with draught of sufficient lightness to float upon them.

On the Ohio, the rapids are chiefly caused by bars, or as they are termed “chains of rock,” extending across the river, which, when the water is low, impede navigation and sometimes stop it altogether. Artificial means have, however, in some instances been adopted whereby a greatly increased volume of water is thrown into a single channel, but hitherto these schemes have not been of much practical utility, though the money expended in the removal of “snags” and other temporary obstructions has tended to render the navigation of the Ohio, as well as of the Mississippi, Missouri, and Red River, comparatively safe and easy to what it was when steam-boats were for the first time despatched upon these mighty streams.

In consequence of the great fluctuations in the depth of the western rivers, no regular wharves or jetties can be formed alongside of which the boats engaged in the traffic can land their passengers and goods. In lieu of these, therefore, the banks of the river opposite to the towns, or where landing-places are necessary, are sloped off at a considerable[Pg 136] inclination and paved with ordinary paving-stones. At intervals along the shore, and, also, at different distances up the bank, piles are driven with large ringbolts attached to their heads for the purpose of mooring the boats. Owing, also, to the same cause, and the ever varying strength of the currents of the rivers, it is necessary that the boats employed on them should be as light as possible combined with the requisite strength, of small draught of water, and of great power, so as to be able to pass over the sandbanks and make headway against the currents.

In order that the boats may land passengers without difficulty at these sloping banks or “levees,” as they are termed, and also discharge and take in freight and passengers, their bows have a very long rake, so that when they strike the bank the bow gradually rises out of the water till it has sufficient hold upon the bank to maintain its position while landing the cargo, without any material assistance from the warps attached to the mooring post. To facilitate the operation of landing, the forecastle deck carries its width in most cases right to the stem, so as to furnish the necessary platform for discharging and loading cargo. In order, also, to meet the frequent occurrence of very shallow water during the summer months, a class of boats has been constructed termed light-water steamers. They differ from the ordinary description of boats, in that they are built in the lightest possible manner and with a comparatively small engine power, so that their speed seldom exceeds from 6 to 7 miles per hour; they have, however, the advantage of being able to navigate rivers the ordinary boat could not traverse, their draught of water[Pg 137] ranging from 12 to not more than 18 inches when laden with cargo and passengers.

The vessels employed on the Mississippi vary in size from 150 to 1500 tons burden, and in some cases more. It is necessary, too, that these should be built so to draw as little water as possible, the largest not exceeding when loaded from 7 to 8 feet, as this great river is also impeded by bars or “chains” extending across it, though not to the same extent as the Ohio and other smaller rivers. At New Orleans, the levee or quay is from four to five miles in extent, with an average breadth of 100 feet. It is 15 feet above low-water mark, or that condition of the river when its waters retire within their natural bed, and is 6 feet above the level of the city, to which it is graduated by an easy descent. It is constructed of the alluvial soil brought down from the north, and deposited in the vicinity by the waters of the Mississippi.

Prior to the general introduction of steam navigation, the trade carried on by flat boats occupied a great space in this now important emporium of commerce. Hundreds of long, narrow, black, dirty-looking, crocodile-like craft lay sluggishly without moorings, upon the soft batture,[154]—a heterogeneous compound produced from the territories of the Upper Mississippi and its numerous tributaries, while they poured out their contents upon the quay. These rafts, or flat boats as they are technically called, which frequently had on board cargo to the value[Pg 138] of from 3000l. to 5000l., are covered with a raised work or scantling, giving them the appearance of long, narrow cabins, built for the purpose of habitation, but really designed to protect their contents from the weather. They are guided by an oar at the stern, aided with an occasional dip of two huge pieces of timber, which move on each side like fins (rude imitations of the leeboards to be found in Dutch galiots or Thames barges), and float with the stream at the rate of 3 miles the hour. Such were the means of carriage of the up-country’s products on the Mississippi about half a century ago, and steam-boat navigation has not diminished the number of these flat boats. They are so natural, simple, and cheap a mode of transporting produce down the stream, that as long as the Mississippi passes with such rapidity from its source to its embouchure in the gulf, the traveller will be sure to meet with these unsightly masses floating on its bosom; swayed to and fro by its currents, countercurrents, and eddies, often shifting end for end like some species of shell-fish, and not unfrequently resembling the crab, preferring the oblique to the forward movement.

Like the boatmen of the Nile, the men who make these wooden habitations their usual dwellings are a distinct class. Launching their boats upon the Ohio, the Illinois, the Upper Mississippi, the Missouri, the Arkansas, and the Cumberland with all their respective tributaries, and guiding them to their final resting-place at New Orleans, these men are all known by the general designation of “Boatmen of the Mississippi.” They are a strong, hardy, rough, uncouth people, with a touch of the savage about them.

[Pg 139]

Although the condensing engine is met with in some of the Mississippi steamers, high pressure engines are much more frequent, the pressure in the former being never less than 10 and frequently as high as 30 pounds to the square inch; when, however, this pressure is so worked, the object is to shut off the steam and take advantage of the expansion. In high pressure engines the pressure is used ad libitum from 50 to 150 pounds, and, in former times, to such an extent, that no mortal was left to measure its height, the boiler as well as the boat and its contents, animate and inanimate, having too frequently been blown into the air. In condensing engines, when moving at full speed, the steam is never “wire-drawn,” as the engineers term it, the passages being made large enough, and the valves fully opened: the same, in high pressure engines: but, when not moving at full speed, the steam can be “wire-drawn” as the engineer thinks necessary.

The term “high pressure” in America is applied to that description of engine which is worked against the atmosphere or without condensation; all condensing engines are called low pressure. In both these engines ashwood and pine, where coal could not be easily obtained, were the descriptions of wood most commonly used for fuel,[155] and, in the dangerous[Pg 140] competition, happily less frequent now than it was some years ago, barrels of pitch, rosin, and even tallow were sometimes thrown into the furnaces, the recklessness of the captains and engineers on the Mississippi in working their boilers at a greater pressure than they could with safety carry, and, thereby, causing the frightful explosions to which I have just referred.[156]

The steam-boats on the Atlantic rivers are differently constructed from those of the west, as the same necessity for light draught of water does not exist, while they are more especially intended for passengers; their cabins are, frequently, under deck, while those on the western rivers, constructed for carrying heavy cargoes as well as passengers, have their cabins, generally, in two tiers above the deck, hence the preference given to high pressure engines from their being lighter and occupying less space. The condensing or low pressure engine is much more prevalent in the Eastern boats, and is more economical in fuel than the high pressure: their boilers are usually circular; there is great variety in the form and construction of the furnaces and flues, and the boilers designed for burning wood[Pg 141] are, of necessity, of greater external dimensions than those designed for burning coal, although the proportions of steam space may be smaller in the former than in the latter. These boilers are frequently worked at 18 to 20 pounds on the square inch, but 12 pounds is considered the medium.

The expansive action of the superheated steam in these engines, the greater space allowed for the engines to work in, and the generally admirable form of the boats, will, of course, tend to reduce the quantity of fuel required. The stroke of the piston, in some of the fastest American boats, is as much as 10 or 11 feet, and the connecting rods 13 to 19 feet long: the engine is worked at a much quicker rate than in England, the piston passing through the space of 500 feet in a minute, at which speed the whole machinery is found to work more smoothly than at a slower rate. It has been remarked by competent judges that, though the English engine is more perfect and more highly finished than the American, the advantage of superior workmanship is more than compensated in the American by greater length of stroke and the connection. American engineers consider the English engine, as applied to marine purposes, too confined, and until steam of a higher pressure is used, the boat must be of inferior speed to those of the United States. A Boulton and Watt engine[157] of 30-inch cylinder and 4-foot stroke, making twenty-five revolutions in a minute with 3½ pounds of steam, is estimated as a 30-horse engine; but the force of this engine, it is argued[Pg 142] by Americans, will be increased one-third if steam of 7 pounds be used; “lengthen the cylinder,” they remark, to 8 feet and drive the piston through that space in the same time, that is, 400 feet instead of 200, use the same quantity of steam by shutting it off at half the stroke, and the American engine as compared with the English will be nearly an 80-horse instead of a 30-horse power.

In their early career the Americans were likewise much in advance, as we have seen, of Great Britain in the model and speed of their river steamers, a superiority they still maintain. Indeed, the competition on their rivers, especially on the Hudson, was then much greater than it is even now. This strong rivalry made speed of the utmost importance, as the boat which performed the trip between New York and Albany in the shortest time, if only by half an hour (the Americans not concerning themselves about the chance of an explosion), would be sure to take all the passengers. Hence every expedient ingenuity could devise was resorted to for this object, and to the skill and perseverance of Mr. Robert L. Stevens the Americans are greatly indebted for the perfection to which the models of their river boats have advanced. These boats were built on the finest models; their entrance and runs sharper than had ever been before attempted; besides this, he had several of the earlier ones sawn in two and their length increased 25 or 30 feet, at the same time carrying a false bow from 18 to 20 feet beyond the stem, and forming true lines with the planking of the boat. This experiment fully answered his expectations; their speed was surprisingly increased,[Pg 143] and, when running at the rate of 18 miles an hour, “they hardly raised a feather in front.” But, in 1834, another American shipbuilder constructed a steamer 185 feet long and 20 feet beam, with solid ends sharper than any of the false bows, having a flat floor and a single-cylinder engine of 52-inch diameter and 10-feet stroke, which was pronounced to be “the fastest thing afloat:” indeed, to such perfection have these steamers been brought that they now traverse rivers once thought to be altogether unnavigable. The first attempt to reach the falls of the Ohio from New Orleans was considered so visionary that the projector was looked upon as little better than a madman, but steamers are now engaged in regular traffic wherever the bars are covered with 12 or 15 inches of water, American genius, skill, and perseverance having triumphed over almost every impediment.

Each successive year new vessels have been built, surpassing their predecessors in their size and power and in the splendour of their decorations, while they possess every improvement the skill, taste, and experience of their constructor can devise. There exists, nevertheless, in the general external appearance of the boats employed on the river navigation a great similarity which may be seen also in the details of their construction and in that of their machinery, as well as to some extent in their models, their usual features being great proportion of length to beam, a shallow hold, and a long flat floor, extending almost to the extremities of the boat. Great buoyancy, and consequently, a very light draught of water are by these means secured, and as the shallowness of the[Pg 144] rivers in some places requires this, experience has demonstrated the advantage of attempting to go over rather than through the water when it is desirable to attain very high speed.

Although the absolutely best form of model and that which, under all circumstances, is subject to the least average resistance remains a matter of speculation, every builder having an opinion and theory of his own differing more or less from those entertained by his brethren of the craft, the competition and rivalry between the different builders and owners have been productive of extraordinary results. On the American rivers a sustained average speed of 20 miles per hour is now not an uncommon performance, due, doubtless, in part, to the improved form and fineness of the water lines, and, in part, also, to the great size and power of recent engines: add to this, that, from the superior tenacity and strength of American iron, the constructor is able to give his engines proportions considerably lighter than would be deemed safe elsewhere. The immense diameter of their paddle-wheels is also worthy of note as an element of no mean importance in the economical expenditure of the power developed in the engine and, consequently, in its effect on the speed of the boat. Taken as a whole, therefore, it would be impossible to find anywhere else finer specimens of naval architecture or more suitable engines for the special traffic on which they are engaged, than the boats now traversing the coasts, rivers, and lakes of the United States.[Pg 145]

The steamers at present engaged in passenger traffic between New York and Boston, are magnificent[Pg 146] vessels; they are indeed “floating palaces;” and it is a fine sight to witness their departure every evening from New York. They run in connection with the railway at Allen Point, their course being about 140 miles by the East River and Long Island Sound, a distance generally accomplished in about seven hours and a half, including the delay in calling at New London.[158] Yet these magnificent vessels were (if they are not now) surpassed in speed by the steamers on the River Hudson, while they were equalled in the beauty of their lines and the splendour of their accommodation. An illustration of one of these, the New World, will be found on the preceding page.

This graceful and magnificent vessel is 380 feet in length. Her breadth of beam is 50 feet, or 85 feet over all, including the sponsons and paddle-boxes, while the diameter of her paddle-wheel is no less than 45 feet, and that of her cylinder 76 inches, the length of stroke being 15 feet. The New World has 347 state rooms or cabins, and 600 sleeping-berths. In her construction and equipment may be traced, to the most minute details, the natural mechanical ingenuity so characteristic of the Americans; every corner that would otherwise be vacant is adapted either to the necessities of the trade or to the comfort of the passengers. From the colossal beam engine with which she is propelled, down to the minutest fittings of her saloons, cabins, restaurant, bar, lavatories, smoking-room, and barber’s shop,[Pg 147] there is, combined with the system and order generally prevalent, almost everything to admire and nothing the most fastidious could honestly condemn.

No doubt much of this perfection arises from the complete subdivision of labour to be found throughout most of the great American establishments, so apparent in many of their manufactories and workshops and in their large hotels as well as in their ships, but, more especially, in their river and coasting steamers. For instance, the construction, fitting, and equipment of the latter is carried on throughout by a class of people who devote themselves entirely to such work, and make it a study to attain perfection in it. Whatever may be the case in the “Far West,” where labour is scarce, and, whatever may be the facility with which the Americans can adapt themselves to circumstances (developed as this was remarkably during the late civil war), a “Jack of all Trades” receives no encouragement in the equipment or in the manning of their steamers. Their ship-owners require, in both cases, if they can be obtained, regardless of cost, men who thoroughly understand their respective duties, and in this, as well as in various other matters, England has much to learn from the Americans.

In the New World, we have an excellent specimen of the first-class American coast or river steamer, combining the multifarious and, apparently, conflicting requisites for vessels thus employed. With a light draught of water, such vessels require to have stability to carry in safety the lofty hotels erected on their decks, and to afford the spacious and sumptuous accommodation which competition has led every[Pg 148] American traveller to expect. High speed must also be combined with safety and comfort, and lightness blended with strength. To attain the former, the boilers of these vessels are placed outside the ordinary line of the hull of the vessel on guards or framework, an extraordinary position for heavy weights, but tending, materially, to safety in the event of explosion, and, to comfort, in causing less vibration and greater coolness, the furnaces being thus away from the cabins. To secure the latter, the rigidity of the hull is maintained by a perfect system of trussing with wooden beams, braces, iron tie-rods, and stays, together with innumerable other remarkable contrivances wherein great skill and scientific knowledge is displayed. By these and other contrivances, the requisite strength, combined with the greatest lightness consistent with safety, is ensured, so that the whole vast and commodious structure, with its towering cabins, lofty saloons, handsome galleries, balconies, and extensive promenades, fragile as they doubtless appear, is a marvel of mechanical skill, and, really, possesses much greater stability and power of resistance than is to be found in numerous vessels of other countries of twice the weight of materials used in the construction of the New World.

The mode of constructing these vessels is entirely different to that adopted in any other country: thus, the hull of the New World is of wood, the external planking being about 3½ inches in thickness, and the ribs sheathed internally for a considerable distance amidships by double-crossed diagonal woodwork. Further forward and aft, it is single, and, towards the end, there is no sheathing; but the floor-timbers[Pg 149] are strengthened by several longitudinal timbers or keelsons of considerable size.

To compensate for the want of depth in the sides of the boat, a “hog-back” or “bow” frame, consisting of timbers joined together in the shape of a bow, springing from the side at some little distance from the end of the boat, and rising to a height of 20 or 25 feet at the centre, is applied to strengthen it. This “hog-back” is braced to the side in several places by vertical and diagonal timbers and bolts, the whole forming a powerful trussed framework, placed directly over the side of the boat so as to be regarded as virtually an addition to the depth of the side. The floor of the boat is strengthened by a system of bracing consisting of masts 40 or 50 feet in length, which are stepped into the keelson and furnished at their top with caps to which are fastened iron rods; these rods radiate to the sides of the boat, like the shrouds of a ship, and thus transfer the upward pressure on the centre of the floor directly to the side. The deck beams project over the sides of the boat to the extreme width of the paddlebox-houses, constituting what are called the “guards.” These guards are supported by diagonal struts underneath them, and they overhang to the extent of 18 or 20 feet at the centre, meeting in a point at the bow, but at the stern projecting about 2 feet 6 inches, so as to form a gangway round the ladies’ saloon. But the success now almost invariably attending the construction of all the lake, coasting, and river steamers of the United States is attributable less to any theoretical inquiries and deductions than to a long course of practical experience,[Pg 150] or, as it has been characteristically termed, to “a course of trial and error.” To show that this experience has been successful it is enough to observe that the steamers built for these waters carry a greater amount of freight, and accommodate a larger number of passengers on a given draught of water than those constructed in any other part of the world.

Although the New World was one of the largest and most magnificent vessels employed on the Hudson, she was surpassed in speed by the Daniel Drew, which has attained the extraordinary rate of 25 statute miles an hour without assistance from either wind or tide. From my own knowledge, I can confirm the accuracy of this statement, having made a passage in her from New York to Albany. To persons who, like myself, familiar with nautical affairs, have made their study the business as well as the pleasure of life, no more enjoyable sensation could have been afforded than the rapid movement of this vessel. Like some “thing of life” she noiselessly cut through the water with no curling wave or struggling foam at her bows, throwing aside only a silvery jet of the fluid over which she appeared to skim. Nor was the action of her machinery less worthy of admiration. After the first half-dozen strokes of the paddle-wheels when started, their pace was so smooth and rapid that sound and vibration alike were hardly perceptible.

But, though the Americans have surpassed all other nations in the steamers hitherto produced for their lake and river navigation, they have not as yet sent forth any steam-ships so well adapted for ocean navigation as those of Great Britain; indeed, almost every attempt made by them to compete successfully[Pg 151] with British vessels so engaged has been a commercial failure. In their distant coasting lines (what a misnomer to describe the voyage between New York and San Francisco as “coasting trade”!) they have, however, for many years employed some of the finest steam-ships afloat. In fact, when the district of California was almost a wilderness, the merchants of New York started a line of steamers to trade with it, and were thus, in a great measure, the means, though at a heavy loss to themselves, of developing its marvellous natural resources.

The Pacific Mail Steam-ship Company, formed in 1847, is much the largest maritime undertaking yet organised, as distinctly American and under the flag of the United States, and their first steamer, the California, which left New York on the 6th of October, 1848, was the first to bear the American flag to the Pacific Ocean. To form a steam-ship establishment 4000 to 5000 or, as it was at that time, 13,000 miles from home, where the necessary supplies could only be obtained with the greatest difficulty in a country wholly new, was an undertaking of no ordinary hazard and difficulty. Nevertheless, there appeared to be ingredients for success sufficient to encourage the projectors to increase their fleet with extraordinary rapidity soon after they commenced operations; and there were at that period no steam-ships afloat finer than the Panama, Oregon, Tennessee, Golden Gate, and Columbia, which followed the California in rapid succession.

From a small beginning, the Pacific Company has now one of the best fleets belonging to the United States, though the difficulties in forming it were[Pg 152] probably far greater than in the case of any of the other American companies. Among these, may be mentioned the necessity of constructing large workshops and foundries for repairs, together with the creation at Bernicia of an establishment, where marine engines could be constructed; they had, also, to build their own dry dock, for that of the Government at Mare Island was not ready until 1854, the company’s dock being for some years the only accommodation of this kind in the Pacific. The company had also to form establishments at Panama, San Francisco, and Astoria, with coal depôts, at a time when labour and materials were excessively high, and when the coal itself, whether brought from the Eastern States of the American continent or from England, was invariably, and necessarily, carried round Cape Horn, seldom or never costing less than from 20 to 30 dollars, and, in one instance, 50 dollars per ton.[159]

But, from first to last and amid all its difficulties, the Pacific Steam-ship Company has carried on these distant services with remarkable regularity. Even in the earlier portion of its career, the steamers performed the service between Panama and San Francisco, a distance of 3300 miles, at an average speed of 254 miles per day, touching at various ports on the way; the company has also by its semi-monthly line from San Francisco to Oregon materially assisted in populating that rich and beautiful agricultural district. Nevertheless, had it not been for the discovery of the gold fields of California, the undertaking must have been a great commercial failure;[Pg 153] indeed, even within the last few years, its history has been one of disaster, while its management has been characterized by a succession of mistakes each one graver than the last. Its most formidable rival is now the Central Pacific Railroad Company with other allied lines, which carry off a large portion of the more valuable goods previously conveyed in steamers, viâ Panama, between the northern and eastern states and California.

The Pacific Steam-ship Company is, however, still by far the greatest of the American maritime undertakings, having at present in commission thirty-three very fine steamers of an aggregate capacity of 74,000 tons of cargo, exclusive of the large space assigned to passengers. It has thirty-five chief agencies on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the United States and in the West Indies, Mexico, Central and South America, Canada, England, China, and Japan. There are altogether fifty ports where its steamers call, three of which are on the Atlantic and forty-seven on the Pacific: these figures may in some measure afford my readers an idea of the extent of its commercial operations.

The steamers engaged on the China line leave San Francisco for Yokohama and Hong Kong every alternate Saturday, connecting at Yokohama with their branch steamers for Shanghai and at Hong Kong with the English and French steamers for Singapore and the principal ports in India, and, viâ the Suez Canal, with the Mediterranean and Atlantic ports of Europe. The New York and Panama line connects at Aspinwall with the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company to Southampton; with the West[Pg 154] India and Pacific Steam Packet Company to Liverpool; with the Hamburg-American Steam Packet Company to Hamburg, and with the Companie Générale Trans-Atlantique to France. At Panama, they connect with the Pacific Steam Navigation Company to all South American ports. The Mexican and Central American line leaves San Francisco every alternate Thursday for Panama, stopping at all Mexican and Central American ports. The New York and Panama line leaves New York every alternate Saturday and San Francisco every alternate Wednesday.

The China and Japan line, which the company is now promoting with great vigour, was not started until the 1st of January, 1867, when the first of its fleet passed out of the “Golden Gate” of California bound across the Pacific to those ancient nations. The Great Republic, China, Japan, and America, all of them wooden vessels with paddle-wheels and “walking beam” engines, soon followed. These vessels, of somewhere about 4000 tons each, make the voyage from San Francisco to Yokohama in twenty-two days, thence to Hong-Kong in seven more, the whole distance occupying, with the stoppage at Yokohama, thirty days.

Until recently, the service was monthly each way, but the rapid increase of trade has now induced the company to despatch a steamer from each end, once a fortnight. Between Yokohama and Shanghai, this company runs, in connection with the large steamers, many smaller vessels which, passing through the inland seas of Japan and calling at Hiogo and Nagasaki, have secured a large share of the local traffic, at the same time feeding the trunk line, the vessels[Pg 155] of which have very extensive accommodation for the numerous Chinese passengers, between Hong-Kong and San Francisco. Though this company now finds a large and increasing amount of employment for its ships in goods, as well as passengers, consisting chiefly of wheat, flour, treasure, and general merchandise for China, and tea, sugar, cleaned rice, oil, and miscellaneous articles in return, it is largely subsidised by the American Government, which, as well as its subjects, shows considerable jealousy of the steamers of other countries competing for the same trade.

In 1874, two pioneer steamers of an English company attempted to compete with those of the Pacific Steam-ship Company, but the promoters appear to have been unable to obtain sufficient capital to enlarge their service and maintain the opposition, as they consented, after a few months’ trial, to charter their vessels to the American company, which has also added to its fleet now engaged in this trade two new and large vessels, the City of Pekin and the City of Canton.[160]

As the Central Pacific Railroad was opened soon after the inauguration of the line of steamers to China,[Pg 156] passengers as well as a large proportion of the teas and other Chinese produce and merchandise are now transported by it, instead of being conveyed as hitherto from China, by way of the Cape of Good Hope, or across the Pacific Ocean to San Francisco, and thence, viâ Panama, to New York, Boston and other ports on the north-eastern seaboard.

That San Francisco was, in the opinion of the Americans, destined to become a great central depôt of commerce, and ought, therefore, to be encouraged by every means in their power, may be inferred from the circumstance that, in 1847, when the Pacific Mail Steam-ship Company commenced operations, another company, known as the “Law Line,” established by Messrs. Law, Roberts, and Company, of New York, received also a subsidy for carrying the United States’ mails between New York, California, and Oregon monthly, although there was not then sufficient trade for even one monthly line of steamers.

Running in connection with the steamers from New York to Aspinwall, the Americans have another line, consisting of twelve very fine steamers ranging from 500 to 2000 tons each, plying between Panama, Valparaiso, and the intermediate ports, rivalling the vessels of the English Pacific Steam Navigation Company, and largely sharing in the commerce between San Francisco and the South American Republic, a trade destined to become one of vast magnitude and of great public importance. Nor do they seem disposed to limit their operations to the shores of the Pacific, for besides the great line now traversing that ocean to China and Japan, they evidently contemplate at no distant date to run lines of their own[Pg 157] steamers from San Francisco and Panama to our Australian Colonies. “One of the most pressing needs of the day,” remarks a writer in the leading San Francisco journal of January 1875, “is for the establishment of a permanent steam communication with Australia, and it is a disgrace to the public spirit of our community that it has not been satisfactorily effected.”

Nor are the Americans inclined to rest satisfied with the present size of their steamers, but, with a prudence not displayed by the projectors of our Great Eastern, they have hitherto regulated their dimensions by the requirements of the trade in which they intended to employ them. When I visited Philadelphia, in the autumn of 1860, several merchants of that city brought under my notice the designs and model of a steam-ship they then contemplated building, and which, though not one-half the dimensions of our own vast Leviathan, was double the size of any other vessel then afloat; they had, indeed, formed a company which they styled the Philadelphia and Crescent Steam Navigation Company, expressly for the purpose of constructing a line of such vessels to trade with Great Britain. The plans of this ship are now before me.

Into the estimates of profit and loss I need not enter, as their accuracy, or otherwise, has not been tested, but the plans of the projector, Mr. Randall, were considered of sufficient importance to justify the State legislature in granting to the company an Act of Incorporation. This vessel was to be 500 feet long, with a beam of 58 feet moulded, and to measure about 8000 tons. She was to have[Pg 158] “ample accommodation for 3000 passengers and 3000 tons of cargo,” and to be “a regular 20-mile ship.” She was to “have ample fuel room, sufficient to run 8000 miles without stopping for coal,” and to have a “main saloon of 350 feet of uninterrupted length,” and “175 family state rooms, with double beds in each of extra size, and a dining-room and drawing-room, each 150 feet long.” For the comfort and convenience of excursionists, who, it was said, “will be induced, in consequence of the increased safety offered by these vessels to visit Europe in preference to Saratoga, Newport, Niagara, &c., there will be found on board a social hall, reading-rooms, and library 50 feet long, and a smoking-room 45 feet in extent, and numerous baths, comparing favourably with first-class hotels.”

Her motive power was to consist of two sets of wheels, “constructed in such a manner and so placed as to obtain a vast increase of speed;” she was to be divided into seven water-tight compartments, and the engines were to be entirely distinct, 130 feet apart. She was to be constructed on the diagonal principle and trussed with bars of iron as shown in the following midship section. There was to be “a solid arch on each side of the ship, together with the[Pg 159] vertical arch and iron diagonal bracing, extending over the whole frame, affording a construction of strength and security never equalled.”[161]

But her midship transverse section was the most striking feature of this great ship; it is in many respects novel, and so different from the midship section of any vessel constructed in other countries, that the following representation of it may prove interesting and instructive.

The proposed arrangements present an amount[Pg 160] of accommodation for passengers greatly superior to any obtainable in vessels of similar size constructed on the principles generally followed by the shipbuilders of Great Britain. The almost dead flat floor, adopted with the American idea of, as far as practicable, skimming over the surface of the water, rather than forcing a passage through it, is at variance with the form hitherto considered by us most desirable where great speed is required. But we are daily expanding the breadth of the round and rising floors of our ships, and approaching the American form, and, so long as there is sufficient depth to secure stability,[162] some persons consider that vessels with flat floors and fine ends are the best models for speed as well as for capacity.

Although the ocean-going steamers of Great Britain, as in the case of the great competition between the steamers of the Collins and Cunard lines, to which reference will presently be made, have, hitherto, in a commercial point of view, surpassed those of the United States, it is much to be regretted that Mr. Randall’s ship was never built. As she was the nearest approach in size to the Great Eastern of any vessel hitherto contemplated, her trial would have[Pg 161] been interesting, especially as it was thought that her form and mode of construction presented greater elements of success as regards speed and capacity in proportion to her register tonnage; and, if we apply the formula for determining the strength of a truss, we shall find that, in proportion to the weight of materials used, with the system of bracing proposed, she would have more effectually resisted the twisting or writhing so fatal to long and heavily-laden ships when they encounter the violently agitated cross seas of the Atlantic Ocean.

Such were the views of Mr. Randall, and, when it is considered that he was no mere theorist, but a man of large practical experience in such matters, there were even greater reasons to anticipate valuable results from the experiment. For twenty-two years before he propounded his scheme to the merchants of Philadelphia, Mr. Randall had been employed in building, fitting, and navigating steam-ships on the American lakes and on the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans:[163] and[Pg 162] the only difference between these ships and the one he projected for the European trade consisted in the increased size, and in the application of two distinct sets of paddle-wheels instead of one.

[Pg 163]

CHAPTER IV.

Having furnished a general outline of the rise and progress of propulsion by steam on the rivers, coasts, and lakes of the United States of America, and traced its advance in Great Britain to the period when the superiority of the screw over the paddle-wheel, and of iron over wood, had come to be generally[Pg 164] acknowledged, I shall now ask my readers to accompany me while I endeavour to describe the great contest between these two countries for the carrying trade of the Atlantic. It is a grand story to tell, one far more worthy of record than the wars for maritime supremacy between Rome and Carthage, or than, perhaps, some wars of more recent times which, without any apparently useful object, have stained land and sea with the blood alike of the victor and the vanquished, rendering desolate many a once happy home.

The war I have now to relate was a far nobler conflict, consisting as it did in the struggle between the genius, scientific skill, and industry of the people of two great nations, commenced, too, and, continued throughout without bloodshed and with a fair field, neither country having, in the direct trade, any special legislative advantages.

Though the Americans still retain the whole of their river, lake, and coasting trade, including even the distant voyage between New York and California, for the immediate benefit of their own shipping, the vessels of both nations conduct on equal terms the intercourse between the mother-countries, and have done so for more than half a century. But when, towards the close of the War of Independence, the struggle for supremacy commenced, the shipping of both England and America were, in all branches of their maritime commerce, under the leading-strings of their respective legislators. England would not then allow American vessels to trade with most of her vast possessions and, while thus nursing her shipowners, prevented the mass of her people from deriving the[Pg 165] advantages invariably flowing from a natural and wholesome competition. Nor did she, indeed, confer any real benefit on this favoured class: on the contrary, she taught them to lean on Protection, instead of depending on their own skill and industry. The consequences were apparent in even the earlier results of this struggle. Having ample fields for employment exclusively their own, English shipowners did not enter with their wonted energy, into the direct carrying trade between their own country and America, which was so rapidly developed after the Americans had become independent; they remained satisfied with those branches of commerce expressly secured to them by law, just as the boy too frequently does who, receiving a small patrimony by his parents, cares not to exert himself to increase it and, consequently, leaves others not so highly favoured, to surpass him in the race of competition for wealth and independence. Thus the shipowners of Great Britain did not care to continue their vessels in the trade with America in a competition, on equal terms, with those of that country, especially when they found they would have to produce a superior class of vessel and to use extra exertions, to make this trade pay as well as did their protected branches of oversea commerce without the additional trouble of “improvements.” It was otherwise with the shipowners of the United States, for there was then no other branch of oversea trade where the laws of nations allowed them to compete on equal terms with foreign vessels.

Although possessing the advantage of vast forests of timber for the construction of their ships, the[Pg 166] American shipbuilders were obliged to import their iron[164] from Great Britain, their hemp from Russia, and many other articles necessary for the equipment of their vessels from other and distant countries; they did not, therefore, especially as skilled labour was higher at home than in Europe, engage in the vigorous though peaceful struggle, I am about to describe, with any special advantages, but, being equal in energy and industry, they had the incalculable advantage of being obliged to depend on themselves. They, consequently, set to work to construct that description of merchant-vessel likely to yield the most remunerative returns, adopting the best mechanical contrivances within their reach, so as to reduce navigation to the smallest cost consistent with safety and efficiency; and the world soon saw the results of their labours in their celebrated “Baltimore clippers” and the still more celebrated “American liners,” which for a considerable period[Pg 167] almost monopolised the carrying trade between Great Britain and the States.

Yet, strange to say, though the superiority of the merchant-vessels of the United States soon became only too apparent, scarcely any improvements were adopted by Great Britain, or indeed, by any other nation, until wiser statesmen than had hitherto guided the councils of this country swept away the whole paraphernalia of her Navigation Laws, and left her shipowners to rely entirely on their own resources.

I have already shown that this superiority consisted mainly in the fact that American ships could sail faster and carry more cargo, in proportion to their registered tonnage, than those of their competitors; but their improvements did not rest here. In considering the current expenses of a merchantman, manual labour is one of the most important items, and, herein, our competitors, by means of improved blocks and various other mechanical appliances, so materially reduced the number of hands that twenty seamen in an American sailing-ship could do as much work, and probably with more ease to themselves, than thirty in a British vessel of similar size. With such ships we failed successfully to compete; and although we have since far surpassed them in ocean steam navigation, the Americans were the first to despatch a steamer, for trading purposes, across the Atlantic.

In 1791, when the steam-boat was in its infancy—indeed, when it was hardly known—Mr. Fitch[165] of Windsor, Connecticut, boldly predicted that sailing-vessels would soon be superseded in the carrying trade between Great Britain and America by[Pg 168] steamers, though it was not till 1819, that the American steam-ship Savannah, of 300 tons, arrived at Liverpool from Savannah, Georgia, in thirty-one days, partly steaming and partly sailing;[166] but as her horse-power was too small, while she was otherwise unsuited for ocean navigation, she did not prove commercially remunerative. The questionable success of the Savannah, combined with the fact that about this time, and for some years afterwards, men of science[Pg 169][167] were demonstrating, at least to their own satisfaction, that the navigation of the Atlantic by steam power[Pg 170] alone, was the dream of a visionary, prevented, for ten years, the renewal of this bold experiment, the American sailing-vessels continuing to retain the bulk of this carrying trade.

The next step in Transatlantic steam navigation was the dispatch, in 1829, of an English-built vessel, the Curaçoa, of 350 tons and 100 horse-power, which made several successful voyages between Holland and the Dutch West Indies. On the 18th of August 1833, a steam-ship named the Royal William[168] sailed from Quebec and arrived at Gravesend on the 11th of September, having been detained three days at Nova Scotia on her way to England. But it was not until 1838 that the practicability of profitably employing vessels propelled by steam on an Atlantic voyage was fully tested. In that year, an advertisement appeared announcing that the “steam-ship Sirius, Lieutenant Roberts, R.N., Commander, would leave London for New York on Wednesday, the 28th of March, calling at Cork Harbour, and would start from thence on the 2nd of April, returning from New York on the 1st of May.” Thus a company of merchants was found sanguine enough to[Pg 171] test the practicability of regular steam navigation with the United States, by advertising, not merely the days of sailing from England, but, also, those of arrival and departure from America. Circumstances, however, delayed the departure of the Sirius until the morning of the 4th of April, when she started, at ten o’clock, with ninety-four passengers. Although not built for Transatlantic navigation, having been previously employed by the St. George Steam Navigation Company in their trade between London and Cork, the Sirius was much superior in size to either of the three vessels which had previously made the voyage, being about 700 tons register with engines of 320 horse-power, constructed by Thomas Wingate, of Glasgow.[169]

[Pg 172]

But the Sirius was soon surpassed by the Great Western, which three days afterwards (the 7th of April, 1838) followed her with goods and passengers for New York. As the Great Western, the marvel[Pg 173] of the period, was the first steam-ship specially constructed for the now vast trade between Great Britain and the United States, it may interest my readers to know that she was built of wood by Mr. Patterson, of Bristol, according to his own design, and that her dimensions were 212 feet in length between the perpendiculars, 35 feet 4 inches breadth of beam, and 23 feet 2 inches depth of hold; registering 1340 tons, builders’ measurement.[170] Her engines[Pg 174] (on the side lever principle) were 440 horse-power, constructed by Messrs. Maudslay, Sons, and Field, of London, having cylinders 73½ inches in diameter and 7 feet stroke, making twelve to fifteen revolutions per minute.[171] She was commanded by Captain Hosken.

In the interval between the sailing of the Sirius and the Great Western and their arrival at New York, much doubt prevailed as to the probability of their accomplishing the voyage in safety, and this uncertainty was increased by the arrival at ports in Great Britain, of vessels from America, without having encountered either of them; it was forgotten for the moment, that, in the immensity of the ocean, vessels may easily miss each other although traversing the same zones. They were however at length spoken with by the Westminster, an American sailing packet, the Sirius on the 21st April, within six hours’ sail of her destination, and the Great Western on the 22nd. The former reached New York on that day after a passage of seventeen days; the latter completed the passage in two days’ less time, having arrived (without any accident in either case), on the 23rd of that month.

[Pg 175]

The safe arrival of these ships at New York was hailed with immense acclamation, thousands of persons having gathered early in the morning to bid them welcome, and, as this, too, is a matter of historical interest, I shall trouble my readers with the substance of the accounts of their arrival as they appeared, at the time, in the public journals.[172]

The Sirius sailed on her homeward voyage on the afternoon of the 1st of May, her advertised time, and the Great Western on the 7th of that month. The former reached England on the 18th of May, the latter on the 22nd, being respectively, sixteen and fourteen days on the passage. The whole distance run from Bristol to New York, by the Great Western, was 3125 knots,[173] her average speed being 208 miles each day, or 8·2 per hour, consuming 655 tons of coal. Her return passage was accomplished[Pg 176] at an average of 213 knots each day, or close upon 9 knots an hour, with a consumption of 392 tons of coal (the difference of consumption arising no doubt in a great measure from the prevalence on her homeward passage of westerly winds); her average daily consumption on this occasion varied from 27 tons, with expansive gear in action, to 32 tons without it.[174]

As the Sirius was not intended for the American trade she made only the one voyage across the Atlantic and, on her return to Liverpool, was dispatched to London to open up steam communication between that city and St. Petersburg, where she was for some years successfully employed.

But another steam-vessel was soon engaged to take the place of the Sirius. On the 6th of July, 1838, a paragraph in the public journals[175] announced[Pg 177] the interesting fact that the enterprising merchants of Liverpool, who now hold the great bulk of the Anglo-American trade in their hands, had dispatched their first steam-ship, the Royal William, though the second of that name, to New York.[176]

Although the practicability of steam navigation across the troubled waters of the Atlantic had now been triumphantly established, other steam-ships having followed the Royal William in rapid succession, many years elapsed before the magnificent sailing-vessels which American energy and skill had created, were driven from the trade.

In October 1838, Sir John Tobin, a well-known merchant of Liverpool, seeing the importance of the intercourse now rapidly increasing between the old and new worlds, dispatched on his own account, a steamer to New York. She was built at Liverpool, after which place she was named, and made the[Pg 178] passage outwards in sixteen and a half days. It was now clearly shown that the service could be performed, not merely with profit to those who engaged in it, but with a regularity and speed which the finest description of sailing-vessels could not be expected to accomplish. If any doubts still existed on these important points the second voyage of the Great Western set them at rest, she having on this occasion accomplished the outward passage in fourteen days sixteen hours, and the homeward passage in twelve days fourteen hours, bringing with her the advices of the fastest American sailing-ships which had sailed from New York long before her; and thus proving the necessity of having the mails in future conveyed by steamers.

