FOOTNOTES:

[337] Mr. Willcox was born at Ostend, but of English and Scotch parentage, his second Christian name, McGhee, being that of his maternal grandfather. He, however, spent his boyhood at Newcastle-on-Tyne, where he received the chief portion of his education. He represented the borough of Southampton for some years in Parliament, and died, 1862, at the age of 79.

[338] Mr. Anderson became member for his native borough, which he represented from 1846 to 1852. He took a great interest in developing the northern fisheries, and especially in forming a Shetland fishery Company, and in improving the condition of the people there. He died in 1868 at the age of 77.

[339] When I commenced business in London, Mr. Allan was one of my earliest friends, and our friendship remained unbroken until his death in September 1874. I can therefore, of my own knowledge, speak of the difficulties he had to encounter, and of the numerous obstacles to be overcome in establishing the vast business with which he was so long and so intimately associated. To establish agencies at the leading ports of India and China, open depôts for coals, erect docks and factories for the repairs of their ships, to bring the whole into systematic and harmonious working order, and, above all, to keep agencies remote from each other and far from home, under proper control, required a master mind of no common order, the more so that the system he organized was then entirely new. Mr. Allan was, however, in every way equal to this arduous duty; his industry was unwearied, his love for truth ever conspicuous, and, with these he combined the most unassuming and pleasing manners. His only failing consisted in believing all other men to be as upright as himself.

[340] The mean rate of the sailing-packets on the average for a considerable number of voyages to the Mediterranean had been 2·7 miles per hour, the average length of the voyage from Falmouth to Malta, Corfu, and back to Falmouth being three months. The first of the Admiralty steam-packets, the Meteor, left Falmouth on this service 5th February, 1830, and she performed the round in about half the time of the sailing-packets. The African, Carron, Columbia, Confiance, Echo, Firebrand, Hermes, and Messenger followed and were regularly employed in this Mediterranean mail service. The average length of the voyages of steamers during a period of two and a half years to Corfu and back to Falmouth, was about forty-seven days including all stoppages—twice at Cadiz, Gibraltar, and Malta—which consumed about thirteen out of the forty-seven days engaged on the voyage.

[341] “Scarcely has the wonder created in the world by the appearance of the Great Western and British Queen, begun to subside, when we are called upon to admire the rapid strides of enterprise by the notice of an iron steam-ship, the first of a line of steamers to ply between England and Calcutta, to be called The Queen of the East, 2618 tons, and 600 horse-power. This magnificent vessel is designed by Mr. W. D. Holmes, engineer to the Bengal Steam Committee, for a communication between England and India. Great praise is due to Captain Barber, late of the Honourable East India Company’s Service, the agent in London for the Steam Committee in Bengal, who has afforded every encouragement to Mr. Holmes in carrying forward his splendid undertaking. When these vessels are ready we understand the voyage between Falmouth and Calcutta will be made in thirty days.”—Times, 11th November, 1838.

[342] See Evidence, Committee of House of Commons, 1840, question 1411.

[343] 1st Line.—A line from England to Alexandria and back monthly, leaving England in the beginning of every month, and calling at Gibraltar and Malta, with a branch from Marseilles to Malta and back, conveying between those two ports the mails which are carried across France.

2nd Line.—A similar line from England to Alexandria and back monthly, leaving England in the middle of every month, with a similar branch between Marseilles and Malta.

3rd Line.—A line from Suez to Calcutta and Hong Kong and back monthly. This line will take the mails which have left England in the beginning of each month, and will touch at Aden and Point de Galle, whence one steamer will proceed by Madras to Calcutta, and another by Penang to Singapore and Hong Kong.

4th Line.—A similar line from Suez to Calcutta and Hong Kong and back monthly, conveying the mails which have left England in the middle of the month, and proceeding in like manner to Point de Galle, and thence by Madras to Calcutta, and by Penang to Singapore and Hong Kong.

