DEVELOPMENT OF THE TRANSATLANTIC SERVICE
The success which attended the voyages of the _Great Western_, and the
manifest superiority of that steam-ship over the brigs which were then
thought good enough to carry the mails across the Atlantic, induced
the Government in October 1838 to invite tenders for the conveyance
of the mails to America by steam vessels. Circulars were distributed
broadcast, and one of them reached Samuel Cunard, a merchant of
Halifax, Nova Scotia, who, as already stated, had entertained for
many years the idea that the mails might be conveyed across the
Atlantic more speedily than the “coffin brigs,” as the Government’s
vessels were contemptuously termed, could carry them. From the year
1830, Cunard had been actively endeavouring to forward his scheme,
but so little was thought of the powers of the steam-ship that the
local merchants condemned his ideas as visionary and refused their
co-operation. Accordingly he came to London but met with as little
sympathy and financial support there as at Halifax. Fortunately for
him and for the world, he was able to take a letter of introduction
from the Secretary of the East India Company to Mr. Robert Napier, at
that time the foremost steam-ship builder on the Clyde, and probably
in the world. Mr. Napier had just achieved a remarkable success in
the construction of one of the earlier Isle of Man boats, the _Mona’s
Isle_, and the experiences through which she passed in triumph in one
or two of her earliest voyages had greatly increased the fame of her
builder. Mr. Napier himself used to say that he was largely indebted
for his prosperity and reputation to the name made for him by the
_Mona’s Isle_. He introduced Cunard to John Burns of Glasgow, who was
already extensively engaged in the steamer coasting trade between
Scotland, England, and Ireland, and he in turn introduced Cunard to his
Liverpool partner, David MacIver. After hearing Cunard’s explanation
of his project, the partners decided to support it, and such was their
reputation for enterprise and for achieving success in everything
they undertook that, through their instrumentality, the whole of the
capital required, amounting to £270,000, was obtained. Backed up by
Burns and MacIver, and with the promised support of Napier, Cunard
was among those who tendered to the Admiralty for the conveyance of
the mails once a fortnight between Liverpool, Halifax, and Boston. A
tender was also offered by the Great Western Steamship Company, on
whose behalf it was urged that their _Great Western_ was already in
existence and was prepared to undertake the work at once, and that
the Cunard Company would either have to charter steamers or wait till
they could be built. But the Government accepted the Cunard tender and
a contract was signed for seven years, it being stipulated that four
suitable steamers should be employed instead of three as originally
required, and further, that the dates of arrival and departure should
be adhered to. In consideration of these more onerous conditions the
subsidy was increased from £60,000 to £81,000 per annum. The first four
vessels of the Cunard Line, or as it was then formally known, “The
British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company,” were
practically sister ships. There was little choice between them in size
or power of engines, nor was there much difference in their internal
arrangements. These vessels were built on the Clyde, the _Britannia_ by
R. Duncan, the _Arcadia_ by John Wood, the _Caledonia_ by C. Wood, and
the _Columbia_ by R. Steel. The orders were placed with four different
builders so that the steamers might be ready as soon as possible.
They were all launched in 1840, and all were fitted with the ordinary
side-lever engines by Robert Napier, who had brought this type of
engine to a high pitch of perfection. The _Britannia_ was 207 feet long
by 34 feet 4 inches broad, with a moulded depth of 24 feet 4 inches,
and had a tonnage of 1154; her engines indicated 740 horse-power and
gave her an average speed of 8¹⁄₂ knots on a coal consumption of 38
tons per day. Her cargo capacity was about 225 tons. Each of these
vessels was fitted to carry 115 cabin passengers but none in the
steerage. All were adapted for the transport of troops and stores in
time of war. The first steamer actually sent across the Atlantic for
the Cunard organisation was the _Unicorn_, which left Liverpool on May
16, 1840, for Halifax and Boston, and was then employed for several
years between Picton and Quebec, in connection with the liners, and
carried both mails and passengers. The first departure under the mail
contract, however, was on Friday, July 4, 1840. That a Friday should
be selected for the inauguration of the service, even though it was
“Independence Day” in America, was received with much shaking of the
head by those who clung to the sailors’ superstition concerning the
unlucky nature of Friday, but nothing untoward happened, and the choice
of “Independence Day” for the first departure of the new line was
hailed in America as a most graceful compliment. The voyage to Boston
lasted 14 days 8 hours. The mail service was continued with conspicuous
regularity for three years, when it was found that the traffic had
increased to such an extent that the four steamers were no longer
able to cope with it. Accordingly in 1843 the _Hibernia_ was added,
and in 1845 the _Cambria_, sister ships of 210 feet in length between
perpendiculars, 35 feet 9 inches beam, 24 feet 2 inches moulded depth,
1422 tons gross, and with engines of 1040 indicated horse-power, and an
average speed of 9¹⁄₄ knots.
