CHAPTER XI.
Changes produced by the opening of the Suez Canal—Sailing fruit-clippers—Introduction of steamers into the Mediterranean trade, 1840—Establishment of various steam lines, 1850—That of Messrs. Frederick Leyland and Co., &c.—Their fleets—Messageries Maritimes Company—Its origin and management—First contract for the conveyance of the oversea French mails, 1851—Extension of contracts, 1854-56—Brazil line, 1857—Vast extent of its fleet—Largest vessels—Trade viâ the Suez Canal—Presumed advantage of auxiliary engines—Not borne out by the results—Conveyance of the Australian mails—Peculiar conditions of contracts—Failure of the service—Stringent penalties—Australian steam services—Mr. Alfred Holt’s line of steamers to China—Its success—Messrs. Gellatly, Hankey, and Company—Messrs. Green and Company—Messrs. Rathbone Brothers—Messrs. George Smith and Sons—Letter from Mr. George Smith—Messrs. Smiths’ ships and their voyages to and from India—Changes in the mode of conducting commerce with India and China—Number of vessels through Suez Canal since its opening, and their nationality.
Changes produced by the opening of the Suez Canal.
Not the least interesting of the many changes in maritime commerce brought about by the opening of the Suez Canal, has been the restoration, though as yet to a limited extent, of the earliest commercial intercourse recorded in history between the Mediterranean and the once far East, and of the trade the merchants of the Levant and the Adriatic carried on with India by the agency of the Muhammedans in Egypt during the Middle Ages.
Directed to a different route by the re-discovery of the passage to the Eastern world by way of the Cape of Good Hope, this ever envied trade has, since the close of the fifteenth century, been conducted as we have seen from the Atlantic and northern ports of Europe, and during more recent years, from those of Great Britain. Consequently, the vessels belonging to the Mediterranean ports have been obliged to seek other and much less remunerative employment, which, since the decline of the great Italian Republics, has dwindled into comparative insignificance. Nor has the Mediterranean trade itself occupied a position of any importance during the last three centuries, indeed it has only revived since steam-vessels have given new life to those inland seas, which, throughout all time, have been so familiar to the mariner. It has been, hence, confined chiefly to that carried on between the inhabitants of the different countries bordering on the shores of the Mediterranean and Black Seas, who, having little or no encouragement to export their surplus produce to other nations, never thought of employing vessels of a superior class to those which for ages had sufficed for their coasting trades.
Sailing fruit-clippers.
The first measure, which gave renewed existence to the maritime commerce of these peoples, was the repeal of the British corn laws, encouraging, as this did to an extent hitherto unknown, the importation of wheat from the ever luxuriant lands of Egypt, and from the numerous corn-growing countries bordering the shores of the Black Sea, the Marmora, and the steppes of Russia. Soon afterwards, the repeal of the duties on the fruits grown in such rich abundance in the islands of the Levant and along the coasts of the Mediterranean, gave new life to another branch of trade which had long lain dormant, and, while the former afforded greatly increased employment to the ships of all nations, the latter encouraged the production of vessels so superior to those previously in use, as, in speed, to outrival the once celebrated Baltimore clippers.
Introduction of steamers into the Mediterranean trade, 1840.
Curiously enough, however, the introduction of these fast fruit schooners, seldom exceeding in size 200 tons register, retarded the introduction of steamers to the trade of the Mediterranean till a much later period than would otherwise have been the case, considering their early and rapid extension in all other branches of commerce. Growers and merchants engaged in the fruit trade, as was the case with the shippers of tea from China at a still later period, were under the impression that steam would injure the flavour of their fruits; hence, for a time, declined to ship their produce in vessels propelled otherwise than by sails. They likewise preferred to export their raisins, figs, and currants in small quantities, convinced that they would thus obtain higher prices and a readier market, and consequently engaged vessels of 80 and 100 tons rather than those of greater dimensions. Many of my readers cannot fail to recollect the fleets of beautiful small Mediterranean clippers which were wont to crowd our docks at certain seasons of the year. Moreover, as these vessels made their voyages with extraordinary rapidity and regularity, the inducements to employ vessels propelled by steam were less urgent than in most other branches of trade.
Establishment of various steam lines, 1850.
