The fleet of the Messageries Company had now reached fifty-four

ships of 80,875 tons, and 15,240 horse-power, afloat or in course of

construction, evidently more than they could profitably employ: they,

therefore, applied for and obtained from their Government, in 1861, a

contract for the conveyance of the French mails to India and China,

requiring for this purpose only an additional steamer. But the increase

of trade to the East, brought about in no small degree by the increased

facilities and by an anxious desire on the part of the company to

meet the wants of the travellers of all nations, very soon enabled

the directors to double the services of their steamers to the East.

In 1871 their fleet measuring 137,334 tons, of 20,885 horse-power,

performed services on the India and China routes of 230,135 French

leagues; on the Mediterranean and Black Sea, 153,478; and, on the

Brazilian, 50,004: in all, 423,607 leagues annually, independently of

various extra services. Since then their Brazilian and La Plata lines

have been doubled, and now (1875) the company employs 175,000 tons of

steam-ships, besides chartering numerous sailing-vessels.[363]

When first the Messageries Company became carriers by sea, they had

nearly all their vessels built in England, but they now possess large

establishments of their own, where they construct screw-steamers of

iron, rivalling in most respects, and very much resembling those of,

the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, of which I have

furnished an illustration.

[Sidenote: Largest vessels.]

Their two largest ships employed in the trade with India and China are

the _Anadyr_ and the _Irawaddy_, of 3671 and 3471 tons gross register

respectively, and each of 600 nominal horse-power. The other sixteen

vessels in that service range from 3017 tons and 500 horse-power, down

to 1035 tons and 280 horse-power. Their six steamers employed on the

Brazilian and River Plate line are from 3417 tons and 600 horse-power,

to 2115 tons and 400 horse-power, while the thirty-five engaged in

the Mediterranean and Black Sea services range from 2524 tons and 500

horse-power to 430 tons and 160 horse-power. They have also three

steamers of 1500 tons and 250 horse-power engines on the compound

principle trading between London and Marseilles, and four magnificent

screw-steamers in course of construction, each of 4000 tons and 600

horse-power.

The trade of this large Company now embraces all the chief ports of

the Mediterranean and Black Sea, and those of India, China, Java, and

Japan, as well as of Algeria and the Brazils; and the excellent manner

in which the different lines are conducted and navigated by Frenchmen

is the best answer that can be given to the old saying that the French

never were and never will be a maritime people. That they do not equal

the English on the ocean is likely enough, nevertheless that they

would become much greater as shipowners than they now are there can

be little doubt, were they governed by wise laws and left to depend

upon their own energy and resources rather than on government grants.

Throughout all time “protective” laws seem to have retarded the natural

development of commerce, as they have been too frequently the ruin of

nations as well as of individuals.

[Sidenote: Trade viâ the Suez Canal.]

The ships of the Messageries Maritimes Company, like those of their

great competitors for the trade of the East, the Peninsular and

Oriental Company, now pass through the Suez Canal. But, besides these

two companies, the former of which receives nearly double the amount

of subsidy of the other,[364] there are now numerous other steam lines

following the same route, all bidding for the ever envied trade of the

once mysterious Cathay; and these have increased enormously since the

waters of the Red Sea, passing through the desert, mingled with those

of the Mediterranean.

Hitherto steam to India by the way of the Cape of Good Hope has proved

an unprofitable undertaking: nor, with all the improvements tending

towards increased economy on the one hand, and greater capacity for

cargo on the other, does it offer many more inducements now, than it

did when the _Enterprize_ first found her way to Calcutta.

Nor, indeed, has any better success attended steam navigation

undertakings to the distant colonies of Australia. From the time that

the trade with India was thrown open, sailing-ships thither, as well

as to Australia, have been the chief means of transport, and these

still carry by far the largest proportion of the goods traffic, though

first-class passengers prefer the more expeditious overland routes: but

steam-boats, even though largely subsidized, especially to India by

the way of the Cape, have found it impossible to compete successfully

with the sailing-ships of Messrs. Green of Blackwall, Messrs. T. and W.

Smith, and other private shipowners long engaged in the trade.

The two steam companies, formed nearly simultaneously about the year

1852 to run viâ the Cape of Good Hope: one, the General Screw Steam

Company to Calcutta and intermediate Indian ports; and the other, the

Australian Royal Mail Steam Company, though each received large grants

of public money, alike proved signal failures. Nor can the failure of

these undertakings be altogether attributed to mismanagement. A good

deal of it was, doubtless, due to the description of vessels employed,

and to their unsuitability for the services undertaken, but still

more to the fact that neither auxiliary steam-ships, nor full-powered

steamers, have hitherto been profitable on distant voyages.

[Sidenote: Presumed advantage of auxiliary engines.]

About that period many shipowners were under the impression that

full-rigged ships, such as the _Massachusetts_, with an auxiliary

steam-engine, to be used only in calms and light winds, would in

themselves combine all the best qualities of a sailing-ship and

steamer: nor was this surprising. On the voyage, for instance, from

England to India a sailing-vessel during the favourable trade winds and

monsoons, which can always be depended upon for a considerable part

of the voyage, would, under sail alone, make almost as much progress

as a steamer; while, in the calms, which are invariably met with for

from five to ten degrees on each side of the Equator, and, where

sailing-vessels frequently are long detained, the small steam-engine

could be applied to great advantage; as also on entering as well as

on leaving harbours. Indeed, so strongly impressed was I with the

value of auxiliary steam-vessels for distant voyages, that, in 1856, I

undertook, even after these failures, to convey in seven such steamers,

three-fourths of which belonged to myself, the monthly mails, within a

given time, between London, the Cape of Good Hope, Mauritius, Ceylon,

Madras, and Calcutta.

The vessels thus employed were built entirely of iron, and ship-rigged,

as may be seen by the following illustration of one of them; more

fully so, in proportion to their size, than those of the General Screw

Company, and, as their engines were only from 80 to 120 horse-power

nominal, on a tonnage of from 800 to 1500 tons gross, they were purely

auxiliary vessels. Under sail their speed was from 10 to 11 knots, with

a favourable wind, and, under steam alone, from 6 to 7 knots an hour in

light breezes or calms, but, in adverse winds, they made little or no

progress, a fact arising in great measure from their small steam-power

and from the resistance their heavy spars presented to the winds:

consequently, though they met with no accidents, and were more to be

depended upon, as to time, than ordinary sailing-vessels, they could

not maintain the regularity essential for the mail service; so, after

twelve months’ experience, I relinquished the undertaking.

[Illustration: AUXILIARY STEAMER TO CAPE AND INDIA.]

Since that time no mails have been carried in any description of

steam-vessels from England to ports eastward of the Cape of Good Hope

by the Atlantic sea route, except it may be to Natal, and occasionally

to the Mauritius, or to Zanzibar on the east coast of Africa.

[Sidenote: Not borne out by the results.]

In full powered steamers the space required for coals and machinery

on these distant oversea voyages, over and above their first cost and

current expenses, prevent them carrying cargo sufficient to afford

remunerative returns, and their owners are not recouped by the extra

rates of freight obtainable for the time saved on the voyages. In the

case of the auxiliary steamers the results are the same, arising in a

great measure from similar causes, for, though such vessels had greater

space for cargo, yet the advantage thus gained is counterbalanced by

the maintenance of a staff of engineers and firemen who, during the

greater portion of the voyage are unemployed, and by the fact already

stated that, though the auxiliary engine is valuable in calms, it has

not power enough to be of service against strong and adverse winds.

As a rule, therefore, it is in most cases more profitable to employ

either a steamer with only light spars and a few fore and aft sails, or

a full-rigged vessel which depends entirely upon her sails. Anything

between the two has not hitherto been found to answer so well, though

there may be exceptions depending on the trade in which such vessels

are employed.

[Sidenote: Conveyance of the Australian mails.]

From the time of the opening of the overland route, all the mails to

the East Indies have passed through Egypt, except those despatched by

the two lines of auxiliary steamers round the Cape of Good Hope, to

which I have just referred; and even by these vessels few or no letters

were sent except to the intermediate ports; but, for many years after

the overland route had been opened, the British mails to Australia and

New Zealand were conveyed almost entirely by sailing-vessels, except

during the two or three years the Australian Royal Mail Steam Packet

Company carried on its operations. When the steamers of that company

were unable any longer to continue the service, the Peninsular and

Oriental Company undertook, as we have seen, the conveyance of these,

the more important mails by way of Ceylon; but, when the service was

relinquished for a time, as some of their steamers were required as

transports for the Crimean War, the conveyance of the whole of the

Australian mails, greatly to the annoyance and discomfort of the

colonists, reverted again to sailing-vessels.

To obviate as far as practicable the delay and uncertainty in the time

of the delivery of the letters, Government, instead of contracting

for their conveyance by any one line of sailing-vessels, considered

it expedient to throw the contracts open to the competition of all

suitable vessels engaged in the trade with Australia. But this, too,

was merely an experiment, and one which proved alike unsatisfactory to

the public and Government. It was tried, however, for a year or more

and, as it so happened, the trial was made just between the time when

the steamers of the General Screw Company and those of the Australian

Royal Mail Company had ceased to run, and of my own experiment with the

Cape and Indian mail services.

[Sidenote: Peculiar conditions of contracts.]

To insure speed and, if possible, regularity, the Post Office

authorities stipulated that from the amount to be paid to each ship

thus employed, there should be deducted a penalty of 20_l._ for every

day’s delay in the delivery of the letters beyond the time specified in

the tender. Instead of leaving the sum, as had hitherto been and now

is the invariable practice, to be named by the person who tendered,

Government fixed it at 1000_l._ for the passage, accepting the offer

which contained the fewest number of days for the performance of the

service. Thus, a shipowner who could reckon with tolerable certainty,

that his vessel would make the voyage to Australia in 100 days, which

most first-class ships could do, might safely tender to do it in, say,

seventy-seven days, because after the deduction of the 20_l._ per day

for the twenty-three days in excess, he would have a balance of 540_l._

to receive (besides other advantages which “mail-packets” derived), and

as that sum would further cover an additional excess of twenty-seven

days, or say altogether fifty days beyond the time contracted for, the

speculation was an exceedingly safe one to a sailing-ship, even if the

tender were made for the shortest time in which the fastest steamer had

been known to accomplish the voyage. Hence this system of tender proved

altogether illusory as regarded the securing a rapid communication. The

very first ship, the _Stratford_, despatched under the new arrangement,

occupied on her outward passage a period of thirty-seven days in excess

of the time stipulated!

[Sidenote: Failure of the service.]

[Sidenote: Stringent penalties.]

If the colonists had been loud in their previous complaints they were

still more so now; but the Treasury and Post Office authorities,

considering that they had done their best to secure speed, were, for

a time, immovable and indisposed to make any further experiments.

Steamers and sailing-vessels on so distant a voyage having alike

failed, Government thought there was now a good answer to all

complaints, and, consequently, treated them with indifference. They

argued, referring to the then recent failure of the Australian Royal

Mail Packet Company, that, as the steam-vessels between England and

Sydney had varied from seventy-six to 120 days, while the length of

passage by fast sailing-ships between England and Port Phillip was

from eighty-two to 110 days, the difference was not really of any

serious disadvantage. Nevertheless, while Government refused increased

grants for the conveyance of the mails, it adopted and enforced much

more rigorous penalties[365] against owners of sailing-ships to ensure

a more speedy performance of the mail services. This fresh experiment,

however, from its extreme rigour also failed, and some time elapsed

before the colonists obtained what they had long demanded, a direct

and _independent_ line of steam-vessels by way of Suez and Ceylon;

and that, as we have seen, proved in the hands of the European and

Australian Steam Navigation Company the most signal failure of all the

experiments which had been made.

[Sidenote: Australian steam services. ]

Among the instances where anything like success has attended steam

voyages direct to Australia, may be mentioned the services performed by

Messrs. Gibbs, Bright, and Company, in their steamship _Great Britain_

from Liverpool, and in the steamers belonging to Messrs. Money Wigram

and Sons, of London, which now trade to these colonies. Occasionally

other steamers are despatched to Australia and also to New Zealand, and

recently a company was formed—the Australian Direct Steam Navigation

Company—with the intention of maintaining a regular monthly line from

London to Melbourne, calling at Falmouth, the projectors anticipating

the performances of the passage in “under forty-five days.” But though

this undertaking failed at the outset, and experience can alone test

the realization of the sanguine expectations of its promoters, it

may be said in favour of their views, that the difficulties previous

pioneers of steam-vessels on long oversea voyages have had to encounter

are being rapidly surmounted by the new compound engines, where the

consumption of coals required to attain a given speed is not one-half

of what it was twenty years ago.

[Sidenote: Mr. Alfred Holt’s line of steamers to China.]

So far as regards the trade with India and China by way of the Cape of

Good Hope, the steam-line started by Mr. Alfred Holt of Liverpool in

1865 is the only one within my recollection, which has hitherto proved

successful. Though the steamers of this line now proceed to China by

the Suez Canal, their performances were remarkable when engaged in

the former route. Starting from Liverpool they _never stopped till

they reached Mauritius, a distance of 8500 miles_, being under steam

the whole way, a feat hitherto considered impossible; thence they

proceeded to Penang, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Shanghai, and, though

unaided by any government grants, performed these distant voyages with

extraordinary regularity.

In forwarding the particulars of his first three vessels, Mr. Holt[366]

remarks: “Since the Suez Canal was opened I have found that the square

sails of the _Agamemnon_, _Ajax_, and _Achilles_[367] were of little

use, and, therefore, I have converted these three ships into what the

Americans call ‘barquentine rig’ (i.e. no square yards on mainmast),

and have constructed all my new ships with pole-masts only.”

