of one of the most serious of recent disasters, which was caused by
the wearing away of the bracket upon which rests the final bearing of
the shaft. As this bracket is, in the largest ships, fully sixty feet
from the stuffing-box, a new danger is created from the fact that it is
far outside the hull and out of sight of the engineers. The invention
referred to consists simply of a couple of completely insulated wires,
positive and negative, connected by a battery, an indicator, and an
alarm-bell in the engine-room. The wires run under the shaft out
through the stuffing-box, and through the casing which protects the
shaft from the sea; then they enter the bracket, where they turn from
the horizontal to the perpendicular, and terminate about three-quarters
of an inch from the surface of the bearing. Should the surface wear
away so as to imperil the shaft, the latter would instantly come in
contact with the ends of the wires, the insulation would be broken, the
current closed, and the alarm-bell rung. Then, of course, the engine
would be stopped until an examination could be made.
Though it promotes safety and is winning favor, the twin screw has
been applied so far only to the City of Paris, the City of New York,
the Teutonic, the Majestic, the Columbia, the Normannia, the Fürst
Bismarck, and the Augusta-Victoria. Credit for the infrequency of
broken shafts does not belong wholly to this device, therefore, but in
a much larger measure to the substitution of steel for iron and other
improvements in the form and materials of the marine engine.
[Illustration: The Lightship, off Sandy Hook.]
The City of New York and the City of Paris are also provided with
double bottoms, so that, should the outer skin be torn, the inner
one would still exclude the sea; and the efficacy of oil in calming
the troubled waters has been so well established that apparatus for
its distribution is placed in the bows. The number of officers and
seamen has been augmented, so that the staff of navigating officers
now comprises the captain, the chief officer, two second officers, two
third officers, and two fourth officers. Great improvements have also
been made in the mariner’s compass and in the patent log and sounding
machine. The latter can be used when the ship is going at a high rate
of speed, and it records not only the depth of water but the character
of the bottom, which is nearly always a clue to the position of the
ship when other signs fail. Had these instruments been less perfect, we
could not have made our way, with so little delay, past Fastnet and up
the Channel to Holyhead, when the fog descended as we were making land.
[Illustration: Broken Bow of La Champagne, after her Collision outside
New York Harbor, December, 1890.]
Still another improvement is in the material of which the propellers
are cast. In the new ships it is manganese bronze, which has nearly
double the strength of steel and is practically unbreakable.
Sixteen or seventeen years ago the principal lines began to adopt
the system of “steam lanes” originally suggested by Professor M. F.
Maury, as long ago as 1855—that is, to prescribe definite courses for
their steamers, based on calculations as to probable areas of fog and
ice. In following these fixed courses the steamers pass each other at
an hour and a point on the ocean which can be foretold almost to a
certainty, and should one of them meet with an accident, there is every
probability that succor will reach her through one of her companion
ships.
[Illustration: A Sunken Schooner.]
So keen is the rivalry between the various lines, and so much does
their success depend on a reputation for safety, that self-interest,
in the absence of a higher motive, is sufficient to stimulate them to
leave nothing undone, in the construction and manning of their vessels,
which may in any way be the means of averting disaster. In furtherance
of their efforts, the British and American governments unite in giving
them the most perfect system of lights, buoys, and fog-signals in the
world. When twenty or more miles at sea, the captain may discern the
rays of the first light, and as he nears port and enters the Channel,
there are nearly as many beacons as lamp-posts in a city street.
No testimony to the efficiency of the transatlantic service is more
convincing than the record of 1890. The steamers were exposed, as
they must be every year, to dangers from collision, from ice, from
hurricanes, from drifting derelicts, on their way up and down the
crowded Channel and through the shifting sands at the estuary of the
Mersey; they were constantly embarrassed by fogs. Nearly two thousand
trips were made from New York alone to various European ports: about
two hundred thousand cabin passengers were carried to and fro, in
addition to nearly three hundred and seventy-two thousand immigrants
who were landed at Castle Garden. This enormous traffic was conducted
without accident, and no more comforting assurance can be given than
this of safety on the Atlantic.
THE OCEAN STEAMSHIP AS A FREIGHT CARRIER.
BY JOHN H. GOULD.