Although steamers occasionally visited the Mediterranean, it was not till 1840 that any attempt was made to establish a line or succession of voyages in the trade with Great Britain, much less among the islands of the Levant, and along the shores of the Black Sea and the Adriatic. Among the earliest attempts may be mentioned that of the Rattler, of 350 tons and 50 horse-power, despatched by Messrs. Vivian, Jones, and Chapple, of Liverpool. About 1840 the Peninsular Company also extended the operations of their steamers to Malta and Alexandria, and soon afterwards to Corfu, the Levant, and Constantinople. In 1845 Mr. A. Mongredian, of Liverpool, attempted to establish a regular line between that port and the Levant with the steamers Osmanli and Levantine, but being unsuccessful, they were transferred in 1849 to Messrs. McKean, McLarty, and Lamont, who employed them between Liverpool, Marseilles, Genoa, Leghorn, Naples, Messina, Palermo, and the Adriatic, where they appear to have yielded more remunerative returns.
That of Messrs. Frederick Leyland and Co., &c.
From about this period, steam in those trades, as it has done everywhere else, made its way when fairly established; and, afterwards, increased with extraordinary rapidity, affording greatly improved facilities for the development of ancient branches of maritime commerce, which had long lain dormant, as well as for the creation of others hitherto unknown. Various associations and companies were now formed to carry on the trade of those inland seas by means of steam-vessels from both London and Liverpool. Among the most important belonging to Great Britain, were the lines of steamers sent forth by Messrs. Bibby, Sons, and Company, now Messrs. Frederick Leyland and Company, and by Messrs. Burns and McIver; while the Austrian Lloyd’s Steam Navigation Company trading from Trieste, and the French Messageries Maritimes from Marseilles, were the chief foreign undertakings established to carry on the coasting trade in which the protective character of the Austrian and French navigation laws conferred on them exclusive privileges.
S. S. “BAVARIAN.”
Their fleets.
In the trade from Liverpool, including the Peninsular service, Messrs. Frederick Leyland and Company alone now employ no less than twenty-three large iron steamers, seventeen of them varying in size from 1500 to 3000 tons gross register, bound direct to the Mediterranean ports. These are all propelled by the screw, and are surprising specimens of purely cargo steamers. In this respect, considering their capacity in proportion to their admeasurement, tonnage, and small current expenses, these vessels are, perhaps, unsurpassed by any steam-ships afloat. For instance, the Bavarian, of which an illustration may be seen on the previous page, takes 4800 tons of cargo exclusive of her coal bunkers, though of only 3052 tons gross register, and is navigated by the comparatively small number of forty-eight persons all told.[360] The steamers of this firm and of Messrs. Burns and McIver, as well as those of various other companies, now run in regular lines from London, Liverpool, and elsewhere, to the numerous ports of the Mediterranean, Levant, Adriatic, and Black Sea.
Gibbon, in his brilliant description of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, speaks of the terror of its Senators lest the supply of corn should fail in meeting the requirements of the once all-powerful capital, and create, as usual, violent tumults among the people; but, with the fleet alone of Messrs. Leyland and Company at their command, all apprehension on this score would have vanished, as either of the three vessels I have mentioned could, with the present appliances for loading and discharge, have transported from Egypt to Rome in the course of twelve months, no less than 500,000 quarters, or 4,000,000 bushels, while the whole fleet could have taken 10,000,000 quarters, had Egypt been able to produce within the year that quantity of grain. Such are a few of the changes the application of the motive power of steam has produced within our own time.
Messageries Maritimes Company.
But much the largest maritime undertaking engaged in the trade of the Mediterranean and elsewhere, is that of the Messageries Maritimes, recently the Messageries Imperiales, monopolizing, as this does, nearly the whole of the steam tonnage of France. Indeed, apart from the vessels owned by this association, and one or two other highly subsidized shipping companies in that country, the French may be said to have no steamers.[361] Their protective policy, combined with the depressing influence which large grants of public money to special undertakings must ever exercise on individual energy, has effectually overpowered all private enterprise of this description. It may be true, as has been frequently alleged, that the French people have no natural aptitude for maritime pursuits, and that their children, who are not employed in their vineyards, or in the manufacture of those special articles for which they have long been celebrated, take naturally to the fife and the drum with somewhat of the same avidity that the boys of England seek enjoyment in navigation; but, certain it is that, owing to restrictive laws and enormous subsidies to favoured individuals, the French people, generally, have never yet been allowed the opportunity of showing what they could do in the peaceful paths of maritime commerce.
Its origin and management.
