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 of from 3000_l._ to 5000_l._, 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.

[Sidenote: Boatmen.]

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.

[Sidenote: Engines.]

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 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]

[Sidenote: Different construction of the steamers on the Atlantic

rivers.]

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 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 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.

[Sidenote: Great speed of American lake and river steamers.]

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, 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.

[Sidenote: Peculiarity of construction.]

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 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.

[Illustration: HUDSON RIVER STEAMER “NEW WORLD.”]

The steamers at present engaged in passenger traffic between New York

and Boston, are magnificent 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.

[Sidenote: Steamer _New World_.]

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, 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

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_.

[Sidenote: Details of her construction.]

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 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, 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.

[Sidenote: The _Daniel Drew_.]

[Sidenote: Her enormous speed.]

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 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.

[Sidenote: Pacific Steamship Company started, 1847.]

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.

[Sidenote: Cost of establishing it.]

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 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]

[Sidenote: Speed of its vessels.]

[Sidenote: Difficulties to encounter.]

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; 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.

[Sidenote: Number of its steamers.]

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.

[Sidenote: Services performed.]

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 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.

[Sidenote: China and Japan line.]

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 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, 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.

[Sidenote: “Law line” of steamers.]

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.

[Sidenote: South American Steam-ship Company.]

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 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.”

[Sidenote: Mr. Randall’s projected large American steamer.]

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.

[Sidenote: Details of proposed ship.]

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 “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.”

[Illustration]

[Sidenote: Two sets of paddle-wheels.]

[Sidenote: Principle of construction.]

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 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.

[Illustration]

[Sidenote: Advantages to be derived from vessels thus built.]

The proposed arrangements present an amount 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 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.

[Sidenote: Mr. Randall’s experience of steamers employed on the Lakes

and Pacific.]

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 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.

FOOTNOTES:

[145] Lake Ontario, which lies nearest to the Atlantic, is 172

miles in length, about 60 miles in extreme breadth, and 483 miles

in circumference. Lake Erie is about 265 miles in length, from 30

to 60 miles in breadth, and 529 miles in circumference; while Lake

Huron is 240 miles long, from 186 to 220 miles wide, and 1000 miles

in circumference. Michigan, which is connected with Lake Huron by a

navigable strait, is 300 miles in length, 75 miles in width, and 920

miles in circumference, having a superficies of 16,200 square miles.

But Lake Superior is the largest of all the lakes, being no less than

360 miles in length, and 140 miles in breadth, with a circumference

of 1116 miles; the line of coast formed by the margins of these lakes

extends to upwards of 4000 miles, while they are all, nearly throughout

their entire length and breadth, navigable for vessels of the largest

description, their depth varying, except within a short distance of the

shores, from 12 to 200 fathoms.

[146] Chicago, situated on the south-west shore of Lake Michigan, at

the mouth of a river of the same name, was in 1830 a mere station in

the midst of a forest where a few Americans traded with the Indians

in furs. Ten years afterwards it had 4470 inhabitants; but in 1850

these had increased to 27,620, and in 1853 to 60,552. In 1860, when I

visited that place, it had become a great city, with somewhere about

150,000 inhabitants, numerous handsome stone buildings, and magnificent

stores; those for grain capable of containing, according to the annual

report of the Chicago Board of Trade, 5,475,000 bushels of corn, with a

capacity for shipping no less than 1,835,000 bushels each day. Indeed,

I witnessed the loading of a brigantine with 9000 bushels of wheat from

one of these stores in two hours!

[147] The first vessel ever built on western waters was the brig

_Dean_, launched at Alleghany City, Pa., in 1806.

[148] In a letter I received, January 5th, 1855, from Mr. E. P. Dorr,

the President of the Buffalo Board of Trade, he says: “The Welland

Canal, as it now stands, is used almost wholly by American vessels. It

is the key of the other canals; its length is 28 miles, and there are

28 locks, as Lake Erie is 256 feet above Lake Ontario: but a new and

enlarged canal is in process of construction, which, when finished,

will admit vessels of large tonnage.”

