[67] The aggregate number of vessels entering and clearing outwards from all the ports of the United Kingdom in 1866 was 403,598, being 5,657 less than in 1865. The total tonnage of these vessels in 1866 was 31,262,450, of which 21,255,726 was British, and 10,006,724 was foreign. Of this total tonnage about a third, or 10,761,413 was tonnage of steam vessels, of which 9,484,594 was British, and 1,276,819 was foreign. Thus, whilst the steam tonnage of Great Britain was not far from being one-half of its total tonnage, the tonnage of foreign steam vessels frequenting the ports of the United Kingdom was only a little more than an eighth of its total tonnage. The tonnage of the ships lost or damaged on or near the British coasts in 1866 was 428,000. The Times, in the course of a most interesting and lengthened summary of ocean and coast disasters for 1866, speaks in terms of just indignation of the unseaworthy state that colliers and other coasting vessels, but especially colliers, are permitted to go to sea, and concludes by stating that, “The aggregate loss of life is enormous, and so is the aggregate destruction of property. The former is a species of woe inflicted on humanity; the latter is practically a tax upon commerce. While the art of saving life on the coast is understood, thanks to the progress of science and to the stout hearts of our coast population, the art of preserving property is as yet but imperfectly known among us, and still more imperfectly practised.
“On reviewing the dismal record, we are bound to take courage from the many gratifying facts it reveals in regard to saving of life, which, after all, is our principal object in commenting on this doleful Register. Noble work has been done, and is doing, in that way, which has not only elicited the admiration of the British public, but also that of many foreign nations; and this was strikingly illustrated last July by the International Jury of the Paris Universal Exhibition awarding to the National Lifeboat Institution one out of their nineteen great gold medals, in acknowledgment of the important services it had rendered to shipwrecked sailors of all nations, hundreds of whom, and thousands of our own hardy sailors, it had rescued from a premature grave, and many homes from the desolation of widowhood and orphanage.”
[68] The return issued by the Statistical Committee of Lloyd’s, October, 1867, shows that the number of lives lost by casualties to ships for the half-year ending the 30th of June last was 687, being only 209 less than during the whole of 1866. 503 crews of sailing ships were saved and 17 crews of steamers. The number of crews drowned was 29. The return goes on to state that the total number of casualties to sailing ships in the half-year was 5,525, to steamers 500. The number of ships missing was 64, of steamers 7. Total number of ships abandoned 228, steamers 5. Of these 190 were totally lost. The number of collisions to ships is 808, to steamers 147; total, 955. Of these 85 were sunk. The number of vessels sinking from causes other than collision was 281. The number of ships stranded was 1,483, of steamers 126. There were three cases of piracy. The number of vessels burnt or on fire was 65 ships and 5 steamers. The number of cases of mutiny, sickness, casualties to crew, and refusing to do duty was 201. There were 11 ships waterlogged. Totally lost, 1,072 ships and 37 steamers.
[69] Captain Shaw, the Superintendent of the London Fire Brigade, stated in his evidence before a Committee of the House of Commons that sat in 1867, on protection of life and property from fire, that there were 681 fires in London in 1840, one to every 2,800 inhabitants, and one to every 379 houses. In 1850 the number of fires was 868, or one to every 2,673 inhabitants, one to every 347 houses. In 1860 the fires were 1,056, one to every 2,613 inhabitants, one to every 335 houses. The fires in 1865 were unexceptionally high—1,502, or one to every 1,900 inhabitants, one to every 250 houses. In 1866 the number of fires was 1,338. The “heavy fires” are now about 25 per cent. of the whole number, but in 1860 they were above 40 per cent. The average sum spent upon a fire in London for many years has been £18. But fires are much more expensive in America: Brooklyn (opposite New York), costs £35 each fire; Baltimore, £90; Boston, £157; New Orleans, £172. Of 29,069 fires which have occurred in the last 33 years in London, candles caused 11 per cent. of them; curtains nearly 10; gas nearly 8; flues nearly 8; sparks from pipes, 4½; lucifer matches, children playing, smoking tobacco, and stoves, each, 1½ per cent. The Fire Insurance Companies and the Fire Brigade consider one-third of the London fires as involved in suspicion; but Sir Thomas Henry, the Chief Magistrate of Bow Street, does not concur in this opinion.
[70] A proof of the value and economy of steel rails is afforded by what has occurred at Chalk Farm station. At this part of the London and North-Western Railway the traffic is literally unceasing. On one line, for a short length, are ordinary rails, and Bessemer rails on the other. The latter have already outlived twenty-five sets of iron rails, and appear very nearly as fresh as when first laid down. Very nearly the same result has been obtained at the locomotive shops of the London, Chatham and Dover Company.