[Sidenote: Its success.]

These three vessels are each 2270 tons gross or 1550 net register, with

engines of 300 nominal horse-power.[368] Messrs. Holt have also eleven

other steamers, similar in size and power, at present engaged in trade

with the East, and three more in course of construction, besides a

tug-steamer of 350 tons to attend on them in their passage through the

Suez Canal. They carry goods right through to Penang, Singapore, Hong

Kong, and Shanghai, calling at Galle and Amoy, or other ports in the

Eastern seas when required; and one is struck with the low rates at

which goods are now conveyed[369] to India and China compared with the

freights charged by the sailing-vessels of the old East India Company,

together with the wonderful regularity and expedition[370] with which

they are delivered.

Although the fleet of this spirited undertaking is known as the Ocean

Steam-ship Company, it is neither a public nor a limited company, the

vessels being owned in shares under the old law by a few individuals

(like many others of a similar description in this country), but

chiefly by the managing owners, Mr. Alfred and his brother Mr. Philip

H. Holt, whose thorough business habits have materially promoted the

success of the company.

[Sidenote: Messrs. Gellatly, Hankey, and Company.]

It would be impossible to notice within the limits of this work the

different lines of steam-ships now trading to the East by way of the

Suez Canal. Among the most conspicuous, however, may be mentioned

those of Messrs. Gellatly, Hankey, Sewell, and Company, London, which,

from the order and regularity of their despatch, bid fair to rival the

subsidized companies. Many of the vessels under their agency belong

to Messrs. Thomas Wilson, Sons, and Company, of Hull, long known as

large owners of vessels trading from that place to various ports in the

Baltic, but who, since the opening of the Suez Canal, have established

a line of very fine steam-ships from London to India.

Their _Hindoo_ for instance, of 3257 tons gross register, has capacity

for about 3500 tons weight, “including coals in bunkers, and from 80

to 120 passengers,” for whom accommodation is provided “amidships, a

method which has apparently given great satisfaction to those who have

been travellers by them.”

Another line of steamers under the management of the same firm run in

connection with the British India Steam Navigation Company, taking

passengers and mails to Columbia, Madras, and Calcutta, with branch

steamers from Aden to Zanzibar on the one hand, and to Karáchí and the

Persian Gulf on the other.

Foreign nations have likewise taken advantage of the opening of the

Suez Canal to run lines of steam-ships to the East; and, besides the

French Messageries Maritimes, there are the Austrian Lloyd’s Company of

Trieste, and the Rubbotino Company of Genoa, respectively supported by

the Austrian and Italian Governments, each running a fortnightly line

to Bombay during the four best passenger months of the year, namely,

from January to April, and despatching their ships every month during

the remaining portion of the year.

[Sidenote: Messrs. Green and Company.]

There is also the “Ducal” line from London, running in connection with

the old and celebrated sailing-vessels belonging to Messrs. Green,

of Blackwall, which is still maintained; and the “Queen” and “City”

lines of steamers direct to Calcutta,[371] as well as various other

similar private undertakings. Nor is Liverpool behind the capital in

its race by way of the Suez Canal, for that far-famed trade which the

Phœnicians, Romans, Venetians, Portuguese, Dutch, and English alike, in

turn, have envied and expended untold millions to maintain.

[Sidenote: Messrs. Rathbone Brothers.]

As a specimen of the ordinary first-class merchant steamers now trading

between Liverpool and Calcutta, I may instance one of the vessels

belonging to Messrs. Rathbone Brothers, of that place. She is of 2610

tons gross and 1682 tons net register, and has capacity for 2200 tons

of cargo, besides 450 tons of coal.[372] She is rigged merely with

poles (a mode of rig now becoming very general in all steam-vessels),

on which, with the exception of one fore-square sail, a few fore and

aft sails alone can be set. The owners remark the “best passages of our

ships as yet are as follows:—Liverpool to Calcutta (viâ Gibraltar)

to Saugar (near Calcutta), thirty-one days, including all stoppages;

Calcutta to London (viâ Galle and of course Suez Canal) to _Nore_

light-ship, thirty-four days thirteen hours, steaming time on the whole

voyage (exclusive of Suez Canal and stoppages) sixty-one days twelve

hours. The best homeward passage hitherto made by any of our ships,

landing cargo at Colombo and Port Said, occupied thirty-three days

seventeen hours, inclusive of all stoppages.”

From these and previous figures, my readers will more fully understand

the progress that has been made in our ordinary trading communications

with India and China, since the days of the East India Company, and

ascertain what has been gained, since then in the speed, capacity, and

current expenses of our merchant-ships.

[Sidenote: Messrs. George Smith and Sons.]

In further illustration of the progress made in our own time I cannot

do better than furnish my readers with a letter I received (January

1875) from Mr. George Smith, of Glasgow.

Indeed, this letter contains in itself a history of the rise of the

merchant-vessels of Great Britain during the period to which Mr. Smith

refers, and marks the different stages of progress and the means

whereby we have been enabled not merely to maintain, but to surpass,

in maritime supremacy, all nations. It, likewise, illustrates how

individuals (for the case of Messrs. George Smith and Sons is no

exception to the general rule, though their operations may be on a

more extensive scale than those of most other shipowners) have, since

they have been relieved from the trammels of protection and been left

to exercise as they deem best their own genius and industry, more

than kept pace with other branches of commerce by the improvement and

increase of their ships.

“Our first purchase,” Mr. Smith states in his letter, “was a small

colonial barque in 1840, which was followed shortly thereafter by the

purchase of a barque of 346 tons, in course of construction, and a ship

of 500 tons then nearly in frame, both being of the ten years class.

“The first ship which we contracted for and had built to our own

specification was the _Majestic_, launched in 1846. Our second, the

_City of Glasgow_, was built at Kelvinhaugh, and launched in 1848.

While she was on the stocks, the bounds of the municipality of Glasgow

as a city had been extended to the junction of the Kelvin and Clyde

westwards, and thus embraced the shipyard in which she was built. Our

late Mr. R. Smith was then a magistrate of the city of Glasgow, and

this being the first ship built in the extended royalty, we reckoned

no name could be more appropriate, and, as other ships came into

existence, we still kept the _City_,[373] and merely added a name in

future designations.

“When we commenced the trade, we employed the regular brokers for

loading outwards, and had every reason to be satisfied with the

attention paid to our interests by the gentleman who did our business,

but the practice, which then obtained here, of laying a ship on the

berth and allowing her to lie till nearly loaded before naming the

sailing date, and that date, when named, frequently not adhered to, we

felt very annoying, not only as keeping back shipments but as sending

goods to Liverpool which should have gone from this direct. Our rule

was to have our dates of sailing definitely fixed. Only one firm,

however, in the trade held the same view with ourselves, and feeling

the annoyance, they and we resolved on starting a monthly line to

Calcutta. Together we had not so many vessels as were required to keep

up the monthly conveyance, but we resolved to add to our tonnage and

make up for the then deficiency by chartering so far as necessary.

We had made a special stipulation that _our_ broker should still act

for _our_ ships, and also for those that it might fall to our lot to

charter. When this proposal was submitted to him we were surprised to

find that he declined very decidedly to have anything to do with the

arrangement—that his lengthened experience in the trade satisfied him

that it would prove a failure—and he was therefore not prepared to

allow his name to be associated with it; but he lived long enough to

find he had been mistaken.

[Sidenote: Messrs. Smiths’ ships, and their voyages to and from India.]

“Having experienced the difficulty arising from brokers acting to-day

for a party who adhered to their date, and to-morrow for another who

would not let their vessels go until filled, we at once decided on

taking charge of the loading ourselves, which we still continue.

After this we went on steadily increasing our fleet of sailing-ships

until those afloat numbered thirty-five. Our last contract for a

sailing-vessel was in September 1868.

“For several years, our operations were confined to Calcutta, but, in

1863, at the solicitation of several friends, we started a monthly

line to Bombay, having in the meantime increased our sailings very

materially to Calcutta as well. The following statement shows the

number of voyages completed to each port in 1871, and is a fair

estimate of the work of the previous eight years. We had, in fact, a

virtual monopoly of the trade, gained by strict punctuality—a high

class of ships and moderate charges, ever studying to arrange rates

that our friends could not go past us to do better.[374]

“Our first _iron_ ship was launched in 1856; our wooden ones were

disposed of as opportunity offered, and, in 1868, only one of these

remained, which we have since sold.

“We commenced steam in 1871, by contracting for four boats of 2250 tons

gross, and about 1700 tons register, having compound engines of 200

horse-power, working up to 1000. The boilers have been a serious source

of annoyance to us from the first. When all goes right, we get 9 to 9½

knots out of them, and make the passage (viâ Suez Canal) in thirty-nine

days including stoppages; but the irregularity attending their working

prevents us from giving you a list of their passages as desired;

latterly, we have added two of a larger class and more power. These

have been making the passages regularly in thirty-one to thirty-three

days, and we anticipate equal results from other four now in course of

construction.”

[Sidenote: Changes in the mode of conducting commerce with India and

China.]

In the brief account thus given we have a condensed history of the

changes and progress of the merchant ships of Great Britain during the

last thirty-five years, so far as regards our trade with India. Step by

step, they rise from wood to iron and increase in size from 350 to 1500

tons as sailing-ships, while these in turn are now being to a large

extent supplanted by iron screw-steamers of from 2000 to 3000 tons

and upwards. In most respects, the sailing-ships of Messrs. Smith and

Son very much resemble the finest of the modern free-trade Indiamen,

whereof a drawing has been furnished;[375] and their steam-ships are

not unlike the more recent vessels of which various illustrations

are given in these pages; their _City of Oxford_, for instance, of

2220 tons gross, carries 2500 tons of Calcutta cargo, besides 750

tons of coals in her bunkers; and she is navigated by forty-nine

persons, comprising commander, surgeon, two officers, twenty seamen,

seventeen men in the engineer’s department, and eight persons otherwise

employed.[376]

Such are the vessels now carrying on the more valuable portion of our

trade with India, through that great maritime highway, which the genius

and industry of De Lesseps has so recently opened to our vast commerce

with the far East, three-fourths of which, however, is still conducted

by the way of the Cape of Good Hope.[377]

[Sidenote: Number of vessels through Suez Canal since its opening, and

their nationality.]

In the Appendix to this volume[378] will be found an account of the

vessels which have annually passed through the Suez Canal since that

great undertaking was opened, specifying the different nations to which

they belong. Some interesting and instructive facts may be gathered

from these returns, especially with regard to the remarkably rapid

growth of the traffic, increasing as this has done from 486 ships of

435,908 tons in 1870, to 1264 ships of 2,423,672 tons in 1874. Nor is

it less worthy of notice that more than three-fourths of the whole of

this tonnage belongs to Great Britain.[379]

Figures such as these may in some measure set at rest the fear long

entertained that the opening of this canal would be prejudicial, in

any material extent, to the interests of England, by diverting the

course of commerce with India to its former European centres, and

restoring the commercial greatness of Constantinople, Venice, Leghorn,

Marseilles, Cadiz, and Lisbon. For, though these places cannot fail to

be benefited to a greater or less extent, and they have already been

so, by the re-opening of the ancient route, their superior position to

that of the ports of Great Britain will be of little avail, till they

adopt the policy pursued with so much success by this country. If they

desire to secure that share of the commerce of India, to which from

their natural position they may fairly consider themselves entitled,

they must open their ports to the ships of all nations, sweep away

their differential and protective duties, establish docks and bonding

warehouses, and offer to the traders of the world equal facilities for

obtaining whatever description of its assorted produce they may require

for their varied wants. The mere fact of being a few days nearer

Calcutta or Bombay will otherwise avail them little, distance in itself

being now of comparatively small importance to what it was before

steam-ships traversed the ocean.

FOOTNOTES:

[360] Besides the _Bavarian_, Messrs. Leyland employ in this trade the

_Bohemian_ and _Bulgarian_, similar in all respects, each of which is

400 feet in length, 37 feet wide, and 28 feet in depth, with engines of

350 nominal horse-power. They have also in the same trade other three

sister ships, the _Iberian_, _Illyrian_, and _Istrian_, each 2890 tons

gross register and carrying 4400 tons of cargo, dimensions 390 ⨉ 37 ⨉

29.

[361] The whole steam tonnage of France amounted in 1873 to 185,165

tons net register.

[362] The Greeks, strange to say, considering their shrewdness and keen

business habits, stopped the coasting trade of foreigners, thereby

doing incalculable injury to their own commerce, not having capital

themselves to supply the deficiency or perform adequately the service.

[363] My readers will perceive that this company apparently owns

within 10,000 tons of the whole of the steam-shipping of France, but

this arises from the gross tonnage being given in the former returns,

and only the net registered tons in the latter. Nevertheless, the

Messageries Maritimes is now the largest steam-ship company in the

world. A list of the steamers of this company, and how employed, will

be found in the Appendix No. 24, p. 641.

[364] The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company for a

service of 1,171,092 miles, receives 430,000_l._, while the Messageries

Maritimes is paid at present (June 1875) 399,838_l._ for a service of

631,514 miles.