[149] In 1860 there were 265 steam-vessels of 104,543 tons register,

belonging to the United States, and 104 similar vessels, registering

33,269 tons, owned in Canada, all of which were engaged in the commerce

of the lakes. On January 1st, 1875, the number of steamers belonging to

both countries, thus employed, had increased to 689, measuring 258,980

tons. They range in size from 250 to 1500 tons. But, besides these,

there were 1770 sailing-vessels of 386,554 tons similarly engaged, or

an aggregate of 645,534 tons, one in every five of which vessels can

go through the Welland Canal, three-fourths of them being American and

one-fourth Canadian. Some of the lake sailing-vessels occasionally

trade to England, the first, the _Dean of Richmond_, having taken a

cargo from Chicago direct to Liverpool in 1856.

[150] “Civil Engineering of North America,” pp. 60, 61.

[151] Long Island Sound lies between that island and the mainland, and

extends in a north-easterly direction from New York Harbour, affording

a sheltered line of navigation of about 120 miles in extent.

[152] If any further proofs were necessary to show that almost

everything done in this new business had its origin in England, these

will be found in the fact, that a boat launched by Fulton on July 4th,

1815, was a counterpart of the one belonging to Mr. Miller, which he

had seen on Dalwinston Lock some years previously. She was a structure

resting upon two boats, separated from end to end by a channel 15 feet

wide and 60 feet long. One boat contained the copper cauldrons, for

preparing the steam; the other, the iron cylinder, piston, levers and

wheels. The water-wheel revolved in a space between them just as in one

of Mr. Miller’s boats. Had Fulton, in this matter, claimed originality,

it would, certainly, be another and striking instance of two persons

resident far apart from each other, carrying out the same idea, even in

its most minute details.

[153] See _Western States and Buffalo Advertiser_, quoted by Mr. John

MacGregor in his “Statistics of the American Lake Trade,” London, 1847.

[154] _Batture_ is the original French word, still retained, applied to

the new formation of alluvial soil formed by the capricious action of

the Mississippi. The Levee extends from 43 miles below the city to 120

miles above it.

[155] In an address by Mr. Lothian Bell (May 1875), late President of

the Iron and Steel Institute of Great Britain, the area of pit coal

in the United States is computed at 192,000 square miles, as compared

with 8000 square miles in the United Kingdom. Hitherto the expense

of working any portion of these vast coal fields was too great to

make it remunerative, but, now, the use of coals is being so rapidly

substituted for wood in the American steamers that the facilities for

working the mines and transporting the coals has marvellously increased

within the last twenty years. Mr. Bell remarks, in the same address,

that 20,000 tons of coal are sometimes embarked at Pittsburg on a

flotilla of flat bottomed boats towed by one steamer and conveyed 1600

miles down the Ohio at something under a shilling a ton, including the

cost of bringing back the empty barges.

[156] Between 1816 and 1848 no less than 233 steam-boats employed on

American waters exploded, some of them involving terrible disasters,

the lowest number during that period being one annually, but sometimes

there were as many as ten, twelve, and thirteen in the course of a

year. The loss of life in each accident averaged eleven persons, being

a total of 2563 human beings killed, besides 2097 persons wounded. In

one terrible explosion, that of the _Louisiana_, on the New Orleans

_levee_, nearly 200 persons lost their lives. See _St. Louis Republican

and Insurance Reporter_ (U.S.A.).

[157] In the rule for nominal horse-power, Watt assumed 7 lbs. of steam

as a mean pressure.

[158] I am enabled through the courtesy of Mr. Webb, the well-known

ship-builder of New York, to furnish in the Appendix No. 6, p. 600, a

description of the engines of the _Bristol_ and _Providence_, the two

finest steamers at present (1875) employed on the line between New York

and Boston.

[159] Coals are now worked from mines on the coast, and, from this

and other causes, the price of coals on the Pacific coast has been

materially reduced.

[160] These “magnificent” vessels are each 5560 tons burden, and are

423 feet in length, 48 feet wide, and 38 feet deep. They are the

largest steam-ships that have ever carried the American flag. It is

confidently believed in America, that the running time from Hong Kong

to San Francisco, viâ Yokohama, by these vessels will be reduced to

within twenty days; and they are guaranteed by the builder, under a

heavy penalty, to make fourteen and a half knots per hour. The _City of

Pekin_, on her trial trip, made fifteen knots an hour, with fifty-three

revolutions per minute and 57 lbs. of steam. This company has now in

course of construction another three steamers similar in size; all

are being built of _iron_ at Chester, Pa., U.S. Each vessel will have

capacity for 800 passengers, and 3000 measurement tons of freight.

