Transcriber’s Note
Italic text displayed as: _italic_
_BOOKS ON THE SEA BY_
E. KEBLE CHATTERTON
_HISTORICAL_
Q-SHIPS AND THEIR STORY
SAILING SHIPS AND THEIR STORY
SHIPS AND WAYS OF OTHER DAYS
FORE AND AFT: THE STORY OF THE FORE AND AFT RIG
STEAMSHIPS AND THEIR STORY
THE ROMANCE OF THE SHIP
THE STORY OF THE BRITISH NAVY
KING’S CUTTERS AND SMUGGLERS
THE ROMANCE OF PIRACY
THE OLD EAST INDIAMEN
_CRUISES_
DOWN CHANNEL IN THE “VIVETTE”
THROUGH HOLLAND IN THE “VIVETTE”
THE MERCANTILE MARINE
The Life of Sir Ernest Shackleton. By _Dr. Hugh R. Mill_. Demy 8vo.
Illustrated.
Price about 21_s._ net.
The Life & Letters of Walter H. Page. By _Burton J. Hendrick_. In two
volumes. Sixth impression. Demy 8vo.
36_s._ net.
The Letters of Lord & Lady Wolseley. Edited by _Sir George Arthur._
Second impression, with a new index. Demy 8vo.
25_s._ net.
Knole & the Sackvilles. By _V. Sackville-West_. With many
illustrations. Second impression. Demy 8vo.
25_s._ net.
Woodrow Wilson & World Settlement. By _Ray Stannard Baker_. In three
volumes. Demy 8vo. Vols. I & II, 36_s._ net. Vol. III (sold separately)
18_s._ net.
[Illustration:
[_By courtesy Messrs. T. H. Parker._
H.E. INDIA COMPANY’S SHIP “WILLIAM FAIRLIE.”
Commanded by Captain Thomas Blair, leaving the harbour of Prince of
Wales’ Island. About 1828.]
THE
MERCANTILE MARINE
BY
E. KEBLE CHATTERTON
[Illustration]
LONDON
WILLIAM HEINEMANN, LTD.
_First published, 1923_
_Printed in Great Britain_
PREFACE
This volume is an attempt to trace the history of the Mercantile
Marine, and to show the reader how much we owe to our ancestors for the
ingenuity, enterprise, courage and perseverance by which the Merchant
Service has been built up for the good of nations, the increase of
trade and the spread of civilisation.
In other volumes I have endeavoured to trace the history of ships.
The subject here considered is the birth and growth of a sea service,
without which the navies of the world become useless and indeed could
never have been brought into being. It is high time that the public
appreciated all that is meant by the term Mercantile Marine.
The part played by commercial ships as fighting craft during the recent
war does not enter into this book. This section was largely treated of
in my _Q-Ships and Their Story_, and other writers have drawn attention
to the dangers and difficulties of freighters and passenger ships
carrying on through the period of hostilities. Those four years form
so small a chapter in the thousands of years during which the trader
has been winning its way across the seas, that it is unnecessary to
deal with them here. Our aim is rather to consider the progress of the
Mercantile Marine as a whole, from the earliest times to the latest
liner development.
The story here submitted is the result of many years of research,
travel and ship study. I have had access to many manuscripts and
printed books too numerous to mention. I desire to return thanks to
Messrs. T. H. Parker, 12A Berkeley Street, W., for permission to use
some invaluable, rare prints; and to the Cunard and White Star Lines
for certain other illustrations of a magnificent service.
