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OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION
AND THE
OCEAN POST.
BY THOMAS RAINEY.
NEW-YORK:
D. APPLETON & CO., 346 & 348 BROADWAY.
TRUBNER & CO.,
PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON.
1858.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by
JOHN GLENN RAINEY,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for
the Southern District of New-York.
DEDICATED,
IN TOKEN OF
RESPECT AND ESTEEM,
TO THE
HON. AARON VENABLE BROWN
POST MASTER GENERAL
OF THE
UNITED STATES.
Reprinted 1977
by Eastern Press, Inc.
New Haven, Conn.
Published by
Edward N. Lipson
Distributed by
a Gatherin'
Post Office Box 175
Wynantskill, N.Y. 12198
PREFACE.
In offering to the Government and the public this little volume on
Ocean Steam Navigation and the Ocean Post, I am conscious of my
inability to present any new views on a subject that has engaged the
attention of many of the most gifted statesmen and economists of this
country and Europe. There is, however, no work, so far as I am
informed, in any country, which treats of Marine Steam Navigation in
its commercial, political, economic, social, and diplomatic bearings,
or discusses so far the theory and practice of navigation as to
develop the cost and difficulties attending high speed on the ocean,
or the large expense incurred in a rapid, regular, and reliable
transport of the foreign mails.
It has been repeatedly suggested to the undersigned by members of
Congress, and particularly by some of the members of the committees on
the Post Office and Post Roads in the Senate and House of
Representatives, that there was no reliable statement, such as that
which I have endeavored to furnish, on the general topics connected
with trans-marine steam navigation, to which those not specially
informed on the subject, could refer for the settlement of the many
disputed points brought before Congress and the Departments. It is
represented that there are many conflicting statements regarding the
capabilities of ocean steam; the cost of running vessels; the
consumption of fuel; the extent and costliness of repairs; the
depreciation of vessels; the cost of navigating them; the attendant
incidental expenses; the influence of ocean mails in promoting trade;
the wants of commercial communities; the adaptation of the mail
vessels to the war service; the rights of private enterprise; and the
ability of ocean steamers generally to support themselves on their own
receipts.
While this is true, there is no work on this general subject to which
persons can refer for the authoritative settlement of any of these
points, either absolutely or proximately; and while a simple statement
of facts, acknowledged by all steamship-men, may tend to dispel much
misapprehension on this interesting subject, it will also be not
unprofitable, I trust, to review some of the prominent arguments on
which the mail steamship system is based. That system should stand or
fall on its own merits or demerits alone; and to be permanent, it must
be based on the necessities of the community, and find its support in
the common confidence of all classes. I have long considered a wise,
liberal, and extended steam mail system vitally essential to the
commerce of the country, and to the continued prosperity and power of
the American Union. Yet, I am thoroughly satisfied that this very
desirable object can never be attained by private enterprise, or
otherwise than through the direct pecuniary agency and support of the
General Government. The abandonment of our ocean steam mail system is
impossible so long as we are an active, enterprising, and commercial
people. And so far from the service becoming self-supporting, it is
probable that it will never be materially less expensive than at the
present time.
It has been my constant endeavor to give the best class of authorities
on all the points of engineering which I have introduced, as that
regarding the cost of steam and high mail speed; and to this end I
have recently visited England and France, and endeavored to ascertain
the practice in those countries, especially in Great Britain.
I desire to return my sincere acknowledgments for many courtesies
received from Mr. Charles Atherton, of London, England; Robert Murray,
Esq., Southampton; and Hon. Horatio King, of Washington, D. C.
THOMAS RAINEY.
New-York, _December 9, 1857_.
THE ARGUMENT.
