THE HISTORY OF SHIPS AND SHIPPING INTERESTS (_continued_).
The Clyde and its Ship-building Interests—From Henry Bell to
Modern Ship-builders—The First Royal Naval Steamer—The First
Regular Sea-going Steamer—The Revolution in Ship-building—The Iron
Age—“Will Iron Float?”—The Invention of the
Screw-propeller—Ericsson, Smith, and Woodcroft—American
’Cuteness—Captain Stockton and his Boat—The First Steamer to Cross
the Atlantic—Voyages of the _Sirius_ and _Great Western_—The
International Struggle—The Collins and Cunard Lines—Fate of the
_Arctic_—The _Pacific_ never heard of more—Why the Cunard Company
has been Successful—Splendid Discipline on Board their Vessels—The
Fleets that Leave the Mersey.
What a contrast to the days of Henry Bell does the Clyde now present! From
a mere salmon stream it has become, in little more than half a century, by
far the largest and most important ship-building river in the wide world.
“Ancient historians have told us that when the first Punic war roused the
citizens of Rome to extraordinary exertions in the equipment of a fleet
for the destruction of the maritime supremacy of Carthage, the banks of
the Tiber resounded with the axe and the hammer, and that the extent of
the ship-building operations then carried on was a matter not merely of
surprise, but of wonder. How insignificant, however, was that sound when
compared with that of the steam-hammer and the anvil, and the din of the
work now to be heard on the banks of the Clyde. For miles on both sides of
the river stupendous ship-building yards line its banks, employing tens of
thousands of hardy and skilled mechanics earning their daily bread, as God
has destined all men to do, by ‘the sweat of their brow.’... Along those
banks there is now annually constructed a much larger amount of steam
tonnage than in all the other ports of Europe combined, those of England
alone excepted.” These great private yards have been and will be
invaluable in war times. Take such a firm as that of John Elder and Co.,
Fairfield, Glasgow, whose works cover sixty acres of ground. They have
built vessels in the course of a year aggregating 35,000 to 40,000 tons,
and have contracted for as many as six 4,000-ton steam-ships at a time.
One of these was delivered to her owners complete and ready for sea, with
steam up, within thirteen months of the time she was contracted for.
Bell’s _Comet_ was only of thirty tons, and its engine but of four-horse
power! Mr. James Deas, C.E., in a work on the Clyde and its commerce, &c.,
says:—“It was no uncommon occurrence for the passengers, when the little
steamer was getting exhausted, to take to turning the fly-wheel to assist
her.”(29) Poor Bell, like so many of the pioneers of grand and important
undertakings, did not profit much by his successful application of steam
to navigation, and in his declining years was chiefly supported by an
annuity of £50 granted by the Clyde trustees.
While the public, after the successful experiments already mentioned, and
others which followed, were beginning to appreciate the value of steamers,
the Admiralty would have nothing to do with them, and it took them about
forty years before they reluctantly applied steam to war vessels. The
absolutely first steam vessel built for the Royal Navy was a tug, also
named the _Comet_. She was constructed in 1819, after some experiments had
convinced Lord Melville and Sir George Cockburn of the value of steam
power in towing men-of-war. “At this period, Mr. Ronnie, who planned the
breakwater at Plymouth and new London Bridge, was ‘advising engineer’ to
the Admiralty, and on every occasion urged the application of steam power
to vessels of war. More than this, he hired at his own cost the Margate
steam-boat, the _Eclipse_, and successfully towed the _Eastings_, 74,
against the tide from Woolwich to Gravesend, June 14th, 1819. On this, the
Admiralty, supported by Lord Melville, gave up their objections.”(30)
Still, practically, it was not till after the Crimean war that steam
became the leading motive power in our war navy. The merchants were more
sensible. Mr. David Napier had, in 1818, launched a steamer of ninety tons
burden—the _Rob Roy_—from the yard of Mr. William Denny, of Dumbarton. For
two years she ran between Glasgow and Belfast, carrying the mails, and was
the first regular _sea-going steamer_ which had been built in either
Europe or the United States. But she also calls for particular mention for
another reason: she was subsequently transferred to the English Channel as
a packet-boat between Dover and Calais. And there are still, no doubt,
many travellers or residents of those towns who can remember the
inauguration of what is now a most important service. The same Napier,
whose name is very intimately connected with the history of the marine
engine, which he was constantly striving to improve, inaugurated, with the
assistance of capitalists, a line between Liverpool, Greenock, and
Glasgow. Next followed a line from London to Leith, which commenced with
two steamers, each fitted with engines of fifty horse-power. Now came an
immense advance, for in 1826, the first of the then considered “leviathan”
class of steamers—the _United Kingdom_—was built for the trade between
London and Edinburgh. She was 160 feet long, with engines of 200
horse-power. “People flocked from all quarters to inspect and admire her.”
