TRANSPORTATION--OCEAN AND INLAND NAVIGATION
Of all the adjustments which come into the lives of a people none has
been so far-reaching as the gradual localization of industries each in
the region best adapted to it. For instance, manufacturing industries
require power, but not fertile soil; therefore the manufacturing
industries seek nearness to fuel or to water-power, and a position
available for quick transportation.
Farming does not require any great amount of natural power; on the
contrary, level land having a great depth of fertile soil is the
essential feature. The farmer must therefore look first of all to
conditions of topography and climate, and secondly to the means of
transporting his crop.
Mining cannot be an industry in regions destitute of minerals; the miner
must therefore go where the mineral wealth is found, without regard to
climate, soil, centres of population, or topography. But two things are
required--the mineral products and the means of getting them to the
people--that is, ready means of transportation.
A century or more ago, each centre of population in the United States
was practically self-sustaining. Each grew its own food-stuffs, and
manufactured the articles used in the household. But very little was
required in the way of transportation. The means of carriage were mainly
ox-carts, pack-horses, and rafts. There was a mutual independence among
the various centres, it is true, but the independence was at the expense
of civilization and the comforts of life.
[Illustration: OCEAN TRANSPORTATION--ROYAL MAIL STEAMSHIP OCEANIC,
WHITE STAR LINE]
Beyond an independence that is more apparent than real, such a plan of
social and industrial organization has but little in it to commend.
Intercommunication increases knowledge, and under the conditions that
formerly prevailed, there was a lack of the breadth of knowledge that
comes with the mutual contact of peoples.
The utilization of national resources, such as the productiveness of the
land, the existence of iron ore, coal, copper, and other economic
minerals, finally brought about the policy of a territorial division of
industries. This, in turn, made the prompt transportation and exchange
of commodities essential; indeed, without such a plan, industrial
centres could not long exist.
The man whose sole business is manufacture must look to others for his
supply of food-stuffs and raw materials, and these are produced more
economically at a distance from the centre of manufacture. Thus England
must look to the United States for wheat and cotton, to the Australian
Commonwealth for wool, and to New Zealand and the United States for
meat. Her chief wealth is in her coal and iron, and these make the
nation a great manufacturing centre. So, also, the manufacturer of New
York must go to Pittsburg for steel, to Minneapolis for flour, and to
Chicago for beef.
The application of this principle is very broad; it is the foundation of
all commerce, and it underlies modern civilization. For this reason the
question of transportation is just as important to a community as the
industries of agriculture, mining, and manufacture. Food-stuffs are of
no use unless they can be transported to the people who want them; nor
can peoples remain in unproductive regions unless the food-stuffs are
brought to them.
The gross tonnage of goods is transported mainly in one or another or
all of three ways--namely, by animal power, by railway, or by water.
Thus, the cotton-crop of the United States is usually transported by
wagon from the plantation to the nearest station or boat-landing; by
rail or by barge to the nearest seaport; and by ocean steamship to the
foreign seaport.
Water transportation is more economical than land carriage, for the
reason that less power is required to move a given tonnage through the
water than on the most perfectly graded railway. Steamship freights, as
a rule, are lower than those of sailing-vessels, because a steamship has
more than twice the speed, and, being larger, can carry a greater
tonnage. Freight rates on the Great Lakes are higher per ton-mile than
on the ocean, because the vessels are necessarily smaller than those
built for ocean traffic. For a similar reason, river and canal freights
are higher than lake freights. Railway transportation is economical,
partly because a single locomotive will draw an enormous weight of
goods, and partly because of the high speed at which the goods move from
point to point. Animal transportation is more expensive than any other
means ordinarily employed.
=Ocean Transportation.=--In many respects, water-routes form the most
available and economical methods of transportation. Intercontinental
commerce must be carried on by means of deep-water vessels. Therefore an
extraordinary development of ocean carriers has taken place in the past
century.
