[229] The City of Paris conveyed, in 1869, His Royal Highness Prince Arthur (now Duke of Connaught) to America in six days twenty-one hours, the quickest passage ever made to any port of the New World from Cork. The Prince attended Divine Service at Queenstown on Sunday, embarked at four P.M. that day, and was landed at Halifax, Nova Scotia, at half-past ten A.M. on the following Sunday in time for Morning Service at that place, which he also attended, much to his credit.
[230] The following is an extract from the logs of the City of Brussels and City of Richmond.
“City of Brussels.”
|
Sandy Hook to Queenstown. December, 1869. | Wind. | Courses. |
Distance from Sandy Hook. | Latitude, N. | Longitude,, W. | Remarks. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saturday, 4 | Southerly | East. | 37 | 40·30 | 73·09 | A.M.--9.15, passed Sandy Hook. |
| Sunday, 5 | ” | N. 85 E. | 330 | 41·27 | 66·00 | Moderate breeze and calm. |
| Monday, 6 | Easterly | N. 69 E. | 320 | 43·21 | 59·15 | Moderate breeze. |
| Tuesday, 7 | S. S. W. | N. 67 E. | 336 | 45·32 | 52·00 | Light breeze. |
| Wednesday, 8 | ” | N. 68 E. | 346 | 47·44 | 44·14 | Light breeze. |
| Thursday, 9 | S. W. | N. 72 E. | 371 | 49·42 | 38·18 | Moderate breeze. |
| Friday, 10 | West. | N. 85 E. | 365 | 50·11 | 25·51 | Moderate breeze. |
| Saturday, 11 | N. W. | N. 80 E. | 353 | 51·15 | 16·44 | Fresh gale. |
| Sunday, 12 | .. | To Fastnet | 266 | .. | .. |
A.M.--6.20, past Fastnet; 10.10, Queenstown. |
“City of Richmond.”
|
Queenstown to. Sandy Hook. December, 1875. | Wind. | Courses. | Distances. | Latitude. | Longitude. | Remarks. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saturday, 17 | Calm. | S. 84 W. | 290 | 50·58 | 15·41 |
P.M.--4.10, Received Mails. Calm and Cloudy. |
| Sunday, 18 | Variable. | S. 80 W. | 362 | 49·56 | 25·01 | Light airs. |
| Monday, 19 | Variable. | S. 72 W. | 360 | 48·08 | 33·43 | Light airs. |
| Tuesday, 20 | S. E. | S. 68 W. | 380 | 45·42 | 42·18 | Moderate breeze. |
| Wedn’sday, 21 | Variable. | Variable. | 366 | 43·25 | 50·14 | Light and Variable. |
| Thursday, 22 | Calm. | S. 81 W. | 363 | 42·00 | 58·11 | Light airs and calm. |
| Friday, 23 | Variable. | 361 | 41·03 | 66·07 |
Light airs and fog, 9.25 A.M. Received Pilot. P.M. 10.00 stopped and sounded. | |
| Saturday, 24 | Variable. | 361 | P.M. 10.30 Sandy Hook. |
[231] Mr. Inman was the first to start a regular line of steamers across the Atlantic consisting entirely of iron ships propelled by the screw; and as he and Mrs. Inman, greatly to their credit, made a voyage in one of their earliest emigrant steamers, expressly for the purpose of ameliorating the discomforts and evils hitherto but too common in emigrant ships, my readers may naturally desire to know something of Mr. Inman’s history.
In a few words therefore I may state that he was born at Leicester in the year 1825, where his father (a partner of Pickford and Co.) then resided. Educated at the Collegiate Institution at that place, and at the Liverpool Royal Institution, he, in 1841, preferring business to a profession, entered a mercantile office; passed through various grades of clerkship under the late Mr. Nathan Cairns (brother to Lord Cairns), Messrs. Cater and Co., and Messrs. Richardson Brothers, (all merchants of Liverpool): of the latter firm he became a partner in January 1849, and had the entire management of their fleet of American sailing packets then trading between Liverpool and Philadelphia. Here he first gained an intimate knowledge of the emigrant business which he has since pursued with so much success and public advantage.
Mr. Inman having watched with considerable interest the performances of the City of Glasgow on her first trip to America, was convinced of the advantages she possessed over, not merely their sailing-ships, but over paddle-steamers for the purposes of navigation, and therefore recommended her purchase to his partners. Acting on his advice, they bought and dispatched her with 400 steerage passengers in the winter of 1850 across the troubled waters of the Atlantic, very much to the dismay of that numerous body of men who had still no faith in the screw, and who dreaded the performances of any vessel thus propelled in so stormy an ocean, even though they had seen what the Great Britain had done years before. But the City of Glasgow did her work right well, and completely falsified the prophecies of the foreboders of disaster. The City of Manchester, which followed, “left a profit in the first year of her movements of 40 per cent.” to her enterprising owners, and hence no more has been heard since that time of the inferiority of the screw to the paddle-wheel. One is often surprised to see a man so fully occupied, as he must have been, with his own affairs taking an active part in public matters; but we find Mr. Inman in his useful and busy career (like numerous other active men of business) a member of the Local Marine Board, a member of the Mersey Docks and Harbour Trust, a member of the first Liverpool School Board, a captain of the Cheshire Rifle Volunteers and the holder, too, of prizes, a magistrate for the county of Cheshire where he resides, the chairman of the Liverpool Steam Shipowners’ Association of Liverpool, and an active politician, frequently called on to give evidence before Royal Commissions and Committees of the House of Commons. His life indeed affords an excellent example for the rising generation to follow.