But this idea so far from being new was coexistent with the introduction of steam itself for the purposes of navigation; nor indeed was it the idea of any one person interested in the trade between Great Britain and the United States of America, though one man set himself more zealously to carry it into practical and continuous operation than any one else.

So far back as 1830, Mr. Samuel Cunard of Halifax, N.S., contemplated the establishment of a mail service between the two continents, his original plan, which he followed up, being to run steamers from Liverpool to Halifax (that harbour presenting unusual facilities for the reception of steam-vessels) and thence to Boston in the United States.

About that time the Government of Bombay which had just launched the Hugh Lindsay, and the East India Company were considering the introduction of larger steam-vessels for their naval service, and, as[Pg 179] Mr. Cunard was personally known to Mr. Melvill, then secretary to that Company, he placed himself in communication with that gentleman, making known to him his views, and requesting to be favoured with an introduction to any shipbuilder in this country or other persons likely to join him in carrying out his project. Mr. Melvill furnished him with a letter to Mr. Robert Napier, the well-known engineer and shipbuilder of Glasgow, and through him Mr. Cunard was led to discuss this important undertaking with Mr. George Burns of that city, and his friend and correspondent Mr. David MacIver of Liverpool.[177] Both those gentlemen[Pg 180] entertained with favour the proposals of Mr. Cunard, and, subsequently, agreed to co-operate with him in finding the requisite capital and ships, should he be enabled to secure the contract for the conveyance of the Transatlantic mails.

The regularity of the passages of the Great Western satisfied the British Government as to the superiority of steam over sailing-packets, and, in October 1838, the Admiralty issued advertisements for tenders for the conveyance of the North American mails by steamers. Much to the annoyance of the Great Western Company, who did not contemplate any serious opposition to their offer, the tender from Mr. Cunard, as the lowest and, in many other respects the most favourable in its conditions for the public, was accepted, the contract being entered into in the name of Samuel Cunard, George Burns, and David MacIver; and from this sprung the vast private maritime undertaking now popularly known as the Cunard Company.

The original conditions of the contract were that, for the sum of 55,000l. per annum, Messrs. Cunard, Burns, and MacIver should supply three suitable steam-ships and perform two voyages a month from Liverpool to the United States, leaving England at certain periods; but, afterwards, it was thought desirable to have fixed days in America as well as in England for departure. By a subsequent arrangement, four boats were required by the Admiralty to be provided by Mr. Cunard instead of three, subject to certain other conditions, for which the subsidy was increased to somewhere about 81,000l.[178] per annum.

[Pg 181]

For the performance of this contract Mr. Cunard and his co-partners placed on the line four steam-ships[179] in every way adapted for the service so far as the knowledge of the period extended, and from the commencement of the company until the present day the Cunard Company have without exception supplied vessels greatly exceeding the stipulated power required by their postal contracts. The whole of the first four vessels were constructed of wood on the Clyde by its leading shipbuilders, and the engines were supplied by Mr. Robert Napier, long celebrated in his profession. They were nearly alike in size and power, and, that my readers may compare them with the steam-vessels of to-day a drawing of the Britannia (which commenced the service by sailing from Liverpool on 4th July, 1840) is furnished (page 182);[Pg 183] the particulars of her construction, in all essential details, are likewise herewith supplied.[180]

These vessels commenced the mail service in 1840 between Liverpool, Halifax, and Boston, performing it with great regularity out and home at an average speed of about 8½ knots an hour, and giving complete satisfaction to the public on both sides of the Atlantic; indeed, when the Britannia, on her first voyage, was frozen up in the harbour of Boston, the[Pg 184] inhabitants of that city, at their own expense, cut her through the ice into clear water for a distance of seven miles. (See illustration, page 182.)

In 1844, Mr. Cunard brought into the service (partly in pursuance of his contract) the Cambria and Hibernia, each of 500 horse-power, and of 1422 tons, with an average speed of 9¼ knots.

In 1848, the America, Niagara, Europe, and Canada followed, so as to meet the increasing wants of the trade and the ever increasing demands of the public for greater speed and improved accommodation. Each of these vessels was about 1820 tons and of 680 horse-power, with an average speed of 10¼ knots an hour.

The success of the Cunard Company, created, as might have been anticipated, much jealousy among the shareholders of the Great Western Steam-ship Company, who complained of a monopoly having been granted to their injury and to that of other owners of steam-ships engaged in the trade, or who were desirous of entering it. Although no unfairness was alleged against Mr. Cunard and his partners, and no valid charges could be raised against the manner in which the mail services were performed, the Great Western Company had sufficient influence to obtain a parliamentary inquiry. They asked it, first, on the broad grounds (which have since been frequently raised, and now with much more show of reason than then), that the public was taxed for a service from which one company alone derived the advantage, and which could be equally well done and, at less expense, if mails were sent by all steamers engaged in the trade, each receiving a certain amount of percentage on the letters they carried; and, secondly, because[Pg 185] their company had been the first in the trade and had incurred great expense and risk in developing steam communication between Great Britain and the United States of America. But, after full inquiry, the committee reported that the arrangements concluded with Messrs. Cunard, Burns, and MacIver, were on terms more advantageous than any others which could then be made, and that the service had been most efficiently performed.[181]

Indeed, it was clearly shown that even the first boats the Cunard Company ran between England and America were superior in power and speed to any others similarly employed,[182] and this superiority they long maintained. In the calculations made of the relative power of the steam-vessels thus employed, an average westerly passage across the Atlantic was taken, and an endeavour made to place these vessels in the order of speed. The Oriental and Great Western were pronounced about equal, as also the President, and the Great Liverpool before the alterations[Pg 186] were made in her. It should however be remarked that, though the proportion of power and tonnage was the same in the case of the Oriental and British Queen, it was not questioned that, on every point, especially when the vessels were deeply laden, the Oriental had the advantage. It may also be mentioned that the Liverpool was, after her alterations, 393 tons larger than formerly; and, though her proportion of power was consequently diminished, her speed and weatherly qualities were materially increased,[183] showing that more depended on the form and construction of the vessel than on having a large engine power.

The President, built by Messrs. Curling and Young for the British and American Steam Navigation Company, was launched on the 7th December, 1839, with great éclat, but her career at sea was very brief, and her end most melancholy. It may be summed up in the few words that, when due from New York, in April 1841, she did not make her appearance; tremendous weather having been experienced in the Atlantic, with unusual quantities of ice in very low latitudes, the most intense anxiety arose both in the mercantile world and among the relatives of the passengers as to the cause of her detention. The arrival of other ships from the same port increased the public anxiety. For a considerable period the appearance of every large vessel was hailed as the missing steamer, and a thousand rumours prevailed as to her wreck in various parts of the world. The hopes long entertained that her engines had broken[Pg 187] down and that she had sailed for the West Indies or elsewhere to refit, proved fallacious, while the agony of the parties interested in her was kept alive by the most conflicting speculations as to the cause and certainty of a catastrophe. The President was never again heard of, nor was any trace of her wreck ever discovered. This calamitous event, however it affected the interests of the company of Bristol merchants to whom she belonged, did not check the ardour of the people of England for steam navigation across the Atlantic.

The Great Western Steamship Company having, so far back as 1838, resolved to build a second ship much larger than their first, aimed at realizing in her the greatest improvements the art of naval construction could then command. Nor were they disappointed in their expectations, the Great Britain when launched being not merely much the largest, but also the finest vessel up to that period built for ocean steam navigation.[184]

In proportion to all other vessels hitherto constructed of iron, the dimensions of the Great Britain were altogether colossal and, at the time, she excited quite as much public interest as that vast leviathan, the Great Eastern, did at a later period. She was built at Bristol, and her lines were furnished by Mr. Patterson of that place, who had planned and constructed the Great Western. Nor was the public interest[Pg 188] in her at all lessened when it became known that, though originally intended for a paddle-wheel steamer, her builder had boldly resolved to adopt the screw, then comparatively little known as a means of propulsion.

As there were still many unbelievers in the suitability of iron, for the construction of sea-going vessels, and still more who had no faith whatever in the value of the screw, this second step in advance on the part of the directors of the Great Western Steamship Company led to much discussion among scientific men, and created many evil forebodings as to the ultimate fate of the Great Britain, all of which she, however, falsified. On her passage from Bristol to the Thames, though she encountered very severe weather, she braved the storm in a manner (see following illustration,) which ought to have silenced for ever the opponents of iron as a suitable material for the construction of vessels of every description, as well as those men of science who still, and for many years[Pg 189] afterwards, maintained that the screw, under all circumstances, was an inferior motive power to that of the paddle-wheel.

So great, indeed, was the interest felt in this vessel that, on her arrival in the Thames, Her Majesty and Prince Albert with great numbers of the nobility, and thousands of other persons, paid her a visit. Nor was her fame confined to England, forming as she did the subject of discussion among the learned and scientific societies of Europe, which was taken up with unusual fervour in the United States of America when it became known that she was to be employed as one of the Transatlantic steamers destined to eclipse the still celebrated American sailing clippers.[185]

Though the Americans continued with undaunted courage their lines of sailing packets, every year, increasing their dimension, and improving by every possible means their speed and seagoing qualities, they saw the most valuable portions of their trade (first-class passengers and fine goods) passing into[Pg 190] the hands of British steamers. Resolving if possible to maintain their position, they, with that genius, and ready adaptation of means to an end peculiarly their own, fitted a steam-engine into one of their sailing-vessels, and were therefore the first to apply the auxiliary screw to ocean navigation, as they had been the first to cross the Atlantic with steam. They knew that when the wind was strong and favourable, their celebrated ships could, with their sails alone, surpass in speed any ocean steamers then afloat, and they thought that if they could introduce, at a moderate cost and with comparatively small current expenses, a steam-engine to propel their sailing-packets when the wind failed, or when entering port or passing through narrow channels, they would be enabled to hold their ground against their now formidable rivals. Consequently, they sent forth, in the autumn of 1845, their auxiliary steam-packet ship Massachusetts,[186] of which the following is an illustration.

[Pg 191]

From a description given of her in the Mechanics’ Magazine of January 1846, she appears to have been 161 feet in length on deck, 31 feet 9 inches in breadth of beam, and 20 feet depth of hold from maindeck. She was 751 tons, O.M., and had a full poop extending to the mainmast, in which there was accommodation for thirty-five first-class passengers.

Her enterprising owners (Mr. Forbes and others),[187] did not contemplate competition so far as regards[Pg 192] speed with the steamers then employed on the Atlantic service, but by using the screw as an auxiliary they hoped to accomplish the voyage with so much greater rapidity than an ordinary sailing-ship as to recompense them for the cost of the machinery and the cargo space which it occupied. By insuring greater regularity they also hoped to command a moderate share of the passenger traffic, and of that description of goods which from their nature would not allow so high a rate of freight to be paid as the owners of steam-ships required to cover the greatly enhanced cost of navigation. The passages of the Massachusetts, as compared[188] with those of sailing-ships which left Liverpool before and after her, showed a considerable saving in time.

Her motive power consisted of a condensing engine, constructed by Messrs. Hogg and Delamater of New York, designed by Captain Ericsson and fitted with[Pg 193] his screw, the blades of which turned up out of the water when the vessel was under sail alone. The engine had two cylinders working nearly at right angles, each 3 feet stroke and 26 inches diameter. There were two boilers, named “waggon-boilers,” each 14 feet long, 7 feet wide, and 9 feet high, with a furnace to each boiler. For the purpose of raising steam quickly there was a blowing-engine and blower, the power of her engine being equal to 170 horses, sufficient to drive the ship about 9 statute miles an hour in smooth water and during calms, with a consumption of 9 tons of anthracite coal per day. The whole of the machinery, with the boilers, coal bunkers, &c., which were fitted in the after portion of the lower hold, occupied a space of one-tenth the cubic contents of the ship. Her propeller was made of composition metal, and could be raised out of the water when the steam-power was not required. Its shaft passed through the ship, close to the stern post on the port side and rested in a socket which was bolted to the stern post, and further supported by a massive brace above. Her entire cost was 16,000l. complete in all respects with machinery.

But even the Massachusetts[189] did not meet the wishes[Pg 194] of the American people. They saw their most valuable maritime commerce slowly but surely passing away from them, and though not yet prepared to run steamers to compete on the direct Atlantic line with British enterprise, they determined to secure at least a portion of the first-class passenger and fine goods trade with Europe. Consequently, they established a line of steam-ships of their own to run between New York and Bremen, calling at Southampton,[Pg 195] and in June 1847 started their first ship, the Washington, for Southampton on the same day that the Britannia, belonging to the Cunard Company, sailed from New York for Liverpool. This was the first race between American and British steamers, and though the Britannia did not require “to run by the deep mines, and put in more coal” to beat the Washington as the New York Herald anticipated, the other prophecy of the editor of that enterprising journal has been now remarkably fulfilled.[190]

The Britannia won the race by two full days. The Washington,[191] of which the following is an illustration (though the Spithead correspondent of the[Pg 196] London Times does not give a very glowing account of her appearance as she passed before him on the[Pg 197] waters of the Solent[192]), was welcomed on her arrival at the port of Bremen with great rejoicings; the burgomaster proceeding on board in state to invite the captain to a banquet in the Town Hall, specially prepared for him by the Senate.

Hitherto the American Government had been opposed in principle to all subsidies, but the vast results which accrued to the material interests of the United States from the extensive employment of steam navigation, effected concurrently a great change in the policy of the Federal Legislature and soon rendered it necessary to subsidize vessels of their own for the conveyance of their mails to Great Britain. If, before the period of the introduction of steam, Congress had exhibited an undue parsimony in providing funds in any form for their national navy, it is certain that a more liberal policy now prevailed.

Ocean steam navigation was now adopted by the Americans for the joint purpose of extending and advancing the commercial and other interests of the country, and more especially to provide a marine force which might be easily made available for the protection “of American rights;” and the attainment of this two-fold object was the motive which, in the opinion of Congress, justified the application of public[Pg 198] funds in aid of private enterprise. Nor was the argument, once so popular in England, overlooked that the money so advanced would ultimately be reimbursed by saving the expense of a standing fleet to the extent of the number of the vessels subsidized in the conveyance of the mails, while encouraging commerce and the arts during the time of peace.

The Americans also now complained (they had not thought of it before) that the ocean mails along their southern coasts had been placed in the hands of foreign carriers,[194] sustained and protected by the British Government, under the forms of contracts to carry the British mails; while the Cunard line, between Liverpool and Boston viâ Halifax, constituted the only medium of regular steam navigation[Pg 199] between the United States and Europe. In this way it was alleged that the commercial interests of the United States were on one side entirely at the mercy of British steamers which plied along the southern coast of the United States, entering their ports at pleasure, and thereby acquiring an intimate knowledge of the soundings and other peculiarities of the American harbours, a process which might prove highly injurious to America in the event of a war with Great Britain: while, on the other, danger was incurred by a foreign line of steamers carrying the ocean mails, under the liberal encouragement of the British Government, and thus threatening to monopolize by steam the mail postage and freight between the two countries.

Under these somewhat hazardous circumstances to the commercial and political interests of the United States, it became necessary to decide whether American commerce should continue to be “thus tributary to British maritime supremacy,” or an American medium of communication should be established through the intervention of the Federal Government in the form of loans in aid of individual enterprise. The Americans now felt that unless they departed from their previous policy, they could not contend successfully against the Cunard line of packets, which received a large subsidy from the English Government.

It was humiliating, they also argued, to their pride as a great maritime people, that foreigners and commercial rivals should wrest from them the virtual monopoly of ocean steam conveyance, especially between the United States and Europe, as well as[Pg 200] between the West Indies and South America. But, in reviewing this question, their statesmen and politicians might have perceived without prejudice, that England has acted upon the same liberal policy in furnishing means to establish ocean lines to other parts of the world where American rivalry has no place; therefore, the paragraph about the “Queen of the Ocean levying her imposts upon the industry and intelligence of all the nations that frequent the highway of the world,”[195] is merely a rhetorical flight, with no foundation in fact, apparently introduced into their official reports in order to reconcile the ignorant people of the Western States to the payment of a tax for services performed, by which they would be but indirectly and remotely benefited.

Moreover, it was urged, in favour of the principle of subsidies, that the American sailing packets, though undoubtedly vessels of unrivalled beauty and swiftness, were fast losing the most valuable portion of their trade through the competition of steamers under a foreign flag; but, so far from this being an argument in favour of subsidizing vessels of their own of a similar description, the shipowners of New York and Boston and in all the leading American ports, who held the sailing-ships as a property, naturally complained that the United States’ Government should improperly interfere by a protective system, which would inflict a double injury upon them, and insisted that such matters should be left entirely to individual enterprise, which, in their opinion, becomes paralyzed under the effects of Government patronage bestowed upon some to the exclusion of others. To[Pg 201] all these, and similar complaints from other quarters, the Government answered that the system was deemed to be not only calculated to awaken and reward the enterprise of American citizens, but avoid the expense of keeping on hand, in time of peace, a large and useless military marine, which could only be preserved in a condition of efficiency by a vast annual outlay of public money. The Government therefore came, perhaps reluctantly, to the opinion that these ocean facilities should exist through their intervention, more especially as they were beyond the capabilities of private means.

But apart altogether from any of the reasons assigned in favour of subsidizing a line of mail steamers of their own, the national pride of the Americans had been touched by the success of the Cunard and other lines of steam-ships frequenting their ports, or trading, if not along their coasts, at least on seas they considered their own, and they attributed this success (not altogether without reason) to the annual grants for mail services from the British Crown.

Nor is it surprising that their national pride should have been touched. American genius and skill had sent forth steamers to trade on their coasts, lakes, and rivers which were marvels of naval architecture, unsurpassed in speed and in the splendour of their equipment—their sailing packets, as we have seen, were the finest the world had then produced, while their perfection in the art of shipbuilding had even reached so high a point that they constructed steamers to ascend rivers where there was hardly depth of water for an Indian canoe; indeed it was proverbially[Pg 202] said, in honour of their skill in the art, that their vessels would traverse valleys if only moistened by the morning dews. No wonder they should have felt annoyed at the progress of British shipping in those branches of maritime commerce they had long considered peculiarly their own.

It was under such circumstances as these that Congress resolved to make their postal arrangements altogether independent of foreign and rival agencies. They had subsidized to advantage a line of steamers between New York and Chagres, viâ New Orleans and its auxiliaries; and had repossessed themselves of the power of transport of their mails for Mexico, South America, and their possessions in the Pacific, which, in consequence of the discoveries of gold in California, had become of no ordinary importance. As the steamers for this line were of the highest class, possessing great speed and superior passenger accommodation, and capable, besides, of being converted at a small expense into war-steamers, they estimated that similar successful results would attend the establishment of another line of steam-ships of their own between New York and Liverpool.

There was no difficulty in finding men, whose experience and practical knowledge rendered them eminently qualified to prepare and conduct a mail service across the Atlantic to compete with the Cunard Company, and Mr. E. K. Collins, of New York, who undertook the responsible task of establishing the line which bore his name, was perhaps more competent than any other man for the work; relying as he could on the experience gained in his previously successful establishment of the Collins[Pg 203] line of sailing packets between Liverpool and New York. To ensure the most perfect description of vessels, he nevertheless sought the assistance of the most competent shipbuilders and engineers, who had not only the proper knowledge of marine engines and boilers, but who, having also seen their operation at sea, would be able to avoid previous errors, and to construct vessels and machinery well fitted to vie with the best that England could produce.

When, therefore, Mr. Collins and other American citizens, who had associated themselves with him, offered to enter into a contract with their Government for the conveyance of its mails between New York and Liverpool, their proposals were favourably entertained and, in the sequel, an agreement was entered into with them to perform twenty voyages in each year, with five first-class steam-vessels; for which important services Mr. Collins and his colleagues were to receive $19,250 per voyage.

Immediately the contract was completed, arrangements were entered into for the construction of four such vessels, to be named the Arctic, Baltic, Atlantic, and Pacific, each to be about 3000 tons register and of 800 horse-power.

These vessels, built chiefly of live oak, were planked with pitch pine and were in strength equal, if not superior, to any vessels constructed of wood then afloat. The timbers, which were solid and bolted to each other, were further strengthened by a lattice work of iron bands, wood and iron being so united as to derive the greatest advantage from each: wood for its elasticity, and iron for its greater power of resistance. They were beautiful models, and could[Pg 204] at a small expense have been easily converted into ships of war. The Arctic, which was considered the finest of the fleet, familiarly known as the “clipper of the seas,” was built by Mr. William H. Brown of New York, under the superintendence of Mr. George Steers, who modelled the famous yacht America. She was 2856 tons register.[196] Her equipment was complete and of the highest order, as I can testify from inspection, while her cabin accommodation in comfort and elegance surpassed that of any merchant-vessel Great Britain then possessed.

“To enter,” exclaims Mr. Bayard, a member of the Senate, “the contest with England for the supremacy of ocean steam navigation required talent, energy, and faith of the highest order known to our countrymen, for to fail would involve a loss not only of the vast sums necessary to make the effort, but, what is of far more value to every lover of his country’s reputation, it would insure national disappointment, more deeply felt from the fact that England had already been vanquished by our sailing-ships, and gracefully yielded to us the palm of victory, since more brilliantly illuminated by the[Pg 205] yacht America, and the clipper ship Witch of the Wave.”

Such were the expectations and warnings of those who guided public opinion in the United States, when it was resolved to undertake this great ocean race.

Before giving out the contracts for the machinery, Mr. Collins obtained from Messrs. Sewell and Faron, chief engineers of the United States’ Navy, full specifications of the engines and boilers the latter had designed, and subsequently made use of, for the steamers Arctic and Baltic.[197]

At that time it was believed, from the best information that could be obtained, that the Cunard steamers carried an average boiler pressure not exceeding 10lbs. to the square inch, and that, to equal them, it would only be necessary to have for the Collins vessels, cylinders of 90 inches diameter and 9 feet stroke with the same boiler pressure, although Mr. Sewell (it is understood) originally advocated 95-inch cylinders. After the contracts were given out to the Novelty and Allaire Works of New York, Mr. Collins procured permission of the government to allow Mr. Faron to visit Great Britain and examine the marine engines and boilers in use there. On his return in the Niagara, he discovered that the safety-valves of that steamer were weighted with 13lbs. per square inch, and that with every plunge of the vessel, the valve would open slightly, at once indicating the pressure[Pg 206] was equal to the load on the valve. The moment this was communicated to Mr. Collins, he conveyed the intelligence to his engineers, giving a cross section of the Niagara and the dimensions of her cylinder, with 13lbs. of boiler pressure, together with the cross sections of the Atlantic, and the Pacific then building. The engineers accordingly recommended that, to equal the Cunard vessel, the dimensions of the cylinder should be 95 inches diameter and 9 feet stroke, the size originally suggested by Mr. Sewell, to which Mr. Collins at once agreed. The engines of the Arctic, like those of her sister vessels, were of the “side-lever” kind, with solid cast iron beams, and wrought iron columns and braces. The cylinder, air pump, feed-pumps, shaft-bearing columns, &c., rested upon the bed-plate; the ordinary parallel motion was used to guide the[Pg 207] piston-rod, as in the British engines, and the motion was communicated to the cranks by the ordinary arrangement of cross-head, cross-tail, side-rods, and single connecting-rod.

The most essential difference from the British method was in the steam and exhaust valves, which were of the “balance poppet” variety, the steam valve being also used for expansion, and working in the several vessels, under the following patents:—on Allen’s cut-off in the Arctic and Atlantic; Stevens’s in the Pacific; and Sickles’s in the Baltic. These engines were greatly admired at the time.

The boilers of the Arctic were peculiar to the Collins line, and their merit was principally due to Mr. Faron, who acted as chief engineer of the company. They were arranged with double furnaces, and lower water-spaces connected by a row of vertical tubes, around which the heated gases circulated, with a hanging bridge or plate, which checked their otherwise rapid flow to the chimney and rendered the combustion more perfect. The heating surface was principally confined to the tubes and consequently vertical, the height of the smoke-pipe above the grates, 75 feet, insured a strong natural draft, and the proportion of heating to grate surface, was unusually large, being 33¼ to 1. The ratio of evaporation of sea water, during the quick trip of the Baltic in February 1852, was 8·55 pounds of water per pound of anthracite.[198]

Mr. Collins, under the advice of his engineer, originally intended to use fresh water entirely in[Pg 208] these boilers, previously condensed from sea water, and an arrangement was made with J. P. Pierson, the inventor of the “double vacuum condenser,” to furnish condensers. But the tubes, which had been manufactured in England, were lost at sea, and the vessels were equipped without them.

Bituminous coals alone were used until the superior qualities of anthracite were in several particulars shown to be of great importance in ocean steamers, when it was determined to use the former only on the return trips; and such became the established practice, resulting from an extended and careful series of experiments.[199]

The Pacific was a three-decked ship, very high on the water, and consequently much more comfortable for passengers than the other vessels; while the straight line of her bows, and freedom from encumbrances on her upper deck, offered less resistance to the wind. Her model under the water-line resembled somewhat the river boats; she had a flat bottom, her immersed section being not far from a parallelogram. Her bows and stern were formed by nearly plain surfaces, which, joined together, constituted an[Pg 209] angle much more acute than was considered safe for adoption in ocean navigation some years ago.

The Pacific was provided with two engines, each supported upon a large and solid bed-plate 32 feet long, and 9 feet broad, which was fastened to the keelson and ship’s bottom by bolts of large dimensions previously fixed in the wood; it was a single casting having a channel below in which there was a foot valve, and above it the cylinder bottom, the air-pump seat, and also a great part of the condenser, through which the side-lever shaft passed: it also had upon it sockets for the different pieces of the frames. On the cylinder bottom, at the extremity of the bed-plate, the cylinder itself was bolted, the largest at that time ever cast: its diameter being 96 inches, calculated for a stroke of 9 feet, and length, flange to flange, 10 feet 6 inches. The lower steam-opening being cast with the bed-plate, the upper one alone belonged to the cylinder. The steam exhaust valves were on the plan generally adopted in the United States and arranged with Stevens’s “cut off,” so as to let the steam expand one-half its volume.

The steam passed from the boiler to the upper steam-opening by a large pipe 2 feet in diameter and about twenty feet long, and after doing its duty in the cylinder, escaped by the middle of the exhaust side pipe, and reached the condenser, which was not more than 1 foot distant, through a pipe of the same section.

The condenser and the reservoir were formed by a single casting inside which was a partition between them of the same casting. This piece was ornamented in the same style as the steam-chest, and[Pg 210] supported a beautiful turret used as an air reservoir, which rather resembled an old castle of the Middle Ages than a steam engine of the nineteenth century, and gave an imposing appearance to the whole structure. The steam, arriving in the condenser between two horizontal iron plates, which were pierced over the whole surface, causing the condensing water to fall in small streams through them, so as to be soon condensed; then passing through the foot valve under the condenser, it reached the air-pump, which was situated on the other side of the condenser.

The condenser was so much elevated that the steam required to make a vertical descent of 11 feet, mixed with cold water, before reaching the channel way, thereby furnishing the means of quick condensation with a condenser of comparatively small size. All the pieces of the engine, cylinders, levers, connecting rods, &c., were calculated upon the best rules then known,[200] and the straps, keys, gibs, ribs, mouldings, &c., were so disposed as to produce the maximum of strength and security against accidents: but the pre-eminent success was in the design of the frame.

Any scientific engineer can calculate the thickness of a cylinder or diameter of a connecting rod necessary to resist the force they have to resist, but the disposition of the frame becomes difficult when the action of dead weight, and the various pressures produced by the working of the engines are complicated through the motion of the ship herself,[Pg 211] which alters their modes of action. The usual practice had been to sustain the engines by a frame so massive as to present ten times the strength necessary, and accordingly a useless and costly weight took permanently the place of cargo: but in the engines of the Pacific, the difficulty was completely overcome: two large hollow pillow-blocks which sustain the paddle-wheel shafts on each side of the cranks were supported in each engine by four wrought iron columns on the forward extremity of the bed plate, the centre of the shaft being 23 feet above the keelson. The pillow-blocks thus supported were connected by two strong inclined braces to the cylinder, by means of solid facings cast with it, on each side of the steam opening. To maintain this skeleton, a number of braces, small in appearance, were so disposed as to effect the purpose.

No expense having been spared to render the ships of the Collins Company complete in all respects, the cost so far exceeded the estimates that the government found it necessary not only to make an advance to the company, while the vessels were in course of construction, but also to relieve them from their obligation of building a fifth vessel as originally contemplated, and to increase the subsidy from $19,250 to $33,000 per voyage, or to the sum of $858,000 (about 178,750l.) per annum. But increased rates of speed were required in return.

There seems an almost insane desire for increased speed in locomotion by land and by sea, especially by persons who are not aware, or who do not consider that high speed involves increased danger, and[Pg 212] greatly increased cost in ocean navigation. The attainment and maintenance of high speed depend upon the exertion of a high power. High speed and power require stronger parts in everything: in the materials for the ship’s build, the boilers, the machinery, and in all the working arrangements. High speed and power demand a larger outlay in prime cost for the adequate resistance required by such power, and lead to more frequent and costly repairs. High speed and power need more watchfulness, more prompt action, and consequently more persons, whether engineers, firemen, or coal-stokers; moreover, they cause the consumption of more fuel.

These propositions have been evident to all practical men in America, as they must be to those on this side of the Atlantic. In the construction of the hull, greatly increased strength is obviously requisite. The resistance to a vessel, or its concussion against the water at a low rate of speed, will not be sensibly felt, but if that speed be considerably increased, and the concussion made quicker without a corresponding increase in the strength of the frame and hull of the ship generally, the ship will creak, strain, and yield to the pressure until she finally works herself to pieces, at the same time disarranging the engines, whose stability, bracing, and keeping proper place and order depend first and essentially on the stability of the hull. If the resistance to a vessel in passing through the water increases as the square of the velocity, and if, in addition to this outward thrust against the vessel, she has to support the greater engine power within the hull, which has increased as the cube of the velocity, then her strength[Pg 213] must be made adequate to resist without injury these two combined forces against which she has to contend.

The same increased strength is also necessary in the engines and boilers. It is evident that if the boilers have to generate and the engines to employ twice the power and exert twice the force, they must also have twice the strength, and there is no working arrangement in any way connected with the propulsion of the ship that does not partake of this increase: every pump, every valve, every bolt is connected, directly or indirectly, with the engine economy of the ship. All this is equally applicable to the ship’s hull, though in a less degree in the case of iron vessels than in those of wood. It is unnecessary to dwell upon the cost of repairs: indeed, the rapid motion of heavy parts of machinery and the necessarily severe concussions and jarrings cannot fail to destroy the costly working parts of the engine, entailing heavy and expensive repairs and substitutions.

But first cost and current expenses do not for the moment appear to have been considered by any person interested in the Collins line. One thought, and one only, prevailed, and that thought was embodied in the resolution to run the Cunarders off the Atlantic, or at least to “neutralize,” as was expressed in the discussions of the period, “an existing foreign monopoly.” The enterprise they proposed “was one of a national character, and the semblance or reality of monopoly on their side was lost,” they alleged, in the stipulation of the contractors themselves to transfer their ships at cost price with their contracts, and all the additional facilities that might be extended[Pg 214] to them by Congress “to any person who might be acceptable to the United States’ Government, and capable of carrying out an enterprise of such vital importance to the nation.”

By this plausible but transparent mode of reasoning Congress attempted to disguise the real features of an undertaking which eventually became a great failure. From the spirit, however, which then prevailed, cost was not considered either by the projectors or by the majority of the members of Congress in their determination to surpass in speed and in splendour of equipment, any steamers which Great Britain could send afloat. “We must have speed,” exclaimed Mr. Bayard, “extraordinary speed, a speed with which they (Collins steamers) can overtake any vessel which they pursue, and escape from any vessel they wish to avoid; they must be fit for the purpose of a cruiser with armaments to attack your enemy (if that enemy were Great Britain) in her most vital part, her commerce.”

Happily, the Collins steamers were never required for any such purposes, and, in 1850, just ten years after the Cunard vessels commenced to run, they started against them in their great contest for the commercial maritime supremacy of the Atlantic Ocean, a much more sensible struggle than that which Mr. Bayard so glowingly pictured when he spoke about their “sweeping the seas.”

Before the Collins line was established, the Cunard steamers were receiving 7l. 10s. sterling per ton, freight, which was so much of a monopoly rate, that in two years after the Collins line had commenced, the rate of freight fell to 4l. sterling per ton. Arguing[Pg 215] from this fact the Americans held that the excessive freights charged for transport by the Cunard Company were paid by the United States’ consumer, in most instances, on articles of British manufacture carried to America by British vessels. But now the American consumer paid only 4l. per ton, and this sum for the most part was paid to their own people, thus increasing their national wealth. Their acute political economists discovered “that formerly the American consumer paid very nearly twice as much for the service, and enriched the British capitalists: whereas, subsequently to 1850, he not only saved one-half of the former cost of freight to himself, but in paying the remaining half, benefited his fellow-citizens who, in return, aided in consuming perhaps the very merchandise which he had imported.”[201]

Arguments such as these, too frequently honoured with the title of political economy, are often employed to hide direct taxation; so, instead of attempting to refute them, I prefer inviting my readers to inquire with me into the practical results.

Now, there can be no doubt that the Collins line of steamers did honour to the naval architecture of the time, and in their performances equalled the expectations of their most sanguine friends. Mr. C. B. Stuart, with feelings of national pride, places upon record that, in May 1851, the Pacific accomplished the passage from New York to Liverpool in nine days, twenty hours, and sixteen minutes, and that, in July 1852, the Arctic made the same passage in nine days, seventeen hours, and twelve minutes, which considerably[Pg 216] exceeded in swiftness any voyages hitherto made across the ocean by the vessels of any nation. But while this determination to surpass every other vessel afloat is one which commends itself to our admiration, if not to our better judgment (as speed unless it is combined with safety should always be condemned), it was attended with enormous extra outlay, for, by a statement afterwards laid before Congress, it appeared “that to effect a saving of a day or a day and a half in the run between New York and Liverpool costs the company nearly a million of dollars annually.”[202] So eager, however, are the public to make rapid passages (and this applies to railways as well as ships) that the Collins line for the time had a decided preference with passengers.[203] Nor was there any lack of valuable goods; the gross earnings of the company by freights and passage money alone amounting in the two first years to $1,979,760. But while the Government during these two years paid the Collins line for mail service $770,000, they only recovered $513,546, showing a pecuniary loss of $256,453, so that, so far as the[Pg 217] public was concerned, the establishment of the Collins line of steamers can only be regarded as a costly and doubtful experiment; and, as will hereafter be shown, the establishment and maintenance of a costly Transatlantic line was not merely an equivocal success on the whole, but to the shareholders resulted in a vast loss of capital.

The owners of the Cunard steamers were, however, not listless spectators of the great preparations which the Americans were making to run them off their ocean lines, and, in 1850, they added two new vessels to their fleet, the Asia and Africa; they were sister ships[204] but, though magnificent vessels, they were not[Pg 218] equal in speed to those which the Collins Company had sent forth.

The competition between these two great lines of steam-ships excited extraordinary public interest at the time on both sides of the Atlantic, and indeed in all parts of the world; numerous records were kept for twelve months of the length of the respective voyages of the ships of the contending companies, and large sums of money were expended in bets on the result of each passage. Dividing the year into two parts it appears that the average length of passage from Liverpool to New York of the Collins steamers during the last half of 1851 was eleven days eighteen hours, while the average time of the Cunard boats was eleven days, twenty-three hours, thirty minutes; but, in the last quarter of that year, they were respectively, on the return passages from New York to Liverpool, ten days, twenty-three hours, and ten days, thirteen hours, seventeen minutes.

During the first half of 1852, the Collins line made the passage from Liverpool to New York, on an average of eleven days, twenty-two hours, and the Cunard Company on an average of twelve days, thirteen hours, and fifty-two minutes, while the return passages to Liverpool were respectively eleven days, one hour, and ten days, twenty-one hours, forty-four[Pg 219] minutes, showing, on the whole, an average gain each passage of fourteen hours, twenty-three minutes, in favour of the Collins line.[205]

It must, however, be mentioned that the Cunard line had only two of their new, or best boats engaged in the race, and that had their old boats, the Canada, Niagara, and Europa, been equal in speed to the Asia[206] and Africa, the gain of the Collins line would have been reduced to nine hours and ten minutes each passage. Still, in that great ocean race, the Americans were triumphant, and the rejoicings which spread throughout the United States, were, to our credit, re-echoed on the shores of Great Britain, for the struggle was one which, up to that time, had involved no loss of life, and the triumph honestly gladdened the hearts of every lover of progress on both sides of the Atlantic, encouraging as it did two great nations to extend the benign influence of art and science to their legitimate object—the advancement of the human race.

But though the Cunard Company were thus far behind in the contest, they were far from vanquished,[Pg 220] and, with renewed exertions and indomitable energy, at the same time ever bearing in mind the value of human life and the stupendous responsibility they incurred in the continuation of this struggle, they, as will hereafter appear, produced steamers which surpassed their competitors in speed, and were unrivalled in the regularity and safety with which their passages were performed. It was far otherwise with the Collins Company, and the closing years of their brief career is a sad, sad story to tell.

[Pg 221]

CHAPTER V.

A voyage across the Atlantic must ever be attended with greater peril than almost any other ocean service of similar length and duration; arising, as this does, from the boisterous character and uncertainty of the weather, from the icebergs which float in huge masses during spring along the northern line of passage, from the dense fogs frequently prevailing, and from the many vessels of every kind to be met with, either as employed in the Newfoundland fisheries, or in the vast and daily increasing intercourse between Europe and America.

In such a navigation the utmost care and caution requires to be constantly exercised, especially by steamships. Nevertheless, though the Collins line[Pg 222] of steamers performed this passage with a speed hitherto unequalled, they encountered no accidents worthy of note during the first four years of their career; but terrible calamities befell them soon afterwards.

On the 21st of September, 1854, the Arctic, according to her usual course, left Liverpool for New York. She had on board 233 passengers, of whom 150 were first class, together with a crew of 135 persons, and a valuable cargo. At mid-day on the 27th of that month, when about 60 miles south-east of Cape Race, and during a dense fog, she came in contact with the French steamer Vesta. By this collision the Vesta appeared at first to be so seriously injured that, in their terror and confusion, her passengers, amounting to 147, and a crew of fifty men, conceived she was about to sink, and that their only chance of safety lay in getting on board the Arctic. Impressed with this idea many of them rushed into the boats, of which, as too frequently happens, one sank immediately, and the other containing thirteen persons was swamped under the quarter of the ship, all on board of her perishing. When, however, the captain of the Vesta more carefully examined his injuries, he found that, though the bows of his vessel were partially stove in, the foremost bulkhead had not started. He, therefore, at once lightened his ship by the head, strengthened the partition by every means in his power, and by great exertions, courage, forethought, and seamanship, brought his shattered vessel without further loss into the harbour of St. John’s.