One important period of development began with the rise of American
commerce. Just after the close of the War for Independence, it was found
that deep-water ships could be built of New England timber for
thirty-five dollars per ton, rated tonnage, while a vessel of the same
burden built in Europe cost about forty-five dollars per unit of
tonnage. Two types of vessels came into use--one, the clipper ship with
square sails, was used for long ocean voyages; the other, the schooner,
with fore-and-aft rigging, was employed mainly in the coast-trade.
[Illustration: A SQUARE-RIGGED SHIP--A TYPE NOW BEING REPLACED BY
FORE-AND-AFT RIGGED SCHOONERS]
In speed and ease of management these vessels surpassed anything that
had ever sailed. In time they became the standards for the
sailing-vessels of all the great commercial nations. The types of the
vessels are still standards.
[Illustration: THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MODERN STEAMSHIP]
=The Development of the Steamship.=--Another important era in ocean
commerce began when steam was used as a motive power for vessels. The
first deep-water vessel thus to be propelled was the Savannah. Her
steam-power was merely incidental, however, and her paddle-wheels were
unshipped and taken aboard when there was enough wind for sailing. Up
to 1860 almost all the ocean steamships were side-wheelers, propelled by
low-pressure beam-engines.
The next most important improvement was the screw-blade propeller,
placed astern. This means of propulsion called for higher speed of the
engines, and in a very short time compactly built high-pressure engines
took the place of the low-pressure engine with its heavy walking-beam.
The latter carried steam at a pressure varying from twenty to thirty-two
pounds; the modern boiler has steam at 260 pounds per square inch.
Ocean steamships have gradually evolved into two types. The freighter,
broad in beam and capacious, is built to carry an enormous amount of
freight at a moderate speed. The White Star liner Celtic is a vessel of
this class; her schedule time between New York and Liverpool is about
nine days. The Philadelphia of the American line, though not the fastest
steamship, makes the same trip in an average time of five and one-half
days.[7]
Twin-screws, instead of a single propeller, are employed on nearly all
the large liners. The gain in speed is not greatly increased, but the
vessel is far more manageable with two screws than with one; moreover,
if one engine breaks down, the vessel can make excellent time with the
other.
Triple-expansion engines are almost universally used on modern
steamships, and a pound of coal now makes about three times as much
steam available as in the engines formerly used. As a result a bushel of
wheat is now carried from Fargo, N. Dak., to Liverpool for about
twenty-one cents--less than one-half the freight tariff of 1876.
[Illustration: THE SCHOONER THOMAS A. LAWSON. THE FIRST SEVEN-MASTED
SAILING-VESSEL]
The fastest liners consume from three hundred and fifty to more than
four hundred tons of coal a day, and for each additional knot of speed
the amount of coal burned must be greatly increased. Freighters like the
Celtic consume scarcely more than half as much as those of the Kaiser
Wilhelm II. type.
=Sailing-Craft.=--In spite of the growth and development of
steam-navigation, a large amount of freight is still carried by
sailing-craft; moreover, it is not unlikely that the relative proportion
of ocean freight carried by sailing-vessels will increase rather than
decrease, especially in the case of imperishable freight.
The square-rigged ship, or bark, has been very largely replaced by the
fore-and-aft, or schooner-rigged vessel. A large full-rigged ship
requires a crew of thirty to thirty-six men; a schooner-rigged vessel
needs from sixteen to twenty. These vessels are commonly built with
three and four masts; some of the largest have six or seven. They carry
as many as five thousand tons of freight at a speed of about ten
knots--only a trifle less than that of an ordinary tramp freighter. Some
of the larger vessels are provided with auxiliary engines and propelling
apparatus, which enables them to enter or to leave port without the
assistance of a tug. Donkey-engines hoist and lower the sails, and
perform the work of loading and unloading. They are admirable colliers
and grain-carriers.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, about ninety thousand
sailing-craft and thirty-five thousand steam-vessels were required to
carry the world's commerce. Of this number, Great Britain and her
colonies register nearly thirty-five thousand, and the United States
over twenty thousand.
HARBOR SAFEGUARDS.--Excepting the open anchorages formed by angles
in coast-lines, the greater number of harbors consist of small
coves and river-mouths. In these, although there may be a
considerable area of water, there is not apt to be much sailing
room; it is therefore necessary to mark off the navigable channels.
