PREFACE
The following sketches were contributed to the Liverpool Press (Liverpool Daily Post, Liverpool Courier, Journal of Commerce), and they are now published at the request of many friends. Advantage has been taken of the opportunity for revision, and to add further reminiscences.
A chapter has also been added descriptive of the part played by the British merchant seaman in the war; and another, published in 1917, portraying the attitude and work of the British shipowner during the war.
To do adequate justice to the history of our shipping during the past sixty years would occupy several volumes. In the following pages all that has been attempted has been to outline the principal events in the fewest possible words, in the hope that they may serve for future reference; and also keep alive that interest in our mercantile fleet which is so essential to the prosperity of our Country and the welfare of our people.
Bromborough Hall, Cheshire,
August, 1920.
CONTENTS
| Chapter I | |
| PAGE | |
| The Passing of the Sailing-Ship | [1] |
| Chapter II | |
| The Era of the Steamship | [15] |
| Chapter III | |
| The Evolution of the Marine Engine | [24] |
| Chapter IV | |
| The Makers of our Shipping Trade | [29] |
| Chapter V | |
| Our Merchant Ships and the War | [55] |
| Chapter VI | |
| Shipping and the War | [69] |
| Chapter VII | |
| The “Red Jacket,” 1857 | [87] |
| Chapter VIII | |
| The “Queen of the Avon,” 1858 | [94] |
| Chapter IX | |
| The “Great Eastern,” 1861 | [99] |
| Chapter X | |
| The Building of an East Indiaman | [106] |
| Chapter XI | |
| Our Riddle of the Sands | [113] |