In the meantime a frightful catastrophe befell the Arctic, and one so little anticipated that the persons[Pg 223] on board of her, supposing that she had sustained only trifling injury by the collision, had launched a boat for the rescue of the passengers and crew of the Vesta. It was soon, however, discovered that their own ship had sustained fatal injuries, and that the sea was rushing in so fast through three holes which had been pierced in the hull below the water-line, that the engine fires would be soon extinguished. The Arctic’s head was therefore immediately laid for Cape Race, the nearest point of land, but in four hours from the time of the collision, the water reached the furnaces and soon afterwards she foundered. As it was blowing a strong gale at the time, some of the boats into which her passengers and crew rushed were destroyed in launching, others which got clear of the sinking ship were never again heard of, and only two, with thirty-one of the crew and fourteen passengers, reached Newfoundland. Among those who perished were the wife of Mr. Collins and their son and daughter, but the captain, who remained on board to the last, and the first as well as the second and fourth officers were saved. Seventy-two men and four females sought refuge on a raft which the seamen, when they found the ship sinking, had hastily constructed, but one by one they were swept away—every wave as it washed over the raft claiming one or more victims as its prey; and at eight o’clock on the following morning, one human being alone was left out of the seventy-six persons who, only twelve or fifteen hours before had hoped to save their lives on this temporary structure. The solitary occupant of this fragile raft must have had a brave heart and a strong nerve to[Pg 224] have retained his place upon it for a day and a half, after all his companions had perished, for it was not until that time had elapsed that he was saved by a passing vessel: his tale of how he and they were parted was of the most heart-rending description.[207]

As a large proportion of the first-class passengers of the Arctic, consisted of persons of wealth and extensive commercial relations in the United States, as well as in England and her colonies, besides more than one member of her aristocracy, the loss of the Arctic and the terrible incidents in connection with her fate caused an unusual amount of grief and consternation on both sides of the Atlantic.

Within little more than twelve months from this time, another great calamity befell the Collins Company, and the sad loss of their steamer Pacific, from the mystery in which it is shrouded, if not as lamentable as that of the Arctic (for the soul of man has never been harrowed by its details), was equally deplorable. Though the ocean, as in this instance, leaves no record of its ravages, the stern fact, announced in the brief words she was never heard of, tells itself the sad, sad tale, that a great ship, with all her living inmates, in infancy, in manhood and in old age, it may be full of hope and joy, has been engulfed in the deep blue waters of the Atlantic—summoned, perhaps in a moment, to an eternity more mysterious than that which still surrounds their melancholy fate.

This splendid but unfortunate ship left Liverpool on the 23rd of January, 1856, having on board[Pg 225] 25 first-class passengers, 20 second-class passengers, and a crew of 141 persons, almost all of whom were Americans. She carried the mails and a valuable cargo; the insurances effected on her amounting to $2,000,000. But no living soul ever appeared to tell when and where or how she was lost, nor were any articles belonging to her ever found to afford a clue to her melancholy fate; it can only be supposed that she sprang an overwhelming leak, or more probably struck suddenly, when at full speed, on an iceberg and instantly foundered.[208]

These terrible disasters did not, however, quench the spirit of the American people, however much they may have grieved over them. They were still as resolved as ever to maintain an Atlantic mail service of their own, and the requisite capital was soon found to supply the place of the two vessels which had been lost; one of the new steamers, the Adriatic, surpassing in size, speed, and splendour any of her predecessors. Nor did these disasters check the passenger traffic which, in eight years from the time of starting the Collins line, had increased five-fold. This, however, is in a great measure accounted for by the fact that, in the meantime, another line of steamers, specially adapted for the emigrant trade, to which reference will hereafter be made, had, during that period, been started, thus affording far greater facilities for an economical and comparatively[Pg 226] easy intercourse between the two countries, than the sailing packets had hitherto provided.

The Cunard Company having now other steam companies to contend against besides the Collins line, made renewed and extraordinary exertions to maintain their position. In 1852, they sent forth the Arabia, of 2400 tons, and of 938 horse-power, built on the Clyde and supplied with engines by Robert Napier; and, in 1855, the first iron ship of their fleet, the Persia, was dispatched to compete with the Adriatic.

The Persia[209] was a great step in advance of any other ship built for the Cunard Company up to that period, and though they had added twenty-six vessels to their fleet since they launched the Britannia, she was not merely the first they had constructed of iron, but the first ocean-going steamer in any way approaching her dimensions, launched from the yard of Robert Napier and Sons, who had now added to their business of engineers that of iron-ship builders.

Curious to relate, among the vast concourse of people who witnessed the launch of this ship, there were persons who had been also present at the launch of the Comet on the Clyde, and who were thus living witnesses of the extraordinary progress of steam navigation during the course of their own experience. The Persia, besides being the largest vessel hitherto owned by the Cunard Company, surpassed in speed all their other vessels.[210]

[Pg 227]

With such vessels as the Asia, Africa, Arabia, and Persia on their line, the Cunard Company bade defiance to competition. In a comparative statement of the voyages of the principal steamers then engaged in the Transatlantic trade, including the Collins line, the average speed of the Cunarders throughout the year 1856 exceeded that of all others;[211] the Persia during that year having, on four occasions, made the passage from New York to Liverpool in less than nine days and a half, indeed, in one instance, in nine days, four hours, and thirty-five minutes.

But the Collins Company continued to run their ships with regularity and undaunted vigour up till 1858, and it was only when the shareholders discovered that they were competing with the Cunard[Pg 228] and other British steamers at a ruinous loss, and declined to provide more capital, that this great but spirited undertaking was relinquished. Though the most strenuous exertions were made, every effort failed to resuscitate the Company. The losses had been stupendous: minor and separate interests, moreover, as well as those persons who, from the first, had been opposed to subsidies for the conveyance of the mails, now brought their influence to bear upon Congress. The merchants and shipowners of Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and other places, envious of New York, complained loudly of that city having a virtual monopoly of the Transatlantic trade, nor did the owners of the sailing packets fail to renew their protests against the large annual grants of public money voted for ocean steam communication. In the face of these remonstrances, and of the numerous hostile interests now at work, the American Government declined to grant any further subsidies to the Collins Company, or to aid, from the public purse, another undertaking which proposed to take its place.

But the Cunarders did not relax their efforts to maintain the high position they had now attained. In 1862 they sent forth the Scotia, of which an illustration will be found on the following page.

She also was built of iron, but superior in speed and strength to the Persia, and of somewhat greater power and dimensions.[212]

[Pg 229]

[Pg 230]

“In framing the Scotia, the utmost attention was bestowed for the purpose of giving strength and firmness to the whole of her large hull so as to enable her to resist strain, and make her invulnerable to concussion. To secure strength she is bound in the strongest manner throughout from stem to stern, and she is fitted with six transverse bulkheads which, in the length of the ship, divide the hull into seven perfectly water-tight compartments, and besides these she has also four water-tight subsidiary or caisson compartments. She is traversed from stem to stern by five keelsons, all of which are firmly secured at each bulkhead. At the bow, her framing is diagonal to afford the greatest possible resistance in case of concussion, and from the various peculiarities of her construction and the excellence of the material with which she has been built, the Scotia is admitted to be the strongest as she is certainly (1865) the finest merchant-steamer afloat, and, as such, may be safely adopted as the champion and model of a mercantile ocean steam-ship.”[213]

This magnificent specimen of a merchant-steamer surpassed in all respects any vessel which had hitherto crossed the Atlantic, having made the passage (allowing for difference in time, but including the detention of landing mails and passengers at Queenstown) in eight days, twenty-two hours, from New York to Liverpool.

[Pg 231]

Though the Collins Company had collapsed, the Cunard Company were not left in undisputed possession of the intercourse they had established, except so far as regards any further competition from steam-vessels subsidised by the Governments of Great Britain or of the United States. But as no mean rivals in the trade had arisen from among their own countrymen, they found it necessary to add vessel after vessel to their fleet, each new one of a still more improved description, and therefore wisely turned their attention to the screw as a means of propulsion.

In 1862 they sent forth the China, in 1864 the Cuba, in 1865 the Java, and in 1867 the Russia, all built of iron in the Clyde, but fitted with the screw instead of paddle-wheels, and embodying various improvements upon even the Scotia. The Russia is 2960 gross register, and, though her engines are only 492 horse-power,[214] her speed equalled that of either the Persia or Scotia, she having made the passage from New York to Queenstown in eight days and twenty-eight minutes, and from Queenstown to New York in eight days, five hours, and fifty-two minutes mean time, thus affording another instance (if, indeed, any more were required) of the superiority of the screw over the paddle-wheels.

But as the trade increased the Cunard Company found it necessary to direct their attention to the adoption of every improvement, however minute, which their experience, combined with the knowledge and science of the age suggested, so as to increase considerably the capacity of their vessels,[Pg 232] without lessening their speed. Since they launched the Russia they have added to their fleet five vessels, the Calabria, Algeria, and Abyssinia, each of 3300 tons, and the Bothnia and Scythia, each of 4535 tons, all built of iron and fitted with the screw. The Bothnia and Scythia, (built by Messrs. James and George Thomson, of Glasgow,) are in all respects similar. They are each 455 feet in length over all, with a breadth of 42½ feet, and a depth of 36 feet. In each, accommodation has been afforded for 300 first-class and 800 third-class passengers. They are barque-rigged, and have four decks—the upper or promenade deck, the spar deck, the main deck, and the lower or orlop deck; their engines are on the compound principle.[215] Their engines are 507 nominal horse-power, of the massive description common to the Cunard liners, so essential for safety on an Atlantic voyage. They have each two jacketed cylinders, the small cylinder being 60 inches and the large one 104 inches, with eight tubular boilers and twenty-four furnaces.

The coal bunkers of the Bothnia are capable of holding 1200 tons of coals. Steam winches of extra size are attached to all the hatches, and the weighing of the anchor is secured by the use of[Pg 234] Harfield’s[216] steam windlass. Her steam steering gear is amidships, besides which she has powerful screw gearing, and, in further supplement of the guiding resources of the vessel, she can be directed, from a wheel-house aft, in the event of the steam gearing getting out of order while at sea.

[Pg 235]

The Bothnia (as well as the Scythia) is of unusual strength, being double plated for a considerable distance round the bilge, and having nine intercostal keelsons, while her spar deck, which is all of teak, is plated with iron. She carries twelve lifeboats, an unusual number for even a vessel of her large dimensions. Nor has the comfort and luxury as well as the safety of the passengers been neglected. In her main saloon, situated nearly amidships, 300 persons can conveniently dine at one time. There are besides separate drawing-rooms for ladies, and smoking and lounging-rooms for gentlemen.

Beyond the advance which has been made in the strength, speed, and capacity of these ships, since iron has been employed in their construction and the screw adopted as a propelling power, the improved accommodation afforded to passengers of all classes has been equally surprising. The state rooms of the Bothnia are indeed splendid, affording every comfort possible at sea, the sleeping-berths, in space, light, ventilation, and convenience, more resembling the rooms of an hotel than the cabins of a ship. (See illustration, p. 236.) By arrangements, which I have not space to describe in detail, the scuttles, or rather windows, of the upper tier of berths are no longer exposed to the wash of the sea, so that they can be kept open if desired, without in any way jeopardizing the safety of the ship in the most stormy weather; nay, even when closed, the ventilation remains perfect, and is continued to the other range of cabins below. Thus a passage across the stormy Atlantic is no longer one of enduring discomfort or suffering, as it was in the days of our fathers,[Pg 237] but, to those who are not subject to sea-sickness, has now become a voyage of pleasure; and, though many of my readers may not be disposed to agree with me in this respect, the improvements in accommodation are so great that I should prefer spending the proverbial “month’s holiday,” which everybody now-a-days seems to require, on board of a modern steam-ship to spending it in most of our European hotels.

The Scythia was launched in October 1874, and the Saragossa and Cherbourg, now in course of construction on the Clyde by Messrs. Thomson for the Cunard Company, are not likely to be in any way inferior.

This company now own forty-nine steam-vessels of 90,208 tons, and 14,537 horse-power;[217] and, in a foot note, will be found an interesting table of the comparative consumption of coal in fourteen of these steamers employed in different trades.[Pg 238][218] But, a much more interesting and instructive table (embracing all the Cunard vessels that have been employed in the Transatlantic trade since 1840) is given in the Appendix,[219] and forms in itself a complete history of the advance of steam-vessels during the last thirty-five years. It is remarkable to note the extraordinary progress achieved since the Britannia made her first voyage in 1840. Though measuring 1,139 tons, she had a capacity for only 225 tons of cargo, whereas the Bothnia, of 4,335 tons, built in 1874, takes 3000 tons of cargo, or nearly fourteen times as much, though only four times larger. The Britannia carried ninety passengers, whereas the Bothnia carries 340, or close upon four times as many. The former steamed 8¼ knots an hour, whereas the latter steams 13, or more than half as quick again, and the Bothnia does all this extra work on less than half the quantity of fuel per indicated horse-power per hour, and on about the same quantity for the actual number of miles run.

As it thus appears that engines of 507 nominal horse-power now drive a vessel of 4,335 tons, at a speed nearly twice as great as engines of 425 nominal horse-power drove a vessel of only 1039 tons in 1840, with not half the consumption of coals, may we not hope from the progress of science and[Pg 239] increased knowledge for still more extraordinary results at the expiration of another thirty-five years?

The Cunard Company have now afloat, and engaged in their Transatlantic service alone, no less than twenty-three magnificent steam-ships and two steam-tenders of a gross registered tonnage of 64,718 tons, and 10,000 horse-power.[220] And here I must state that, though they have for thirty-five years been traversing that stormy ocean, now almost daily, with surprising regularity and during the most tempestuous weather, they have only lost two vessels; but it is still more remarkable,—indeed, it is an extraordinary fact,—that neither life nor letter entrusted to their care has been lost through shipwreck, collision, fire, or any of the too frequent causes of disaster, during the numerous voyages made by the Cunard steamers across the Atlantic.

How is this? Here is a problem well worthy of solution, and one too of great national importance. When we consider the terrible loss of life and property at sea, as revealed by the returns of casualties annually published by the Board of Trade, and observe the mass of legislation to prevent or lessen,[Pg 240] but in vain, these ever increasing, and too frequently most lamentable casualties, we cannot but feel that a noble work has yet to be achieved. What a boon would be conferred on mankind if this great problem could be satisfactorily solved! I cannot hope to do so, but I shall endeavour to show that, in the success of the operations of the Cunard Company, in the regularity of the voyages of their ships, and in the safety of life and property entrusted to their care, there exists a wise power of control which might be advantageously applied to vessels in other trades.

Now, regularity in itself, though perhaps more applicable to transit on land than sea, is a means of safety, while irregularity or rather want of punctuality has been the cause of an untold number of accidents involving destruction of property beyond estimation, with a sacrifice of life which no mathematician would attempt to value. Indeed it may safely be affirmed that the number of persons who have lost their lives through irregularity alone while travelling by land and sea during the present century, would exceed that of the occupants of a town of considerable size.

With the Cunard Company punctuality is a matter of the highest consideration, for their ships sail as is the rule with the Transatlantic lines in all weathers, not merely to the day but to the hour and even to the minute of the time advertised. On board every man has his allotted station and his special duty to perform. Nor is this all, every commander and officer must show that he is thoroughly competent, in all respects, for his duties, while attention to these duties is rigidly enforced.[Pg 241] From my own experience I can state (for I have on two occasions crossed the Atlantic as a passenger in their steamers) that I found prevailing on board a very superior state of things to what I have noticed in too many steam-vessels in other trades. The captain was seldom to be seen, except at his duty, nor was he ever to be found mingling or gossiping with the passengers when any duty, however trivial, required his attention, even though the regulations laid down by the owners for his guidance might have allowed him to do so. No officer was ever seen speaking to the passengers except perhaps to answer a question. If you entered the engine-room, the engineers in charge were invariably at their stations ready to stop the machinery at a moment’s notice, while all the assistants, down to the furnace-men and coal-trimmers, were at their respective posts attending to their individual duties. Going aft, you would find the men at the helm with an officer by their side to make sure that the steering course was adhered to, and, whether you walked to the bridge or the forecastle, you would find men on the “look out,” alike in fine weather and in foul, with their attention steadily directed to the ship’s course, and with the means of instant communication with the officer of the watch, and, through him, with the engineer in case of danger. In approaching land, when in soundings, seamen in both chains were to be found casting or prepared to cast the lead, or with the deep sea line on the weather bulwark ready to be run out according to circumstances or the anticipated depth of water.[Pg 242][221] If you looked around you would find everything in its place ready for instant action; if you glanced at the boats you would find their tackles in order and the boats themselves clear and free from all encumbrances with the plugs, oars, and rudder ready for immediate use; if you looked below you would observe the night-lamps carefully guarded from accident, and the hose stretched out and attached to the engine so that water could be instantly applied to quench any fire that might accidentally arise in any part of the ship. Everywhere the most perfect order and quietness prevailed.

That my readers may understand more thoroughly the nature and value of these regulations, I furnish[Pg 243][222] for their information the more important heads of the instructions given to all the commanders of the Cunard ships. They are clear and to the point[Pg 244] and, though every person on board is subordinate to the commander, the engineer also receives printed instructions for his guidance. Distinct regulations are laid down for exercising the boats and fire-pumps, and for their prompt and efficient use in case of accident:[223] even the duties of the stewards and servants are as clearly defined, so that in the cabin the same quiet and order prevails as in all other parts of the ship.

Neglect of these or similar orders has too often led to the most serious consequences; hence, in all the ships of the Cunard Company, as on the Transatlantic ships, generally, they are enforced even to the most minute detail. Any negligence with regard to them would be severely reprimanded, and any second offence or any wilful neglect, would be punished by disrating or dismissal from the service. Every person on board from the captain to the cook’s mate knows this: consequently, these regulations do not hang neglected on the walls as regulations of the same kind too frequently do in too many other vessels, they are carefully studied, as every man on board knows full well that they must be attended to. Nor does the care of the Company for the safety of their ships and the lives of their passengers end here. To avoid as[Pg 245] far as possible collision at sea they have within the last two or three years issued a notice, which is advertised almost daily in the leading public journals, of the course their ships will pursue in their passages across the Atlantic.[224]

Though the “dangers of the sea” are proverbial, they might be reduced by at least two-thirds of their present amount. This is neither an exaggerated nor a haphazard statement, for upon a close examination of the wreck returns, it will be found that a still larger proportion could be prevented. A large volume might be indeed written to advantage on this important subject. But as our space is limited, and, having already (vol. iii. chap. xvii.) directed the attention of my readers to it, I shall only now ask them to turn over in their minds the too frequent accounts of shipwrecks which appear in the public journals, and such expressions as “drunkenness,” “overloading,” “negligence,” “incompetency,” “fire,” “collision,” and “unseaworthy ships and sailors,”[Pg 246] will recur to their recollection as the alleged causes of too many of these disasters. This is no overdrawn picture, it is but too true.[225]

With these facts in view, and having before them the regulations of the Cunard Company with the knowledge, also, of the perfect safety with which their ships have traversed, at the highest rate of speed for a long series of years, one of the most stormy oceans; one, too, where icebergs abound, and where far more ships navigate than anywhere else, they may ask themselves with advantage this question and study it in their own minds: Cannot this melancholy list of maritime casualties be materially reduced? It can and must. Opinions may differ widely as to the most effective mode of carrying into practice the means at our disposal for bringing about a more satisfactory state of things than exists at present. But the work has to be done, and ought to be done, when the great fact, which cannot be too often repeated, is considered that the Cunard Company’s steamers have for thirty-five years constantly traversed the Atlantic without the loss of the life[Pg 247] of a passenger, or of a letter entrusted to their care.

Some persons may say that this arises from extraordinary “good luck.” As a rule, I have no faith in such old sayings; good or bad luck are expressions only applicable to games of chance where no skill, genius, industry, or prudence are required, and where every man has an equal opportunity of winning a prize. In all other matters success depends on the means applied to obtain it. And there can be no doubt that the freedom from accident on board of the ships of the Cunard Company may be attributed, almost entirely, to the wise measures adopted to prevent casualties, and to the rigour with which they are enforced. If this conclusion is sound and borne out by the facts, why should we not make the rules of that company or similar rules adopted by other steam lines, the bases of our maritime legislation, especially in passenger ships, and enforce them by legislative enactments? We could thus dispense with a large portion of the confused mass of maritime legislation now in force, and from its extent, in too many cases, practically worthless.[226]

With regard to the seaworthiness, of a ship and the competency of her crew, it would, while maintaining the valuable existing laws for the examination of[Pg 248] the officers, and the engagement and discharge of the seamen, be desirable to sweep away the great bulk of the legislative technical details, which even Parliament in its wisdom knows little about, and require shipowners to produce vessels in all respects seaworthy, under heavy penalties for negligence, while leaving them to manage their own affairs as to the best mode of construction, number, and efficiency of crew, outfits, load line, and so forth. Such matters cannot be effectually dealt with by Act of Parliament; but, if they could, is it just, is it proper, that the nation should be required to take upon itself responsibilities, essentially, belonging to individuals? If it does, we shall most assuredly create greater dangers and bring about greater misfortunes and calamities, than those we attempt to obviate by well-meant but injudicious legislation.

The case of the Cunard Company is a striking instance of what individuals can do. Legislative enactments are not required to regulate the conduct of such men as constitute the managing owners of this company, nor of that of the great majority of British shipowners. They know that a good ship, well managed and well found, is a much better investment than a bad one. But they likewise know, and therefore the Government can always depend upon the support of such men in any wise and necessary legislative measure, that there are interlopers in their trade who “go down to the sea in ships and do business on the mighty waters” of quite as knavish a character and, even more heartless, than the swindlers who concoct joint stock undertakings on shore to rob the widow of her mite and[Pg 249] the fatherless children of their daily bread: they know, also, that there are very bad men who send their ships to sea to be lost, and villains who actually scuttle them. Nor are they unaware that, among their number, there are men who smile when their ships are lost because they are well insured.[227] Therefore, so far from objecting to general laws of even a much more stringent character than those at present in force, they would welcome them if, by their rigorous enforcement, the perpetration of crime could be more effectually checked. If, for instance, punishment was made more certain and severe, bad men would hesitate before they over-insured their ships in the hope of realising profits out of disasters, especially where loss of life occurs. It is only a question of degree between the man who smiles when his ship founders, and the rogue who dispatches[Pg 250] her for the purpose of being cast away; and Parliament, when it again deals with the loss of life and property at sea, might do well to direct its attention more than has hitherto been done to over-insurance, and to the insurance laws of our own and other countries. To limit the amount insured to the honest value of the article thus protected from loss, may appear a simple enough matter, but the whole subject is surrounded with difficulties. It must not, therefore, be hastily dealt with, and before any legislation is attempted, should be fully investigated, either by a committee of the House of Commons or by a Royal Commission.

FOOTNOTES:

[207] See Annual Register, 1854, page 162.

[208] One reason why such ships as the President and Pacific have left no trace of their fate is, that they have foundered almost instantaneously in deep water; the result of this would be that all the wood in them, including their boats, would be carried down with them, the wood being at the same time made so heavy by the water forced into its pores, that it could never again float to the surface.

[209] The Persia is 3766 tons gross register, being 350 feet length of keel for tonnage, 45 breadth of beam, and 30 feet depth of hold, with a mean draught of water of 20 feet. She has side-lever engines of 917 nominal horse-power, working up at sea to 3600 indicated horse-power.

[210] Shortly after the Persia was dispatched, Mr. Vanderbilt of New York launched a ship which he named after himself calculated to surpass in speed any steamer then afloat, but, on the authority of the Philadelphia Ledger, she was defeated by the Persia by thirteen hours on a passage of 3068 nautical miles across the Atlantic, the average speed returned on this occasion being: Vanderbilt, 13·86 nautical, or 15·98 statute miles per hour; and that of the Persia, 13·95 nautical, or 16·08 statute miles per hour. Through the courtesy of the owners of the latter ship I am enabled to furnish (Appendix No. 9, pp. 603-5) an abstract of her voyages from the 1st of January, 1856, to the 31st of December, 1867, condensed.

[211]

Comparative Statement of Average Sailings of various Transatlantic Steamers during the Year 1856.

	Liverpool to New York.	New York to Liverpool.
Cunard (Boston)	13·07 days	11·12 days
Cunard (New York)	12·67 days	11·03 days
Collins	12·16 days	12·03 days
Bremen	15·00 days	14·12 days
Old Havre	14·18 days	13·16 days
Havre (Vanderbilt)	13·00 days	13·00 days
Havre (French)	17·00 days	15·00 days
Glasgow	15·12 days	13·08 days
Hamburg	15·12 days	16·00 days

[212] The dimensions of the Scotia are, length of keel and forerake, 367 feet (nearly twice the length of the Britannia); breadth of beam moulded, 47½ feet; depth for tonnage, 30½ feet; gross register 3871 tons. Her engines are 975 nominal horse-power, but she works at sea up to 4200 horse-power. The diameters of her two cylinders are respectively 100 and 144 inches. Her paddle-wheels are upwards of 40 feet in diameter, and her bunkers contain 1800 tons of coal. The weight of iron in her hull alone is 2800 tons. On her trial trip she attained a speed of 19 statute miles an hour. Her cost ready for sea was 170,000l., but labour, iron, and other materials have risen considerably in price since she was contracted for in 1860.

[213] “The Steam Fleet of Liverpool,” p. 17.

[214] This is her nominal power, but as her cylinder is 87 inches diameter, and stroke 48, the power indicated is from 2700 to 3000 horses.

[215] The compound engine has two cylinders, one frequently double the diameter of the other. Steam at a high pressure is admitted from the boiler into the smaller cylinder, and, after it has driven the piston up or down, it is allowed to pass into the larger cylinder when, by its expansive property, it assists in driving the larger piston down or up. When it has exerted its full expansive effect, it is then in a condition to be condensed; and thus a compound engine combines the advantages of both a high pressure and low pressure or condensing engines. Compound engines are sometimes called “high and low pressure” engines, and there are a great many modifications of them, their principle however, being always the same.

[216] In the course of this work I have frequently had occasion to refer to the skill and genius displayed by the Americans in their adaptation of appliances to reduce or dispense with manual labour, but perhaps none of their inventions with this object in view can be compared with the windlass of Messrs. Harfield and Company (formerly Brown, Harfield, and Company), of London, who, beyond other inventions, have produced in their patent windlass, of which the following is an illustration—

a machine of strength, simplicity, and power, applicable to vessels of all descriptions, which has never been surpassed. This very compact instrument can be worked either by manual labour or by steam, and of its value in the latter case Mr. Harfield remarks: “The two principal points of advantage are (1) that the cable is led from the hawsepipe to the underside of the chain-wheel, then over and half round the side standard (formed like a riding-bit) away to the after stopper, thus forming the strongest means for riding securely; (2ndly), the chain-wheels are not attached rigidly to the windlass, but have a very simple frictional connection which can be set up to any desired extent so as to yield to a heavier strain.”

[217] See Appendix No. 10, pp. 606-608.

[218] Comparative Statement of Consumption of Coal in various Cunard Steamers.

Names of Ships.	Indicated Horse-power.	Consumption of Coal per Day.	Consumption of Coal per Indicated Horse-power per Hour.	Consumption of Coal per Mile.
		Tons	lbs.	Cwts.
Asia	1,805	78	4·0	5·6
Arabia	3,005	116	3·6	7·5
Persia	4,026	150	3·47	9·0
Scotia	4,500	159	3·6	9·5
Russia	2,700	95	3·28	6·0
Parthia	1,950	42	2·0	3·3
Bothnia	2,543	64	2·34	4·1
Abyssinia	2,450	91	3·46	5·68
Marathon	1,450	35	2·25	2·5
Sidon	760	16	1·96	1·4
Trinidad	702	16	2·11	1·37
Nantes	687	15	2·03	1·38
Sidon	824	19	2·15	1·14
Nantes	620	13	1·95	1·32

[219] See Appendix No. 11, p. 608. For this most valuable and instructive table I am altogether indebted to Mr. Burns, who considers toil a pleasure if he can only furnish information which may prove useful to the public. Indeed, had it not been for him and other gentlemen largely engaged in maritime commerce, who have so readily rendered me their aid (for which I tender my warmest thanks), I should not have ventured to offer to the public so large an amount of purely original matter as this volume contains.

[220] See Appendix No. 10, page 608.

Note.—The Cunard Company, consisting, as I have explained, of only a few private individuals who started business just half a century ago, now own a fleet of steam-ships whose tonnage is greater by far than the whole mercantile steam shipping of the German Empire, and nearly half as great as that of France, Holland (once our greatest rival), and Hamburg put together. Since they commenced they have had no less than 164 steam-ships under their flag. They employ 6000 men, shipping and discharging in the course of one year, 42,000 seamen.

See evidence of Mr. John Burns before the Royal Commission on Unseaworthy Ships, 1874.

In 1871, France owned (including the vessels of the Messageries Maritimes) 160,478 tons; Holland, 36,644 tons; and Hamburg, 45,669 tons of steam shipping.

[221] The chief-mate of the steam-ship Schiller, a German steamer engaged in the Transatlantic trade, which was lost, with 333 persons on board, on rocks contiguous to Scilly, in thick weather during the night of the 7th of May, 1875, states in his evidence: “The Schiller was out of her reckoning: they thought they were 25 miles from the land. They had had fog for three days, had been unable to take observations, and HAD NOT ONCE CAST THE LEAD.” (See report of official inquiry ordered by the Board of Trade, Times, 2nd June, 1875.) If any of my readers will look at the soundings marked on a Channel chart they will see that this steamer would most probably not have been lost had only one cast of the lead been taken during the three days of fog.

[222] The instructions to the captains are in print and of considerable length, but the leading points in regard to the discipline and safety of the ship and all persons on board are as follows:

“We rely on your keeping every person attached to the ship, both officers and people throughout the several departments, up to the high standard of discipline and efficiency which we expect in the service. Your own practical knowledge may be your best guide, but we will allude to the following things:—

“The charge of the ship, in all its departments, is put under the command of the captain.

“The departments on board are classed under three heads:

“Sailing, engineers, stewards and servants.

“The captain to divide the sailors and officers into two watches only, so that two officers may be always on deck.”

“Keep good look-outs.—The trust of so many lives under the captain’s charge is a great responsibility; requiring vigilance night and day.

“Be most careful as regards fire and the use of naked lights.—See the rules in cabin regulations on this point attended to.

“Good steering is of great value.—Pick out the best helmsmen for this duty.

“We beg your especial care to the drawing-off of spirits. The spirit-room should, if possible, be entered during the day only. See instructions to the purser under this head, and enforce them.

“Avoid familiarity with any particular set or portion of your passengers; avoid national observations and discourage them in others; keep yourself always a disinterested party ready to reconcile differences; be civil and kind to all your passengers—recollect they will value your services on deck looking after their safety more than talking with them in the saloons.

“The engine store-room (the place where the waste and oil are kept) should have the engineers’ close attention, so as to prevent fire, or even the alarm of it, not only on the passage but in port.

“It is to be borne in mind that every part of the coast-board of England and Ireland can be read off by the lead; and, on making land, you should never omit to verify your position by soundings; rather lose time in heaving the ship to, than run the risk of losing the vessel and all the lives on board.

“You are to understand that you have a peremptory order, that, in fog or snow-storm, or in such state of the weather as appears attendant with risk in sailing, you are on no account whatever to move the vessel under your command out of port or wherever she may be lying in safety, if there exists in your mind a doubt as to the propriety of proceeding; and, at the same time, you are particularly warned against being influenced by the actions of other captains who may venture to sail their vessels in such weather.

“In any case when, in sailing, you are overtaken by thick weather, fog, or snow-storm, the most extreme caution is to be exercised, and you are not to be actuated by any desire to complete your voyage, your sole consideration being the safety of your ship and those under your charge; and we caution and instruct you in such circumstances to make CONSTANT USE OF THE LEAD, and to enter in your log the fact of your having done so.

“In the navigating of our vessels generally, we have entire confidence in the ability of our captains, and full reliance upon their judgment and discretion, knowing, by experience, the fitness of each man for the responsibility of his post; but in the matter of fog, the best of officers become infatuated, and often attempt to push through, when common sense and prudence would teach them to exercise patience.

“You will bear in mind that we are now impressing upon you stringent rules, long laid down by us for the guidance of our captains, the terms of which are plain and unmistakeable, and can leave no doubt as to your clear course of action in the circumstances referred to, and we expect them to be implicitly obeyed; but, if otherwise, the conduct of those who disregard them can only be looked upon as extremely culpable, and deserving the severest censure.”

[223] Appendix No. 12, pp. 609-10.

[224] “Cunard line.—Notice.—With the view of diminishing the chances of collision, the steamers of this line will henceforth take a specified course for all seasons of the year.

“On the outward passage from Queenstown to New York or Boston crossing meridian of 50 at 43 lat., or nothing to the north of 43.

“On the homeward passage, crossing the meridian of 50 at 42 lat., or nothing to the north of 42.”

Note.—In July, 1871, the late Mr. William Wheelwright laid before Mr. Chichester Fortescue (now Lord Carlingford), then President of the Board of Trade, a large and beautifully executed chart, “showing an eastern and western route for steamers crossing the Atlantic, whereby collision may be avoided, and the fleet of fishing-vessels on the banks of Newfoundland protected.” Mr. Wheelwright appears to have been the first person to make known this valuable suggestion (which might with advantage be enforced on all passenger steamers engaged in the northern branch of the Transatlantic trade), as he published a pamphlet on the subject so far back as 1846.

[225] If my readers will refer to the Report of the Royal Commission on Unseaworthy Ships (1873-74), they will find the following summary of the losses of ships at sea from 1856 to 1872 inclusive, which have been the subject of enquiry at the instance of the Board of Trade:—Losses attributable to unseaworthiness of hull, compasses, equipment, and outfit, within the power of the owners to remedy, 4½ per cent.; losses to be attributed to carelessness, drunkenness, ignorance, incompetency, and absence of discipline, 65 per cent.; losses from stress of weather, and causes not apparently preventable, 30½ per cent. This last item includes 38 wrecks of which no cause is assignable. See also article, “Merchant Shipping Legislation,” in the ‘Westminster Review’ for April, 1875, by Mr. Charles Lamport; and a very able article by his brother, the late Mr. W. J. Lamport, of Liverpool, entitled the “Plimsoll Agitation,” which appeared in the ‘Theological Review’ for January, 1874.

[226] It is satisfactory to note by the official returns, that, with respect to ships carrying passengers, the loss of life is not so great as is generally supposed. Between 1847 and 1873 inclusive, 22,186 vessels left the United Kingdom, with 5,388,163 passengers and 847,550 of crew—in all 6,235,713 persons. Out of the above number, 103 ships were lost, and 6129 lives, giving a percentage in the loss of ships of ·46, or not one-half per cent., and in the loss of life ·09, or less than one person in the thousand thus conveyed. This return refers to ships which come under the “Passenger Act.” See “Report of Royal Commission of 1873-74.”

[227] There are probably very few shipowners who actually over-insure ship or freight with a view to their loss, but when these are fully covered, so that a loss may become a gain, it is not in human nature to be, under such circumstances, as careful as if a loss were really a loss; and, when times are bad or ships unprofitable, the temptation to carelessness is very great.

Not long since a shipowner of high reputation and on whose word I can implicitly rely, met another shipowner, who, complaining of the bad times, in the course of conversation said: “And to make matters worse I have also had a bit of very bad luck.” “What was it?” enquired my friend. “Oh!” said he, “a ship of mine I had just sold was lost the first voyage after I parted with her.” “Well,” replied my friend, “and where was the bad luck there?” “Where?” exclaimed this “unfortunate” shipowner, “why I bought her twenty years ago, and insured her at her full value, and had kept her so insured till I parted with her.” “And what made you do that?” enquired my friend. “Oh!” replied he, “she was an old ship, and an old-fashioned ship, and I thought that if she did happen to go to the bottom I might as well have a good and a new one in her place.”

In relating this incident, my friend added that he was not less taken aback by the naïveté and apparent innocence with which these remarks were made, than by the story itself.

[Pg 251]

CHAPTER VI.

The year 1850 proved somewhat remarkable in the history of steam navigation. But among the various undertakings commenced in the course of that year, the Liverpool, New York, and Philadelphia Steam-ship Company, better known as the Inman line, was perhaps the most important.

Mr. William Inman, the managing owner, by whose energy their present large fleet of iron screw-steamers was created, had for some time given his attention to the application of the screw, for the purpose of propelling ocean-going steamers. Impressed[Pg 252] with its superiority over the paddle-wheel, he entered into communication with the late David Tod, of the firm of Tod and Macgregor, iron shipbuilders and engineers in Glasgow, who had formed, in common with the owners of the Great Britain, the idea of starting a continuous service of voyages across the Atlantic with vessels built of iron and driven by screws, an experiment at that time considered rather hazardous, and, with that object, had in 1850 launched the City of Glasgow, a vessel of 1600 tons, and 350 horse-power. Subsequently, she was purchased by the Inman Company, and sailed from Liverpool for Philadelphia on the 17th of December, 1850, continuing in that service for many years.

In 1851, the Inman Company purchased the steam-ship City of Manchester, of which the following is an illustration, built also by Messrs. Tod and Macgregor,[228] and with these vessels a fortnightly service[Pg 253] between Liverpool and Philadelphia was established and continued up to the year 1857. Between 1851 and 1856 the City of Baltimore, the Kangaroo, and the City of Washington, all iron screw-ships, were added to this line.

In the year 1857 the Inman Company enlarged the area of their operations by making New York one of their ports of arrival, and establishing a regular fortnightly line thither. In 1860 they increased the service of their steamers to once a week; in 1863 to three times a fortnight, and in 1866 they sent forth their steamers twice every week during the summer months.

To some extent the failure of the Collins line proved the fortune of the Inman, for, when that unfortunate undertaking collapsed, Mr. Inman at once assumed their dates of sailing, and carried the United States’ mails between England and America for some time afterwards with great regularity. Nor were the vessels of the Inman line less swift than their predecessors. Indeed, their City of Paris,[229] of 3081 tons gross register, and 500 nominal horse-power, and their City of Brussels, of 3747 tons, and 600 horse-power, far surpassed the fastest steamers of the Collins Company, and they in turn were surpassed by the City of Richmond.[230]

[Pg 254]

But whatever advantages may have been derived by carrying the United States’ mails, Mr. Inman, apart from these, specially directed his attention to the conveyance of emigrant passengers (who found[Pg 255] in his ships greater comfort, and a much more rapid means of reaching the United States than could be obtained in the fastest of the American sailing packets), and thus laid, at the outset, the foundation for the future prosperity of the company he had formed. It was he who first gave to the masses from the overcrowded cities of Europe, more economical and rapid means than they had hitherto enjoyed of reaching a country where their labour was in demand, and, by wise and judicious arrangements in his steamers, supplied what had hitherto been to a great extent wanting, the more complete separation of the sexes on the voyage to the land of their adoption. While reaping the reward to which his meritorious services were justly entitled, he conferred a boon worthy of remembrance on myriads of poor people, and I should ill perform the duty I have undertaken, were I not to specially notice his exertions on behalf of those of the industrious working classes, who felt it necessary to seek for themselves and their children, the means of obtaining honest employment in other and in distant lands.[231]

[Pg 256]

In 1856 and 1857, the Inman Company conveyed in their steamers eighty-five thousand passengers, to and from the United States of America, or about one-third of all the persons who crossed the Atlantic in steamships during these two years; and that this company long maintained the favourable prestige they had at first secured, may be seen by the official returns of emigrants landed in New York for the year 1870.[232]

[Pg 257]

In 1873 this Company added two magnificent screws to their fleet, the City of Chester, of which an illustration will be found on the following page, and the City of Richmond, each of 4700 gross, or 3000 net register tonnage, and 800-horse power. These vessels were built by Messrs. Caird and Co., of Greenock, and by Messrs. Tod and MacGregor, of Glasgow, and are each 453 feet 6 inches in length over all, with a beam of 43 feet, and a depth of hold of 36 feet. They are spar-decked, have iron masts and solid iron bulwarks, and they are ship-rigged. In midships, there are long rows of centre and side houses, for a portion of the passengers and crew, and where accommodation is likewise afforded for the steering gear which is wrought by manual labour or steam power. There are also “the galley-saloons,” providing cooking apparatus sufficient for 1500 persons; while five of the side houses are devoted to the purpose of male and female hospitals. The engines of these vessels are compound with inverted cylinders and surface condensers; the large cylinder being 120 inches, and the smaller one 76 inches in diameter; the length of stroke of the piston is 5 feet; and their speed on trial was 16 knots an hour.[233]

[Pg 258]

[Pg 259]

But the Inman Company has recently launched from the yard of Messrs. Caird and Company a still larger and more magnificent vessel, the City of Berlin, being the longest and perhaps the largest merchant steam-vessel afloat, the Great Eastern alone excepted. Her dimensions are: length over all, 520 feet; breadth 44 feet; and depth to spar deck, 37 feet; her gross register is 5500 tons; she is supplied with two direct-acting high and low pressure engines (compound condensing) of 900 nominal, but indicating, as proved on trial, 4799 horse-power; her cylinders being 120 and 72 inches diameter respectively, with a piston stroke of 5 feet 6 inches; she has twelve boilers and thirty-six furnaces; and she has accommodation for 202 first-class passengers, and 1500 intermediate passengers and emigrants.[234]

A list of the Inman Company’s vessels on the 1st of January, 1875, will be found in the Appendix.[235]

The success which had attended the British steamers engaged in the trade with the United States, led to further projects for extending this[Pg 260] beneficial agency to the British North American Colonies, and induced the attempt to introduce a regular line of steam-ship communication between Liverpool and Canada by means of the natural estuary of the St. Lawrence. Magnificent, however, as this river unquestionably is, when looked on as an artery of commerce between the rich agricultural and mineral districts along its margins, and the vast tracts of fertile country around its lakes, its navigation is attended with many difficulties and presents numerous dangers. Not the least of these arises from the ice, which, on breaking up, is apt to choke the river, and at the same time to cause the elimination of quantities of watery vapour, which, partially condensed by the surrounding low temperature, is converted into dense fog, so thoroughly impervious to the sun’s rays, as to bewilder the most skilful mariner, and incalculably to increase the dangers to which voyaging in these waters is otherwise exposed.