For this purpose buoys of different shapes and colors are used by
day; by night fixed and flashing lights are employed.
The buoys of permanent channels are usually hollow metal cylinders
or cones about two feet in diameter, anchored so that the end of
the cylinder projects about three feet above the water. On entering
a channel from the seaward, red buoys are on the starboard, or
right hand; white buoys are kept on the port, or left side. Buoys
at the end of a channel are usually surmounted each by some device
or other fastened at the upper end of a perch. Thus, at the outer
entrance of Gedney Channel in New York Harbor, a ball surmounts the
perch; at the inner entrance the buoy carries a double square.
Sharp angles in a channel are similarly marked. In many instances
the buoy carries, as a warning signal, a bell that rings as the
buoy is rocked by the waves; in others, a whistle that sounds by
the air which the rocking motion compresses within the cylinder;
still others carry electric or gas lights.
The color of a buoy is an index of its character. Thus, one with
black and red stripes indicates danger; one with black and white
vertical stripes is a channel-marker. Temporary channels are
frequently marked by pieces of spar floating upright. In some cases
it is customary to set untrimmed tree-tops on the port, and trimmed
sticks on the starboard.
Light-houses are built at all exposed points of navigated
coast-waters, and beacons are set at all necessary points within a
harbor for use at night. All lights are kept burning from sunset
until sunrise. The color, the duration, and the intervals of
flashing indicate the position of the beacon. In revolving lights
the beams, concentrated by powerful lenses, sweep the horizon as
the lantern about the light revolves. Flashing lights are produced
when the light is obscured at given intervals. Fixed lights burn
with a steady flame. In some instances a sector of colored glass is
set so as to cover a given part of a channel. Range lights, set so
that one shows directly above the other, are used as
channel-markers.
[Illustration: CITY OF NEW YORK AND VICINITY, WITH HARBOR
APPROACHES.]
The use of lights may be seen as a vessel enters New York Lower
Bay. A steamship drawing not more than eighteen feet of water may
enter through Swash Channel (_follow the course on the chart_). In
this case the pilot makes for Scotland lightship, and merely keeps
New Dorp and Elmtree beacons in range, giving Dry Romer a wide
berth to starboard, until Chapel Hill and Conover beacons come into
range on his port side. The vessel is then held on a course between
Coney Island and Fort Tompkins lights until Robbins Reef light
shows ahead.
For the liners that draw more than eighteen feet the task is more
difficult, inasmuch as the channel is tortuous. At Sandy Hook
lightship a course lying nearly west takes the vessel to the outer
entrance of Gedney Channel, marked by two buoy-lights. In passing
between the lights the vessel enters the channel, which is also
covered by the red sector of Hook beacon. The pilot continues
between the buoy-lights until Waacaack and Point Comfort beacons
are in range, and steers to this range until South Beacon and Sandy
Hook light are in range astern. The helm is then turned, keeping
these lights in range astern until Chapel Hill and Conover beacons
are in range on the port bow. Turning northward nearly eight
points, the pilot holds the bow of the vessel between Fort Tompkins
and Coney Island lights, keeping sharply to his range astern, until
Robbins Reef light comes into view through the narrows. From this
point on, the shore lights are the pilot's chief guide.
So difficult are harbor entrances, that in most cases the
underwriters will not insure a vessel unless the latter is taken
from the outer harbor to the dock by a licensed pilot, and the
latter must spend nearly half a lifetime as an apprentice before he
receives a license. The charges for pilotage are usually regulated
by the number of feet the vessel draws. The charges differ in
various ports, but the devices for marking and lighting the
channels are much the same in every part of the world. In the
United States all navigable channels are under the control of the
general Government.
=Inland Waters.=--Lakes, rivers, and canals furnish a very important means
of transportation. In Europe and Canada an enormous amount of slow
freight is transported by their use; in China they are the most
important means of internal traffic.