E. KEBLE CHATTERTON.
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
I. INTRODUCTION 1
II. THE DEMAND FOR MERCHANT SHIPPING 7
III. THE MEDITERRANEAN MERCANTILE MARINE 17
IV. THE MERCHANT SHIPS OF THE NORTH 30
V. THE GROWTH OF THE MERCANTILE MARINE 42
VI. THE MERCANTILE MARINE OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 53
VII. FISHERMEN AND MERCHANTMEN 62
VIII. SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY SEAFARIN 75
IX. MERCANTILE SUPREMACY AT SEA 90
X. MIGHTY MERCHANTMEN 103
XI. PACKET SHIPS AND BRIGS 119
XII. THE SAIL-CARRIERS 134
XIII. CRACKING-ON 150
XIV. THE TRIUMPH OF STEAM 168
XV. THE IRON AND STEEL AGE 182
XVI. THE MODERN MERCHANT SHIP 194
XVII. THE RISE AND FALL OF THE GERMAN MERCANTILE MARINE 208
XVIII. THE AMERICAN MERCANTILE MARINE 220
XIX. THE MINOR MERCANTILE MARINES 229
XX. THE FUTURE OF THE MERCANTILE MARINE 238
APPENDIX 246
INDEX 249
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
_Facing page_
H.E. INDIA COMPANY’S SHIP “WILLIAM FAIRLIE” _Frontispiece_
SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY DUTCH EAST INDIAMEN 74
SIGNAL CODE 74
CAPTAIN THOMAS FORREST 90
BRUNSWICK DOCK, BLACKWALL 92
CAPTAIN HENRY WILSON 98
CAPTAIN HON. RICHARD WALPOLE 98
COMMODORE SIR NATHANIEL DANCE 98
SIR WILLIAM JAMES, BART. 98
A CONVOY OF EAST INDIAMEN 112
A FINE PIECE OF SEAMANSHIP 118
CAPTAIN W. ROGERS 122
CAPTAIN JOSEPH HUDDART, F.R.S. 122
S.S. “NORTHUMBERLAND” 144
AUXILIARY S.S. “KENT” 146
S.S. “NORFOLK” 148
SAILING NOTICE OF THE WHITE STAR CLIPPER “RED JACKET” 156
CRACKING-ON! 158
SPARS AND STAYS 160
PORT OF LIVERPOOL 164
SCREW S.S. “LADY JOCELYN” 164
AUXILIARY SCREW S.S. “INDOMITABLE” 166
LORD YARBOROUGH’S YACHT “FALCON” 168
CLIPPER SCREW S.S. “HELLENIS” 170
S.S. “ORINOCO” 170
TWO EARLY MAIL STEAMSHIPS 180
S.S. “TRIDENT” 182
THE “ROBERT F. STOCKTON” 184
AN EARLY CROSS-CHANNEL STEAMER 184
THE FAMOUS “GREAT EASTERN” 186
THE FAMOUS “GREAT EASTERN” 188
S.S. “OCEANIC” 190
S.S. “SULTAN” 192
S.S. “ORIENT” 192
S.S. “SPAIN” 194
THE “BRITANNIC” 196
THE “CAMPANIA” 196
BERTHING A BIG LINER 198
MODERN NAVIGATION 200
S.S. “BERENGARIA” 202
S.S. “OLYMPIC” 204
S.S. “MAJESTIC” 204
ON THE BRIDGE OF THE WORLD’S BIGGEST SHIP 206
BIG SHIP MASTERS 208
STOKEHOLD OF AN OIL-FUEL CUNARDER 216
STARTING PLATFORM 216
A FAST-DISAPPEARING SHIP TYPE 236
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
It is curious to observe how thoroughly most of us are the slaves of
habit, how limited we are in our imagination and sympathies until
something surprising, far-reaching and inevitable upsets our routine,
introduces a new force into our life and compels us to take note of
fresh interests.
Until the recent war most people took the Mercantile Marine for
granted. In a vague sort of way the average person believed in it, but
rarely if ever stopped to consider what it meant or whether it had any
history. It was sufficient to concede the fact that there were steamers
running every week to most parts of the globe, and that passengers
and goods could be carried as convenient. But there was not the same
enthusiasm extended to the Mercantile Marine as there was to the doings
of the Royal Navies; and unless some new mammoth steamship advertised
herself by her size, speed or luxury, the Merchant Service was allowed
to continue its all-important work unheeded and almost despised.
But then came the sudden change, which gave an entirely different
viewpoint. How few of us ever realise our good fortune until it
is taken away from our hold! The increasing success of the U-boat
campaign, culminating in the enormous sinkings of merchantmen in April
1917, and the consequent shortage of food in the British Isles, caused
the inhabitants for the first time in their lives to appreciate all
that they owed to the Mercantile Marine. It was then—and not till
then—they reminded themselves that the food supplies, which formed the
necessities of life, were brought into the country by a service whose
very existence had almost been ignored.
Every meal and every food-card, every little inconvenience in regard
to hunger, henceforth turned people’s minds back to the prime cause;
and those who had been the most ignorant of seafaring matters now
began to think in terms of tonnage. From that time the average man and
woman and school-child have never ceased to be thankful that we had a
marine, whose duty was not to fight, but to keep us supplied with the
essentials of existence. Admiral of the Fleet Earl Beatty recently
said that the Mercantile Marine was a branch of that great sea service
without which the British Empire would cease to exist. In a normal
year, he said, the amount of food supplies forming the necessities of
life which are brought into the British Isles and taken out consists of
150,000,000 tons. Without the one service to carry these food supplies,
and the Royal Navy to protect the commercial craft on their lawful
occasions, the reader can now well imagine how long starvation would be
kept away.
Thus we are about to trace the story of a service that is not merely
well deserving of our interest and enthusiasm, but is in itself so
fascinating that we shall feel almost ashamed that we never conceded
so much attention until harsh circumstances compelled us to reflect.
In order to maintain our bread and meat supplies, in order to prevent
overseas trade from utterly vanishing during those terrible years of
hostilities, 15,000 men of the Mercantile Marine perished. That in
itself would be a sufficient reason for inquiring into the history of
their service; but, quite apart from that, there is the plea that the
Mercantile Marine is the older of the two branches of the sea service,
for out of it grew the fighting service only years after man had learnt
to handle vessels.