REVENUE OF THE SHIP’S CARGO—AMOUNT OF FREIGHT CARRIED BY EXPRESS
STEAMSHIPS—GROSS TONNAGE OF IMPORTANT LINES RUNNING FROM NEW YORK—THE
MERCHANT MARINE OF THE UNITED STATES—THE “ATLANTIC LIMITED”—THE
SEA POST-OFFICE—IN THE SPECIE ROOM—ENORMOUS REFRIGERATORS—THE NEW
CLASS OF “FREIGHTERS”—LARGE CARGOES AND SMALL COAL CONSUMPTION—THE
OCEAN “TRAMP”—ADVANTAGES OF THE “WHALEBACK”—VESSELS FOR CARRYING
GRAIN—FLOATING ELEVATORS—THE FRUIT STEAMSHIP—TANK STEAMSHIPS FOR
CARRYING OIL—PECULIARITIES OF THEIR CONSTRUCTION—THE MOLASSES
SHIP—SCENES ON THE PIERS WHEN STEAMSHIPS ARE LOADING—STEAM HOISTING
APPARATUS—HOW THE FREIGHT IS STOWED—COALING—THE LOADING OF CATTLE
SHIPS—“COWBOYS OF THE SEA”—OCEAN TRAFFIC THE INDEX OF A NATION’S
PROSPERITY.
Interesting as the ocean fleet is from the point of view of the
passenger who crosses the seas on business or pleasure bent, the part
that steamships play in the commerce of the world is even more worthy
of consideration. There is a vast region between decks and down in the
lower hold of which the ordinary traveller knows little. And yet the
ship’s cargo brings to the owners a large portion of their revenue, and
makes possible the magnificent steamships of to-day.
There are $500,000,000 invested in ocean-going steamships sailing
from the port of New York alone! The figures are appalling, yet they
are a conservative estimate of the wealth intrusted to the mercies of
the ocean. There are twenty-nine regular lines of steamships running
between New York and European ports. Of these, eight lines run express
steamships, and twenty-three lines carry passengers and freight. The
other six lines transport freight only, and there are still other lines
running to the West Indies, Central and South America, and our own
Atlantic coast and Gulf ports.
Seven steamship companies—the White Star, Inman, Cunard, North
German Lloyd, Hamburg-American, Guion, and the French line—have the
record-breakers.
The Teutonic and the Majestic of the White Star line, and the new
French liner La Touraine, are said to have cost $2,000,000 each. The
City of Paris and the City of New York, of the Inman line, and the new
Hamburg-American steamship First Bismarck are supposed to have cost
considerably over $1,500,000 each.
The White Star line steamships Majestic and Teutonic each carry, in
addition to their 1,500 passengers, some 2,500 tons of freight. This
line has in all ten steamships—six devoted to passengers and freight,
and four to freight exclusively.
The Inman line steamships City of Paris and City of New York carry
1,200 passengers each, and still have room for 2,700 tons of freight.
The Cunarders Etruria and Umbria have each accommodations for about
1,600 passengers, and also take about 800 tons of freight.
The North German Lloyd line has twelve express steamships in the
service, with an average passenger capacity of 1,150 for all classes.
The freight capacity varies from 2,000 to 2,500 tons: the line has
three sailing days each week. There are nine other steamships of the
line sailing between this port, Baltimore, and Europe, making the
total number of their vessels twenty-one. In October, 1891, the line
inaugurated a Mediterranean service. At all times there are eight of
the express steamships belonging to this line at sea, and two are in
port at New York and two in the European port.
The Hamburg-American Packet Company has four express steamships,
forming a weekly service from New York, and which is almost entirely
devoted to the passenger business. These vessels each accommodate
about 1,250 passengers of all classes. They have a small freight
capacity—from about 600 to 700 tons of light cargo being the limit. No
perishable goods are taken.
The Guion line steamships Alaska and Arizona have passenger
accommodations for 1,300 and 1,100, respectively, and their freight
capacity is about 2,000 tons.
The Compagnie Générale Transatlantique, or, as it is more frequently
called, the French line, has six express steamships, with a freight
capacity of 2,500 tons each, as well as accommodations for about 1,000
passengers.
The Wilson line, with its thirty steamships, is one of the greatest
freight carriers in the world. There are four distinct lines from New
York, one running to Hull, one to Antwerp, one to Newcastle, and one
to London. The latter is known as the Wilson-Hill line. The Atlantic
fleet, flying the Wilson flag, has 114,000 gross tonnage. Some of the
steamships of this line have passenger accommodations, but the company
confines itself almost exclusively to the carrying of freight.