In 1844 the _Britannia_, on arriving at Boston in February of that
year in a particularly severe winter, became ice-bound. When the day
came for her departure for Liverpool, the Bostonians showed their
appreciation of the line and of the regularity of communication it
maintained with England by cutting at their own expense a channel
seven miles long and a hundred feet wide through the ice to liberate
her, her sailing being only two days behind time. In 1847, even with
the two extra ships, the company was unable to cope with the demands
made upon it, and the commerce between the two countries had increased
to such an extent that the Government felt bound when the time came
for the renewal of the contract to require that the service should be
doubled. It was stipulated that the company should provide a vessel
of not less than 400 horse-power nominal and capable of carrying guns
of the largest calibre. Its steamers were to leave Liverpool, calling
at Holyhead if required, every Saturday for New York and Boston
alternately, the Boston steamer touching at Halifax, and the New York
one to do so also if required by the Admiralty. For these augmented
sailings the subsidy was raised to £173,340 per annum, at which figure
it remained to the end of 1867. This change necessitated the building
of four new ships, namely, the _Niagara_, _Canada_, _America_, and
_Europa_. They were 251 feet long between perpendiculars, 35 feet beam,
26 feet 3 inches moulded depth, and of 1825 tons gross register, and
had engines of 2000 indicated horse-power, which gave them an average
speed of 10¹⁄₄ knots. In 1850 the _Asia_ and _Africa_ were added to
the fleet; they were sister ships, 266 feet between perpendiculars, 40
feet beam, 27 feet 2 inches depth, and of 2226 gross tonnage, and had
engines of 2400 indicated horse-power, with an average speed of 12¹⁄₂
knots. In 1852 the _Arabia_ was built, 285 feet between perpendiculars,
8 inches more beam, with a depth of 29 feet, and a gross tonnage of
2402. Her engines developed 3250 horse-power and gave her an average
speed of 13 knots.
[Illustration: THE “BRITANNIA” (CUNARD, 1840).]
The building of the _Arabia_ marks the close of the first period in
the history of the Cunard Line for, in 1855, the company began to
build iron ships. She was intended to be a reply to the steamers of
the Collins Line. For some reason or other the Americans made very few
attempts to enter upon the transatlantic steam-ship trade until nearly
the middle of the nineteenth century. Probably they were satisfied with
the performances of their sailing clippers, as they had good reason
to be, for the clippers often made faster passages than the early
Cunarders. From 1838 to 1847 every Atlantic liner flew the British
flag, but in 1845 the United States Congress passed an Act authorising
contracts to be made with owners of American vessels, steamships
preferred, for the regular transportation of the United States mails.
As an American writer says:
“This Act of 1845 is all-significant as the beginning of American
steam-ship service in the foreign trade. Not until national protection
was offered in the form of generous subsidies could our enterprising
merchants and sailors see their way clear to enter into the rivalry
with the State-aided steam fleets of Europe. The mail subsidy
legislation of 1845 was a wise step and indispensable, but it was
too long delayed. Congress should have acted five years before, when
the first Cunarder, floated and maintained by a liberal subsidy from
Parliament, came across the ocean, beating the time of our celebrated
packet ships. Individual resource could never compete with the great
treasury of the British Empire.”[64]
[64] “The American Mercantile Marine,” by W. L. Marvin.
In 1847 the Americans made a determined effort to establish a
fortnightly service between New York and Bremen, calling at Southampton
or Cowes. This venture was known as the Ocean Steam Navigation Company,
and though it had a contract for carrying the American mails in return
for a subvention of 200,000 dollars, it ceased operations in little
more than a year. It had two wooden paddle-steamers, the _Washington_
and _Hermann_, built by Westervelt and Mackay for Mr. Edward Mills.
Both were barque-rigged and carried a great spread of canvas.
The _Washington_ was 236 feet in length, by 39 feet beam, 31 feet
depth, and of about 2000 tons gross. The _Hermann_ was slightly larger.
The _Washington_, on her first voyage eastward in June of that year,
was pitted against the _Britannia_, which the Americans expected to
beat easily, but though the American boat had twice the engine-power,
and the Cunarder was seven years old, the latter arrived two days ahead.