[365] An amusing incident occurred at this time to myself not

altogether unworthy of notice. When the discussions were going on

about the irregularity of the sailing-ship mails, the late Mr. James

Wilson, then Secretary to the Treasury, one day asked me how these

irregularities could best be remedied. “Oh,” I said, half in joke

and half in earnest, “adopt the horse-shoe nail mode of levying your

penalties: inflict, as you do now, 20_l._ for the first day’s delay,

but increase it to 40_l._ for the second, 80_l._ for the third, 160_l._

for the fourth, 320_l._ for the fifth, 640_l._ for the sixth, and no

pay at all for the conveyance of the mails if the ships are seven days

beyond the time stipulated in their contract, and you will be no longer

troubled with tenders professing to deliver your letters in less time

than the passage, under ordinary circumstances, can be accomplished.”

A scheme of penalties, somewhat after this fashion, was immediately

afterwards adopted; but I had unwittingly prepared a stick to break my

own back. The second contract for the Cape and India mails, to which

I have referred in the text, was one of the earliest to which this

new principle was applied, and I could not of course object to the

stringency of this new fashioned penalty clause, as it was of my own

creation. Nor did the Government hesitate to put it in force when my

ships were behind time, as also in the case of the unfortunate European

and Australian Steam Navigation Company. But though the new principle

promptly and effectually put a stop to all tenders of the class of

which Mr. Wilson complained, it was much too rigorous to be continued

and was abolished.

[366] Mr. Alfred Holt is the third son of my old friend, the late Mr.

George Holt of Liverpool. He is an engineer by profession, having

served his apprenticeship to Mr. Edward Woods, the engineer of the

Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Afterwards, he became the inspecting

engineer of my steamers and of those of others; and when he himself, in

time, became the owner of steam-ships, in partnership with his brother,

Mr. Philip H. Holt, he showed what knowledge, practically gained, could

achieve, and, thoroughly beating his old employers by the production

of the vessels to which I refer, he now ranks high, and deservedly

high, among the great shipowners of his native town. Though he has no

claim to be considered the inventor of the compound engine, for that is

almost as old, in one form or another, as the present century; he was

the first to apply the principle on _long oversea voyages_. The ships

of the Pacific Company had, it is true, that description of engine

in use before him, but only in those of their ships engaged in the

coasting trade of the Pacific. Mr. Holt’s steamers were consequently

the first to show the advantages to be derived from the compound

principle on such voyages as those from England to Mauritius, a

distance of 8500 miles without stopping, then a marvellous performance;

and it was, only, from the time he thus _practically_ demonstrated the

great value of such engines, that they have been generally adopted.

[367] The _Achilles_ left Foochow, July 16th, 1869, and arrived at

London round the Cape of Good Hope, September 16th, having been

fifty-eight days nine hours under steam—13,552 miles.

[368] Their dimensions are as follows: 309 feet in length, 38½ feet

beam, and 28½ depth of hold to upper or spar deck.

[369] Freight for ordinary packages of measurement goods:

To Suez, Penang, and Singapore, 50_s._ per ton, with 5 per cent.

primage.

To Hong Kong and Shanghai, 50_s._ per ton, with 5 per cent. primage.

Through bills of lading are signed for—

Yokohama, Foo-choo-Foo, and Amoy, @ 90_s._

Manilla, 90_s._, Batavia, 80_s._, Samarang, 84_s._, Sourabaya, 85_s._,

Padang and Macassar, 92_s._, Chinkiang, 77_s._ 6_d._, Kiukiang, 80_s._,

Hankow, 85_s._, Nagasaki, 75_s._, and Hiogo, 80_s._ per ton.

All without primage. No bill of lading signed for less than 2_l._ 2_s._

Freight payable on delivery of bills of lading.

[370] The _Agamemnon_ left Hankow, 604 miles above Shanghai, on May

25th, 1873, and arrived (by way of the Suez Canal and Gibraltar) at

London, July 12th. The mails, which left Shanghai June 1st, arrived in

London _viâ_ Brindisi, July 21st, and the passage of the _Agamemnon_ is

not an exceptional one.

[371] The _Queen Margaret_, 3138 tons register, belonging to the Queen

Steam Shipping Company (Limited), has just (Sept. 1875) made the

passage from London to Calcutta under 30 days, including 40 hours’

detention in the Suez Canal (or, 28 days and 8 hours), which, as yet,

is, I believe, the fastest passage on record.

[372] The dimensions of this vessel are 350 feet in length, 37 feet

in breadth, and 27 feet 5 inches extreme depth of hold. She has three

decks, her engines are 300 nominal horse-power, and her crew consists

of fifty persons all told.

[373] All the ships of Messrs. George Smith and Sons are named after

different cities.

[374]

CALCUTTA.

We despatched to Calcutta viâ the Cape of Good Hope, in 1871,

twenty-four sailing ships:

Shortest passage out 79 days.

Shortest passage home 93 days.

Shortest round voyage, Pilot to Pilot 6 months and 9 days.

Average passage out 95 days.

Average passage home 108 days.

Five of the voyages were completed under seven months. A few of these

vessels loaded out from London. The others were all from the Clyde.

BOMBAY.

We despatched to Bombay, in 1871, sixteen sailing-ships completing the

same number of voyages:

Shortest passage out 83 days.

Shortest passage home 95 days.

Average passage out 106 days.

Average passage home 117 days.

Shortest voyage 7 months and 18 days.

[375] See vol. ii. p. 493.

[376] The dimensions of this ship are 325 feet in length, 37 feet beam,

and 27½ feet extreme depth. The cylinders of her engines (compound) are

39 and 68 inches respectively in diameter and the length of stroke 42

inches.

[377] I may here state that the bulkiest articles of Indian produce,

consisting as they do of cotton, jute, rice, sugar, saltpetre, cutch,

and such like, as also woods of various kinds, cannot, as a rule,

afford to pay the rates necessary to remunerate a steam-ship for their

conveyance; hence, such articles will most likely continue to be sent

to Europe by the Cape route, except when in special demand. That such

will most probably continue to be the case is apparent from the fact

that, though, during the last two years, the competition between

the steamers passing through the Suez Canal has been so great as to

reduce their rates of freight almost to a level with those paid to

sailing-vessels, the latter still continue to secure full cargoes.

This may, in some measure, be accounted for by many, indeed, the bulk

of those cargoes being sold “to arrive:” hence, merchants frequently

prefer sailing-vessels, especially for the shipment of jute, rice,

and other articles of comparatively low value, as thus they have a

longer time at their disposal, and thus frequently avoid the expense of

warehousing, to which, in the case of goods by steamers, they are often

obliged to resort, from the short time allowed in all contracts, for

the discharge of such vessels.

[378] Appendix No. 25, p. 643.

[379] In calling attention to the results of the construction of the

Suez Canal, the _Friend of India_ says:—“No more striking illustration

could be adduced of the revolution effected by the Suez Canal than that

suggested by a comparison of the shipping advertisements of to-day with

those of twenty years ago. Then we hardly ever heard of steamers in

these regions, except in connection with the stately proceedings and

crushing fares of the Peninsular and Oriental Company. Then, it was a

splendid run to get home in one of Green or Smith’s clippers in ninety

days. Now, an ordinary cargo steamer, carrying a few passengers, lands

us comfortably at Liverpool on the thirtieth day. First we have the

time-honoured Peninsular and Oriental Company, next the Messageries

Maritimes de France, then the Italian Steam Navigation Company. Not

inferior to the last-mentioned is the Austro-Hungarian Lloyd’s Steam

Navigation Company, then comes the Anchor line, followed by the

Wilson line, the Star line, &c. Besides the regular steamers of these

and similar ‘lines,’ we have our choice of a large and constantly

increasing number of private vessels—less regular, perhaps, in their

departures and arrivals, but many of them not a whit inferior in size,

accommodation, speed, and careful management. Another note-worthy

feature in these noble steam fleets is the nature of the vessels

generally composing them. It will be found that nearly the whole of

the steamers are new, many of them having been built expressly for the

Indian passenger trade; and all are superbly fitted out with every

convenience and luxury. Twenty years ago, a vessel of 1500 tons ranked

as the largest of our Indian sailing-vessels. Now, 3000 tons is a very

common figure to see appended to the name of a passenger steamer, and

4000 tons not uncommon, while some are considerably above that tonnage.

In point of speed, several steam vessels owned by new companies are

equal, if not superior, to the Peninsular and Oriental. Recently we

read of a steamer leaving Suez two days after the Peninsular and

Oriental, and arriving at Bombay one day earlier. The lowering of fares

is another item worthy of consideration. A first-class passage can now

be obtained, exclusive of beer and wine, for 450 rupees. The result

of all this is a greatly increased and rapidly increasing flight to

England from India; and an annual accession of visitors and tourists

from England, the Continent, and America, to India. Even our hill

stations are losing their summer visitors—drained off by the absorbing

Suez Canal. And many parents, who formerly sent their children to

hill schools, are now taking advantage of cheap passages to give them

the benefit of home education. As fares are reduced still more this

homeward tendency will further increase. Why should not 30_l._ pay as

well for thirty days without beer and wines as 60_l._ used to pay for

ninety days with beer and wines? We believe that first-class passages

will eventually be procurable for 30_l._, and that now is the time for

shipping companies to look the future in the face.”

CHAPTER XII.

First application of steam-vessels on the rivers and coasts

of India, 1825—S.S. _Diana_—S.S. _Burhampooter_ and

_Hooghly_, 1828—Arrival in India of Lord William Bentinck as

Governor-General—His efforts to promote Steam Navigation—Voyages

of the S.S. _Hooghly_ up the Ganges 1828, 1829, and 1830—Other

vessels recommended to be built—Two of them of Iron—Steam

Companies formed, 1845—Steam Committee, 1857, and rapid

progress of steam-vessels from this date—Improved troop steamer

for the Lower Indus—Sea-going steamers of India—S.S. _John

Bright_—British India Steam Navigation Company established,

1857—Its fleet, and extent of its operations—Origin of this

company—Its early difficulties, and rapid extension—Number of

ships lost—Effect of the opening of the Suez Canal on the trade

of this Company—The _Holy Ship_, _note_—Netherlands Steam

Navigation Company, 1866—Its fleet, and how employed—Irrawaddy

Flotilla and Burmese Steam Navigation Company, 1865—Services

of this Company—Extent of inland trade—Fleet of the

Company—Interior trade of China—The Yang-tse-Kiang—Its source

and extent—Opened to trade, 1860—First steam-ship direct from

Hankow to England, 1863—Passage of the _Robert Lowe_ and her

cargo—Number of steamers employed on the Yang-tse 1864 and in

1875—S.S. _Hankow_—Her power and capacity, _note_—Chinese Steam

Navigation Company—Proposed Imperial fleet of steamers—Increase

of trade with China—The resources of the interior—Mode of

conducting business—“Hongs” or Guilds—Chinese Bankers—River and

coasting trade of China—Japanese line of steamers—How employed.

[Sidenote: First application of steam-vessels on the rivers and coasts

of India, 1825.]

[Sidenote: S.S. _Diana_.]

Encouraged by the success of the _Enterprize_, the Bengal Government

soon afterwards purchased another steamer, the _Diana_,[380] which

had been originally sent from England to China on speculation, and

despatched her to Amarapura, 500 miles up the River Irrawaddy, with

their then Resident in Burmah, Mr. Crawfurd, and his suite. As,

however, she sailed on her voyage in the month of September, when that

river is at its fullest, her progress not exceeding 30 miles each

day, caused considerable disappointment to the Indian Government. On

her return in the following month of December, she was again equally

unfortunate, for, by that time, the river had fallen so low, that,

partly owing to her draught of water, which was seldom less than 6

feet, and, partly, to the intricacy of a navigation, then imperfectly

known, her passage down the Irrawaddy was nearly as tedious.

[Sidenote: The S.S. _Burhampooter_ and _Hooghly_, 1828.]

As, however, this voyage was accomplished without accident, the value

of steamers for inland navigation was sufficiently shown to induce the

Indian Government to consider the desirability of constructing such

vessels for this special service; hence, an urgent application was soon

afterwards made to the Court of Directors for permission to build two

vessels, one for general service, and the other for the navigation of

the Burhampooter, on which, from the strength of the stream and the

prevalence of easterly winds, it was found that sailing-vessels could

not be depended on, for the supply of the large number of troops it was

necessary to maintain in the valley of Assam for some years after the

conquest of that country. So much delay, however, occurred before the

Court gave its consent, that these vessels were not ready for actual

service till the spring of 1828.[381]

[Sidenote: Arrival in India of Lord William Bentinck as

Governor-General.]

Lord William Bentinck, who arrived on July 3rd of that year at

Calcutta, as Governor-General of India, at once saw the immense

advantage to be derived from the employment of steam-vessels, and their

great value and economy in the rapid transport of troops and treasure,

as well into the interior as along the coasts of India.[382]

[Sidenote: His efforts to promote Steam Navigation.]

No arguments were required to convince him that the new steamer

despatched for service on the Burhampooter river, whence she had been

named, was of almost incalculable value, the troops in Assam being

not merely supplied more rapidly with the necessary stores, but their

number materially reduced, the use of steamers enabling the different

armies of India to be practically interchangeable with almost every

portion of the East. Consequently, Lord William Bentinck appointed a

committee to inquire into the description of steamers best suited for

the navigation of the rivers of India, and ordered the _Hooghly_, the

second vessel built, to explore the River Ganges as far as Allahabad, a

distance of 798 miles above Calcutta.

[Sidenote: Voyages of the S.S. _Hooghly_ up the Ganges, 1828, 1829, and

1830.]