[Illustration: THE “UNITED KINGDOM”.
(_From a Drawing by E. W. Cooke, R.A._)]
Although these two lines of regular steam communication between Liverpool
and the river Clyde, and between London and Edinburgh, were now
successfully established and proved of considerable importance in the
encouragement of steam navigation elsewhere, some years elapsed before
those rapid strides were made in its adaptation as a propelling power
which have rendered it one of the wonders of the present age. Indeed, this
power would probably never have made such an extraordinary advance had
iron not been adopted instead of wood for the construction of our ships.
Hitherto throughout all ages, timber alone had been used in ship-building.
The forests of Lebanon had supplied the naval architects of Tyre with
their materials; Italy cultivated her woods with unusual care so that
sufficient trees might be grown for the timber-planking and masts of ships
for its once powerful maritime republics; and in our own time how often
have we heard fears expressed that Great Britain would not be able to
continue the supply of sufficient oak for her royal dockyards, much less
for her merchant fleets? Yet, when shrewd, far-seeing men, no farther back
than the year 1830, talked about substituting iron for the “ribs” of a
ship instead of “timber,” and iron plates for “planking” instead of oak,
what, a howl of derision the public raised.
“‘Who ever heard of iron floating?’ they derisively inquired,” says
Lindsay. “It is true they might have seen old tin kettles float on every
pool of water before their doors almost any day of their lives—nay,
floating even more buoyantly than their discarded wooden coal-boxes, but
such common-place instructors were beneath their notice. Timber-built
ships had from time immemorial been in use in every nation and on every
sea, and had bravely battled with the storm from the days of Noah, and
were these, they sneeringly asked, to be supplanted by a material which in
itself would naturally sink? Such was the reasoning of the period; and,
indeed, the best of the arguments against the use of iron rested on
scarcely more solid foundation.”(31)
It is true that so early as 1809, Richard Trevethick and Robert Dickenson
had proposed to build “large ships with decks, beams, and sides of plate
iron,” and had even suggested “masts, yards, and spars” of iron, which
latter are now by no means uncommon. “But,” says Lindsay, “as these
inventors or patentees did not put their ideas into practice, no other
person (if, indeed, any other person gave even a passing thought to the
subject) was convinced that any craft beyond a boat or a river-barge could
be constructed of iron, much less that if made in the form of a ship, this
material would oppose more effectual resistance to the storms of the
ocean, or, if dashed upon the strand, to the angry fury of the waves, than
timber, however scientifically put together. But though no available
substance can withstand the raging elements with less chance of
destruction than plates of iron riveted together in the form of a boiler
(the principle on which iron ships are now constructed), the public could
not then appreciate their superior value; and it was not until 1818 that
the first _iron vessel_ was built.” This vessel is in use even now. Three
years afterwards a steam-engine was, for the first time, fitted into a
vessel built of iron—the _Aaron Manby_—constructed for Mr. Manby and
Captain Napier, afterwards Admiral Sir Charles Napier. Gradually the
suitableness of these vessels was becoming apparent, and from this time
dates the establishment of some of the greatest ship-building yards, like
those of the Lairds and Fairbairns. In 1834 the first-named firm built the
_Garry Owen_ for service between Limerick and Kilrush. Almost fortunately,
she was driven on shore with a number of wooden vessels, all of which were
wrecked or seriously damaged, while she got off with scarcely any damage,
and the credit of iron vessels became improved. But another of the chief
and more tenable objections to the extended use of iron vessels was the
perturbation of the compass. This has been clearly shown to proceed almost
entirely from the proximity of iron _not_ forming a part of the _hull_ of
the ship, the magnetic influence of which is comparatively even all round.