The number and gross tonnage of steamships of the different lines are
shown in the following table, the tonnage being from “Lloyd’s Register:”
_Transatlantic Lines._
--------------------------------------------+------+--------
|Number|
| of | Total
Lines. |Steam-| Gross
|ships.|Tonnage.
--------------------------------------------+------+--------
Wilson | 30 | 114,000
North German Lloyd | |
(12 direct and 9 calling at Baltimore) | 21 | 111,585
Hamburg-American (including Baltic line) | 19 | 82,589
Anchor (including Mediterranean service) | 15 | 63,083
Netherlands | |
(9 direct and 4 calling at Baltimore) | 13 | 43,314
National | 12 | 54,062
Sumner | 12 | 42,800
White Star | 10 | 58,162
Florio | 9 | 22,500
Red Star | 7 | 33,959
Fabre | 7 | 23,600
Mediterranean & New York S. S. Co. | 7 | 15,000
Inman | 6 | 41,276
Cunard | 6 | 40,253
French | 6 | 46,927
Allan | 6 | 23,738
Liverpool, Brazil & River Plate | |
(Atlantic service) | 6 | 12,000
Guion | 5 | 22,651
Bristol City | 5 | 24,000
Beaver, during winter months | 5 | 17,500
Arrow | 5 | 13,000
Thingvalla | 4 | 11,985
Union (Sloman’s) | 4 | 11,750
Marseilles | 4 | 12,000
Great Western S. S. Co. | 4 | 10,000
Bordeaux | 3 | 6,000
White Cross | 2 | 5,169
Linha de Vapores Portuguezes | 2 | 3,777
Insular Navigation Co. | 1 | 2,893
--------------------------------------------+------+--------
This list gives only the regular lines engaged in the freight and
passenger business, besides which there are the tank steamships, the
tramp steamships, and a large number of vessels which call for orders
from other ports, as well as steamships which are chartered for special
freights.
_Central and South American, West Indian, and other Lines from New
York._
------------------------------------+------+--------
|Number|
| of | Total
Lines. |Steam-| Gross
|ships.|Tonnage.
------------------------------------+------+--------
Atlas | 12 | 22,000
Booth’s | 10 | 14,000
Red Cross | 10 | 16,225
New York & Cuba S. S. Co. | 9 | 25,300
Red “D” | 6 | 11,020
Quebec S. S. Co. | 6 | 9,094
Royal Dutch West Indian Mail | 6 | 10,156
United States & Brazil S. S. Co. | 5 | 16,400
Compañia Trasatlantica | 5 | 10,866
Earn | 5 | 12,500
Union (Sloman’s) | 4 | 8,000
Clyde (West Indian) | 4 | 6,600
Waydell’s | 4 | 4,500
Trinidad | 4 | 4,000
Atlantic & Pacific S. S. Co. | 4 | 9,904
Pacific Mail | 3 | 8,800
Wessell’s | 3 | 4,500
Liverpool, Brazil & River Plate[18] | 3 | 7,500
Honduras & Central American | 2 | 3,000
Anchor (West Indian Service) | 2 | 2,077
Maryland | 2 | 6,000
New York & Porto Rico S. S. Co. | 2 | 2,000
------------------------------------+------+--------
[Illustration: Loading Grain from a Floating Elevator.]
Besides the regular lines there is a big fleet of tramp steamships.
During the fiscal year ending June 30, 1891, 136 of these steamships,
with 102,856 net registered tonnage, entered at the port of New York.
This did not include the tramps who found their way here from West
Indian and South American ports, or our own domestic ports, or those
who may have drifted in from provincial ports. Many foreign tramps find
their way to this port in ballast, seeking cargo, or for orders.
Aside from all these lines to foreign ports, there are our coastwise
steamships, operated by a dozen or more lines, prominent among them
being the Old Dominion, the Savannah, the Clyde, the Mallory, the
Cromwell, the Morgan, the New York Steamship Company, and the Red Cross
lines.
The ocean steamship lines require an auxiliary fleet of harbor vessels
as tenders to them. Of these, the most numerous are the tow-boats, or
tugs, as they are popularly called. There are 375 tow-boats registered
at New York, but fully 400 float on the waters in the vicinity of
the city. About 50 tow-boats have a gross tonnage of over 100 tons.