The voyages of this vessel, under the command of Captain Johnston,

previously of the _Enterprize_, were perfectly successful, and clearly

showed that the Ganges could, for the whole of this distance, be

advantageously navigated by steamers. Although the _Hooghly_, from not

having the indispensable qualities of lightness of draught, capacity,

and speed, was not well adapted for so long and intricate a river

voyage, she made the passage to Allahabad at the average speed of

3½ miles an hour, against a current of from 3 to 4 miles, returning

thence at the rate of from 7 to even 12 miles an hour according to the

strength of the stream. Further experimental trips in the spring of

1829, and in January 1830, were equally successful.

[Sidenote: Other vessels recommended to be built.]

[Sidenote: Two of them of iron.]

In accordance with the recommendations of the Committee, two steamers

of about 270 tons burden, with engines of 70 to 80 horse-power,

were constructed as tug-boats for use on the river _Hooghly_; and

orders were sent to England for two others, better fitted than the

_Burhampooter_ and _Hooghly_, for the navigation of the Ganges or

other rivers. These vessels had, indeed, but partially met the wants of

the service, and, as it had been now discovered that vessels of less

draught could be made of iron, the Court of Directors were recommended

to order their construction of that material. They were to draw

not more than 2 feet of water; one to be a steam-tug, the other an

accommodation boat. Both were to be of the same dimensions, 120 feet

long, by 22 feet in width, and very flat-bottomed, which, indeed, was

absolutely necessary to secure the stipulated lightness of draught.

They were to have two engines of 30 horse-power each, with vibrating

cylinders, on account of their greater lightness. However, till the

result of the experiment made with these boats was known, the Directors

suspended their decision as to the building of more steam-vessels for

the navigation of the Upper Ganges and Burhampooter, as also for that

of the Indus and other rivers of the Punjâb.

In these early efforts, we have an approximation to what has since

been achieved on the rivers of India, presenting, as they did, a field

for inland navigation, realizable by steam-vessels with far more

advantageous results than could be obtained by the ordinary craft

of the country. The success of the first effort, in securing a high

power of engines as compared with the draught of water, led to the

construction, for similar purposes, of various other iron boats by Mr.

Laird, Messrs. Miller and Ravenshill, and Messrs. Forrester.

[Sidenote: Steam companies formed, 1845.]

[Sidenote: Steam committee of 1857, and rapid progress of steam vessels

from this date.]

Private enterprise, however, in this instance lagged behind

Government, as it was not till 1845 that any companies were formed

to conduct the trade of that country by means of steam-vessels. The

Tug Company of the Hooghly was among the first of these commercial

undertakings. The Bombay Steam Navigation Company followed, with four

paddle-wheel steamers, three of wood and one of iron, to trade between

Bombay and Ceylon on the one hand, and Karáchi on the other. But,

however great the advantages derivable from the use of steamers on the

rivers and coasts of India, their development, even then, was slow

compared with that of Great Britain or the United States. Although

starting early, and with energy, in the use of this new power, the

people and Government alike seem to have slumbered for nearly thirty

years, and to have been dreaming over its advantages: indeed, it was

not till 1857, when another committee had been appointed, and strongly

recommended the more extended use of steamers, that any very marked

progress was made. From that period, however, it has been very great,

I may say remarkable, more especially since the opening of the Suez

Canal. Since then, those ancient routes of maritime commerce which,

in the dawn of history, were first tracked by the Chaldeans and

Phœnicians, and, afterwards brought into a system by the greatest

and wisest of monarchs, have been, after the lapse of more than two

thousand years, re-opened by steam-ships, and this, too, almost along

the same course, which Solomon, in connection with Hiram, King of Tyre,

first established.

[Sidenote: Improved troop steamer for the Lower Indus.]

Among the finest vessels ordered by the Government of India after the

report of the committee had been considered, may be mentioned one

designed by Mr. T. B. Winter, C.E., for the navigation of the Lower

Indus. As she is very much the type of all the steamers now employed

for the conveyance of troops and passengers on the rivers of the East,

I may state that her design somewhat resembles (though with special

fittings adapted for the climate of India) the steamer, now employed

on the River Hudson, already described,[383] having accommodation for

800 soldiers and their officers in two tiers of cabins, one above the

other, built on the main-deck, and surrounded by verandahs and covered

with awnings as a protection from the scorching rays of the sun. The

sides of these deck-houses, consist almost entirely of Venetian blinds;

their frames and those of the berths being made of galvanized iron,

having between the frames sheets of perforated zinc so as to admit

a free circulation of air, while the whole range of these houses is

divided into five separate compartments so as to permit the separation

of the troops in case of sickness. By an ingenious contrivance an

abundant supply of fresh air is drawn from the paddle-boxes in order

that it may contain moisture, and is supplied to all the cabins by

means of fans, worked by the steam-engines of the ship in such a manner

that a sufficient quantity is provided to completely change, every

half-hour, the air in each troop-room. The draught of water of this

commodious and beautifully arranged vessel, aided by another ingenious

contrivance in connection with her rudder, does not exceed, when

laden, 2 feet, while her speed on her trial trip averaged close upon 12

statute miles the hour.[384]

[Sidenote: Sea-going steamers of India.]

[Sidenote: S.S. _John Bright_.]

Among the earliest commercial Ocean Steamers employed on the Eastern

seas, were, as noticed previously, those of the Peninsular and Oriental

Steam Navigation Company. For some years, at first, these vessels held

almost a monopoly of the passenger and of the most valuable portion of

the goods traffic. Competitors, however, soon arose, especially in the

opium trade, which had, hitherto, been conducted by sailing clippers

celebrated for their speed, many of which vessels, owned by English

merchants resident in Hong Kong, had proved a large source of profit to

their too enterprising owners. But, now, the whole of this trade, as

well as a considerable portion of the traffic between Calcutta, Bombay

and the Chinese ports, is carried on by very fast steamers, owned

partly by English and partly by native merchants. A few years ago, one

of the finest of these vessels was the property, entirely, of Parsees

resident at Bombay, and, as she bore the honoured name of the _John

Bright_,[385] it is to be hoped that opium constituted but a small

portion of her cargo. I mention her, however, as a fair specimen of the

steamers thus employed, both as regards speed and dimensions, and, for

the information of my readers, I may state that she was built of iron

by Messrs. C. J. Mare and Co., of Millwall, in 1862, and that she made

the voyage from Gravesend (calling at the Cape of Good Hope) to Bombay

in fifty-eight days, and thence to Hong Kong, with a full cargo, and

against the monsoons, in twenty-two days.[386]

[Sidenote: British India Steam Navigation Company established, 1857.]

[Sidenote: Its fleet and extent of its operations.]

Much the most important commercial maritime company, however, now

engaged in the coasting trade of the East, is the British India Steam

Navigation Company (Limited), which commenced business in 1857 under

the title of the Calcutta and Burmah Steam Navigation Company, with a

line of steamers between Calcutta, Akyab, Rangoon, and Moulmein. In

1862, the name of the company was changed to its present designation,

its operations having been extended along the coasts of India and

Persia, so as to embrace, at the present time, a continuous coasting

service between Singapore on the one hand, and the island of Zanzibar

on the other, with an extension from the latter port to the French

settlements of Mayotte, Nossi Bé, and Majunga. The fleet of this

company now consists of forty-two iron screw-steamers, varying in size

from 350 to 2600 tons gross register, their aggregate gross tonnage

being about 57,000, employed on thirteen different lines,[387] showing

the vast extent of commercial intercourse now maintained by the vessels

of this one undertaking alone.

One is amazed at the rapidity of the growth of steam-ship companies

throughout the world, within the last quarter of this century. It seems

only the other day when Mr. Mackinnon of Glasgow, a merchant engaged

in the trade with India and the founder and managing director, as well

as one of the chief owners of this large fleet of steamers, mentioned

to the author his intention of running a couple of small steam-vessels

between Calcutta and Burmah. Nor was he then very sanguine of success.

With the shrewdness, however, characteristic of his countrymen, he

saw, beyond the difficulties he would have to encounter (which men of

his determination and perseverance alone know how to overcome), an

important and valuable opening for the employment of steamers, and

having overcome every obstacle, his hopes have been more than realized;

indeed, much sooner and to a far larger extent, than he or any one else

could at the first have anticipated.

[Sidenote: Origin of this company.]

This now important undertaking had its origin in an advertisement by

the East India Company in 1855, for steam-vessels to convey the mails

between Calcutta and Burmah, a service hitherto conducted by their own

vessels, the _Enterprize_ being the first to do so. Mr. Mackinnon and

his partners, having agreed to accept the contract, despatched for its

fulfilment the _Baltic_ and _Cape of Good Hope_, but these vessels,

being unsuitable for the purpose, and having made long and expensive

passages to India, their enterprising owners would have suffered a

heavy loss by them, had they not, soon after their arrival, been

engaged for the transport of troops at the outbreak of the mutiny.

[Sidenote: Its early difficulties, and rapid extension.]

Nor was the new company more fortunate with the first vessels they

built on the Clyde for this trade. One of these, the _Calcutta_, of

900 tons, was totally wrecked off the coast of Wicklow soon after

she left Greenock, while another, the _Cape of Good Hope_, was sunk

in the Hooghly, having come into collision with one of the steamers

of the Peninsular and Oriental Company. The losses thus sustained

were, however, vigorously overcome; other new vessels were supplied

and, in 1862, a fresh contract was entered into with the Government

of India, including conditions for the transport of troops and stores

at a mileage rate, and for the conveyance of the mails, not merely

every fortnight, between Calcutta, Akyab, Rangoon, and Moulmein, but

also once a month, _viâ_ the two latter ports, to Singapore; a similar

service to Chittagong and Akyab; another to the Andaman Islands in the

Bay of Bengal; a fortnightly one between Bombay and Karáchí; another,

once a month, between Madras and Rangoon; and a further service, every

six weeks, to various ports in the Persian Gulf, along nearly the same

route Nearchus had followed three centuries before the Christian era.

Improving prospects now accompanied this spirited undertaking at every

stage of its rapid progress. Steam here, as it has done everywhere

else, opened up fresh branches of commerce, developed others, or gave

new life to occupations for ages dormant, conferring, by its civilizing

influence, immense benefits on the dense and often poverty-stricken and

oppressed inhabitants of lands at once envied and far-famed.

[Sidenote: Number of ships lost.]

As might have been anticipated, the British India Steam Navigation

Company met with various losses, in the development of so extensive

a range of services; but, though the wreck of their _Burmah_ on the

Madras coast, the loss of the _Bussorah_ on her voyage to India, the

stranding of the _Coringa_ in the harbour of Muskát, and the foundering

of the _Persia_ on her voyage from Rangoon to Calcutta, during one of

these fearful cyclones which, periodically, sweep the Indian Ocean,

crippled for a time the resources and retarded the operations of the

company, they did not quell the spirit or even damp the energies of

Mr. Mackinnon and his co-directors, who thus, at last, achieved that

success which industry and perseverance, in the right direction, must

ever command.

[Sidenote: Effect of the opening of the Suez Canal on the trade of this

company.]

The opening of the Suez Canal, in 1869, gave renewed vigour to the

company. While producing an entire revolution in the shipping trade

of India, it afforded facilities for its economical conduct, hitherto

unknown. Of these the directors at once took advantage, and their

steamer _India_, requiring new boilers, was the first vessel to arrive

in London with a cargo of Indian produce, through the new maritime

highway, which the genius and energy of Lesseps had constructed across

the barren isthmus of the land of the Pharaohs.

In 1873, the company entered into still more extended arrangements with

the Government of India, by doubling some of its existing lines, and,

in 1872, the directors arranged with the Home Government to organize a

mail service every four weeks, between Aden and Zanzibar, on the east

coast of Africa, so that the distance annually traversed under its

contracts, now exceeds 1,100,000 miles.

In tracing the different lines used by the vessels of this company, it

is interesting, as I have just mentioned, to note that their courses,

especially those along the Arabian shore of the Red Sea, the eastern

coast of Africa, the coasts of Hadramaut and Persia as far as Bussorah,

and by way of Beluchistan and the western shores of India as far as

Ceylon, are, as nearly as possible, the same as those which, from the

scanty records of the past, I have endeavoured to trace on a map, so as

to show the ancient routes of commerce pursued by native vessels long

before the Christian era.[388]

[Sidenote: Netherlands Steam Navigation Company, 1866.]

[Sidenote: Its fleet, and how employed.]

In 1863, the Dutch East India Government offered a liberal subsidy

for the conveyance of their mails in the East, but, as one of the

conditions of the contract required the steamers so engaged to be

under the Dutch flag, the requisite capital would not have been

raised had not the shareholders of the British India Steam Navigation

Company, individually, supplied the greater portion of it for this new

undertaking. In 1866, the Netherlands India Steam Navigation Company

commenced operations, having for its directors many of the members of

the board of the English Company, but, in all other respects, distinct.

These two companies, however, work together in perfect harmony, and

now carry on between them a large portion of the maritime commerce of

the East. The Netherlands Company owns twenty-three steamers of an

aggregate of 20,000 tons, interchanging their traffic at Singapore,

with the vessels of the British India Company, and extending their

operations from that place and Batavia to the principal ports in the

Dutch East Indies, and, again, thence, through Torres Straits to

Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne, thus affording another line of steam

communication to our Australian colonies, along the whole of the shores

of which regular steam communication is now maintained.

But perhaps the most extraordinary, and certainly not the least

interesting, inland route for steamers (the Ganges and the Indus not

excepted), is the navigation of the River Irrawaddy through Burmah

to the confines of China, a route greatly developed of recent years.