The Messageries Maritimes, their greatest shipping undertaking, though exceedingly well managed, is after all, a pure creation of the Government—one, too, nursed with the greatest care from its infancy, and maintained throughout by large grants from the public purse, which were materially increased on the accession of the third Napoleon to the Throne of France, who, throughout the whole of his reign, displayed a marked anxiety to promote and encourage maritime undertakings. Previously, indeed, to 1851, the company had been chiefly engaged as carriers by land, and was under contract for the conveyance of the mails throughout a considerable portion of France.
First contract for the conveyance of the oversea French mails, 1851.
In July of that year this company entered upon its first oversea contract with Government for the conveyance of the French Mails to Italy, the Levant, Greece, Egypt, and Syria, and in 1852 spontaneously added to their services the principal ports of Greece and Salonica.[362]
Extension of contracts, 1854-56.
In 1854, the managers of the Messageries Company concluded arrangements with the Minister of War for the transport of all troops and military stores between France and Algeria, besides the conveyance of the mails, and, having very materially increased their fleet owing to the requirements of the Crimean campaign, they were, in 1855, enabled to open between Marseilles, Civita Vecchia, and Naples, a direct weekly line of steamers, independently of the postal service, principally intended to meet the requirements necessary to be maintained between the War Department and the army of occupation at Rome.
Brazil line, 1857.
When the Crimean War happily came to a close, and the military lines of steamers to the Black Sea were no longer necessary, the directors, in 1856, employed their disposable vessels in increasing the frequency of services to Algeria, and in establishing a postal service between Marseilles and the ports of the Danube and along the east coast of the Black Sea, for which they obtained a contract from Government in 1857. In that year they, likewise, entered into arrangements for the conveyance of the French mails between Bordeaux, the Brazils, and La Plata.
Vast extent of its fleet.
The fleet of the Messageries Company had now reached fifty-four ships of 80,875 tons, and 15,240 horse-power, afloat or in course of construction, evidently more than they could profitably employ: they, therefore, applied for and obtained from their Government, in 1861, a contract for the conveyance of the French mails to India and China, requiring for this purpose only an additional steamer. But the increase of trade to the East, brought about in no small degree by the increased facilities and by an anxious desire on the part of the company to meet the wants of the travellers of all nations, very soon enabled the directors to double the services of their steamers to the East. In 1871 their fleet measuring 137,334 tons, of 20,885 horse-power, performed services on the India and China routes of 230,135 French leagues; on the Mediterranean and Black Sea, 153,478; and, on the Brazilian, 50,004: in all, 423,607 leagues annually, independently of various extra services. Since then their Brazilian and La Plata lines have been doubled, and now (1875) the company employs 175,000 tons of steam-ships, besides chartering numerous sailing-vessels.[363]
When first the Messageries Company became carriers by sea, they had nearly all their vessels built in England, but they now possess large establishments of their own, where they construct screw-steamers of iron, rivalling in most respects, and very much resembling those of, the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, of which I have furnished an illustration.
Largest vessels.
Their two largest ships employed in the trade with India and China are the Anadyr and the Irawaddy, of 3671 and 3471 tons gross register respectively, and each of 600 nominal horse-power. The other sixteen vessels in that service range from 3017 tons and 500 horse-power, down to 1035 tons and 280 horse-power. Their six steamers employed on the Brazilian and River Plate line are from 3417 tons and 600 horse-power, to 2115 tons and 400 horse-power, while the thirty-five engaged in the Mediterranean and Black Sea services range from 2524 tons and 500 horse-power to 430 tons and 160 horse-power. They have also three steamers of 1500 tons and 250 horse-power engines on the compound principle trading between London and Marseilles, and four magnificent screw-steamers in course of construction, each of 4000 tons and 600 horse-power.
The trade of this large Company now embraces all the chief ports of the Mediterranean and Black Sea, and those of India, China, Java, and Japan, as well as of Algeria and the Brazils; and the excellent manner in which the different lines are conducted and navigated by Frenchmen is the best answer that can be given to the old saying that the French never were and never will be a maritime people. That they do not equal the English on the ocean is likely enough, nevertheless that they would become much greater as shipowners than they now are there can be little doubt, were they governed by wise laws and left to depend upon their own energy and resources rather than on government grants. Throughout all time “protective” laws seem to have retarded the natural development of commerce, as they have been too frequently the ruin of nations as well as of individuals.
