Ocean Steam Navigation and the Ocean Post

by Thomas Rainey

It is creditable to the administration of President Polk, that there was one effort made in this country to found a similar judicious and fruitful system. We had until that time taken no notice whatever of marine steam navigation; and British steamers swarmed around our coast north and south, thick as cruisers in a blockade. (See [Paper E].) Indeed, it was a veritable blockade of our commerce, and told most disastrously upon our enterprise and independence. The Cabinet of Mr. Polk, headed by our present venerable Chief Magistrate of the Nation, determined to reverse this system, and did it as effectually as any thing can be accomplished in a country, where a given policy, however wisely inaugurated, has no guaranty or safeguard against the revolutionary changes of new administrations. They established a basis of action, and inaugurated three steam lines under contracts which placed them beyond the attacks of the capricious; well knowing that if the system had merits, they would be manifested to the country within ten years by the fruits of these lines. The period was shorter than that designated by Great Britain; yet with the immensely rapid development of our people it inwrought itself into the affections of the public so effectually, even in this short time, that none will dare risk his reputation by attacking it boldly, or by other means than an indirect and harassing guerrilla warfare. But here the effort ended, and the system, deprived of the aids and new lines which Congress should have extended it, and of that continued development which was necessary to its perfection and usefulness, has been left to work itself out and die, until it may be resurrected by another great demonstration of public sentiment, and by an administration bold enough and far-seeing enough to grasp the interests of the whole country, and do itself and the people justice. It is due, however, to the reputation of a lamented and departed statesman, the large-minded and noble Gen. Rusk, of Texas, to say that he made a manly and systematic effort in 1852, after seeing the fruitful workings of the three lines noticed, to extend, enlarge, and fortify the good beginnings of President Polk and Secretary Buchanan, by inaugurating several new lines, and establishing a permanent and recognized basis of action. But in all this he was thwarted by the machinations of narrow-minded men, who deemed it a higher effort to agitate the country and endeavor to separate the North and the South, than establish and secure those mighty aids to industry which should give development, wealth, strength, and security to the whole American Union, and check the fratricidal blow of the disunionist.

It is essential that we shall have in this country a policy on this subject, which shall remain untouched under the changes of administrations, just as standard commercial laws and regulations remain untouched. No system of such magnitude can mature or cheapen when but a few years are assigned to it, and when there is no certainty that it will survive the life of a single ship. Companies undertaking the mail service under such circumstances must be paid larger sums for their general establishment, that they may be enabled to meet the exigencies and caprices of irregular legislation, which may at the close of their contracts suddenly throw a dozen good ships out of employment. Every well-regulated and efficient company necessarily builds new steamers through all the stages of its existence; and when the term of its service expires, necessarily has several partially new ships. If the term of service is to be short, and if there is no rule by which those who do good service on a line are to have, in renewing contracts, the preference of new and untried parties, then it is reasonable to infer that they can not themselves incur the expense of so large an establishment of new and useless vessels, and that their service is either to be inefficient and unreliable, or that the department must pay a larger price than necessary under a judicious and fixed system. The want of a reliable system operates injuriously both on the department and on the contractors. It subjects us to expedients, and to all of the evils of constant lobbying and legislation on the subject. And one of the first wants of this system is an extension of the term of contracts. The period hitherto assigned has not been long enough for the proper development of the service. The short term is a constant premium for building an inferior class of vessels, which shall have become worthless by the time that the contract expires, so as not to entail loss upon the company. Such vessels are ever unfit for the mails or passengers. Short terms also keep the subject continually before Congress and the Executive Government, and foster that extensive and depraved lobbying which has wrought so injuriously on our legislation. Moreover, there is no reason why the term of service should not be extended, when it will certainly simplify and cheapen it, if, as I have assumed, the progress of engineering is not such as to throw well-built ships out of use within twelve years, or in any way introduce improvements by which the Government could get the service at lower rates. Nor have we any reliable hope for the future. We wait until commerce has been perverted into unnatural channels, and then become suddenly and galvanically aroused, when it is too late to effect a change until two or three years have expired in building ships. We thus find ourselves in the midst of the difficulty without having foreseen it, and without being prepared for it. The wise man planned the campaign before others had even contemplated any disturbance of the peace. As a matter of course he controlled the battle, and brought up the victory in his own way.