A funnel, tank, boilers, the machinery, the iron fastenings even of a
deck-house, &c., may all have their influences. Still these influences are
now regulated and understood, and iron ships are more commonly employed
than those of wood, showing that it is not an objection which can be urged
to-day. After the early steamers came by degrees iron sailing vessels,
till at length we find iron applied to a grand steamer, magnificent then
and first-class still, the _Great Britain_. “Experience by degrees
successfully met almost every objection; and science was again triumphant
over prejudice and ignorance. Iron had been made not merely to float, but
to ride buoyantly over the crest of the wave amid the raging elements.”
[Illustration: SECTION AND PLAN OF THE STERN OF A SCREW STEAMER.]
Then came the introduction of the screw-propeller, which, if we are to
believe some authorities, is an early invention of the Chinese. There have
been many claims to its invention in modern times. In May, 1804, Mr. J.
Stevens, of the United States, put to sea with a steam-boat propelled with
some form of screw. Trevethick, the engineer, in 1815, patented “a worm or
screw revolving in a cylinder at the head, sides, or stern of a vessel;”
and the following year, Robert Kinder applied for a patent for a shaft and
screw almost of exactly the form now in use. The French claim it, and only
a few years since erected at Boulogne a monument to Frédéric Sauvage, as
its inventor. On the front is a bronze bas-relief showing a vessel with a
screw-propeller. Sauvage’s life was similar to those of many other
inventors, in that he spent his days and fortune in perfecting inventions
which brought him no profit. Having lost his own money, and got into great
difficulties, he was thrown into a debtors’ prison, and subsequently ended
his days in a madhouse. Lindsay remarks properly that “the number of
claimants to every important invention is remarkable. An impartial student
will, however, probably come to the conclusion that the invention of the
screw and its application was, like that of the steam-engine itself, the
sole property of no one man.” The time for its development and proper use
had come, and many scientific students were inquiring concerning its
value.
There can be little doubt that the first demonstration in our country of
its value on a proper scale and in convincing form, was that made by
Captain John Ericsson, a Swedish engineer resident in London. After a
successful experiment with a model, he had a boat built forty-five feet in
length, and fitted with engine and two propellers. She was named the
_Francis B. Ogden_. “The result of her first trial went far beyond his
most sanguine expectations. No sooner were the engines put at full speed,
than she shot ahead at the rate of more than ten miles an hour.”
Afterwards she towed a schooner of 140 tons burden at seven miles an hour.
The next experiment was made in the presence of the Lords of the
Admiralty, and they were minute in their inspection. Ericsson felt
confident that they were convinced, and would soon order the construction
of a war-vessel on the new principle. In this, however, he was
disappointed, though he had given them a tolerably good proof of its value
by towing their barge at the rate of ten miles an hour for a considerable
distance. Scientific theorists reported against it, and said that a ship
thus propelled would be unsteerable. Lindsay records how Admiral Beechey,
one of the old school, in 1850, stated that “he did not believe that the
navy of the future—the Royal Navy—ever could consist of steamers! Nor
could he endure iron ships.”
