There were many separate lines of packet-ships sailing at regular intervals from London and Liverpool, and from Hamburg and Havre, to New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and other American ports. Among these were the famous Black Ball Line, the White Star Line, the Old and the New Line of Liverpool packets, etc. The New Line was American, and of it E. K. Collins, the promoter of the Collins’ Line of steamers, was the New York agent. The ships were named Shakespeare, Siddons, Sheridan, Garrick, and so forth, hence this was called the “Dramatic Line.” It is refreshing to read one of their advertisements in the Montreal Gazette, as old as November 20th, 1838:
“These ships are of the first-class, upwards of 800 tons burthen, built in the city of New York, with such improvements as to combine great speed with unusual comfort to passengers. Every care has been taken in the arrangement of their accommodation. The price of passage hence is $140, for which ample stores, including wines, etc., will be provided; without wines, etc., $120. These ships will be commanded by experienced masters, who will make every exertion to give general satisfaction. Letters charged at the rate or 25 cents per single sheet.
☛The ships of this line will hereafter go armed, and their peculiar construction gives them security not possessed by any other but vessels of war.”
E. K. COLLINS, New York.
WM. & JAS. BROWN & CO., Liverpool.
The Great Republic, one of the last of the clipper packet-ships, was built in the United States in 1854. She was a four-master of 3,400 tons, 305 feet long, 53 feet beam, and 30 feet in depth. She made the run from New York to the Scilly Islands in thirteen days. She ended her sailing career as a French transport ship, and finally was degraded to a coal hulk. The largest sailing vessel afloat at the present time is the five-masted steel ship La France, built on the Clyde by D. & W. Henderson for French owners. She is 6,100 tons burthen, 375 feet long, 49 feet wide and 33¾ feet depth. Her fore mainmast is 166 feet high. On her first trip from Cardiff to Rio Janeiro she carried 6,000 tons of coal, and attained a speed of twelve and a half knots.
The Dawn of Steamship Navigation.
Paddle-wheels for driving boats through the water were used long before steam-engines were thought of. They were worked by hand and foot-power without, however, any advantage over the old-fashioned oar. The horse-boat, in a variety of forms, has been in use for many years, and is not yet quite obsolete. In its earlier form two horses, one on each side of a decked scow, were hitched to firmly braced upright posts at which they tugged for all they were worth without ever advancing beyond their noses, but communicating motion to the paddle-wheels by the movable platform on which they trod. For larger boats four or five horses were harnessed to horizontal bars converging towards the centre, and moved around the deck in a circle, the paddles receiving their impulse through a set of cog-wheels. The “latest improvement” was on the direct self-acting treadmill principle, the power being regulated by the weight of the horses and the pitch of elevation given to the revolving platform on which the unfortunate animals were perched. Newcomen’s steam-engine had been invented and used for other purposes eighty years at least, before it was applied to the propelling of vessels. The modern steamboat is not an invention, but rather the embodiment of many inventions and experiments, extending over a long series of years by different men and in different countries.
HORSE-BOAT AT EMPY’S FERRY, OSNABRUCK, ONT.