Trade viâ the Suez Canal.
The ships of the Messageries Maritimes Company, like those of their great competitors for the trade of the East, the Peninsular and Oriental Company, now pass through the Suez Canal. But, besides these two companies, the former of which receives nearly double the amount of subsidy of the other,[364] there are now numerous other steam lines following the same route, all bidding for the ever envied trade of the once mysterious Cathay; and these have increased enormously since the waters of the Red Sea, passing through the desert, mingled with those of the Mediterranean.
Hitherto steam to India by the way of the Cape of Good Hope has proved an unprofitable undertaking: nor, with all the improvements tending towards increased economy on the one hand, and greater capacity for cargo on the other, does it offer many more inducements now, than it did when the Enterprize first found her way to Calcutta.
Nor, indeed, has any better success attended steam navigation undertakings to the distant colonies of Australia. From the time that the trade with India was thrown open, sailing-ships thither, as well as to Australia, have been the chief means of transport, and these still carry by far the largest proportion of the goods traffic, though first-class passengers prefer the more expeditious overland routes: but steam-boats, even though largely subsidized, especially to India by the way of the Cape, have found it impossible to compete successfully with the sailing-ships of Messrs. Green of Blackwall, Messrs. T. and W. Smith, and other private shipowners long engaged in the trade.
The two steam companies, formed nearly simultaneously about the year 1852 to run viâ the Cape of Good Hope: one, the General Screw Steam Company to Calcutta and intermediate Indian ports; and the other, the Australian Royal Mail Steam Company, though each received large grants of public money, alike proved signal failures. Nor can the failure of these undertakings be altogether attributed to mismanagement. A good deal of it was, doubtless, due to the description of vessels employed, and to their unsuitability for the services undertaken, but still more to the fact that neither auxiliary steam-ships, nor full-powered steamers, have hitherto been profitable on distant voyages.
Presumed advantage of auxiliary engines.
About that period many shipowners were under the impression that full-rigged ships, such as the Massachusetts, with an auxiliary steam-engine, to be used only in calms and light winds, would in themselves combine all the best qualities of a sailing-ship and steamer: nor was this surprising. On the voyage, for instance, from England to India a sailing-vessel during the favourable trade winds and monsoons, which can always be depended upon for a considerable part of the voyage, would, under sail alone, make almost as much progress as a steamer; while, in the calms, which are invariably met with for from five to ten degrees on each side of the Equator, and, where sailing-vessels frequently are long detained, the small steam-engine could be applied to great advantage; as also on entering as well as on leaving harbours. Indeed, so strongly impressed was I with the value of auxiliary steam-vessels for distant voyages, that, in 1856, I undertook, even after these failures, to convey in seven such steamers, three-fourths of which belonged to myself, the monthly mails, within a given time, between London, the Cape of Good Hope, Mauritius, Ceylon, Madras, and Calcutta.
The vessels thus employed were built entirely of iron, and ship-rigged, as may be seen by the following illustration of one of them; more fully so, in proportion to their size, than those of the General Screw Company, and, as their engines were only from 80 to 120 horse-power nominal, on a tonnage of from 800 to 1500 tons gross, they were purely auxiliary vessels. Under sail their speed was from 10 to 11 knots, with a favourable wind, and, under steam alone, from 6 to 7 knots an hour in light breezes or calms, but, in adverse winds, they made little or no progress, a fact arising in great measure from their small steam-power and from the resistance their heavy spars presented to the winds: consequently, though they met with no accidents, and were more to be depended upon, as to time, than ordinary sailing-vessels, they could not maintain the regularity essential for the mail service; so, after twelve months’ experience, I relinquished the undertaking.
AUXILIARY STEAMER TO CAPE AND INDIA.
Since that time no mails have been carried in any description of steam-vessels from England to ports eastward of the Cape of Good Hope by the Atlantic sea route, except it may be to Natal, and occasionally to the Mauritius, or to Zanzibar on the east coast of Africa.
Not borne out by the results.
