The Republic

Considerably more than a century ago, when the citizens of London were recovering from the losses caused by the South Sea Bubble, and the citizens of Edinburgh were suffering on account of the Porteous mob—when the population of Liverpool was under 20,000, and the customs revenue of the United Kingdom was not a tithe of its present amount—before the battle of Culloden had been fought, or the United States of America had asserted their independence, there was granted to Jonathan Hulls a patent for a boat propelled by steam-power, 'for carrying vessels or ships out of or into any harbor, port, or river, against wind or tide, or in a calm.' The pictures we have of this vessel make her look very clumsy and queer when compared with a modern steamer. This single paddle-wheel of Hulls's boat was placed at the stern, and motion was produced by an atmospheric engine on Newcomen's plan. There was a small funnel, but there were neither sails nor masts. The boat, in fact, was merely a substitute for a rope and a strong windlass; but nevertheless it was the beginning of a long series of experiments that have led to the navigation by steam of almost every river, sea, and ocean of the world. Half a century afterwards, when Jonathan Hulls was in his grave, and during the same year that George Washington was elected first President of the United States of America, several experiments were made by Mr. Symington, an engineer employed at Wanlockhead mines, in Dumfriesshire, in conjunction with Mr. Miller, of Dalswinton, and Mr. Taylor, tutor in the family of the latter, by which a pleasure-boat was propelled by steam-power on a small lake, at the rate of five miles an hour, and a speed of seven miles attained in another boat on the Forth and Clyde canal. The fame of these inventions having reached the ears of an American named Fulton, he crossed the Atlantic to see what the Scotch engineer could accomplish on the Scotch canal. Symington accompanied the stranger on a canal voyage, and fully explained the construction and working of the rude steamboat; and the result of this indoctrination was seen in 1807, on the Hudson river, at New York, where a steamer called the Clermont, but nicknamed Fulton's Folly, made a successful voyage up to Albany, and continued afterwards to ply regularly, to the great convenience of the public and the chagrin of those who had prophesied its failure.

In January, 1812, a steamer only forty feet long, called the Comet, and owned by Henry Bell, began to ply on the river Clyde; its success led to the construction of others, which carried the people of Glasgow safely to Greenock by water in the comparatively short time of four hours. In 1814 Scotland possessed five steamers, while neither England nor Ireland had one. On the 28th November, of the same year, after Napoleon had been about seven months in Elba, the London Times was first printed by steam; and in the following year steamboats appeared for the first time on the Thames and the Mersey. Thus, just after the battle of Waterloo had sealed the doom of the greatest captain of the age, and secured the blessing of peace to the exhausted nations of Europe, two of the most important applications of steam-power were made—one to increase and to cheapen, to an extent hitherto unknown, the productions of the printing press, and the other to diffuse these, with a speed and a certainty paralleled only in marvellous tales, to every region under the sun.

From that time the progress of steam navigation has been exceedingly rapid. In 1820 England had seventeen, Scotland fourteen, and Ireland three steamers; twenty years afterwards the numbers were respectively 937, 244, and 79. The regularity, speed, and safety with which the voyages of these vessels were made, soon pointed them out as the best conveyance both for passengers and the mails. In 1821 they were employed on the latter service between Dublin and Holyhead, and between Calais and Dover; and now, with few exceptions, all the channel and ocean work of the post office is done by steamers; and all the passenger and much of the goods' traffic between the different ports of Great Britain and Ireland have been within the last quarter of a century transferred to them.

After the steamboat had thus passed through the various stages of infancy and childhood—had tried its strength on English rivers, in the Irish sea, and in the British channel—men began to ask, was it not strong enough and old enough to do more: Could it not cross an ocean as well as a channel; take letters, and men, and merchandise to America, India, and Australia, as well as to Ireland and France? In this question were involved considerations of the highest importance to all the world, but particularly to this country. No other country has such extensive foreign possessions as Great Britain, or carries on such an extensive foreign trade. With the exception of the United States, all the colonies planted by the British remain part of the empire; while Spain and Portugal have lost nearly all those rich territories—extending over the fairest portion of the American continent—that at one time acknowledged the sway of the houses of Bourbon and Braganza. The foreign possessions of France are insignificant; and of the other nations of Europe the Dutch alone possess a territory abroad greater than they have at home. The only empire at all approaching the British in extent is the Russian, but its extent is the only point of comparison. Russia consists of one great unbroken mass, stretching through the bleakest and most barren regions of Europe, Asia, and America; she has no port of any consequence on the ocean; thousands of miles of her seacoast are seldom or never navigable; and the population of her immense territory is only about 60,000,000. It is, therefore, not a mere figure of speech to say, that the British empire is the greatest in the world; for it embraces a territory of nearly 6,000,000 square miles, and a population of more than 150,000,000—or about one-eighth of the land, and one seventh of the inhabitants, of the globe. Nor is it less true to say that on these great possessions the sun never sets; for they are scattered all over the world—in tropical Africa and Asia, in the temperate zones of both hemispheres, and among the islands of every ocean; and whether occupying a rock, an island, a continental province, or a continent itself, as in Australia, their geographical position fits them well for upholding the power of the empire. The foreign trade of Great Britain is equal to the aggregate foreign trade of Russia, Austria, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, and Norway, and a third greater than that of the United States of America. The proud position of Britain among the nations, the necessities of her foreign trade, and the wants of her colonies and dependencies, apart from all other considerations, rendered it fitting and natural that she should lead the way in maritime enterprise, and teach the nations how to navigate the ocean by steam. Nor has she failed in this high task; for, within thirteen or fourteen years since the question was first proposed, she has established lines of gigantic steam vessels that are now traversing with regularity and safely every ocean; steaming altogether more than a million and a quarter miles every year, and distributing letters and newspapers all over the world. Of these lines of steamships, and the routes they pursue, it is the object of the present paper to give an account.