But the indomitable spirit of British shipowners refuses to recognise dangers or to acknowledge difficulties save with a resolution to combat and overcome them; and so it has fared with the suggestion made in June, 1852, for applying steam-ships to carry on the mail and other rapid traffic with British North America. Previously, the trade between this country and Canada, had been carried on by a superior class of sailing-ships, many of which during its early history were commanded by their owners or their sons. Among these early merchant traders to Canada, Mr. Alexander Allan, the father of the family that gives its name to the present Allan line of steamers, had a prominent place.[236] When the success of screw-steamers[Pg 261] upon the Atlantic had been assured, the members of the Allan family turned their attention to the advantages to be derived from their employment of such vessels, and established a line of them to run between Liverpool, Quebec, and Montreal during the period of open navigation, and between Liverpool and Portland when the St. Lawrence is icebound.[237]

Before, however, their vessels were finished, the Canadian Government advertised (June, 1852) for the conveyance of their mails between this country and Canada in summer, and Portland in winter. For this service a contract was concluded with Messrs. McKean, McLarty, and Lamont of Liverpool, who formed a company and opened the line in the spring of 1853, with a vessel of 500 tons register named the Genova: the line was continued for about eighteen months by means of the steamer Cleopatra, of 1467 tons, and two smaller vessels, the Ottawa and Charity, and the Canadian, the first steamer built for Messrs. Allan, who had chartered her to the company.

[Pg 262]

But the service, which was conducted with varying regularity, proving unprofitable, was transferred to the Allans, who undertook with the fleet they were building, specially for this trade, to carry on a fortnightly service to Quebec in summer, and a monthly voyage to Portland (Maine) in winter, for the annual subsidy of 24,000l. The Crimean war, however, occurring in 1854, offered more remunerative employment to the steamers of the fleet of both contractors. And, consequently, the regular mail service by the Allan line (which at the first was designated the Montreal Ocean Steam-ship Company) was not commenced until April, 1856. Since then it has been maintained with unbroken regularity, with the exception of various serious losses, which might almost have been anticipated in the early history of the service, considering the dangerous character of the navigation. From a fortnightly line in summer, and a monthly line in winter, the operations of the company have been expanded into a regular weekly service, supplemented by an additional fortnightly mail service between Liverpool and Halifax, extending during summer to St. John’s, Newfoundland, and continued, monthly, during winter by means of an iceboat, between Halifax and St. John’s, when the latter port cannot be approached by ocean steamers.

Steamers of the Allan fleet also trade between Liverpool and Baltimore, and a weekly line of this company is maintained between Glasgow and Canada in summer. A list of the Allan steamers will be found in the Appendix:[238] and I must add that they[Pg 263] are now unsurpassed in their efficiency and regularity by any of the Atlantic lines.

Their steamer, the Hibernian, built in 1861, was the first in the Atlantic trade, where the deck-houses were covered by a promenade deck, stretching from stem to stern, which prevents a sea, when it breaks on board, from filling the passages between the deck-houses and bulwarks. Indeed, so highly was the plan approved by Government, that the unproductive spaces under this deck were made, by order of the Board of Trade, the subject of a special exemption from tonnage measure by the deck-shelter clause of the Merchant Shipping Act of 1854. Other Atlantic lines adopting this protection obtained like privileges, but, difficulties arising in connection with ships of somewhat different construction which however claimed the same exemption, Government was obliged to abolish all such immunities.

Some of the vessels of this line are remarkable for their speed. For instance, in October, 1872, the Polynesian on her first voyage, made the passage between Quebec and Londonderry in seven days eighteen hours and fifty-five minutes; while her sister ship, the Sarmatian, was engaged by Government to convey the 42nd Highlanders to the Gold Coast, in the recent Ashantee war.

The Hungarian, one of the earliest of these steamers, made the passage from Quebec to the Rock Light in nine days six hours and thirty-five minutes, or from land to land in six days. Another, the Peruvian, completed one of the fastest round voyages on record in any Atlantic line; on the 16th of December, 1864, she left Moville (port of call, near Londonderry in[Pg 264] Ireland, for the Allan boats) at 6.24 P.M., discharged her cargo at Portland (State of Maine, United States), took in her homeward cargo, and sailing, arrived back at Moville on the 10th of January, 1865, at 9.15 A.M., thus making the passage out and home, including detentions at Portland, while discharging and loading her cargoes, in twenty-four days fifteen hours.

In the limited space at my disposal it would be impossible for me to notice all the lines of steamships now traversing the ocean, and I must, therefore, in a great measure, confine my remarks to those which have led the way and have become either famous by their success or conspicuous by their failure, so that my readers may, it is to be hoped, learn in their day and generation, wisdom from them both, seeing, in the former, what they ought to imitate or if possible improve on; in the latter, what they had better avoid and condemn. Thus, in the Parliamentary Report[239] on the “Royal Atlantic Steam Navigation Company,” better known as the “Galway line,” will be found an account of the brief career of one of the most unfortunate and disastrous of these undertakings.

Having in view the success of the three British lines of steamers to which I have just referred, but at the same time paying no heed to the warning presented by the Collins Company in their endeavours to traverse, with unusual speed, the fickle and stormy Atlantic, a company of English and Irish gentlemen, most of whom had little knowledge and, certainly, no experience of the business they were about to undertake, proposed to the British Government, in[Pg 265] January 1859, to carry Her Majesty’s mails from Galway to Portland, Boston or New York, viâ St. John’s, Newfoundland, or otherwise, for the sum of 3000l. per voyage, “such voyage being the passage out and home.” The great attraction, however, of the offer lay in the further condition that “they would undertake to convey telegraphic messages from the United Kingdom to British North America and the United States in six days, casualties excepted,” the Atlantic cable being then only in contemplation: that is, they offered to make the passage between Galway and St. John’s, Newfoundland, at all seasons of the year, in the unprecedented short time of six days. A contract based on this proposal was entered into on the 21st April, 1859, to which a table was annexed[240] of the time in which this company further agreed to deliver letters at New York and at Galway. With the object of[Pg 266] carrying out this contract, the “Royal Atlantic Steam Navigation Company concluded, on the 10th June, 1859, an agreement with Messrs. Palmer of Newcastle, for the construction of two ships at a cost of 95,000l. each, and, on the 15th June, they entered into another contract with Messrs. Samuelson of Hull, for the construction of two other ships at a cost of 97,500l. each. These vessels were to be built according to lines, plans, and specifications approved by the Admiralty, and were to be delivered within eleven months from the date of the agreements, the commencement of the postal service according to contract having been fixed for June 1860.”[241]

The dimensions of these ships were 360 feet long, 40 feet beam, and 32 feet depth of hold. They were each 2800 tons measurement, with engines of about 850 nominal horse-power; in model and equipment they were somewhat similar. Indeed, the Connaught and the Hibernia, built by Messrs. Palmer, were “precisely the same;”[242] a clause in their agreement with the company requiring, “that each of the said vessels when completed was, on a fair and proper trial thereof, to accomplish a speed at the rate of 20 statute miles per hour in smooth water, and to consume not more than 8800 pounds of fuel per hour.”[243] But, on the trial of the Connaught, the Government inspector reported that the speed of this “vessel was about thirteen knots; the average revolutions of the engines, 16·6; the average pressure[Pg 267] of steam in the boilers being 22½ lbs. on the square inch, and the vacuum in the condensers 24½ inches.”[244]

Difficulties and differences of various kinds having arisen, none of these vessels were delivered within the time agreed upon, and the company was consequently obliged to start the service with a hired vessel—the Parana—which sailed from Galway on the 27th of June, 1860, arriving at St. John’s in seven days thirteen and a half hours, and at New York in eleven days seventeen and three-quarter hours after her departure, or fifteen hours and three-quarters behind the contract time for the delivery of the mail bags at her final destination, and one day thirteen and three-quarter hours beyond the stipulated time for delivering the telegraph messages at St. John’s. The Connaught followed, in her case direct for Boston, on the 11th of July, and was twenty-two and a half hours over time in reaching that place. But serious disasters soon befell these steamers: the Connaught was totally lost on her second voyage in October, of this year when approaching Boston, she having, on this occasion, been one day and twenty and a half hours behind time in reaching St. John’s. One voyage had, consequently, to be omitted altogether. The second ship belonging to the company, the Hibernia, encountering a severe gale on her way from the Tyne to Galway was so thoroughly disabled that she never entered the service at all,[245] while their[Pg 268] third new ship, the Columbia, which sailed for the United States on the 9th of April from Galway, returned in May disabled by ice,[246] after making the slowest passage outwards of any of the fleet, having been ten days seven and a half hours in reaching St. John’s, and seventeen days twenty and three-quarter hours before she arrived at Boston.[247]

The steamship Prince Albert was chartered to take the place of the Connaught, and in February 1861 the Company purchased the Adriatic, one of the most famous ships of the Collins line. The transfer of this ship to the British flag does not seem to have reduced her speed or detracted from her celebrated sea-going qualities, for she made the run from Galway to St. John’s in six days, the specified time, and, having completed the passage to New York in one day fifteen hours and a quarter less than the contract time, returned from St. John’s to Galway in five days nineteen hours and three-quarters, perhaps the quickest passage on record from port to port across the Atlantic.[248]

But, having, within six months, lost one of their vessels, while another was disabled by storm, and a third rendered unfit for the mail service in her encounter with ice off Newfoundland, the Company, finding it impossible to raise fresh capital in the face of such disasters, had no course left but to abandon[Pg 269] their undertaking and terminate their contract in May 1861. The return[249] of the earnings and costs to Government of the Galway line of mail steamers shows a heavy loss to the public, but, though I have no means of knowing the amount of the losses of the company itself during its brief career, these must have been far greater; indeed, it was currently reported that the shareholders lost in eighteen months nearly all, if not the whole, of their capital.

But, however disastrous the results to the American shareholders of the Collins line on the one hand, or to the British shareholders of the Galway line of steamers on the other (both these undertakings being, it should be remembered, largely subsidized), the ardour of private and unsubsidized energy in no way abated. The ocean race for supremacy in the carrying trade of the Atlantic was still maintained; and the struggle continued with quite as much spirit[Pg 270] as ever between the American owners of sailing-clippers and the British shareholders of iron screw-steamers. It was a brave fight: but the wooden clippers of America had no chance against the iron screws of Great Britain, although the race was not then so unequal as might appear, arising from the fact that the current expenses of the clippers were far less then than those of the steamers, while their capacity for cargo was far greater. Indeed, for a time, it was questionable whether the clippers did not yield their owners quite as good returns on the capital invested as the steamers. The wooden clipper, however, had reached perfection, (the world having never previously seen a more splendid class of sailing-ships than the “Yankee liners of that day,”) whereas the screw, being still in its infancy, moved onwards with the progress of science, improvements in machinery tending to reduce the current expenses and to increase the capacity of the ship by reducing the consumption of fuel, so that the sailing-ships were obliged to succumb. At last, the screw-steamers slowly but surely obtained an almost complete supremacy, and have now no competitors (except among themselves) in the more valuable portion of the carrying trade across the Atlantic.

The success which had attended the Inman and the Allan lines of steamers induced others to follow their example; and various undertakings of a similar character were started in rapid succession. Thus, with the view of availing themselves of recent legislative measures for the encouragement of mercantile associations, a number of Liverpool merchants and shipowners established, in 1863, the National Steam[Pg 271] Navigation Company with a capital of 700,000l. The original intention of the promoters of this undertaking was to provide for the large trade they felt assured must arise between this country and the Confederate States whenever the lamentable war then raging in America should have exhausted itself, and when peace returning should have showered down its many blessings on that fertile and teeming land; their first plan, therefore, was to carry on a regular periodical line of first-class steam-ships between Liverpool and the Southern States. The anxiously hoped for peace between the contending parties in America did not, however, arrive so soon as they had anticipated, and, as the requisite capital had been obtained, and their ships were ready for service, they sent forth their steamers to compete for a portion of the passenger and goods trade of the Northern States, which the Cunard, Inman, and Allan lines were now carrying on with great success.

The first vessels of the National Company dispatched to ply between Liverpool and New York, were the Louisiana, the Virginia, and the Pennsylvania screw-ships of a gross tonnage, respectively, of 3000 and 3500 tons; at that time being the largest vessels afloat. In 1864, the company added to its fleet the Erin, the Queen, and the Helvetia, each of an increased tonnage. With these six vessels the company was enabled to lay the foundation of so successful a trade that, at the conclusion of the war, the directors found the utmost capacity of their vessels insufficient to accommodate the rapidly increasing traffic between the two nations. In 1865, their fleet was again increased by the further[Pg 272] addition of the England and the Denmark, of 3723 tons, and these vessels, again, were followed in 1866, by the France, of nearly similar dimensions. In 1868, the Italy, of 4300 tons, was placed on the line, and was the first in that trade in which engines on the compound principle were placed. The Holland, of 3847 tons, followed in 1869. The year 1870 proving to be one of great prosperity to the company, the Egypt and the Spain, of 4669 and 4512 tons respectively, were added to the fleet. These vessels were built by the Liverpool Shipbuilding Company, and by Messrs. Laird of Birkenhead, and are justly considered very fine specimens of naval architecture.

This Company now maintain a weekly service, leaving Liverpool every Wednesday and New York every Saturday; and a fortnightly service from London to New York viâ Havre. Following the example of the Cunard Company, the commanders of the ships are required to navigate at certain seasons within fixed limits of latitude, and to furnish a chart to the Company with the lines of their course during each voyage laid down upon it. Stringent regulations are also issued and enforced, and, to the credit of the Company, they have not during their existence, lost a single passenger through negligence or any accident of the sea.

It is a curious fact that, as a rule, the owners of the principal American clipper lines of sailing-ships were among the last to see that their vessels, however splendid, were being daily eclipsed by the screw steamers of Great Britain. Thus, conspicuous among the lines which bravely contended against the new motive power, and long maintained itself in full force,[Pg 273] may be mentioned the Old Black Ball line, which, when I remember it, a quarter of a century ago, possessed upwards of twenty of the finest sailing-packets I ever saw. They were grand ships of their class, and admirably fitted for the trade in which they were engaged, carrying, during some of the later years of their career, a thousand passengers every week, during the summer months, from our shores to the United States. But even the Black Ball was at last obliged to give in, having previously merged into or formed part of the Guion line of sailing-ships, which in their day were equally celebrated for the regularity of their passages.[250]

In 1863, however, Mr. S. B. Guion, the chief owner of the line bearing his name, finding it no longer possible to contend against the screws, though evidently still doubtful of their permanent success, entered into an arrangement to supply, through his old connections and agents in America, the Cunard and National Companies, with emigrants and cargo for their steamers; but in 1866, he and his co-partners, most of whom are citizens of the United States, started a steamship of their own. In August of that year, their Manhattan, built in this country of iron and fitted with the screw, to their orders, sailed from Liverpool for New York, being the pioneer of their new fleet of liners. The Minnesota, Nebraska, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Wisconsin, and Wyoming, vessels each of about 3000 tons, and built of iron, specially for this[Pg 274] trade, followed in rapid succession. In 1873, they added the Montana, another fine vessel of 3500 tons, to their fleet, which, in 1874, was further increased by the addition of the Dakota, and two similar vessels, so that the Liverpool and Great Western Steam-ship Company, better known as the Guion line, already possesses a fleet of very fine steam-ships.[251]

Although the American sailing-packets engaged in the trade between Great Britain and the Northern States were, about the year 1860, obliged, in a great measure, to give way to steamers, they maintained their position undisputed for ten years longer between Liverpool and New Orleans; steamers, it was thought, not being able to compete with sailing-vessels in the transport across the Atlantic of such bulky articles as cotton, the chief article exported from New Orleans to Europe. But in 1870, the American merchants and shipowners engaged in the trade of that place found it desirable, if not necessary, to substitute for some of their sailing-vessels a line of screw-steamers similar in many respects, though smaller, to those of the other lines already described, their merchants forming themselves into an association known as the “Mississippi and Dominion Steam-ship Company (Limited).”

This company now trades between Liverpool and New Orleans in the winter when the cotton crops are shipped and, in the summer season, between the former port and Canada with passengers and general[Pg 275] cargoes. Like the Guion line, their ships are chiefly, if not entirely, owned by Americans and managed by them. On their passages to the south, they usually call at Bordeaux, Corunna, Lisbon and Havana, and thus secure a considerable number of the emigrant passengers who find their way from the southern portions of Europe to that portion of the New World where the climate is not unlike their own, and where the character of the labour is more in accordance with their habits and abilities than would be that of the Northern States.

But another important line of steamers has been added, which in speed has since surpassed, and in other respects is equal to, any of the great Transatlantic lines now competing for the traffic of the New World. The White Star Line, under the management of Messrs. Ismay, Imrie, and Co. who have adopted the name of a once celebrated line of sailing-packets,[252] commenced running their steamers from Liverpool to New York in 1870: they now maintain a weekly communication with these ports, with extra boats available for intermediate sailings as the requirements of the trade demand, the regular days being Thursday from Liverpool (calling at Queenstown, Ireland, on Friday), and from New York on Saturday.

[Pg 276]

These vessels, which are nearly uniform in size and speed, were designed and built with a view of affording the public an extra supply of steamers, such as would best attain the three-fold purpose of safety, speed, and comfort; and certainly their performances have realised the objects and expectations of their enterprising owners. Built of iron with watertight and fire-proof compartments, they afford in their strength every guarantee for safety, nor are their owners behind their rivals in the caution exercised to avoid the ordinary dangers of rapid navigation.[253] But speed with them, as with all well-regulated navigation companies, appears to be only a secondary consideration, for, not satisfied with a general regulation, Messrs. Ismay and Imrie, in their own interest, as well as in that of the public, have wisely issued to the commanders of their ships a special manuscript letter[254] reminding them, in the most distinct manner, that the safety of the ship under their charge and of all on board of her must[Pg 277] ever be their first consideration. That their ships have attained an average rate of speed hitherto unrivalled, combined with great regularity, may be seen by their logs.[255] Their Adriatic[256] has far surpassed[Pg 279] the famous American steamship of that name which once belonged to the Collins line, she having attained the extraordinary speed of 455 statute miles in one day.[257] Nor has the comfort of the passengers been in any way neglected.

At page 278 I furnish a drawing of their newest vessel; and for the information of my nautical readers I may state that the Britannic and Germanic[258] are similar in all respects. These vessels were built of iron by Messrs. Harland and Wolff, Belfast.[259]

The engines of the Britannic are by Maudslay, Sons, and Field; they are 760 nominal, but indicated 5090 horse-power on the trial trip. They have four inverted cylinders, the high pressure above the low; the diameters of the cylinders are 48 inches and 83 inches respectively, and the length of stroke 5 feet. The pressure of steam is 70lbs. per square inch, and the boilers, eight in number, are fired at both ends with thirty-two furnaces. The propeller has four blades, and is 23 feet 6 inches in diameter, with 28 feet to 31 feet 6 inches pitch. The mode of lifting the screw is novel, as may be seen by the drawing on the following page.

[Pg 280]

The plan is that of Mr. Harland, the senior partner of the firm by whom the Britannic was built. His reasons for introducing this new principle (which he styles, “a lifting-propeller”) are, that in long ships, the pitching in a heavy sea way and the vertical motion of the waves tend to expose the upper portion of the screw as usually fitted, the evil effects arising from this being the ‘racing’ of the engines and its attendant dangers, together with a diminished speed of the vessel.[260]

It is possible, also, that a further advantage may be derived from the fact that, as one-half of the propeller works below the vessel’s bottom,[261] there is a somewhat denser medium of water for it to work against, consequently[Pg 281] affording (but to what extent, my limited scientific knowledge will not allow me to offer an opinion) the means of obtaining, as I conceive, an increased power of propulsion.[262] But into such questions as these I will not enter, as I prefer stating the facts[Pg 282] and furnishing an account of what has been done, leaving others more competent than I am to deal with them. As scientific men may consider another question of still greater importance, the best form for the midship section of a steamship, to which I have already referred, I furnish (see page 281) a sketch, drawn to scale and supplied by her owners, of the midship section of this magnificent vessel, and, without further comment, give an account of her performances on her first voyage across the Atlantic.[263]

“The average speed of the Britannic is fifteen knots per hour on a consumption of 75 to 80 tons of coals per day, and her approximate cost, built without contract, is 200,000l.”[264]

[Pg 283]

These steamers run in connection with the Erie Railway from New York (as do also other of the lines) booking their passengers through to all parts of the United States, as far as Aspinwall and San Francisco, and also to Canada. As their arrangements and scale of provisions for steerage passengers are, in nearly all respects, the same as that of the other Transatlantic lines, a copy is furnished for the information of my readers, together with the conditions on which alone passengers are received.[265]

Recently an American Company have with great spirit sent forth from their own country, a line of[Pg 284] steamers to trade between Philadelphia and Liverpool.[266] They consist at present of the Pennsylvania, Illinois, Ohio, and Indiana, each of about 3100 tons gross, or about 2000 tons nett register; they are all built of iron, on the Delaware (U.S.), and are fitted with screw-propellers. The Pennsylvania, launched 1873, cost, according to the statement of her owners, “ready for sea, about 600,000 dollars” (120,000l.); who add that, “if built on the Clyde of as good materials, the saving would have been trifling.” In any attempt, however, to estimate the cost of a steamship I may state, for the information of non-nautical readers, that the outlay on one vessel, even of a similar grade or class, when built for the conveyance of passengers as well as cargo, gives but an imperfect idea of the cost of another vessel, of the same tonnage but not so appropriated. If we take simply the hull, the power of the engines, and the ordinary outfit for a sea-going ship of a particular class, the comparative cost of constructing such a vessel in different countries, or even at different ports in any one country, may be easily ascertained, but, in a passenger-ship so much depends on the quality of the outfit and furnishing, and, especially, on the cabin accommodation, varying as these do almost as much as from a cottage to a palace, I should certainly mislead my readers were I to attempt to supply a comparative cost of passenger-ships built in America and in England.

[Pg 285]

The vessels of this line are each 355 feet in length, with 43 feet beam, and 33 feet depth of hold. They have each accommodation for 76 first class, and for 800 intermediate and steerage passengers. The actual steam-power of each of these vessels is given as “2800 horse-power indicated,” but this furnishes, as I have before stated, but a vague idea of the nominal power on which the cost is based, as the actual power depends on the dimensions of the engines, the mean pressure on the piston, and the speed with which the engines move. On the other hand, nominal horse-power is fixed by certain arbitrary rules.

Though the Philadelphia line of steamers has much to contend against, owing to duties imposed by the American Government on all articles required for their construction and outfit, and may, consequently, find it difficult to rival successfully the steam-ships of Europe engaged in the Transatlantic trade, they are supported, if not owned, by one of the largest railway undertakings in the United States of America. The lines of this company cover more than 6000 miles of communication within the interior, extending over States which produce the breadstuffs of the north as well as the tropical fruits of the south with a teeming and almost virgin soil, sufficient in itself to produce cargoes for a fleet of ships far in excess of that it as yet possesses, and affording fields of remunerative employment for hundreds of thousands of persons now huddled together in many of the over-peopled countries of Europe.

Indeed, from the accounts which reach us, the valley of the Mississippi in itself still affords room, and, in time, will give profitable employment for[Pg 286] 100,000,000 persons, and if the industrious and frugal of our own people and of Europe, are unable to gain a living by honest means in the land of their birth, they will find, sailing daily from the port of Liverpool, alone, at the present moment, as also from other ports, steam-ships[267] of the finest description, ready to convey them in a hitherto incredibly short space of time, to the United States of America, and at a cost very little more than they would require for their maintenance[Pg 287] at home, during a similar period of time to that occupied on the passage.

But, besides the magnificent lines of steamers which now connect, viâ Liverpool, the Old and New Worlds together by a ferry, easier of accomplishment, and attended with less danger than was even the passage between England and France half a century ago, there are other important lines of steamers from Glasgow and London, as well as from various continental ports, which I must notice. Not the least important of these is the Anchor line from the Clyde, one of the many extraordinary developments, during recent years, of our maritime power, and entirely due to individual energy. Within only a few years Messrs. Henderson Brothers, the managing owners of the Anchor line, have created a fleet of steamships of 71,328 gross tons and of 15,147 horse-power.[268]

Though this line was established by Messrs. Handyside and Henderson in 1856 (their vessels then sailing from Glasgow to Quebec and the Mediterranean ports), it was not until 1865 that their owners commenced regular communication, every fortnight, between Glasgow and New York. Since then the service has been gradually increased, and a steamer is now dispatched, at all seasons, weekly each way, and, during summer, twice, and occasionally three times a week, according to the demands of the trade. Like many other gigantic concerns, this one had a very humble beginning. Commencing with only one or two vessels, they were steadily and rapidly increased on the well-founded anticipation[Pg 288] of a successful trade. With the increase of the New York branch of the service, that of the Mediterranean increased also. Indeed, it supplies the main or American line with a considerable portion of its most valuable employment, and now runs weekly to Lisbon, Gibraltar, Marseilles, Genoa, Leghorn, Naples, Messina, and Palermo; fortnightly to Trieste and Venice; and monthly to Algiers, Tunis, Malta, and Alexandria, thus connecting the whole of the ancient trade of Spain, of the Italian Republics, and of far-famed India itself, with the New World through the medium of the Suez Canal[269] and the Mediterranean.

The Anchor Company also despatches steamers, weekly, during the season of open navigation, to Christiania, Christiansund, and Gottenburg, thus securing another valuable feeder to the New York line of steamers. The Scandinavian and other passengers from the extreme north of Europe are brought across from Gottenburg, to Granton (near Edinburgh) in two days, or from Christiansund in a day and a half, and, as Granton is only about two hours by rail from Glasgow, they can embark on board the Anchor line of steamers for the United States or for Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, on the third day after leaving their homes in the far north.

[Pg 289]

The steamers of this firm also sail from Genoa, Leghorn, Naples, Messina, Palermo, Marseilles, and Gibraltar, once a fortnight, direct for New York, and every month from Trieste and Venice—once the great emporium of commerce in the East—to the still greater commercial emporium of the West; and every fortnight, during the six autumn and spring months, or fruit season, Messrs. Henderson likewise dispatch steamers direct from Malaga, Almeria, Valentia, and Denia to the United States.

In their Victoria may be seen a good specimen of a business ship, perhaps not so swift or so elegantly fitted as some of her competitors from Liverpool, or equal to their own latest ships, the Ethiopia, Bolivia, and Anchora,[270] but a vessel well adapted for the trade on which she is employed. The Victoria is a sister ship to the California, launched from the shipbuilding yard, on the Clyde, of Messrs. Alexander Stephens and Sons, who have constructed a great many vessels[Pg 290] for the Anchor Company. She is like all the other steamers now engaged in the Transatlantic trade, built of iron and propelled by the screw.[271] Though of larger capacity, she is said to have cost, complete for sea, somewhere about 100,000l. or 20,000l. less than the American iron screw ship Pennsylvania, to which reference has just been made, which was built about the same time on the Delaware.

But besides the fleets we have specially named there are other equally fine British steamers, plying between London and New York and Boston direct, and also viâ Southampton and Havre; together with various other lines of first-class steamers engaged in the American trade belonging to France, Hamburg, and Belgium, though most of these are British built: for instance, the Hamburg and American Steam Packet Company have a large fleet of high classed steamers, comprising the Suavia,[272] Pomerania, Thuringia, Hammonia, Westphalia, Silesia, Cimbria, Frisia, and Holsatia, which leave Hamburg[Pg 291] every Saturday throughout the year for New York; and another line of eight equally fine steamers, which trade with the West Indies and Mexico every month from Hamburg, calling alternately at Grimsby and Havre.

There are also the steamers of the North German Lloyd’s, an old established company, trading between Bremen, Baltimore, and New York viâ Southampton and Havre; while, besides those engaged in the trade with the United States, two lines of French steamers, most of which were built in England, now maintain a weekly intercourse between the ports of that country and the West Indies and Brazil.

[Pg 292]

CHAPTER VII.

Soon after the Atlantic Ocean began to be regularly navigated by steam-vessels, the importance of a better means of intercommunication with the West Indies led to the formation of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, which entered into a contract with the Board of Admiralty in March 1841 for the conveyance of the mails between England, the West Indies, and the Gulf of Mexico. This company commenced operations on a much more comprehensive and grander scale than either the Cunard Company or the Peninsular and Oriental. Fourteen large steam-ships were at once ordered to be built for the service; they were to be substantial and efficient in all respects, and of such strength as would enable them to carry guns of the largest calibre then in use on[Pg 293] board Her Majesty’s war-steamers, with engines of not less than 400 collective horse-power.

When complete, the conditions of the contract required one of these vessels to be ready to take the mails on board, twice in each calendar month, and to proceed, viâ Corunna and Madeira, to the island of Barbadoes and, after staying there not more than six hours, thence, viâ St. Vincent, to the island of Grenada, where the stoppage was limited to twelve hours, and thence, again, to the islands in succession of Santa Cruz and St. Thomas, Nicola Mole in Haiti, Santiago de Cuba, and Port Royal, in Jamaica. After a stay not exceeding twenty-four hours at Port Royal, the steamer was to proceed to Savannah-la-Mer, in the same island, thence to Havannah, and, on her return thence, to call again at Savannah-la-Mer, thence to Port Royal, and, thence, to Santiago de Cuba, Nicola Mole, and Samana, in the island of Haiti, delivering mails at each place, “care being taken that the said steam-vessel shall always arrive at Samana aforesaid (after performing the said voyage from Barbadoes under ordinary circumstances of wind and weather) on the twenty-second day after the arrival from England of the mails at Barbadoes;” and, after delivering and receiving the mails at Samana, “the steam-vessel shall make the best of her way back from Samana to such port in the British Channel as the said Commissioners of the Admiralty shall from time to time direct.” The scheme, also, embraced other places in the West Indies, the Spanish Main, and the United States, for which mails were to be carried. In consideration of the services thus to be performed, the company was[Pg 294] to receive at the rate of 240,000l. per annum, in quarterly payments; the contract to commence on the 1st of December, 1841, or at an earlier day if possible, and to continue in force for ten years, subject to twelve months’ notice on either side for its termination.

But this subsidy, large as it doubtless was for the service to be performed, was not sufficient to cover the heavy outlay the company had considered necessary in the construction and equipment of their fleet. Perhaps, too, part of this outlay arose from the fact that, though Mr. McQueen, the projector of the company, was a gentleman who had had considerable experience in the promotion of large undertakings, his knowledge of maritime affairs was limited, while he was not sufficiently conversant with those details, the practical knowledge of which is so essential to the success of all shipping operations. The directors, as a body, were not competent, from previous experience, to manage such an undertaking; while the choice also of commanders, selected from the Royal Navy, with little or no experience of steam, and none whatever of the numerous requirements of a merchant-ship, was unfortunate, and may have in some measure tended to produce a balance sheet which, though embracing to its credit the large permanent subsidy, showed at the close of the first year’s operations a loss of no less than 79,790l. 16s. 8d. to the company!

It may, however, be remarked that the projectors of this undertaking had entered on an entirely new field, and that merchants who had been accustomed to dispatch their produce in sailing-vessels were unprepared to pay the enhanced rates required for[Pg 295] steam-ships, while the passenger and goods trade in itself was not then nearly sufficient for a remunerative return on the large capital subscribed.

Originally, the company was authorized to issue fifteen thousand shares of 100l. on which calls of 50l. per share had been made up to the time of the first meeting of shareholders, with power to borrow 260,000l. But as another call of 10l. per share, sanctioned at this meeting, was found insufficient for the requirements of the Company, the directors appealed to Government for further assistance. By the original arrangements, the annual mileage traversed by the company’s ships would have been 684,816 miles. Government, however, in reply to their appeal, generously consented to reduce the distances to be performed to 392,976 miles, and to allow the annual subsidy of 240,000l. to remain undisturbed. By these important and liberal modifications the annual expenditure of the company which, according to their own calculations, would have been 360,000l. per annum, was reduced to 235,000l.

It was further conceded that if, at any time, and from causes, in the opinion of Government, of a public and national character, such as war, the insurance on steam-vessels should rise above six guineas per cent. per annum, or on coals above two guineas per cent. on the outward passage, the company was to receive an additional sum to be settled by arbitration, but which was not to exceed 10,000l. per annum.

In process of time, and notably after the necessity of greater economy in the public finances had been admitted, great discontent was expressed through[Pg 296] the press with regard to these very liberal concessions,[273] which was materially aggravated by a statement, the accuracy of which I have no means of testing, that the amount paid for the West India mail service exceeded the sum received for postage by 183,938l., and that, though the Brazil branch left a margin of 3478l. in favour of the Post-office, the direct loss to the public amounted to no less than 180,460l. per annum.[274]

To most of these complaints the company was altogether indifferent, believing them to have their origin in disappointment and jealousy; but there was no answer to the well-founded remonstrances of the colonists that the service was, after all, performed with great irregularity. Indeed, it is beyond cavil that during their earlier operations, the vessels did not arrive at the time named in the tables of routes attached to the contract, that, for instance, the duplicate correspondence from Chagres, sent round by way of New York in American vessels, and thence by the Cunard or American steamers to Liverpool, often arrived in England sooner than the original letters brought directly by the Royal Mail vessels; and, further, that much confusion was constantly caused by the non-arrival of the outward mails till days after the dispatch of the homeward ones. Unnecessary delays also took place in coaling at St. Thomas and in the receiving and transferring freight there and elsewhere. There was also, it was alleged,[Pg 297] a want of sufficient steamers for the intercolonial service, while the occasional negligence and incompetency of the commanders of the vessels led to a needless loss of time between port and port; complaints were likewise made of insufficiency of accommodation for passengers on some of the intercolonial steamers, and, also, that a pernicious system of gambling was permitted in the vessels of the main line. Some of these complaints, as frequently happens under similar circumstances, were frivolous and unwarrantable, but too many of them were unanswerable; indeed the bitter attacks on the company might naturally have been expected considering the numerous favours supposed to have been conferred on it, and, above all, the notorious fact, that the contract for the conveyance of the mails was never exposed to public competition.

On the other hand, the company had great difficulties to contend against, while its shareholders, so far from receiving any dividend on their capital, sustained during the first year of its operations a heavy loss. Moreover, though liberal concessions had been made by the Government, together with various unusual allowances, these were more than counterbalanced by the loss of two valuable ships during the second year of its operations. Yet, taking into account these and other losses, to which reference will hereafter be made, the trade increased so rapidly as to recoup the disasters of the company, and to leave, in 1843, a surplus of receipts over expenditure of 94,210l. and in 1844 of 147,749l.: the directors were therefore enabled to recommend a dividend on the half-year[Pg 298] ending 31st December, 1844, of 30s. per share; in October, 1846, 35s.; and in April, 1848, 2l. per share.[275]

From this time the prospects of the company steadily improved, and when, in 1850, various capitalists in the United States projected the construction of a railway across the isthmus of Panama—a project which promised extensive additions to its business—the company was in a position to render this new undertaking considerable assistance by advancing, in the course of the year 1851, the sum of 25,480l. towards its completion. At that time, too, the direct and most advantageous route to the Australian colonies appeared to be across that Isthmus; indeed the Panama route was recommended by a Committee of the House of Commons who inquired into this subject in the session of 1849. But, apart from the Australian trade, that of San Francisco was then being rapidly developed by the discovery of the gold mines, by attracting (as these did) large numbers of passengers from Europe, and, thereby, laying the foundation of the present enormous traffic in grain and other produce from California, perhaps the most fertile district of the United States—the valley of the Mississippi not excepted.

From that period the operations of the company have from various causes yielded a very fair return to its shareholders, some of these, doubtless, being due to the rapid increase of the trade, to the knowledge the directors have gained from experience, and, not the least, to the fact that their ships are now commanded by men who have been either trained in their own[Pg 299] service, or have acquired, while employed by other shipowners, the sort of knowledge essential for the successful management of merchant-steamers.

In 1850, Government granted a renewal of the mail contract to the company for a further term of ten years from the 1st January, 1852, the conditions being, that the subsidy should be raised from 240,000l. to 270,000l. per annum, and that the company, on its part, should undertake the additional cost and expense of a monthly service to the Brazils, thus increasing the mileage to be performed from 389,448 to 547,296 miles, and, at the same time, reducing the mileage rate from 12s. 3d. to 9s. 10d. per mile. The company was also required to accelerate the speed on the West Indian line from 8 knots an hour, as originally agreed, to 10 knots an hour, and to add five new steamers to their fleet, each of 2250 tons burden and 800 horse-power. Besides an increased outlay of capital, these conditions entailed on the company a very considerable increase in the wear and tear of ships and machinery; hence their general expenditure rose in the course of the year, after these new arrangements came into force, from 264,802l. to 403,769l. per annum.

In 1857, other changes were made in their contract. The first condition—a somewhat extraordinary one—had reference to an amalgamation with the European and Australian Mail Company for the conveyance of the mails, viâ Egypt, to and from Australia, which subsequently proved a great failure, this Company having altogether broken down; the second required an acceleration of the mails between England and Rio Janeiro from sixty-six days twenty-two hours,[Pg 300] the time hitherto allowed for the performance of the round voyage, to fifty-five days nineteen hours. The company was, also, ordered to provide three more vessels, of 3000 tons and 800 horse-power, for the West India and Atlantic service, and a fourth of smaller dimensions to increase the speed of the mails between Rio Janeiro and the River Plate. These changes proved to be of considerable public advantage, as the time of the post between England and the isthmus of Panama was thus reduced from fifty-nine to forty-two days, while, as the homeward mails arrived three days before the departure of the outward ones, the mercantile community obtained important additional facilities for transacting their business with that part of the world.