[161] The advantages of this system of trussing are described by

a practical authority, as follows: “Running fore and aft, and

constituting the frame of the sides of the ship, are two arched trusses

of wood and iron, of the most ingenious construction. The vertical

depth, from the crown of the truss down to the level of the keel, is

about 53 feet. In the truss is also interwoven a counter arch, the

trusses, therefore, not only prevent the sinking of the two extremities

and rising of the middle, but they likewise prevent any rising of

the extremities, and sinking of the middle of the ship, and thus

effectually prevent any tendency to bend or break in the direction

up or down in a fore and aft vertical plane; and, by a most perfect

system of lateral trussing interwoven with the tiers of beams, she is

prevented from bending or breaking in the direction of a horizontal

plane, running fore and aft through the ship. Where strain by tension

or pulling is exerted, wrought iron is to be used, and where thrusts

or compression is exerted, wood is used, and where both compression

and extension are felt, wood and iron together are used.”—Address by

Captain T. J. Cram, delivered at the Board of Trade Room, Philadelphia,

July 11th, 1860.

[162] So far as regards the stability of the proposed vessel, Captain

Cram, who was a member of the United States’ Corps of Topographical

Engineers, remarks, in the lecture on her, delivered in 1860 at

Philadelphia, as follows: “She is to be a four-storey ship. Commencing

at the bottom and going upwards we have the first storey, a hold, 16

feet high in the clear, with ample room for the machinery, boilers,

and coals, and for a large quantity of freight besides. All this great

weight of engines, boilers, coals, and dead weight freight, which is to

be stowed in the very bottom of the ship, will act as ballast placed

in the right position to insure stability and to relieve the ship

from that dangerous topheaviness usually observed in many sea-going

steamers.”

[163] In 1833, Mr. Randall designed and built the _Wisconsin_, 218

feet in length and 38 feet in width, at Detroit, Michigan, and ran

her successfully, under his own command, through three of the lakes

between Buffalo and Chicago, carrying freight and passengers, in spite

of strong head winds, on round trips of 2000 miles, averaging a speed

quite as great as the _maximum_ contemplated many years afterwards

by the projectors of the _Great Eastern_. In 1845 he designed and

navigated in the same trade the _Empire_ of 251 feet in length, with

a beam of 38 feet, at an average speed of 16 statute miles per hour.

Soon afterwards the _City of Buffalo_ and the _Western Metropolis_,

constructed according to his design, were sent afloat. They were

sister ships, each 340 feet in length with a beam of 42 feet, and far

in advance of any ship England had then afloat, while their draught

of water, when laden, was only 9½ feet. By a report which appeared

in the _Cleveland Herald_ (U.S.) [and there is no reason to doubt

its accuracy], the trip between Buffalo and Cleveland was made at an

average speed of 21 miles an hour by the _Metropolis_, while the _City

of Buffalo_ made a similar voyage, averaging still greater speed in the

ordinary course of trade. Nor were Mr. Randall’s practical experiments

in vessels of similar model and design confined to the lakes, for he

commanded the _Yankee Blade_, a vessel of still larger dimensions, with

a draft of 11 feet of water, on her voyage from New York to California

round Cape Horn, encountering, successfully, a gale in which many

vessels foundered; afterwards, he continued to ply with her for some

years on the station between San Francisco and Panama.

CHAPTER IV.

Struggle between Great Britain and United States for the

Atlantic carrying trade—English shipowners cleave to

Protection—“Baltimore clippers” and “American liners”—The

_Savannah_, the first American Atlantic steamer, 1819—The

_Curaçoa_, 1829—The _Royal William_, 1833, from Quebec—The

_Sirius_ and _Great Western_, 1838—Successful voyages of these

vessels—Details of _Great Western_—The _Royal William_, second

of that name, the first steam-ship from Liverpool, 1838, followed

by the _Liverpool_—Origin of the Cunard Company—Contract for

conveyance of mails—Conditions—Names and particulars of the

first steamers in this service—The _Britannia_—Comparative

results of different vessels—Building (1839) and loss (1841)

of the _President_—Building of the _Great Britain_ in

1843—Advantages of iron ships—American auxiliary screw steamer

_Massachusetts_, 1845—American line of steamers to Europe,

1847—First ocean race won by the English—Not satisfied with

Cunard line, the Americans determine to start one of their

own—Reasons for so doing—American shipowners complain justly

of the “Protective” policy of their own Government—Nevertheless

adopted—Collins line established—Original terms of

subsidy—Dimensions of their steamers—Mr. Faron’s visit to

England—Details of the build of these vessels—Engines—Frame

sustaining engines and dead weight—Cost of steamers greatly

increased by demand for increased speed—Further details of

competing lines—Speed obtained and cost—Great competition,

1850-1852—Results of it.