While Ericsson was thus employed, Mr. Thomas Pettit Smith, who, on the
31st May, 1836, had taken out a patent for a “sort of screw or ‘worm,’
made to revolve rapidly under water in a recess or open space formed in
that part of the after-part of the vessel commonly called the dead rising
or dead wood of the stern,” was experimenting, and the following year
exhibited it in practical form in a small vessel. It appeared to several
gentlemen so satisfactory that a company was formed in July, 1839, to
purchase the patent. It was now applied to a vessel called the
_Archimedes_, the burden of which was 237 tons, and although her speed was
somewhat less than Ericsson’s vessel, the trial was undeniably
satisfactory, more especially as it was obvious that her engine was really
not large enough for a propeller of the size. In her next trials against
the _Widgeon_, the fastest paddle-wheel steamer then running between Dover
and Calais, the success of the screw might be regarded as an established
fact. The _Archimedes_ laboured under the disadvantage of having ten
horse-power less steam, while her burden was seventy-five tons more; she
had the advantage of carrying more sail. On the first three trials the
_Widgeon_ had a very slight advantage, in spite of her superior
steam-power and smaller tonnage, while on the last two the _Archimedes_
made the trip in less time than it had ever previously been performed by
any of the mail packets. Captain Chappell, R.N., afterwards took her clear
round England and Scotland, calling at numerous ports. The Admiralty at
length ordered the construction of a screw vessel, and the lines of the
_Rattler_ were laid down on the same model as the _Alecto_, a paddle-wheel
steamer then building.
Another claimant as an inventor, who should be mentioned most honourably,
is Mr. Woodcroft, some of whose experiments were being patented in 1826.
They were not tried on a suitable scale till after the successes of
Ericsson and Smith. Woodcroft’s “varying pitch screw-propeller,” patented
in 1844, the title of which describes itself, is to-day “considered the
best and most useful type.”
In following the progress of the screw, as applicable to the propulsion of
merchant vessels,(32) and its use in other countries, we must now recur to
the period when Ericsson was making his experiments on the Thames. At that
time an intelligent gentleman, Captain Robert F. Stockton, of the United
States’ Navy, was on a visit to London; being of an inquisitive turn of
mind, like most of his countrymen, he watched with great interest the
trials with the screw then in progress, and having obtained an
introduction to Ericsson, he accompanied him on one of his experimental
expeditions on the Thames. Unlike the Lords of the British Admiralty, who
allowed eight years to elapse before they built their first
screw-propeller, the _Rattler_, Captain Stockton was so impressed with the
value and utility of the discovery, that, although he had only made a
single trip in the _Francis B. Ogden_, and that merely from London Bridge
to Greenwich, he there and then gave Ericsson a commission to build for
him two boats for the United States, with steam machinery and propeller as
proposed by him. Stockton, impressed with its practical utility for war
purposes, was undismayed by the recorded opinions of scientific men, and
formed his own judgment from what he himself witnessed. He, therefore, not
only ordered the two iron boats on his own account, but at once brought
the subject before the Government of the United States, and caused various
plans and models to be made at his own expense, explaining the fitness of
the new invention for ships of war. So sanguine was he, indeed, of the
great importance of this new mode of propulsion, and so determined that
his views should be carried out, that he encouraged Ericsson to believe
that the Government of the United States would test his propeller on a
large scale; Ericsson, relying upon these promises, abandoned his
professional engagements in England, and took his departure for the United
States. But it was not until a change in the Federal administration, two
years afterwards, that Captain Stockton was able to obtain a favourable
hearing. Orders were then given to make an experiment in the _Princeton_,
which was successful. The propeller, as applied to this war vessel, was
similar in construction to that of the _Francis B. Ogden_, as well in
theory as in minute practical details. One of the boats, named after her
owner, the _Robert F. Stockton_, was built by Messrs. Laird, of
Birkenhead, and launched in 1838. She was 70 feet in length, 10 feet wide,
and drew 6 feet 9 inches of water. Her cylinders were 16 inches diameter
with 18 inches stroke, and her propellers 6 feet 4 inches in length. On
her trial trip on the Thames, made in January of the following year, she
accomplished a distance of nine miles in about half an hour with the tide,
proving the speed through the water to be between eleven and twelve miles
an hour. On her second trial, between Southwark and Waterloo Bridges, she
took in tow four laden barges with upright sides and square ends, having a
beam of fifteen feet each, and drawing four feet six inches of water. One
of these was lashed on each side, the other two being towed astern, and
though the weight of the whole must have been close upon 400 tons, and a
considerable resistance was offered by their forms, the steamer towed them
at the rate of 5½ miles an hour in slack water, or in eleven minutes
between the two bridges, a distance of one mile.
