From the end of the Red Sea at Aden, the tracks of steamers both ways are straight courses to Bombay or Ceylon, and thence right up to Calcutta, across to Singapore, or down to Australia. Except East African coast lines, few steamers go around the Cape of Good Hope from England, excepting one line to South Australia, which steers straight eastward all the way from Cape Town to Adelaide, 6125 miles. But the Indian Ocean is so situated under the equator, is so filled with prevailing winds and currents and counter currents, that sailing-vessels must take very roundabout courses there, and can by no means steer the same track at all seasons of the year. These voyages from New York and London to the East are the longest regular sea-roads. A short table of distances between well-known ports along regular steamer-routes will be of interest; and by reversing them, or adding them together, the sailing distance between almost any two ports on the globe may be calculated.
| MILES. | |
|---|---|
| Acapulco to San Francisco | 1,850 |
| Aden to Bombay | 1,635 |
| Aden to Colombo (Ceylon) | 2,100 |
| Aden to Zanzibar | 1,770 |
| Auckland to Honolulu | 3,915 |
| Auckland to Suva (Fiji) | 1,140 |
| Cadiz to Teneriffe (Canaries) | 698 |
| Cape Horn to Rio de Janeiro | 2,350 |
| Cape Town to Plymouth (Eng.) | 6,016 |
| Cork to St. John’s (N. F.) | 1,730 |
| Ceylon to West Australia | 3,305 |
| Glasgow to New York | 2,790 |
| Havre to Martinique | 3,560 |
| Havre to New York | 3,160 |
| Hobart (Tas.) to Invercargill (N. Z.) | 930 |
| Hong Kong to Manila | 650 |
| Hong Kong to Shanghai | 800 |
| Hong Kong to Yokohama | 1,620 |
| Leith (Scot.) to Iceland | 1,050 |
| Lisbon via Dakar (W. Af.) to Pernambuco | 3,297 |
| Lisbon to Cape Verd Islands | 1,537 |
| Liverpool to Barbadoes | 3,646 |
| Lisbon to Para | 4,000 |
| Liverpool to Lisbon | 983 |
| Liverpool to Madeira | 1,430 |
| Liverpool to New Orleans | 4,767 |
| Liverpool to New York | 3,057 |
| Liverpool to Para | 4,010 |
| Liverpool to Quebec | 2,634 |
| Marseilles to Algiers | 410 |
| Montevideo to Magellan Strait | 1,070 |
| New Orleans to Havana | 570 |
| New York to Colon | 1,980 |
| New York to San Francisco, about | 17,000 |
| New York, via St. Thomas, to Para | 3,130 |
| Panama to San Francisco | 3,260 |
| Porto Rico (San Juan) to Havana | 1,030 |
| Rio de Janeiro to Plymouth | 4,941 |
| San Francisco to Honolulu | 2,080 |
| San Francisco to Yokohama | 5,280 |
| Shanghai to Yokohama | 1,033 |
| Singapore to Hong Kong | 1,430 |
| Suez to Aden (length of Red Sea) | 1,308 |
| Suva to Honolulu | 2,783 |
| Sydney to Auckland | 1,281 |
| Sydney to Vancouver (B. C.) | 6,780 |
| Teneriffe to Porto Rico | 2,790 |
| Trieste to Bombay | 4,317 |
| Yokohama to Honolulu | 3,445 |
| Yokohama to San Francisco | 4,750 |
| Yokohama to Victoria | 4,320 |
| Zanzibar to Bombay | 2,400 |
CHAPTER VIII
ROBBERS OF THE SEAS
As the sea has furnished opportunities for so much good,—for manly exertion, knowledge of the world, and acquaintance with people outside of one’s own country, and for gaining wealth,—so it has given a chance for unscrupulous men to show the worst that is in them; and the guarding of shore towns and merchant vessels from piratical attacks has always been a part of the usefulness and duty of a nation’s naval force.
As on land there are robbers and highwaymen, so on the ocean robber ships have often been lying in wait for vessels loaded with treasure, and have landed crews of marauders to make havoc with rich seaboard provinces. Such robbers on the high seas are termed pirates, and their crime was visited by the old laws with torturing punishments; yet they were never more daring than when the laws against them were severest.
The word is Greek, and the first pirates who figure in history are those of the Greek and Byzantine islands and coasts—bloody ruffians who originated the amusing method of disposing of unransomed prisoners by making them “walk the plank,” as has been done within the present century.