[Sidenote: Struggle between England and the United States for the

Atlantic carrying trade.]

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 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.

[Sidenote: English shipowners cleave to Protection.]

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 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.

[Sidenote: “Baltimore clippers,” and “American liners.”]

Although possessing the advantage of vast forests of timber for the

construction of their ships, the 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 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.

[Sidenote: The _Savannah_, the first American Atlantic steamer, 1819.]

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 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[167] were demonstrating, at least to

their own satisfaction, that the navigation of the Atlantic by steam

power 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.

[Sidenote: The _Curaçoa_, 1829; the _Royal William_, 1833, from Quebec.]

[Sidenote: The _Sirius_ and _Great Western_, 1838.]

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 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]

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 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 (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.

[Sidenote: Successful voyages of these vessels.]

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]

[Sidenote: Details of the _Great Western_.]

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 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.

[Sidenote: _Royal William_, the second of that name, the first

steamship from Liverpool, 1838.]

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 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.

[Sidenote: followed by the _Liverpool_.]

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 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.

[Sidenote: Origin of the Cunard Company, 1838.]

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 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 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.

[Sidenote: Contract for the conveyance of the 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.

[Sidenote: Conditions.]

The original conditions of the contract were that, for the sum of

55,000_l._ 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 81,000_l._[178] per annum.

[Illustration: THE “BRITANNIA.”]

[Sidenote: Names and particulars of first steamers in this mail

service.]

[Sidenote: The _Britannia_.]

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); 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 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 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]

[Sidenote: Comparative results of different vessels.]

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 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.

[Sidenote: Building (1839) and loss (1841) of the _President_.]

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 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]

[Sidenote: Building of the _Great Britain_ iron-ship, 1843.]

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 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.

[Sidenote: Advantages of iron ships.]

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 afterwards, maintained that the screw,

under all circumstances, was an inferior motive power to that of the

paddle-wheel.

[Illustration: STEAMER “GREAT BRITAIN” OFF LUNDY ISLAND.]

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]

[Sidenote: American auxiliary screw-steamer _Massachusetts_, 1845.]

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 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.

[Illustration: AUXILIARY SCREW-STEAMER “MASSACHUSETTS.”]

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 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 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 16,000_l._ complete in all

respects with machinery.

[Sidenote: American line of steamers to Europe, 1847.]

[Sidenote: First ocean race won by the English.]

But even the _Massachusetts_[189] did not meet the wishes 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, 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 London _Times_ does not give a very glowing

account of her appearance as she passed before him on the 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.

[Illustration: STEAMER “WASHINGTON.”]

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.

[Sidenote: Not satisfied with the Cunard line, the Americans determine

to start one of their own.]

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 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.

[Sidenote: Reasons for so doing.]

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 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 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.

[Sidenote: American ship-owners complain justly of the “Protective”

policy of their own Government.]

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 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 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.

[Sidenote: Collins line established.]

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 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.

[Sidenote: Original terms of subsidy.]

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.

[Sidenote: Dimensions of their steamers.]

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 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 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]

[Illustration: STEAMER “ATLANTIC.”]

[Sidenote: Mr. Faron’s visit to England.]

[Sidenote: Details of the build of these vessels.]

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 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 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 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 angle much more acute than was

considered safe for adoption in ocean navigation some years ago.

[Sidenote: Engines.]

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 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.

[Sidenote: Frame sustaining engines and dead weight.]

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, 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 178,750_l._) per annum. _But increased rates of speed were

required in return._

[Sidenote: Cost of steamers greatly increased by demand for increased

speed.]

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 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 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 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.”

[Sidenote: Further details of competing lines.]

Before the Collins line was established, the Cunard steamers were

receiving 7_l._ 10_s._ 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 4_l._ sterling per ton. Arguing

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

4_l._ 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]

[Sidenote: Speed obtained and cost.]

