CHAPTER XIII
THE UNITED STATES
While a navigation code founded in 1790 and 1792, and developed in 1816, 1817, and 1820, after the model of the then existing English code,[[FS]] has been retained in modified form through enactments in subsequent years, a system of general ship-subsidies, though repeatedly proposed, has never been adopted by the United States. From 1793 to 1866 bounties were given to fishing vessels and men employed in the bank and other deep-sea fisheries,[[FT]] but no subsidies to the merchant marine were granted till 1845, and these were only postal subsidies—payments in excess of an equivalent for services to be rendered in ocean mail-carriage. The law enacted that year had for its declared purpose the encouragement of American ocean steamship-building and running. With this act, therefore, the real history of Government aid to domestic shipping in this country begins.
At the time of the adoption of this policy America was still leading the world in ocean sailing-ships with her splendid fleets of fast-sailing packets and "clippers", while England had taken the lead in steamships. The law of 1845 was the culmination of a move begun in Congress in 1841, the year after the first Cunarder had crossed from Liverpool to Halifax and Boston. Its aim was to parry England's bold stroke for maritime supremacy with her State-aided steamship lines, and directly to "protect our merchant shipping from this new and strange menace."[[FU]] The first move of 1841 was for an appropriation of a million dollars annually for foreign-mails carriage in American-owned ships.[[FU]]
The law of 1845 (March 3) authorized the postmaster-general to contract with American ship-owners exclusively for this service to be performed in American vessels, steamships preferred, and by American citizens, for a period of from four to ten years, with the proviso that Congress by joint resolve might at any time terminate a contract. The subsidy was embodied in the rates of postage thus fixed: upon all letters and packets not exceeding a half-ounce in weight, between any ports of the United States and any foreign ports not less than three thousand miles distant, twenty-four cents, with the inland postage added; upon letters and packets over one half-ounce in weight, and not exceeding one ounce, forty-eight cents, and for every additional half-ounce or fraction of an ounce, fifteen cents; to any of the West India Islands, or islands in the Gulf of Mexico, ten cents, twenty cents, and five cents, respectively; upon each newspaper, pamphlet, and price-current to any of the ports and places above enumerated, three cents: inland postage to be added in all cases. The postmaster-general was to give the preference to such bidder as should propose to carry the mails in a steamship rather than a sailing-ship. Contractors were to turn their ships over to the Government upon demand for conversion into ships of war, the Government to pay therefor the fair full value, as ascertained by appraisers. The postmaster-general was further authorized to make ten-years' contracts for mail carriage from place to place in the United States in steamboats by sea, or on the Gulf of Mexico, or on the Mississippi River up to New Orleans, on the same conditions regarding the transfer of the ships to the Government when required for use as war ships.[[FV]]
The next year, 1846, in the annual post-office appropriations act (June 19), provision was made for the application of twenty-five thousand dollars toward the establishment of a line of mail steamers between the United States and Bremen; and early in 1847 (February 3) a contract was duly concluded for a Bremen and Havre service, the first under the law of 1845.
This was a five years' contract entered into with the Ocean Steam Navigation Company, upon the basis of an earlier agreement (February 1846) with Edward Mills of New York, which Mr. Mills had transferred to the new organization. The subsidy was fixed at one hundred thousand dollars a year for each ship going by Cowes to Bremen and back to New York once in two months a year, and seventy-five thousand dollars a year for each ship going by Cowes to Havre and back to New York. The contractors were to build within a year's time four first-class steamships of not less than 1400 tons, nor less than a thousand horsepower; and were to run their line "with greater speed to the distance than is performed by the Cunard Line between Boston and Liverpool and back."[[FW]] Provision for the subsidy thus called for was promptly made in this item in the post-office appropriation bill for the ensuing year, approved March 2: "for transportation by steam-ships between New York and Bremen according to the contract with Edward Mills, $258,609."[[FX]]
The next step was the enactment of a law which had for its declared objects "to provide efficient mail services, to encourage navigation and commerce, and to build up a powerful fleet in case of war."[[FY]] This measure, approved March 3, 1847, entitled "An act to provide for the building and equipment of four naval steamships," made provision for the construction, with Government aid, of merchant mail-steamships under the supervision of the Navy Department that they might be rendered suitable if needed for war service.