When the second contract expired in January 1864 fresh arrangements were made whereby the annual subsidy was reduced to 172,914l. and the speed increased on the West India Transatlantic service to 10½ knots an hour. In 1866 it was further agreed that each alternate fortnightly packet should proceed from St. Thomas direct to Colon instead of touching first at Jamaica, thus shortening the route between England and Panama. In 1868 another and, in this case, most important modification, was suggested in the conditions of the contract. Hitherto, the steamers of this company had been propelled, principally, by paddle-wheels, its directors being, perhaps, among the last to see the advantages to be derived from the application of the screw. But, though now convinced of the many advantages of the screw over the paddle, before entering on the large expenditure required for such a change, they naturally wished to know the[Pg 301] intentions of Government with regard to the continuation of their mail contracts; the result of this application being the extension of the period till 1874, with, however, the condition, that Government should participate in all profits beyond eight per cent.

As a considerable amount of discontent had, in the meantime, again found expression through the medium of the public press with regard to the very large sums of money which this company had received for the conveyance of the mails, and, as different members of the House of Commons had insisted that the service should be thrown open to public competition, the directors were obliged to consider the alternative of either abandoning it altogether, or of conducting the service for a much less amount than they had hitherto received: they wisely adopted the latter course, and, on public tenders being invited, undertook to convey the West India mails for the annual subsidy of 84,750l., not much more than one-third of what they had originally received—a sum, however, subsequently supplemented by 2000l. per annum as a recompense for the ships calling at Plymouth and there landing the mails, instead of at Southampton, their final port of destination.[276]

[Pg 302]

In subsidizing the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company during the earlier portion of its career to the large extent I have named, the British government were evidently actuated by reasons similar to those, which induced the government of the United States to make the like liberal concessions to the unfortunate Collins line; and there can be no doubt that the original vessels of this company were well adapted for one of the objects Government had then in view—the creation of a fleet of a class of large and strongly built merchant-steamers, which could be made use of in the event of war. Hence, all these vessels were built to carry heavy guns when necessary, so as to be serviceable for the purpose of the navy at a comparatively small subsequent outlay. A drawing is furnished on the following page of one of those ships which, in nearly all respects, resembled the government steamers of the period.

The Forth was altogether a very fine vessel of her class, and the largest of any of the original fleet of the company. She was somewhere about 1900 tons gross, or builders’ measurement, 1147 tons register, and 450 nominal horse-power. She was built at Leith in 1841, by Messrs. Menzies and Co., and, as Government reserved its right of purchasing any of these ships at a valuation, she was, like the others, constructed in accordance with a specification from the Admiralty, under the survey and immediate control of officers appointed for this purpose. Indeed, the fleet of the Royal Mail Company consisted of the finest class of vessels of that description built of wood which, previous to 1841, had been sent to sea either for naval or mercantile purposes. Nor were they[Pg 303] inferior to any vessels then afloat either in the completeness of their equipment, or in the elegance and convenience of their accommodation for first-class passengers. But, from some cause or other, arising either from those I have already ventured to suggest or from the unavoidable dangers of the ocean, the company at first was most unfortunate in the number of losses they sustained. Nor can it be urged that such disasters were due to any special dangers in their line of navigation, for they had no fogs and ice to fear, like their more northern Transatlantic voyagers: with the exception of occasional hurricanes among the West India Islands, their course was a comparatively safe one, and, yet, no fewer than six of the West India Royal Mail Company’s packets were lost in the first eight years of their career.

[Pg 304]

Besides the Isis which, on the 8th of October, 1842, sank off Bermuda, having previously struck on a reef, the company lost, on the 15th of April, 1843, the Solway, 20 miles west of Corunna. She was one of their finest vessels. Her captain, the surgeon, various passengers, and a portion of the crew, consisting in all of sixty persons, perished with the ship. The Tweed, another of their first-class vessels, of 1800 tons burden and 450 horse-power, was totally lost on the 12th of February, 1847, on the Alicranes reefs off Yucatan, in the Gulf of Mexico, while on her voyage to Vera Cruz. Her loss was most disastrous, and caused great excitement at the time. The crew and passengers amounted to 151 persons (seventy-two of whom were drowned), and their sufferings, as graphically described by one who had escaped,[277] formed a subject of conversation for a longer period than such calamities now do. After five days’ suffering, the remainder of the passengers and crew were rescued from the barren reef of rocks on which they had been cast. Again, on the 1st of February, 1849, the Forth was also completely lost on the same rocks which had caused the total destruction of the Tweed; while, in the following year the Actæon was wrecked in rounding the point near Carthagena on a shoal extending, as was alleged, much further into the sea than had been laid down on the Admiralty charts. Nor must the loss of the Medina, wrecked on the 12th of May, 1844, on a coral reef near Turks Island, be omitted, as this was, certainly, one which ought not to have occurred.

[Pg 305]

Some of these disasters, no doubt, arose from the intricate nature of the navigation among the West India Islands, and others may have been caused, as the supporters of the company alleged, “by those sudden changes of the weather, hurricanes, squalls, northers, &c., with which the West India Islands, Spanish Main, and Gulf of Mexico are so frequently visited,” but the rocks and shoals of the Gulf could have had nothing to do with the loss of the Solway off Corunna, and, as the company has met with much fewer disasters of late years, I may be allowed to suspect that incompetency had too much to do with the almost periodical losses of the first eight or ten years of its career.

But by far the greatest disaster which befell any of this company’s ships was the destruction of the Amazon by fire at sea; indeed, nothing could be more terrible than the loss of this ship and the sufferings of those who perished with her.

The Amazon was built by Messrs. R. and H. Green, at Blackwall, and launched from their yard on the 28th of June, 1851: she was the largest wooden merchant steam-ship which had up to that time been constructed. An illustration of her, as she lay at anchor ready for sea, on her first and only voyage, will be found on the following page.[278]

[Pg 306]

When surveyed by the Admiralty before her departure from Southampton, she was reported capable of carrying fourteen 32-pounders, and two 10-inch pivot guns of 85 cwt. each on her main-deck; her coal bunkers were constructed to carry 1000 tons of coals, or upward of sixteen and a half days’ consumption at the rate of 2½ tons per hour for her twenty-six furnaces. Her engines were fitted in a framework independent of the vessel, so that little or no perceptible vibration was felt when they were at work: moreover, allowing 12 superficial feet for each man, she had accommodation in her lower decks for 360 soldiers, besides elegant cabins for first-class passengers. Her cost, when ready for sea, was somewhat over 100,000l.

[Pg 307]

On the 2nd of January, 1852, the Amazon, under command of Captain Symons, took her departure from Southampton with the usual mails for the British and foreign West Indies, the Gulf of Mexico, Spanish Main, &c., fifty passengers, and a large and valuable cargo. Her crew numbered 110, exclusive of the Admiralty officer in charge of the mails. The Amazon was the first of the direct line of steam-ships arranged by the company to run fortnightly between Southampton and Chagres, touching only at St. Thomas, at which place various lines of branch packets for the accommodation of the West Indies, the Gulf of Mexico, &c., were to meet, diverging thence to the different islands and ports embraced in the new arrangements with Government, and thus establishing, as it was termed at the time, “a great steam ferry between Europe and the Isthmus of Panama.”

In the course of the day after her departure, when steaming at the rate of about 9 miles an hour against a stiff south-west gale, the bearings of the paddle-shafts became so hot from the excessive friction of the new machinery, that on two occasions the engines had to be stopped to cool them, in one case for two and a half hours; after which everything appeared to be in order. But at midnight of the evening of the 4th January, when the Amazon was somewhere about 110 miles west-south-west of the Scilly Islands, the watch on deck, to their dismay, discovered that a fire had broken out suddenly on the starboard side forward between the steam-chest and that portion of the deck whereon the galley stood, the flames at once rushing up the gangway in front of the foremost funnel. So[Pg 308] sudden, indeed, was the conflagration that when the alarm bell, instantly sounded, brought the captain upon deck, it was only to witness the inevitable destruction of his ship; the force of the gale then blowing having spread the flames with such rapidity that every appliance, by means of wet swabs, buckets of water, and at last the fire pumps (for they had not been ready), proved alike utterly futile to check the progress of the fire.

The most terrible consternation and confusion now prevailed. Passengers and crew rushed on deck in the wildest dismay, while the gale which raged overhead increased their fears. To add if possible to the terrors of this awful calamity, the smoke and flames had driven the engineers from their stations, so that the machinery could not be stopped; consequently the Amazon dashed through the waves at full speed. Thus the raging fire, made more fearful by the storm, consumed everything animate and inanimate within its reach, spreading with the most alarming rapidity over the deck of the ship and extending to the cabins below, where many of the passengers were either suffocated by the smoke or consumed by the flames.

Recourse was now had to the boats: of these there were nine, including four life-boats. As too often happens in cases of emergency, the boats were neither clear nor ready for lowering. In this instance, too, the life-boats had been fitted with crutches on which their keels rested. These fittings now obstructed their clearance from the sides of the ship, and but for this fatal arrangement so serious a loss of life might have been lessened. To make matters worse,[Pg 309] the two best and largest boats had been stowed on the top of the sponsons, which were now surrounded by the flames and could not be approached. When the mail-boat was lowered, it was immediately swamped with twenty-five persons on board, all of whom perished; the pinnace, when lowered, sheered across the sea before the people in her could unhook the foretackle, and they too were all washed out and drowned, except two men who had clung to the thwarts and were enabled to scramble back to the deck of the ship: the boat itself, which hung by the single tackle, was soon afterwards dashed to pieces against the side of the vessel. By extraordinary efforts fourteen of the crew and two of the passengers were enabled to remove from the cranes and lower in safety one of the starboard life-boats, while nineteen of the crew and six of her passengers escaped in another: these, with a young midshipman, named Vincent, who displayed great bravery and intrepidity, the chief steward, one passenger (a young lady), and two of the seamen, who had managed to lower without accident a small boat, the dingy, were the only persons saved out of the 161 who had embarked on board the Amazon only two days previously. All the others perished, including the captain, either by the flames or the waves; and, perhaps, in the melancholy annals of the sea, there is no shipwreck more appalling than that of the Amazon.

No writer of romance in the wildest dreams of fancy could have pictured a scene more terrible than this reality. Young Vincent, in his vivid narrative, describes two passengers rushing from[Pg 310] their cabins enveloped in flames and falling lifeless upon deck. He speaks of a lady, with an infant in her arms, entreating some one to take care of her child, heedless of her own safety, but before assistance could be rendered perishing with her child amid the flames. Others, he says, fled from them, only to be engulfed in the ocean. One lady passenger, who had been lifted into the boat, was so terrified by the waves which dashed over the sides of the ship that she preferred death among the flames, and wildly rushed back to her destruction. Others fell through the burning decks or hatchways, and were instantly consumed, while some resigned themselves calmly to their terrible fate; when Vincent left the ship he states that “some of those who yet lived were kneeling on the deck in prayer, while others, almost in a state of nudity, were running about screaming with terror.”

Between three and four o’clock in the morning the masts of the vessel fell over her sides; the foremast on the port and the mainmast on the starboard, but the mizen still stood while the fire raged from stem to stern. One poor fellow then appeared perched on the extreme end of the jib-boom, the only living thing amidst the burning mass; but he, too, perished. About five in the morning, when the life-boat was “passing the ship in a leewardly direction,” the gunpowder in her magazines exploded, and in about twenty minutes afterwards, the mizenmast went by the board; the vessel herself then making a heavy lurch, as if eager to escape from the flames, went down, her funnels still standing, but red hot, with everything on board which the fire, in its fury, had left unconsumed.

[Pg 311]

The destruction of the Amazon following so quickly upon the stranding of the Demerara at Bristol (another of the five additional vessels which the company had just launched), materially inconvenienced the directors in the fresh arrangements they had made with Government for the more expeditious delivery of the mails. They had now only the Oronoco, Magdalene, and Parana to conduct the direct service between Southampton and the isthmus of Panama; but these misfortunes appear to have stimulated the shareholders to renewed exertions. Other vessels were engaged and fresh contracts entered into for the construction of steamers of a still finer description.[279] When, at length, Government relieved the company from the condition of building wooden vessels adapted for purposes of war, and the directors themselves discovered that iron was preferable to wood and the screw a better mode of propulsion than the paddle-wheel, they produced vessels equal to most of those now engaged in Transatlantic navigation. Of late years, their average of loss, until very recently, has been comparatively small.

[Pg 312]

There are not now many finer steamers afloat than their Tagus and Moselle, which were launched in the year 1871 from the yard of Messrs. John Elder and Co. The former, a vessel of 2789 tons builders’ measurement and 600 horse-power, attained a mean speed of 14·878 knots per hour on the occasion of her official trial; while the Moselle, a sister ship, of about 3200 tons gross register, surpassed her, having made 14·929 knots per hour as the average of four runs over the measured mile. Equally satisfactory results have attended many of their other vessels, and not the least remarkable is the case of the Tasmanian, an iron screw-vessel they purchased from the unfortunate European and Australian Steam Navigation Company. This vessel, which was also fitted in 1871 by Messrs. John Elder and Co. with engines on the compound principle, accomplished her first voyage to St. Thomas in 338 hours (14 days, 2 hours) on a consumption of only 466 tons of coal, though she formerly consumed 1088 tons on a run of 349 hours (14 days, 13 hours).

An entire change of management combined with a superior class of vessels have had a very material effect on the prosperity of the company, enabling the directors at their last meeting to declare a dividend of 10 per cent. per annum. Their fleet[280] is now a large and excellent one, and well adapted, on the whole, for the due performances of the various mail services[281] undertaken by the company. It is further[Pg 313] only just to the company, before closing this sketch of its operations, to record the services which it rendered to the British Government in placing some of its finest ships at the disposal of the naval department for the conveyance of troops during the Crimean War, more especially as the operation was carried out with only a trifling interruption to the contract mail service.

[Pg 314]

CHAPTER VIII.

About the period when the West India Steam Line was in course of formation, another company, destined to surpass it in importance, had obtained from the British Government a charter for establishing “steam navigation along the shores of North and South America in the Pacific Ocean,” as well as between those shores and China, the Australasian Colonies, and certain ports in the West Indies and in the Atlantic Ocean.

To establish a line of steam-ships for the purpose of carrying on efficiently the large and valuable, but hitherto undeveloped, commerce within the area named was indeed a bold undertaking, and one requiring extensive and varied knowledge, with a[Pg 315] large amount of experience and judicious management combined with the necessary amount of capital. These various requisites were not, however, readily obtained at a period when ocean steam navigation was comparatively in its infancy, and were rendered still more difficult by the knowledge that the endeavours of the original projectors of steam navigation on the shores of the Pacific had not been attended with success. Indeed, the first of those undertakings proved most unfortunate, and was, also, accompanied by a good deal of romance.

So early as 1825, when the struggles among the republics of the South Pacific for supremacy were at their height, a few merchants resident in Panama formed themselves into an association for the purpose of trading along those shores, but they had so many difficulties to overcome that a long time elapsed ere they could obtain the required capital. The first steamer on the Pacific coast was a small craft named the Telica, commanded and owned by a Spaniard named Mitrovitch; but his career and that of the vessel under his charge was a short and melancholy one. In a fit of despair at his want of success, with some further annoyance from the complaints by his passengers, caused chiefly by delay, and his inability to find a sufficient supply of fuel, he fired his pistol into a barrel of gunpowder, blowing up his vessel in the harbour of Guayaquil, and destroying himself and all on board except one man. An occurrence of this lamentable nature, though it happened ten or fifteen years previously, would, in most cases, have destroyed, for many years subsequently, any attempts, by means of steamers, to trade between Valparaiso[Pg 316] and Panama, had not a gentleman, then resident in Guayaquil and familiar with the trade of the coast, taken up the business with the determination to carry it through at all hazards.

William Wheelwright,[283] an American citizen, and at that time United States’ Consul in Guayaquil, was no common man. He saw the advantages to be derived from developing the rich resources of the eastern shores of the Pacific, and the facilities which steam communication would afford to the more frequent and more rapid intercourse between the then rival republics. Nor was he mistaken in the views he entertained, though he had many difficulties to overcome. Steam, while it eventually became the chief means of settling the petty wars which had so long raged, offered, at the same time, so many new sources of profitable employment, with the opening up so many new channels of trade, as happily to direct the attention[Pg 317] of the native inhabitants from the struggles of war to the peaceful pursuits of commerce. Studying the wants of those countries and the most efficient means of affording profitable employment to the people, Mr. Wheelwright spent six of the best years of his life in arranging plans for steam communication between the different republics, and, at last, obtained from the Peruvian, Bolivian, and Chilian Governments the privilege of thus navigating their coasts for the term of ten years. He then made a journey to England for the purpose of endeavouring to influence the wealthy merchants of this country to aid him in the undertaking.

Here, however, he had still many difficulties to overcome, for the trade he proposed to develop was then comparatively unknown, and the little wars between the republics of the Pacific naturally led English merchants to hesitate, ere they embarked their capital in a company whose prospects were at that time far from encouraging. Nevertheless, he succeeded in his object, and, on the 17th of February, 1840, obtained, under letters patent, a charter for the establishment of the undertaking now known as the Pacific Steam Navigation Company, together with a small subsidy for the conveyance of the mails.

This contract differs from all others, in this respect, that the vessels employed under it do not touch at any port of Her Majesty’s dominions, although, practically, it may be considered as providing a continuation of the line from Southampton. The extension of British influence and British commerce was, doubtless, the chief inducement for supporting this[Pg 318] communication between the republics of New Grenada, Bolivia, Peru, and Chili; the nature and extent of that traffic rendering it necessary for the English to maintain mercantile establishments in the chief ports and towns on the western coast of the Pacific, and thus justifying Government in incurring this expense.[284]

The capital of the Pacific Company at first was limited to 250,000l. in 5000 shares of 50l. each. Though the whole capital, after a good deal of labour, was subscribed, only an amount was called up sufficient at the time to enable the directors to provide two boats, the Chili and the Peru, which were dispatched to commence operations towards the close of the year 1840.

These vessels were built of wood by Messrs. Charles Young and Co. of Limehouse, London. They were sister ships, each of about 700 tons gross register, though with a capacity of not half of that tonnage, and with engines of about 150 horse-power constructed by Messrs. Miller and Ravenhill. Through the courtesy of the directors, I am enabled to furnish the following illustration of the Peru, whose dimensions were 198 feet extreme length and 50 feet[Pg 319] extreme breadth. They were at that time considered fine vessels and certainly they have a comfortable business-like appearance. No wonder, therefore, that, on their arrival at Valparaiso, they were received with great rejoicing and with “salvoes of artillery, everybody wishing to visit them, the President of the Republic, accompanied by his ministers, being among the first to welcome the steam-ships to the shores of the Pacific.”

But here again, Mr. Wheelwright had many difficulties to overcome, the scarcity of fuel, as in the case of the Telica, being one of the greatest. Under these circumstances, the Company, during the first five years of its operations, sustained a loss of no less than 72,000l. upon a paid-up capital of 94,000l. In the face, however, of these heavy losses, the[Pg 320] shareholders resolved to persevere with their bold undertaking, seeing in it the germs of future success. Under the impression that the business of the Company could be better conducted in Liverpool, where most of the shareholders resided, the directors, on the 4th May, 1846, obtained a supplemental charter to remove from London to that city, where the head office and general management, have since been conducted by Mr. William Just, who, in January of the following year, was appointed its managing director. In December 1847, the directors were enabled to give to the shareholders for the first time a dividend, though only 2½ per cent., on their paid-up capital.

In 1850, the Company obtained an extension of its mail contract of 1845-46, whereby the directors were required to provide not less than six steamers, of at least 170 horse-power each, but, at the suggestion of the Company, the Government, in November of that year, allowed four steamers of 1000 tons and 300 horse-power to be substituted for the six smaller vessels originally contemplated.[285]

The prospects of the undertaking were, however, still far from encouraging, and when, in February 1853, the directors represented to the Board of Admiralty that the expense arising from the greatly increased price of coals rendered the portion of their service between Callao and Panama altogether unremunerative, and asked for an increase of subsidy, they were refused. The directors then solicited permission to employ between these two places vessels[Pg 321] of only 100 horse-power and 400 tons, which they considered would be sufficiently large for the passenger traffic, and would restore the balance of profit by reducing the cost of fuel. They also undertook that these vessels should be capable of maintaining an average speed of 10 knots an hour, and that the mail service should not suffer. This proposal Government acquiesced in, temporarily, reserving to itself the right of reverting to the original agreement.

The more frequent and more speedy services had, indeed, become, if not necessary, at least desirable, since the West India Mail Packet Co. had doubled the services of their ships between England and Colon. The Pacific Co. therefore felt that, if they did not run their vessels to and from Panama in connection with the steamers from England, those of the United States of America, now rapidly increasing in the trade of the Pacific, might soon monopolize the lines they occupied from the Isthmus to the southern ports. Consequently, the directors of the Pacific Company were glad to accede to the proposal of the Admiralty to run steamers with the mails monthly from Panama, for the small increase of 5000l. per annum to their original contract of 20,000l.

This Company had now in its service seven vessels of 5719 tons and of 2396 horse-power; but, though they touched at no less than thirteen ports between Panama and Valparaiso inclusive, the average annual amount of receipts for postage, for five years previously to 1860, amounted to only 5441l.

In 1856, Mr. Just visited the west coast, and re-organized the management and the service generally with very successful results. Towards that success[Pg 322] his adoption of the compound engine,[286] then almost a novelty, materially tended, effecting as it did, an enormous saving in the consumption of fuel and, consequently, in the current expenses of the Company.

From 1860, the trade of the Pacific rapidly developed itself. The inhabitants of the coast now saw the incalculable advantages to be derived from regular and increased intercourse between other countries. Steam here, as it has done everywhere else, opened up new and hitherto unthought of branches of commerce; the natives learned what other nations required, and, to meet these demands, they turned to cultivating their fields instead of fighting among themselves. Consequently, the Pacific Company soon found it necessary to increase the number of their fleet. In December 1859, a second supplemental charter was obtained, which extended the incorporation of the Company for twenty-one years from the 17th of February, 1861. On the 15th of June, 1865, a third supplemental charter was applied for and obtained, extending the powers of the Company, to the establishment of lines of communication “between the west coast of South America and the River Plata, including the Falkland Islands and such other ports or places in North and South America, and other foreign ports, as to the said Company shall seem expedient.”

[Pg 323]

During these years the profits of the undertaking had been steadily increasing, and at a special meeting of shareholders held in December 1867 it was determined to add to the operations of the company by establishing a monthly line from Liverpool to the west coast of South America, viâ the Straits of Magellan.

This entirely new and important, though hazardous, branch of the service necessitated an increase of the capital of the company to 2,000,000l. In furtherance of their views the directors sent their steamer Pacific, of 2000 tons register and 450 horse-power, from Valparaiso, in May 1868, as the pioneer of the new mail line.

The bold undertaking of dispatching steamers on so distant a voyage, and at so high a rate of speed as that maintained, proved for some years more successful than could have been anticipated, and, in 1869, the profits of the four new steamers, which had made nine voyages from Liverpool to Valparaiso, were so satisfactory that the directors in 1870 determined to make the line bi-monthly, and extend the voyage from Valparaiso to Callao. Seventeen voyages made in the course of that year with still greater success, induced the directors to recommend that the departures thenceforward should be three a month; and, in December 1871, the shareholders authorized a further increase of the capital to 3,000,000l., so that the company might be enabled to dispatch every week one of their steamers on this distant voyage.

Considering the then comparatively limited amount of the trade it was a very bold experiment. While[Pg 324] directors of undertakings of this nature very properly consider it their duty to meet and even to anticipate the requirements of the public, so as to prevent others occupying their field of operations, and thus avoiding injury from competition, it may well be questioned if this extraordinary increase of steamers could be justified by any reasonable anticipations of the increase of the trade to be developed by these additional facilities, and within so limited a space of time. The result, indeed, soon showed that they were now too far in advance of the requirements of commerce. Though, in 1871, twenty-nine round voyages were performed between Liverpool, Valparaiso, and Callao, the profits, so far from being increased, gave signs of falling off; and, in 1872, thirty-seven round voyages were made with, as the result proved, a further diminished rate of profit, the directors having, in January of that year, recommended at a special meeting of shareholders the addition to their fleet of four more steamers at a cost of 500,000l.

In the course of the following July, a further charter had been obtained authorizing an additional 1,000,000l. of capital to be raised, and thus, with power to draw on the shareholders to the extent of 4,000,000l., the whole capital of the company, the directors did not hesitate to still further increase their already gigantic fleet!

The company now owns no less than fifty-four steamers, of an aggregate of 119,870 tons, and 21,395 horse-power.[287] Two of these, the Iberia and Liguria, built and supplied with engines by Messrs.[Pg 325] John Elder and Co., of Glasgow, in 1873, are each 4671 tons gross register with a capacity for 4000 tons of cargo, besides space for 916 tons of coals, and accommodation for no less than 800 third-class passengers. They are each of 700 horse-power nominal, and attained a speed on their trial trips of 15 knots per hour.[288]

But, though inferior in power and dimensions, the vessels the company had built previously to this time for their Liverpool and Valparaiso line were equal in other respects to the new ones. Indeed, as may be seen by the following representation of the Chimborazo, launched in 1871, also from the yard of Elder and[Pg 326] Company, they were not surpassed by any steamers afloat. She is a sister ship of the Cuzco, built by the same firm, as also of the Garonne built by Robert Napier and Sons and launched the same year. They are each 370 feet in length between perpendiculars, 41 feet beam, 35 feet depth of hold, and about 3850 tons gross register tonnage. They perform their passages on the coast with remarkable speed and regularity, while the voyage from Liverpool to Valparaiso is usually made in forty-two days. But, for the time being, the company has found itself overtaken by severe competition and depression in the west coast trade, and has been obliged to reduce the services on the line from Liverpool to that coast to two voyages each month instead of one weekly; in consequence of which nine of their steamers are, at present, laid up for want of employment.

Although the loss thus sustained may be attributed in no small degree to the over-sanguine views of the directors in regard to the development of the trade between Great Britain and the west coast of South America, some portion of it is also due to the competition on the coast and to the opposition they met in performing the weekly service for which they had obtained a postal contract from Her Majesty’s Government in December 1872. Bound to a speed in excess of what had been required of other companies, and with a grant of only the sea postage, it was impossible for them to hope to compete successfully with such highly subsidized companies as the Royal Mail and the French Messageries Maritimes, both of which maintain an opposition race to those ports of the Brazils whence the Pacific Steam[Pg 327] Navigation Company hoped to derive some advantage by the conveyance of passengers on their way to Valparaiso.

Indeed, where a high rate of speed is required, and where heavy penalties are inflicted for any irregularity in the performance of the stipulated service, it is very questionable, unless when highly subsidized, if any advantage whatever is to be gained by the conveyance of mails on so distant a voyage as that which the Pacific Company had undertaken to perform. But, by reducing the number of services and modifying the rate of speed, which the Government at last consented they should do—requiring, however, a reduction in the amount of subsidy—the directors, on the one hand, may hope to secure a sufficient amount of remunerative freight; and, on the other, to effect a saving in the consumption of coal—a matter of the highest consideration on such distant voyages.

Although the anticipations of the directors, in the more recent and expensive portion of their great undertaking, have not been realised, while the services of the steamers on the West Coast have periodically, and especially of late, been subjected to considerable depression, the trade of the Pacific has steadily and, compared with any previous development, marvellously increased since first opened out by the energy of Mr. Wheelwright. Moreover, this trade is likely to go on increasing, especially as the company has now a class of vessels admirably adapted for its still increasing wants, and affording many comforts to passengers who, induced by numerous[Pg 328] attractions travel either for business or pleasure, along the shores of the Pacific.

The following is an illustration of one of the steamers now engaged on the Pacific coast line; but the Santa Rosa and the many similar vessels belonging to the Pacific Company now trading along these shores,[289] have been greatly surpassed by their screw-steamer Bolivia, of 1925 tons, launched from the building yard of Messrs. T. Wingate & Co., Glasgow, in 1874, and which is perhaps the finest, or at least, one of the finest vessels now afloat on the Pacific. The details of this handsome ship, which has an average speed of 14 knots an hour, as have also those of the other vessels of the company, will be found in the Appendix, together with interesting and instructive returns of the cost of each ship complete for sea.[290]

With the losses this company have sustained[Pg 329] during the last few years, the differences between the shareholders and directors, and the charges of mismanagement and extravagance which have been alleged, it is not my province to deal. Companies and nations, like individuals, are frequently too prone to spend more than they ought, if unusual success has attended their efforts, or they find more money at their disposal than they can prudently or wisely expend. It has been so throughout all time and in all countries, and we daily see it in the case of individuals managing their own affairs.

It is, therefore, not surprising, and certainly nothing new to learn that, when the directors of the Pacific Steam Navigation Company were favoured with many years of unusual prosperity, after many years of hard up-hill work, and were able to divide an average of over 20 per cent. per annum among their shareholders, they should have followed the example of individuals, of companies, and of nations throughout all history; and that, in the sanguine hope of being able to maintain this prosperity, they should have expended money in the construction of ships not required, and for, perhaps, even less justifiable purposes.

It should, however, be remembered, of this great undertaking when its failings are noticed, that it has rendered very important services in developing British commerce and that, in bringing so many civilizing influences to bear upon the people of various republics, who, from their constant warfare with each other, were little better than tribes of semi-barbarians, the Pacific Company has essentially aided the cause of progress and the happiness of mankind.[Pg 330] These advantages will be felt long after its mishaps are forgotten.

The field which the directors have chosen for their operations, is still only very partially developed, and there is, consequently, a great future for this company, if wisely and prudently conducted. It requires no prophetic vision to see that, as the commerce of the world moves westward, the principal highway to the ever envied and far famed East will be by the route which Columbus sought in vain across the Pacific Ocean. Indeed, San Francisco will soon be a greater entrepôt for trade than ever Venice was, and may, even before long, rival in many respects the now gigantic commerce of Great Britain.

The steady increase of trade along the whole of the western shores of the Pacific has already rendered necessary greatly increased means of intercourse with Europe and the United States of America, which the line of railway across the Isthmus has assisted to develop with extraordinary rapidity. Other channels of trade in that quarter have likewise been recently opened, rich in themselves and capable of vast extension, through the medium of steam.

Although many schemes had been set on foot during the last three centuries, for re-opening the commerce of Central America, and, especially, of that portion of it which has its outlet into the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea,—among these none being so conspicuous as the unfortunate Darien expedition—all attempts proved abortive until the latter half of the present century. Indeed, till the completion of the[Pg 331] railway, none of these were worthy of any notice. So rapid, however, has been its increase since then, that the undertakings of more recent years have been attended with considerable success. Perhaps the most important of these is the line of steam navigation between Liverpool and the West Indies, and, thence, by the Isthmus of Panama, to the Pacific Ocean, originally due to Mr. Alfred Holt, of Liverpool, who about the year 1855, dispatched steamers to trade between that port and Colon (the Atlantic terminus of the Panama Railroad) and other ports on the Spanish Main. His first was a vessel of only 535 tons burden, but she was then more than sufficient for any surplus commerce, which the American boats, on the one hand and those of the West India Mail Packet Co., on the other, could not convey. The regularity, however, with which this additional service was performed, created increased sources of employment, so that within a very short time, Mr. Holt considered it desirable to establish a monthly line of steamers of increased size and power, and so rapid was the rise of trade that other steam-vessels were soon engaged in similar traffic. In 1863, Messrs Leach, Harrison, and Forwood of Liverpool, large importers of produce from the West Coast, found it necessary to establish a line of steamers in a great measure for their own requirements, and about the same time, Messrs Imrie and Tomlinson, in association with Messrs Duranty and Co., of Liverpool, who had long been engaged in the trade with Mexico and the West Indies, formed another line of steamers on the limited liability principle. The trade in its various ramifications had now become so large that, towards the close of that year,[Pg 332] it was considered desirable to form a public company to amalgamate these three undertakings, and thus more thoroughly to conduct the rapidly increasing commercial intercourse between Liverpool, Mexico, Honduras, Venezuela, and the Windward Islands.

The capital of 1,250,000l. was at once subscribed, and this new undertaking now known as the West India and Pacific Steam Navigation Company (Limited), finding it necessary to re-organize the whole business and, in addition, to embrace the Colon trade, and other lines of traffic, subdivided the services into five separate branches—one to Belize, one to Tampico, one to Colon, one to St. Thomas, and one to Trinidad.[291] It was also arranged to dispatch steamers to Barbadoes and Demerara. The trunk or principal line of the company is that to Colon, in connection with the Panama railroad, and, by it, with the various steam lines on the Pacific, the company signing through bills of lading for no fewer than seventy ports, at sixteen of which their vessels call to land goods and passengers.

This undertaking, which has met with considerable success, conveys the British mails to Honduras and Mexico. It now owns thirteen steamers of 24,680 tons gross register. Though inferior in size and power to the steam-ships of the other Transatlantic lines, they are a very fine class of iron screw propelled vessels, maintaining an average speed of more than 10 knots an hour, and performing the passage with great regularity from Liverpool to St. Thomas in eighteen, and to Colon in about twenty-two days.

[Pg 333]

Besides those I have mentioned, various other lines of steam-ships now traverse the Atlantic north and south, as well as casual steamers and large numbers of sailing-vessels, most of the former being the property of associations carrying on business, either under the old law or under the Limited Liability Act.

Among the largest of these may be mentioned the Liverpool, Brazil, and River Plate Steam-ship Company (Limited), which was formed in 1865, the principal shareholders being Messrs. Lamport and Holt, of Liverpool, by whom the steamers are managed, and a few of their personal friends. There is nothing, however, in their fleet of vessels requiring special notice, except that they are a very fine class of business steamers and have performed their work with great regularity. They are now thirty-one in number, of a gross tonnage of 49,294 tons,[292] and have excellent accommodation, combined with every comfort which passengers can desire, offering all the means of safety in their prudent management, and regularity of system, which can be hoped for in Transatlantic voyages.

Although the vessels of this company are principally engaged out of Liverpool, some of them sail from London and Antwerp, calling frequently at Havre and Lisbon in the course of their trade with the ports of Brazil and River Plate, Pernambuco, and Buenos Ayres. One of them proceeds monthly, up the River Parana to Rosario, and, occasionally, others return from Brazil to the United States with cargoes of coffee. Three are permanently engaged in the service of the Government of Brazil for the[Pg 334] conveyance of mails between Rio de Janeiro and the southern ports, while others maintain a direct line of communication with Brazil and Antwerp. The Company is also under contract with the British Government to dispatch, on the 20th of each month, a steamer with the mails from Liverpool to Bahia, Rio Janeiro, Monte Video, and Buenos Ayres, returning with a monthly mail from each of these ports. Steamers are likewise dispatched on the 3rd, 10th, and 12th of each month to the other ports, with extra vessels at such dates as the requirements of the trade may demand. The last new steamer, the Herelius, of 2610 tons register, was built by Messrs. Andrew Leslie and Company, Hebburn-on-Tyne, and her engines, of 300 horse-power nominal, are by Messrs. Robert Stephenson and Co., Newcastle; she is an excellent specimen of a merchant-steamer, being 345 feet in length, 37 feet in breadth, and 27 feet depth of hold from maindeck, with a large capacity for cargo, and a speed on the measured or trial mile of from 11 to 12 knots an hour, on a moderate consumption of fuel.

Though, by an ancient Act of Parliament, the responsibility of shipowners has been limited—no doubt for the purpose of encouraging navigation—to the value of the ship and freight, numerous companies of shipowners have been formed, under the Limited Liability Act of 1862, consisting of a few individuals, as in the case of Messrs. Lamport and Holt’s line, for the purpose of conducting different branches of maritime commerce. Many of these are larger and more important undertakings than the great bulk of the public steam navigation companies,[Pg 335] and have generally proved more successful from the fact that their managing directors usually hold themselves a very large amount of capital invested in them. To some of these I shall have occasion to refer hereafter. In the meantime, I must invite the attention of my readers to the trade with the East, as now conducted by steam-vessels.

[Pg 336]

CHAPTER IX.

Having in the early portions of this work endeavoured to trace the various commercial routes to the East by land and sea in the most remote periods as well as in the Middle Ages, I now invite my readers to accompany me while I attempt to furnish an outline of the modes by which commercial intercourse is[Pg 337] maintained with India and China at the present time, and of the transport service employed in conveying this commerce.

Although nearly the whole of the European trade with the East has, since the time of Vasco de Gama, been conducted by sea round the Cape of Good Hope, caravans through Arabia and Asia Minor and along the shores of the Red Sea, as well as by the more frequented route of the valley of Mesopotamia and the River Euphrates to the Persian Gulf, have never, since the days of Herodotus, altogether ceased. Indeed, during the reign of Elizabeth, and for sometime afterwards, many English merchants preferred the Euphrates route to the sea voyage, the course they then adopted, being apparently through Syria or Asia Minor to Bir, where a fleet of boats or barges, resembling those described by the Father of History, was at all seasons ready to convey them and their merchandise down the Euphrates to Hillah, near the site of Ancient Babylon, or by Mosul to Baghdad, the chief Eastern centre of commerce during the early part of the Middle Ages. From Baghdad their course was down the Tigris to Bussorah, where they embarked in native sailing-vessels for various parts of India.

An overland route between Europe and India had thus from time immemorial been sustained; and, though there was no established service between England and the East until a comparatively recent period, the East India Company, from the time they first became possessors of land in India, frequently sent despatches by the way of the Persian Gulf, thus creating at length a regular monthly communication[Pg 338] between Constantinople and Baghdad, by Tátars, maintained at the cost of the Indian Government. Thus, at last, private letters as well as official despatches, were transmitted by these means, while, on important occasions, special despatches were forwarded by the same route at other than the monthly periods. This, so far as the East India Company was concerned, was the original, and the only official overland line of communication; and so it continued to be till it was superseded by the route through Egypt. Another generation may see it resumed by an iron highway.[293]

It was not, however, until steam-vessels began to attract attention that any regular postal service other than by sailing-vessels was seriously considered.[Pg 339] But on this subject opinions differed widely, the prevailing one at that time being at first in favour of the Cape route, transferring the conveyance of the mails from the old East Indiamen to steamers. Nothing, however, was definitely proposed till 1822, when a public meeting was held in London with the view of forming a Steam Navigation Company to trade with India, the result of which was the despatch of Lieutenant (afterwards Captain) J. Johnston, to Calcutta to see what could be done to prosecute the object in view. Johnston went through Egypt and became subsequently one of the ardent supporters of the route by Suez, though his own employment and the intention of those for whom he then acted, was more especially the promotion of the Cape route.

Soon after his arrival in Calcutta, several meetings took place, the most important of which was held in the Town Hall of that city, December 17th, 1823,[294] with Mr. Harrington in the Chair. Various routes were then considered. At the meeting it was announced that the proposal of a more speedy communication with England by means of steam-vessels had met with the cordial approval of Lord Amherst in Council, who was prepared to recommend towards the promotion of the enterprise a “gift of 20,000 rupees” by way of premium “to whoever, whether individuals or a company, being British subjects, should permanently, before the end of 1826, establish a steam communication between England and India, either by the Cape of Good Hope or Red Sea, and make two voyages out and two home, occupying not more[Pg 341] than seventy days on each passage.” For this object somewhere about 80,000 rupees were raised in India, of which 12,000 were subscribed by the Rajah of Oude; and, on the news reaching England, another meeting was held in London, at which more money was collected, sufficient on the whole to justify the promoters to order as an experiment, the construction of the Enterprize, the first steamer destined to double the Cape of Good Hope.