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 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 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.

[Sidenote: Great competition, 1850-1852.]

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 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.

[Sidenote: Results of it.]

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 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, 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.

FOOTNOTES:

[164] The Americans are now rapidly developing their large natural

resources of iron. “The iron ores of the United States” (London

_Times_, 28th of May, 1875), “are plentiful and various, though some

kinds are wanting; thus the ‘spathose’ or spar-like iron ore, scarce

even in Europe, is very rare; and the ironstone of the liassic and

oolite seams, which furnishes about one-third of our British pig-iron,

appears to be wholly absent. On the other hand, the specular iron ore,

the brown and red hematites, the clay and blackband ironstones, are

good and abundant; and some of the deposits of magnetic iron ore—as at

Lake Champlain, and at Cornwall, in Pennsylvania—are very remarkable.

At Cornwall the deposit consists of a solid hill of ore, measuring

roughly 500 feet in diameter, rising from the ground level to a height

of 350 feet, and proved by borings to a depth of 180 feet below ground

level. The iron mine at Port Henry—at the south-west corner of Lake

Champlain, in the State of New York—is worked in a huge prism of ore,

about 200 feet square, and descending at an angle of 26 to 40 degrees,

to an unknown depth, the superincumbent rock being supported by pillars

of solid ore, 40 feet square at the base and about 20 feet at the top,

with a height of considerably more than 100 feet.”

[165] _Ante_, p. 42.

[166] “Encyclopædia Britannica” (eighth edition), vol. xx. p. 639,

“Steam Navigation.” The _Savannah_ was full rigged as a sailing-vessel

with auxiliary steam power, and her paddles were removable.

[167] Dr. Lardner, in his “Encyclopædia” and elsewhere, had more than

once expressed the opinion that no steam-ship would ever be able to

make so distant a voyage as that of crossing the Atlantic, without

recoaling. Having entered on details with regard to this important

question in a lecture he delivered at Liverpool in December 1835,

I consider it desirable to give the following extract from it, as

reported in the _Liverpool Albion_ of the 14th of that month, the

matter being one of considerable historical interest:

“STEAM COMMUNICATION WITH AMERICA.—Dr. Lardner then proceeded to

observe that one of the grandest projects which had ever occupied the

human mind was at present in the progress of actual accomplishment.

He meant that of constructing a great highway for steam intercourse

between New York and London. Part of the highway was in process of

formation. It consisted of several stages—that of the railroad from

London to Birmingham; that from Birmingham to Liverpool, and the

steam intercourse with Dublin; but there was another stage—that from

Dublin to Valentia—which had as yet hardly been thought of. Ireland

was a country which, with all her political disadvantages, was blest

by nature with a vast number of physical advantages, and among the

rest he might reckon a vast number of excellent harbours. No country

in the world could boast of so many fine and spacious ports, bays,

and roadsteads. She had many harbours on her west coast, which would

serve admirably as stations for steam conveyance across the Atlantic;

but Valentia had been selected as the extreme westerly point suitable

for that purpose. It was a fine anchoring ground by an island of that

name on the coast of Munster. The distance from Dublin to this point

was under 200 miles, which might be traversed in about eight hours.