ROUTE TO THE UNITED STATES.

When it was first proposed, about 1836, to cross the Atlantic by steam-power alone, the idea was deemed illusive. Some of the most distinguished scientific men in the country gave a verdict against it, and prophesied its failure in no unequivocal language. At the command of these philosophers, all kinds of spectres rose up from the Atlantic ocean to terrify the daring men who had determined to make the attempt. The action of the paddle wheels on the water—the waves and storms and currents of the Atlantic—and the quantity of coal necessary to be used, were all made the subjects of nice calculations such as no person could dispute; and the theorem they all tended to prove was, that the project was utterly impracticable. To men who made no pretence to be philosophers, the difficulties in the way were self-obvious. But among mercantile men another great question arose—Would the speculation pay? It is well known that a steamboat costs much more than a sailing vessel both in construction and working; the sails of the latter are filled by wind, for which nothing whatever is paid; but not an arm of the machinery of the former will move until the furnace has been fed with coal, never to be had, even at the cheapest ports, without a considerable outlay of money. The officers and men, too, must be more numerous, and the machinery, boilers, and fuel occupy a very large space that in sailing vessels is filled with goods. The number of passengers who crossed the Atlantic every year was certainly very great; in 1830 (the time at which the project was discussed) the number might be estimated at about 60,000; but all, or nearly all, of these were emigrants, utterly unable to pay such charges as the owners of steam vessels would be obliged to make. The trade between this country and America was certainly most extensive; but in carrying the goods bought and sold no steamer could compete successfully with sailing vessels. Unless, therefore, a remunerative passenger traffic could be created by the certainty and speed of the communication, and a favorable contract obtained for carrying the mails, it was quite evident that the speculation would not pay.

There were, however, other mercantile considerations affecting the entire commerce of the country, which rendered it clear that if the regular navigation of the Atlantic by steam were practicable, it was essential to British commerce. Nothing is so important in extensive commercial transactions as early and regular intelligence, and a quick and speedy transmission of orders and goods. Judging from what steamers had already done, it was reasonable to expect that they would cross the Atlantic in half the time occupied by the old liners; that New York would be brought within a ten or fourteen days' voyage from London, Bristol, or Liverpool; and that the arrival of advices might be calculated with certainty to a day, if not to an hour. The effects of this, not only on commerce but on every department of trade and manufactures—not only on the merchant and broker, but on the manufacturer and artisan—it was difficult to over-estimate. A glance at the extent of our commercial relations with America will present this in a clearer light. In 1836 the value of the exports from this country was £53,368,572, or a little more than a million of pounds sterling every week; of which, while about a third was sent to Europe, and a seventh to Asia and Africa, nearly a fourth was sent to the United States, and another fourth to other parts of America. Again, our imports from America consist of articles that have become essential both to the industry and subsistence of the people. The gigantic cotton manufacture is an example. The number of cotton factories in England is 1,753, in which 292,862 persons are employed. If to this number we add that large class engaged in dealing in the raw material; that other large class employed in making the machinery; others in bleaching, dyeing, and printing; and the host of tradesmen and shop keepers engaged in supplying their wants, we shall find that (including their families) about an eighth of the population are directly or indirectly dependent for support and subsistence on this great branch of industry. In 1836 the quantity of raw cotton imported to supply the factories with material, and the factory workers with employment, was in weight about four hundred millions of pounds; and of that quantity more than four-fifths came from the United States of America alone; while the value of the cotton manufactures exported from the United Kingdom during the same year was about £20,000,000 sterling. But further, a very large proportion of the dyes used in calico-printing, such as cochineal, logwood, &c., are brought from America; and from the same continent are procured the greater part of the supplies of those articles now become necessaries of life—sugar and coffee—which are perhaps consumed to a greater extent among the factory workers than among any other part of the population. It is obvious that whatever tends to give regularity and speed to the intercourse by means of which this immense trade is carried on, must at the same time introduce greater certainty and steadiness into all its departments, and prevent many of those fluctuations and changes so detrimental to the interests of all concerned, but especially of those whose labor is their only capital.

However, amid all this thinking and prophesying, amid the calculations of philosophers and the speculations of merchants, hundreds of workmen were engaged at Bristol in constructing a large steamer to be called the Great Western, which should at once and for ever set the question at rest. The men of practice did not share the doubts of the men of theory; capital was supplied to a sufficient extent, and the public looked on in anxious expectation of the result. The Great Western was finished in 1838, and announced to sail on her first voyage on the 8th of April. The appearance of this magnificent steamer inspired all spectators with confidence in her fitness for the work. Seen from a distance, she had an appearance of strength rather than of beauty; above the long black hull rose a short thick funnel and four masts; the deck two hundred and thirty-six feet long, was not curved like those of many other vessels, but almost straight from stem to stern; her huge paddle-boxes, distant from each other nearly sixty feet, covered wheels twenty-eight feet in diameter, to which were attached paddles ten feet long. The horse-power of the engines was four hundred and fifty; the weight of the boilers and machinery three hundred tons, and the burden one thousand three hundred and forty, or less than three tons for each horse power, and thus considerably within the limit prescribed by the philosophers. She seemed a strong and compact ship, and not likely to be easily turned aside from her course by either the winds or the waves of the Atlantic ocean. But when the visitor went on board, he was filled with as much admiration of her beauty as of her strength; the cabin accommodation was of the most splendid kind, not excelled by any hotel on shore. Sofas, couches, handsome mahogany tables, and other elegant furniture, adorned the saloons; the decorations were most profuse and elaborate; while large mirrors multiplied all this splendor. The sleeping apartments were so neat, so clean, and so comfortable, that their improvement seemed to be almost impossible. The visitor, indeed, was more likely to imagine himself in a fairy palace described in some old tale, than on board a steam-ship about to proceed on a long and dangerous voyage; but when the elegant and luxurious cabins were left, and he stood before the colossal machinery, wonder seemed to be exhausted, and all doubts of the success of the enterprise fled away.