[Illustration: THE “ROBERT F. STOCKTON.”]
These experiments having been considered in every way satisfactory, the
_Robert F. Stockton_ left England for the United States in the beginning
of April, 1839, under the command of Captain Cram of the American merchant
service. Her crew consisted of four men and a boy; and having accomplished
the voyage _under sail_ in forty days, Captain Cram was presented with the
freedom of the city of New York for his daring in crossing the Atlantic in
so small a craft, constructed only for river navigation.
The first steamer to cross the Atlantic was the _Savannah_, of 300 tons,
which arrived in Liverpool from Savannah, Georgia, in thirty-one days, her
voyage having been made partly under sail. So to America belongs the
credit of having shown the practicability of employing steam power for the
most difficult and dangerous voyages. The _Savannah’s_ horse-power was too
small for her size, and although she arrived safely, the experiment was
not regarded by men of science as particularly successful. Dr. Lardner in
particular, and other scientists, expressed their belief that no vessel
could carry coal enough to steam the whole distance, and their discussions
greatly retarded the progress of Transatlantic steam navigation. The
voyage of the _Savannah_ was made in 1819; ten years elapsed before the
Atlantic traffic was renewed, so far as steam was concerned, by the
dispatch of an English-built steam-ship, the _Curaçoa_, which made several
trips from Holland to the West Indies. In 1833 a steam-ship, named the
_Royal William_, sailed from Quebec, and arrived safely at Gravesend. But
it was not till 1838 that the practicability of profitably employing
steam-ships on the Atlantic was demonstrated by the voyages of the
_Sirius_ and _Great Western_, the latter one of the finest vessels of the
day. Their arrival at New York is thus described by one of the journals of
that city:—
[Illustration: ARRIVAL OF THE “GREAT WESTERN” AT NEW YORK.]
“At three o’clock p.m., on Sunday the 22nd of April, the _Sirius_ first
descried the land, and early on Monday morning, the 23rd, anchored in the
North River immediately off the battery. The moment the intelligence was
made known, hundreds and thousands rushed, early in the morning, to the
battery. Nothing could exceed the excitement. The river was covered during
the whole day with row-boats, skiffs, and yawls, carrying the wondering
people out to get a close view of this extraordinary vessel. While people
were yet wondering how the _Sirius_ made out to cross the rude Atlantic,
it was announced, about eleven a.m. on Monday, from the telegraph, that a
huge steam-ship was in the offing. ‘_The Great Western! The Great
Western!_’ was on everybody’s tongue. About two o’clock p.m., the first
curl of her ascending smoke fell on the eyes of the thousands of anxious
spectators. A shout of enthusiasm rose in the air.” The movements of a
great steam-ship in and out of port are always watched with interest—why,
even the arrival of the “husbands’ boat” at Margate or Ramsgate is an
event! One can, then, well imagine and understand the excitement caused in
New York by the arrival of two fine vessels almost simultaneously from
England. It meant, in some branches of commerce, a complete revolution.
These first passages were made in seventeen and fifteen days respectively.
Almost immediately after this, the great Cunard Company commenced
operations, the Admiralty awarding them the mail contract. Then came the
great contest for the maritime supremacy, commercially regarded, of the
Atlantic Ocean, when American enterprise came into the field, and
organised a formidable rival to the English company in the Collins Line.
The history of this contest would fill a volume.
[Illustration: THE FIRST CUNARD STEAMER.]