Among the largest are the Amboy, of 272 tons, and the Luckenback, an
ocean tug, of 255 tons. Still larger than these are the Vanderbilt and
Oswego, the side-wheelers which pull the long strings of canal-boats up
and down the Hudson. The tow-boats are fitted with powerful engines,
and the facility with which one little tug will pull a ship many times
her size, or a dozen canal-boats, is a marvel to the visitor from
inland districts. The most powerful of these tugs have engines of 900
indicated horse-power, and of the type known as the fore-and-aft, or
tandem. Two of these harbor tugs, the Amboy and the Raritan, both
belonging to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, have been operated with
twin screws for twenty years at least.
Less than twenty-five per cent. of the freight trade of the country is
carried on by ships flying the Stars and Stripes. During the calendar
year of 1890, 33,359 vessels engaged in foreign trade entered at the
ports of the United States. Their total tonnage was 18,510,374.
American vessels, to the number of 11,033, carried 4,334,774 tons
of the total amount, and foreign ships handled 14,175,600 tons. The
merchant marine of the United States has a total tonnage of 4,424,497.
The coastwise fleet has an aggregate tonnage of 3,409,435; the foreign
trade, 928,062; and vessels registering 87,000 tons are engaged in
the cod and whale fisheries. The vessels belonging to the port of New
York in 1890 were 1,976 sailing vessels, of 409,468 tons; 1,032 steam
vessels, of 374,673 tons; 230 canal boats, of 23,709 tons; and 671
barges, of 143,540 tons.
The volume of the ocean freight is enormous. Some idea of it can
be gathered from the statistics of imports and exports issued by
the United States Government. Of cotton alone, the vast quantity of
2,907,308,000 pounds was shipped from American ports during the fiscal
year ending June 30, 1891. This is the largest quantity of cotton
sent out of the country in any one year. The value of the cotton
exported was $290,708,898, which is nearly half the value of the sum
total of the four leading agricultural products. This amounted to
$588,251,912. Next to cotton, the most important agricultural products
exported were breadstuffs, including grain, which were valued at
$127,668,092. Provisions, including meats and dairy products, amounted
to $31,696,234. It is worth noting that the total value of the exports
of these five leading products was $15,263,951 in excess of the same
products in the previous year. The total value of exports and imports
of merchandise, during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1891, was
$1,729,330,896, an increase of $82,191,803 over the previous year,
and of $241,797,869 since 1889. The foreign commerce of the United
States for the year 1890 was the largest in the history of the country.
The movement of the vast quantities of agricultural products and
manufactured goods kept the ocean fleet busy. Forty per cent. of the
total export trade of the United States goes from the port of New York.
During 1890 the export business from the five principal ports was as
follows: New York, $370,322,430; New Orleans, $107,300,637; Baltimore,
$73,967,796; Boston, $70,364,955; and Philadelphia, $37,241,645. The
total from all ports was $881,076,017. The imports in 1890 amounted to
a total of $823,286,735, out of which New York received $527,497,196,
considerably over one-half. It might be noted in passing, that of the
total amount of customs duties collected by the Government in 1890,
67.17 per cent. came from New York.
Time is a great factor in ocean freight transportation, as well as
in the passenger business. In the old days when the clipper ship was
considered a perfect type of ocean travel, twenty days was a quick
passage between New York and Liverpool, and when the Red Jacket made
her famous trip in 13 days, 1 hour, and 25 minutes, the feat created
as much excitement as the breaking of a record by an ocean greyhound
does in these days of marine triumphs. The trip was made in 1854, and
was an eastward one, the sailer logging 3,017 miles from Sandy Hook to
Liverpool. In the following year the clipper ship Mary Whitredge ran
from Baltimore to Liverpool in 13 days and 7 hours; she travelled 3,400
miles. Another remarkable trip was made by the Dreadnaught in 1860.
She sighted the Irish coast in 9 days and 17 hours after leaving New
York; but it took her three days longer to reach Liverpool. An instance
showing the sailing quality of the old clipper ships occurred in 1864.
The Adelaide, of the Williams & Guion line, while on her way down New
York Bay, was passed by the steamship Sidon, of the Cunard line; but
the Adelaide arrived in the Mersey before the Sidon, having made the
passage in 12 days and 8 hours.
The clipper ship was the ocean greyhound of the Fifties. Her lines were
those of a racer, her towering masts and broad expanse of canvas gave
her the benefit of every breeze. She carried only the better class of
freight in addition to her passengers, and it was not until some time
after steamships had become an established fact that the passengers
abandoned the clippers to the freight traffic.