The Great Western sailed from Bristol on the 8th April, 1838, having on board 660 tons of coal and seven adventurous passengers. Three days previously the Sirius, a smaller vessel than the former, built to ply between London and Cork, had steamed from the latter port right in the teeth of a strong westerly wind, and with New York also for her destination. Never was there such a race as this struggle of two steamers, which should first traverse the entire breadth of the wild Atlantic. The very wind seemed to be angry with the ships. First it blew a strong gale from the west, that raised a heavy sea; but this, that would have retarded sailing vessels, never caused the two brave steam-pioneers to alter their course. This point of the compass would not answer, so the wind 'chopped round' until it had completely boxed the compass, and tried all its powers in strong breezes, fresh gales, and the like, but with no other effect than is indicated in the brief record—'vessel lurching deeply, but easy.' The wind then for some days kept veering round the west, as if to make a last effort to impede what it could not stop: but it was of no avail; the steamers went steadily on. The Sirius, that had the start by three days, made little way comparatively during the first week. She carried more weight in proportion than the Great Western; but as her coals were consumed, she became more lively, and, in sporting phrase, 'made more running.' Thus, during the first week she was out, her daily run was never more than one hundred and thirty-six miles; on the second day it was only eighty-nine. The Great Western, on the contrary, made ten miles an hour during the second day, and her average daily speed during the entire voyage was two hundred and eleven miles. At such a speed she would soon overtake the Sirius, that had the start by about four hundred miles only. But as the little vessel got lighter she went ahead: on the 14th she ran two hundred and eighteen miles, as much as the Great Western on the same day; on the 22d she ran only three miles less than the large ship; but the latter was then in the same parallel of latitude, and only about three degrees of longitude behind. Still it was a close chase: but at last the Sirius, by reason of her long start, was the winner. She reached New York on the morning of the 23d, and the Great Western came in the same afternoon.

The Sirius was too small for continued Atlantic navigation, and she was soon withdrawn to pursue her original route between Cork and London, and was lost some years ago on the coast of Ireland. The Great Western, however, continued to ply regularly and successfully. From 1838 to 1844 she made thirty-five outward and thirty-five homeward voyages—steaming altogether a quarter of a million of miles in all kinds of weather. The only accident that befell her during such service was the loss of a bowsprit in coming up like a whale to blow after a rather deeper plunge than usual, with a fair headway on her right course, and against a head-wind and sea. The average distance steamed each voyage was nearly 3,500 miles, (one of the voyages was 4,693 miles in length, but that was to New York via Madeira;) the time occupied in going to New York was 15 days 12 hours, and in returning 13 days 9 hours. The shortest outward run was in May, 1843, when the voyage was performed in 12 days 18 hours, or not much more than a third of the average time taken by the old liners; and the shortest passage home was in April and May, 1842, in 12 days 7 hours. The average speed outwards was 9, and homeward 8 1/2 miles per hour. During these seventy voyages the Great Western carried 3,165 passengers to New York, and brought 2,609 home. She was removed from this route about five years ago, and in June, 1847, became the property of the West India Steam-packet Company.

Several steamships, some larger even than the Great Western, navigated the Atlantic between 1838 and 1843, but, with the exception of those employed by the Admiralty to carry the mail, they have all, for various reasons, been withdrawn. Our space permits us to do little more than give the names of these vessels. The Royal William was the first in order of time; but, after making a few passages, she was withdrawn, and placed on another station. Then followed the British Queen, the President, and the Liverpool—all three of large size, and built at a cost of about £100,000 each. They had made very few voyages across the Atlantic when the first was sold to the Belgian government, the second was lost in 1841; and the third was placed on the station between Southampton and Alexandria, and was lost some years ago on the Spanish coast. The following statement of the receipts and expenditure of three of these vessels will give some idea of the expense of Atlantic steam navigation:

Voyages	Receipts	Expenditure
Great Western	28	£97,999
British Queen	18	89,001
President	6	25,334

During these voyages the vessels steamed nearly 170,000 miles, so that their average expenditure was more than a pound sterling for every mile. According to Captain Claxton, managing director of the Great Western Steamship Company, 'no sooner had the Great Western performed her voyage with the greatest ease to New York and back, than the directors found that steamships of larger dimensions would offer better chances of remuneration.' 'They now determined that their second ship should be built of iron instead of wood, and propelled by the screw instead of the paddle-wheel.' Accordingly, the keel of the Great Britain was laid at Bristol in 1839, and the vessel was launched in 1843—Prince Albert acting as sponsor on the occasion. The misfortunes of this ill-fated ship began at the cradle. Perhaps some reader may have heard of the keeper of the lighthouse whose better half throve so well in that useful building, that for years all exit through the narrow door was denied to her; and after her worthy husband died, his successor was obliged to take the stout widow 'for better, for worse,' as one of the fixtures of the establishment. The Great Britain, at the outset of her career, was somewhat like the heavy lady in the lighthouse; the addition of her machinery brought her lines of greatest breadth so low, that the entrance of the dock or basin in which she lay would not permit her exit, and the greatest ingenuity of the greatest engineers was exerted for her release. She was freed at last, and proceeded to London, Dublin, and Liverpool, to be inspected by the public previous to sailing for America.