It was, as I have stated, on this river, that the second steamer, the

_Diana_, belonging to the East India Company, made her first voyage,

and, from that time until 1865, the Government of India maintained,

with more or less regularity, communication by their own steamers

between Calcutta, Rangoon, and Upper Burmah, as far as Mandalay, a city

said to contain at one time half a million of inhabitants, and situated

on the banks of the Irrawaddy, about 500 miles from the sea.

[Sidenote: Irrawaddy Flotilla and Burmese Steam Navigation Company,

1865.]

Finding, as Governments often do in such undertakings, that the

receipts from this line of communication fell very far short of the

disbursements, they, in 1865, made a contract with the Irrawaddy

Flotilla and Burmese Steam Navigation Company, constituted under the

Limited Liability Act “for the conveyance of H.M.’s troops, stores,

and mails to the different stations of British Burmah on the River

Irrawaddy, and for carrying on general traffic between the towns

and villages on that river from Rangoon to Mandalay, the capital of

Upper Burmah,”[389] at the same time making over to the company four

Government steamers and three flats previously engaged in the river

service. But these vessels, having been found altogether unsuited for

the successful carrying on of the company’s operations, were soon

replaced by other and new vessels, better fitted for the efficient and

economical performance of this service.

[Sidenote: Services of this Company.]

When the original contract with the Indian Government expired in 1868,

the company entered into a fresh agreement, whereby its services were

extended from Mandalay to Bhamo, 1000 miles by river from Rangoon,

and within 50 miles of the Chinese frontier. Bhamo, for centuries

celebrated among the inland commercial cities of the East, was, at one

time, the depôt of an enormous import and export trade to and from

western China, conveyed by trains of caravans between that city and

Yunnan, the south-western province of the Celestial Empire. But, though

long-continued rebellions and civil wars have almost extirpated this

important traffic, it has of recent years received a fresh impulse by

the introduction of improved steam communication on the Irrawaddy,

and by the efforts of English merchants, supported by Government,

to explore the country and to re-open vast fields of wealth long

comparatively unproductive.[390]

[Sidenote: Extent of inland trade.]

Previously to the establishment of steam communication, the trade of

the Irrawaddy, studded along its whole length with towns and villages,

with a dense, active, and industrious population, was conducted by

native craft of various kinds, whose number has been estimated at

25,000. But steam-vessels, by their speed, regularity, and safety, are

gradually superseding these native craft, which, in time, will become,

as they have done everywhere else, simply auxiliaries to that great

power which, in so large a measure, now regulates the commerce of the

world.

[Sidenote: Fleet of the company.]

The fleet of the Irrawaddy Company now consists (1st of January, 1875)

of fifteen steamers and twenty-five “flats,” the whole built expressly

for this trade. The steamers, resembling in many respects (though they

are inferior in size) those employed on the Ganges and the Indus, are

about 250 feet in length, with 32 feet beam, and only 8½ feet depth

of hold. They are built of iron, and their draught of water, with 100

tons of fuel on board, is 3 feet 9 inches. They do not take any cargo,

but only passengers, having accommodation for thirty first-class, and

from 250 to 300 steerage or native passengers; but each steamer tows a

couple of flats or barges fastened on either side. The steamers have

engines of 250 nominal horse-power, and can attain a speed of fourteen

knots an hour, in still water, and without anything in tow. Though

their hold is only 8½ feet in depth, the houses and awning-deck rise

to about 18 feet above their hull. The largest of the barges is 195

feet in length, with a beam of 25 feet, and can each carry 300 tons

measurement of cargo, weighing about 160 tons, with a draught of not

more than 3 feet of water.

There is now a weekly steam service between Rangoon and Mandalay, while

every month a steamer ascends to Bhamo, which, though now a wretched

place of not more than 75,000 inhabitants, may yet be restored by means

of steamers to something approaching its former importance. As the

delta of the Irrawaddy embraces an area of 94,000 square miles, with

an alluvial and fertile soil throughout, producing in great abundance

rice, cotton, cutch, teak, minerals, and mineral oils, and, as not

more than 3000 miles of this rich district of country is as yet under

cultivation, it presents an enormous field for the development of

maritime and other branches of commerce.

[Sidenote: Interior trade of China.]

But, as we proceed further to the East, we find still larger and richer

fields gradually being opened out by means of steamers. In China there

are vast regions with teeming millions of industrious people who could

never have been reached by the traders of Europe and America without

the intervention of steam; countries hitherto unknown, yet exhibiting

a high state of civilization. With all the necessaries and many of the

luxuries of life, their inhabitants have little or no knowledge of

any other country beyond their own: favoured by a superior soil and

excellent climate, they have, however, become rich by their own genius

and unwearied industry: not one out of every hundred thousand of those

in the interior having ever seen the ocean, and knowing as little about

England as the people of ancient India knew about Greece, Babylonia,

and Macedonia when Alexander made his celebrated march across the

Panjâb. Nor, indeed, are the descriptions of its civilization, wealth,

and refinement, as given to us by occasional travellers who have

penetrated the interior, wholly unlike those Arrian has handed down to

posterity, with reference to the great cities of ancient India.

[Sidenote: The Yang-tse-Kiang.]

If my readers will take the trouble to glance over a map of China

and trace the windings of the great Yang-tse-Kiang to its outlet near

Shanghai, they will see the extent of territory watered by this mighty

stream, together with its various navigable branches. Rising in the

southern slope of north-eastern Tibet, and, thence, flowing to the

south-east, the Yang-tse at first passes through a country of lofty

snow-covered mountains, the drainage of which in warm weather largely

increases the volume of its waters, and produces at the same time,

in great measure, the vast floods which, in the months of July and

August, inundate the widely extending valleys near Hankow and the lower

portions of the river.[391]

[Sidenote: Its source and extent.]

From these mountain ranges, the Yang-tse winds its way through

others of less magnitude and through fertile plains for 800 miles

to Chong-kin-foo, forming the northern boundary of the provinces of

Yunnan and Kweichow, and greatly increased in its volume by various

tributary streams, two of which are of considerable magnitude. Through

the province of Szchuen its course extends, for many hundred miles,

in a north and north-easterly direction. Thence, passing onwards

through numerous gorges and passes, at present altogether unnavigable,

it debouches on the plain of Hupeh, where it is about half a mile in

breadth; thence again, it proceeds for about 250 miles to Yo-choo-foo,

at the Lake Tongting, where the upper Yang-tse ends, and where the

lower or greater river of the same name, commencing its course, passes

the important city of Hankow, receiving near this city the waters of

the Han river, its greatest tributary, and the Chin-kiang: at this

place, it is a mile and a half wide, but, at its mouth, near Shanghai,

the Yang-tse extends to a width of 12 miles, its whole course being

upwards of 3000 miles in length.

This great river is subject periodically to floods, some of these, as

that of 1870, converting the country for miles on either bank into a

vast sea submerging many villages, whose position can only be traced by

the roofs of the houses, as the highways are by the tops of the willow

trees lining them.

[Sidenote: Opened to trade, 1860.]

[Sidenote: First steam-ship direct from Hankow to England, 1863.]

In February 1860, the Yang-tse was for the first time opened (by

treaty) to the ships of other nations; and one of my own, the

_Scotland_, an iron auxiliary screw steam-ship of about 1100 tons

gross register, commanded by Captain A. D. Dundas, R.N., was the first

foreign merchant-vessel[392] which loaded a cargo from Shanghai to

Hankow,[393] bringing back teas for transhipment to Europe and America;

but it was not until 1863 that any English vessel loaded a cargo direct

from Hankow for Great Britain. On the 8th May of that year, another of

my auxiliary steam-ships, the _Robert Lowe_, of 1250 tons, commanded

by William Congalton, left Shanghai for Hankow for the purpose of

loading a cargo of teas direct for London: two other English vessels

had, however, preceded her.

[Sidenote: Passage of the _Robert Lowe_ and her cargo.]

The navigation of this river was then very little known, and there were

many difficulties to encounter which have since been removed; under

these circumstances, and as the engines of the _Robert Lowe_ were only

80 nominal horse-power, her passage between Shanghai and Hankow, a

distance of 608 miles, occupied ten days: one day, however, was lost

in changing her propeller, while she had to anchor every night. The

current against her averaged three knots an hour, but in some parts ran

fully five knots. The least depth of water (the river being then at its

ordinary height) found by soundings was 4¾ fathoms on the bar of the

Longshan crossing: the average depth being from 8 to 9 fathoms, but, in

many places, Captain Congalton did not obtain soundings at a depth of

14 fathoms, and, in long reaches, where the waters were contracted, the

depths were from 20 to 30 fathoms.

At Hankow, where the _Robert Lowe_ anchored to receive her cargo (about

300 yards from the bank), the depth of water was 14 fathoms, with a

current running at the rate of 3½ knots an hour. The new teas generally

arrive in boats (chops) about the 10th of June, and, on the 23rd of

that month, she sailed with a full cargo[394] for Shanghai and London.

She was fifty-seven hours under weigh on her passage from Hankow to

Shanghai; the current, the river being then fuller, running at from

four to, in some places, seven knots an hour.

[Sidenote: Number of steamers employed on the Yang-tse, 1864, and in

1875.]

In 1863-4 there were nine steamers employed trading between Hankow

and Shanghai, five British and four American, some of these having a

capacity for 2000 tons of tea, and all of them vessels of great speed.

Sailing all night as well as during the day, they, in fine weather,

made the passage to Hankow in four days, returning under favourable

circumstances in less than half that time. Freights then ranged either

way, from 3_l._ to 4_l._ per ton, treble what they are now, but the

current expenses were very heavy, arising from the high price of coal,

an increased scale of wages, and exorbitant port charges. Since 1864,

the trade has greatly increased both in goods and passengers, large

numbers of emigrants are now conveyed in the steamers from the interior

to the coast, whence they embark for voyages, many of them so distant

as California, the Mauritius, and the West Indies.[395]

[Sidenote: S.S. _Hankow_.]

There are few finer steamers to be found in any part of the world

than the _Hankow_[396] (belonging to Messrs. Swire and Company),

now employed in the trade of the Yang-tse. (See illustration, page

471.) Steamers of her type now leave Hankow and Shanghai daily—one

despatched by Russell and Company, the other by Butterfield and Swire,

by whom the bulk of the carrying trade between these places is now

conducted in steamers.

[Illustration: S.S. “HANKOW” AND “PEKIN.”]

[Sidenote: Chinese Steam Navigation Company.]

But the most interesting fact connected with the maritime progress of

the Chinese has been the establishment of a line of steam-ships by

a company of Chinese merchants, and under their own flag. Although

shares are held by the Chinese in many of the other steamers, it is

worthy of note that the vessels of this company are owned almost, if

not exclusively, by them. But it is still more remarkable, that a

scheme for a Chinese naval reserve is now being arranged in connection

with the “China Merchants Steam Navigation Company.”[397] It is

proposed that each of the larger provinces shall furnish two steamers,

and the smaller provinces one, to be added to the fleet of that

company, and employed by it while the country is at peace, but to be

at the service of the Imperial Government in the event of war.[398]

This undertaking, which would appear to have received the approval of

the Emperor, will, when complete, consist of twenty-eight steamers,

one of which, it is said, has been already ordered in England. It will

be, indeed, an era in the history of China when an ancient nation,

so exclusive and conservative, substitutes for its junks[399] the

steam-ships of modern nations alike for war and commerce.

[Sidenote: Proposed imperial fleet of steamers.]

As there is perhaps no more interesting incident in the history of

merchant shipping, than the change now being made in the vessels of the

Chinese Empire the following drawing of one of their finest tea-boats

(“soma”)[400] may not be uninteresting to my readers; the more so, as

I have reason to believe that vessels almost as perfect and ornamental

as this one might have been found navigating the coasts and rivers of

China even before the dawn of history, and, that they have remained

almost unchanged till now, when they are about to be displaced by the

steam-ships of Europe, is an event of unusual significance in the

progress of ancient nations.

[Illustration: CHINESE TEA-BOAT.]

[Sidenote: Increase of trade with China.]

[Sidenote: The resources of the interior.]

Though our export trade with China has of late years materially

increased, a still greater increase may be anticipated if steamers

are placed on the upper waters of the Yang-tse, and still more so if

Europeans are allowed to trade direct with the dense population of

the interior. That such results may be hoped for is clear from the

fact that, wherever the merchants of Europe and America have settled,

Chinese merchants have been greatly enriched by this intercourse; they

have, in fact, found, as the Germans did when the Hanseatic League

commenced their exclusive commercial operations in Europe centuries

ago, that new traders brought with them new sources of wealth, and

developed channels of trade hitherto unknown or at least unrecognised;

a result naturally to be expected in a country, such as China,

producing within itself, and in extraordinary abundance, some of the

most valuable articles known to commerce, at a comparatively small

expenditure of either labour or capital. Thus, silk, in most of the

provinces of China, is produced by the labour of the women and children

alone, the trees occupying the place of no other crops. _Insect_

wax, another article of a high marketable value, is also produced at

a trifling expense; while the opium crops of the interior probably

cost less in labour than any other that has to be annually sown and

reaped.[401]

But beyond these, China produces in vast abundance numerous other

articles, necessaries as well as luxuries of life, in great demand in

every part of the world. Apart, for instance, from the staple article,

tea, which no civilized nation can now dispense with, and silk, which

increases in demand with the wealth of nations, and is even more sought

after now than it was when the Roman Empire had reached the plenitude

of its grandeur, the western provinces of this much more ancient

empire, especially that of Szchuen, produce rice and other grain crops

in astonishing natural luxuriance, and these would be cultivated to

a far greater extent than they now are, if increased facilities were

afforded for their export. Already tobacco, sugar, hemp, and tung oil,

are sent to the coast in large quantities from Szchuen, and form, even

without the means of interchange with foreign nations, a source of

ready-made wealth as the mere bounty of nature. Hence, the inhabitants

are generally rich, except in districts where the population is too

dense, or where they are exposed to undue extortion, owing to the

avarice of the authorities. In Szchuen, as also in Yunnan and in many

other provinces, the agricultural population is well off; the farms

are large; the heads of families being as well dressed as merchants in

great cities; the women too, as a rule, are “richly attired, and the

appearances of many of the rustic villages and large farms convey the

impression of a perpetual holiday.”[402]

“Coal is worked on the hills in the neighbourhood of Chungking, and

affords employment to the people of the villages, who make a kind of

patent fuel of it, for which they find a market at Ichang, as well

as in the smaller towns in the neighbourhood.”[403] Cotton is also

produced in abundance; and “among the agricultural population of

Szchuen, the women and children, as well as old men, employ themselves

in spinning and weaving it, not only for their own wants but also for

sale in the towns.”[404] “The people of Chungking,” the delegates

state,[405] “expressed great readiness to trade with us, and seemed

surprised that we did not bring goods for sale. Foreign merchants will

undoubtedly be well received whenever they may choose, or be permitted,

to go there.”