[Illustration: THE COMMERCE OF THE OHIO--TOWING COAL TO THE STEEL
MILLS, PITTSBURG]
In the United States the Great Lakes with the Erie Canal and Hudson
River form the most important internal water-way, and by them the
continent is penetrated as far west as Duluth, a distance of more than
one thousand three hundred miles. The traffic passing out of Lake
Superior alone is about one-third greater than that passing out of the
Mediterranean Sea at the Suez Canal. Much of this traffic goes across
the continent, and the route in question is one of the great commercial
highways of the world.
The Mississippi River and its branches afford not far from ten thousand
miles of navigable waters. Canals connect tributaries of this river with
the Great Lakes at Chicago and at several points in Ohio. The
development of the navigation of this great water-way was checked by the
Civil War, and after the close of the war the great advance in railway
building kept its improvement in the background. The general government,
nevertheless, has done much to encourage the use of the Mississippi as a
commercial highway, and many millions of dollars have been spent in
widening and deepening its channel.[8] On the upper river grain and
lumber form the chief traffic; on the lower part a large part of the
world's cotton-crop starts on its journey to the various markets.
On account of the soft-coal fields and the steel manufacture in western
Pennsylvania, the commerce of the Ohio River is very heavy, aggregating
not far from fifteen million tons yearly. Much of this traffic extends
to ports on the Mississippi.
The navigable parts of the Hudson and Delaware Rivers are estuaries of
the sea or "drowned valleys." In each case navigation extends about to
the limits of high tide. Both rivers carry a heavy freight commerce; the
Hudson has a passenger traffic of several million fares each year.
Nearly every river of the Atlantic coast is navigable to the limit of
high tide or a little beyond. Navigation extends to the point where the
coast-plain joins the foot-hills. Above this limit, called the "Fall
Line," the streams are swift and shallow; below it they are deep and
sluggish. As a result, a chain of important river ports extends along
the Fall Line from Maine to Florida.
River-navigation in Europe in the main is inseparably connected with the
great canal systems. As a rule, the lower parts of the rivers are
navigable for steamboats of light draught. Some of the smaller streams
are made navigable by means of a long steel chain, which is laid along
the bed of the stream; the boat engages the chain by means of heavy
sprocket wheels driven by steam, and thus wind the boat up and down the
river.
Ocean steamers penetrate the Amazon Valley to a distance of one thousand
miles from its mouth; boats of light draught ascend the main stream and
some of its tributaries a thousand miles farther. The Orinoco is
navigable within one hundred miles of Bogota. Light-draught boats ascend
the tributaries of La Plata River a distance of fifteen hundred miles.
The Asian rivers that are important highways of commerce are few in
number. The Amur, Yangtze, Indus, and Cambodia have each considerable
local commerce. The Hugli, a channel in the delta of the Ganges, has a
channel deep enough for ocean steamships. The tributaries of the Lena,
Yenisei, and Ob have been of the greatest service in the commercial
development of northern Asia from the fact that their valleys are both
level and fertile.
Because of a high interior and abrupt slopes, the rivers of Africa are
not suitable for navigation to any considerable extent; the channels are
uncertain and the rivers are interrupted by rapids. The Nile has an
occasional steamboat service as far as the "First Cataract," but in high
water the service is sometimes extended farther. The Kongo has a long
stretch of navigable water, but is interrupted by rapids below Stanley
Pool. Similar conditions obtain in the Zambezi. The lower part of the
Senegal affords good navigation. The Niger has in many respects greater
commercial possibilities than other rivers of Africa. It is navigable to
a distance of three hundred miles.
=Canals.=--Canals easily rank among the most important means of traffic,
as a rule, supplementing other navigable waters. Thus, by means of an
elaborate system of canals, goods are transferred by water, from one
river-basin to another, so that practically all the navigable streams of
western Europe are connected. Canals are extensively used to avoid the
falls or rapids that separate the various reaches of rivers. The water
itself by means of locks lifts the boat to a higher level or transfers
it to a lower reach, thus saving the expense of unloading, transferring,
and reloading a cargo.
The manner in which canals supplement the obstructed navigation of a
river is seen in the case of the St. Lawrence. This river is obstructed
in several places by rapids, but by means of canals steamship service
connects the Great Lakes, not only with Quebec, but with ports of the
Mediterranean Sea as well; indeed, it is possible to send a cargo from
Duluth, at the head of Lake Superior, to Odessa or Batum, on the shores
of the Black Sea.