The only effectual means of accomplishing the foreign mail service in this country is by liberally subsidizing private companies for a long term of years, such as will induce them to provide first-class ships, run them rapidly, and fit them for the most comfortable conveyance of passengers. Lord Canning in his Report to both houses of Parliament on the contract packet system in 1853, says, after showing that the naval vessels have been abandoned for the mail service: "There is no peculiarity in this branch of business which renders it an exception to the general rule, that work is done more cheaply by contract than by Government agency." But when the idea of performing the mail service by naval vessels was wholly abandoned in 1837, another question of equal importance arose, as to how far the mail steam packets might be made efficient as vessels of war in times of emergency. As a consequence of the discussion nearly all of the mail contracts made from that day until this by Great Britain contained stipulations requiring the vessels to be capable of carrying an armament, in addition to the requirements of speed and punctuality. The same thing was done in this country in 1846-7; and one of the principal means of carrying the Collins bill through Congress was the self-deception of making the steamers equivalent to vessels of war. It was a plea to which statesmen and enterprising business men resorted, and was used as a means of securing those commercial facilities which constitutional quibblers would not vote for directly, but which they would afford if allowed the subterfuge of "defenses" as a means of protecting them against a certain set of constituencies who foolishly opposed the extension of commerce. Many of these would not grant one dollar for the aid of that commerce on which the revenues of the country and their own real prosperity and wealth depended; but they were willing to suffer long and bleed freely at the old and just, though unrenewable war-cry: "The British and the Hessians." Our case was rather different from that of Great Britain which had a large steam navy while we had neither naval nor commercial steamers. There was, consequently, and there yet is, more propriety in demanding a capacity for the naval service in our vessels than in the case of Great Britain.

In obedience to this very proper spirit we produced some of the noblest vessels that ever floated. Stronger vessels than the Collins, Aspinwall, and Pacific Mail Steamers were never built in any country. And although we have fortunately not been compelled to test their capacity in naval transport or in action, yet there is no doubt that they would do honorable and efficient service in both, and by no means sully the glory of the American colors. The establishment of these and the Havre and Bremen lines, certainly gave an impulse to shipbuilding and the manufacture of steam machinery in this country which could have been given in no other way, and which in a few short years has demonstrated that we are behind no people on earth in capacity for these noble and difficult arts. And although we are yet but in our infancy in experience, as compared, especially with Great Britain, yet the increasing demand for mail facilities, the necessity for a large war marine, and the rapidly increasing coast steam service, all indicate that we shall require a large amount of this class of work and a mechanical skill to which our ingenious countrymen have thus proven themselves entirely adequate. And although it is certainly indispensable that we shall ever be provided adequately against all the exigencies of foreign war, yet it is to be trusted that bold and fearless statesmen will support and extend our steam mail service on the tenable grounds of its necessity to commerce and our citizens at large, and that its productive services will not be obscured by or subordinated to the subterfuges and deceits of the war marine feature. Let us have steam mail facilities on high and independent grounds, and for their benefits per se. The system is abundantly tenable on this ground alone; on this only ground that it will probably ever practically occupy. Let us also have our war marine, efficiently separate, as it should be. Let both systems be perfect, both independent, both mutually conducive to the prosperity and the defense of the country. But there is no doubt that these vessels would do excellent service in a conflict. They could swarm any particular coast with troops in a few days. They could easily run away from dangerous vessels, or pursue and overtake others when necessary. They are alway needed for transport, while the time will probably never again come when mail steamers will not be even more necessary during war than in times of peace. But this is not all. They fit and train a large number of marine engineers who are ever ready at a day's warning to enter efficiently on the naval service. This is a point of greater importance than is generally supposed. Engineers, however skilled in the shops, are wholly unfit for the service at sea until they have had months of experience, and become accustomed to sea-sickness. When one of our first American mail steamers sailed for Europe, no practised marine engineer could be found to work her engines. They took a first-class engineer and corps of assistants from one of the North River packets; but as soon as the ship got to sea, and heavy weather came on, all the engineers and firemen were taken deadly sick, and for three days it was constantly expected that the ship would be lost.