5th Line.—A line from Singapore to Sydney and back. Every alternate month a steamer to leave Singapore on the arrival of the outward packet at that port with the mails which have left England in the middle of every alternate month, and to leave Sydney so as to meet at Singapore the homeward packet, which will arrive there from China after the lapse of two months. These steamers are to touch both ways at Batavia, Swan River (or King George’s Sound, as may hereafter be determined), Adelaide, and Port Phillip.

[344] See “Hansard’s Parliamentary Debates,” May 28th, 1852.

[345] The Himalaya was 340 feet in length, 44½ feet width of beam, and her engines were 2050 indicated horse-power. She was 3540 tons O.M., and cost 132,000l. complete for sea. The company at the same time built the Candia, of 1898 tons, at a cost of 69,200l. and the Nubia, Pera, and Colombo, each of 1840 tons O.M.; also the Simla and Bengal, of 2417 tons and 2232 tons respectively, as well as the Valetta and Victis. The whole cost of these vessels, added to their existing fleet, and destined to carry out the double service of a semi-monthly communication with the East, involved an outlay of 650,000l.

[346] Shipping was so scarce that the average price of coal delivered at the different stations of the company rose from 36s. 8d. to 60s. 3d. per ton, and was with great difficulty obtained at even these exorbitant rates.

[347] During the Crimean War this company had eleven of their steamers, measuring 18,000 tons, engaged in the transport service, which conveyed during the continuation of hostilities, 1800 officers, 60,000 men, and 15,000 horses.

[348] About this time, the unfortunate mutiny in India naturally creating great anxiety that every possible means should be used to increase our communication with that country, combined with the rapidly increasing commercial intercourse, led to a modification and at the same time to the increase of the existing services. Hence, in November 1857, arrangements under the contract of 1854 were made to extend the line between Bombay and Aden to Suez and to establish, in connection with it, a fortnightly service between Marseilles and Alexandria; the arrivals and departures of the Bombay mails being made to alternate with those of the Calcutta line, instead of being coincident with them as had previously been the case, so as to afford a weekly communication with India which has ever since been kept up. It was at the same time considered desirable to increase the voyages of the Marseilles packets, which were now running with the Calcutta and China mails, from Malta to Alexandria as their port of destination, for transit to Suez by means of the railway, which had by this time been opened across the isthmus.

[349] See “Hansard” for March, 1859, and the Times of the 25th of that month.

[350] See report of proceedings, Court of Queen’s Bench.

[351] In the case of the Cunard line the average has been calculated upon a parliamentary return extending from January 1862 to April 1866, as is also the return of the average speed of the vessels of the Peninsular and Oriental Company during the same period.

Cunard Company.

Liverpool and Boston Line.Knots. Fath.
109 voyages outwards, average speed 9 2
112 voyages homewards, average speed 10 2
Liverpool and New York Line.
109 voyages outwards, average speed 11 1
113 voyages homewards, average speed11 7

Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company.

Knots.Fath.
On the Australian Line9 7
On the Calcutta and Suez Line9 7
On the Bombay and Suez Line92
On the Southampton and Alexandria and Marseilles and Alexandria Lines 100

The following averages are taken respectively from the reports published in 1865 of the British Royal Mail (West India) Company, and of the French Messageries Maritimes Company:

Knots.Fath.
Between Southampton and West Indies 105
Between Southampton and Brazils95

The French Company give an average speed on their line to India of 9 knots 4 fathoms per hour for the years 1863 and 1864, but add “it is, for a general average, rather high.”

[352] See [Appendix No. 23, p. 639].

[353] The details of the different rates per mile which have hitherto been paid to the Peninsular and Oriental Company were as follows:—

s.d.
The first India and China contract (1844 to 1853) was paid for at171 per mile.
The second (1853 to 1866) was first taken at62 per mile.
and was afterwards reduced to55 per mile.
The first portion of the Bombay service, namely, between Bombay and Aden, distance 79,872 miles per annum, was taken in 1854, at62 per mile.
The extension of this service to Suez increased the distance to 142,656 miles per annum, and reduced the rate to42 per mile.
And the subsequent arrangements in the Mediterranean brought the payment for the complete fortnightly line, now existing, down to the average of27 per mile.
The Australian service between Ceylon and Sydney was paid for, from 1861 to 1865, at215 per mile.
The same service was taken in 1865, at190 per mile.
And the directors offered to double it for a sum that would reduce the rate to136 per mile.
India, China and Japan contract67 per mile.
Australian, Ceylon to Melbourne144 per mile.