In full powered steamers the space required for coals and machinery on these distant oversea voyages, over and above their first cost and current expenses, prevent them carrying cargo sufficient to afford remunerative returns, and their owners are not recouped by the extra rates of freight obtainable for the time saved on the voyages. In the case of the auxiliary steamers the results are the same, arising in a great measure from similar causes, for, though such vessels had greater space for cargo, yet the advantage thus gained is counterbalanced by the maintenance of a staff of engineers and firemen who, during the greater portion of the voyage are unemployed, and by the fact already stated that, though the auxiliary engine is valuable in calms, it has not power enough to be of service against strong and adverse winds. As a rule, therefore, it is in most cases more profitable to employ either a steamer with only light spars and a few fore and aft sails, or a full-rigged vessel which depends entirely upon her sails. Anything between the two has not hitherto been found to answer so well, though there may be exceptions depending on the trade in which such vessels are employed.
Conveyance of the Australian mails.
From the time of the opening of the overland route, all the mails to the East Indies have passed through Egypt, except those despatched by the two lines of auxiliary steamers round the Cape of Good Hope, to which I have just referred; and even by these vessels few or no letters were sent except to the intermediate ports; but, for many years after the overland route had been opened, the British mails to Australia and New Zealand were conveyed almost entirely by sailing-vessels, except during the two or three years the Australian Royal Mail Steam Packet Company carried on its operations. When the steamers of that company were unable any longer to continue the service, the Peninsular and Oriental Company undertook, as we have seen, the conveyance of these, the more important mails by way of Ceylon; but, when the service was relinquished for a time, as some of their steamers were required as transports for the Crimean War, the conveyance of the whole of the Australian mails, greatly to the annoyance and discomfort of the colonists, reverted again to sailing-vessels.
To obviate as far as practicable the delay and uncertainty in the time of the delivery of the letters, Government, instead of contracting for their conveyance by any one line of sailing-vessels, considered it expedient to throw the contracts open to the competition of all suitable vessels engaged in the trade with Australia. But this, too, was merely an experiment, and one which proved alike unsatisfactory to the public and Government. It was tried, however, for a year or more and, as it so happened, the trial was made just between the time when the steamers of the General Screw Company and those of the Australian Royal Mail Company had ceased to run, and of my own experiment with the Cape and Indian mail services.
Peculiar conditions of contracts.
To insure speed and, if possible, regularity, the Post Office authorities stipulated that from the amount to be paid to each ship thus employed, there should be deducted a penalty of 20l. for every day’s delay in the delivery of the letters beyond the time specified in the tender. Instead of leaving the sum, as had hitherto been and now is the invariable practice, to be named by the person who tendered, Government fixed it at 1000l. for the passage, accepting the offer which contained the fewest number of days for the performance of the service. Thus, a shipowner who could reckon with tolerable certainty, that his vessel would make the voyage to Australia in 100 days, which most first-class ships could do, might safely tender to do it in, say, seventy-seven days, because after the deduction of the 20l. per day for the twenty-three days in excess, he would have a balance of 540l. to receive (besides other advantages which “mail-packets” derived), and as that sum would further cover an additional excess of twenty-seven days, or say altogether fifty days beyond the time contracted for, the speculation was an exceedingly safe one to a sailing-ship, even if the tender were made for the shortest time in which the fastest steamer had been known to accomplish the voyage. Hence this system of tender proved altogether illusory as regarded the securing a rapid communication. The very first ship, the Stratford, despatched under the new arrangement, occupied on her outward passage a period of thirty-seven days in excess of the time stipulated!
Failure of the service.
Stringent penalties.
If the colonists had been loud in their previous complaints they were still more so now; but the Treasury and Post Office authorities, considering that they had done their best to secure speed, were, for a time, immovable and indisposed to make any further experiments. Steamers and sailing-vessels on so distant a voyage having alike failed, Government thought there was now a good answer to all complaints, and, consequently, treated them with indifference. They argued, referring to the then recent failure of the Australian Royal Mail Packet Company, that, as the steam-vessels between England and Sydney had varied from seventy-six to 120 days, while the length of passage by fast sailing-ships between England and Port Phillip was from eighty-two to 110 days, the difference was not really of any serious disadvantage. Nevertheless, while Government refused increased grants for the conveyance of the mails, it adopted and enforced much more rigorous penalties[365] against owners of sailing-ships to ensure a more speedy performance of the mail services. This fresh experiment, however, from its extreme rigour also failed, and some time elapsed before the colonists obtained what they had long demanded, a direct and independent line of steam-vessels by way of Suez and Ceylon; and that, as we have seen, proved in the hands of the European and Australian Steam Navigation Company the most signal failure of all the experiments which had been made.
Australian steam services.