All England was proud of this ship; her sailing and steaming qualities had been tested with satisfactory results, and it was considered that she would for many years be the swiftest and safest Atlantic steamer. A few voyages in 1845-46 seemed to confirm this idea; but her successful career was suddenly stopped in a most unaccountable manner. Every one knows that if you sail from Liverpool to America, you must go round either the south or the north of Ireland. The captain of the Great Britain, on her last outward voyage, intended to go round by the north passage. On his way he must pass the Isle of Man; but through some blundering it was passed without being perceived—the Irish coast mistaken for it—and the poor Great Britain consequently went ashore. The reports of this disaster were scarcely believed in Liverpool until the passengers came back in the coasting-steamers to tell the sad tale. The proprietors were of course much disheartened, but their consolation was, that the noble ship was quite innocent of the accident, and that the same thing would have happened to any vessel that had been steered in the same direction. The Great Britain lay for a whole winter in Dundrum Bay; the finely-furnished 'ladies' boudoir' was completely dismantled, and converted into a snug apartment for sailors and mechanics cooking and drinking their coffee; berths were broken up; the water came and went with the tide through the lower saloon; but man did not 'yield these things to decay.' After much labor she was towed across the Irish sea; and though she now lies in one of the Liverpool docks, a sad and melancholy sight, yet there is every reason to hope that she will soon again 'walk the waters like a thing of life,' and retrieve her tarnished fame. She was sold in the latter part of 1850 for £18,000, and in all probability, ere 1851 has been brought to a close, the Great Britain will again be 'ruling the waves' of the Atlantic or Pacific ocean.

But we now turn to a brighter page in the history of the bold adventurers on this Atlantic route. In November, 1838, shortly after the successful voyages of the Sirius and Great Western, the government advertised for tenders for carrying the mails in steamers between this country and America. Both the companies to which these two vessels belonged made offers; the former to go once a month from Cork to Halifax for £45,000, and for £65,000 per annum if New York were included—the vessels to be of two hundred and forty horse-power. The Great Western Company proposed to perform the service to Halifax once a month, with three vessels of 350 horse-power each, for £45,000 per annum. Neither of these tenders was accepted; but shortly afterwards a proposal was made to the government by Mr. Samuel Cunard, of Halifax, in Nova Scotia. This gentleman had had, for fifteen or twenty years previously, a contract for carrying the mails between Halifax and Bermuda, for which he received £4,460 per annum, his vessels running twice each month; and he now proposed to take the Atlantic contract, and carry the mails once a week. This proposition was not acceded to at the time; but ultimately it was arranged that he was to receive £55,000 per annum for seven years for conveying the mails twice each month between Liverpool, Halifax, Quebec, and Boston. This was the commencement of what is now well known as Cunard's line. In the summer of 1840, a steamer named the Britannia, of 1,200 tons burden, 440 horse-power, and 230 feet in length, (the same dimensions nearly as the Great Western,) arrived in the Mersey to commence the fulfilment of Mr. Cunard's contract. She left Liverpool on the 4th July, arriving at Halifax in twelve days ten hours, and performing the voyage homeward from Halifax in ten days. The other vessels placed on this line at the outset were the Acadia, Columbia, and Caledonia. They were all built in the Clyde, and their dimensions were nearly the same as those of the Britannia. More powerful vessels were afterwards constructed, and, in consideration thereof, the payment was raised to £90,000 per annum, subsequently reduced to £85,000 when the service to Quebec was taken off. Since the accident to the Great Britain, up to the spring of 1850, no other steamers than Cunard's were found on this route, and the regularity with which the mails were carried was a theme of general admiration.

We have already seen that the first steamboats ever used for conveying goods and passengers were built at New York, and plied on the Hudson in 1807. Since that time the progress of steam navigation on the rivers and lakes, and along the coasts of America, has been both rapid and wonderful. In the five years ending 31st December, 1838, the steamers departing from New York alone sailed in the aggregate 9,653,650 miles, and conveyed 25,366,000 passengers, of whom 70 lost their lives by seven accidents. But with the exception of the voyage of the Savannah in 1819, the citizens of the United States had not hitherto taken any part in conducting the steam navigation of the Atlantic: and it was not until after all but Cunard's ships had been withdrawn, that American-built steamers began to ply between England and New York. The formation of several companies for this purpose made Mr. Cunard anxious to extend his contract, so as to carry the mails once a week, and thus render him more able to meet the expected competition. Mr. Cunard said before a committee of the House of Commons in July, 1849: 'I was most anxious to have it [the extension of the contract] done, because I knew the consequences of having these rival lines of packets running against us, and that it would affect the government more than it would affect us. I could not increase the number of passengers; but the number of letters would be considerably increased, or doubled, because, if one person writes, the whole must write.' The proposal was agreed to; the mails were to be carried from Liverpool every Saturday, and from Boston or New York every Wednesday, (except during four winter months, when it was to be fortnightly,) arrangements being made by which the detour to Halifax was to be abandoned.