The New York and Havre Steam Navigation Company, another American
enterprise, was founded in 1848 to carry the mails between those ports
for a subsidy of 150,000 dollars per annum and to touch at Southampton.
Its first vessel was the wooden paddle-steamer _Franklin_, 263 feet
in length, of about 2184 tons, and 1250 indicated horse-power. She
sailed on her first voyage in 1850, and was joined in the service
by the _Humboldt_, a slightly larger vessel, in the following year.
In December 1853 the _Humboldt_ was wrecked near Halifax, and the
_Franklin_ went to pieces on Long Island in 1854. The company ordered
two other vessels, the _Arago_ and _Fulton_, which were launched in
June 1855 and February 1856 respectively. They were rather larger than
the _Humboldt_, but instead of lever engines had oscillating cylinder
engines, the cylinders being 65 inches diameter with a 10-foot stroke.
Until they were ready the company maintained the service, after the
loss of its earlier boats, with chartered vessels.
The New England Ocean Steamship Company, formed by Messrs. Harnden
and Co. of Boston, placed the iron screw-steamer _Lewis_ of 1105 tons
on the service between that port and Liverpool in October 1851, but
withdrew her the next year.
By 1850 there were no fewer than seven or eight lines of steamers
trading between New York and Liverpool. The Cunard Company had eight
of the finest steamers in the world, and the ninth, the _Africa_, was
expected shortly to arrive from the builders at Glasgow.
An agitation had been maintained for some years in America for a
subsidised American steam-ship service, which should surpass the
British line. The Government at last was prevailed upon to promise
financial support to a line of steamers under certain conditions,
and the necessary legislation was passed by Congress in March 1847.
The vessels were to be of the highest class, of great speed, and of
superior passenger accommodation, and so fitted that they could be
turned into war steamers at small expense. Mr. K. Edward Collins of New
York, owner of the well-known Dramatic Line of sailing ships, so called
because they were named after famous theatrical people, organised the
line and was well supported by American capitalists and influential
commercial men generally.
The Collins Line, as the organisation was called, undertook, by a
contract signed in November 1847, to provide a mail service between New
York and Liverpool, fortnightly in summer and monthly in winter, with
five first-class steam-ships, for which 19,250 dollars per trip for
twenty round trips, or 385,000 dollars a year, were to be paid, but as
the first four ships built for the line were very much larger, swifter,
and more expensive and more valuable to the nation[65] than the exact
terms of the contract required, the Government in 1852 increased the
subsidy to 858,000 dollars a year.
[65] Marvin’s “American Mercantile Marine.”
[Illustration: THE “ATLANTIC.”]
Money was spent upon the Collins liners like water, and everything
in every department was of a most costly and luxurious description.
Indeed, so lavish was the expenditure upon the Collins boats that
even had they not met with the series of disasters which afterwards
befell them, and had the line not been deprived by the United States
Government of its subsidy for carrying the mails, it is doubtful
whether it would ever have been a commercial success. Thus a
description of the _Atlantic_ says: “Her interior fittings are truly
elegant, the woodwork being of white holly, satin wood, rosewood,
&c., so combined and diversified as to present a rich and costly
appearance. In the drawing-room the ornaments consist of costly
mirrors, bronze-work, stained glass, paintings, &c. On the panels
between the stateroom passages are the arms of the different States of
the Confederacy painted in the highest style of art, and framed with
bronze-work.
“The pillars between are inlaid with mirrors, framed with rosewood, and
at the top and bottom are bronzed sea-shells of costly workmanship.
In the centre of each are groups of allegorical figures, representing
the ocean mythology of the ancients, in bronze and burnished gold.
The ceiling is elaborately wrought, carved and gilded.” The vessel
was steam-heated, an improvement introduced for the first time in
steam-ships.
The _Atlantic_ left New York on April 27, 1850, with about a hundred
passengers on board and a valuable cargo. Outside Sandy Hook she met
some drifting ice which damaged her paddles, and she had to proceed at
reduced speed across the ocean as the weather was too tempestuous to
permit of the floats being repaired. On May 8, one of her condensers
gave way, and the steamer was hove-to for forty hours, after which she
resumed her voyage still at reduced speed. She arrived at Liverpool on
May 10. The _Pacific_ sailed from New York on May 25, and was followed
by the _Arctic_, _Baltic_, and _Antarctic_. Their beam was such that
they could not enter any existing docks at Liverpool, and a dock at the
North End was therefore constructed for their accommodation.
Special interest attached to the arrival of the _Atlantic_ owing to the
presence in the river of the new Cunarder _Asia_, just built by Messrs.