The national pride of the Americans had been touched by the commercial
success of British steam-ships frequenting their ports, and they
determined, vulgarly speaking, “to have a piece of the pie.” American
genius and enterprise had sent forth a fleet of steamers to trade on their
coasts, lakes, and rivers, which a leading English authority considers
“were marvels of naval architecture, unsurpassed in speed, and in the
splendour of their equipment.” Their clipper-sailing ships “were the
finest the world had then produced, while their perfection in the art of
ship-building had even reached so high a point that they constructed
steamers to ascend rivers where there was hardly depth of water for an
Indian canoe; indeed, it was proverbially said, in honour of their skill
in the art, that their vessels would traverse valleys if only moistened by
the morning dews.” Why should they not have a great ocean line? It was
looked upon in Congress and by the country generally as almost a national
question, and it resulted in a heavy mail subsidy to Mr. Collins and his
colleagues. They immediately made arrangements for the construction of
four large vessels. Later, the Government increased the subsidy by over
one-third (from $19,250 per trip to $33,000) _but increased speed was
required in return_. How much this may have had to do with the two
terrible disasters about to be related will no doubt strike the reader.
The Collins Line commenced its voyages in 1850.
“A voyage across the Atlantic,” says Lindsay, “must ever be attended with
greater peril than almost any other ocean service of similar length and
duration; arising, as this does, from the boisterous character and
uncertainty of the weather, from the icebergs which float in huge masses
during spring along the northern line of passage, and from the many
vessels of every kind to be met with either employed in the Newfoundland
fisheries, or in the vast and daily-increasing intercourse between Europe
and America.
“In such a navigation the utmost care requires to be constantly exercised,
especially by steam-ships. Nevertheless, although the Collins Line of
steamers performed this passage with a speed hitherto unequalled, they
encountered no accidents worthy of notice during the first four years of
their career; but terrible calamities befell them soon afterwards.”
On the 21st of September, 1854, the _Arctic_, according to the usual
course, left Liverpool for New York. She had on board 233 passengers, of
whom 150 were first-class, together with a crew of 135 persons and a
valuable cargo. At mid-day on the 27th of that month, when about sixty
miles south-east of Cape Race, and during a dense fog, she came in contact
with the French steamer _Vesta_. By this collision the _Vesta_ seemed at
first to be so seriously injured, that in their terror and confusion, her
passengers, amounting to 147, and a crew of fifty men, conceived she was
about to sink, and that their only chance of safety lay in their getting
quickly into the _Arctic_. Impressed with this idea many of them rushed
into the boats, of which, as too frequently happens, one sank immediately,
and the other, containing thirteen persons, was swamped under the quarter
of the ship, all on board of her perishing. When, however, the captain of
the _Vesta_ more carefully examined his injuries, he found that though the
bows of his vessel were partially stove in, the foremost bulk-head had not
started. He therefore at once lightened his ship by the head,
strengthening the partition by every means in his power, and by great
exertions, courage, forethought, and seamanship, brought his shattered
vessel, without further loss, into the harbour of St. John’s.
In the meantime a frightful catastrophe befell the _Arctic_, and was so
little anticipated that the persons on board of her supposing that she had
only sustained a slight injury by the collision, had launched a boat for
the rescue of the passengers and crew of the _Vesta_. It was soon,
however, discovered that their own ship had sustained fatal injuries, and
the sea was rushing in so fast through three holes which had been pierced
in the hull below the water-line, that the engine fires would soon be
extinguished. The _Arctic’s_ head was therefore immediately laid for Cape
Race, the nearest point of land; but within four hours of the collision
the water reached the furnaces, and soon afterwards she foundered. As it
was blowing a strong gale at the time, some of the boats into which the
passengers and crew rushed were destroyed in launching; others which got
clear of the sinking ship were never again heard of, and only two, with
thirty-one of the crew and fourteen passengers, reached Newfoundland.
