THE PENINSULAR AND ORIENTAL COMPANY’S STEAMER “KHEDIVE.”
It would weary my readers were I to furnish a specification of the hull and outfit of the Khedive, more especially as somewhat similar specifications are to be found in numerous treatises on modern shipbuilding, with which I do not profess to deal, and as it would, in itself, occupy forty or fifty pages of this volume. It may be sufficient to state, in the concluding words of the contract, “that the whole of the materials and workmanship are to be of the best quality, and the vessel, with the exception of bed and sofa mattresses, curtains, plate, cutlery, glass, china, linen, and bedding, to be entirely fitted and ready for sea at the cost of the contractors;” the contract price for the ship thus fitted complete for sea, including her machinery, was 110,000l., or a little more than 33l. per ton builders’ measurement.
Of course the price of all ships, as previously stated, depends on their class, power, and equipment, so that the cost of one vessel ready for sea may be very different from that of another ship. For instance, sailing-ships, when new, range from 8l. to 22l. per ton, and steamers from 15l. to as high as 40l. or even 45l. per ton if the engines be very powerful, highly finished, and mounted, and if the passenger accommodation be of an unusually superior and extravagant description.
In comparing this ship with the illustrations I have given of vessels of even comparatively modern times, my readers will be struck with the difference. Instead of the great hull towering high out of the water, with poops and top-gallant forecastles resembling the towers or castles on shore from which they derive their name, we have the long, low, yacht-looking craft offering the least possible resistance to the winds and waves against which she has to contend, yet affording more safety, as experience has shown, and far more comfort, with vastly increased capacity, in proportion to her register, for cargo and passengers, than the ships of any nation of any previous age.
Particulars of this ship.
In other respects it would be useless to attempt a comparison. We have nothing in ancient times to compare with the steam-ship, unless it be the row-galley, and to propel a vessel of the size and weight of the Khedive at the rate of four miles an hour through the smoothest water would require at least 2000 rowers. I may however state, for the information of my readers, that the Khedive will perform the voyage from Southampton to Bombay in thirty days (an abstract from her log will be found, [Appendix No. 22, pp. 637-8]), or in one-third of the time which Dr. Vincent, when he wrote at the commencement of this century on the commerce of the East, considered extraordinarily short between Bombay and England; indeed, is short, too, for a sailing-vessel of even our own times. A list of her crew, arranged according to their different departments, is furnished herewith.[358]
Uniform and regulations of the company.
Following the example of the old East India Company, the directors of the Peninsular and Oriental Company, as well as of many other similar undertakings, require their officers to wear uniform. They also issue regulations for the guidance of the engineers and for the general management of their ships (especially with reference to safety and economy). These regulations are similar in many respects to those of other companies, though not so complete as those of the Cunard, nor, we fear, from various accidents which have occurred, so rigidly enforced. Upon this all-important point—the safety of the ship—it would be impossible to impress too strongly upon shipowners the duty they owe to the public, since, by the vigorous enforcement of such regulations, numerous valuable lives might be saved and many terrible calamities prevented. To uniforms I have no objection, but such matters are of very secondary consideration to the safety of the vessel, and while holding the opinion that polite and well-dressed officers are an acquisition, especially to a passenger ship, their acts of courtesy must never be permitted to interfere in the slightest degree with their paramount duties as seamen, which require them, considering the varied and increasing dangers to which steam navigation is exposed, to be ever on the alert.
I have ventured to offer these few concluding remarks because some of the losses of the vessels of the Peninsular and Oriental Company, which occurred in fine weather and in smooth water, might have been avoided. The directors have, however, since then issued (March 14th, 1874) to the commanders of their ships more stringent instructions, and have intimated that any neglect of duty, especially as regards “lookouts,” will be “severely visited.”[359]