“Having experienced the difficulty arising from brokers acting to-day for a party who adhered to their date, and to-morrow for another who would not let their vessels go until filled, we at once decided on taking charge of the loading ourselves, which we still continue. After this we went on steadily increasing our fleet of sailing-ships until those afloat numbered thirty-five. Our last contract for a sailing-vessel was in September 1868.
“For several years, our operations were confined to Calcutta, but, in 1863, at the solicitation of several friends, we started a monthly line to Bombay, having in the meantime increased our sailings very materially to Calcutta as well. The following statement shows the number of voyages completed to each port in 1871, and is a fair estimate of the work of the previous eight years. We had, in fact, a virtual monopoly of the trade, gained by strict punctuality—a high class of ships and moderate charges, ever studying to arrange rates that our friends could not go past us to do better.[374]
“Our first iron ship was launched in 1856; our wooden ones were disposed of as opportunity offered, and, in 1868, only one of these remained, which we have since sold.
“We commenced steam in 1871, by contracting for four boats of 2250 tons gross, and about 1700 tons register, having compound engines of 200 horse-power, working up to 1000. The boilers have been a serious source of annoyance to us from the first. When all goes right, we get 9 to 9½ knots out of them, and make the passage (viâ Suez Canal) in thirty-nine days including stoppages; but the irregularity attending their working prevents us from giving you a list of their passages as desired; latterly, we have added two of a larger class and more power. These have been making the passages regularly in thirty-one to thirty-three days, and we anticipate equal results from other four now in course of construction.”
Changes in the mode of conducting commerce with India and China.
In the brief account thus given we have a condensed history of the changes and progress of the merchant ships of Great Britain during the last thirty-five years, so far as regards our trade with India. Step by step, they rise from wood to iron and increase in size from 350 to 1500 tons as sailing-ships, while these in turn are now being to a large extent supplanted by iron screw-steamers of from 2000 to 3000 tons and upwards. In most respects, the sailing-ships of Messrs. Smith and Son very much resemble the finest of the modern free-trade Indiamen, whereof a drawing has been furnished;[375] and their steam-ships are not unlike the more recent vessels of which various illustrations are given in these pages; their City of Oxford, for instance, of 2220 tons gross, carries 2500 tons of Calcutta cargo, besides 750 tons of coals in her bunkers; and she is navigated by forty-nine persons, comprising commander, surgeon, two officers, twenty seamen, seventeen men in the engineer’s department, and eight persons otherwise employed.[376]
Such are the vessels now carrying on the more valuable portion of our trade with India, through that great maritime highway, which the genius and industry of De Lesseps has so recently opened to our vast commerce with the far East, three-fourths of which, however, is still conducted by the way of the Cape of Good Hope.[377]
Number of vessels through Suez Canal since its opening, and their nationality.
In the Appendix to this volume[378] will be found an account of the vessels which have annually passed through the Suez Canal since that great undertaking was opened, specifying the different nations to which they belong. Some interesting and instructive facts may be gathered from these returns, especially with regard to the remarkably rapid growth of the traffic, increasing as this has done from 486 ships of 435,908 tons in 1870, to 1264 ships of 2,423,672 tons in 1874. Nor is it less worthy of notice that more than three-fourths of the whole of this tonnage belongs to Great Britain.[379]
Figures such as these may in some measure set at rest the fear long entertained that the opening of this canal would be prejudicial, in any material extent, to the interests of England, by diverting the course of commerce with India to its former European centres, and restoring the commercial greatness of Constantinople, Venice, Leghorn, Marseilles, Cadiz, and Lisbon. For, though these places cannot fail to be benefited to a greater or less extent, and they have already been so, by the re-opening of the ancient route, their superior position to that of the ports of Great Britain will be of little avail, till they adopt the policy pursued with so much success by this country. If they desire to secure that share of the commerce of India, to which from their natural position they may fairly consider themselves entitled, they must open their ports to the ships of all nations, sweep away their differential and protective duties, establish docks and bonding warehouses, and offer to the traders of the world equal facilities for obtaining whatever description of its assorted produce they may require for their varied wants. The mere fact of being a few days nearer Calcutta or Bombay will otherwise avail them little, distance in itself being now of comparatively small importance to what it was before steam-ships traversed the ocean.