The steamships originally possessed by Mr. Cunard were now superseded by others of greater size and power, the tonnage being increased from 1,200 to more than 2,000, and the horse-power of the engines from 440 to 800. The Columbia, as we have seen, was lost: the Britannia, Acadia, Caledonia, and Hibernia, were sold, (the two last to the Spanish government, shortly after the attempt made on Cuba in 1850;) and Cunard's fleet now consists of the following magnificent vessels:

	Length	Horse-power	Tonnage
Africa	(feet)	280	2,266
America	249	650	1,832
Asia	280	800	2,266
Cambria	217	500	1,423
Canada	249	650	1,832
Europa	249	650	1,832
Niagara	249	650	1,832

All these vessels have been built in the Clyde, and on the banks of the same river two of greater dimensions are now nearly completed, to be called the Persia and the Arabia. Besides these, there are two smaller vessels used as tenders. One of these, bearing the appropriate name of the Satellite, about 150 tons burden, is kept in the Mersey to 'fetch and carry' for the larger vessels, round which it may be said to revolve. If space permitted, we could give a detailed description of the admirable and luxurious accommodation for passengers on board these ships; but it is sufficient here to say that in them, as well as in all others that fall within the scope of the present paper, the greatest skill, ingenuity, experience, and good taste have been exerted with marked success in rendering a long sea voyage as agreeable and pleasant as it is possible for long sea voyages to be. During the year 1849 the number of trips made by these vessels across the Atlantic was 56; the number of passengers carried was 3,510 out, and 3,340 home, or 6,850 in all, being an increase of 2,895 over the previous year. The sum paid by these passengers was about a quarter of a million sterling. The average length of passage from Liverpool to Halifax was 11 days 3 hours; from Halifax to Liverpool, 9 days 21 hours; Halifax to Boston, 34 hours; Halifax to New York, 65 hours; New York to Halifax, 62 hours: and Boston to Halifax, 41 hours. In the month of May the Canada steamed from Liverpool to New York in 11 days 10 hours; and in the same month the America occupied only 8 days 10 hours from Halifax to Liverpool. These returns show a marked increase in speed over the early voyages of steamers across the Atlantic. Each of the vessels of this line consumes about 700 tons of coal between Liverpool and New York; at the former port the expense of the coal and putting it on board is about a guinea, and at the latter about 17s. per ton. If coals were as cheap as wind, Mr. Cunard and his partners would save more than £70,000 per annum.

The American steamers that first plied regularly on the Atlantic route were the Washington and Hermann, of about two thousand tons burden. They, however, did not depend entirely on the British traffic, but made the port of Bremen, at the mouth of the Weser in Germany, their terminus in Europe, calling at Southampton on their passage up and down the British Channel. The line of vessels that entered into direct competition with Cunard's was projected by Mr. Collins, of New York, and consisted of five steamers of three thousand tons burden, three hundred feet long, and propelled by engines of one thousand horse power. They are named after the various oceans of the world—the Atlantic, Pacific, Arctic, Baltic, and Adriatic. They are longer and more powerful than any steamer yet built, except the Great Britain, and their competition is not to be treated lightly. The merits of the rival lines soon became a 'national question.' The citizens of the great Republic spoke confidently of the superior speed their vessels would attain; the best builders of ships and makers of marine engines were, they said, to be found in New York, and they were determined that the Hudson river should always be ahead of the rest of the world in the power and speed of its steam navy. A statement of the resources of New York gave good reason for this confident boasting. In that city the principal foundries, eight in number, where marine engines are constructed, employ about 3,675 men; at one, and that not the largest, 100 tons of iron are melted every month; and at another the value of the work sent out in 1849 was above a million of dollars, (£200,000;) while in one month of the past year there were in progress at the same establishment marine engines for eight vessels whose aggregate tonnage was 14,100. The performances of the Washington and Hermann were highly creditable to the skill of American engineers, and there seemed great probability that Britannia would not much longer 'rule the waves.' But, on the other hand, the feat which these American ships were expected to perform was of no ordinary difficulty. For ten years Cunard's line had navigated the Atlantic with a regularity and speed which it would be exceedingly difficult even to equal; and though the more powerful American ships might sail faster, was it to be expected that the builders and engineers of the Clyde, with Mr. Caird and Mr. Napier at their head, would be unable to maintain the superiority they had already acquired? The town where James Watt was born, and the river that received the first British steamboat, were not likely to resign without a struggle a pre-eminence acquired by so much labor and ingenuity.

While people were discussing the subject, and laying wagers on the voyages, the first of Collins' line, the Atlantic, sailed from New York on the 27th April. As the time of her arrival at Liverpool drew near, the interest felt by the people of that town in the voyage became intense. After the time occupied on the shortest run of any of the old vessels had expired, and no Atlantic had come up the Mersey, the partisans of the Clyde steamers took heart, and began to think that the competition was not to be so formidable after all. They were further confirmed in this idea when, on the thirteenth day after she had left New York, the Atlantic was telegraphed off Holyhead. For some time before her arrival a small tug steamer, with a number of commercial men and newspaper reporters on board, had been waiting in the Mersey, ready to steam out to meet the Atlantic. The sun was setting as this little steamer sailed, and night had come on before the Atlantic appeared in the river. As she came up, her great black hull looking blacker and larger in the darkness, she seemed less like a steamer made by human hands, and more like an island drifting in from the ocean. No entrance to the Liverpool docks was sufficiently wide to admit the Atlantic, and she and her contents had to lie in the river until a new dock that had been preparing for them, with entrance gates eighty feet wide, was finished. The length of the voyage of the Atlantic was accounted for by a detention of nearly two days, caused by accidents to the machinery. The Pacific, Arctic, and Baltic, have already crossed 'the big ferry,' and the Adriatic is expected to be ready for sea early in 1851.