[354] The following return gives the annual receipts and expenditure of the Company from 1856 to 1874 inclusive, by which it will be seen that, while the revenue was less in 1874 than in 1860, the expenditure had increased, and that there was a deficiency in 1867 of no less than 177,047l.

Revenue.Expenditure. Balance.
£££
18561,691,5891,494,435197,153
18571,877,4201,645,748231,772
18581,884,4931,714,374170,119
18592,176,5902,006,363170,227
18602,350,3612,247,328103,033
18612,288,2892,131,432156,857
18622,223,9692,064,865159,104
18632,296,3052,060,849235,454
18642,346,2032,120,554225,649
18652,136,0761,976,999159,077
18662,243,0762,094,493148,583
18672,084,3932,261,440177,047[f]
18682,485,9652,313,817172,148
18692,559,6272,390,518169,109
18702,317,0162,174,672142,344
18712,092,6561,923,881168,775
18722,122,7561,953,551169,205
18732,173,3712,007,761165,610
18742,186,6632,047,899138,764
41,546,81838,630,909

[355] Deficiency.

[356] About 90,000 tons of coal are usually kept in stock at their different coaling stations, distributed somewhat in the following proportions:

Tons.
Southampton2,000
Malta5,000
Alexandria and Suez6,000
Aden20,900
Bombay8,000
Point de Galle12,000
Madras500
Calcutta4,000
Singapore8,000
Hong-Kong10,000
Shanghai6,000
Yokohama2,200
King George’s Sound4,000
Sydney1,200

[357] The dimensions of the Khedive are as follows:—Length, 380 feet; breadth, 42 feet; depth, 36 feet. Her builders’ measurement is 3329 tons; her gross register, 3742 tons; and her net register, 2092 tons. So far as regards capacity, she is fitted so as to accommodate with the space and style now required for Eastern travel (how different to the space allotted to passengers in the ships of Nearchus!) 164 first-class and 53 second-class passengers. Besides this, she has store-rooms of various kinds to hold 380 tons, rooms for mails and baggage to contain 142 tons; bunkers to hold 846 tons of coals calculated at 45 cubic feet per ton, and holds which can receive 2003 tons of cargo of 50 feet to the ton.

Her average speed is 10 knots per hour on a consumption of 32 tons of coal per diem, but “she can be driven at a much higher speed with a proportionate increase of expenditure of fuel.” The contract specifies a speed to be guaranteed on trial of not less than 13 ½ knots an hour on the measured mile, with dead weight on board of coals or cargo to the extent of 1500 tons.

Her engines are compound, “vertical direct acting,” of 600 nominal horse-power, with 4 feet 6 inches length of stroke. The diameter of her cylinders is 69 and 96 inches respectively, and that of her screw, which consists of four blades, 17 feet 6 inches; its pitch being 22 feet 6 inches and 24 feet. She has 4 boilers and 16 furnaces. The fire-bar surface is 320 square feet, and the heating and condensing surface 11,720, and 6059 square feet respectively. The loaded pressure is 55 pounds on her boilers.

[358]

Europeans. Natives.
Navigating{ Commander1
{ Officers5
{ Surgeon1
{ Carpenter1
{ Boatswain1
{ Quartermasters3
{ Carpenter’s mate (Chinese)1
{ Gig’s crew (do.)6
{ Seamen (Lascars) 43
{ Assistants of different sorts 6
Engines{ Engineers 6
{ Coal trimmers, &c.49
Cabins{ Purser1
{ Clerk, Head Steward, Cook, Baker, Butcher, Pantryman, Storekeeper, and Barman8
{ Stewards22
{ Stewardesses2
{ Purser’s department21
Total Europeans51Natives 126

[359] For fleet of Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, Jan. 1875, see[ Appendix No. 23, pp. 639-40].