Lieutenant Thomas Waghorn, R. N., an English naval officer, applied to the British Government for assistance in carrying out a project he had conceived of opening communication by steam between Britain and her great East Indian Empire. The result of his labours was the opening up of the overland mail route, as it was called, consisting at first of a steam service from Marseilles to Alexandria, thence by camel and Nile steamer to Cairo, a caravan across the desert to Suez, and steamers via the Red Sea to Bombay and Calcutta. The next improvement was the substitution of a railway for “The Ship of the Desert,” in 1858, and the transmission of the English mails to Brindisi instead of Marseilles, and finally, the construction of the Suez Canal by Ferdinand Lesseps, the French engineer, at a cost of sixty million dollars. The canal is ninety-nine miles long with a width of 327 feet for 77 miles and 196 feet for the remaining 22 miles; the depth was originally twenty-six feet throughout, but the canal is undergoing progressive enlargement and deepening. The British Government in 1875 acquired by purchase shares in the enterprise to the value of £4,000,000 sterling. By a convention signed in 1888, the canal was exempted from blockade, and vessels of all nations, whether armed or not, may pass through it in peace or in war.[27] The North German Lloyd SS. Frederick the Great, of 10,500 tons register, which passed through the canal a few months ago en route for Australia, is the largest vessel that has passed through it. The canal was first opened for traffic in 1869.
By the overland route the distance from London to Bombay has been reduced to 5,221 miles, and to Calcutta, 6,471 miles. The contract time for the transmission of mails is 16½ and 18½ days respectively. Sir Douglas Fox, engineer of the railway from Acre to Damascus, speaking of the proposal to extend that road to the mouth of the Persian Gulf, prophesied that in a few years the journey from Charing Cross to India will be covered in eight days! It will be accomplished in about the same length of time, via Russia, when the great trans-Siberian railway is completed. When that is accomplished, the actual running time of an excursion around the world may possibly be reduced to thirty days or even less.
In preceding pages reference has been almost exclusively made to the development of steam navigation on the North Atlantic; a brief allusion must now be made to the effects produced on the commerce of other parts of the world by the introduction of steam power. The Atlantic steamers were probably the first to bridge the ocean; they are, perhaps, the most numerous to-day; certainly they include some of the largest and most magnificent specimens of marine architecture in existence, but they are only a wing of the world’s fleet of steamships. There are other great lines of ocean steamers performing services of equal importance elsewhere, though with their history and their “records” we are less familiar. An excellent summary of the lines of communication with India, and the East generally, is given in “Whitaker’s Almanacks” for 1896 and 1897, under the caption of “Our Ocean Mail.” Mr. Macdonald, in “Our Ocean Railways,” devotes a couple of chapters to an interesting survey of this branch of our subject.
The Peninsular and Oriental Company,
commonly known as the “P. & O.” Co., is the second oldest steam-packet company in existence. It had its origin in a small steamship undertaking, started in 1836 under the name of the “Peninsular Company,” to trade between Falmouth and Lisbon. Their first vessel was the William Fawcett, a paddle-steamer of 206 tons, built in 1829. The first steamer despatched for India by this company was the Hindostan of 1,800 tons and 250 horse-power, about the year 1842. From that time until now the history of the company has been a continuous record of progress and prosperity They now carry the mails not only to India, but to China and Australia, having in their service a magnificent fleet of over sixty steamers, ranging from 2,500 tons to 7,560 tons, and aggregating some 220,000 tons. The SS. Caledonia is at present the largest and fastest vessel employed in the Indian trade, and has succeeded in landing her mails in Bombay within 12½ days of their despatch from London. Their contract time for the delivery of mails in Shanghai is 37½ days, and 35½ days to Melbourne, Australia. Over $35,000,000 have been expended on the fleet of the P. & O. Company in the last twenty years, and they are now building several steamers of 8,000 tons for the mail service. Among the larger boats of the fleet at present are the Arcadia, 6,670 tons; Australia, 6,901; Himalaya, 6,898; Oceanea, 6,670, and the Victoria, 6,527 tons. During the Crimean war, and at the time of the Indian mutiny, this company rendered important services to the Government in the rapid conveyance of troops and stores. The regularity with which the mail service has been conducted is remarkable when the length of the routes is considered. It is seldom that the mails are even an hour late in being delivered. The ships combine all the latest improvements in their construction, machinery and internal fittings.
P. & O. STEAMSHIP “CALEDONIA.”
The P. & O. steamers leave London every Saturday for India, and fortnightly for Australia and China. The first-class ordinary fare to Bombay, Madras, or Calcutta by this line is £55 sterling; second-class, from £35 to £37 10s. To Adelaide, Melbourne or Sydney, Australia, first-class, £60 to £70; second-class, £35 to £40. To China and Japan, first-class, £73 10s.; second-class, £42. The rates for special accommodation are, of course, considerably higher.
The Orient Steam Navigation Company was formed in 1877 by two well-known shipping firms—Anderson, Anderson & Co. and F. Green & Co. The first steamer to leave London under the flag of the Orient Line was the Garonne, acquired by purchase, and followed by the Chimborazo, Lusitania and Cuzco. Two of these are now used on exclusively pleasure cruising voyages in the Mediterranean and elsewhere, while a number of large and powerful ships have been built for the mail line. The Orient, built by Robert Napier & Sons, Glasgow, in 1879, was the largest steamer constructed on the Clyde up to that time. She was 400 feet long, 5,365 tons register, and with engines of 6,000 indicated horse-power. Her speed was seventeen knots on her trial trip. The latest additions to the fleet are the Ophir, 6,057 tons; Orizaba, 6,077; Oroya, 6,057, and the Ormuz, 6,031 tons. The Ophir is 482 feet long, 53 feet beam, and 37 feet moulded depth. She is fitted with triple expansion engines and twin screws, and all the other modern improvements which go to make up a “floating palace.” The company receives a subsidy from the Imperial Government of £85,000 sterling per annum for carrying the mails, which are despatched fortnightly from London calling at Plymouth, Gibraltar, Naples, Port Said, Suez, Colombo, Albany, Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney, Australia.