1. _Assumed_ (Section I.) _that steam mails upon the ocean control the
commerce and diplomacy of the world; that they are essential to our
commercial and producing country; that we have not established the
ocean mail facilities commensurate with our national ability and the
demands of our commerce; and that we to-day are largely dependent on,
and tributary to our greatest commercial rival, Great Britain, for the
postal facilities, which should be purely national, American, and
under our own exclusive control:_
2. _Assumed_ (Section II.) _that fast ocean mails are exceedingly
desirable for our commerce, our defenses, our diplomacy, the
management of our squadrons, our national standing, and that they are
demanded by our people at large:_
3. _Assumed_ (Section III.) _that fast steamers alone can furnish
rapid transport to the mails; that these steamers can not rely on
freights; that sailing vessels will ever carry staple freights at a
much lower figure, and sufficiently quickly; that while steam is
eminently successful in the coasting trade, it can not possibly be so
in the transatlantic freighting business; and that the rapid transit
of the mails, and the slower and more deliberate transport of freight
is the law of nature:_
4. _Assumed_ (Section IV.) _that high, adequate mail speed is
extremely costly, in the prime construction of vessels, their repairs,
and their more numerous employees; that the quantity of fuel consumed
is enormous, and ruinous to unaided private enterprise; and that this
is clearly proven both by theory and indisputable facts as well as by
the concurrent testimony of the ablest writers on ocean steam
navigation:_
5. _Assumed_ (Section V.) _that ocean mail steamers can not live on
their own receipts; that neither the latest nor the anticipated
improvements in steam shipping promise any change in this fact; that
self-support is not likely to be attained by increasing the size of
steamers; that the propelling power in fast steamers occupies all of
the available space not devoted to passengers and express freight; and
that steamers must be fast to do successful mail and profitable
passenger service:_
6. _Assumed_ (Section VI.) _that sailing vessels can not successfully
transport the mails; that the propeller can not transport them as
rapidly or more cheaply than side-wheel vessels; that with any
considerable economy of fuel and other running expenses, it is but
little faster than the sailing vessel; that to patronize these slow
vessels with the mails, the Government would unjustly discriminate
against sailing vessels in the transport of freights; that we can not
in any sense depend on the vessels of the Navy for the transport of
the mails; that individual enterprise can not support fast steamers;
and that not even American private enterprise can under any conditions
furnish a sufficiently rapid steam mail and passenger marine: then,_
7. _Conceded_ (Section VII.) _that it is the duty of the Government to
its people to establish and maintain an extensive, well-organized, and
rapid steam mail marine, for the benefit of production, commerce,
diplomacy, defenses, the public character, and the general interests
of all classes; that our people appreciate the importance of commerce,
and are willing to pay for liberal postal facilities; that our trade
has greatly suffered for the want of ocean mails; that we have been
forced to neglect many profitable branches of industry, and many large
fields of effort; and that there is positively no means of gaining and
maintaining commercial ascendency except through an ocean steam mail
system:_
8. _Conceded_ (Section VIII.) _that the Government can discharge the
clear and unquestionable duty of establishing foreign mail facilities,
only by paying liberal prices for the transport of the mails for a
long term of years, by creating and sustaining an ocean postal system,
by legislating upon it systematically, and by abandoning our slavish
dependence upon Great Britain:_
9. _Conceded_ (Section IX.) _that the British ocean mail system
attains greater perfection and extent every year; that instead of
becoming self-supporting, it costs the treasury more and more every
year; that English statesmen regard its benefits as far outweighing
the losses to the treasury; that so far from abandoning, they are
regularly and systematically increasing it; that it was never regarded
by the whole British public with more favor, than at the present time;
that it is evidently one of the most enduring institutions of the
country; that it necessitates a similar American system; that without
it our people are denied the right and privilege of competition; and
that we are thus far by no means adequately prepared for that
competition, or for our own development._
Section X. _notices each of the American lines, and presents many
facts corroborating the views advanced in the preceding sections._
PAPER A.
Paper A _(page 192) enumerates all the Steamers of the United States_.
PAPER B.
Paper B _(page 193) gives a list of all the British Ocean Mail Lines_.
PAPER C.
Paper C _(page 198) presents Projet of Franco-American Navigation_.
PAPER D.
Paper D _(page 199) gives the Steam Lines between Europe and America_.
PAPER E.
Paper E _(page 200) gives many extracts from eminent statesmen,
corroborating views herein advanced_.
PAPER F.
Paper F _(page 219) gives the Steam Lines of the whole world_.
PAPER G.
Paper G _(page 220) American Mail Lines: Letter of Hon. Horatio King_.
PAPER H.
Paper H _(page 221) List of British, French, and American Navies_.
HEADS OF ARGUMENT.
SECTION I.
PRESENT POSITION OF STEAM NAVIGATION.
THE SPLENDID TRIUMPHS OF STEAM: IT IS THE MOST EFFICIENT MEANS OF
NATIONAL PROGRESS AND DEVELOPMENT: THE FORERUNNER OF CIVILIZATION:
IMPORTANT TO THE UNITED STATES AS AN AGRICULTURAL, MANUFACTURING,
AND COMMERCIAL COUNTRY: NATURE OF OUR PEOPLE: MARITIME SPIRIT:
VARIOUS COMMERCIAL COUNTRIES: OURS MOST ADVANTAGEOUSLY SITUATED:
THE DESTINY OF AMERICAN COMMERCE: OUR COMMERCIAL RIVALS: GREAT
BRITAIN: SHE RESISTS US BY STEAM AND DIPLOMACY: OUR POSITION: MOST
APPROVED INSTRUMENTS OF COMMERCIAL SUCCESS: PORTUGAL AND HOLLAND:
ENGLAND'S WISE STEAM POLICY: LIBERAL VIEWS OF HER STATESMEN:
EXTENT OF HER MAIL SERVICE: HER IMMENSE STEAM MARINE, OF 2,161
STEAMERS: OUR CONTRAST: OUR DEPENDENCE ON GREAT BRITAIN: THE
UNITED STATES MAIL AND COMMERCIAL STEAM MARINE IN FULL: A MOST
UNFAVORABLE COMPARISON.