“Steel-laid Railways.—A line of railway laid in steel is now well known to be superior, in respect of economy of working, to one laid in iron. It requires less labour in keeping up, and, all other things being equal, it can be maintained in a better running condition than an iron way. The reasons of its superiority are apparent enough. A yielding roadway is a bad roadway for traction; and while bad at all speeds, it is especially bad at high speeds. Whatever may be the explanation, the following are well-established facts:—The axle friction of carriages, and the mere resistance to rolling along a smooth rail, are constant at all speeds. The actual resistances to the motion of trains upon our best railways are, however, considerably greater at high than at low speeds, and the excess is very much beyond that known to be due merely to the atmosphere. Besides the latter resistance, there is a considerable resistance known to increase in the ratio of the square of the speed, and it is, we believe, the universal custom of the profession to speak of this as the resistance due to “concussions;” and what but an irregular, uneven, or yielding line can cause concussions? These increased resistances apply to lines in good and even first-rate condition, and are much greater on lines not well kept up. The constant resistances are but from 8 lb. to 10 lb. per ton for the engine, tender, and train, so that the resistances due to “concussions” are about equal to the constant resistances at 40 miles an hour, and twice as great at 60 miles an hour. At the high and increasing speed at which railways are now worked, these “concussions,” due to the irregularities of our lines, thus absorb the principal portion of our locomotive power, and entail a heavy charge in the shape of working expenses. But for these “concussions” our lines might be worked, probably, at 35 per cent. instead of 50 per cent. of their present gross receipts, there being always a considerable proportion of the working charges which, like management, station attendance, &c., are independent of the condition of the line. Although we have no precise data to show the superior working condition of a steel-laid, as compared with an iron-laid line, it is notorious and beyond dispute that the steel lines are worked at less expense, not only so far as renewals of rails are concerned, but in respect also of maintenance of way, locomotive power, and wear and tear of carriage and waggon stock. Steel rails, by their superior hardness, strength, and stiffness, approach much nearer than iron to the mathematical planes to which all rails should conform, in order to diminish the resistance to traction to a minimum. Taking the working expenses of railways at their present average rate, it would be a low estimate indeed to say that, even apart from all consideration of the renewals of rails, the superiority of steel over iron rails does not amount to at least 2d. per train mile, taking into account the saving of locomotive power, wear of carriage and waggon stock, maintenance of way, &c. At this rate a line, having fifty trains each way daily, and having 240 tons of steel per mile of double line, would save, yearly, £304 per mile of way, equal to more than 25s. per ton of the steel in the line. One great objection heretofore made to the introduction of steel has been the extent to which the compound interest upon its increased cost would mount up in a series of years; but even if the saving in working expenses were but half that estimated above, it would fully pay for the whole interest of steel, at £12. 10s. per ton, at which rate steel rails are now often sold. Under the hardest wear, steel rails have outworn twenty-five times their weight of iron, and no estimate now made of their service is ever less than that of a three-fold durability over iron; but if their durability was only as much greater than that of iron as their cost is greater, or even if it were absolutely no greater, it is virtually certain that they would prove cheaper in use than iron, because of the superiority of working condition of a steel-laid as compared with an iron-laid line, and the consequent very considerable saving in working expenses.” Abridged from Engineering, October 11, 1867.
[71] The first admission of crinoline into England is thus described by Miss Agnes Strickland in Vol. 3 of her “Lives of the Queens of England”:—“On the day of St. Erkenwald, the 14th of November, 1501, writes the herald to whom we are indebted for the particulars of the marriage of Prince Arthur with Princess Catherine of Arragon, the Duke of York led the infanta from the Bishop’s Palace to St. Paul’s. Strange diversity of apparel of the country of Hispania is to be ‘descriven,’ for the bride wore, at the time of her marriage, upon her head a coif of white silk with a scarf bordered with gold and pearl and precious stones, five inches and a half broad, which veiled great part of her visage and of her person; this was the celebrated Spanish mantilla. Her gown was very large, the body with many plaits, and beneath the waist certain round hoops bearing out their gowns (those of the princess and of the four Spanish maids of honour who attended her) from their bodies, after their country manner. Such was the first arrival of the famous farthingale in England.” Ladies, a friend of ours recently asked us, “What is the length of a crinoline”? Having of course “given it up,” he informed us that it is usually over two feet!
[72] Miss Aldworth of Newmarket House, County of Limerick, concealed herself in the case of a clock in the room of a house at which a masonic lodge was held. Before the completion of the day’s proceedings her hiding place was discovered. She was immediately brought forth and on the spot she was made a mason. She took the oaths, and like a good member of the craft as she was, never divulged the secret to the day of her death. Even now (1867) her insignia as a masoness are preserved with religious care at Newmarket House, and the chair in which she used to sit when at her lodge is in the dining room; above the chair is her portrait.
[73] The latest statistics show that there are 50,117 miles of railway in Europe; North and South America, 40,866; Africa, about 300; India, 4,070; Australia, 480. Of the North and South American railways, 33,896, belong to the United States, and there are about 16,000 miles constructing. Almost all American railways are very inferior in point of construction to European railways, and they are nearly all single lines. They have, however, been of inestimable value in developing the material resources of the country.
[74] Penny-a-lining, so called, because it is paid for by the newspapers at the rate of three-half-pence a line!