The number of vessels belonging to the United Kingdom was, in 1848,
nearly 25,000, having an aggregate burden of upwards of 3000 tons, and
being manned by 180,000 hands. To give the reader, however, a more
vivid idea of the magnitude of the “mercantile marine” of this kingdom,
it may be safely asserted, that in order to accommodate the whole of
our merchant vessels, a dock of 15,000 square acres would be necessary;
or, in other words, there would be required to float them an extent of
water sufficient to cover four times the area of the city of London,
while the whole population of Birmingham would be needed to man them.
But, besides the 20,000 and odd British, with their 180,000 men, that
are thus engaged in conveying the treasures of other lands to our own,
there are upwards of 13,000 foreign vessels, manned by 100,000 hands,
that annually visit the shores of this country.
Of the steam-vessels belonging to the United Kingdom in 1848, there
were 1100. Their aggregate length was 125,283 feet; their aggregate
breadth, 19,748 feet; their aggregate tonnage, 255,371; and their
aggregate of horse-power, 92,862. It may be added, that they are
collectively of such dimensions, that by placing them stem to stern,
one after the other, they would reach to a distance of 23-1/2 miles, or
form one continuous line from Dover to Calais; while, by placing them
abreast, or alongside each other, they would occupy a space of 3-1/2
miles wide.
According to the calculations of Mr. G. F. Young, the eminent
shipbuilder, the entire value of the vessels belonging to the
mercantile marine of the British empire is upward of 38,000,000_l._
sterling. The annual cost of the provisions and wages of the seamen
employed in navigating them, 9,500,000_l._ The sum annually expended in
the building and outfitting of new ships, as well as the repairing of
the old ones, is 10,500,000_l._, while the amount annually received for
freight is 28,500_l._
The value of the merchandise thus imported or exported has still
to be set forth. By this we learn not only the vast extent of the
international trade of Great Britain, but the immense amount of
property entrusted annually to the merchant-seaman. It would, perhaps,
hardly be credited, that the value of the articles which our mercantile
marine is engaged in transporting to and from the shores of this
kingdom, amounts to upwards of one hundred million pounds sterling.
Such, then, is the extent of the external transit of this country.
There is scarcely a corner of the earth that is not visited by our
vessels, and the special gifts and benefits conferred upon the most
distant countries thus diffused and shared among even the humblest
members of our own. To show the connexion of the metropolis with this
vast amount of trade, involving so many industrial interests, I shall
conclude with stating, that the returns prove that one-fourth of the
entire maritime commerce of this country is carried on at the port of
London.
As a sad contrast, however, to all this splendour, I may here add, that
the annual loss of property in British shipping wrecked or foundered
at sea may be assumed as amounting to nearly three million pounds
sterling per annum. The annual loss of life occasioned by the wreck
or foundering of British vessels may be fairly estimated at not less
than one thousand souls in each year; so that it would appear, that the
annual loss by shipwreck amongst the vessels belonging to the United
Kingdom is, on an average, 1 ship in every 42; and the annual loss
of property engaged therein 1_l._ in every 42_l._; while the average
number of sailors drowned amounts to 1 in every 203 persons engaged in
navigation.
I now come to speak of the means by which the vast amount of wealth
thus brought to our shores is distributed throughout the country. I
have already said that there are three different modes of internal
communication:--1, to convey the several articles coastwise from one
port to another; 2, to carry them inland from town to town; and 3, to
remove them from and to the different parts of the same town. I shall
deal first with the communication along the coast.
In 1849, the coasting vessels employed in the intercourse between Great
Britain and Ireland made upwards of 26,000 voyages, and the gross
burden of the vessels thus engaged amounted to more than 3,500,000
tons. The “coasters” engaged in the carrying trade between the
different ports of Great Britain in 1849, made no less than 255,000
voyages, and possessed collectively a capacity for carrying upwards of
20,000,000 tons of goods. Of the steam-vessels employed coastwise in
the United Kingdom, the number that entered inwards, including their
repeated voyages, was 17,800, having an aggregate burden of upwards
of 4,000,000 tons, while 14,500 and odd steam-vessels, of not quite
the same amount of tonnage, were cleared outwards. This expresses the
entire amount of the coasting trade in connexion with the several ports
of Great Britain. London, as I have before shown, has four times the
number of sailing vessels, and ten times the amount of tonnage, over
and above any port in the kingdom, whilst of steam-impelled coasting
vessels it has but little more than one-third, compared with Liverpool.