Among the instances where anything like success has attended steam voyages direct to Australia, may be mentioned the services performed by Messrs. Gibbs, Bright, and Company, in their steamship Great Britain from Liverpool, and in the steamers belonging to Messrs. Money Wigram and Sons, of London, which now trade to these colonies. Occasionally other steamers are despatched to Australia and also to New Zealand, and recently a company was formed—the Australian Direct Steam Navigation Company—with the intention of maintaining a regular monthly line from London to Melbourne, calling at Falmouth, the projectors anticipating the performances of the passage in “under forty-five days.” But though this undertaking failed at the outset, and experience can alone test the realization of the sanguine expectations of its promoters, it may be said in favour of their views, that the difficulties previous pioneers of steam-vessels on long oversea voyages have had to encounter are being rapidly surmounted by the new compound engines, where the consumption of coals required to attain a given speed is not one-half of what it was twenty years ago.
Mr. Alfred Holt’s line of steamers to China.
So far as regards the trade with India and China by way of the Cape of Good Hope, the steam-line started by Mr. Alfred Holt of Liverpool in 1865 is the only one within my recollection, which has hitherto proved successful. Though the steamers of this line now proceed to China by the Suez Canal, their performances were remarkable when engaged in the former route. Starting from Liverpool they never stopped till they reached Mauritius, a distance of 8500 miles, being under steam the whole way, a feat hitherto considered impossible; thence they proceeded to Penang, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Shanghai, and, though unaided by any government grants, performed these distant voyages with extraordinary regularity.
In forwarding the particulars of his first three vessels, Mr. Holt[366] remarks: “Since the Suez Canal was opened I have found that the square sails of the Agamemnon, Ajax, and Achilles[367] were of little use, and, therefore, I have converted these three ships into what the Americans call ‘barquentine rig’ (i.e. no square yards on mainmast), and have constructed all my new ships with pole-masts only.”
Its success.
These three vessels are each 2270 tons gross or 1550 net register, with engines of 300 nominal horse-power.[368] Messrs. Holt have also eleven other steamers, similar in size and power, at present engaged in trade with the East, and three more in course of construction, besides a tug-steamer of 350 tons to attend on them in their passage through the Suez Canal. They carry goods right through to Penang, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Shanghai, calling at Galle and Amoy, or other ports in the Eastern seas when required; and one is struck with the low rates at which goods are now conveyed[369] to India and China compared with the freights charged by the sailing-vessels of the old East India Company, together with the wonderful regularity and expedition[370] with which they are delivered.
Although the fleet of this spirited undertaking is known as the Ocean Steam-ship Company, it is neither a public nor a limited company, the vessels being owned in shares under the old law by a few individuals (like many others of a similar description in this country), but chiefly by the managing owners, Mr. Alfred and his brother Mr. Philip H. Holt, whose thorough business habits have materially promoted the success of the company.
Messrs. Gellatly, Hankey, and Company.
It would be impossible to notice within the limits of this work the different lines of steam-ships now trading to the East by way of the Suez Canal. Among the most conspicuous, however, may be mentioned those of Messrs. Gellatly, Hankey, Sewell, and Company, London, which, from the order and regularity of their despatch, bid fair to rival the subsidized companies. Many of the vessels under their agency belong to Messrs. Thomas Wilson, Sons, and Company, of Hull, long known as large owners of vessels trading from that place to various ports in the Baltic, but who, since the opening of the Suez Canal, have established a line of very fine steam-ships from London to India.
Their Hindoo for instance, of 3257 tons gross register, has capacity for about 3500 tons weight, “including coals in bunkers, and from 80 to 120 passengers,” for whom accommodation is provided “amidships, a method which has apparently given great satisfaction to those who have been travellers by them.”
Another line of steamers under the management of the same firm run in connection with the British India Steam Navigation Company, taking passengers and mails to Columbia, Madras, and Calcutta, with branch steamers from Aden to Zanzibar on the one hand, and to Karáchí and the Persian Gulf on the other.
Foreign nations have likewise taken advantage of the opening of the Suez Canal to run lines of steam-ships to the East; and, besides the French Messageries Maritimes, there are the Austrian Lloyd’s Company of Trieste, and the Rubbotino Company of Genoa, respectively supported by the Austrian and Italian Governments, each running a fortnightly line to Bombay during the four best passenger months of the year, namely, from January to April, and despatching their ships every month during the remaining portion of the year.
Messrs. Green and Company.