The nearest point of the Continent of North America to this point of

Ireland was St. John’s in Newfoundland. The distance between the two

was about 1900 miles, thence to Halifax in Nova Scotia there would be

another run of 550 miles, and from that to New York would not exceed

the admissible range; but touching at Halifax would be desirable for

the sake of passengers. The only difficulty would be as to the run from

Valentia to St. John’s; and the voyage from Dublin to Bordeaux and

back, a distance of between 1600 and 1700 miles, with the same stock of

coals, came very near this distance. It must be observed that westerly

winds blew almost all the year round across the Atlantic. They were

produced by the trade winds being the compensating cause that restored

the balance which these served to destroy, according to that beautiful

principle in nature which always provides a remedy for any derangement

in the deranging cause itself. As a last resource, however, should

the distance between Valentia and St. John’s prove too great, they

might make the Azores a stage between, so that there remained no doubt

of the practicability of establishing a steam intercourse with the

United States. _As to the project, however, which was announced in the

newspapers of making the voyage directly from New York to Liverpool,

it was, he had no hesitation in saying, perfectly chimerical, and they

might as well talk of making a voyage from New York or Liverpool to the

moon._ The vessels which would ultimately be found the best adapted

for the voyage between this country and the United States would be

those of 800 tons, which would carry machines of 200 horse-power, and

would be able to stow 400 tons of coal. To supply a 10 horse-power,

daily required an expenditure of a ton of coals, and, consequently,

200 horse-power would require 20 tons of coal daily; but if the vessel

carried 400 tons of coal only, it would not be practicable to undertake

a voyage which would require the whole of that quantity. They must

make an allowance of 100 tons for contingencies. Thus, in reckoning

the average length of the voyage which might be undertaken by such a

vessel, we might safely calculate upon 300 tons of coal, which would

be sufficient for fifteen days, and it might fairly be concluded that

any project which calculated upon making longer voyages than fifteen

days without taking in a fresh supply of coals, in the present state

of the steamboat, must be considered chimerical. Now, the average rate

of speed of the Mediterranean packets was 170 miles per day, and the

utmost limit of a steam voyage might be taken at 2550 miles; but even

that could not be reckoned upon.”

It is, however, fair to the scientific memory of Dr. Lardner to state

that, in the eighth and last edition of his “Steam-engine, Railways,”

&c., 1851, pp. 294-309, he declares that he never stated that a “steam

voyage across the Atlantic was _a physical impossibility_:” the more

so, that he was of course well aware of the previous voyages of the

_Savannah_ and _Curaçoa_; what he did say (especially at the meeting

of the British Association at _Bristol in 1836_) was “that the long

sea voyages which were contemplated could not be maintained with that

regularity and certainty which are indispensable to commercial success

by _any revenue which could be expected from traffic alone_, and _that,

without a government subsidy of a considerable amount_, such lines of

steamers, although they might be started, could not be permanently

maintained.”

[168] The _Royal William_ was between 400 and 500 tons, built at Three

Rivers, Canada, and her engines, constructed in England, were fitted

into her at St. Mary’s Foundry, Montreal. She only made this one

Atlantic passage and was subsequently sold to the Portuguese Government.

[169] It is only due to the memory of the late Mr. MacGregor Laird,

who, with his brother, the late Mr. John Laird, M.P. for Birkenhead,

did so much to encourage Ocean steam navigation in its infancy, to

state that the _Sirius_ was placed on the Transatlantic service on his

recommendation, and that, so early as 1836, he was chiefly instrumental

in founding the British and American Steam Navigation Company which

chartered this vessel from the St. George Company. See letter from Mr.

A. Hamilton of St. Helen’s Place, London, “the friend and executor of

the late Mr. MacGregor Laird,” which appeared in the _Shipping and

Mercantile Gazette_ of the 15th May, 1873: in this paper, also, appears

a copy of a letter which Mr. Laird, under the signature of “Chimera,”

addressed to the _Liverpool Albion_ on the 28th December, 1835, in

reply to Dr. Lardner’s fallacious prognostications that a steam voyage

across the Atlantic was “perfectly chimerical,” from which I take the

following extract:

“By what process of reasoning Dr. Lardner has fixed the ultimate size

of steam-vessels for the Atlantic at 800 tons and 200 horse-power does

not appear, which is the more to be regretted, as it must be a peculiar

one, from the size of the vessels very little exceeding that of several

in the coasting trade, and the power being much less; but I am not

bound to take this for granted, particularly as all my experience

has proved that we as yet have never had to complain of the size of

the vessel if the power has been proportionately increased; on the

contrary, the Dublin boats have crept up from 250 to 500 and 600, and

the Clyde from 200 to 400 tons, and other lines in the same proportion.