[Sidenote: Mode of conducting business.]

The native merchants of the interior of China appear to be keen

traders; but, probably, it would be necessary for foreigners, in

their first intercourse with them, to do their business through the

established _hongs_, who are united in powerful guilds, resembling

those so general in Europe, a few centuries ago, with a similar

reputation of tyranny over all smaller dealers, and a tenacity in

everything affecting their own privileges. Nearly all the important

branches of trade in the interior are now under the control of these

guilds, or associated _hongs_, who are responsible to the authorities

for the duties leviable, with a power of regulating particular trades

recognised by the Government.

[Sidenote: “Hongs” or guilds.]

[Sidenote: Chinese bankers.]

It is curious to find in distant parts of the world, so remote,

indeed, that the inhabitants know nothing of any portion of the globe

beyond the confines of China, nor, with rare exceptions, have ever

heard of any country but their own, the same rules for the regulation

of commerce as were general throughout Europe in the sixteenth and

seventeenth centuries;[406] even their banking system having much

resemblance to that of Europe. In China, the custom prevails of making

large deductions from the weight or nominal price of goods, for cash

payments; the ordinary credit, according to ancient habit, being from

six to twelve months, or even more. Negotiation of drafts is managed

by bankers, mostly by Shansi men, who profess relationship with every

important place in China, as the Lombards once did in Europe.

Prior to the Tae Ping rebellion, Hankow claimed to have a complete,

and, by all accounts, a wealthy banking system, the smallest of the

banks, called Yin-hongs, having subscribed capitals of many thousands,

while the Shansi exchange-houses (Piaw Hoo) counted their wealth by

hundreds of thousands. At that time, a great deal of the spare capital

of the north found its way to this city, where it was lent at rates not

greatly in excess of those now current in England; but, during the

rebellion, the Shansi exchange houses withdrew their capital, while the

mandarins made such heavy levies on the smaller banks, that most of

these establishments were closed, and “cash shops” were, for some time,

the only medium of banking operations. These, however, have now assumed

more important functions than that of mere exchange, and two of them

have become, though still retaining the name of cash shops, banking

establishments of considerable importance. These banks frequently make

the necessary advances to the growers of the teas produced in such

abundance in this district, though the bulk of the capital employed in

this now vast trade is provided by the English and American merchants,

many of whom have houses at Hankow.

[Sidenote: River and coasting trade of China.]

Though the most valuable portions of the trade between Hankow and

the sea-coast is now conducted by steamers, native sailing-craft of

various sorts are still the only means of water transport, on the

upper Yang-tse, which is navigable for vessels drawing not more than

eight feet of water as far as Ichang, 363 miles above Hankow. As many

as 800 of these vessels, averaging about 50 tons each,[407] have been

counted at one time in the harbour of Shansi alone. Their crews,

like the boatmen of the Nile, are a special class of men, trained

to the service, whose forefathers, through many generations, have

followed a similar calling. They are a hardy race, and manage their

rude craft with considerable adroitness. Besides these, lorchas, under

various foreign flags, running in competition with the steamers, find

profitable employment in the conveyance of bulky and low-priced produce

and merchandise between Shanghai and Hankow, while the river below the

latter place is still frequented by large fleets of native vessels,

independently of the crafts engaged in the salt trade, which make the

short voyage to places above Ching-Kiang; sea-going junks also find

their way up to Taiping and Woohoo.[408]

Soon after the opening of the trade to foreigners, the sea-going

junks employed in the trade of the coast were opposed by small

sailing-vessels from other nations, more especially from Germany and

the northern ports of Europe. Many brigs, schooners, and barques, of

from 150 to 400 tons, were also sent from England to engage in the

trade, but these, as well as the sea-going junks, are now in turn being

displaced by steamers which traverse almost every part of the Chinese

seas, as far as Japan, where some of them run in connection with the

great English and American lines, and ere long they will, no doubt,

cover the more remote inland waters of the Empire.

[Sidenote: Japanese line of steamers.]

But the Japanese, as well as the Chinese, have now various merchant

steamers under their own flag; they have, also, their iron-clads,

the first of which was built by Hall, of Aberdeen; and they own the

_Stonewall_ (originally built in England for the Confederate States),

which they used to advantage in their civil war of 1868-69. Their

first steamer of any kind was the _Emperor_ yacht, presented to them

by Lord Elgin on the occasion of making the commercial treaty in

1858-59. Unlike their great neighbours, the Chinese, who were slow to

adopt European customs, and who for ages preferred their clumsy junks

to the finest sailing-vessels of the East India Company, the Japanese

have, since 1859, become owners of steamers with astonishing rapidity;

a fact the more noteworthy, that, though their country presents many

inducements to maritime pursuits, their native population do not seem

at any period of their history to have been a maritime people. Indeed,

they were not encouraged by their laws to become so. On the contrary,

they were restricted to both form and size in the construction of their

junks, with the object, it is presumed, of preventing their leaving

Japan for foreign countries; hence these vessels are, as a rule, the

rudest of sea-going craft. Invariably rigged with a single mast, and

one great square sail which reefs down, curtailed, when required, by

the lowering of the yard; they are, however, sometimes to be found

encountering, in these unwieldy craft, heavy gales, and at unexpected

distances from home.[409]

[Sidenote: How employed.]

But the eyes of the Japanese have been recently opened to the

advantages of foreign trade,[410] and they are moving onwards in a

manner which could hardly have been anticipated from what is known of

their previous history; indeed, they have recently (February 1875)

announced the establishment of a regular line of steamers under the

Japanese flag. The shares of this undertaking, which they have named

the “Mitsu-Bishi Steam Navigation Company,” are held almost, if not

exclusively, by Japanese. This company already possesses four steamers,

the _Tokio-Murin_ (late _New York_), the _Kunayana-Murin_ (late

_Madras_), the _Takar-Murin_ (late _Acanthia_), and the _Zazon_, while

others are in course of construction in Great Britain, which are to

form a “weekly line” between China and their own ports of Nagasaki,

Hiogo, Imioseki, and Yokohama.

What an advance on the rude craft of which the following is an

illustration![411]

[Illustration]

When we consider the enterprising character of the Japanese, we cannot

but feel surprised that such vessels as this clumsy hulk, should, in

spite of their restrictive laws, have been found sufficient for all

their wants, and that through countless ages. But now the spirit of

progress in maritime affairs guides their councils, and though, at

present, their steamers are commanded by Europeans or Americans, and

have foreign engineers, in other respects they are manned by Japanese.

Ere long the junks, alike of China and Japan, will be things of the

past, strange toys to the children of these countries, as they have

long been to the children of Europe.

FOOTNOTES:

[380] The _Diana_ was sent out first in 1821 for Mr. Robarts,

with the view to employment in the Canton river. She had a pair

of 16 horse-power engines by Maudslay. At Calcutta she was nearly

reconstructed by Messrs. Kyd and Co., and launched again on July 12,

1823.

The first actual steam-boat of which we have any record, in connection

with India, was built at Batavia, shortly after the conclusion of

the Java war in 1810-11. She was called the _Van der Capellen_, and

was built at the expense of English merchants. She was engaged by

Government for two years at the cost of 10,000 dollars a month, which

well repaid the original outlay on her. She proved very effective for

the transport of troops, &c. After some years she came into the hands

of Major Schalch and was used by him, under the name of the _Pluto_,

as a dredging-boat in 1822. Thence she went to Arrakan as a floating

battery. She was afterwards lost in a gale in 1830.

In 1819, Mr. W. Trickett built a small steam-boat of 8 horse-power at

the Butterley Works, for the Nawâb of Oude, to ply on the Jumna. “Early

Steam Navigation to India,” by G. A. Prinsep, Calcutta, 4to, 1830.)

[381] These vessels were named the _Burhampooter_ and _Hooghly_; they

were each 105 feet in length and 18 feet in breadth. Each had two

engines, which were sent from England, of the combined nominal power

of 50 horses, but working up to 80 horse-power on a consumption of 709

pounds of coal per hour.

[382] Previous to 1828, owing to the bad state of the Ganges, arising

from the sand-banks and heavy floods, against which native genius and

native boats were unable successfully to contend, communication with

the interior was alike slow and expensive. Thus, it took two and a-half

months to go from Calcutta to Benares; three and a-half to Caunpore;

six to Agra; and seven and a-half to Delhi. The premium of insurance

on a voyage from Calcutta to Caunpore was 3½ per cent.—as much as to

England. Treasure, too, and other valuable property was constantly lost

by the upsetting of the boats.

[383] See ante, vol. iv. p. 145.

[384] This vessel was built by Messrs. M. Pearce and Company, of

Stockton-on-Tees, and her principal dimensions are as follows: length

over all, 377 feet; beam, 46; breadth over paddle-boxes, 74; depth of

hold, 5 feet; working draught of water, 2 feet; displacement at 2-feet

draught, 739 tons. The engines (built by Messrs. James Watt and Co., of

London and Birmingham) are 220 nominal horse-power, having horizontal

cylinders of 55 inches diameter, and 6-feet stroke, and the diameter

of the paddle-wheels is 26 feet. The hull of the vessel is constructed

of puddled steel, and is strengthened longitudinally by four arched

girders, two of which carry the paddle-wheels, while the other two run

fore and aft, extending nearly the whole length of the ship. Similar

means are employed for strengthening the vessel athwartships. She is

steered at each end by means of “blades,” which, instead of being

worked from side to side in the ordinary manner of rudders, are made to

rise out of, or lower into, the water at the proper angle. Both sets

of these “steering-blades” are worked simultaneously, but provision is

made to work one set only, should an accident occur to the other.

[385] The _John Bright_ is clipper form, barque rig, and fitted

with the screw. Her dimensions are 250 feet in length between the

perpendiculars: breadth 31 feet, and depth 22 feet 6 inches. She is

propelled by engines of 250 horse-power nominal; and is 1192 tons

builders’ measurement.

[386] The earliest, as well as at that time, the fastest steamers

employed in the opium trade between Calcutta and China were the _Fiery

Cross_, and the _Lancefield_, built on the Clyde, and owned by Messrs.

Jardine, Matheson, and Company. These vessels invariably called at

Singapore on their way to Hong Kong, where they waited for despatches

from England by the steamers of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam

Navigation Company. Thus the owners of these vessels, which were much

faster than the Mail boats, not merely realized large profits in their

regular trade, but, with earlier information from home, than their

competitors, had a great advantage in all other branches of commerce,

as well as in that of opium.

[387] Lines of communication maintained by the steamers of the British

India Steam Navigation Company (Limited): Line 1. Between Calcutta,

Chittagong, Akyab, and Kyouk Phyoo, fortnightly. 2. Between Calcutta,

Akyab, and Rangoon, fortnightly. 3. Between Calcutta, Rangoon, and

Moulmein, weekly. 4. Between Calcutta, Chittagong, Akyab, Kyouk

Phyoo, Sandoway, Bassein, Rangoon, Moulmein, Tavoy, Mergui Pakchan,

Kopah, Junkseylon, Penang, Malacca, and Singapore, every four weeks.

5. Between Moulmein, Penang, Malacca, and Singapore, fortnightly. 6.

Between Calcutta, Port Blair, Camorta, and Rangoon, fourweekly. 7.

Between Madras and northern ports to Rangoon, fortnightly. 8. Between

Calcutta and Bombay, calling at ports in the Coromandel and Malabar

coast ports, weekly. 9. Between Bombay and Karáchí, twice a week. 10.

Between Bombay, Karáchí, Muskat, Bunder Abbas, Linga, Bushire, and

Bussorah, weekly. 11. Between London, Lisbon, Algiers, Red Sea ports,

Karáchí, and Persian Gulf, every four weeks. 12. Between Aden and

Zanzibar every four weeks. 13. Between Zanzibar, Mayotte, Nossi Bé,

Majunga, Mozambique, and other East African ports, every four weeks.

[388]

[Sidenote: The _Holy Ship_.]