Thus was commenced that rivalry which has made a gigantic race course of the Atlantic ocean—a race-course so long that the difference in the longitude of its termini makes a difference of nearly five hours in the time of day; and thus, while people at the American end are rising from their beds, those at the European have got through much of their day's work. The 'flying horse Childers,' and other notables of the turf, have done great deeds in their way, but they sink into utter insignificance compared with the performances of a steamer propelled by a power equal to that of a thousand horses, sailing three hundred miles each day over angry, restless waves, twenty-four, and sometimes forty-three feet high, chasing each other at a distance of about five hundred feet, and at a speed of more than thirty miles an hour. All the prizes of the turf are paltry compared with that for which these steamers are contending—the proud distinction of establishing the most speedy and safe communication between two great continents and two mighty nations. Hitherto the superiority has not been distinctly declared on either side, nor can any correct judgment be formed until at least a year has elapsed. The return of all the voyages made by steamers across the Atlantic during the six months of 1850, from April to October, the average being taken in each case, shows that the swiftest outward passage was that of the Pacific in September, when only 10 days 5 hours were occupied between Liverpool and New York; and the swiftest homeward that of the Asia, in 10 1/2 days between New York and Liverpool. The second six months (from October, 1850, to April, 1851) will in all probability show more favorably for the Cunard line, as the Cambria and Hibernia, two of the oldest, have both been withdrawn, and the Persia and Arabia, the two newest, will soon be placed on the route. The vessels of the Collins line have met with some accidents during the winter that will tell much against them when the year's work is summed up. The Pacific, in one of her outward voyages, ran short of coals, and had to put into a port before reaching New York, to obtain a fresh supply, by which a detention of some days was caused; and the Atlantic on her outward voyage, while in latitude 46° 12' north, and longitude 41° 30' west, or much more than half way across the Atlantic, broke on the morning of 6th January the centre beam or shaft of the engines, which consequently became useless. The vessel proceeded under canvas for five days, against heavy westerly gales, but finding that she made little way, the captain put the ship about, and ran for Cork, which was reached on the 22d January. The Cambria, belonging to the Cunard line, the only available steamer then in the Mersey, or perhaps in England, for Atlantic winter navigation, was immediately chartered to proceed to Cork, and carry the cargo, &c., of the Atlantic to America. We allude to this disaster simply as a fact; we would rather sympathize with the citizens of the United States, to whom it will doubtless cause much chagrin, than exult over it as a proof of the inferior skill of our transatlantic brethren. The accident proves very little, but it will doubtless be extensively used, or rather abused, by the partisans of the contending lines. Many people in New York seem to think that there is a feeling of hostility in the old country against these steamers, and complaints have already been made that justice has not been done to them by the British press. Never had complaints less foundation. As British citizens, we cannot prevent ourselves from wishing that in this great race British ships may win, but we are confident national feeling has been least obtruded, and there has been less boasting about the merits of the ships on this side of the Atlantic than on the other. We trust that the arrival of the Cambria at New York with the mails and cargo of the Atlantic will not only relieve the minds of many who must be fearing that the latter has met the same fate as the President, but will also convince them that the rivalry is prosecuted on our part in a generous and manly spirit.

ROUTE TO THE WEST INDIES AND SOUTH AMERICA.

The necessary result of the successful voyages of the Atlantic steamers, was the establishment of other lines of steam communication with countries beyond the sea. The value of our possessions in the West Indies, and the importance of our trade with the rich countries of South America, indicated very clearly the direction of the next Atlantic route. The postal communication with these countries was very defective. Even the best sailing vessels in the most favorable weather were four weeks on the voyage; and though the mails were despatched twice each month from England, yet the communication between the various islands and the American continent was neither regular nor certain. On 20th March, 1840, a contract was made between the Lords of the Admiralty and the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, in which the latter agreed 'to provide, maintain, and keep seaworthy, and in complete repair and readiness, for the purpose of conveying all her majesty's mails, a sufficient number of good, substantial, and efficient steam vessels, of such construction and strength as to be fit and able to carry guns of the largest calibre now used on board of her majesty's steam-vessels of war, each of such vessels to be always supplied with first rate appropriate steam engines of not less than four hundred collective horse-power, and also a sufficient number—not less than four—of good, substantial, and efficient sailing vessels, of at least one hundred tons burden each.' The steamers were to sail twice every month from some port in the British Channel to Barbadoes, and from thence the mails were to be distributed to the other islands and the continent. The total number of miles to be annually steamed was 684,816, and sailed 60,360—making altogether nearly three-quarters of a million, or not much less than thirty times the circumference of the globe. The contract was to be for ten years, to commence on 1st December, 1841. The company had thus less than two years to make preparations for an enterprise that was truly gigantic. Twenty ships, fourteen of these steamers of the largest class, had to be built, equipped, and manned by the most experienced officers and crews that could be obtained. Arrangements of a far more comprehensive and complex nature than were necessary for a voyage to Halifax or New York required to be made; for though the voyage across the ocean was in both cases equally easy, yet the branch-lines of communication necessary to accommodate so many different islands could only be successfully wrought by a rare union of skilful arrangement and efficient management, of which the history of steam navigation afforded neither an example nor a guide. The company, however, displayed so much activity that, though unable to commence the contract on the 1st December, 1841, it was begun only a month later—on the 1st January, 1842. Indeed, Sir George Cockburn, when holding office at the Admiralty, stated that even the government, with their great naval resources, could not have succeeded so well as this private company in getting so many large and new steamers ready for sea in the time.

The total cost of these ships was not much under a million sterling. The Forth started with the mails from Southampton, and arrived at St. Thomas, in the West Indies, after a voyage of seventeen days sixteen hours, returning home to Falmouth in eighteen days eight hours. During the whole of that year the voyages were performed with considerable regularity—some of the vessels taking only seventeen days on the outward run, and few occupying more than three weeks either on it or on the voyage home. From August, 1843, to August, 1849, out of one hundred and forty-seven mails that were despatched homewards by these vessels, one hundred and six arrived before and at the estimated time, and only forty-one arrived later than that period.