Captain Johnston having completed the object for which he had been despatched to India, returned to England in the Eliza by way of the Cape, and, on his arrival in London, the Enterprize,[295] which had been laid down in the yard of Gordon and Co., Deptford, was two-thirds finished. On her completion she was placed under his command, and sailed for Calcutta on the 16th of August, 1825, where she arrived on the 7th December following. Although 113 days on the passage, she was only 103 days under way, as ten were spent in stoppages to replenish her stock of coal; but her greatest average speed, during any twenty-four hours, not exceeding 9·36 miles per hour, accounted for by the large quantity of coals she was obliged to carry,[296] disappointed the expectations of the seventeen passengers who had embarked in her. (An illustration of this vessel is furnished on p. 340.)

[Pg 342]

The voyage of the Enterprize, ought to have convinced the advocates of the ocean route that it was not advisable, commercially, to persevere in such an undertaking, moreover, though this steamer was admittedly unsuited for so distant a voyage, other considerations, especially at that early period of steam navigation, made it doubtful whether vessels thus propelled, and by a route so long as that round the Cape, could yield remunerative returns. However, the Enterprize, though she did not receive the 20,000 rupees premium, was sold when she arrived at Calcutta, to the Indian Government for 40,000l., who then required every ship they could get for the first Burmese war. She was at once appropriated by the East India Company, who employed her in carrying despatches from Calcutta to Rangoon, a service in which she proved of great value in aiding the operations of that campaign.

The success thus far of the Enterprize encouraged the introduction of steam-vessels into the local trade of India; the comparatively narrow seas, excellent harbours, and safe inlets, as well as the many large and important navigable rivers of that part of Asia affording almost as large and remunerative fields for the employment of such vessels as the coasts, rivers, and lakes of North America. To this branch of commerce I shall hereafter refer. In the meantime[Pg 343] I must ask my readers to accompany me in an attempt to trace the means of more rapid communication between Great Britain and her vast dominions in the East, with some notice of the persons to whom we are indebted for the advantages we have thus derived.

As in other important changes and inventions, I find in my researches many claimants for originality; and though it may appear scarcely necessary to wade through the mass of papers[297] published by persons claiming for themselves or their friends the merit of an overland route which has existed since the dawn of history, I shall endeavour to furnish within a brief space the leading facts relating to the routes which, in our own time, have produced such marked changes in our commercial intercourse with India.

Though not so much frequented as that by the Euphrates route, travellers have found their way from time immemorial between Europe and India through Egypt, availing themselves of native vessels[Pg 344] for the Red Sea or along its coasts to the once far-famed lands of Yemen and thence to the ever coveted “Cathay” of the East. The first authentic record, in recent times, however, of any journey from India to Great Britain by the Isthmus of Suez, with the object of ascertaining whether that route could be renewed as a pathway of commerce, or, if not, for the transmission of despatches, was a passage made in 1819, by Sir Miles Nightingall, then Commander-in-chief of the Bombay army (for whom, however, no claim of originality has been made), who, on relinquishing that command, returned to England viâ the Red Sea accompanied by Lady Nightingall.[298] Sir Miles and his wife left Bombay in the East India Company’s cruiser Teignmouth, and after many troubles reached Suez and thence found their way home.

But the first distinct official proposal of this route as one practicable for the regular conveyance of despatches and the mails was made by the Hon. Mount-Stuart Elphinstone, who, when Governor of Bombay in 1823, recommended steam communication between that place and England, remarking that the passage “might be done in thirty-four days, all stoppages included.” The Court of Directors, however, paid no heed to this suggestion; and as these sagacious rulers of our Eastern Empire paid quite as little attention to his further communication to them on the same subject in 1826, he thought it advisable to give them a practical illustration of the value of this route by returning home, when he relinquished the Government[Pg 345] of Bombay in the following year, with his staff and other friends, by way of the Red Sea and Mediterranean.[299]

His immediate successor in the Government of Bombay, Sir John Malcolm, by returning home viâ Suez (to which reference shall hereafter be made), followed up the good work of his predecessors; and was zealously seconded by his brother, Sir Charles Malcolm, then superintendent of the Indian Navy; while another brother, Sir Pulteney Malcolm, naval commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean, also took an active part in promoting the isthmus of Suez route.

The fact of such men having thus personally and practically directed their attention to the subject, naturally led merchants and others interested in the trade of India to direct their attention with increased vigour to the best means of obtaining more rapid communication with the East. In their researches they were materially assisted by the report of Major C. F. Head,[300] who made the voyage from India to England through the Red Sea early in the year 1829, as again in 1830, being, at the same time, still further encouraged by the successful performances of the[Pg 346] Enterprize and other steam-ships by this time employed in India. Nor did they relax their efforts, dragging with them the Court of Directors, until this great object was accomplished by the establishment of a regular overland mail service.

Among the most zealous supporters of steam communication with the East, and subsequently one of the most arduous and conspicuous agitators of the overland route, was Mr. Thomas Waghorn.[301] He had been a mate in the Bengal pilot service, and, having piloted the Enterprize on her arrival at Calcutta, at once saw the advantages to be derived from the extension of steam-ships to India. In 1827 he became associated with the committee which had been formed in Calcutta for the prosecution of steam communication with England, and in the following year was accredited by that association to persons in authority at Madras, Ceylon, the Mauritius, the Cape, St. Helena, and London. Failing, however, to obtain[Pg 347] sufficient patronage for a regular service by way of the Cape of Good Hope, he resolved to return to India by the Isthmus of Suez, as he had heard that the Enterprize was to be despatched up the Red Sea. With that object in view, he waited upon Lord Ellenborough, then President of the Board of Control, and also upon Mr. Lock, at that time Chairman of the Court of Directors of the East India Company, and offered to act as a courier to the East. His services having been accepted,[302] he left London on the evening of the 28th of October, 1829, crossed the continent of Europe to Trieste, and arrived at Alexandria on the 27th of November, at 8 A.M., passing through five kingdoms of Europe in nine and a half days; three days and seventeen hours of this arduous journey having been spent in stoppages. His orders were to meet the Enterprize at Suez, and to convey in her despatches for Sir John Malcolm, then governor of Bombay, but, this steamer having broken down on the passage, did not reach her destination.

Though much disconcerted by this misfortune, Mr. Waghorn at once hired an open native boat, and, without chart or compasses, sailed down the Red Sea to Jiddah, a distance of 628 miles, in six days, and, passing on thence, arrived at Bombay, March 21st, 1830, in the East India Company’s sloop Thetis, which had been sent to meet him.[303]

Though Waghorn was probably convinced in his own mind by the experience thus obtained of the superior advantages of the Red Sea route so far as[Pg 348] regarded speed, he continued to advocate the establishment of a line of steam-vessels by the Cape in preference to any other,[304] no doubt feeling that, in supporting the views of the people of Calcutta, he was honestly performing his duties to those persons by whom he was employed. But whatever may have been the cause, he did not publicly support the overland route until some time afterwards. However, when free to act as he pleased, he took up the cause of the Red Sea route with his usual warmth and energy, and advocated it with more vigour and, certainly, with greater success than he had done that by the Cape of Good Hope.

In the meantime other persons were steadily pursuing their endeavours to induce the East India Company to adopt the overland route, and among these may be mentioned Mr. J. R. Taylor,[305] who had[Pg 349] long been as zealously labouring to form a company in London for the establishment of a regular communication by means of steam-vessels on the Mediterranean and the Red Sea. “The experience,” he remarked,[306] “afforded by passages made by steam-vessels in certain parts of the route selected, justifies the expectation that intercourse between the two countries may thus be effected in from fifty-four to sixty days;” and, in his letter forwarding a copy of his prospectus to Sir John Malcolm, he adds, “I beg leave respectfully to inform your Excellency, that the requisite number of steam-vessels being already built and equipped, a commencement may be made on the line of communication within three months from the period, when the assent of your Excellency’s Government to my proposition may be made known to me. If, then, I should be honoured by such assent, it is my intention, within the period already specified, to be the means of introducing into British India such a number of first-rate steam-vessels, unexceptionable in point of size and equipment, as will enable me to propose myself to become a general carrier to all the Indian Governments, both for England and in India, and will admit of those Governments maintaining a constant and regular communication with Great Britain, and all principal parts of British India, on the first and fifteenth of every month.”[307]

[Pg 350]

The result of this and other communications addressed by Mr. Taylor to the Government of Bombay, was an official letter from them to the Court of Directors stating that while they considered the Court alone “competent to pass a decision on his proposals,” they strongly commended the project he was endeavouring to accomplish. “We beg to add our opinion that no doubt can exist of the practicability as well as the utility of extending steam navigation to Egypt from Bombay; and that we should consider it a most fortunate circumstance if our attempts to promote this desirable object shall, by indicating such to be the case, induce men of enterprise and capital to embark in an undertaking of the nature proposed by Mr. Taylor.”

“The plan proposed by Mr. Taylor,” they continued, “evidently requires great and combined means to give it even a prospect of success; we are of opinion that his calculations are far too sanguine and that his plan is on too large a scale. These are, however, objections to his scheme which may be easily obviated. In the first instance, we must give our opinion as relates to India that the undertaking may and should be conducted on a more limited scale, and subsequently extended according to circumstances. In transmitting these proposals for your consideration, we cannot avoid expressing our decided opinion that almost incalculable advantages may be anticipated from a well established steam communication by the Red Sea, and our earnest hope that, unless other proposals from individuals have been entertained and their plans put in progress, and in case Mr. Taylor’s schemes are viewed as either[Pg 351] inexpedient or impracticable, that every support will be afforded by your Honourable Court to maintain this desirable communication by vessels in the public service.”[308]

But the temper of the Court of Directors was still strikingly in contrast with the earnestness of the Bombay Government. They do not seem to have cared much about the development of the commercial resources of their empire, and so the recommendations of the Governor and Council at Bombay were laid aside for future consideration; indeed, it was not until, after nearly two years, that they even acknowledged the letters they had received. The expense, they averred, exceeded the amount they cared to risk; while, in the proposed undertaking, they had evidently little confidence, as they urged that “the loss from defective vessels and engines is as likely to occur as ever.” They, nevertheless, at last affirmed that they were not insensible to the advantages of rapid communication with India nor of the importance of steam for that purpose.

“We are also disposed to believe,” they added, “that a steam communication by the Red Sea, and still more, if it should be found practicable, by the Persian Gulf and the River Euphrates, would open the way to other improvements, and would ultimately redound to the benefit of this country as well as of India; and, if our finances were in a flourishing state (they were always poor, though ever rolling in wealth), we might probably feel it a duty to incur even the enormous outlay which we have specified[Pg 352] (100,000l.). In the present condition of our resources, we cannot, however, think the probable difference of time in the mere transmission of letters a sufficient justification for the expense. We cannot anticipate that the return in postage and passengers would pay more than a very small portion of the charge.” But happily, after other observations, they concluded by saying that, “at the same time we deem the subject too important to be lost sight of or hastily dismissed.”[309]

In the meantime the Hugh Lindsay (a war steam-vessel, built of teak at Bombay in 1829 for the service of the East India Company), had fortunately been despatched[310] by the Bombay Government under command of Captain J. H. Wilson, from Bombay to Suez and back—a voyage, I may add, which was[Pg 353] twice repeated before the Court of Directors gave any instructions on the subject, though one, too, materially tending to solve some at least of the difficulties they had contemplated. It was on the second of these occasions that Sir John Malcolm and his suite made the overland passage to England.

“When it was determined,” remarks Captain Wilson, “that the Hugh Lindsay should attempt the voyage to Suez, it became necessary to put on board double the quantity of coal the vessel was built to carry, to do which, a great part of the space originally intended for accommodation was appropriated to the stowage of coal; water also was necessary, sufficient for use until the vessel should reach land in the event of a break-down between Bombay and the first depôt; as also stores and provisions for the whole voyage to and from the Red Sea.”[311]

Captain Wilson, however, accomplished the passage from Bombay to Aden, a distance of 1641 miles, in ten days nineteen hours, though only six hours’ coals remained on board when he arrived at that port. At Aden the Hugh Lindsay obtained a fresh supply, coal depôts having been established in anticipation of her arrival at that place, as well as at Jiddah, Cossier, and Suez. Other difficulties, however, had to be overcome, as scarcely a day passed without it being necessary to stop the engines to put the paddle-wheels in order, the boards of which were constantly getting loose. At Aden, Captain Wilson was detained five days and twenty hours in receiving the necessary supply of coal, owing to the want of means at the place for shipping it and other[Pg 354] obstacles. The passage from Aden to Mocha roads, where he had despatches to land, was accomplished in twelve hours, and thence to Jiddah, a distance of 557 miles, in four days twelve hours. Here his vessel was detained four days and a half in obtaining a supply of coals; in five days more he reached Suez, having performed the voyage from Bombay to Suez in twenty-one days six hours’ steaming, or, including stoppages, in thirty-two days sixteen hours.

Had a steamer been ready at Alexandria the mails (consisting of 306 letters, the postage on which amounted to 1176 rupees), which could have been conveyed thence in three days, would in twenty-five more days have reached England. Thus, in spite of the delays at the depôts, the communication between India and England could have been accomplished in sixty-one days. The return passage of the Hugh Lindsay to Bombay occupied thirty-three days, including stoppages of nineteen days, or fourteen days’ steaming; and, under all the circumstances, the whole voyage was considered far from unsatisfactory;[312] one of the subsequent voyages, to Cossier[313] (300 miles below the Isthmus), was accomplished in twenty-two days, including five days’ detention at the coaling stations.

Yet, though the practicability of the Red Sea voyage during the north-east monsoon was now demonstrated, it was not certain that the passage could be made irrespectively of the seasons; nor could any argument be drawn from the performances of[Pg 355] this pioneer ship, as her construction and power were not suited to contend against the south-west monsoon between Ceylon or Bombay and the Arabian Gulf.

Again, as a large number of persons connected with the East India Company, and various merchants interested in trade with the East, many of whom had advocated the Cape route, were now in favour of the Euphrates route, though the public in general preferred the establishment of a mail service by way of Egypt, the discussions, ultimately arising, led to the appointment of the Parliamentary Committee of 1834, the resolution of the House simply requiring its members “to inquire into the means of promoting communication with India by steam.”

But the report of the Committee, after a very full inquiry, was not definite on the point of the really best route. It was, however, resolved, and the Committee could hardly have done otherwise, notwithstanding the lukewarmness of the Court of Directors, that a regular and expeditious communication with India by means of steam-vessels was an object of great importance both to Great Britain and to India; that the practicability of steam navigation between Bombay and Suez during the north-east monsoon had been established by the Hugh Lindsay; but that further experiments were necessary to establish the practicability of the Red Sea route at all seasons of the year. They further recommended that a grant of 20,000l. should be made “with the least possible delay,” to examine and test the (steam capabilities of the Euphrates route; the line contemplated being that from Scanderoon on the coast[Pg 356] of Syria to Aleppo, and thence to Bir on the Euphrates, the distance between these towns (170 miles) being not greater than that across Egypt.

From the evidence adduced and from the correspondence in the public journals of the period,[314] it is, however, evident that political rather than commercial reasons favoured the Euphrates route. It was then thought, looking to the probability of the opening up of the Indus, to the state of our relations with Persia, and to the necessity of maintaining a squadron, as we then did, to protect our interests in the Persian Gulf, that this line could, while increasing the safety of our East Indian possessions, be maintained at less cost than the Red Sea one.[315]

[Pg 357]

The other reasons assigned in favour of the Euphrates route were the comparative cheapness with which this object could be accomplished, the channel of the Persian Gulf and the River Euphrates being preferable to that of the Red Sea for steam communication between Bombay and the Mediterranean; moreover, in the then existing state of things it was thought that the route by Syria, Mesopotamia, and Babylonia would be safer than by way of the Red Sea and Egypt. In reference to the dangers which might be encountered from the wandering tribes of Arabs who had so long infested a large portion of the Euphrates route, it was stated that arrangements could easily be made by negotiations with the Porte, Mohammed Ali, or the chiefs of the tribes, who, at a small annual cost, would insure the necessary protection, while it was held that an armed mail-steamer with only letters and ordinary stores on board, would offer no attraction to marauders, as it was not then contemplated to carry either treasures or valuable merchandise by the overland route.[316]

As the Committee of the House of Commons had recommended immediate action for the establishment[Pg 358] of a regular overland mail service, the Court of Directors were compelled to take the matter into their serious consideration; but they had determined to leave for future consideration the important question whether the communication should be, in the first instance, from Bombay or from Calcutta, or according to the combined plan suggested by the Bengal Steam Committee, in which case the net charge should be divided equally between the Government and the East India Company, so as to include the expense of the land conveyance from the Euphrates and the Red Sea respectively to the Mediterranean. After reviewing the relative advantages on the one hand and the physical difficulties on the other of the two routes, with the view of securing a regular communication throughout the year, the Committee suggested an extension of the line of Malta packets to such ports in Egypt and in Syria as would enable the communication between England and India to be tested experimentally by both routes.

In accordance with these recommendations the Admiralty extended, in February 1835, the service of their mail-packets from Malta to Alexandria; while the Court of Directors sent out instructions to the Governor-General of India to forward the Hugh Lindsay at appointed periods to Suez. The character of the Euphrates route was also still further explored by Colonel Chesney,[317] under the direction of the East India Board, to whom this work had been entrusted,[Pg 359] and, not long afterwards, the home authorities established a dromedary post from Baghdad to Damascus and Beyrout for the transmission of such mails as might be sent by that route.

The beneficial effects of these arrangements were soon felt in India, as would appear by a despatch from the Bombay Government to the Court of Directors (September 1836), wherein it is stated “that the three last overland mails have brought despatches from London to Bombay in thirty-eight, forty-five, and sixty-four days, and those intended for Calcutta have been forwarded in ten days more.” But as the despatch of the 16th of September, which conveyed this information by way of Egypt, did not reach England till the beginning of the following year, owing to various delays between Bombay and Suez, it was resolved to place larger and more powerful steamers on the Red Sea route—chiefly, as it would seem, because neither the Hugh Lindsay nor the Enterprize could perform the passage against the south-west monsoon.

The result was that the Court of Directors placed on this station (that by the Euphrates presenting greater difficulties) two vessels of much superior power, the Berenice and Atalanta, which had been laid down in 1835 for their naval service. The particulars of these vessels and of their cost, as well as those of the steamers on the Red Sea service which followed, will be found in the Indian navy list supplied by the East India House to Lord Jocelyn’s Committee of 1851, from which see extract.[318]

[Pg 360]

A regular steam service having now been established between England and her Eastern empire by ships of the East Indian navy on the one side of the Isthmus of Suez, and by the Admiralty packets on the other, I shall glance at the various means of transit across this neck of land, before describing the great mercantile steam lines which now maintain the communication throughout.

At the outset they were of the most original and multifarious description, and the few passengers who then made the overland passage found their way as best they could on camels, dromedaries, or donkeys. Towards the improvement in all its stages of this rude mode of transport there was no one more conspicuous than Thomas Waghorn. He was the moving genius of the whole undertaking, and its most zealous and successful agitator. Whatever may[Pg 361] be said of his prudence, or however much we may lament his failings, his industry was unwearied and his zeal unbounded. It may be that he was only a convert to a scheme long contemplated by others; but, when once undertaken, his efforts never ceased until the object he had in view was accomplished. Though the first resting-places across the desert were constructed at the expense of the Bombay Steam-fund Committee by Hill and Raven,[319] under the orders of Colonel Barr,[320] the route itself was organized by Waghorn, and he was the first who undertook and carried on by a regular system for three years the conveyance of the mails across the Isthmus of Suez.[321] Sir Gardner Wilkinson (‘Modern Egypt,’ pp. 306-7) and various other competent witnesses bear ample testimony to this important fact, and it is one which must ever hold a prominent place in the records of the origin of the modern overland route to India.

Though camels are capable of carrying a weight of from 9 to 10 cwt. each at a rate of 2½ miles an hour [322] for twelve or sixteen consecutive hours, it became necessary to adopt other modes of transit as the traffic increased. Two-wheeled vans drawn[Pg 362] by four horses, and fitted to carry eight persons, were therefore introduced to transport the passengers from Suez to Cairo, whence they were embarked in sailing boats on the Nile to Alexandria; Mr. Waghorn subsequently organizing, in connection with the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, a line of small steamers which took the place of these boats. In course of time caravansaries and hotels were substituted for the original stations and resting-places on the route. These were completed in February 1843, and received the passengers from the Hindostan steamer on her first trip in the regular mail service from Calcutta, Madras, and Galle to Suez, by which time this branch of the business had been undertaken by the Egyptian Transit Company. But, in the organization of all these important works, Mr. Waghorn took the leading part, and their completion, under many difficulties, was in a great measure due to his indefatigable exertions.

So early as 1834, Muhammed Ali, seeing the advantages to be obtained by a railway between Cairo and Suez, instructed Mr. Thomas Galloway to make arrangements for its construction, and, with this object in view, the rails, locomotives, and plant, were ordered from England;[323] but, owing to the opposition of France, the formation of this line was continually postponed,[324] and subsequently abandoned.[Pg 363] A railway was, however, commenced in 1852 by Robert Stephenson from Alexandria to Cairo, and completed in 1857. Subsequently, it was continued from that city to Suez, branching off at Benha to Zaga-Zig, and following the course of the old canal to Suez, by which a considerable saving of distance was effected over the Cairo route as originally proposed. The line throughout was completed and opened for traffic in 1870.

But the grand work, the greatest and grandest connected with maritime commerce, either in ancient or modern times, was the cutting of the Suez Canal, between the town so named at the head of the Red Sea and the shores of the Mediterranean at a place in the Bay of Pelusium, now known as Port Said: this gigantic undertaking is about 100 miles in length, and runs in nearly a straight line almost due north from Suez, passing through various lakes, marshes, or swamps, the principal of which are called Birket Menzaleh, Birket-el-Timsah, and the Bitter Lakes.

Previously to the commencement of this great work, at least two erroneous impressions had prevailed: of these the first, that the Mediterranean was from 25 to 30 feet below the level of the Red Sea at Suez,[325] has been exploded by the completion of the canal; but, as the second (reflecting on the originality of M. de Lesseps’ undertaking), though a much less important one, seems still to exist, I may state that the course of his canal is quite different from that of the fresh-water one said to have been navigable in[Pg 365] the reign of the Pharaohs (its course is still traceable here and there), which ran from a point on the Nile a little below Cairo in a north-easterly direction, towards Lake Timseh, and, thence, almost due south by the west side of the Bitter Lakes to Suez. This canal had no connection, or rather water communication, with the Mediterranean except by the easternmost branches of the Nile below Cairo, and, though the Nile at that city is ten feet above the Red Sea at Suez, it may be doubted whether this ancient canal was ever used except during the rainy season, though Herodotus states there was width on it for two triremes to row abreast. Certainly, no mention, direct or indirect, records the passage of any craft worthy of the name of a ship between the Mediterranean and Red Sea.[326] The great ship-canal (see map, p. 364), now in use, does not go near[Pg 366] Cairo or the Nile, but cuts through the narrowest part of the isthmus at a point about 100 miles east of Alexandria.

A popular error also prevails that this vast undertaking was only contemplated a few years ago. Nor do these popular errors here end, for everybody supposes that M. Ferdinand de Lesseps, to whose genius and energy the world is indebted for this great work, was an engineer, whereas he was really a diplomatist,[327] and was obliged to make himself master of the art of engineering to be in some measure able to cope with the host of engineers, professional and theoretical, who opposed his marvellous scheme.

The idea of a canal across the Isthmus of Suez by the route adopted by M. de Lesseps is a very old one. So far back as A.D. 638-40, Amrou, soon after the conquest of Egypt,[328] wrote to his master the[Pg 367] Khalif Omar recommending the establishment of a communication between the two seas, the intervening country being, as he describes it, “an undulating green meadow with ploughed fields—such is the delta of the Nile; a dusty desert, a liquid and clayey plain, a black slush—such is the isthmus to cut through.” But the Khalif objected to the piercing of the isthmus, “fearing it would open out the country to the influence of foreigners,” a fear that prevailed also with one or two leading statesmen of our own country and in our own time.

Though the project had been occasionally mentioned, the work itself was never seriously contemplated except in one instance [329] until M. de Lesseps, about the year 1840, conceived a definite plan for carrying it out. Scientific men, indeed, in most parts of the world, considered the undertaking altogether impracticable. They alleged that the difficulties of the desert could never be surmounted, and that nothing stable could be erected on treacherous sands doomed by nature to sterility and desolation.[Pg 368][330] Indeed, Sir Daniel Lange,[331] the oldest and most earnest friend and colleague of M. de Lesseps in this country, and, from its commencement until now, the representative of the Suez Canal in England, remarks that so general was this opinion, that the captains of the small craft who first received orders to proceed to Pelusium with materials for the prosecution of the work, smiled with incredulity, but resigned themselves to what they thought a fool’s errand.

Nor were these doubts surprising, for the site of ancient Pelusium is upon a low flat shelving sandy coast where sea and land seem to blend with each other, and where the long roll of the surf over a flat beach forbids even the approach of a boat. No wonder therefore that the indefatigable M. de Lesseps was unable for years to induce either governments or individuals to provide the requisite means; indeed, his own countrymen, when he issued the prospectus in 1857, were nearly if not quite as lukewarm about it as foreigners, while in England on the[Pg 369] other hand, a great outcry was created, mainly by Lord Palmerston, against the project on political grounds. It is not, however, my province to enter upon these; but, surely, England, with her vast possessions in the East and with the command of the sea, was far more interested than any other nation in removing Egypt from the envy it had long been of powerful European nations, and, in cutting a ship canal—a great highway—through it, which would be open to the vessels of all nations like the Sound or the Dardanelles. Indeed, every increased facility for reaching our Indian possessions must be a far greater gain to us than to any other nation.

But strange to say the political opposition raised by England[332] proved the chief means of enabling M. de Lesseps to raise the requisite capital, and secured him support he would otherwise not probably have obtained. Foreign capitalists, especially in France, now came forward to subscribe, not that they had much faith in the commercial success of the canal, but because they felt grieved or annoyed that an undertaking, which could not fail to benefit mankind, even if it did not pay the original subscribers, should be opposed on narrow and jealous grounds by one of the most conspicuous, if not in all matters the most enlightened, of English statesmen.

But, even with the requisite capital at command, M. de Lesseps had a most arduous and herculean task to perform. It was necessary, remarks Sir[Pg 370] Daniel Lange, previously to entering on a work of such magnitude, to prepare dwellings, storehouses, factories, forges, and a lighthouse; indeed, all the accessories indispensable for putting in motion the huge mechanical appliances intended to be used. All this was done in the newly erected “Town of Port Said.” But before this place could be formed, the marshes had to be raised 10 feet above the sea-level, so as to form an area of sixty-seven acres of solid land; and from this basis piers had to be carried out into the open sea, the western one for a distance of one and three-quarter miles, and the eastern a mile and one-third in length, composed of not less than 250,000 blocks of concrete, weighing about thirty tons each. Between these piers a harbour was formed with a surface of 132 acres, the excavations from it amounting to 4,669,943 cubic mètres.[333]

But among the many obstacles encountered, none were half so formidable as the formation of the channel through Lake Menzaleh, which extended 21 miles from Port Said to Kantara. The sands and other insurmountable obstacles which had been prophesied were as nothing to this work, arising from the fact that the mud and slush had actually to be thrown up by the hands alone (just as children in their amusements make mud-heaps) of the thousands of natives employed to form a dyke;[334] indeed, had it not been for the[Pg 371] powerful Egyptian sun, which dried up the mud so exposed in a few hours, the task would have been impracticable, as ordinary mechanical appliances must have failed to overcome such an obstacle.

When something like an opening had been made through many miles of “black slush,” and clear water began to flow in, rafts were constructed, and on these the men slept under tents made of mats. In this work, about fifteen thousand fishermen from the neighbourhood were employed, a class of men who, from time immemorial, had been accustomed, in their ordinary avocations, to spend a large portion of their time half immersed in the water.

When a passage of sufficient dimensions had been scooped out with their hands, dredging-machines were introduced. By degrees this trench was widened until it reached the dimensions of 330 feet wide, and 26 feet deep; the sides, from the rapid drying of the mud, soon becoming almost as solid as walls of masonry and quite as durable.

It was between these new banks that floating dredging-machines of a novel construction, with shoots 220 feet in length, were placed, thus enabling M. de Lesseps to dispense with the previously expensive mode of conveying the silt raised by the dredgers in hopper-barges to sea; the new machines discharged the stuff excavated from the channel over[Pg 372] the embankments on to the low and marshy land on either side:[335] by these means two good results were attained; the channel of the canal was economically cleared, and the mud thus excavated employed in greatly strengthening its banks on each side.

The cutting of the channel through Birket-el-Ballah, which was more of a swamp than a lake, for a distance of twelve miles, though in itself a very difficult work, was comparatively easy to the excavation of Lake Menzaleh, nor were there any serious obstacles to encounter except in clearing a passage through various mounds of earth extending for a distance of 6 miles, all of which had to be removed or pierced. This difficulty, however, was overcome, after a passage had been cut, by the aid of an ingenious machine called an elevator, which lifted the soil to a height of 56 feet, and carried it along a kind of railed bridge to the places of deposit on either side of the excavated mounds. Eighteen of these elevators, with 700 boxes, were employed on that portion of the works where the banks of the canal were too high to allow the earth cut from the channel to be otherwise disposed of. One of these mounds, that of El Guisr, 61 feet in height, presented a most formidable rampart, which had to be removed in order to allow the waters of the Mediterranean to flow into the vast local depression immediately beyond it known as Lake Timsah, by Ismailia, the interior port of the canal, so named in honour of the Khedive. Here a flourishing new town has been built, surrounded by gardens growing[Pg 373] in a fruitful soil, on a site for many centuries a bleak and sterile desert.

In the work of removing these mounds, or cutting through them, so as to form the channel of this great maritime highway, where ships of 4000 tons now safely navigate, every conceivable description of machinery suitable for the purpose had to be prepared beforehand, together with not less than 20,000 workmen, including a perfect army of Fellaheen, the usual designation of the rural population which the Government of Egypt had agreed to supply, and various tribes of Arabs and Bedouins from the countries bordering the Syrian deserts. These men were divided into gangs, and their work apportioned with great order and regularity; in each division a notice in Arabic was posted indicating the quantity of earth to be dug, and the wages paid per cubic mètre for its completion. Nor were the wants and social comforts of these men overlooked. Large encampments were provided, and arrangements made for an abundant supply of provisions and fresh water, the latter alone during some portions of the work having to be brought twenty miles, thus affording constant employment to 2000 camels, each of which carried about 50 gallons or about 500 pounds weight of fresh water. From Timsah to the Bitter Lakes the excavations through the district called Serapeum, were hardly less formidable. “Historians,” remarks Sir Daniel Lange,[336] “tell us that these lakes were in ancient times, the limit of the Gulf of Suez. One thing is certain, that the shells and fossils found here are of the same species as those in the Red Sea.[Pg 374] The conjecture the least contradicted is, that an earthquake caused the upheaving of these parts and the sea to recede to Suez, leaving the lakes and interior basin which in process of time have evaporated.”

These lakes are 16 and 9 miles in length, respectively: the first descending from the heights of Serapeum, being 34 feet below sea-level, and the second 24 feet. In both, isolated water lines of high and low tides are easily discerned, with remains of gravel, and of a horizontal bank of agglomerated fossil shells about 7 feet thick. M. de Lesseps found them completely dried up, with the exception of the lowest portion, which still retained enough humidity to make the earth moist and in some parts swampy. To fill these deep basins, water was drawn, by means of sluices from the Red Sea and from the Mediterranean; and, on the 18th of April, 1869, when these were opened in the presence of the Khedive of Egypt, the waters of the two seas, for the first time embraced each other, though it was not till the 15th of August that the great maritime canal was open throughout. The inauguration of their complete union was celebrated at Suez, and, on the 28th September, M. de Lesseps steamed from sea to sea in fifteen hours, having accomplished by his genius and unwearied industry one of the greatest engineering works the world has ever seen, and given to posterity, as a great benefactor of the human race, another imperishable name.

On the 17th of November, this important maritime canal was formally opened for ships of all nations with much state by the Empress Eugénie of France,[Pg 375] in the presence of numerous distinguished men from all countries.

The cost complete, was somewhat about 20,000,000l. sterling, consisting of 8,000,000l. subscribed capital, 4,000,000l. debenture stock, and 8,000,000l., in further loans and indemnities paid by the Khedive for retrocession of lands, &c.

To the traffic now engaged upon it I shall hereafter refer. In the meantime, I must trace the rise and progress of the first mercantile steam-ship company which developed the trade of England with her Indian possessions by way of the Isthmus of Suez.

[Pg 376]

CHAPTER X.

The career of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, the first commercial undertaking[Pg 377] which conveyed the mails overland to the East is interesting and instructive. It is the more so, as the impression that this company owed its origin to Government grants, and that it has been entirely maintained by subsidies for the conveyance of the mails, is not supported by facts. Indeed, during the earlier portion of its career, the company, by agreeing to carry the Peninsular mails, shortly after it had been started, for a sum considerably less than the cost of maintaining the Admiralty packets then employed, with a speed, too, and regularity previously unknown, conferred an undoubted boon on the public.

Whether the company would have continued to maintain its career of prosperity without Government subsidies is a problem too speculative for me to solve; but it may well be questioned whether the grants of public money subsequently voted to it year by year, in so far as they prevented wholesome competition, and tended to damp the individual energy which brought it into existence, have been of much service towards its success. During one portion of the company’s career, when the advantages of the overland route had been fully established, it might, and I think it would, have been to its advantage to have been relieved from every incumbrance as to time and speed. Free from these, and the many other conditions required by Government, the company would probably have done better for its shareholders had it been, also, at liberty to build and sail its ships as it pleased, despatching them on such voyages and at such rates of speed as paid it best; and, in support of this opinion, I may remark that various other shipping companies with no[Pg 378] assistance whatever from Government have yielded far larger dividends than the Peninsular and Oriental, and, further, that private shipowners, who never had a mail bag in their steamers, have realized large fortunes. With these remarks, I shall now endeavour to furnish a brief history of this important undertaking from its commencement, and to show that its rise was by slow degrees, and altogether unlike that of the Royal West India Mail Steam Packet Company, with which it has been frequently compared.

In the year 1815, Mr. Brodie McGhee Willcox,[337] then a young man with no influence and but limited pecuniary means, opened an office in Lime Street, London, and commenced business on his own account as a shipbroker and commission agent. To assist him in his business he shortly afterwards engaged as clerk a youth from the Orkney Islands, Arthur Anderson,[338] subsequently his partner, whose only capital was a plain but sound education, good moral and Christian training, a clear head and great industry. In 1825, the firm adopted the title of Willcox and Anderson, and removed their offices to 5 St. Mary Axe, where they carried on their business till it was absorbed into that of the great[Pg 379] company whose progress I am about to describe. Originally, it was simply a small shipping commission business, with the addition of the part-ownership of a few vessels chiefly trading with the Peninsula, with which they in time opened up, first a regular sailing, and then a steam line of communication, this service having been started solely by Mr. Willcox. At first, Messrs. Willcox and Anderson had a good deal of up-hill work, but they were plodding and industrious, and, consequently, overcame every difficulty, soon insuring that success which industry, honesty, and economy must ever command.

In 1834, the Dublin and London Steam Packet Company, one of the early undertakings of that description, of which Messrs. Bourne of Dublin, the well-known stage-coach contractors for the conveyance of the mails in Ireland, were the chief proprietors, chartered one of their vessels, the Royal Tar (see illustration, p. 380), to Don Pedro, and subsequently for the Queen Regent of Spain, through Messrs. Willcox and Anderson as brokers. Soon afterwards, M. Mendizabal, at that time Spanish Minister in London, induced Messrs. Bourne to put on a line of steamers between London and the Peninsula, for which Messrs. Willcox and Anderson were appointed agents. A small company having been thus formed to carry out this undertaking, Mr. James Allan,[339] a native of Aberdeen, then a clerk[Pg 381] in the office of the Dublin and London Steam Packet Company, was sent to London to assist Messrs. Willcox and Anderson in the management of the ships. He afterwards became secretary, and when the company had materially extended its operations, Mr. Allan, on the death of Mr. Carleton in 1848, was appointed a managing director in conjunction with Messrs. Willcox and Anderson.

[Pg 380]

Previously to September 1837, the Peninsular mails were conveyed by sailing post-office packets which left Falmouth for Lisbon every week, “wind and weather permitting.” Their departures and arrivals, as must ever be the case with sailing-vessels, were very irregular, and it was no unfrequent occurrence for the mail from Lisbon to be three weeks old on its arrival at Falmouth. The mail communication with Cadiz and Gibraltar was, however, carried on by a Government steam-packet, and, though of course with greater regularity than the service performed by the sailing-packets, was, nevertheless, much slower than any of the steamers under the management of Messrs. Willcox and Anderson, who, feeling themselves in a position to effect considerable improvements in the transmission of the mails, submitted an offer to Government for a more regular[Pg 382] transport of letters. But this proposal was coldly received, and their suggestions at first disregarded. Vested interests here, as in so many other cases, for a time prevented any improvement. The Peninsular Company, however, continued to prosecute their undertaking with vigour, the speed and regularity with which their steamers performed their passages soon attracting public attention. Loud complaints of the inefficiency of the transmission of the mails by sailing-packets at length arose, and, indeed, were so earnest and persistent on the part of the merchants engaged in the trade, that Government at last considered it expedient to inquire officially of the managers of the Peninsular steamers if they had any plan or proposals to submit for an improvement of the mail service, as, if they had, their views would now receive favourable consideration.

A fresh proposal was, consequently, made for a weekly mail between Falmouth, Vigo, Oporto, Lisbon, Cadiz, and Gibraltar, for which purpose efficient steam-vessels were to be supplied, to perform the service, monthly, between these ports, and at a lower rate than half the cost to the country of the steam and sailing-packets of the Admiralty.

Though Government now received the proposals of the company with favour and were prepared to act on the plan submitted for consideration, the company was informed that the service, nevertheless, must be put up to public competition. An advertisement was, accordingly, soon afterwards issued, inviting tenders from owners of steam-vessels for the conveyance of the mails between Falmouth and the Peninsula, in conformity with the plan submitted by[Pg 383] the Peninsular Company; so that the managers of this struggling undertaking had to compete against others for the due performance of this service, though on plans drawn up by themselves at the request and with the entire approval of Government. But though another company, which had a short time previously started under the name of the British and Foreign Steam Navigation Company, tendered for the conveyance of the mails, it was soon found that they were not able to carry out the service either within the time or on the conditions required. Time was, however, allowed them to perfect their arrangements, and, a month afterwards, fresh advertisements were issued by the Admiralty for the conveyance of these mails.

The British and Foreign Steam Navigation Company, however, having again failed to show that they had adequate means for the efficient performance of this service, Government entered into private negotiations with the Peninsular Company with the view of reducing the amount required by them, and, on the 29th of August, 1837, a contract was concluded by which this company agreed to convey, monthly, the whole of the Peninsular mails for 29,600l., a sum subsequently reduced to 20,500l. per annum. The service was performed with much regularity, and it may be considered to have been the nucleus of the great company which now conveys the mails to all parts of the Eastern world. The Iberia, built by Messrs. Curling and Young, was the first steamer despatched with the Peninsular mails. She sailed in September 1837, the benefits thus conferred on those who were engaged in the[Pg 384] trade becoming at once apparent. Another step in advance soon followed.