Over those far-distant periods when the ancient seaman was groping his
way towards knowledge we shall not require to spend much time. In other
volumes I have already traced the evolution of the ship from a crude
creature to a thing of beauty. Nor shall we need to be concerned with
the horrors of war. Our task is the pleasant and glorious study of
watching brave men creating a peaceable marine that will be the means
of interchanging commerce over seas at first uncharted; bringing back
new ideas and then taking out civilisation. All the time it is one big
struggle, varying only in kind and intensity. It is one long, strenuous
effort to achieve; and because it is all so human it demands our
attention all the while, as we sympathise with the incessant attempts
to overcome all sorts of obstacles.
The human race springs from the land: consequently all the arts
of the sea have to be learnt from the beginning, and this means
centuries of experience, many disappointments and enormous faith and
courage. But human aspirations cannot be gainsaid. Progress will not
be denied. Man is not content to remain where he was, and that is
the basis of the whole story. The Egyptians created their Mercantile
Marine almost exclusively for the Nile. It was the Phœnicians who
felt the overwhelming desire to traverse the Mediterranean, and even
to go outside the gates we call the Straits of Gibraltar. The Greeks
inherited from the Phœnicians a ship which they modified but little,
as the Phœnicians had from the Egyptians.
But whereas the Egyptians were a peace-loving race, and therefore their
ships were not built for fighting, we find the Greeks constructing
two distinct types of craft, and it is important to get this quite
clear at once, as the reader will presently agree. First there was the
swift-moving galley, relying chiefly on oars. She was built for the
purposes of fighting, and therefore does not enter into our subject.
But secondly there was the slow-moving, big-bellied craft, relying
almost entirely on her one mast and sail, which was used for the
purpose of trade from spring to autumn, and then laid up until the good
weather returned once more. Think of her with her great square-sail
going across to Egypt to bring back corn, calling at Rhodes on the way,
getting caught in terrible weather, but year after year, century after
century, doing the same voyages as a new generation of seamen grew up.
So it was with the Roman merchant ships from every March to November,
blundering on their trans-Mediterranean voyages as corn-carriers. These
seamen were, as always sailors have been and will be, a race apart. In
the mind of most people nobody but a fool or a madman ever takes up a
seafaring career. Seamen were very scarce and had to be allowed special
privileges; and merchants who travelled in their ships marvelled that
they could use the stars for finding their way over the dark waters at
night. But the transportation of goods over the sea had to be done.
The shipowners formed themselves into corporations, and membership was
handed down from father to son, much as it is in a fishing village
to-day.
One of the oldest professions is that of piracy. In those days a pirate
was not so much a sea bandit as a sea adventurer; the Greek word
_peirates_ and its Latin equivalent signifying one who _attempts_ or
_tries_ his fortune on the sea, much as we speak of the Elizabethan
“venturers.” None the less, until the growth of naval power piracy
always was the great enemy of the merchant ship; and even in Roman
times it at length became so serious that drastic measures had to be
taken to stamp it out, only to keep on recurring like a cancerous
growth until the age of steam practically wiped it out except in
Chinese waters. Over and over again in the following chapters we shall
see the innocent, cargo-carrying ship molested in this manner; but, for
all that, the seaman’s spirit remained undaunted, and the trade of the
world continued to be carried over the seas in spite of these known
risks. As it was in the Mediterranean, so it was later on in the North
Sea.
From about 580 B.C. right down to the time of the Roman conquest,
the Liparian Isles were practically a republic of corsairs. The
Ionians and the Lycians were notorious pirates: the Ægean, the
Pontus and the Adriatic were the corsairs’ cruising grounds. The
Cretans, the inhabitants of the Balearic Islands, the Cilicians, the
Carthaginians, the Illyrians and others, also, were the piratical
terrors to the Mediterranean merchant ships; and it was only as long
as Rome maintained a strong navy that the cancerous growth was kept
under, though not finally eradicated. Thus, in those early periods
when there was little enough to encourage it, the Mercantile Marine
of classical times struggled along, comparatively small in numbers
compared with the fleets of fighting galleys, but historically of the
highest importance, since from this small flame was to burst a great
blaze of light that has illumined the world; spread Christianity and
civilisation, learning, exploration, trade and peace. Those little,
beamy, single-sail, unhandy craft wallowing in the Mediterranean seas,
suffering so much at the hands of pirates, buffeted about by storms
and compelled to spend such long periods away from their home ports,
were playing a lonely, uphill game; but they were achieving more than
they could ever realise in the development of the world. Pioneers of
the sea, undertaking the utmost risks, they have made all subsequent
centuries their debtors as long as ships continue to be built and
the seas shall be traversed. Such, briefly, are the first stage and
the very remote period of the merchant ship in its long and glorious
evolution of usefulness. Let us now see how, influenced by progressive
trade, the Mediterranean continued to develop its shipping.