[6] These cuts, copied from Stanton’s “American Steam Vessels,” represent first class Mississippi and Ohio light-draught, high-pressure river steamers. The J. M. White, of 1878, was deemed “a crowning effort in steamboat architecture in the West.” She was 320 feet long and 91 feet in width, over the guards. Her saloons were magnificently furnished, and all her internal fittings of the most elaborate description. She carried 7,000 bales of cotton and had accommodation for 350 cabinpassengers. Her cost was $300,000. She was totally destroyed by fire in 1886.
[7] “Our Ocean Railways,” p. 69.
[8] Sufficient importance was attached to this matter to cause the two Houses of Parliament, in Ottawa, to order a brass tablet, commemorative of the event, to be placed in the corridor of the Library of Parliament. The tablet, of which a facsimile is presented in our frontispiece, was unveiled with fitting ceremony by His Excellency the Governor-General, on the occasion of the opening of the Colonial Conference, June 28th, 1894.—Vide: “The Journals of the Colonial Conference” (Appendix); “Journal of the House of Commons,” 1894; “Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada.”
[9] Others say 10½ days.
[10] Fry’s “History of Steam Navigation,” p. 182.
[11] Encyclopedia Britannica, 8th Ed., Vol. xx, p. 657.
[12] “Our Ocean Railways,” p. 75.
[13] For at least a hundred and fifty years the Post Office Department had maintained a fleet of armed mail “packets.” They had stations at Dover, Harwich, Holyhead, Milford, Yarmouth and Falmouth, the last-named being the headquarters of the fleet. During the time of the American war, 1812-15, no fewer than thirty-two sanguinary battles were fought with American privateers by the Falmouth packets, which, in a majority of instances, successfully resisted their assailants.
[14] Sir John Burns in Good Words for 1887, p. 261.
[15] Fry’s “History,” p. 240.