It is abundantly evident from all of the testimony, that most of the mail packets are capable of carrying a handsome armament. Mr. Atherton says to me in his letter: "Many of our ocean steamers are fit for naval service of every description; and they are generally fit for all transport service." The Report of Lord Canning, the British Post Master General, to which I have referred, was made in 1853, in obedience to a Treasury Minute issued by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who directed the Post Master General to form a committee, and report to both houses, on the propriety of continuing and extending the mail steam packet system; as there had been suggestions that the sum expended for the mail service was large. These gentlemen after a lengthy investigation of several months, the examination of a great number of witnesses, and the record of their testimony in shorthand, made their report, accompanied by the evidence in a large volume. At page 5 of the report, in speaking of the requirements for naval efficiency, they say:

"In arranging the terms of these contracts, the Government seized the opportunity of requiring that the vessels should be constructed in a manner that would render them as serviceable for national defense in war as steam-packets belonging to the Crown would have been if employed in their stead. A provision to this effect was first inserted in the contract with the Royal Mail Company in 1840; and in most of the existing contracts stipulations are to be found requiring that the vessel should be of a construction and strength fit to carry such an armament as the Admiralty may think proper. In several cases they must be built of wood and not of iron; and there are some contracts which confer on the Admiralty the right of taking the ships at a valuation when it may be thought desirable to do so.

"Generally speaking, these stipulations have been fulfilled, as appears from a return which has been laid before us by the Surveyor of the Navy, showing the number, tonnage, and power of the vessels constructed by the various companies under contract with the Admiralty for the conveyance of the mails, distinguishing those built of wood from those built of iron, and stating whether the companies have in any cases violated the terms of the contracts, and if so, whether any authority has been given by the Board of Admiralty for the deviation. It results from this return that out of 98 vessels which had been surveyed by the Government officers, one only (the 'Australian') has been reported as incapable of carrying guns if required, and two iron vessels (the 'Levantine' and the 'Petrel') have been accepted instead of wooden vessels, on Mr. Cunard's Halifax and Bermuda line. Two other vessels—one belonging to the Australian Royal Mail Company, and the other to Mr. Macgregor Laird's West Coast of Africa line—had also been accepted (temporarily) by Admiralty authority, although of less tonnage and power than the contracts prescribed.

"The Surveyor's report upon most of these vessels, as regards their fitness for war purposes, is in the following terms: 'Not fitted for armament, but capable of carrying guns when so fitted.' This report accords with the opinion expressed by the Committee of Naval and Artillery officers upon the vessels which have come under their notice. It appears, however, from the statements of that Committee, that although the packets they have examined are for the most part of sufficient strength to carry and fire a certain number of guns, the expense of the alterations which would be necessary before they could be got ready for service would be very considerable, and that even when such alterations had been made, the efficiency of the vessels would be very small in proportion to their size, and that they could not encounter hostile vessels of equal tonnage without endangering the honor of the British flag.

"With reference to future contracts, we are decidedly of opinion that no expense should be incurred for the sake of imposing conditions for giving a military character to the postal vessels. We believe the imposition of such conditions to be a measure of false economy. Should a war suddenly break out, the immediate demand for mail steamers would probably be greater than ever, and it might be exceedingly inconvenient to withdraw them at such a time from their legitimate use for the purpose of arming them for battle. Moreover, the high charge for the packet service has been borne with the greater readiness, because it has been supposed by some to include a provision of large but unknown amount, for the defense of the country; while on the other hand the Naval Estimates have sometimes been complained of as excessive, on the ground that the force provided for was in addition to the large reserve of postal war steamers. We accordingly recommend that for the future the contracts for the conveyance of the mails should be wholly free from stipulations of the nature we have been describing, though it may be desirable in some cases to retain the power in the Government to take possession of the vessels in the event of national emergency."

Again, in the resumé, after considering each of the British lines separately, the committee say: