Ships of the seven seas

by Hawthorne Daniel

So it might be supposed that ships were improved in those far-distant days.

Traders similar to those of Phœnicia were common in Greece, in Carthage, in Rome, in Venice, and Genoa, and in other ports for thousands of years. Until the introduction of machinery and the use of steam power for manufacturing goods the cargoes of ships were limited largely to valuable goods taking up but little space, and so such methods were efficient enough, especially as the purchasing power of the masses was small, and their necessities were almost entirely homemade.

The period following the 11th Century showed some increase in the amount of freight handled, and a result of the discovery of America was to enlarge this still more. Still, however, the greater portion of the population of European nations had simple wants and simpler pocketbooks, and not for another three hundred years did the mighty purchasing power of great numbers of people begin to make itself felt in a demand for imported goods.

With the introduction of machinery, however, and especially with the introduction of steam, the workmen found it possible to purchase what had theretofore been unthinkable luxuries, and the demand for imported goods grew enormously.

The East India Company was an early concern in this new epoch of world trade. In 1600 this organization was founded and, by government charter, was given a monopoly on trade to the Far East. Because there was no competition this company grew fabulously rich, bringing to Great Britain wonderful cargoes of goods not securable except in India and China. This, however, was but a greater attempt at trading, and except in size and in organization was not greatly different from the methods in vogue two thousand years before.

It was not until the 19th Century that shipping lines as we know them came into existence. Actually it was the steamship that brought about the introduction of shipping lines, although the famous old packet lines that ran between Europe and America went by the name of lines several years before the first steamship line was organized. The first of these packet lines was the Black Ball Line, which was established in 1816. So successful did this line become that it was followed within the next few years by several others. The Red Star Line, the Swallowtail Line, and the Dramatic Line were some of the most important. Winter and summer the packets operated by these lines raced across the Atlantic, sailing on scheduled dates, and making remarkably short passages, and giving remarkably good service for the times. The ships were not large, some of them being hardly more than three hundred tons burden, but for the first ten years of the Black Ball Line’s existence the ships of that line averaged twenty-three days for the eastward passage and forty days for the westward, which was much lower than the average of other ships of the time. These packet lines continued in operation until about 1850, when they had largely faded from the sea, unable to compete with the steamships then becoming reliable, comfortable, regular, and fast.

The first steamship line to organize was the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company, which began operations in 1823. During the following year the General Steam Navigation Company was incorporated, and several other British steamship lines followed rapidly. At first these were for the coasting trade, where the regular service they maintained was valuable in the extreme, for railroads had not yet appeared. Before long, however, these lines began visiting the continent, and the transatlantic voyages of the Savannah in 1819 and the Royal William in 1833 drew the attention of steamship-builders and operators to the advantages of transoceanic routes.

In 1837 three companies were organized—the British and American Steam Navigation Company, the Atlantic Steamship Company, and the Great Western Steamship Company. In 1838 their first ships sailed to America. The Great Western made her first crossing in 13 days and a few hours, almost equalling at her very first attempt the fastest voyage (and that from America to Europe) a sailing ship ever made. Brave as was the start made by these three lines, however, they soon went out of business.

It is probable that one of the most serious blows they received in their short periods of activity resulted from the success of Samuel Cunard in securing from the British Government the contract for carrying the mails from Liverpool to Boston and Halifax. This contract, which included a fairly sizable subsidy, required that Cunard build and operate four steamships, which the subsidy enabled him to operate successfully despite the competition of the other three lines. Cunard’s steamers, being all alike and of very nearly the same speed, and being despatched at regular intervals, soon took from his competitors the little business they had, and they went out of business or transferred their ships to other duties.

The Cunard Line, then, from the Fourth of July, 1840, when the Britannia sailed for Boston, has been a successful transatlantic line, and is to-day the oldest transatlantic line in existence, as well as one of the finest and most powerful. At first this company was known as the “British and North American Royal Mail Steam Packet Company,” and its first ships, the Britannia, the Acadia, the Caledonia, and the Columbia, were each 207 feet long, about 1,150 tons, and could carry 115 cabin passengers and 225 tons of cargo.