Among those who perished were the wife of Mr. Collins, and their son and
daughter; but the captain, who remained on board to the last, and the
first as well as the second and fourth officers, were saved. Seventy-two
men and four females sought refuge on a raft, which the seamen, when they
found the ship sinking, had hastily constructed; but one by one they were
swept away—every wave as it washed over the raft claiming one or more
victims as its prey; and at eight o’clock on the following morning _one_
human being alone was left out of the seventy-six persons, who only twelve
or fifteen hours before had hoped to save their lives on this temporary
structure. The solitary occupant of this fragile raft must have had a
brave heart and a strong nerve to have retained his place on it for a day
and a half after all his companions had perished, for it was not until
that time had elapsed that he was saved by a passing vessel. His tale of
how he and they parted was of the most heart-rending description.(33)
As a large portion of the first-class passengers of the _Arctic_ consisted
of persons of wealth and extensive commercial relations in the United
States, as well as in England and the colonies, and besides more than one
member of her aristocracy, the loss of the _Arctic_, and the terrible
incidents in connection with her fate, caused an unusual amount of grief
and consternation on both sides of the Atlantic.
Within little more than twelve months from this time another great
calamity befell the Collins Company, and the sad loss of their steamer
_Pacific_—from the mystery in which it was shrouded, if not as lamentable
as that of the _Arctic_ (for the soul of man has never been harrowed with
its details)—was equally deplorable. Although the ocean in this instance
has left no record of its ravages, the stern fact announced in the brief
words, “_she was never heard of_,” tells itself the sad, sad tale that a
great ship, with all her living inmates, in infancy, in manhood and old
age, and it may be full of hope and joy, had been engulfed in the blue
waters of the Atlantic—summoned, perhaps in a moment, to an eternity more
mysterious than that which surrounded their melancholy fate.
The splendid but unfortunate ship left Liverpool on the 23rd of January,
1856, having on board twenty-five first-class passengers, twenty
second-class passengers, and a crew of 141 persons, almost all of whom
were Americans. She carried the mails and a valuable cargo, the insurances
effected on her being 2,000,000 dollars. But no living soul ever returned
to tell where or how she was lost, nor were any articles belonging to her
ever found to afford a clue to her melancholy fate; it can only be
supposed that she sprang an overflowing leak, or more probably struck
suddenly when at full speed on an iceberg, and instantly foundered.
The Collins Line ceased to exist a few years after these serious
disasters, but the Cunard became more firmly established than ever, and
entered on that career of prosperity which has been the most remarkable of
any in the long list of steam-ship lines. Its fleet consisted of
forty-nine vessels in 1875, running not merely on the Atlantic service,
but to Mediterranean and other ports. A competent authority puts the money
value of the ships at about seven millions sterling. In the ocean line the
crews are engaged for a single voyage out and home. The company shipped
and discharged during the year ending July 1st, 1872, 43,000 men, which
means that they continuously employed about 8,600 persons on their ships.
About 1,500 men find regular employment in loading and unloading the
steam-ships, and from 500 to 1,500 more are engaged at the docks of the
company in Liverpool in fitting and refitting these vessels. “Hence the
company, although a private enterprise in the hands of only three
families, is entitled to rank with the great railway and other public
companies as an employer of labour.”(34) The Cunard Company, in 1861,
enrolled a regiment of Volunteer Artillery (the 11th Lancashire) 500
strong, composed entirely of their own _employés_, and they have always
shown much public spirit in Liverpool in the promotion of schools,
asylums, and other provident and charitable institutions for the seamen’s
benefit. During the Crimean war, and in 1861, when the friendly relations
between Great Britain and America were put in jeopardy by the forcible
arrest of Messrs. Mason and Slidell, when on board the Royal Mail steamer
_Trent_, the resources of the company were put into requisition for the
conveyance of troops and stores. Their two largest ships, the _Bothnia_
and _Scythia_, each of 4,535 tons burden, have saloons where 300 persons
can dine at one time, while their decks afford an unbroken promenade, for
passengers, of 425 feet.