See Frontispiece, first volume of this work. Without entering into the

vexed question of the antiquity of Indian naval architecture, it is

certain that native-built vessels, dedicated to commercial purposes,

have always been constructed with considerable skill and possess

remarkable _durability_. One of these vessels, built in Surat, called

the _Holy Ship_, as she was employed by the Muhammedans in going to and

returning from Mecca on their pilgrimage from India, though, so far

back as 1702, she was described as the _Old Ship_, continued to make

an annual voyage for three-quarters of a century, subsequently, from

Surat to Mocha, where her owners had the special privilege of taking on

board a certain number of chests and cases of coffee and other produce,

a privilege the more valuable, as the export duties were excessive. The

_Holy Ship_ was lost at last in a violent afflux of the river at Surat

in the year 1777, but there is reason to believe that she had navigated

the Indian seas for much more than a century, thus proving the

superiority of her construction, and the durability of her timbers and

planking. In constructing such vessels, the planks are not put together

in the European manner, with flat edges towards each other, but they

are rabbeted, and the parts are made to fit into each other with the

greatest exactness, much time and attention being bestowed upon this

operation. For this purpose the builders smear the edges of the planks,

as they are set up, with red lead, and those which are intended to be

placed next, are put upon them and pressed down, in order to be able to

discern the inequalities which are marked by the red lead. These are

afterwards removed, and the test is repeated, until the whole exactly

fits; they then rub both edges with a sort of glue, which becomes by

age as hard as iron, and they cover this with a thin layer of capoc,

after which they unite the planks so firmly, and closely with pegs,

that the seam is scarcely visible, and the entire frame seems to form

one single piece of timber. The beams and ribs are fitted in the same

way to the planks, so that a piece of wood is sometimes put in and

taken out more than ten times before it is finally fixed. The knees,

or crooked timbers, are generally by natural growth of the bent form

required, without being forced or warped by fire, especially where

special care is taken in the construction and no expense spared.

Instead of bolts, pieces of iron are used, forged like spikes, the

point of which is driven through, clenched on the inside, and again

driven into the wood. The iron employed for this purpose is previously

made very rough and flexible. A peculiar method is also employed for

the preservation of ships’ bottoms, by occasionally rubbing them with

an oil, called wood-oil, whereby the planks, imbibing this preparation,

are greatly nourished and protected from decay.

[389] Mr. James Galbraith, the managing director of this company, is

in every respect competent to carry out with success this interesting

and important undertaking. He is the chief partner of the firm of

Messrs. P. Henderson and Co., of Glasgow, and the senior partner of

the firm of Messrs. Galbraith, Stringer, Pembroke and Co., of 8 Austin

Friars, London—successors to the firm of W. S. Lindsay and Co., which

I established, and from which I retired in 1862.

[390] It was in these researches that Mr. Margary, of the China

consular service, a young gentleman of great enterprise and promise,

recently (February 1875) lost his life, and where, also, various

employés of the English Mission, which left Calcutta, in December 1874,

to explore the country lying between Bhamo and Hankow on the Yang-tse

river, were killed by the treachery of the natives, the mission itself

having been forced to return before it reached the Chinese frontier.

[391] See an interesting paper on the inundation of the Yang-tse-Kiang,

by E. L. Oxenham.—Report of the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical

Society, 1875.

[392] When, in September 1858, the question arose as to how far it

was possible to declare the River Yang-tse navigable for Europeans,

the late Admiral Sherard Osborn undertook to test it by taking Her

Majesty’s ship _Furious_, which he then commanded, accompanied by the

_Cruiser_ and two gun-boats, up the river as far as she would go.

He was the first to navigate a foreign ship of any kind to Hankow,

and the service he thus rendered was a very important one, for it

enabled Lord Elgin to insist on this great river being opened to

foreign commerce.—See address at the anniversary meeting of the Royal

Geographical Society by its President, Sir Henry C. Rawlinson, 24th of

May, 1875.

[393] The _Scotland_ sailed from Shanghai with a full cargo for Hankow

in June 1860. She drew 17 feet of water. Two light-draught trading

steamers preceded her: one an American river-boat, and the other a

Russian vessel from the Amoor.

[394] The cargo of the _Robert Lowe_ from Hankow for London consisted

of 9568 chests, 234 half chests, and 2064 boxes of black (Honor) teas;

535 bales of cotton, 192 packages of sundries. Her freight amounted to

10,315_l._, and 480_l._ passage money.

[395] It may, however, be stated that the chief emigration is from

the southern parts of China, and, rarely, north of Amoy. This, on the

whole, is a well-regulated trade, and generally carried on in British,

American, and German ships, specially chartered for the purpose; all

of which, while thus engaged, are under the Hong-Kong Passenger Act,

which has been adopted by the consuls at the different Treaty ports.

The coolie trade from the Portuguese settlement of Macao, with which

it is sometimes confounded, is of an entirely different character,

and resembles much more the old and iniquitous slave-trade than free

emigration. At Macao and in its vicinity, the coolies are collected,

often in large numbers, by coolie-brokers, who are, invariably, men

of very questionable, if not of the most depraved, character. These

scoundrels, for the most part Chinese and Portuguese, stow these poor

creatures away in well-guarded barracoons, ready for shipment; many,

perhaps, most of them, not knowing for what purpose they have been

collected. Some of them have been actually sold by their relatives

to the brokers, or decoyed away from home by false representations;

indeed, cases might be produced, where fathers have even staked their

children and themselves at gambling-tables, and, on losing their stake,

have been, summarily, transferred or exchanged for their price in coin

to these still more depraved dealers in human beings. The most usual

destination of these unfortunate creatures is Peru, where they are

employed on the Guano Islands, and from which, alas, they seldom return.

[396]

[Sidenote: Her power and capacity.]

The _Hankow_ and three other steamers of a similar class were built for

Messrs. Swire by Messrs. A. and J. Inglis of Glasgow, expressly for the

trade of the Yang-tse; their dimensions are as follows:—

-------------------------------------+-----------+--------------+-----------

|_Pekin_ and| |

|_Shanghai_.| _Ichang_. | _Hankow_.

+-----------+--------------+-----------

Gross tonnage |3076 |1781 |3168

Length on load-water line | 292 feet | 242 feet | 308 feet

Breadth, moulded | 42 feet | 36 feet | 42 feet

Depth, moulded | 15 feet | 12 ft. 6 in.| 16 feet

Load draught | 10 feet | 9 feet | 11 feet

Dead weight capacity | 664 tons | 460 tons | 840 tons

Measurement capacity in tons of 40 | | |

feet |3668 |1972 |3800

Passenger accommodation, Europeans | 14 | 10 | 14

Passenger accommodation, Chinese, 1st| 16 | 6 | 18

Passenger accommodation, Chinese, 2nd| 164 | 106 | 170

Speed on trial | 13 knots | 12 knots | 12¾ knots

Diameter of cylinder | 68 inches| 62 inches | 72 inches

Stroke | 12 feet | 10 feet | 14 feet

Indicated horse-power |1450 |1200 |1840

Pressure of steam | 27 lbs. | 33 lbs. | 35 lbs.

Consumption of fuel at full power | | |

(per hour) | 33 cwt. | 27 cwt. | 40 cwt.

-------------------------------------+-----------+--------------+-----------

The _Pekin_ was finished in May 1873; the _Shanghai_ in July 1873; the

_Ichang_, October 1873; and the _Hankow_ in April 1874.

The hulls of these vessels are of iron to the main-deck, and of the

most substantial construction, every precaution being taken to give

them sufficient strength to make the voyage to China in safety, as well

as to withstand the severe strains they are occasionally subjected to

in the river, by being left aground with a full cargo. The _Hankow_

cost, delivered at Shanghai, close upon 70,000_l._

In forwarding the particulars of these vessels, Messrs. A. and J.

Inglis remark: “Though the hulls are constructed entirely of iron, the

entire structure above the main-deck is of wood, as light as possible

consistent with the requisite strength, so as to lessen the top weight,

as we were informed that the steamers of the Yang-tse were peculiarly

liable to get aground, owing to the frequent shifting of the channel in

some parts of the river. The cargo spaces,” they add, “are in the lower

holds, and also between the main and saloon decks. The accommodation

for passengers and officers, the galleys, pantries, bath rooms, store

rooms, and other conveniences are all above the saloon deck.

“The main saloon is placed forward between the captain’s rooms and the

machinery space; above the captain’s rooms are the pilot-house and

quarter-masters’ cabins.

“The engines are after the American style, with walking beam, but are

rather more solidly constructed than is usual in America. The gallows

frame, which supports the main centre of beam, instead of being made of

wood as in the States, is of malleable iron; box framing is secured to

massive box keelsons on the floors of the ship. This style of framing,

never before adopted in beam engines, has given great satisfaction in

the six steamers to which we have fitted it.

“The _Ichang_ and _Hankow_ had common radial wheels, but in the _Pekin_

and _Shanghai_ feathering wheels were adopted, with marked advantage in

point of speed. We have no doubt that the Hankow would have attained 15

knots speed, had she been fitted with feathering wheels.

“Besides these four vessels we built a similar vessel, the _Hupeh_, for

Messrs. Russell and Company, Shanghai, in 1868, and the _Shing-King_,

a sea-going steamer with beam engine, in 1873. Messrs. Russell and

Company had previously built all their steamers in America or China,

but, becoming alive to the advantages of iron over wooden hulls, had

the above vessels and three screws built by us for their trade on the

Yang-tse and Gulf of Pechili.”

[397] _North China Herald_, 21st of January, 1875.

[398] The Chinese Government have during recent years established

various very extensive arsenals, especially at Nankin, Foochow, and

at Shanghai, where they manufacture large quantities of small arms,

and various kinds of machinery. At the two latter places, they are

now building gun-boats and war cruisers, and they contemplate, also,

constructing iron-clads at these places.

[399] Chinese junks vary in size from 120 to even 1000 tons, but, as

they stand high out of the water, their capacity seems greater; they

are usually fitted with two or three masts, and their sails are furled

or unfurled like Venetian blinds. Those built and equipped for war

are somewhat superior in strength and in speed to those employed in

commerce; but, in general, the decoration and design are similar. The

merchant vessels are provided with ports, so as to carry guns. The most

remarkable features in their hull are the abrupt and flat termination

of the bow, together with the absence of a bowsprit. A strangely

fashioned contrivance answers the purpose of a windlass. It is affixed

to the outside of the bow, by means of which the anchor is weighed. As

among the ancients, an eye is sometimes painted upon the bows of their

war junks. The lower part of the stern is either entirely hollowed out,

in an angular form, or, being flat in its primary construction, has

in its centre a recess of that description. Within this, is a second

hollow or chamber, rising the whole height, nearly from the keel to

the bottom of the quarter gallery, within which the rudder moves, and

is protected from the violence of the sea. This rudder is 5 or 6 feet

in length, and managed by ropes only, one of which is fastened to the

poop, so as, occasionally, to lift it out of the water, with a view to

its preservation.

But the Chinese have another, and much more ornamental description

of sea-going vessels called the “Soma,” with (see illustration, p.

475) usually only one mast: and, with these vessels, the Chinese sail

along the coasts of Batavia, Manilla, Annam, Cochin China, Cambogia,

Chinchiu. They are capacious for their tonnage and will hold about

a thousand chests of tea. They are high and round on each side, the

rudder is slender and can be taken out with very little difficulty.

They have no upper sails, but only one great fore-sail, besides the

sprit-sails, and the mizen, all of which are made of mats tied together

across bamboo sticks. They lower the sails with difficulty, and to

effect this are generally obliged to send a sailor up the mast to tread

the yard down.

All Chinese sea-going junks are armed with cannon—some of them heavily

for defence, and when it suits their purpose for attack, as too many of

them, though professing to be honest traders, become pirates whenever a

fitting opportunity offers. Numerous instances might be given of these

marauding attacks upon the defenceless trading vessels of all nations,

especially when a rich booty is anticipated. In such cases, their

practice is to sail to windward of their prey, sheer alongside and, if

the weather permits, throw from the mastheads “stink-pots” on board

of their victims. The atrocious smell from these pots is certain to

clear the decks and drive the crew below so that the Chinese can thus,

generally, obtain a footing on board without opposition. Except when

resistance is offered, the lives of the crew of the merchant-vessels

are generally spared; but there have been many instances when all

on board have been massacred, when the most revolting scenes have

occurred, and when the ships have been scuttled and sunk with all on

board. As a rule, however, these pirates, if they obtain what they

require, leave the plundered ship and crew to their fate.

[400] The whole of the native craft of China, above a certain size,

are usually described as junks, and the name of this particular

description is, comparatively, modern. Charnock and other writers have

puzzled themselves to know why they are called soma or sommes. Soma in

Portuguese signifies cargo or burthen, and the French have the same

meaning, _bêtes de somme_, beasts of burthen; so that soma or sommes

as now applied to these vessels, simply means vessels of large cargo

capacity, and is not, as Charnock supposes, a corruption of any Chinese

word.

[401] See Report of the Delegates of the Shanghai General Chamber of

Commerce on the trade of the Upper Yang-tse, 1869, a most interesting

and instructive document published at Shanghai.

[402] Report, p. 3.

[403] Report, p. 14.

[404] Ibid., p. 17.

[405] Ibid., p. 19.

[406] As the merchants resident in the interior of China had no

intercourse with, nor, in fact, any knowledge of, Europe till a

comparatively recent period, it may be inferred that such guilds are of

the most remote antiquity, if not of pre-historic times; and although

no mention is made of them in the early records of the Chaldeans,

Assyrians, Phœnicians, or Egyptians, it is quite probable that similar

customs prevailed among the earliest of those nations, and were

interchanged by them in their commercial intercourse with the Chinese

on the one hand, and with the Europeans on the other.