The internal water-ways of Canada have been splendidly developed. The
Canadian St. Marys Canal furnishes an outlet to Lake Superior for
vessels drawing twenty-one feet. The Welland Canal connects Lakes Erie
and Ontario. The Rideau Canal and River connect Kingston and Lake
Ontario with the Ottawa, and the latter with its canals is navigable to
the St. Lawrence. With a population of less than six millions the
Dominion Government has spent nearly one hundred million dollars in the
improvement of internal water-ways.
[Illustration: PROFILE OF ERIE CANAL
HORIZONTAL SCALE 100 MILES TO THE INCH, VERTICAL SCALE 1,000 FEET TO THE
INCH]
In the United States the possible development of canals has been
neglected and, to a certain extent, stifled by railway building. The
Erie Canal, built before the advent of the railway, connects Lake Erie
with tide-water at Albany, a distance of 387 miles. For many years it
was the chief means of traffic between the Mississippi Valley and the
Atlantic seaboard, and although paralleled by the six tracks of a great
railway system, it is still an important factor in the carriage of grain
and certain classes of slow freight.[9] The level way that made the
canal possible is largely responsible for the decline of its importance,
for the absence of steep grades enables a powerful locomotive to haul
so many cars that the quick transit more than overbalances a very low
ton rate by the canal.
The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, designed to connect the Mississippi
Valley with the Atlantic seaboard, fared much worse than the Erie Canal.
Less than two hundred miles have been completed, and practically no work
except that of repair has been done since 1850; the heavy grades between
Cumberland and Pittsburg render its completion improbable.
An excellent system of canals, the Ohio and Erie and the Miami and Erie,
connect the Ohio River with Lake Erie. These canals are in the State of
Ohio and aggregate about six hundred miles in length. They are important
as coal and ore carriers. Several hundred miles of canals were built
along the river-valleys of eastern Pennsylvania before 1840 for carrying
coal to tide-water. Most of them have been abandoned; one, the Delaware
& Hudson Canal Co., survives as a railway. Inasmuch as the coal went on
a down grade from the mines to the markets, it could be carried more
economically by railway than by canal.
Of far greater importance are the St. Marys Canal on the Canadian side,
and the St. Marys Falls Canal on the American side, of St. Marys River.
These canals obviate the falls in St. Marys River and form the
commercial outlet of Lake Superior. The tonnage of goods, mainly iron
ore and coal, is about one-half greater than that of the Suez Canal.
About twenty-five thousand vessels pass through these canals yearly.
The Chicago Ship and Sanitary Canal,[10] from Lake Michigan to Lockport,
on the Illinois River, was designed mainly to carry the sewage of
Chicago which, prior to the construction of the canal, was poured into
the lake through the Chicago River. The completion of the canal turned
the course of the river and caused the water to flow out of the lake,
carrying the city's sewage. It is intended to complete a navigable
water-way from Chicago to St. Louis deep enough for vessels drawing
fourteen feet. Its value is therefore strategic as well as industrial,
for by means of it gun-boats may readily pass from the Gulf of Mexico to
the Great Lakes.
Oceanic canals are designed both for naval strategic purposes and for
industrial uses. Thus, the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal, from the mouth of the
Elbe to Kiel Bay, across the base of Jutland, saves two days between
Hamburg and the Baltic ports. It also enables German war-vessels to
concentrate quickly in either the North or the Baltic Sea. The
Manchester Ship Canal makes Manchester a seaport and saves the cost of
trans-shipping freights by rail from Liverpool. The Corinth Canal across
the isthmus that joins the Peloponnesus to the mainland of Greece
affords a much shorter route between Italian ports and Odessa. The North
Holland Ship Canal makes Amsterdam practically a seaport.