In reasoning, therefore, upon a line of steam communication between

Great Britain and New York, I must reason from analogy, and fortunately

Dr. Lardner gives me the data. The _Leeds_, it appears, makes the

voyage to and from Bordeaux, a distance of 1600 miles, with one supply

of coals. The _Leeds_ is, I believe, 420 tons and 140 horse power, and

her displacement between her light and load marks will be about 80 tons

to one foot, or perhaps only 70. Now, the distance from Liverpool or

Portsmouth to New York is 3000 nautical miles or 3500 statute miles, a

little less to Liverpool. Suppose the _Leeds_ be trebled in capacity,

so that her displacement should exceed 200 tons per foot draught, it is

not necessary to treble her power, as double power propels more than

double bulk: but allow her 300 horse-power, her light draught of water

would be about 11 feet with her machinery on board, and with 800 tons

of dead weight on board, about 15. I take the consumption of coals

at 30 tons per day, and a mean speed of 10 miles per hour, and at an

expenditure of 525 tons of common coal, or 420 of Langennich, I land

my passengers in New York, Portsmouth, or Liverpool in something less

than fifteen days. I have not allowed anything in this calculation for

the saving of fuel that would accrue in these large engines by working

them expansively, but have taken the consumption at 9½ lbs. per horse

per hour, and with common coal I would have a surplus of 275 tons dead

weight for passengers and goods. One objection will, I am aware, be

made, viz., that my average speed is too great, and if I admitted that

the _beau idéal_ of a steam-vessel was embodied in one of His Majesty’s

Mediterranean steam-packets the objection would be fatal; but what is

the fact? (no less wonderful than true), the average speed of private

vessels far exceeds them; and, to prove that the average speed of 10

miles per hour is not ‘chimerical,’ I may state that the average speed

of the _Dundee_ and _Perth_, in all weathers, winter and summer, fair

or foul, exceeds 11 miles per hour; that the average speed of the

_Monarch_ is 10½ miles per hour; and that the _Medea_ steam-frigate

averaged more than 10 miles per hour on her voyage to Malta. Now,

I am of opinion that the _Dundee_, _Perth_, _Monarch_, and _Medea_

are to be, and will be, beat, but not by vessels of 800 tons and 200

horse-power. I hope, Mr. Editor, I have proved that it is easier to go

from Portsmouth or Liverpool to New York than to the moon; that it is

more convenient to go direct than through the first ‘gem of the sea;’

and the last, though not the least consideration, that if we wish to go

at all by steam, we had better not wait for the Valentia Railway.”

[170] Builders’ measurement, or O.M., is the measurement of a vessel

according to the old law of 1773 (13 George III., Chap. LXXIV.) which

prescribed as follows: “The length shall be taken on a straight line

along the rabbet of the keel of the ship, from the back of the main

stern-post to a perpendicular line from the fore part of the main-stem

under the bowsprit, from which substracting three-fifths of the

breadth, the remainder shall be esteemed the just length of the keel

to find the tonnage; and the breadth shall be taken from the outside

of the outside plank in the broadest place in the ship, be it either

above or below the main wales, exclusive of all manner of doubling

planks that may be wrought on the sides of the ship; then multiplying

the _length_ of the keel by the _breadth_ so taken, and the product by

_half the breadth_ and dividing the whole by ninety-four, the quotient

shall be deemed the true contents of the tonnage.”

Though another Act was passed in 1834 (Act 5th & 6th William IV.

Chap. LVI.) which was again amended by the 6th & 7th Victoria, Chap.

LXXXIV., and consolidated by 8th & 9th Victoria, Chap. LXXXIX., known

as the “new measurement, or N.M.” the old law remained in use with all

shipbuilders in their contracts until 1854, when the law (proposed and

carried out by Moorsom) now in force, was passed. By this law, the

internal cubic contents of a ship are ascertained, and the register

tonnage (on which all fiscal dues are levied) ascertained by certain

calculations which produce as nearly as possible the same results in

the old measurement of all ships built since 1854 (see _ante_, vol.

iii. note, p. 310), and thus the necessity is avoided of altering the

rates charged upon shipping, for light, dock and other dues; under the

present law, which is generally approved, an allowance is made for the

space occupied by the engines in steam-vessels, so that the register

tonnage on which all dues are levied is the gross admeasurement, less

the space occupied by the propelling power. The mode of arriving at

this, adopted by different nations, has of late been a question of

much discussion with reference to the dues charged on vessels passing

through the Suez Canal.

[171] The “Principle of Construction” of this vessel is clearly stated

in the following note given in Mr. Brunel’s life at p. 234: “To enable

the ship to resist the action of the heavy Atlantic waves, especial

pains were taken to give her great longitudinal strength. The ribs

were of oak, of scantling equal to that of line-of-battle ships. They

were placed close together and caulked within and without before the

planking was put on. They were dowelled and bolted in pairs; and there

were also four rows of 1½ inch iron bolts, 24 feet long, and scarfing

about 4 feet, which ran longitudinally through the whole length of the

bottom frames of the ship. She was closely trussed with iron and wooden

diagonals and shelf-pieces which, with the whole of her upper works,

were fastened with bolts and nuts to a much greater extent than had

hitherto been the practice.”