The mode in which the mails were conveyed to and from India up to September 1840, was by means of steamers plying monthly between Bombay and Suez, and thence by Government steamers from Alexandria to Gibraltar, where they met the mails brought out by the Peninsular Company from England. As the steamers of this company had to call at Vigo, Oporto, Lisbon, and Cadiz in their passages to and from Gibraltar, and as the Government packets employed between that port, Malta, and Alexandria were of inferior power and speed, the transmission of mails by this route was necessarily slow, and generally occupied from three weeks to a month between England and Alexandria.[340]

But, however imperfect this mode of transmission, it would probably have continued for many years longer had not circumstances occurred rendering an alteration imperative. In 1839, the British Government having entered into a convention with the French Government for the sending of letters to and from India through France by way of Marseilles, an[Pg 385] Admiralty packet was stationed to ply between that port and Malta. Thence, these letters, together with the larger and heavier mails forwarded by the Peninsular and the Admiralty packets viâ Gibraltar, were conveyed from Malta to Alexandria by another of Her Majesty’s ships.

That portion of the mails forwarded through France was despatched from the post-office on the fourth of every month, while the heavier portion continued to be sent from Falmouth every fourth Saturday by the Peninsular packets. As might have been expected, this plan was soon found to work awkwardly, inasmuch as the mail sent viâ Gibraltar every four weeks was in advance of that viâ Marseilles each calendar month, and had, therefore, to await at Malta the arrival of the Marseilles packet.

Irregularities such as these, increased as they were by each successive mail, together with the fact that the British despatches then ran some risk of loss in their transit through France, led Government to consider the advisability of establishing some quicker means of conveyance, viâ Gibraltar, for the main portion of the mails.

The managers of the Peninsular Company having been again applied to, submitted for the approval of Government a proposal to establish a line of superior steamers to run direct from England to Alexandria, and vice versâ, touching only at Gibraltar and Malta; the steamers to be of sufficient power to perform this voyage in not more than three days beyond the time then occupied in the conveyance of the mails viâ France, and at a cost not exceeding what was required for the maintenance of the[Pg 386] small and inefficient Admiralty packets then similarly employed.

Their plan having met the approval of Government, public advertisements were again issued for tenders to carry it into effect, and no less than four competitors tendered for the contract at sums ranging from 34,200l. to 51,000l. per annum. As the tender of the Peninsular Company was not only the lowest, but contained, also, an offer to convey at a reduced rate all officers travelling on the public service, and bonâ fide Admiralty packages gratuitously, it was accepted by the Government.

The tender, however, was accepted with reluctance, various people of influence having, strange to say, almost convinced Government of the desirability of subsidizing a line of steam-vessels between Falmouth and Calcutta viâ the Cape of Good Hope, which was intended not merely to supersede to a great extent the sailing-vessels then employed, but to convey the Indian mails: indeed, it will be found by reference to the public journals of the period, that a steamer of then unusual size had been constructed specially for the purpose.[341] It was, however, wisely decided[Pg 387] that no dependence could be placed on the due performance of the service within the “thirty days” stipulated; nor am I aware that the passage by the Cape of Good Hope, has yet been performed by vessels of any description in a space of time so limited.

The vessels offered by Messrs. Willcox and Anderson and approved by the Admiralty, were the Oriental of 1600 tons and 450 horse-power, as also the Great Liverpool of 1540 tons and 464 horse-power, which, originally intended for the Transatlantic service, was now despatched with the mails from England to Alexandria, thus combining the two mail services, and constituting the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company.

To complete the service, the directors were requested to provide a subsidiary vessel of not less than 250 horse-power, and another of 140 horse-power, for the Malta and Corfu branches, which they did at a cost of 10,712l. per annum less than the charge to the country for the Admiralty packets previously employed.[342]

Up to this period, as we have seen, the mails between Bombay and Suez were conveyed by steamers belonging to the East India Company. It soon, however, became apparent that these vessels were as unsuited to the Indian portion of the service, as those of the Admiralty had proved to be for that between Alexandria and England. But so reluctant were the Directors of the East India Company, to allow “interlopers” into their service, that some years still elapsed before their vessels were superseded[Pg 388] by others of greater speed, and in all other respects more adapted to the increasing wants of the public.

Although the Home Government was so strongly impressed with the necessity of establishing a line of steamers between Calcutta and Suez, as well as from Bombay, it was only after considerable pressure had been brought to bear on the Court that the East India Company reluctantly consented to a contract with the Peninsular Company for this special service; and, on the 24th September, 1842, its new ship Hindostan, of 1800 tons and 520 horse-power, was sent from Southampton to open a line between Calcutta, Madras, Ceylon, and Suez.

It may be desirable to state here that this originally small concern had, two years previously, been formed into a joint stock company with a charter of incorporation from the Crown, which enabled the directors to obtain the additional capital required for the Indian services; and, as they had now received the co-operation of most of those parties who, under the designation of the East India Steam Navigation Company, had been endeavouring to effect the same objects, they proceeded with all possible speed to fulfil the conditions and carry out the objects of their charter of incorporation.

Though the Hindostan proved vastly superior to the vessels of only 250 horse-power employed by the East India Company in the mail service between Bombay and Suez, which cost no less than 105,200l. per annum to maintain, the Court of Directors declined to listen to the further suggestions of the Home Government to transfer this branch of the postal service into the hands of any private undertaking and, indeed,[Pg 389] retained it until 1854. In the meantime Government entered into another contract with the Peninsular and Oriental Company for a monthly service from Ceylon to Penang, Singapore, and Hong Kong. For the service between Suez, Ceylon, Madras, and Calcutta, the company received 115,000l. per annum or at the rate of 20s. per mile, and, for the latter, 45,000l. per annum or about 12s. per mile.

When it became known that the Peninsular and Oriental Company had engaged to perform a service to India and the leading ports of China at the average rate of 17s. per mile in vessels of 500 horse-power, while the service between Suez and Bombay was costing upwards of 30s. per mile in vessels of not half that power, and, at the same time, of greatly inferior speed and accommodation, the public naturally demanded that the Bombay branch of the service should be placed in the hands of persons competent to carry it out more efficiently and economically than had been done by the East India Company.

But the Court of Directors successfully resisted all such demands until the Parliamentary Committee of 1851 reported that this service—in point of economy, the comfort of the passengers, and the requirements of trade—could be performed to greater advantage by private enterprise than by the vessels of the Indian navy. It is, however, questionable if the Directors would even then have given up the service had not the Bombay mails been, soon afterwards, lost in a native sailing-craft into which they had been transferred at Aden, the East India Company having no steamer ready to convey them thence to Suez. The Peninsular and Oriental Company having been applied[Pg 390] to, then found that, by means of the arrangements they had entered into for the performance of the other services, they could undertake this particular branch for the sum of 24,700l. per annum, or at the rate of 6s. 2d. per mile, thereby effecting a saving of about 80,000l. as compared with the expense incurred in the far less efficient service of the Indian navy.

In the meantime Government had, on the 6th January, 1848, given notice to the company to terminate their contract between Southampton and Alexandria on the 18th January of the following year, and, soon afterwards, advertised for tenders for the execution of this service. But, the other tenders being less advantageous to the public than the terms on which the Peninsular and Oriental Company was willing to continue the service, a new contract was entered into, for three years, at 24,000l. per annum or at the rate of 6s. 9d. per mile.

Meantime also, the increasing trade with Australia created demands for greater facilities of intercourse with the mother-country and more regularity in conveyance of the mails, so that the Committee of the House of Commons, appointed in 1849 to inquire and report on the then existing system of mail communication with the East, was instructed also to consider the best mode of conveying the mails between India and our Australian colonies. In this Report, dated July 1851, these different services were divided into five distinct heads,[343] one of which, recommended[Pg 391] the establishment of a line between Singapore and Sydney. In reply to the advertisements issued on the recommendation of the Committee, two tenders were delivered on the 26th February, 1852, one by the Peninsular and Oriental Company for the whole of the services (their contracts of 1844 and 1849 being about to expire) with the addition of a branch line between Bombay and Point de Galle, not named in the conditions, for the annual sum of 199,600l., to be reduced by 20,000l. per annum six months after the completion of the railway across the Isthmus of Suez; and the other, by the Eastern Steam Navigation Company, for a line once a month between England, Calcutta, and Hong Kong for the annual sum of 110,000l., or for 100,000l. should Trieste be substituted for Marseilles as the port of embarkation, and[Pg 392] a further contract for the service between Singapore and Sydney on an annual subsidy of 166,000l. (which, however, was not mentioned in their tender), being 276,000l. for both services.

Although the tender of the Peninsular and Oriental Company was evidently much more favourable to the public interest than that of the Eastern Steam Navigation Company, the latter, nevertheless, petitioned Parliament to appoint another Committee to inquire into the whole subject, to which, however, the then Chancellor of the Exchequer declined to accede, at the same time furnishing (as appears from the Parliamentary debates) valid reasons for the course he considered it his duty to adopt.[344]

Though a good deal of complaint was about this time raised against Government with regard to favours said to be conceded to the Peninsular and Oriental Company, yet they seem to have hitherto fought their way, step by step, against much opposition, and to have redeemed their character for speed, [which was somewhat overshadowed by the superior performances of the Cunard and Collins line of steamers, then in the midst of their great Transatlantic race], by the construction of the Himalaya,[345] a steamer of larger dimensions than any other then afloat, and of extraordinary speed.

[Pg 393]

Nor did the Company receive any favour at the hands of Government when, about this period, they were seriously embarrassed for the want of a sufficient supply of coal[346] at their Eastern stations, and an appeal was made for a temporary relaxation of some portion of the service. Indeed, when the Company, on that account, found it impossible to carry on a portion of the second monthly service between India and China, the Government threatened to inflict the penalty of 35,000l. for its non-performance, and would have enforced the strict fulfilment of the conditions of the contract in all its details, had other arrangements not been made to meet the emergency.

On the 1st January, 1853, the company entered into a fresh contract with Government, whereby they undertook to carry mails twice each way in every month between England and Alexandria, and twice each way in every month between Suez, Calcutta, and Hong Kong. Two vessels were also to be furnished to run between Marseilles and Malta, twice each way, in each month. The company further engaged to carry mails between Singapore and Sydney, once each way each alternate month. Tables of routes were attached and formed part of the contract. There were also certain stipulations as to proper machinery; a medical officer was to be placed on board each vessel, and provision was made for carrying pivot and broadside guns.

The vessels on the main line were required to attain a speed on trial of 12 knots an hour, the[Pg 394] others 10½ without the aid of sails, or they were not eligible for employment. The average speed of each vessel throughout the voyage was required to be not less than 10 knots an hour, excepting in the case of those between Singapore and Sydney, which were to make the passage at a rate not less than 8½ knots. If the company failed to provide vessels ready to put to sea from any of the ports, viz., Southampton, Alexandria, Suez, Calcutta, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Sydney, at the time appointed, the forfeit in each case was stipulated to be 500l., and a further sum of 500l. for every successive day up to the fourteenth day inclusive which might elapse before the vessel actually put to sea. And, if any vessel, in breach of the contract, delayed starting or put back or deviated, except from stress of weather, without the sanction of Government, the company was to forfeit 200l. and a further 200l. for every day’s delay, unless from circumstances not under its control.

The Admiralty agent had power to survey the vessels, and the Admiralty itself, to compel such alterations as might be needed so as to keep pace with the advancement of science; while there were various provisions for the conveyance of naval, military, or civil officers, baggage, and victualing, as in other contracts.

In the event of accidents occurring to any of the vessels, the mails were to be conveyed by Her Majesty’s or by the East India Company’s ships: and an abatement made from the contract service money, at the rate of 6s. 2d. per nautical mile. For a consideration, the Admiralty reserved the privilege of changing the port in the channel, with the right[Pg 395] also of purchasing the vessels at a valuation; or of chartering them at a rate to be mutually agreed on or settled by arbitration. Any submission to be made a rule of court. In the possible case of an entire stoppage of the route through Egypt, the Admiralty were to act as the case might require; the whole postage remaining at the disposal of the Postmaster-General.

But these mail services were soon seriously disturbed. The urgent requirements of Government for the means of conveying troops to the Black Sea and the Baltic on the outbreak of the Crimean War, obliged the company towards the close of 1854 to discontinue the branch line to Australia, and to reduce the Bombay and China service to a monthly instead of a fortnightly line.[347]

The withdrawal of the company’s steamers from the mail service between Singapore and Sydney, which had so recently been established, again created a large amount of discontent amongst the merchants in England connected with the trade and still more with the Colonists. The company was charged with selfish motives, and though obliged to relinquish the annual subsidy of 17,475l. for the performance of their service, it was alleged that the profits of the company, by the employment of its ships in the war, much more than compensated it for the reduction of the mail revenue. Thus considerable prejudice was raised against the company, and, in the discussion of the plans for the renewal of[Pg 396] the service after the war, it became clear that the colonists were anxious to have, if possible, a mail service of their own and altogether independent of the Peninsular and Oriental Company; hence, when the company offered to enter into a contract for the monthly conveyance of the mails between Ceylon and Sydney by steamers of an average speed of 10 knots an hour, touching at King George’s Sound and Melbourne, at an annual subsidy of 84,000l., the offer was peremptorily declined, though a greatly enhanced subsidy was subsequently paid, for the worst performed mail service that was ever undertaken.

In the meantime liberal grants of money having been voted by the legislative assemblies of the different colonies towards the maintenance of a postal communication with the mother-country, advertisements were issued by the Admiralty, in May 1856, inviting tenders for a “monthly direct and independent service” between Suez and Australia.

The conditions of tender contained many clauses of a novel character.

The ships to be employed were to be full power screw steam-vessels of not less than 2200 tons each; the tenders were to specify the maximum number of days to be consumed on the passages; and a “penalty of 100l. to be incurred when the contractors failed in providing a vessel, in accordance with agreement, ready to put to sea at the appointed hour; and also the sum of 100l. for every successive day which should elapse until such steam-vessel should actually proceed to sea; and also (from whatever cause arising) 50l. for the first day, and a sum increasing by[Pg 397] 50l. per day for every succeeding day, that is to say, 50l. for the first day, 100l. for the second day, 150l. for the third day, and so on.”

Four tenders were lodged in reply to this advertisement, but only two, that of the Peninsular and Oriental Company, and that of a new undertaking, the European and Australian Steam Navigation Company, were considered by the Government: the former offering to perform the service, provided the new and very onerous penalty clause was omitted, for 140,000l.; and the latter accepting all the clauses, but requiring 185,000l. per annum for the work to be performed, and stating that, should their tender be accepted, it was intended to lay on an independent line of steamers between England and Alexandria, and to perform the service between Suez and Melbourne in thirty-nine days outwards and thirty-five days homewards.

As the Peninsular and Oriental Company “declined to be held responsible in penalties for failure as to the length of a voyage arising from causes beyond their control,” and submitted that such penalties were unnecessary as the vessels they offered “had already been surveyed, and tested for an average speed of ten knots an hour at sea,” the Government accepted the tender of the European and Australian Company.[348]

[Pg 398]

So very large a concession as 185,000l. per annum for the work to be performed created at the time considerable surprise, and led to a good deal of discussion in the public press as well as in Parliament. With such an enormous subsidy the directors of the new undertaking would have had no difficulty in raising the requisite amount of capital in the open market for a service apparently so tempting, but they considered the margin for profit so ample that, instead of offering their shares to the public, they raised among themselves and their friends all the money that was considered necessary, anticipating no doubt a very handsome return upon the outlay.

But the whole undertaking proved one of the most ruinous of its kind on record, the Galway steam navigation scheme not excepted. A volume might be written, and to advantage, on the mistakes committed by the directors, all of whom were business men of wealth and position, though few of them were conversant with maritime affairs, or with the difficulties they had to encounter at every stage, and with the causes which ultimately led to the loss of some of their ships. Suffice it to say that, when the company had to commence operations in March 1857, its ships were not ready, and the directors were obliged to[Pg 399] enter into arrangements with the Royal Mail (West India) Steam Packet Company and other companies for the performance of the service; and indeed, when their own ships were ready, they either broke down or were found unfit to perform, within the specified time, the work they had undertaken.

In less than two years the whole capital of this new company was lost, but as the result has been fully described by Lord Overstone in a speech he delivered in the House of Lords on the 24th of March, 1859,[349] I prefer reproducing his statement, especially as it remains unquestioned, to offering any remarks of my own.

“This company,” his Lordship remarked, “originated very much through the success of some influential parties in Glasgow, who realized a large sum by chartering two screw steamers to Government during the Crimean War. These vessels were named the European and the Columbian, and the company was named the ‘European and Columbian Company.’ Soon after the close of the Russian War, Government advertised for tenders for the Australian mail service. One given in by the European and Columbian Company was preferred to a cheaper one by the Peninsular and Oriental Company, the annual subsidy for carrying the mails being 185,000l. with monthly services, the contract to endure for five years. The penalty for the non-fulfilment of the contract was heavy, increasing prodigiously with each day’s delay. In consequence of this great undertaking it was necessary to enlarge the company,[Pg 400] and greatly to increase the number of its vessels; and, accordingly, a new company was formed on the limited principle, under the name of the ‘European and Australian Royal Mail Company (Limited)’ whom Government accepted for the contract. The nominal capital was 500,000l., but I believe not more than 420,000l. were subscribed, the balance being purposely reserved, as the promoters expected it to command a large premium. The list of proprietors is one of the best I have seen of any company, all the shareholders, eighty-four in number, being selected men, residing chiefly in Glasgow and neighbourhood, London, Liverpool, and Manchester. 400,000l. were ultimately paid up. The first meeting of the new company was held on the 3rd of September, 1856; but it was, of course, some months before their plans got developed, and time was lost in negotiation with other companies to sell their contract for a bonus, or to get some other advantage. As this was not arranged, the European and Columbian were taken over from the old company; other vessels were chartered for immediate requirements; a vessel called the Oneida, by which 60,000l. were ultimately lost, was purchased; and two other vessels contracted for at 100,000l. and 120,000l. It was soon apparent that the company had started with too small a capital, and that there was a total want of experience in the management.... After borrowing considerable sums upon the security of their vessels and otherwise, the directors found that it was necessary to make arrangements with another company to work the service, which they ultimately did with the ‘Royal Mail (West India) Company.’[Pg 401] An arrangement for an amalgamation of the two concerns was also very nearly completed, when the shareholders of the latter company refused to confirm the bargain made by the directors. This and the events of last autumn (1857) brought matters to a crisis, so that almost within a twelvemonth of the formation of the company, it was known that they were practically insolvent, and they have since placed themselves under the Act, and gone into voluntary liquidation. Besides the loss of 400,000l. of capital, the debts, including mortgages, appear to be about 270,000l., against which they have the steamers, subject to some disputed claims of the Royal Mail Company, in whose hands some of them are. There is some hope that the steamers may realise sufficiently to pay the debts, but, in the present state of shipping and aspect of the questions with the Royal Mail Company, this seems to be doubtful. The following appear to be the heavier items of expense and loss: Abandoning steamers, 25,000l.; placing steamers on stations, 37,000l.; loss on voyages, 70,000l.; interest, management, and depreciation, 77,000l.; loss on Oneida and expense of bringing home, 61,000l.: total 270,000l.; but there will be a further heavy loss in realising the four steamers still belonging to the company, and the plant they have at Sydney, King George’s Sound, Aden, and Point de Galle. These stand in the books at about 370,000l.”

When, in February 1858, the shareholders of this unfortunate undertaking were obliged to seek the protection of the Limited Liability Act under which it had been formed, the Royal Mail (West India) Company entered into arrangements with Government[Pg 402] to carry out the service on the terms of the contract, provided it was guaranteed against loss to an extent not exceeding 6000l. per month. Differences, however, soon arose between this company and the Admiralty which resulted in a lawsuit, whereby it appeared that the West India Company had sustained a loss far in excess of 6000l. per month, and that the service had altogether cost the country close upon 260,000l. per annum during its brief existence.[350]

In September 1858, Government again advertised for tenders “for the monthly conveyance of the mails between Great Britain and the Australian Colonies, with a branch between Marseilles and Malta.” Two offers were made, one by the Royal Mail (West India) Company for 250,000l. per annum, and the other by the Peninsular and Oriental Company for 180,000l. The latter was accepted, and the new service commenced in February 1859.

It may be desirable here to explain that this company had previously undertaken a monthly service between Mauritius and Aden for a subsidy of 24,000l. per annum, and, an arrangement having been made that the route for the Australian mails should be viâ Mauritius, the performance of the mail service to both places was included in the 180,000l. But that route was soon afterwards abandoned, and a fresh agreement entered into between Government and the Peninsular and Oriental Company for a monthly line between Galle and Sydney, which, in conjunction with the Calcutta, Suez, and China lines, brought the Australian Colonies into direct communication not only with England, but also with India[Pg 403] and China, and in fact with all the chief ports of the Indian seas. The subsidy for this service was 134,672l. per annum, the contract remaining in force until February 1866.

When fresh tenders were invited, the Peninsular and Oriental Company, having in this instance no competitor (though tenders were publicly invited), became again the contractors, agreeing to perform a monthly service for 120,000l. or a semi-monthly service for 170,000l. per annum, with boats which should attain a speed of 12 knots per hour on a measured mile, as a guarantee for an average speed of 10 knots per hour from port to port.

As there was a good deal of controversy about this time as to the average rate of speed of the vessels belonging to the principal mail companies, the table in the footnote[351] of the passages of steamers, for[Pg 404] some years just previously to that period, belonging to the largest subsidized lines may be interesting and instructive.

From the thirty-fourth annual report of the Peninsular and Oriental Company, ending 30th of September, 1874, we learn that the paid-up capital amounted to 2,700,000l. and 800,000l. of debenture stock, also that it was the intention of the directors to call up in the course of the following year 10l. per share of their new stock, thus increasing the paid-up capital to 2,900,000l. apart from the debenture stock, so that the whole capital of the company would be 4,300,000l., of which 600,000l. would remain unpaid. This large amount of capital is distributed over more than 2000 shareholders, resident in almost every part of the world, and of whom more than one-third are ladies. Of this capital 3,757,000l. consists of stock in ships; 221,000l. of freehold and leasehold property in England, and docks and premises at Calcutta, Bombay, Singapore, Hong Kong, and other stations; and 413,000l. in stock of coals and naval and victualing stores. Its fleet consists of fifty sea-going steamers, measuring 122,000 tons, and of 22,000 horse-power.[352] Of these steamers thirty-four are employed in the Mediterranean,[Pg 405] Adriatic, India, and China services; four in the Australian service between Ceylon, Melbourne, and Sydney; five in the China and Japan local services; two are used solely as cargo vessels; and five are either under repair or alterations, being reserved to supply the place of others in case of accidents. The company also possess twelve steam-tugs of from 31 tons and 15 horse-power to 271 tons and 120 horse-power, stationed for its use in Egypt, Aden, Bombay, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Yokohama; and three cargo and coalhulks of 4417 tons, while it gives also permanent employment to 12,600 persons, exclusive of coal labourers and coolies on shore.

If my readers will cast their eyes on the map they will, by noting the ports at which these steamers call, form some idea of the extent and value of the services performed by this company. From England, crossing the Bay of Biscay along the shores of the Peninsula, to Gibraltar—the extreme limit of the original undertaking—its steamers now traverse the Mediterranean to Egypt, with a branch from Venice and Brindisi, and through the Canal to Suez, whence the most important line of steamers leave weekly for Bombay, with a further line from Bombay to Galle, and another direct from Suez to Galle, at which station the different lines diverge, one proceeding to Madras and Calcutta; another stretching far away across the Indian Ocean to King George’s Sound, Melbourne, and Sydney; and a third crossing the Bay of Bengal and through the Straits of Malacca, calling at Singapore, and traversing the China seas to Hong Kong, and, thence, to Swatow, Amoy, Foo-chow-foo, and[Pg 406] Shanghai, stretching onwards to Yokohama, where the steamers of this line meet those of the Western world.

The principal conditions of the company’s present mail contract, as compared with that of 1870, are as follows:—The company is now required to despatch steamers weekly to convey the mails from and to Southampton and the various ports in the East by way of the Suez Canal; the Brindisi, or accelerated mail, to be conveyed as heretofore to and from Alexandria and by railway across Egypt; the company to have the option of substituting either Liverpool or Plymouth for Southampton as their mail port; the arrival of the outward mails at Eastern ports to be accelerated by twenty-four hours, and the penalties for late deliveries at terminal points to be quadrupled and made absolute, except in case of shipwreck or damage to machinery. The subsidy payable for the performance of these and other services is to be reduced from 450,000l., the sum agreed by the contract of 1870, to 430,000l. per annum, such sum to include the whole of the mail services rendered by the company.[353]

[Pg 407]

It is not my province to inquire whether these services could not be performed for a smaller grant of public money than that now paid. Opinions differ widely on such matters, and, as the steamers now traversing every sea increase in numbers, the feeling becomes more general, that a considerable saving might be effected in the conveyance of all the ocean mails. But the vast establishment this company is obliged to maintain, and the all-important and onerous duties it has to perform, at stations far apart and many thousand miles distant from headquarters, involves an outlay so great and embraces a risk so hazardous, that such a company may, on the other hand, well consider if the grant it receives, however large, is more than an equivalent for the services performed, especially, too, when we consider the stringent conditions of its contract.

From whatever cause it may have arisen, the fact is apparent, that though the annual gross receipts of the company are enormous, its expenditure[354] is so[Pg 408] great that less balance is left for the shareholders than is usually divided among those of undertakings of a similar character, which receive no assistance from Government, but are free to employ their ships in whatever branch of commerce they can be most profitably engaged.

Coal, as may be supposed, is one of the company’s heaviest items of expenditure, and one, also, that has greatly increased during the last few years; but when the price was comparatively moderate, the accounts of this company, from 1856 to 1865 inclusive, showed an expenditure for coal alone of no less than 5,250,000l. sterling, or, on the average, 525,000l. per annum:[Pg 409] moreover, a large stock must be constantly kept[356] to meet the demands of the steamers employed on their various lines of communication; to maintain this stock, the company employ 170 sailing-ships annually, a trade which, in itself, would have been considered of no mean importance in the days of our forefathers.

It has not been the least interesting portion of my labours, to describe the different modes of commercial intercourse with India from the dawn of history, and, from the scanty fragments of very ancient records, to attempt to afford information, however imperfect, of the ships of the first traders by sea to the far East, their dimensions, the routes they followed, the length of their voyages, and something about their crews and internal economy. I have also traced their progress, as best I could, through the period of the Roman Empire to the Middle Ages, when the vessels of the proud Italian republics, in connection with the Muhammedans, retained for centuries in their hands that rich and ever envied commerce, thence onward to the period when the Portuguese and the Dutch were masters of the Indian seas, and, still further, to our own days, when a company of traders ruled alike the land and ocean of these vast and much prized territories;[Pg 410] and I have, at the same time, given minute details of the ships and maritime services of this once all-powerful company.

I now supply the following illustration of one of the most modern vessels, belonging to the Peninsular and Oriental Company, engaged in that trade (she was built for the new line of commerce through the Suez Canal, by Messrs. Caird and Company, of Greenock, by whom her engines were also constructed); so that my readers may see the progress made in the mode of conducting maritime intercourse with India from the earliest period to our own time.

The Khedive is built of iron and propelled by the screw, combining all the qualities which modern science can suggest to secure with safety the greatest speed and capacity with the smallest current expenses.[357]

[Pg 411]

[Pg 412]

It would weary my readers were I to furnish a specification of the hull and outfit of the Khedive, more especially as somewhat similar specifications are to be found in numerous treatises on modern shipbuilding, with which I do not profess to deal, and as it would, in itself, occupy forty or fifty pages of this volume. It may be sufficient to state, in the concluding words of the contract, “that the whole of the materials and workmanship are to be of the best quality, and the vessel, with the exception of bed and sofa mattresses, curtains, plate, cutlery, glass, china, linen, and bedding, to be entirely fitted and ready for sea at the cost of the contractors;” the contract price for the ship thus fitted complete for sea, including her machinery, was 110,000l., or a little more than 33l. per ton builders’ measurement.

Of course the price of all ships, as previously stated, depends on their class, power, and equipment, so that the cost of one vessel ready for sea may be very different from that of another ship. For instance, sailing-ships, when new, range from 8l. to 22l. per ton, and steamers from 15l. to as high as 40l. or even 45l. per ton if the engines be very powerful, highly finished, and mounted, and if the passenger accommodation be of an unusually superior and extravagant description.

In comparing this ship with the illustrations I have given of vessels of even comparatively modern times, my readers will be struck with the difference. Instead of the great hull towering high out of the[Pg 413] water, with poops and top-gallant forecastles resembling the towers or castles on shore from which they derive their name, we have the long, low, yacht-looking craft offering the least possible resistance to the winds and waves against which she has to contend, yet affording more safety, as experience has shown, and far more comfort, with vastly increased capacity, in proportion to her register, for cargo and passengers, than the ships of any nation of any previous age.

In other respects it would be useless to attempt a comparison. We have nothing in ancient times to compare with the steam-ship, unless it be the row-galley, and to propel a vessel of the size and weight of the Khedive at the rate of four miles an hour through the smoothest water would require at least 2000 rowers. I may however state, for the information of my readers, that the Khedive will perform the voyage from Southampton to Bombay in thirty days (an abstract from her log will be found, Appendix No. 22, pp. 637-8), or in one-third of the time which Dr. Vincent, when he wrote at the commencement of this century on the commerce of the East, considered extraordinarily short between Bombay and England; indeed, is short, too, for a sailing-vessel of even our own times. A list of her crew, arranged according to their different departments, is furnished herewith.[358]

[Pg 414]

Following the example of the old East India Company, the directors of the Peninsular and Oriental Company, as well as of many other similar undertakings, require their officers to wear uniform. They also issue regulations for the guidance of the engineers and for the general management of their ships (especially with reference to safety and economy). These regulations are similar in many respects to those of other companies, though not so complete as those of the Cunard, nor, we fear, from various accidents which have occurred, so rigidly enforced. Upon this all-important point—the safety of the ship—it would be impossible to impress too strongly upon shipowners the duty they owe to the public, since, by the vigorous enforcement of such regulations, numerous valuable lives might be saved and many terrible calamities prevented. To uniforms I have no objection, but such matters are of very secondary consideration to the safety of the vessel, and while holding the opinion that polite and well-dressed[Pg 415] officers are an acquisition, especially to a passenger ship, their acts of courtesy must never be permitted to interfere in the slightest degree with their paramount duties as seamen, which require them, considering the varied and increasing dangers to which steam navigation is exposed, to be ever on the alert.

I have ventured to offer these few concluding remarks because some of the losses of the vessels of the Peninsular and Oriental Company, which occurred in fine weather and in smooth water, might have been avoided. The directors have, however, since then issued (March 14th, 1874) to the commanders of their ships more stringent instructions, and have intimated that any neglect of duty, especially as regards “lookouts,” will be “severely visited.”[359]

[Pg 416]

CHAPTER XI.

Not the least interesting of the many changes in maritime commerce brought about by the opening of the Suez Canal, has been the restoration, though as yet to a limited extent, of the earliest commercial intercourse recorded in history between the Mediterranean and the once far East, and of the trade the merchants of the Levant and the Adriatic carried on with India by the agency of the Muhammedans in Egypt during the Middle Ages.

Directed to a different route by the re-discovery of the passage to the Eastern world by way of the Cape of Good Hope, this ever envied trade has, since[Pg 417] the close of the fifteenth century, been conducted as we have seen from the Atlantic and northern ports of Europe, and during more recent years, from those of Great Britain. Consequently, the vessels belonging to the Mediterranean ports have been obliged to seek other and much less remunerative employment, which, since the decline of the great Italian Republics, has dwindled into comparative insignificance. Nor has the Mediterranean trade itself occupied a position of any importance during the last three centuries, indeed it has only revived since steam-vessels have given new life to those inland seas, which, throughout all time, have been so familiar to the mariner. It has been, hence, confined chiefly to that carried on between the inhabitants of the different countries bordering on the shores of the Mediterranean and Black Seas, who, having little or no encouragement to export their surplus produce to other nations, never thought of employing vessels of a superior class to those which for ages had sufficed for their coasting trades.

The first measure, which gave renewed existence to the maritime commerce of these peoples, was the repeal of the British corn laws, encouraging, as this did to an extent hitherto unknown, the importation of wheat from the ever luxuriant lands of Egypt, and from the numerous corn-growing countries bordering the shores of the Black Sea, the Marmora, and the steppes of Russia. Soon afterwards, the repeal of the duties on the fruits grown in such rich abundance in the islands of the Levant and along the coasts of the Mediterranean, gave new life to another branch of trade which had long lain dormant, and, while the former afforded greatly increased employment to the ships of all nations, the latter[Pg 418] encouraged the production of vessels so superior to those previously in use, as, in speed, to outrival the once celebrated Baltimore clippers.

Curiously enough, however, the introduction of these fast fruit schooners, seldom exceeding in size 200 tons register, retarded the introduction of steamers to the trade of the Mediterranean till a much later period than would otherwise have been the case, considering their early and rapid extension in all other branches of commerce. Growers and merchants engaged in the fruit trade, as was the case with the shippers of tea from China at a still later period, were under the impression that steam would injure the flavour of their fruits; hence, for a time, declined to ship their produce in vessels propelled otherwise than by sails. They likewise preferred to export their raisins, figs, and currants in small quantities, convinced that they would thus obtain higher prices and a readier market, and consequently engaged vessels of 80 and 100 tons rather than those of greater dimensions. Many of my readers cannot fail to recollect the fleets of beautiful small Mediterranean clippers which were wont to crowd our docks at certain seasons of the year. Moreover, as these vessels made their voyages with extraordinary rapidity and regularity, the inducements to employ vessels propelled by steam were less urgent than in most other branches of trade.

Although steamers occasionally visited the Mediterranean, it was not till 1840 that any attempt was made to establish a line or succession of voyages in the trade with Great Britain, much less among the islands of the Levant, and along the shores of the Black Sea and the Adriatic. Among the earliest[Pg 419] attempts may be mentioned that of the Rattler, of 350 tons and 50 horse-power, despatched by Messrs. Vivian, Jones, and Chapple, of Liverpool. About 1840 the Peninsular Company also extended the operations of their steamers to Malta and Alexandria, and soon afterwards to Corfu, the Levant, and Constantinople. In 1845 Mr. A. Mongredian, of Liverpool, attempted to establish a regular line between that port and the Levant with the steamers Osmanli and Levantine, but being unsuccessful, they were transferred in 1849 to Messrs. McKean, McLarty, and Lamont, who employed them between Liverpool, Marseilles, Genoa, Leghorn, Naples, Messina, Palermo, and the Adriatic, where they appear to have yielded more remunerative returns.

From about this period, steam in those trades, as it has done everywhere else, made its way when fairly established; and, afterwards, increased with extraordinary rapidity, affording greatly improved facilities for the development of ancient branches of maritime commerce, which had long lain dormant, as well as for the creation of others hitherto unknown. Various associations and companies were now formed to carry on the trade of those inland seas by means of steam-vessels from both London and Liverpool. Among the most important belonging to Great Britain, were the lines of steamers sent forth by Messrs. Bibby, Sons, and Company, now Messrs. Frederick Leyland and Company, and by Messrs. Burns and McIver; while the Austrian Lloyd’s Steam Navigation Company trading from Trieste, and the French Messageries Maritimes from Marseilles, were the chief foreign undertakings established to carry on the coasting trade in which the protective character of[Pg 421] the Austrian and French navigation laws conferred on them exclusive privileges.

In the trade from Liverpool, including the Peninsular service, Messrs. Frederick Leyland and Company alone now employ no less than twenty-three large iron steamers, seventeen of them varying in size from 1500 to 3000 tons gross register, bound direct to the Mediterranean ports. These are all propelled by the screw, and are surprising specimens of purely cargo steamers. In this respect, considering their capacity in proportion to their admeasurement, tonnage, and small current expenses, these vessels are, perhaps, unsurpassed by any steam-ships afloat. For instance, the Bavarian, of which an illustration may be seen on the previous page, takes 4800 tons of cargo exclusive of her coal bunkers, though of only 3052 tons gross register, and is navigated by the comparatively small number of forty-eight persons all told.[360] The steamers of this firm and of Messrs. Burns and McIver, as well as those of various other companies, now run in regular lines from London, Liverpool, and elsewhere, to the numerous ports of the Mediterranean, Levant, Adriatic, and Black Sea.

Gibbon, in his brilliant description of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, speaks of the terror of its Senators lest the supply of corn should fail in meeting the requirements of the once all-powerful capital, and create, as usual, violent tumults among the people; but, with the fleet alone of Messrs. Leyland[Pg 422] and Company at their command, all apprehension on this score would have vanished, as either of the three vessels I have mentioned could, with the present appliances for loading and discharge, have transported from Egypt to Rome in the course of twelve months, no less than 500,000 quarters, or 4,000,000 bushels, while the whole fleet could have taken 10,000,000 quarters, had Egypt been able to produce within the year that quantity of grain. Such are a few of the changes the application of the motive power of steam has produced within our own time.

But much the largest maritime undertaking engaged in the trade of the Mediterranean and elsewhere, is that of the Messageries Maritimes, recently the Messageries Imperiales, monopolizing, as this does, nearly the whole of the steam tonnage of France. Indeed, apart from the vessels owned by this association, and one or two other highly subsidized shipping companies in that country, the French may be said to have no steamers.[361] Their protective policy, combined with the depressing influence which large grants of public money to special undertakings must ever exercise on individual energy, has effectually overpowered all private enterprise of this description. It may be true, as has been frequently alleged, that the French people have no natural aptitude for maritime pursuits, and that their children, who are not employed in their vineyards, or in the manufacture of those special articles for which they have long been celebrated, take naturally to the fife and the drum with somewhat of the same avidity that the boys of England seek enjoyment in navigation;[Pg 423] but, certain it is that, owing to restrictive laws and enormous subsidies to favoured individuals, the French people, generally, have never yet been allowed the opportunity of showing what they could do in the peaceful paths of maritime commerce.

The Messageries Maritimes, their greatest shipping undertaking, though exceedingly well managed, is after all, a pure creation of the Government—one, too, nursed with the greatest care from its infancy, and maintained throughout by large grants from the public purse, which were materially increased on the accession of the third Napoleon to the Throne of France, who, throughout the whole of his reign, displayed a marked anxiety to promote and encourage maritime undertakings. Previously, indeed, to 1851, the company had been chiefly engaged as carriers by land, and was under contract for the conveyance of the mails throughout a considerable portion of France.

In July of that year this company entered upon its first oversea contract with Government for the conveyance of the French Mails to Italy, the Levant, Greece, Egypt, and Syria, and in 1852 spontaneously added to their services the principal ports of Greece and Salonica.[362]

In 1854, the managers of the Messageries Company concluded arrangements with the Minister of War for the transport of all troops and military stores between France and Algeria, besides the conveyance of the mails, and, having very materially increased their fleet owing to the requirements of the Crimean campaign, they were, in 1855, enabled to open between[Pg 424] Marseilles, Civita Vecchia, and Naples, a direct weekly line of steamers, independently of the postal service, principally intended to meet the requirements necessary to be maintained between the War Department and the army of occupation at Rome.

When the Crimean War happily came to a close, and the military lines of steamers to the Black Sea were no longer necessary, the directors, in 1856, employed their disposable vessels in increasing the frequency of services to Algeria, and in establishing a postal service between Marseilles and the ports of the Danube and along the east coast of the Black Sea, for which they obtained a contract from Government in 1857. In that year they, likewise, entered into arrangements for the conveyance of the French mails between Bordeaux, the Brazils, and La Plata.