My learned friend Sir P. Colquhoun is of opinion that we got our guilds

(not corporate bodies, as they became afterwards, but associations of

men similarly employed like the present trades’ unions), which existed

in England as early as the ninth century, from the East, through the

Teutonic tribes who came from the north of Europe. He adds, that the

word “Zunft,” German for “corporation,” is also possibly derived from

the Arabic plural word “Esnáf,” a view which Mr. Redhouse supports:

other Oriental scholars, however, whom I have consulted, see no reason

for its derivation from the Arabic.

[407] These boats are usually known by the name of _sampans_, and are

generally used for the transport of commodities from the interior

to Hankow, and sometimes to the coast. But they do not serve for

commercial purposes only; they are used as dwellings for whole families

or populations, who are born, marry, and die in them. In those employed

for the conveyance of salt on the Yang-tse, the chief type of the

Chinese art of shipbuilding may be seen in all its singularity. Their

sides are mostly painted black. The upper portions of these craft are

strengthened by broad but thin beams, which are painted in various

colours, but most frequently in red, and, between these, the port-holes

are represented in the middle of a square of a similar colour. Towards

the bows the sides are raised, and form continuous cheeks, painted

green, with an eye, or some other fantastic emblem, in the centre. The

bow is quite flat; its width at the water-line, is usually from 9 to 12

feet; and, there being no stem or cutwater, the bow can only repulse

the pressure of the water, without dividing it. The poop is raised, and

open at the fore part, with a white scutcheon covered with paintings,

representing flowers, dragons, or other allegorical figures.

[408] The tea boats on the Canton river and the Yang-tse are very

numerous. They are clumsily built, and of various forms. Some have a

high stern, ornamented with paintings of the brightest colour. The

stern has usually a considerable rake, and the sides terminate with

planks distinct from the hull, resting on a cross-beam. They are

covered with varnish, and, as the heads of the nails by which they are

fastened are pointed with mastic, the line of the ribs is not apparent.

Most of them are covered in with a round water-tight roof, over which

an awning is sometimes spread. On both sides of the roofs are uprights

with rails resting on a deck, sufficiently wide and long to pass to the

stern. They have seldom more than one mast and one large sail.

[409]

[Sidenote: Their mode of rowing.]

In the best class of these vessels, the cabin projects from the ship

about 2 feet on each side, and there are folding windows round it,

which may be opened or shut as pleasure or occasion may require. In

the furthermost part are the rooms for passengers, separated from each

other by folding-screens or doors, with the floors covered with fine

mats. The outer cabin is always considered the best, and is accordingly

assigned to the most distinguished passengers. The roof, or upper

deck, is flattish, and constructed of neat boards, curiously joined

together. In rainy weather, the mast is let down upon the upper deck,

and the sail extended over it for the sailors and the people employed

in the ship’s service to take shelter under it, and to sleep at night.

Sometimes, the better to defend the upper deck, it is covered with

straw mats, which, for this purpose, are kept at hand. There is but

one sail, made of canvas, and very large; and one mast, standing up

about midships, but somewhat towards the stern. This mast, which is of

the same length as the ship, is wound up by pulleys, and again lowered

upon deck when the ship comes to anchor. The anchors are of iron. Ships

of this burden have commonly thirty to forty hands to row them, if

the wind fails. The rowers’ benches are towards the stern. They row

in unison with the air of a song, or tune with words, which serves at

the same time to direct and regulate their work, and to encourage each

other to exertion. They do not row after the European mode, extending

their oars straight forwards, with the blades just below the surface,

but they let them fall down into the water almost perpendicularly,

and then lift them up again. This way of rowing not only answers the

same purpose as our own, but is performed with less labour, and seems

to be more adapted to circumstances, considering the narrowness of

the passage through which ships sometimes pass, or when vessels pass

each other, or when the benches of the rowers are raised considerably

above the surface of the water. The oars are made in a peculiar manner,

suitable for this mode of rowing, being not all straight, like the

Europeans’ oars, but somewhat bent.

[410] In January 1861, I sold to the Prince of Satsuma one of my

auxiliary steam-ships, the _England_, which had been employed in trade

between India and China, and had made one or two voyages to Japan, soon

after the ports of that country were opened to the vessels of foreign

nations. Captain A. D. Dundas, R.N., who commanded her, and was a

part owner with me of this ship and of a sister-ship, the _Scotland_,

which afterwards became the property of the same prince, informs me he

is under the impression, that the _England_ was “the _first_ foreign

vessel purchased in Japan, except by the Government proper.” If so,

her sale may be considered the introduction of the thin edge of the

wedge which has rapidly led to a very general introduction of foreign

bottoms. As an instance of the remarkable skill and ingenuity of the

Japanese, they made new boilers of copper for this ship, within twelve

months of the time when she came into their possession (I believe they

had never before seen a boiler), but I am uncertain whether these

boilers were ever fitted into the ship. If they were, I fear the

small pieces of copper of which they were made (Japanese mechanical

knowledge not having as yet learnt the art of constructing plates of

the necessary size) would render them useless. The _England_ was seized

and scuttled by the British fleet in August 1863, at the time of the

bombardment of Kagosima, and, having been sunk in very deep water, was

never raised. The _Scotland_ was still in the service of the Japanese

in 1870.

[411] Though the above drawing represents one of the largest of the

Japanese junks, she, like all the others, had only one mast, its place

being opposite the vacant space shown at the gangway. The apparent

bulwark of trellis-work before this gangway is meant to break the sea

and allow the water to wash through. Besides, as nearly all the junks

carry deck cargoes (covered with water-tight mats where perishable)

the gratings serve the purpose of protection to the goods thus stowed,

and afford facilities for lashing and securing them in their places on

deck.

CHAPTER XIII.

Eastern Steam Navigation Company—Detailed proposals of

the directors—Capital subscribed to build the _Great

Eastern_—Relative size and speed of sailing-ships—Mr. Brunel

proposes to build a ship five or six times as big as any existing

vessel, and is supported in his views by Mr. Scott Russell—Plan

of construction, size, &c.—Mr. Atherton considers the views of

the directors are not supported by their data—The _Great Eastern_

commenced May 1, 1854—Details of her dimensions and mode of

construction—Practically, one ship within another—Compartments

and bulkheads—Floor—Construction of the iron plates for

hull—The deck and its strength—Enormous steam-power from

combination of paddle and screw—Paddle-wheel, auxiliary,

and screw-engines—Donkey-engines—Proposed accommodation

for passengers, &c.—View of deck, &c.—Saloon—Intended to

carry twenty large boats and two steamers—Compasses—Size

of sails—Magnetic apparatus of Mr. J. Gray—Apparatus for

steering—Rudder and anchors, and _note_—The ship itself a marvel

though, commercially, a failure—Preparations for, and details of,

the launching of the _Great Eastern_.

[Sidenote: Eastern Steam Navigation Company.]

In tracing the progress of steam navigation to the East the various

tenders for the conveyance of the East India and Australian mails have

been incidentally noticed. Among those which were lodged, in reply

to an advertisement from the Admiralty issued on the recommendation

of Lord Jocelyn’s Committee of 1851, there was one from a new

undertaking—the Eastern Steam Navigation Company—offering to convey

the mails from Plymouth to Sydney and to the East Indies, &c., monthly,

viâ Alexandria, in vessels of from 1300 to 2100 tons, with engines of

from 400 to 600 horse-power.[412] This company had been incorporated

by royal charter with a nominal capital of 1,200,000_l._ in 20_l._

shares, having power to increase it to 2,000,000_l._ The projectors

of the proposed undertaking were, in the highest degree, respectable,

comprising some men of great wealth, and others of well-known

scientific attainments. They were, in every way, competent to carry out

the service they had tendered to perform. The general impression, at

the time, seemed to be that they intended to act in concert with the

Austrian Lloyd’s Steam Navigation Company, a well-known undertaking

trading from Trieste to different ports in the Mediterranean and

represented in London by the late Mr. Joseph Edlmann, a merchant of the

highest standing, whose name appeared as one of the directors of the

new undertaking. But, as the ships the company intended for the service

to India and Australia were not mentioned, and more especially as the

directors did not state in their tender the sum they required for the

performance of the latter service, their offer was not accepted, though

it may have been considered.

[Sidenote: Detailed proposals of the directors.]

After the directors had communicated to the shareholders the result

of their tender, some of them, on the suggestion of Mr. I. K. Brunel,

recommended the construction of a steam-ship of extraordinary

dimensions to trade with India. On looking at the export and import

trade of Great Britain they observed that the main line of commerce

passed round the Cape of Good Hope towards India, China, and

Australia, following nearly the same track as far as Ceylon. On the

fact of this great pathway of commerce they grounded, and not without

plausible reasons, their scheme for the profitable employment of

various vessels of gigantic size between England and Ceylon, from which

place smaller vessels were to diverge to the other parts of India, as

well as to China, Japan, and Australia; the intention, however, being

to despatch their first great vessel, when ready, direct either to

Calcutta, Sydney, or Melbourne.

Having made the calculations (to their own satisfaction) that such

ships would maintain a speed of fifteen knots per hour, there was in

their judgment no doubt that they would “attract so large a portion

of the traffic as to afford full cargoes at remunerative rates

both outward and homeward.” The voyage from England would thus be

accomplished in thirty days to Trincomalee, which had been selected for

their central station, as it offered every facility for such a purpose.

Thence they estimated that the voyage in ordinary steam-vessels could

be accomplished to Madras in two days, Calcutta in four, Hong Kong in

ten, and Sydney or Melbourne in fourteen respectively; the auxiliary

steamers on these lines transferring the outward cargo from the

leviathans, and bringing to them “the valuable products of all these

countries as a back freight to England.”

“Should the great ships,” they said, “fulfil only the most moderate of

the anticipations, in regard to speed, and be able to land goods in

Calcutta within thirty-five days of their shipment in London, in Hong

Kong within forty, or in Melbourne within forty-four, it is certain

that they will take up at higher freights a large amount of goods

now conveyed in ordinary vessels. Of the whole Eastern tonnage, all

that portion which will bear a minimum freightage of 5_l._ per ton,

may be fairly calculated on as cargo available for their ships. Of

such are the silks and silk piece-goods of India and China averaging

from 2000_l._ to 3000_l._ per ton in value; indigo from 500_l._ to

1000_l._ per ton; tea, coffee, spices, lacdye, shellac, &c., of the

value of between 100_l._ to 300_l._ per ton. Among the export goods

intrinsically valuable enough to pay the higher rates of freightage

may be reckoned the principal manufactures of Birmingham, Manchester,

Sheffield, and Leeds: woollens, silks, satins, velvets, millinery,

haberdashery, oilmen’s stores, and hardware, besides the costly

productions of France and Germany.”

Going into various calculations in detail, they arrived at the

conclusion that out of the exports to India there would be 180,000

tons of goods able to afford the minimum freight, without considering

the goods at that time transported by the overland route in the ships

of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, the greater

portion of which the directors of the great ship company felt certain

they would secure, while they were, further, convinced that their ships

would “attract a considerable portion of the exports to Australia

were a line of branch steamers to be laid on from Trincomalee to the

Australian ports.”

The import trade, in the opinion of the directors, was even more

valuable than the export, and could “well afford a higher freightage

in return for speedy transport.” The Aberdeen clippers they said

“obtain from 8_l._ to 12_l._ per ton for the carriage of fine teas

from China, in which trade they will be utterly unable to compete with

their great ships should they reduce the voyage from 80 to 40 days.”

Estimating at least 50,000 tons of tea from China should the freight

not exceed 6_l._ or 7_l._ per ton, and, without considering the large

and rapidly increasing amount of that article imported from Assam and

the Himalayas, the tea from China in itself would be, in the opinion

of the directors, an enormous source of profit. Then, should they

reduce the voyage from Australia to 45 or 50 days, they might calculate

with certainty on obtaining “the conveyance of all the gold from that

country.” In a word, they were of opinion that, after making the most

ample allowance for working expenses, wear and tear, depreciation and

insurance, “a surplus would remain equal to 40 per cent. per annum on

the capital invested.”[413]

[Sidenote: Capital subscribed to build the _Great Eastern_.]

Nor were the vast and increasing number of passengers overlooked in

their calculations as affording a larger source of profit than even

gold or merchandise, while, in their opinion, “for the transport of

troops the capabilities of their ships would be such as always to

command a preference from Government over vessels of smaller burden.”

Such were the views and calculations of the directors of the Eastern

Steam Navigation Company.

Nevertheless, in spite of these glowing prospects, many of the shrewd

and more cautious shareholders in the original undertaking, including

nearly all the persons interested in the Austrian Lloyd’s Company,

preferred receiving back the money they had deposited, on account of

their shares, and declined to support the new company. Others, however,

and among them many men of great capital and of high position in the

world of science, consented, and, after considerable difficulty,

sufficient capital was raised to construct the _Leviathan_, the largest

ship ever known either in ancient or modern times, and the first, as

well as the last, of the ships of this size they had contemplated

building.

[Sidenote: Relative size and speed of sailing-ships.]

About this time the important question of increased speed in

combination with increased dimensions was receiving the special

attention of scientific men, and was discussed with great animation at

the meetings of various associations. Mr. Charles Atherton, the chief

engineer of the Royal Dockyard at Woolwich,[414] had taken the lead in

forming public opinion on the novel problem of steam-ship capability.

As regards _sailing-vessels_ it had been observed that the average

length of their voyages to Australia bore the following relation to

their tonnage:

Tons.

750 to 1000 took 140 days.

1000 to 1500 took 112 days.

1500 to 2000 took 95 days.

3000 and upwards took 70 days.

[Sidenote: Mr. Brunel proposes to build a ship five or six times as

big as any existing vessel, and is supported in his views by Mr. Scott

Russell.]