Steel at Greenock, and engined by Robert Napier. An opportunity was
thus afforded of comparing these two representative vessels, as the
_Asia_, outward bound, steamed past her rival and exchanged salutes.
The _Atlantic_ and her sister ship the _Arctic_ excelled in dimensions
every steam-ship hitherto built. The length was 276 feet on the
keel and 282 feet on the main deck, beam 45 feet, breadth across
paddle-boxes 75 feet, depth of hold 31 feet 7 inches, diameter of
paddle-wheels 36 feet, diameter of cylinder 96 inches, stroke 9 feet;
the side-lever engines were of 1000 horse-power, and the tonnage 2860.
The saloons were 67 feet long by 20 feet wide, and the dining saloons
60 feet long by 42 feet wide.
Two remarkable points of difference between them and the Cunarders
and all British steamers at that time were their rounded sterns and
straight cutwaters without bowsprits. Powerfully engined though they
were, they depended considerably on sail-power. Their paddles, like
those of so many American steamers, were placed rather far aft, the
idea being that a more uniform immersion of the blades was thus
obtained. The Collins steamers were all built with flat floors (a
departure in the shape of the hull to which considerable exception was
taken but which was justified by events), long, wedge-like bows, and a
long, easy run to the stern. The frames were of white and live oak, and
the stout timbers were filled in solidly to the turn of the bilge. The
huge oak keelsons were specially heavy under the boilers and engines.
The planking was hard pine, metal-fastened below the water-line by
copper bolts and above by galvanised iron. The frames were strengthened
by a latticework of iron bands. Their wood construction was more
massive than that of a line-of-battle ship. In his patriotic efforts
to gain the Atlantic supremacy for his country Collins did far more
than the Government required. The _Arctic_ and _Atlantic_ were built
by W. H. Brown of New York, and their construction was superintended
by G. Steers, who modelled the schooner-yacht _America_, the winner of
the cup which has not yet been “lifted.” Mr. Faron, of the firm Sewell
and Faron, chief engineer to the United States Government, was the
chief engineer of the company, and designed the _Arctic_ and _Baltic_
boilers. These were arranged with double furnaces and had lower
water-spaces connected by a row of tubes, round which the heated gas
circulated; there was also a hanging plate which checked a too rapid
flow to the funnel and increased the combustion. The _Arctic_ burned
about 83 tons of coal in 24 hours, which gave her a speed of 316·4
knots for the day. Her gross consumption was 87 tons when she covered
320 knots in 24 hours.
The funds subscribed were exhausted long before the construction of the
boat was finished, and the Government not only granted the company’s
appeal for assistance, but went further and released the company from
its obligation to build the fifth steamer. It increased the subsidy to
33,000 dollars per round voyage, but in return it demanded an increased
speed, which, according to Mr. Bayard in Congress, would enable the
Collins steamers to overtake any vessel they wished to pursue, and
escape from any vessel they wished to avoid.
For some years the Collins Line seemed to have secured the premier
position in the Atlantic trade. Its vessels eclipsed the Cunarders
in size, speed, and luxury. The company, however, was expensively,
almost wastefully, managed, and the steamers were run extravagantly.
Great though its income was, its expenditure was greater. At its best
the Collins Line never paid a dividend and its fall was hastened by
two terrible disasters. Its first great calamity was the loss of the
_Arctic_, which was rammed by the French iron steamer _Vesta_ in a very
thick fog between sixty and seventy miles from Cape Race. The _Arctic_
was so well built that, although three large holes were torn in her
side, through two of which the water poured, no apprehension was felt
for her safety, and her captain sent a boat in charge of one of his
officers to the other vessel to rescue those on board if necessary. One
of the _Vesta’s_ crew was killed in the collision, and several others
on board were injured. The rest of the crew and passengers made a rush
for her boats and launched two, one of which was swamped; the other
was occupied by two of the crew and several passengers, who, disobeying
their captain’s orders, cut their boat adrift and were soon lost to
sight in the fog.
Meanwhile on the _Arctic_ it had been discovered that the steamer was
sinking. Preparations were made to save the lives of the passengers and
crew by means of the boats. One of the tackles of the first boat to be
filled gave way while it was being lowered to the water, and all her
occupants, except one sailor who seized the other tackle and a lady who
clung to him, were precipitated into the sea and drowned. Among those
who lost their lives at this time were Mrs. Collins, the wife of the
managing owner, and their son and daughter. The second boat was lowered
without mishap and was provisioned and quickly filled with passengers.