This company has sustained very heavy losses in performing the service. Six of their finest steamers have been entirely lost: the Solway on a dark night after leaving Corunna in Spain, where she had called to take in coal; the Forth and the Tees on the Alacranee rocks in the Gulf of Mexico: and the Actæon in rounding the point near Carthagena in the Gulf of Darien, on a shoal extending much farther than it had been laid down in the charts. The Isis, in attempting to enter San Juan in Porto Rico before daylight, ran ashore, but though subsequently got off, and repaired in Jamaica, foundered off Bermuda on her way home; and the Medina was lost in the night, on a reef at Turk's Island, north from San Domingo. All these accidents happened near the shore; on the high seas the vessels seem to have sustained no injury. The fleet of the company now consists of thirteen steamers, varying from 260 to 430 tons, though it will soon be augmented by the addition of larger and more powerful ships, now in course of construction.

The paddle-boxes of many of these vessels are so constructed that they can be used as boats if necessary. Several alterations have been made in the contract of this company and the routes pursued by the steamers. The scheme that came in force in January, 1851, establishes postal communication not only with the West Indies and Central America, but with South America as far as Buenos Ayres. The quantity of cargo carried by these steamers is about a hundred tons each voyage. Its nature will be best understood from the following specification of two cargoes brought to Southampton last year: The Trent arrived on 3d July, with specie to the value of £243,910; 47 serons of indigo; 6 bales tobacco; 16 bags coffee; 63 bales sarsaparilla; 30 casks ginger; 34 bags pimento; 43 packages arrowroot; 4 live turtle; and 72 packages sundries. The Great Western arrived 18th September, with specie to the value of £166,762; 283 serons cochineal; 68 cases of cigars; 138 bales tobacco; 20 live turtle; arrowroot and sundries. The number of passengers carried is very different at different seasons of the year. From October to January the vessels leaving England are usually crowded, and so are the vessels returning to England during the summer, before what are called the 'hurricane months' in the West Indies set in.

PACIFIC ROUTE.

Though not strictly in the order of time, the nature and importance of the routes on the Pacific ocean will be best understood after an account of those to the West Indies. The contract with the Pacific Steam Navigation Company came into force in 1846. The company possesses five steamers, the aggregate tonnage of which is about three thousand, and horse-power nine hundred and ninety-five. The mails are carried once a month from Panama to Valparaiso and back, calling at Guayaquil, the chief seaport of the republic of Ecuador (the Spanish name for equator;) Callao, the seaport of the large city of Lima; Arica, the outlet of a rich mining district of Peru; Copiapo and Coquimbo, also noted for their exports of silver, and at a number of ports of less note—thus establishing regular postal communication between all the civilized States of the western coast of South America. The history of this company affords an example of the necessity of a mail contract to make ocean steam navigation profitable. In 1840 the projector, Mr. Wheelwright, obtained from the local governments the exclusive privilege for ten years of conducting the steam communication along the coast, but during the five years that the company were without the mail contract the losses of the undertaking amounted to two-thirds of the paid-up capital.

To Panama these vessels convey very large quantities of specie, the produce of the world-renowned mines of Peru; and to the same port the American steamers bring from San Francisco the produce of the gold mines of California; and all this silver and gold crosses the isthmus, and is reshipped for Europe and the United States at Chagres. The value of the gold dust brought by the steamers from California to Panama, from 11th April, 1849, to 4th October, 1850, has been estimated at 25,000,000 of American dollars, or about £5,000,000, being equal to the total value of the produce of all the American mines, both of gold and silver, in 1833.

ROUTE TO THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

In July, 1850, the government advertised for tenders for conveying the mails monthly between England and the Cape of Good Hope, calling at Madeira, Sierra Leone, and St. Helena. The vessels were to be of not less than two hundred horse-power each, propelled by the screw, and to perform the voyage at a speed of not less than eight knots, or about nine miles an hour. This contract was obtained by the General Screw Steam Navigation Company, who have undertaken to perform the voyage at the rate of two hundred and twenty-three miles per day; the distance to be steamed is about 6,700 miles—so that the time occupied will be about a month. The first vessel, the Bosphorus, left Plymouth on the 18th December, 1850. On arriving at Madeira, the captain sent home extracts from the log, from which it appeared that in six days she ran 1,164 miles; on 24th December she ran two hundred and fifteen miles before a fresh 'nor-caster,' without using any steam whatever.

With the exception of the short route between Halifax and Bermuda, this is the only ocean route on which screw steamers are employed.

ROUTE TO THE EAST INDIES.

The Peninsular Steam Company, on the 22d August, 1837, entered into a contract with the government for carrying the mails weekly from Falmouth to Gibraltar, calling at Vigo, Oporto, Lisbon, and Cadiz. The advantages of the arrangement were soon apparent, for the vessels of the company brought in five days the mails that had previously sometimes been three weeks on the voyage. In 1839, the government being anxious still further to accelerate the Indian mail, requested the managers of the company to submit a plan for the attainment of that object. This was done. The company proposed to establish a line of large and powerful steamers of 450 horse-power, to run direct from England to Alexandria, calling only at Gibraltar and Malta, thus avoiding the inconvenience and delay of transferring the mails from one packet to another, and rendering the communication by Gibraltar nearly as speedy as that through France. The government adopted the plan. The company procured two large vessels, originally named the United States and the Liverpool, and intended for Atlantic navigation; but which were increased in dimensions, and their names altered to the Oriental and the Great Liverpool, and with them and two other smaller vessels the contract was begun in September, 1840.