There is also the “Ducal” line from London, running in connection with the old and celebrated sailing-vessels belonging to Messrs. Green, of Blackwall, which is still maintained; and the “Queen” and “City” lines of steamers direct to Calcutta,[371] as well as various other similar private undertakings. Nor is Liverpool behind the capital in its race by way of the Suez Canal, for that far-famed trade which the Phœnicians, Romans, Venetians, Portuguese, Dutch, and English alike, in turn, have envied and expended untold millions to maintain.
Messrs. Rathbone Brothers.
As a specimen of the ordinary first-class merchant steamers now trading between Liverpool and Calcutta, I may instance one of the vessels belonging to Messrs. Rathbone Brothers, of that place. She is of 2610 tons gross and 1682 tons net register, and has capacity for 2200 tons of cargo, besides 450 tons of coal.[372] She is rigged merely with poles (a mode of rig now becoming very general in all steam-vessels), on which, with the exception of one fore-square sail, a few fore and aft sails alone can be set. The owners remark the “best passages of our ships as yet are as follows:—Liverpool to Calcutta (viâ Gibraltar) to Saugar (near Calcutta), thirty-one days, including all stoppages; Calcutta to London (viâ Galle and of course Suez Canal) to Nore light-ship, thirty-four days thirteen hours, steaming time on the whole voyage (exclusive of Suez Canal and stoppages) sixty-one days twelve hours. The best homeward passage hitherto made by any of our ships, landing cargo at Colombo and Port Said, occupied thirty-three days seventeen hours, inclusive of all stoppages.”
From these and previous figures, my readers will more fully understand the progress that has been made in our ordinary trading communications with India and China, since the days of the East India Company, and ascertain what has been gained, since then in the speed, capacity, and current expenses of our merchant-ships.
Messrs. George Smith and Sons.
In further illustration of the progress made in our own time I cannot do better than furnish my readers with a letter I received (January 1875) from Mr. George Smith, of Glasgow.
Indeed, this letter contains in itself a history of the rise of the merchant-vessels of Great Britain during the period to which Mr. Smith refers, and marks the different stages of progress and the means whereby we have been enabled not merely to maintain, but to surpass, in maritime supremacy, all nations. It, likewise, illustrates how individuals (for the case of Messrs. George Smith and Sons is no exception to the general rule, though their operations may be on a more extensive scale than those of most other shipowners) have, since they have been relieved from the trammels of protection and been left to exercise as they deem best their own genius and industry, more than kept pace with other branches of commerce by the improvement and increase of their ships.
“Our first purchase,” Mr. Smith states in his letter, “was a small colonial barque in 1840, which was followed shortly thereafter by the purchase of a barque of 346 tons, in course of construction, and a ship of 500 tons then nearly in frame, both being of the ten years class.
“The first ship which we contracted for and had built to our own specification was the Majestic, launched in 1846. Our second, the City of Glasgow, was built at Kelvinhaugh, and launched in 1848. While she was on the stocks, the bounds of the municipality of Glasgow as a city had been extended to the junction of the Kelvin and Clyde westwards, and thus embraced the shipyard in which she was built. Our late Mr. R. Smith was then a magistrate of the city of Glasgow, and this being the first ship built in the extended royalty, we reckoned no name could be more appropriate, and, as other ships came into existence, we still kept the City,[373] and merely added a name in future designations.
“When we commenced the trade, we employed the regular brokers for loading outwards, and had every reason to be satisfied with the attention paid to our interests by the gentleman who did our business, but the practice, which then obtained here, of laying a ship on the berth and allowing her to lie till nearly loaded before naming the sailing date, and that date, when named, frequently not adhered to, we felt very annoying, not only as keeping back shipments but as sending goods to Liverpool which should have gone from this direct. Our rule was to have our dates of sailing definitely fixed. Only one firm, however, in the trade held the same view with ourselves, and feeling the annoyance, they and we resolved on starting a monthly line to Calcutta. Together we had not so many vessels as were required to keep up the monthly conveyance, but we resolved to add to our tonnage and make up for the then deficiency by chartering so far as necessary. We had made a special stipulation that our broker should still act for our ships, and also for those that it might fall to our lot to charter. When this proposal was submitted to him we were surprised to find that he declined very decidedly to have anything to do with the arrangement—that his lengthened experience in the trade satisfied him that it would prove a failure—and he was therefore not prepared to allow his name to be associated with it; but he lived long enough to find he had been mistaken.