[Illustration: THE CUNARD SCREW STEAM-SHIP “BOTHNIA.”]
The wonderful exemption from shipwreck and casualties, which is the just
pride of this company, is due to the admirable discipline and order
enforced. Take the following description of life on the _Bothnia_ as
detailed in the columns of our leading journal:—“The _Bothnia_ carries ten
boats, which are capable of containing her full complement of people; and
she has a crew of 150 officers and men, all told, divided into the three
classes of seamen, engineers and firemen, and stewards. It has always been
part of the Cunard Company’s system that every man, whatever his duties on
board the ship, should be a member of some particular boat’s crew, and
that the crew of each boat should be formed from all three of the classes
which have been mentioned.... As soon as all are on board, each man is
informed to which boat he is attached, and who is the commanding officer
of that boat, and each boat’s officer is expected to know every member of
his boat’s crew. In order to prevent mistakes, each man wears a metal
badge, with a brooch-fastening, which bears the number of his boat,” and
so forth. Before the passengers are on board, there is an inspection, the
crew being drawn up in two lines, each man being expected to answer to his
name. The muster-roll having been called, orders are given to prepare for
boat service; and the men break up into the necessary number of crews.
After the order “Boats out!” is given, the men fall to work with a will,
and the ten boats, each containing a keg of water, oars, spars, sails, an
axe, &c., are in three minutes properly launched into the water, the
captain from his place of vantage on the bridge looking sharply after
laziness or awkwardness. The same organisation of crews is applied to fire
duty. Some have charge of the buckets; others fetch and join the hose, or
take care of the jets; others are ready with wet blankets to throw over
the flames; but the essential matter is that each man has his place and
his duty. So for manning the pumps and other essential matters. These
drills over, the inspecting party proceeds to make a complete tour of the
vessel. The store-rooms are visited, and the steward cautioned never to
use any other light than a closed and locked lamp. The supply of rockets
and other signals is examined, the steering and signalling apparatus
tried, and only after everything has been found in order is the word given
for the ship to embark her passengers and proceed on her course. “If the
smallest defect,” says the _Times_, before quoted, “is discovered in any
part of a ship, no question is raised whether it will bear one voyage or
two voyages more, but the order, ‘Out with it!’ is given at once.” The
reign of order is as complete as on board a well-regulated man-of-war. On
the many other great steam-ship lines more or less of the same inspection
occurs, and on some, no doubt, the precautions taken are nearly as
careful. The Cunard Line is generally admitted to be, however, pre-eminent
in the care taken of life and property on board, the fact being that the
company has never lost a ship on the Atlantic. The illustration on page
109 shows one of their finest ships, the _Scotia_.
[Illustration: CUNARD PADDLE STEAM-SHIP “SCOTIA.”]
From the Mersey alone there are ten distinct fleets sailing to America,
including such magnificent steam-ships as those of the White Star and
Inman Lines. In the former the luxurious saloons are placed amidships, the
motion being less felt there. The Inman Line has made the quickest
passages across the Atlantic on record, and has carried as many as 50,000
steerage passengers in one year. In 1856 and 1857 this line carried 85,000
passengers, of both classes, to and from the United States, or about
one-third of all those crossing “the Great Ferry” for those years. The
shortness of time to which the Inman steamers have reduced the passage
across the Atlantic was conspicuously shown by the voyage of Prince Arthur
in 1869, who attended service at Queenstown on the Sunday morning of his
departure, and was landed at Halifax in time to attend morning service at
that place on the Sunday following. Their ship, the _City of Berlin_, of
5,500 tons, is the largest vessel afloat except the _Great Eastern_, and
has accommodation for 1,700 passengers. The White Star Line has two
vessels of 5,004 tons each, the _Britannic_ and _Germanic_. These few
facts will indicate—although we may not be able to grasp them in their
entirety—the immense growth of the ocean steam navigation in a period so
short as that which has elapsed from the first steam-voyage across the
Atlantic.
[Illustration: MR. PLIMSOLL.]