CHAPTER XV.
SEA AND OCEAN STEAMERS IN VARIOUS PARTS OF THE WORLD.
There is now hardly any part of the world touched by salt water that cannot be reached by steamer; wherever there is sufficient commerce to give promise of remuneration a steam line is sure to be established. Most of the European governments support lines of steamers by subsidies in the shape of mail contracts; in this way they have built up a mercantile marine, comprising thousands of ships that plow the waves in all directions and spread their flags wherever the breezes blow. Commerce has been developed by the steamship, and one after another the subsidized lines have created a trade that has enabled them to take care of themselves, or will thus enable them as the years roll on. The steamer is one of the links to unite the nations, and the familiar intercourse that it creates is a sure promotor of universal peace.
Of transatlantic lines there are many; it is impossible to give the exact number for the reason that new ones may be created or old ones suspended during the time this volume is passing through the press. On the American coast the ports of Montreal, Quebec, Halifax, Portland, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Charleston, Savannah, and New Orleans are served by transatlantic steam lines; New York alone has a dozen (roughly stated) and several of the others have each two or three. The ports on the other side of the Atlantic that are thus connected with the United States are Liverpool, London, Glasgow, Belfast, Bristol, Hull, Southampton, Hamburg, Bremen, Rotterdam, Antwerp, Havre, and Bordeaux. The Liverpool steamers touch at Queenstown, both going and returning, so that the latter port has an almost daily communication with America by steam without herself owning a single ship. There are lines between New York and the ports of the Mediterranean, with a service more or less regular. In the fruit season there is more activity in their movements, and their numbers are greater than when the oranges have ceased to be gathered and the lemon has been squeezed. Occasionally there is a steamer for ports on the Baltic, and not many years ago there was a line to Stettin and another to Amsterdam. They may be revived any day, and new lines may come into existence while yet we are talking about them.
Thus far there are no regular lines of steamers between the Atlantic coast of the United States and the ports of Asia. One of the New York and Liverpool companies has a line to Bombay and can send passengers and freight all the way by its own ships, with a transfer in Liverpool. In the tea season steamers come from China to New York by way of the Suez Canal, bringing cargoes of the herb that forms our breakfast beverage, but they do not return by the way they came; from China to New York they make a direct voyage, but on the return journey to the Land of the Celestials they take cargoes for Liverpool, London, or any other port that offers. Most of these ships are specially designed for freighting purposes, and their passenger accommodations are limited; some of them are noted for their speed, though they rarely make as rapid progress as the crack vessels of the transatlantic lines.
The great majority of the steam lines everywhere are under the English flag; of the transatlantic companies only one is American, but not all of its ships are of American build. Of the two great companies that connect Europe with the far East one is French and the other English; there are two smaller companies connecting England with China, both of them English, and there are occasional irregular ships, all of the same nationality. Without attempting statistical exactness it is safe to say that of the ocean steamers that link the different parts of the world together at least nine out of every ten are British.
We have already glanced at the steamship service in waters adjacent to Europe; let us now look away to the East.
There is an average of fully four steamers a week from Europe to Alexandria, Egypt, and in the winter season the number is greater. The lines are English, French, Austrian, and Italian, with a semi-monthly Russian and an occasional craft of some other nationality. Some of these steamers end their journey at Alexandria and return thence to Europe, while others proceed to Asia by way of the Suez Canal. The steamers touching at Alexandria form but a small part of those that use the Suez Canal; the traffic through that artificial highway has steadily increased, from year to year, until it now amounts to 120 ships a month, or four per day. Nearly all the craft that pass through the Canal are steamers, as it has not been found profitable for sailing ships to make the voyage up or down the Red Sea, with its treacherous winds and dangerous navigation. It is probable that within the next decade the number of steamers passing the Canal will be not less than 200 per month, and many persons familiar with the subject predict an increase still greater.
From Suez the steamers follow the narrow track of the Red Sea, where the sun pours down its pitiless rays and causes the panting traveler to absorb copiously of beverages that cool if they do not inebriate. From the Straits of Bab-el-Mandel (Gate of Tears) the routes diverge; one tends northward and eastward to the Persian Gulf and the rivers that flow into it, while another heads almost due east to Bombay. The route of the Persian Gulf is served by an English company, while that of Bombay can boast of three or four English lines, an Austrian line, and an Italian one, not to mention the many irregular steamers on the hunt for chance cargoes and passengers. A hundred miles from the entrance of the Red Sea is the verdureless Rock of Aden, where British enterprise has established a port and coaling station. Most of the regular lines make a halt there, and it has been found in practice that Aden is an important point of divergence. Some of the English companies have a service down the east coast of Africa as far as the Cape of Good Hope, and the French have a line to Seychelles, Mauritius, and Reunion.
The majority of the steamers going east from Aden head for Pointe de Galle, at the southern extremity of Ceylon. Here they diverge again, some going to Calcutta, some to Australia, around its southern coast, a few to Burmah, and the rest to Singapore, at the Straits of Malacca.
From Singapore there are various routes for the ships that have followed each other from Pointe de Galle. Northward go some to the capital of Siam, less northerly others to Cochin China, and others to Hong Kong, Shanghai, Yokohama, and the different ports of the Celestial Empire, and the Land of the Mikado. Others turn southward from Singapore to Java, and there is a line between Singapore and Australia, by way of Java and Torres Straits, following the northern coast of the great island instead of its southern one. Irregular ships go to Borneo and around Sumatra, and there is a Spanish line that unites Singapore with the Philippine Islands.