[127] The discovery of large quantities of gold in California had attracted the enormous quantity of tonnage to that region.
[128] Vide ‘Hansard,’ vol. cv. pp. 883-5. It occupies two closely printed columns.
[129] See ‘Hansard,’ vol. cvi. p. 48.
[130] The Petition at length will be found in the ‘Shipping Gazette,’ 13th June, 1849.
[131] See Hertslet’s ‘Treaties,’ &c., vol. viii. p. 968.
CHAPTER XI.
Despondency of many shipowners after the repeal of the Navigation Laws—Advantage naturally taken by foreigners, and especially by the Americans—Jardine and Co. build vessels to compete with the Americans—Aberdeen “clippers”—Shipowners demand the enforcement on foreign nations of reciprocity—Return of prosperity to the Shipowners—Act of 1850 for the improvement of the condition of seamen—Valuable services of Mr. T. H. Farrer—Chief conditions of the Act of 1850—Certificates of examination—Appointment of local marine boards, and their duties—Further provisions of the Act of 1850—Institution of Naval Courts abroad—Special inspectors to be appointed by the Board of Trade, if need be—Act of 1851, regulating Merchant Seaman’s Fund, &c.—Merchant Shipping Act, 1854—New measurement of ships—Registration of ships—The “Rule of the Sea”—Pilots and pilotage—Existing Mercantile Marine Fund—Wrecks—Limitation of the liability of Shipowners—Various miscellaneous provisions—Act of 1855.
Despondency of many shipowners after the repeal of the Navigation Laws.
Considering the violent opposition offered by the great majority of shipowners to the repeal of the Navigation Laws, it is not surprising that their despondency, when the Act came into operation, knew no bounds. Many of them resolved—and a few acted upon the resolution—to dispose of their ships at whatever price they would fetch, others determined to register them under a foreign flag; but few, if any, carried out their determination in this respect. On the other hand, as might have been expected, foreign nations, and especially the United States, made extraordinary efforts to secure for their shipowners the more valuable portion of the trade thrown open by the repeal of these laws. Hitherto the vessels of that country had more than rivalled British ships in the China trade; and, ever since the first Chinese war in 1842, when great expectations were entertained of an enormous increase of trade with that country, the Americans had made very considerable efforts to secure the larger proportion of it. To meet these efforts we had, before we were roused from our apathy by the repeal of the Navigation Laws, built various vessels of an improved description, such as the Alexander Baring, John o’Gaunt, Euphrates, Monarch, and Foam, which were equal to any American vessels then engaged in the trade with China. But, in 1845, various vessels were despatched from New York and Boston to Wampoa, of a novel form, which surpassed ours in speed, having low hulls, great beam, very fine lines, and with yards so square as to spread a far larger amount of canvas in proportion to their tonnage than any vessels hitherto afloat. To rival these we, in 1846, first directed our attention to the construction of “clipper vessels,” and as a test of these, Messrs. Alexander Hall and Co. of Aberdeen, sent forth a schooner named the Torrington, to compete with the Americans then engaged in the coasting trade of China, and in the still more lucrative opium trade. As this vessel proved a success, others of greater dimensions soon followed.
But in 1848, the Americans had found out a trade exclusively their own, which led to the construction of larger and still faster vessels than any they had hitherto employed in the trade with China. The discovery of the gold mines in California gave an impetus to their shipbuilding hitherto unknown; and, for that trade, they brought out a class of ships such as the world had then never seen; their dimensions in tonnage being as great as the largest of our old East Indiamen, with a capacity for cargo far greater, and with lines as sharp and fine as almost any Baltimore clipper. The voyage of the first of these celebrated vessels was limited to San Francisco, from which she returned in ballast to New York, having earned sufficient freight on her outward passage alone to amply remunerate her enterprising owners. The others, however, which followed, continued their voyage from California to China, and having the peculiar advantage of their own “coasting trade,” from which the vessels of all other nations were excluded, they obtained an immense advantage over all competitors.