Messrs. Smiths’ ships, and their voyages to and from India.
“Having experienced the difficulty arising from brokers acting to-day for a party who adhered to their date, and to-morrow for another who would not let their vessels go until filled, we at once decided on taking charge of the loading ourselves, which we still continue. After this we went on steadily increasing our fleet of sailing-ships until those afloat numbered thirty-five. Our last contract for a sailing-vessel was in September 1868.
“For several years, our operations were confined to Calcutta, but, in 1863, at the solicitation of several friends, we started a monthly line to Bombay, having in the meantime increased our sailings very materially to Calcutta as well. The following statement shows the number of voyages completed to each port in 1871, and is a fair estimate of the work of the previous eight years. We had, in fact, a virtual monopoly of the trade, gained by strict punctuality—a high class of ships and moderate charges, ever studying to arrange rates that our friends could not go past us to do better.[374]
“Our first iron ship was launched in 1856; our wooden ones were disposed of as opportunity offered, and, in 1868, only one of these remained, which we have since sold.
“We commenced steam in 1871, by contracting for four boats of 2250 tons gross, and about 1700 tons register, having compound engines of 200 horse-power, working up to 1000. The boilers have been a serious source of annoyance to us from the first. When all goes right, we get 9 to 9½ knots out of them, and make the passage (viâ Suez Canal) in thirty-nine days including stoppages; but the irregularity attending their working prevents us from giving you a list of their passages as desired; latterly, we have added two of a larger class and more power. These have been making the passages regularly in thirty-one to thirty-three days, and we anticipate equal results from other four now in course of construction.”
Changes in the mode of conducting commerce with India and China.
In the brief account thus given we have a condensed history of the changes and progress of the merchant ships of Great Britain during the last thirty-five years, so far as regards our trade with India. Step by step, they rise from wood to iron and increase in size from 350 to 1500 tons as sailing-ships, while these in turn are now being to a large extent supplanted by iron screw-steamers of from 2000 to 3000 tons and upwards. In most respects, the sailing-ships of Messrs. Smith and Son very much resemble the finest of the modern free-trade Indiamen, whereof a drawing has been furnished;[375] and their steam-ships are not unlike the more recent vessels of which various illustrations are given in these pages; their City of Oxford, for instance, of 2220 tons gross, carries 2500 tons of Calcutta cargo, besides 750 tons of coals in her bunkers; and she is navigated by forty-nine persons, comprising commander, surgeon, two officers, twenty seamen, seventeen men in the engineer’s department, and eight persons otherwise employed.[376]
Such are the vessels now carrying on the more valuable portion of our trade with India, through that great maritime highway, which the genius and industry of De Lesseps has so recently opened to our vast commerce with the far East, three-fourths of which, however, is still conducted by the way of the Cape of Good Hope.[377]
Number of vessels through Suez Canal since its opening, and their nationality.
In the Appendix to this volume[378] will be found an account of the vessels which have annually passed through the Suez Canal since that great undertaking was opened, specifying the different nations to which they belong. Some interesting and instructive facts may be gathered from these returns, especially with regard to the remarkably rapid growth of the traffic, increasing as this has done from 486 ships of 435,908 tons in 1870, to 1264 ships of 2,423,672 tons in 1874. Nor is it less worthy of notice that more than three-fourths of the whole of this tonnage belongs to Great Britain.[379]
Figures such as these may in some measure set at rest the fear long entertained that the opening of this canal would be prejudicial, in any material extent, to the interests of England, by diverting the course of commerce with India to its former European centres, and restoring the commercial greatness of Constantinople, Venice, Leghorn, Marseilles, Cadiz, and Lisbon. For, though these places cannot fail to be benefited to a greater or less extent, and they have already been so, by the re-opening of the ancient route, their superior position to that of the ports of Great Britain will be of little avail, till they adopt the policy pursued with so much success by this country. If they desire to secure that share of the commerce of India, to which from their natural position they may fairly consider themselves entitled, they must open their ports to the ships of all nations, sweep away their differential and protective duties, establish docks and bonding warehouses, and offer to the traders of the world equal facilities for obtaining whatever description of its assorted produce they may require for their varied wants. The mere fact of being a few days nearer Calcutta or Bombay will otherwise avail them little, distance in itself being now of comparatively small importance to what it was before steam-ships traversed the ocean.