Probably no other highway of commerce since the discovery of the Cape
route around Africa has caused such a great change and readjustment of
trade between Europe and Asia as the Suez Canal. Sailing-vessels still
take the Cape route, because the heavy towage tolls through the canal
more than offset the gain in time. Steamships have their own power and
generally take the canal route, thereby saving about ten days in time
and fuel, and about four thousand eight hundred miles in distance. In
spite of the heavy tolls the saving is considerable. About three
thousand five hundred vessels pass through the canal yearly.
The Suez Canal, constructed by Ferdinand de Lesseps, for some time was
under the control of French capitalists. Subsequently, by the purchase
of stock partly in open market and partly from the Khedive of Egypt, the
control of the canal passed into the hands of the English. The
restrictions placed upon the passage of war-ships is such that the canal
would be of little use to nations at war.
[Illustration: THE ROUTE OF THE PANAMA CANAL]
The necessity of an interoceanic canal across the American continent has
become more imperative year by year for fifty years. The discovery of
gold in California caused an emigration from the Atlantic to the Pacific
coast which resulted in a permanent settlement of the latter region. A
railway across the Isthmus of Panama and another across the Isthmus of
Tehuantepec have afforded very poor means of communication between
oceans.
In 1881 work on a tide-level canal across the Isthmus of Panama was
begun, but the plan was afterward changed to a high-level canal. The
change was thought necessary partly on account of the great cost of the
former, and partly because of the difficulties of constructing so deep a
cut--about three hundred and forty feet--at the summit of the Culebra
ridge. The construction company, after spending the entire
capital--about one hundred and twenty million dollars--in accomplishing
one-tenth of the work, became bankrupt. The United States subsequently
purchased the franchise.
A canal by way of Lake Nicaragua has also been projected, and two
treaties with Great Britain, whereby the United States agreed to build
no fortifications to guard it, have been made. No work beyond the
surveys has yet been undertaken, however. The cost of each canal is
estimated between one hundred and fifty million and two hundred million
dollars. The Panama route will require about twelve hours for the
passage of a vessel; the Nicaragua route about sixty hours.[11] (_See
map, p. 270._)
The completion of a canal by either route will cause a readjustment of
the world's commerce far greater than that which followed the
construction of the Suez Canal. By such a route San Francisco is brought
nearer to London than Calcutta now is, and the all-water route between
the Atlantic ports of the United States and those of China and Japan
will be shortened by upward of eight thousand miles. The importance of
the Hawaiian Islands, already a great ocean depot, will be greatly
increased, and the latter is becoming one of the great commercial
stations of the world.
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
What were some of the effects which resulted from the various embargo
and non-intercourse acts that preceded the war of 1812?
What is the effect upon an industry when all means of getting the
products to market are cut off?
In the early history of the country rivers were the most important
highways of commerce; obtain an account of some instance of this in
detail.
Certain commodities have been carried about four-fifths of the distance
between Moscow and Vladivostok by water, across Siberia. Illustrate
this, using the map of the Russian Empire, plate, p. 342.
What has been the effect of cheap steel on ocean navigation?
Discuss the difference between a screw-steamship and a side-wheeler; a
ship and a schooner. How are vessels steered?
How does a triple-expansion engine differ from an ordinary steam-engine?
Cargoes are carried by water across Europe from Havre to Marseilles, and
from The Hague to the mouth of the Danube; illustrate the route on a map
of Europe.
The following instruction occasionally is found in the pilothouse of a
vessel--what is its meaning?
"Green to green and red to red--
Perfect safety; go ahead."
From the chart on p. 49 show how a pilot uses the range lights in
entering New York Harbor.
The new freighter Minnesota is designed to carry a load of 30,000 tons;
how many trains of fifty cars, each car holding 30,000 pounds, are
required to furnish her cargo?
From the map on pp. x-xi describe the new ocean routes that will be
created by an interoceanic canal across the American continent.
FOR COLLATERAL REFERENCE
Photographs or illustrations of various steam and sailing craft.
An Atlantic Coast Pilot Chart--any month.
A map showing the canals of the United States.
A map showing the canals of Europe.
[Illustration: A MODERN LOCOMOTIVE--THE TWENTIETH CENTURY LIMITED AT A
SPEED EXCEEDING NINETY MILES AN HOUR]