Steam-ships

by R. A. Fletcher

[43] Glasgow Herald, June 30, 1825.

The war on the Liverpool and Dublin route ended in the Liverpool Companies carrying saloon passengers for 5s. and steerage passengers for 6d. each, one of the vessels conveying on one voyage seven hundred steerage passengers at that fare.

Negotiations between the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company and the Dublin and Liverpool Steam Navigation Company followed, by which the former purchased the Navigation Company’s steamers. They had then a fleet of fourteen vessels and entered upon a long career of prosperity, chequered by occasional battles with rival companies. A rate war with the Langtry Company of Belfast ended in the steerage fare between Liverpool and Belfast being reduced to 3d., including bread and meat. For a time, too, there was rivalry between the Dublin Company and the Waterford Commercial Steam Navigation Company, which in 1837 joined in the trade between that city and Liverpool with the iron paddle-steamer Duncannon, of 200 tons, built by Laird of Birkenhead. This was probably the first iron steamer built for the cross-channel service, but by no means the first to be seen in Irish waters.

While the companies were struggling, passengers were even carried free between Liverpool and Waterford, and sometimes between Liverpool and Dublin. “A story is told of a passenger going into the Dublin Company’s office at Waterford, and inquiring the cabin fare to Liverpool. He was told he would be taken for nothing, to which he replied, ‘That is not good enough, you must feed me as well.’” There is a tradition also that when one of the rival companies of the Liverpool and Dublin service “advertised its willingness to carry passengers for nothing, and to give them a loaf of bread, the other company capped the offer by the addition of a bottle of Guinness’ stout.”[44] The fight continued for three years, until the City of Dublin and the Waterford Company came to terms. This settlement brought about peace between the Belfast and the British and Irish Companies, the former sharing the Liverpool and Belfast trade with the Cork Company, while the British and Irish Company shared the London and Dublin trade with the Waterford Company. This truce continued for several years, but the war had sent nearly all the Waterford trade to Liverpool, to the detriment of the line running between Waterford and Bristol. A dispute followed between the Waterford and Bristol Companies and was maintained until the Bristol Company bought off the Waterford Company with an annual subvention of one thousand pounds.

[44] Kennedy’s “History of Steam Navigation.”

The increase in the number of steamers from 1820 onwards was extraordinary. In 1825, forty-four steamers were building at London and Liverpool alone, with tonnages varying from 250 to 500. Most of these vessels were built for the coastal service, the only international voyages being between the British coast, France, and the Netherlands. In 1818, according to Dodd, steamers were employed on the Clyde in the conveyance of merchandise, though for the most part vessels propelled by the new invention, as it was generally called, were confined to passengers, the goods being sent by sailing boats. In 1820 and 1821 no steamers were employed in the foreign trade, but in 1822 it appears that the entrances inward of steamers engaged in the foreign trade numbered 159, with a tonnage of 14,497, while the clearances numbered 111 with a total of 12,388 tons. The coasting trade in that year for the United Kingdom was 215 vessels entered inward, with a tonnage of 31,596, and the clearances numbered 295 with an aggregate tonnage for the year of 42,743. The year 1823 saw a falling off in the entrances and clearances in the foreign trade, but in the following year there was a partial recovery which was continued in 1825; and in 1826 the number of entrances of steam vessels was 334, with an aggregate tonnage of 32,631, the clearances being 268 with a tonnage of 27,206. In that year also the coasting trade showed 2810 entrances of 452,995 tons, and 3833 clearances of 518,696 tons. By 1828 the coasting entrances rose to 5591, with an aggregate of 914,414 tons, with 6893 clearances and an aggregate tonnage of 1,009,834. French-owned steamers first appeared in the United Kingdom records in 1822, when there were ten entrances of 520 tons altogether. In 1823 the entrances from France had shrunk to seven, of a total of 364 tons, and the clearances were the same; but by 1827, 74 entrances of French steamers are recorded, and 43 clearances.

In 1829 Holland appears for the first time in the list with one steamer entered and cleared. But in 1830 the steamer traffic between the two countries had grown so that the entries of Dutch steamers numbered twenty-three, with an aggregate of 6463 tons, and the clearances thirty-two with 8992 tons. By 1836 the entries in the United Kingdom coastal trade were 13,003, with an aggregate tonnage of 2,238,137, and the clearances 12,649 with an aggregate of 2,178,248 tons. In 1837 Belgium, France, and Spain figured in the returns, and in 1838 Portugal and Brazil. Russia and Turkey were added to the list in 1839. In that year the United Kingdom coastal entries numbered 15,556 of 2,926,521 tons, and the clearances 15,498 of 2,894,995 tons. These figures do not include vessels in ballast nor those with passengers only.

The report of the Commissioners appointed by the Privy Council in 1839 to inquire into steamship accidents, shows that some laxness prevailed in regard to registration, no fewer than 83 unregistered steam vessels being discovered, most of which were in the passenger trade; thirty-seven of these were on the Mersey, sixteen on the Thames, twenty-six on the Humber, and four on the rivers on the east coast of Scotland. The Commissioners added that there were probably many others unregistered, as they did not visit all the ports.

On the other hand, there were only twenty-five registered steamers on the Humber, Ouse, and Trent, and thirty-nine at Liverpool. Two Liverpool companies owned more vessels than the total number registered there. The Commissioners found that nineteen-twentieths of the large number of trading steamers between Ireland and Liverpool, some of which were registered in English and some in Irish ports, were owned in Ireland. The report further stated that of the 766 steam vessels tabulated as belonging to Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, Guernsey, and Jersey, 484 might be considered as river steamers and small coasters, and 282 as large coasters and sea-going ships.

The total number of registered vessels at the end of 1838 was 677, with a total registered tonnage of 74,510, a total computed tonnage of 131,080, and estimated horse-power 54,361. Unregistered vessels numbered 83 of 9638 tons gross, and 2129 estimated horse-power. The foregoing particulars show how rapidly the number of steamers increased for some years.