[172] “ARRIVAL OF THE ‘GREAT WESTERN’ AND ‘SIRIUS’ STEAMERS AT NEW

YORK.—At three o’clock P.M., on Sunday, the 22nd of April, the

_Sirius_ first descried the land, and, early on Monday morning,

the 23rd, anchored in the North River immediately off the battery.

The moment the intelligence was made known, hundreds and thousands

rushed early in the morning to the battery. Nothing could exceed the

excitement. The river was covered during the whole day with row-boats,

skiffs, and yawls, carrying the wondering people out to get a close

view of this extraordinary vessel. While people were yet wondering how

the _Sirius_ so successfully made out to cross the rude Atlantic, it

was announced about eleven A.M. on Monday, from the telegraph, that a

huge steamship was in the offing. ‘The _Great Western!_—the _Great

Western!_’ was on everybody’s tongue. About two o’clock P.M. the first

curl of her ascending smoke fell on the eyes of the thousands of

anxious spectators. A shout of enthusiasm rose on the air.... During

the first part of the passage of the _Sirius_ she made slow progress,

her speed varying from 4 knots 4 fathoms per hour to 7; the latter

portion was at the rate of 8 to 11 knots. Thus the grand experiment has

been fairly and fully tested, and has been completely successful. The

only question now in the case is that of expense. Can steam-packets be

made to pay?”

[173] Sixty knots are equal to sixty-nine geographical or statute miles.

[174] The _Great Western_ ran regularly between Bristol and New York

till the end of 1846. In 1847 she was sold to the West India Royal

Mail Steam Packet Company, and was long one of their best vessels. In

1857 she was broken up at Vauxhall, being no longer able to compete

profitably with the new class of steamers which, by that time, had been

placed on the different Transatlantic lines.

[175] “DEPARTURE OF THE FIRST STEAM-SHIP FROM LIVERPOOL TO NEW

YORK.—On Thursday evening the _Royal William_, the property of the

City of Dublin Steam Packet Company, set sail on her first voyage for

New York. The _Royal William_ was announced to sail for New York at

half-past six o’clock. At that time Prince’s Pier was lined towards the

river with a dense crowd from top to bottom, and the rigging of the

shipping in the Prince’s Dock was densely manned with sailors. Every

conceivable standing place on George’s Pier was crowded to excess. The

deck of the vessel was crowded with passengers and their friends, and

those whom curiosity had taken there. Exactly at half-past six o’clock

the anchor was weighed, and, immediately, as the noble vessel began

to move she was greeted with the enthusiastic cheering of thousands

of spectators, which were responded to by those on board, whilst from

Woodside, Birkenhead, Rock Ferry, the Pier, and the steamboats in the

river on all sides, scores of cannon thundered forth the rejoicings of

their possessors.... She is built by Messrs. Wilson and her engines

are from the manufactory of Messrs. Fawcett and Preston. The vessel

is 817 tons burthen, and her engines are 276 horse-power, and work

expansively at a 5 feet 6 inch stroke. The consumption of coal is 14

cwt. 2 lbs. per hour. She has furnaces which completely ignite the

smoke, and are a saving of 33 per cent. in the consumption. The smoke

from the chimney top is scarcely perceptible. She has fuel on board for

4500 miles; almost sufficient to take her out and bring her back again.

Her length is 175 feet; breadth of beam 27 feet; and depth of hold 17

feet 6 inches. She is also fitted with four water-tight wrought-iron

bulk-heads for safety from foundering and fire. She is fitted up with

floats, which neutralize the vibration. Her paddle-wheels are 24 feet

in diameter, and, owing to the great depth of the vessel in the water

from the large quantity of coal on board, the paddles are 6 feet in the

water. In smooth water the vessel sails 11½ knots an hour. Her cabins,

which are exceedingly neatly fitted up, contain accommodation for

eighty passengers. There are two principal cabins and several private

cabins. Thirty-two passengers went out in her.”

[176] The _Royal William_ made her first passage from Liverpool to New

York in nineteen days and the passage home in fourteen and a half days.