| Total. | Steam Ships. | Sailing Ships. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| tons. | tons. | tons. | |
| Vessels entered | 1,957,000 | 1,112,000 | 845,000 |
| Do. cleared | 3,099,000 | 1,921,000 | 1,178,000 |
| Totals | 5,056,000 | 3,033,000 | 2,023,000 |
From the annual statement of the navigation and shipping of the United Kingdom, we have extracted the foregoing particulars of the tonnage of vessels that entered and cleared from the United Kingdom in 1884, in the Indian and Australian trades distinguishing steamers and sailing ships.
As sailing ships cannot make use of the canal, it is quite evident that there must be a use of sailing tonnage to the extent of over two millions of tons a year in the trade between the United Kingdom and her Indian and Australasian possessions. Such a fact is not a little remarkable when we remember that the opening of the canal has shortened the distance to Bombay by 41 per cent.; to Madras, by 35 per cent.; and to Calcutta by 32 per cent.[154] In some cases, the sailing tonnage employed was fully one-half of the whole. The following figures show how the proportions compare for the different provinces of India, as regards entrances into British ports:—
| Total. | Steamers. | Sailing Ships. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| tons. | tons. | tons. | |
| Bombay | 336,377 | 327,039 | 9,338 |
| Madras | 74,371 | 32,251 | 42,120 |
| Bengal, &c. | 810,946 | 426,524 | 384,222 |
| Ceylon | 18,373 | 5,483 | 12,890 |
| Total | 1,239,867 | 791,297 | 448,570 |
The clearances followed much the same course in the same period. Even with India, therefore, about 37 per cent. of all our trade passes by sailing ships round the Cape of Good Hope, instead of going through the canal, thus proving that the shortening of distance and of time is not the only consideration that determines the adoption of one route in preference to another.
One remarkable phase of the Suez Canal traffic is the great increase that has taken place in the size of the ships passing between the two seas. When the canal was first put forward by M. de Lesseps, it was seriously argued that all that was wanted was a canal from the Damietta branch of the Nile to Suez, which, “with a very little piling and dredging at either end,” would be accessible to vessels of 300 or 400 tons burthen. Such a canal, it was maintained, “would suffice for all the wants of Egypt, and for all the local traffic of the two seas.”[155] It was also maintained, that as the tendency was to increase the size of the ships employed on the Indian service, the canal would be compelled to refuse the only traffic ever likely to be offered to it.[156] The average size of the vessels using the canal in 1870 was only 898 net tons. From this point a gradual increase of size has taken place, until in 1888 the average size had increased to 1883 tons. The intervening period of eighteen years had therefore witnessed an increase of 109 per cent.
M. de Lesseps.