The fleet of the Messageries Company had now reached fifty-four ships of 80,875 tons, and 15,240 horse-power, afloat or in course of construction, evidently more than they could profitably employ: they, therefore, applied for and obtained from their Government, in 1861, a contract for the conveyance of the French mails to India and China, requiring for this purpose only an additional steamer. But the increase of trade to the East, brought about in no small degree by the increased facilities and by an anxious desire on the part of the company to meet the wants of the travellers of all nations, very soon enabled the directors to double the services of their steamers to the East. In 1871 their fleet measuring 137,334 tons, of 20,885 horse-power, performed services on the India and China routes of 230,135 French leagues; on the Mediterranean and Black Sea, 153,478; and, on the Brazilian, 50,004: in[Pg 425] all, 423,607 leagues annually, independently of various extra services. Since then their Brazilian and La Plata lines have been doubled, and now (1875) the company employs 175,000 tons of steam-ships, besides chartering numerous sailing-vessels.[363]

When first the Messageries Company became carriers by sea, they had nearly all their vessels built in England, but they now possess large establishments of their own, where they construct screw-steamers of iron, rivalling in most respects, and very much resembling those of, the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, of which I have furnished an illustration.

Their two largest ships employed in the trade with India and China are the Anadyr and the Irawaddy, of 3671 and 3471 tons gross register respectively, and each of 600 nominal horse-power. The other sixteen vessels in that service range from 3017 tons and 500 horse-power, down to 1035 tons and 280 horse-power. Their six steamers employed on the Brazilian and River Plate line are from 3417 tons and 600 horse-power, to 2115 tons and 400 horse-power, while the thirty-five engaged in the Mediterranean and Black Sea services range from 2524 tons and 500 horse-power to 430 tons and 160 horse-power. They have also three steamers of 1500 tons and 250 horse-power engines on the compound principle trading between London and Marseilles, and[Pg 426] four magnificent screw-steamers in course of construction, each of 4000 tons and 600 horse-power.

The trade of this large Company now embraces all the chief ports of the Mediterranean and Black Sea, and those of India, China, Java, and Japan, as well as of Algeria and the Brazils; and the excellent manner in which the different lines are conducted and navigated by Frenchmen is the best answer that can be given to the old saying that the French never were and never will be a maritime people. That they do not equal the English on the ocean is likely enough, nevertheless that they would become much greater as shipowners than they now are there can be little doubt, were they governed by wise laws and left to depend upon their own energy and resources rather than on government grants. Throughout all time “protective” laws seem to have retarded the natural development of commerce, as they have been too frequently the ruin of nations as well as of individuals.

The ships of the Messageries Maritimes Company, like those of their great competitors for the trade of the East, the Peninsular and Oriental Company, now pass through the Suez Canal. But, besides these two companies, the former of which receives nearly double the amount of subsidy of the other,[364] there are now numerous other steam lines following the same route, all bidding for the ever envied trade of the once mysterious Cathay; and these have increased enormously since the waters of the Red Sea, passing through the desert, mingled with those of the Mediterranean.

[Pg 427]

Hitherto steam to India by the way of the Cape of Good Hope has proved an unprofitable undertaking: nor, with all the improvements tending towards increased economy on the one hand, and greater capacity for cargo on the other, does it offer many more inducements now, than it did when the Enterprize first found her way to Calcutta.

Nor, indeed, has any better success attended steam navigation undertakings to the distant colonies of Australia. From the time that the trade with India was thrown open, sailing-ships thither, as well as to Australia, have been the chief means of transport, and these still carry by far the largest proportion of the goods traffic, though first-class passengers prefer the more expeditious overland routes: but steam-boats, even though largely subsidized, especially to India by the way of the Cape, have found it impossible to compete successfully with the sailing-ships of Messrs. Green of Blackwall, Messrs. T. and W. Smith, and other private shipowners long engaged in the trade.

The two steam companies, formed nearly simultaneously about the year 1852 to run viâ the Cape of Good Hope: one, the General Screw Steam Company to Calcutta and intermediate Indian ports; and the other, the Australian Royal Mail Steam Company, though each received large grants of public money, alike proved signal failures. Nor can the failure of these undertakings be altogether attributed to mismanagement. A good deal of it was, doubtless, due to the description of vessels employed, and to their unsuitability for the services undertaken, but still more to the fact that neither auxiliary steam-ships, nor full-powered steamers, have hitherto been profitable on distant voyages.

[Pg 428]

About that period many shipowners were under the impression that full-rigged ships, such as the Massachusetts, with an auxiliary steam-engine, to be used only in calms and light winds, would in themselves combine all the best qualities of a sailing-ship and steamer: nor was this surprising. On the voyage, for instance, from England to India a sailing-vessel during the favourable trade winds and monsoons, which can always be depended upon for a considerable part of the voyage, would, under sail alone, make almost as much progress as a steamer; while, in the calms, which are invariably met with for from five to ten degrees on each side of the Equator, and, where sailing-vessels frequently are long detained, the small steam-engine could be applied to great advantage; as also on entering as well as on leaving harbours. Indeed, so strongly impressed was I with the value of auxiliary steam-vessels for distant voyages, that, in 1856, I undertook, even after these failures, to convey in seven such steamers, three-fourths of which belonged to myself, the monthly mails, within a given time, between London, the Cape of Good Hope, Mauritius, Ceylon, Madras, and Calcutta.

The vessels thus employed were built entirely of iron, and ship-rigged, as may be seen by the following illustration of one of them; more fully so, in proportion to their size, than those of the General Screw Company, and, as their engines were only from 80 to 120 horse-power nominal, on a tonnage of from 800 to 1500 tons gross, they were purely auxiliary vessels. Under sail their speed was from 10 to 11 knots, with a favourable wind, and, under steam alone, from 6 to 7 knots an hour in light breezes[Pg 429] or calms, but, in adverse winds, they made little or no progress, a fact arising in great measure from their small steam-power and from the resistance their heavy spars presented to the winds: consequently, though they met with no accidents, and were more to be depended upon, as to time, than ordinary sailing-vessels, they could not maintain the regularity essential for the mail service; so, after twelve months’ experience, I relinquished the undertaking.

Since that time no mails have been carried in any description of steam-vessels from England to ports eastward of the Cape of Good Hope by the Atlantic sea route, except it may be to Natal, and occasionally to the Mauritius, or to Zanzibar on the east coast of Africa.

In full powered steamers the space required for coals and machinery on these distant oversea voyages, over and above their first cost and current expenses, prevent them carrying cargo sufficient to afford[Pg 430] remunerative returns, and their owners are not recouped by the extra rates of freight obtainable for the time saved on the voyages. In the case of the auxiliary steamers the results are the same, arising in a great measure from similar causes, for, though such vessels had greater space for cargo, yet the advantage thus gained is counterbalanced by the maintenance of a staff of engineers and firemen who, during the greater portion of the voyage are unemployed, and by the fact already stated that, though the auxiliary engine is valuable in calms, it has not power enough to be of service against strong and adverse winds. As a rule, therefore, it is in most cases more profitable to employ either a steamer with only light spars and a few fore and aft sails, or a full-rigged vessel which depends entirely upon her sails. Anything between the two has not hitherto been found to answer so well, though there may be exceptions depending on the trade in which such vessels are employed.

From the time of the opening of the overland route, all the mails to the East Indies have passed through Egypt, except those despatched by the two lines of auxiliary steamers round the Cape of Good Hope, to which I have just referred; and even by these vessels few or no letters were sent except to the intermediate ports; but, for many years after the overland route had been opened, the British mails to Australia and New Zealand were conveyed almost entirely by sailing-vessels, except during the two or three years the Australian Royal Mail Steam Packet Company carried on its operations. When the steamers of that company were unable any longer to continue the service, the Peninsular and[Pg 431] Oriental Company undertook, as we have seen, the conveyance of these, the more important mails by way of Ceylon; but, when the service was relinquished for a time, as some of their steamers were required as transports for the Crimean War, the conveyance of the whole of the Australian mails, greatly to the annoyance and discomfort of the colonists, reverted again to sailing-vessels.

To obviate as far as practicable the delay and uncertainty in the time of the delivery of the letters, Government, instead of contracting for their conveyance by any one line of sailing-vessels, considered it expedient to throw the contracts open to the competition of all suitable vessels engaged in the trade with Australia. But this, too, was merely an experiment, and one which proved alike unsatisfactory to the public and Government. It was tried, however, for a year or more and, as it so happened, the trial was made just between the time when the steamers of the General Screw Company and those of the Australian Royal Mail Company had ceased to run, and of my own experiment with the Cape and Indian mail services.

To insure speed and, if possible, regularity, the Post Office authorities stipulated that from the amount to be paid to each ship thus employed, there should be deducted a penalty of 20l. for every day’s delay in the delivery of the letters beyond the time specified in the tender. Instead of leaving the sum, as had hitherto been and now is the invariable practice, to be named by the person who tendered, Government fixed it at 1000l. for the passage, accepting the offer which contained the fewest number of days for the performance of the service. Thus, a[Pg 432] shipowner who could reckon with tolerable certainty, that his vessel would make the voyage to Australia in 100 days, which most first-class ships could do, might safely tender to do it in, say, seventy-seven days, because after the deduction of the 20l. per day for the twenty-three days in excess, he would have a balance of 540l. to receive (besides other advantages which “mail-packets” derived), and as that sum would further cover an additional excess of twenty-seven days, or say altogether fifty days beyond the time contracted for, the speculation was an exceedingly safe one to a sailing-ship, even if the tender were made for the shortest time in which the fastest steamer had been known to accomplish the voyage. Hence this system of tender proved altogether illusory as regarded the securing a rapid communication. The very first ship, the Stratford, despatched under the new arrangement, occupied on her outward passage a period of thirty-seven days in excess of the time stipulated!

If the colonists had been loud in their previous complaints they were still more so now; but the Treasury and Post Office authorities, considering that they had done their best to secure speed, were, for a time, immovable and indisposed to make any further experiments. Steamers and sailing-vessels on so distant a voyage having alike failed, Government thought there was now a good answer to all complaints, and, consequently, treated them with indifference. They argued, referring to the then recent failure of the Australian Royal Mail Packet Company, that, as the steam-vessels between England and Sydney had varied from seventy-six to 120 days, while the length of passage by fast sailing-ships[Pg 433] between England and Port Phillip was from eighty-two to 110 days, the difference was not really of any serious disadvantage. Nevertheless, while Government refused increased grants for the conveyance of the mails, it adopted and enforced much more rigorous penalties[365] against owners of sailing-ships to ensure a more speedy performance of the mail services. This fresh experiment, however, from its extreme rigour also failed, and some time elapsed before the colonists obtained what they had long demanded, a direct and independent line of steam-vessels by way of Suez and Ceylon; and that, as we have seen, proved in the hands of the European and Australian Steam Navigation Company the most signal failure of all the experiments which had been made.

[Pg 434]

Among the instances where anything like success has attended steam voyages direct to Australia, may be mentioned the services performed by Messrs. Gibbs, Bright, and Company, in their steamship Great Britain from Liverpool, and in the steamers belonging to Messrs. Money Wigram and Sons, of London, which now trade to these colonies. Occasionally other steamers are despatched to Australia and also to New Zealand, and recently a company was formed—the Australian Direct Steam Navigation Company—with the intention of maintaining a regular monthly line from London to Melbourne, calling at Falmouth, the projectors anticipating the performances of the passage in “under forty-five days.” But though this undertaking failed at the outset, and experience can alone test the realization of the sanguine expectations of its promoters, it may be said in favour of their views, that the difficulties previous pioneers of steam-vessels on long oversea voyages have had to encounter are being rapidly surmounted by the new compound engines, where the consumption of coals required to attain a given speed is not one-half of what it was twenty years ago.

So far as regards the trade with India and China by way of the Cape of Good Hope, the steam-line started by Mr. Alfred Holt of Liverpool in 1865 is the only one within my recollection, which has hitherto proved successful. Though the steamers of this line now proceed to China by the Suez Canal, their performances were remarkable when engaged in the former route. Starting from Liverpool they never stopped till they reached Mauritius, a distance of 8500[Pg 435] miles, being under steam the whole way, a feat hitherto considered impossible; thence they proceeded to Penang, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Shanghai, and, though unaided by any government grants, performed these distant voyages with extraordinary regularity.

In forwarding the particulars of his first three vessels, Mr. Holt[366] remarks: “Since the Suez Canal was opened I have found that the square sails of the Agamemnon, Ajax, and Achilles[367] were of little use, and, therefore, I have converted these three ships into what the Americans call ‘barquentine rig’ (i.e. no square yards on mainmast), and have constructed all my new ships with pole-masts only.”

[Pg 436]

These three vessels are each 2270 tons gross or 1550 net register, with engines of 300 nominal horse-power.[368] Messrs. Holt have also eleven other steamers, similar in size and power, at present engaged in trade with the East, and three more in course of construction, besides a tug-steamer of 350 tons to attend on them in their passage through the Suez Canal. They carry goods right through to Penang, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Shanghai, calling at Galle and Amoy, or other ports in the Eastern seas when required; and one is struck with the low rates at which goods are now conveyed[369] to India and China compared with the freights charged by the sailing-vessels of the old East India Company, together with the wonderful regularity and expedition[370] with which they are delivered.

Although the fleet of this spirited undertaking is known as the Ocean Steam-ship Company, it is neither a public nor a limited company, the vessels[Pg 437] being owned in shares under the old law by a few individuals (like many others of a similar description in this country), but chiefly by the managing owners, Mr. Alfred and his brother Mr. Philip H. Holt, whose thorough business habits have materially promoted the success of the company.

It would be impossible to notice within the limits of this work the different lines of steam-ships now trading to the East by way of the Suez Canal. Among the most conspicuous, however, may be mentioned those of Messrs. Gellatly, Hankey, Sewell, and Company, London, which, from the order and regularity of their despatch, bid fair to rival the subsidized companies. Many of the vessels under their agency belong to Messrs. Thomas Wilson, Sons, and Company, of Hull, long known as large owners of vessels trading from that place to various ports in the Baltic, but who, since the opening of the Suez Canal, have established a line of very fine steam-ships from London to India.

Their Hindoo for instance, of 3257 tons gross register, has capacity for about 3500 tons weight, “including coals in bunkers, and from 80 to 120 passengers,” for whom accommodation is provided “amidships, a method which has apparently given great satisfaction to those who have been travellers by them.”

Another line of steamers under the management of the same firm run in connection with the British India Steam Navigation Company, taking passengers and mails to Columbia, Madras, and Calcutta, with branch steamers from Aden to Zanzibar on the one hand, and to Karáchí and the Persian Gulf on the other.

[Pg 438]

Foreign nations have likewise taken advantage of the opening of the Suez Canal to run lines of steam-ships to the East; and, besides the French Messageries Maritimes, there are the Austrian Lloyd’s Company of Trieste, and the Rubbotino Company of Genoa, respectively supported by the Austrian and Italian Governments, each running a fortnightly line to Bombay during the four best passenger months of the year, namely, from January to April, and despatching their ships every month during the remaining portion of the year.

There is also the “Ducal” line from London, running in connection with the old and celebrated sailing-vessels belonging to Messrs. Green, of Blackwall, which is still maintained; and the “Queen” and “City” lines of steamers direct to Calcutta,[371] as well as various other similar private undertakings. Nor is Liverpool behind the capital in its race by way of the Suez Canal, for that far-famed trade which the Phœnicians, Romans, Venetians, Portuguese, Dutch, and English alike, in turn, have envied and expended untold millions to maintain.

As a specimen of the ordinary first-class merchant steamers now trading between Liverpool and Calcutta, I may instance one of the vessels belonging to Messrs. Rathbone Brothers, of that place. She is of 2610 tons gross and 1682 tons net register, and has capacity for 2200 tons of cargo, besides[Pg 439] 450 tons of coal.[372] She is rigged merely with poles (a mode of rig now becoming very general in all steam-vessels), on which, with the exception of one fore-square sail, a few fore and aft sails alone can be set. The owners remark the “best passages of our ships as yet are as follows:—Liverpool to Calcutta (viâ Gibraltar) to Saugar (near Calcutta), thirty-one days, including all stoppages; Calcutta to London (viâ Galle and of course Suez Canal) to Nore light-ship, thirty-four days thirteen hours, steaming time on the whole voyage (exclusive of Suez Canal and stoppages) sixty-one days twelve hours. The best homeward passage hitherto made by any of our ships, landing cargo at Colombo and Port Said, occupied thirty-three days seventeen hours, inclusive of all stoppages.”

From these and previous figures, my readers will more fully understand the progress that has been made in our ordinary trading communications with India and China, since the days of the East India Company, and ascertain what has been gained, since then in the speed, capacity, and current expenses of our merchant-ships.

In further illustration of the progress made in our own time I cannot do better than furnish my readers with a letter I received (January 1875) from Mr. George Smith, of Glasgow.

Indeed, this letter contains in itself a history of the rise of the merchant-vessels of Great Britain during the period to which Mr. Smith refers, and marks the different stages of progress and the[Pg 440] means whereby we have been enabled not merely to maintain, but to surpass, in maritime supremacy, all nations. It, likewise, illustrates how individuals (for the case of Messrs. George Smith and Sons is no exception to the general rule, though their operations may be on a more extensive scale than those of most other shipowners) have, since they have been relieved from the trammels of protection and been left to exercise as they deem best their own genius and industry, more than kept pace with other branches of commerce by the improvement and increase of their ships.

“Our first purchase,” Mr. Smith states in his letter, “was a small colonial barque in 1840, which was followed shortly thereafter by the purchase of a barque of 346 tons, in course of construction, and a ship of 500 tons then nearly in frame, both being of the ten years class.

“The first ship which we contracted for and had built to our own specification was the Majestic, launched in 1846. Our second, the City of Glasgow, was built at Kelvinhaugh, and launched in 1848. While she was on the stocks, the bounds of the municipality of Glasgow as a city had been extended to the junction of the Kelvin and Clyde westwards, and thus embraced the shipyard in which she was built. Our late Mr. R. Smith was then a magistrate of the city of Glasgow, and this being the first ship built in the extended royalty, we reckoned no name could be more appropriate, and, as other ships came into existence, we still kept the City,[373] and merely added a name in future designations.

[Pg 441]

“When we commenced the trade, we employed the regular brokers for loading outwards, and had every reason to be satisfied with the attention paid to our interests by the gentleman who did our business, but the practice, which then obtained here, of laying a ship on the berth and allowing her to lie till nearly loaded before naming the sailing date, and that date, when named, frequently not adhered to, we felt very annoying, not only as keeping back shipments but as sending goods to Liverpool which should have gone from this direct. Our rule was to have our dates of sailing definitely fixed. Only one firm, however, in the trade held the same view with ourselves, and feeling the annoyance, they and we resolved on starting a monthly line to Calcutta. Together we had not so many vessels as were required to keep up the monthly conveyance, but we resolved to add to our tonnage and make up for the then deficiency by chartering so far as necessary. We had made a special stipulation that our broker should still act for our ships, and also for those that it might fall to our lot to charter. When this proposal was submitted to him we were surprised to find that he declined very decidedly to have anything to do with the arrangement—that his lengthened experience in the trade satisfied him that it would prove a failure—and he was therefore not prepared to allow his name to be associated with it; but he lived long enough to find he had been mistaken.

“Having experienced the difficulty arising from brokers acting to-day for a party who adhered to their date, and to-morrow for another who would not let their vessels go until filled, we at once[Pg 442] decided on taking charge of the loading ourselves, which we still continue. After this we went on steadily increasing our fleet of sailing-ships until those afloat numbered thirty-five. Our last contract for a sailing-vessel was in September 1868.

“For several years, our operations were confined to Calcutta, but, in 1863, at the solicitation of several friends, we started a monthly line to Bombay, having in the meantime increased our sailings very materially to Calcutta as well. The following statement shows the number of voyages completed to each port in 1871, and is a fair estimate of the work of the previous eight years. We had, in fact, a virtual monopoly of the trade, gained by strict punctuality—a high class of ships and moderate charges, ever studying to arrange rates that our friends could not go past us to do better.[374]

“Our first iron ship was launched in 1856; our wooden ones were disposed of as opportunity offered,[Pg 443] and, in 1868, only one of these remained, which we have since sold.

“We commenced steam in 1871, by contracting for four boats of 2250 tons gross, and about 1700 tons register, having compound engines of 200 horse-power, working up to 1000. The boilers have been a serious source of annoyance to us from the first. When all goes right, we get 9 to 9½ knots out of them, and make the passage (viâ Suez Canal) in thirty-nine days including stoppages; but the irregularity attending their working prevents us from giving you a list of their passages as desired; latterly, we have added two of a larger class and more power. These have been making the passages regularly in thirty-one to thirty-three days, and we anticipate equal results from other four now in course of construction.”

In the brief account thus given we have a condensed history of the changes and progress of the merchant ships of Great Britain during the last thirty-five years, so far as regards our trade with India. Step by step, they rise from wood to iron and increase in size from 350 to 1500 tons as sailing-ships, while these in turn are now being to a large extent supplanted by iron screw-steamers of from 2000 to 3000 tons and upwards. In most respects, the sailing-ships of Messrs. Smith and Son very much resemble the finest of the modern free-trade Indiamen, whereof a drawing has been furnished;[375] and their steam-ships are not unlike the more recent vessels of which various illustrations are given in these pages; their City of Oxford, for instance, of 2220 tons gross, carries 2500 tons of Calcutta cargo,[Pg 444] besides 750 tons of coals in her bunkers; and she is navigated by forty-nine persons, comprising commander, surgeon, two officers, twenty seamen, seventeen men in the engineer’s department, and eight persons otherwise employed.[376]

Such are the vessels now carrying on the more valuable portion of our trade with India, through that great maritime highway, which the genius and industry of De Lesseps has so recently opened to our vast commerce with the far East, three-fourths of which, however, is still conducted by the way of the Cape of Good Hope.[377]

In the Appendix to this volume[378] will be found an account of the vessels which have annually passed through the Suez Canal since that great undertaking was opened, specifying the different nations to which they belong. Some interesting[Pg 445] and instructive facts may be gathered from these returns, especially with regard to the remarkably rapid growth of the traffic, increasing as this has done from 486 ships of 435,908 tons in 1870, to 1264 ships of 2,423,672 tons in 1874. Nor is it less worthy of notice that more than three-fourths of the whole of this tonnage belongs to Great Britain.[379]

[Pg 446]

Figures such as these may in some measure set at rest the fear long entertained that the opening of this canal would be prejudicial, in any material extent, to the interests of England, by diverting the course of commerce with India to its former European centres, and restoring the commercial greatness of Constantinople, Venice, Leghorn, Marseilles, Cadiz, and Lisbon. For, though these places cannot fail to be benefited to a greater or less extent, and they have already been so, by the re-opening of the ancient route, their superior position to that of the ports of Great Britain will be of little avail, till they adopt the policy pursued with so much success by this country. If they desire to secure that share of the commerce of India, to which from their natural position they may fairly consider themselves entitled, they must open their ports to the ships of all nations, sweep away their differential and protective duties, establish docks and bonding warehouses, and offer to the traders of the world equal facilities for obtaining whatever description of its assorted produce they may require for their varied wants. The mere fact of being a few days nearer Calcutta or Bombay will otherwise avail them little, distance in itself being now of comparatively small importance to what it was before steam-ships traversed the ocean.

[Pg 447]

CHAPTER XII.

Encouraged by the success of the Enterprize, the Bengal Government soon afterwards purchased another steamer, the Diana,[380] which had been originally[Pg 448] sent from England to China on speculation, and despatched her to Amarapura, 500 miles up the River Irrawaddy, with their then Resident in Burmah, Mr. Crawfurd, and his suite. As, however, she sailed on her voyage in the month of September, when that river is at its fullest, her progress not exceeding 30 miles each day, caused considerable disappointment to the Indian Government. On her return in the following month of December, she was again equally unfortunate, for, by that time, the river had fallen so low, that, partly owing to her draught of water, which was seldom less than 6 feet, and, partly, to the intricacy of a navigation, then imperfectly known, her passage down the Irrawaddy was nearly as tedious.

As, however, this voyage was accomplished without accident, the value of steamers for inland navigation was sufficiently shown to induce the Indian Government to consider the desirability of constructing such vessels for this special service; hence, an urgent application was soon afterwards[Pg 449] made to the Court of Directors for permission to build two vessels, one for general service, and the other for the navigation of the Burhampooter, on which, from the strength of the stream and the prevalence of easterly winds, it was found that sailing-vessels could not be depended on, for the supply of the large number of troops it was necessary to maintain in the valley of Assam for some years after the conquest of that country. So much delay, however, occurred before the Court gave its consent, that these vessels were not ready for actual service till the spring of 1828.[381]

Lord William Bentinck, who arrived on July 3rd of that year at Calcutta, as Governor-General of India, at once saw the immense advantage to be derived from the employment of steam-vessels, and their great value and economy in the rapid transport of troops and treasure, as well into the interior as along the coasts of India.[382]

No arguments were required to convince him that the new steamer despatched for service on the Burhampooter river, whence she had been named, was[Pg 450] of almost incalculable value, the troops in Assam being not merely supplied more rapidly with the necessary stores, but their number materially reduced, the use of steamers enabling the different armies of India to be practically interchangeable with almost every portion of the East. Consequently, Lord William Bentinck appointed a committee to inquire into the description of steamers best suited for the navigation of the rivers of India, and ordered the Hooghly, the second vessel built, to explore the River Ganges as far as Allahabad, a distance of 798 miles above Calcutta.

The voyages of this vessel, under the command of Captain Johnston, previously of the Enterprize, were perfectly successful, and clearly showed that the Ganges could, for the whole of this distance, be advantageously navigated by steamers. Although the Hooghly, from not having the indispensable qualities of lightness of draught, capacity, and speed, was not well adapted for so long and intricate a river voyage, she made the passage to Allahabad at the average speed of 3½ miles an hour, against a current of from 3 to 4 miles, returning thence at the rate of from 7 to even 12 miles an hour according to the strength of the stream. Further experimental trips in the spring of 1829, and in January 1830, were equally successful.

In accordance with the recommendations of the Committee, two steamers of about 270 tons burden, with engines of 70 to 80 horse-power, were constructed as tug-boats for use on the river Hooghly; and orders were sent to England for two others, better fitted than the Burhampooter and Hooghly, for the[Pg 451] navigation of the Ganges or other rivers. These vessels had, indeed, but partially met the wants of the service, and, as it had been now discovered that vessels of less draught could be made of iron, the Court of Directors were recommended to order their construction of that material. They were to draw not more than 2 feet of water; one to be a steam-tug, the other an accommodation boat. Both were to be of the same dimensions, 120 feet long, by 22 feet in width, and very flat-bottomed, which, indeed, was absolutely necessary to secure the stipulated lightness of draught. They were to have two engines of 30 horse-power each, with vibrating cylinders, on account of their greater lightness. However, till the result of the experiment made with these boats was known, the Directors suspended their decision as to the building of more steam-vessels for the navigation of the Upper Ganges and Burhampooter, as also for that of the Indus and other rivers of the Punjâb.

In these early efforts, we have an approximation to what has since been achieved on the rivers of India, presenting, as they did, a field for inland navigation, realizable by steam-vessels with far more advantageous results than could be obtained by the ordinary craft of the country. The success of the first effort, in securing a high power of engines as compared with the draught of water, led to the construction, for similar purposes, of various other iron boats by Mr. Laird, Messrs. Miller and Ravenshill, and Messrs. Forrester.

Private enterprise, however, in this instance lagged[Pg 452] behind Government, as it was not till 1845 that any companies were formed to conduct the trade of that country by means of steam-vessels. The Tug Company of the Hooghly was among the first of these commercial undertakings. The Bombay Steam Navigation Company followed, with four paddle-wheel steamers, three of wood and one of iron, to trade between Bombay and Ceylon on the one hand, and Karáchi on the other. But, however great the advantages derivable from the use of steamers on the rivers and coasts of India, their development, even then, was slow compared with that of Great Britain or the United States. Although starting early, and with energy, in the use of this new power, the people and Government alike seem to have slumbered for nearly thirty years, and to have been dreaming over its advantages: indeed, it was not till 1857, when another committee had been appointed, and strongly recommended the more extended use of steamers, that any very marked progress was made. From that period, however, it has been very great, I may say remarkable, more especially since the opening of the Suez Canal. Since then, those ancient routes of maritime commerce which, in the dawn of history, were first tracked by the Chaldeans and Phœnicians, and, afterwards brought into a system by the greatest and wisest of monarchs, have been, after the lapse of more than two thousand years, re-opened by steam-ships, and this, too, almost along the same course, which Solomon, in connection with Hiram, King of Tyre, first established.

[Pg 453]

Among the finest vessels ordered by the Government of India after the report of the committee had been considered, may be mentioned one designed by Mr. T. B. Winter, C.E., for the navigation of the Lower Indus. As she is very much the type of all the steamers now employed for the conveyance of troops and passengers on the rivers of the East, I may state that her design somewhat resembles (though with special fittings adapted for the climate of India) the steamer, now employed on the River Hudson, already described,[383] having accommodation for 800 soldiers and their officers in two tiers of cabins, one above the other, built on the main-deck, and surrounded by verandahs and covered with awnings as a protection from the scorching rays of the sun. The sides of these deck-houses, consist almost entirely of Venetian blinds; their frames and those of the berths being made of galvanized iron, having between the frames sheets of perforated zinc so as to admit a free circulation of air, while the whole range of these houses is divided into five separate compartments so as to permit the separation of the troops in case of sickness. By an ingenious contrivance an abundant supply of fresh air is drawn from the paddle-boxes in order that it may contain moisture, and is supplied to all the cabins by means of fans, worked by the steam-engines of the ship in such a manner that a sufficient quantity is provided to completely change, every half-hour, the air in each troop-room. The draught of water of this commodious and beautifully arranged vessel, aided by another ingenious contrivance in connection with[Pg 454] her rudder, does not exceed, when laden, 2 feet, while her speed on her trial trip averaged close upon 12 statute miles the hour.[384]

Among the earliest commercial Ocean Steamers employed on the Eastern seas, were, as noticed previously, those of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. For some years, at first, these vessels held almost a monopoly of the passenger and of the most valuable portion of the goods traffic. Competitors, however, soon arose, especially in the opium trade, which had, hitherto, been conducted by sailing clippers celebrated for their speed, many of which vessels, owned by English merchants resident in Hong Kong, had proved a large source of profit to their too enterprising owners. But, now, the whole of this trade, as well as a considerable portion of the traffic between Calcutta, Bombay and the Chinese ports, is carried on by very fast steamers, owned partly by English and partly by native merchants. A few years ago, one of the finest of these vessels[Pg 455] was the property, entirely, of Parsees resident at Bombay, and, as she bore the honoured name of the John Bright,[385] it is to be hoped that opium constituted but a small portion of her cargo. I mention her, however, as a fair specimen of the steamers thus employed, both as regards speed and dimensions, and, for the information of my readers, I may state that she was built of iron by Messrs. C. J. Mare and Co., of Millwall, in 1862, and that she made the voyage from Gravesend (calling at the Cape of Good Hope) to Bombay in fifty-eight days, and thence to Hong Kong, with a full cargo, and against the monsoons, in twenty-two days.[386]

Much the most important commercial maritime company, however, now engaged in the coasting trade of the East, is the British India Steam Navigation Company (Limited), which commenced business in 1857 under the title of the Calcutta and Burmah Steam Navigation Company, with a line of steamers between Calcutta, Akyab, Rangoon, and Moulmein. In 1862, the name of the company was changed to its present designation, its operations having been extended along[Pg 456] the coasts of India and Persia, so as to embrace, at the present time, a continuous coasting service between Singapore on the one hand, and the island of Zanzibar on the other, with an extension from the latter port to the French settlements of Mayotte, Nossi Bé, and Majunga. The fleet of this company now consists of forty-two iron screw-steamers, varying in size from 350 to 2600 tons gross register, their aggregate gross tonnage being about 57,000, employed on thirteen different lines,[387] showing the vast extent of commercial intercourse now maintained by the vessels of this one undertaking alone.

One is amazed at the rapidity of the growth of steam-ship companies throughout the world, within the last quarter of this century. It seems only the other day when Mr. Mackinnon of Glasgow, a merchant engaged in the trade with India and the founder and managing director, as well as one of the chief owners of this large fleet of steamers, mentioned to the author his intention of running a couple of small steam-vessels between Calcutta and Burmah.[Pg 457] Nor was he then very sanguine of success. With the shrewdness, however, characteristic of his countrymen, he saw, beyond the difficulties he would have to encounter (which men of his determination and perseverance alone know how to overcome), an important and valuable opening for the employment of steamers, and having overcome every obstacle, his hopes have been more than realized; indeed, much sooner and to a far larger extent, than he or any one else could at the first have anticipated.

This now important undertaking had its origin in an advertisement by the East India Company in 1855, for steam-vessels to convey the mails between Calcutta and Burmah, a service hitherto conducted by their own vessels, the Enterprize being the first to do so. Mr. Mackinnon and his partners, having agreed to accept the contract, despatched for its fulfilment the Baltic and Cape of Good Hope, but these vessels, being unsuitable for the purpose, and having made long and expensive passages to India, their enterprising owners would have suffered a heavy loss by them, had they not, soon after their arrival, been engaged for the transport of troops at the outbreak of the mutiny.

Nor was the new company more fortunate with the first vessels they built on the Clyde for this trade. One of these, the Calcutta, of 900 tons, was totally wrecked off the coast of Wicklow soon after she left Greenock, while another, the Cape of Good Hope, was sunk in the Hooghly, having come into collision with one of the steamers of the Peninsular and Oriental Company. The losses thus[Pg 458] sustained were, however, vigorously overcome; other new vessels were supplied and, in 1862, a fresh contract was entered into with the Government of India, including conditions for the transport of troops and stores at a mileage rate, and for the conveyance of the mails, not merely every fortnight, between Calcutta, Akyab, Rangoon, and Moulmein, but also once a month, viâ the two latter ports, to Singapore; a similar service to Chittagong and Akyab; another to the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal; a fortnightly one between Bombay and Karáchí; another, once a month, between Madras and Rangoon; and a further service, every six weeks, to various ports in the Persian Gulf, along nearly the same route Nearchus had followed three centuries before the Christian era.

Improving prospects now accompanied this spirited undertaking at every stage of its rapid progress. Steam here, as it has done everywhere else, opened up fresh branches of commerce, developed others, or gave new life to occupations for ages dormant, conferring, by its civilizing influence, immense benefits on the dense and often poverty-stricken and oppressed inhabitants of lands at once envied and far-famed.

As might have been anticipated, the British India Steam Navigation Company met with various losses, in the development of so extensive a range of services; but, though the wreck of their Burmah on the Madras coast, the loss of the Bussorah on her voyage to India, the stranding of the Coringa in the harbour of Muskát, and the foundering of the Persia on her voyage from Rangoon to Calcutta,[Pg 459] during one of these fearful cyclones which, periodically, sweep the Indian Ocean, crippled for a time the resources and retarded the operations of the company, they did not quell the spirit or even damp the energies of Mr. Mackinnon and his co-directors, who thus, at last, achieved that success which industry and perseverance, in the right direction, must ever command.

The opening of the Suez Canal, in 1869, gave renewed vigour to the company. While producing an entire revolution in the shipping trade of India, it afforded facilities for its economical conduct, hitherto unknown. Of these the directors at once took advantage, and their steamer India, requiring new boilers, was the first vessel to arrive in London with a cargo of Indian produce, through the new maritime highway, which the genius and energy of Lesseps had constructed across the barren isthmus of the land of the Pharaohs.

In 1873, the company entered into still more extended arrangements with the Government of India, by doubling some of its existing lines, and, in 1872, the directors arranged with the Home Government to organize a mail service every four weeks, between Aden and Zanzibar, on the east coast of Africa, so that the distance annually traversed under its contracts, now exceeds 1,100,000 miles.

In tracing the different lines used by the vessels of this company, it is interesting, as I have just mentioned, to note that their courses, especially those along the Arabian shore of the Red Sea, the eastern coast of Africa, the coasts of Hadramaut and Persia as far as Bussorah, and by way of Beluchistan and[Pg 460] the western shores of India as far as Ceylon, are, as nearly as possible, the same as those which, from the scanty records of the past, I have endeavoured to trace on a map, so as to show the ancient routes of commerce pursued by native vessels long before the Christian era.[388]

[Pg 461]

In 1863, the Dutch East India Government offered a liberal subsidy for the conveyance of their mails in the East, but, as one of the conditions of the contract required the steamers so engaged to be under the Dutch flag, the requisite capital would not have been raised had not the shareholders of the British India Steam Navigation Company, individually, supplied the greater portion of it for this new undertaking. In 1866, the Netherlands India Steam Navigation Company commenced operations, having for its directors many of the members of the board of the English Company, but, in all other respects, distinct. These two companies, however, work together in perfect harmony, and now carry on between them a large portion of the maritime commerce of the East. The Netherlands Company owns twenty-three steamers of an aggregate of 20,000 tons, interchanging their traffic at Singapore, with the vessels of the British India Company, and extending their operations from that place and Batavia to the principal ports in the Dutch East Indies, and, again, thence, through Torres Straits to Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne, thus affording another line of steam communication to our Australian colonies, along the whole of the shores of which regular steam communication is now maintained.

But perhaps the most extraordinary, and certainly not the least interesting, inland route for steamers (the Ganges and the Indus not excepted), is the navigation of the River Irrawaddy through Burmah[Pg 462] to the confines of China, a route greatly developed of recent years. It was, as I have stated, on this river, that the second steamer, the Diana, belonging to the East India Company, made her first voyage, and, from that time until 1865, the Government of India maintained, with more or less regularity, communication by their own steamers between Calcutta, Rangoon, and Upper Burmah, as far as Mandalay, a city said to contain at one time half a million of inhabitants, and situated on the banks of the Irrawaddy, about 500 miles from the sea.

Finding, as Governments often do in such undertakings, that the receipts from this line of communication fell very far short of the disbursements, they, in 1865, made a contract with the Irrawaddy Flotilla and Burmese Steam Navigation Company, constituted under the Limited Liability Act “for the conveyance of H.M.’s troops, stores, and mails to the different stations of British Burmah on the River Irrawaddy, and for carrying on general traffic between the towns and villages on that river from Rangoon to Mandalay, the capital of Upper Burmah,”[389] at the same time making over to the company four Government steamers and three flats previously engaged in the river service. But these vessels, having been found altogether unsuited for the successful carrying on of the company’s operations, were soon replaced by other and new vessels,[Pg 463] better fitted for the efficient and economical performance of this service.

When the original contract with the Indian Government expired in 1868, the company entered into a fresh agreement, whereby its services were extended from Mandalay to Bhamo, 1000 miles by river from Rangoon, and within 50 miles of the Chinese frontier. Bhamo, for centuries celebrated among the inland commercial cities of the East, was, at one time, the depôt of an enormous import and export trade to and from western China, conveyed by trains of caravans between that city and Yunnan, the south-western province of the Celestial Empire. But, though long-continued rebellions and civil wars have almost extirpated this important traffic, it has of recent years received a fresh impulse by the introduction of improved steam communication on the Irrawaddy, and by the efforts of English merchants, supported by Government, to explore the country and to re-open vast fields of wealth long comparatively unproductive.[390]

Previously to the establishment of steam communication, the trade of the Irrawaddy, studded along its whole length with towns and villages, with a dense, active, and industrious population, was conducted by native craft of various kinds, whose number has been estimated at 25,000. But steam-vessels,[Pg 464] by their speed, regularity, and safety, are gradually superseding these native craft, which, in time, will become, as they have done everywhere else, simply auxiliaries to that great power which, in so large a measure, now regulates the commerce of the world.