The postal communication with India, so far as regarded the route between England and Egypt, having thus been made speedy and regular, a wish was naturally expressed that on the east side of the Isthmus of Suez the communication should be extended so as to embrace not Bombay alone, but Calcutta, Madras, Ceylon, and China. After considerable negotiation, a contract was entered into with the Peninsular and Oriental Company, by which that company undertook to convey the mails from Suez to Ceylon, and from thence northwards to Madras and Calcutta, and eastwards to Penang, Singapore, and Hong Kong. This contract was commenced on the 1st January, 1845, by the three fine steamers, the Bentinck, Hindostan, and Precursor, of about 2,000 tons burden each and 800 horse-power. Thus, in less than ten years from its first establishment, this company, which originally sent its steamers no further than Gibraltar, was navigating the Mediterranean, the Red sea, and the Indian ocean, connecting the European shore of the Atlantic with the Asiatic shore of the Pacific, and conducting a constant communication between England and China. The rapidity with which this service is performed may be judged of from the fact that, on the 5th August, 1850, the company's steamer, Pekin, delivered the mails at Hong Kong, containing letters which only fifty-five days, or less than two months, before had been written at New York. These letters, after crossing the Atlantic, had passed through Liverpool, London, Paris, Marseilles, and Malta, Alexandria and Cairo, to Suez, where they were placed on board the Oriental, which conveyed them down the Red sea and across the Indian ocean to Ceylon, where they were transferred to the Pekin, and by her conveyed, after calling at Penang and Singapore, to their final destination. The distance travelled by these letters was more than half the circumference of the globe. Such feats of science and energy will soon teach us to regard without wonder deeds of which even the glowing imagination of Eastern story-tellers did not dare to dream.

The fleet possessed by this company consists of twenty-five vessels, of which fourteen have been built in the Clyde, five in the Mersey, and six in the Thames.

PROPOSED ROUTES.

No one can suppose that British and American enterprise will pause until these ocean routes have completely encircled the globe. The settlers in Australia and New Zealand have greater claims to the benefits of steam communication with England than the people of Valparaiso or Buenos Ayres, to whom these benefits have already been extended. While the merchants at Canton are reading New York letters only fifty-five days old, the merchants of London are not likely to allow their letters from Sydney to linger twice that time on a journey of nearly the same length. Of 520 ships that sailed from this country to Sydney during the last ten years, the greater number took from 121 to 130 days on the passage; and considering that the inhabitants of Australia and New Zealand are now about 320,000, that they consume British goods to the value of about £10 per head annually, and live under British rule and protection, it is absolutely necessary that a more speedy communication than this should be established between them and the mother country. To effect this object, three routes have been proposed.

First, by the Isthmus of Panama, from the terminus of the West India route across the Pacific to the Galapagos Islands, thence to Tahiti, and so on to Sydney. The distance to be steamed, with only two stoppages, would be about 7,970 miles; but the present traffic on this route renders its adoption in the meantime quite impracticable.

Second, by the Cape of Good Hope, across the Indian ocean to Cape Leeuwin, in Western Australia, and thence touching at Adelaide, through Bass's Straits, to Sydney. The run from the cape to the most westerly point of Australia would be through more than ninety degrees of longitude, or about 8,000 miles. It is difficult to see how this long distance could be traversed, even by screw steamers, using both sails and steam, in time short enough to justify the adoption of the route.

Third, by a branch from the Oriental route, either at Penang or Singapore, the distance from the former to Sydney, by Torres' Straits, being about 5,000, and from the latter about 4,500 miles. This route would be among the East India islands, and nearly 2,000 miles of it would be along the Australian coast, so that it would be easy to arrange for fresh supplies of coal. This route has received the largest share of favorable attention from the public, and would have been opened ere now but for certain unexpected difficulties. The Oriental Company offered to open a monthly postal communication between Singapore and Sydney, on condition that the service between Bombay and Suez, and the service performed by Admiralty vessels in the Mediterranean, were transferred to them. They further proposed to establish new lines of steamers between Bombay and Singapore, Calcutta and Penang, Singapore and Hong Kong, and to run their vessels twice a month from Southampton to Alexandria, so that there would be a regular fortnightly communication with India and China, and monthly with Australia.

Efforts are also being made to diminish the time occupied on the route to the United States. One would have supposed that men would have been satisfied with crossing the Atlantic in ten days; but human desires appear insatiable. A commission is now collecting evidence as to the fitness of some Irish port for the transatlantic steamers. Again: there can be little doubt that at no distant day the Pacific will be as effectually bridged over as the Atlantic. Already the Americans at San Francisco, like the Spaniards of old at Darien, are gazing wistfully over the ocean to China and the East, and nursing great projects, which they will not allow to rest as idle dreams. A bill is now (January, 1851) before Congress, having for its object the establishment of a line of mail steamers between San Francisco and Macao, calling at the Sandwich Islands, Shanghai, Amoy, and Hong Kong. In all probability this measure will be carried out with that dauntless energy which characterizes the American people. The circle will then be complete—

'The new world will launch forth to meet the old;'

And the young civilization of the West will infuse its vigor and energy into the old civilization of the East, with results that will be felt and seen to the latest period of the history of mankind.

* The exact figures were as follows:
Europe	£18,977,416
Africa	1,501,712
Asia	5,915,205
Australia	835,637
British North America	2,732,291
do West Indies	3,786,453
Foreign, do	1,238,785
United States of America	12,425,605
Rest of America	5,636,859
Channel Islands and Man	318,609