The water continued to pour into the ship, and she was headed for the
nearest port, but in about a quarter of an hour the furnaces were put
out. All the other boats but one left the ship, the exception being a
large lifeboat which there were not sufficient seamen left on board to
launch.
This boat is believed to have been filled by passengers, who thought
that it might be left afloat when the ship went down. It is probable
that it was so crammed that it had no chance of floating, and that it
was sucked down with its occupants in the vortex caused by the sinking
of the steamer.
The loss of life is variously stated. One version is that the
_Arctic_ had three hundred and sixty-five persons on board of whom
only eighty-seven survived. An American writer, however, states: “The
_Arctic_ foundered with two hundred and twelve of her passengers and
one hundred and ten of her crew.”[66] The _Vesta_ left St. Peter’s the
day before the disaster with one hundred and forty-seven passengers
and a crew of fifty, of whom thirteen were reported missing when she
reached St. John’s.
[66] “The American Mercantile Marine,” by W. L. Marvin.
[Illustration: THE “ADRIATIC” (COLLINS LINE, 1857).]
The _Pacific_, a sister ship to the _Arctic_, was the next of the
Collins liners to succumb to the perils of the sea. She sailed
from Liverpool for New York in January 1856 and never reached her
destination, and not a trace of her has been discovered to reveal
her fate. The loss of these two splendid steamers within two years
seriously crippled the Collins organisation.
Mr. Collins, to replace the _Arctic_, ordered the fifth steamer which
was stipulated for in the contract with the United States Government
at the time the line was started. This steamer, the _Adriatic_, like
the other four vessels of the line, was in excess of the American
Government’s requirements, and was larger, speedier, and even more
luxuriously fitted than any of her four predecessors. She was built
by George Steers at New York and launched in April 1855. She was 355
feet in length, 50 feet beam, and 33 feet deep, with a gross tonnage
of 4144 tons. Her cost was £240,000. It was hoped that this splendid
vessel would retrieve the falling fortunes of the Collins Line, but
in the following month a bitter attack was made in Congress upon the
policy under which the line had been granted Government aid, and in
consequence of this attack the subsidy to the line was reduced. The
mail pay to the Collins Line was lessened by the withdrawal of the
473,000 dollars added in 1852; and the original subsidy of 385,000
dollars, or considerably less than half the amount on which Collins
had been relying, was now to be paid to the company. This was further
reduced to 346,000 dollars, and in 1858 the subsidy was withdrawn
altogether. The line ceased operations at once. The _Adriatic_ made one
trip to Liverpool and, after lying idle there for some time, passed
into the hands of the promoters of the Galway Line.
An equally unfortunate enterprise was the attempt to establish a line
between Galway and America.
The project of connecting the west coast of Ireland with Newfoundland
by a line of fast steamers has always had its attractions for those
who are seeking to cut down the ocean voyage to a minimum, but so far
as the passengers are concerned, the prospect of a long land journey
from St. John’s or Halifax to New York has always militated against the
scheme. There are also the no less serious drawbacks of a trip across
the Irish Sea to Dublin or other Irish port, continued by a railway
journey to Galway before finally embarking on the ocean voyage. For the
conveyance of mails this might be the fastest possible route, but until
the Government adopt the exceedingly unlikely course of subsidising a
line of mail packets for this purpose, the Galway-Newfoundland route
has no prospect of becoming a serious factor in the North Atlantic
traffic.
The first proposal to use Galway was made in 1851, when some of the
Irish railway authorities and an American named Wagstaff visited the
port, and in June of that year sent the steamer _Viceroy_ to New York
via Halifax. She was a wooden cross-channel boat and not suited for
the work, and nothing more was done in the matter until 1857, when the
project was revived by a Manchester man named Lever. Two steamers, the
_Indian Empire_ and _Propeller_, were chartered for the enterprise and
sailed for New York via Halifax in the next year. In the autumn of that
year, the Newfoundland Government contracted with the promoters of
the line to carry the mails monthly from Galway to St. John’s, and a
service of six steamers was to be established. The British Government
and the company entered into a contract whereby the company was to
carry the mails from Galway to Portland (Maine), and to Boston and New
York. Four steamers were ordered but were not up to the requirements
of the postal authorities in respect to speed, and one or two were
not perfectly seaworthy, and the effort to maintain the service with
chartered steamers not being satisfactory--only the last of the Collins
liners, the _Adriatic_, which had been purchased, being able to run
to stipulated time--the company, after a series of misfortunes which
probably constitutes a record, went into liquidation, and the mail
contract was cancelled, after resulting in a heavy financial loss to
every one who had anything to do with it.