For a time the sailing vessels held their own as freight carriers,
but the improvements in steamships of recent years have robbed them
of the bulk of their trade. They still hold their own for long sea
voyages. There is a limit to the use of steam, and it is reached when
the distance to be travelled makes the cost of coal and the space it
occupies greater than the value of the cargo will warrant. Until some
new motive power replaces steam, or steam is produced by the use of
petroleum or other concentrated fuel, the clipper ship still has an
occupation, and the hearts of all old-time skippers will be gladdened
by the sight of her white wings upon the seas.
In 1850 a 1,400-ton sailing vessel was considered a big ship, but some
of the new British four-masted steel ships sailing between Europe and
America carry from 5,000 to 6,000 tons of cargo.
* * * * *
Great as have been the changes in ocean transportation, still greater
changes are pending. The transatlantic business shows the most marked
changes. From the old time packetship to the early type of steamship
was but the first step. Faster vessels were built, and the space
devoted to cargo was encroached upon by enormous engines and boilers,
by big coal bunkers, and by large saloons and an increased number
of state-rooms. The hulls changed from the bulging sides of the
first types to the narrow, racing pattern of to-day. Speed and the
arrangements for the comfort of a large list of passengers robbed the
vessels of their freight capacity, and now the freight of an ocean
greyhound is a secondary consideration. This necessitated the creation
of a distinct class, known as the freighter.
The first railway cars having compartments for passengers, baggage, and
freight were changed to express trains, where speed and comfort are
the first considerations, and freight trains, where carrying capacity
is the main object. In just the same manner, and for the same reasons,
the ocean traffic is undergoing changes. The day cannot be far distant
when the passenger ships will take only passengers, mails, specie, and
express packages. The best-informed nautical men to-day declare that
the progress of the last five years, remarkable as it has been, is but
a circumstance compared with the possibilities of the future.
[Illustration: Unloading and Loading a Coastwise Steamer by Electric
Light.]
The ocean greyhound is simply an exponent of the times. What the
limited express trains are on land, the racer is upon the sea—the
“Atlantic Limited.” Expense is no object. The faster the ship, the
greater the rush for passage in her. She is, of course, a floating
palace of magnificence, but speed is the main object, and speed is
at times as important for certain classes of freight as it is for
passengers. The hue and cry that steamship companies are endangering
the lives of their passengers by ocean racing is pointed in the wrong
direction. It is the public who are to blame, if blame it is to
annihilate time and space by the genius of man. The owners of these
vessels spend millions to build ships, and then risk both their capital
invested, and the reputation of their line for safety, in order to
satisfy their patrons. People of the nineteenth century—Americans in
particular—are in a hurry, and never stop to consider the enormous
expense, the immense consumption of coal, the fearful and terrible
strain on the firemen and coal-passers down in the bowels of the great
vessel. Everything is done with a rush. Lightning express trains across
continents and racers upon the oceans are necessities of the day.
The love of record-breaking is universal. The performance of the
Majestic on August 5, 1891, thrilled the people of every nation. Her
triumph of crossing the Atlantic in 5 days, 18 hours, and 8 minutes
was echoed round the world. Hardly had the echoes died out when her
sister-ship—twin in size and type—the Teutonic, came into New York
Harbor with a better record still. It was 5 days, 16 hours, and 30
minutes, and the Teutonic was crowned “Queen of the Seas.”
But for how long?
The City of Paris held her record for upward of two years; the Etruria
and the Umbria each was the crack racer for a year; but the Majestic
only held the coveted place at the head of the Atlantic fleet for just
two weeks.
At the rate of increase of speed since 1880, when the Arizona was
champion, with a record of 7 days, 8 hours, and 8 minutes, we should
have a five-day ship before many years, and perhaps eventually a
four-day ship. At a 25-knot gait a steamship would cross from Daunt’s
Rock to Sandy Hook in 4 days and 15 hours. The Teutonic averaged
20.349 knots for the entire trip, and on a 24-hour run she averaged
over 21 knots.
The success of the White Star ships is bound to have a marked effect
upon the future of ocean navigation. The Cunard Company has already
contracted for the construction of two steamships which are promised to
outdo any of the present greyhounds; and rumor has it that the Inman
line is about to add two new vessels to its fleet, the plans of which
are now prepared, and it is expected that these new ships will go “one
better.” Should this promise be fulfilled, there is little doubt but
that Europeans who visit Chicago’s Columbian Fair in 1893 may cross the
Atlantic in five days, or even less.