[271] The Victoria is 361½ feet in length, 40½ feet beam, 24½ feet depth of hold to main, and 32 feet to spar deck; her measurement is 3287 tons gross. She has compound engines of 500 nominal horse-power, with cylinders of 57 inches and 108 inches diameter respectively, having 4 feet length of stroke of piston, and six boilers with eighteen furnaces, consuming, when at full speed, “14 knots per hour on the measured mile, 45 tons of coal per day of twenty-four hours.” She has accommodation for 150 first-class and 900 steerage passengers, besides her crew, and also large cargo space.
[272] The Suavia, which was built in 1874 by Messrs. Caird and Co. of Greenock, is 361 feet in length, 41 feet in breadth, and her depth to the upper spar deck is 34 feet. She measures 3623 tons gross, and has accommodation for ninety-two first-class passengers, eighty-two second-class and 930 third-class passengers, besides her crew of 120 men; she has likewise space for 2000 tons of cargo. The Suavia is the twenty-second steam-ship built by Messrs. Caird and Company for the Hamburg American Steam Packet Company.
CHAPTER VII.
Royal West India Mail Steam Packet Company, 1841—Number of their ships—Conditions of mail contract—Large subsidy—Heavy loss during the first year of their operations—Capital of the Company—Liberal concessions by Government—Complaints of the public—Improved prospects of the company from improved management—Contract renewed, 1850—Its conditions—Fresh conditions, 1857—Contract again renewed, 1864—Further renewal, 1874—The steam-ship Forth—Losses of various ships of the company—Causes of these losses—Loss of the Amazon—Terrible sufferings—Loss of the Demerara—Additions to their fleet, and superior class of vessels.
Royal West India Mail Steam Packet Company, 1841.
Number of ships.
Soon after the Atlantic Ocean began to be regularly navigated by steam-vessels, the importance of a better means of intercommunication with the West Indies led to the formation of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, which entered into a contract with the Board of Admiralty in March 1841 for the conveyance of the mails between England, the West Indies, and the Gulf of Mexico. This company commenced operations on a much more comprehensive and grander scale than either the Cunard Company or the Peninsular and Oriental. Fourteen large steam-ships were at once ordered to be built for the service; they were to be substantial and efficient in all respects, and of such strength as would enable them to carry guns of the largest calibre then in use on board Her Majesty’s war-steamers, with engines of not less than 400 collective horse-power.
Conditions of mail contract.
Large Subsidy.
When complete, the conditions of the contract required one of these vessels to be ready to take the mails on board, twice in each calendar month, and to proceed, viâ Corunna and Madeira, to the island of Barbadoes and, after staying there not more than six hours, thence, viâ St. Vincent, to the island of Grenada, where the stoppage was limited to twelve hours, and thence, again, to the islands in succession of Santa Cruz and St. Thomas, Nicola Mole in Haiti, Santiago de Cuba, and Port Royal, in Jamaica. After a stay not exceeding twenty-four hours at Port Royal, the steamer was to proceed to Savannah-la-Mer, in the same island, thence to Havannah, and, on her return thence, to call again at Savannah-la-Mer, thence to Port Royal, and, thence, to Santiago de Cuba, Nicola Mole, and Samana, in the island of Haiti, delivering mails at each place, “care being taken that the said steam-vessel shall always arrive at Samana aforesaid (after performing the said voyage from Barbadoes under ordinary circumstances of wind and weather) on the twenty-second day after the arrival from England of the mails at Barbadoes;” and, after delivering and receiving the mails at Samana, “the steam-vessel shall make the best of her way back from Samana to such port in the British Channel as the said Commissioners of the Admiralty shall from time to time direct.” The scheme, also, embraced other places in the West Indies, the Spanish Main, and the United States, for which mails were to be carried. In consideration of the services thus to be performed, the company was to receive at the rate of 240,000l. per annum, in quarterly payments; the contract to commence on the 1st of December, 1841, or at an earlier day if possible, and to continue in force for ten years, subject to twelve months’ notice on either side for its termination.