In 1874, two pioneer steamers of an English company attempted to compete with those of the Pacific Steam-ship Company, but the promoters appear to have been unable to obtain sufficient capital to enlarge their service and maintain the opposition, as they consented, after a few months’ trial, to charter their vessels to the American company, which has also added to its fleet now engaged in this trade two new and large vessels, the City of Pekin and the City of Canton.[160]
As the Central Pacific Railroad was opened soon after the inauguration of the line of steamers to China, passengers as well as a large proportion of the teas and other Chinese produce and merchandise are now transported by it, instead of being conveyed as hitherto from China, by way of the Cape of Good Hope, or across the Pacific Ocean to San Francisco, and thence, viâ Panama, to New York, Boston and other ports on the north-eastern seaboard.
“Law line” of steamers.
That San Francisco was, in the opinion of the Americans, destined to become a great central depôt of commerce, and ought, therefore, to be encouraged by every means in their power, may be inferred from the circumstance that, in 1847, when the Pacific Mail Steam-ship Company commenced operations, another company, known as the “Law Line,” established by Messrs. Law, Roberts, and Company, of New York, received also a subsidy for carrying the United States’ mails between New York, California, and Oregon monthly, although there was not then sufficient trade for even one monthly line of steamers.
South American Steam-ship Company.
Running in connection with the steamers from New York to Aspinwall, the Americans have another line, consisting of twelve very fine steamers ranging from 500 to 2000 tons each, plying between Panama, Valparaiso, and the intermediate ports, rivalling the vessels of the English Pacific Steam Navigation Company, and largely sharing in the commerce between San Francisco and the South American Republic, a trade destined to become one of vast magnitude and of great public importance. Nor do they seem disposed to limit their operations to the shores of the Pacific, for besides the great line now traversing that ocean to China and Japan, they evidently contemplate at no distant date to run lines of their own steamers from San Francisco and Panama to our Australian Colonies. “One of the most pressing needs of the day,” remarks a writer in the leading San Francisco journal of January 1875, “is for the establishment of a permanent steam communication with Australia, and it is a disgrace to the public spirit of our community that it has not been satisfactorily effected.”
Mr. Randall’s projected large American steamer.
Nor are the Americans inclined to rest satisfied with the present size of their steamers, but, with a prudence not displayed by the projectors of our Great Eastern, they have hitherto regulated their dimensions by the requirements of the trade in which they intended to employ them. When I visited Philadelphia, in the autumn of 1860, several merchants of that city brought under my notice the designs and model of a steam-ship they then contemplated building, and which, though not one-half the dimensions of our own vast Leviathan, was double the size of any other vessel then afloat; they had, indeed, formed a company which they styled the Philadelphia and Crescent Steam Navigation Company, expressly for the purpose of constructing a line of such vessels to trade with Great Britain. The plans of this ship are now before me.
Details of proposed ship.
Into the estimates of profit and loss I need not enter, as their accuracy, or otherwise, has not been tested, but the plans of the projector, Mr. Randall, were considered of sufficient importance to justify the State legislature in granting to the company an Act of Incorporation. This vessel was to be 500 feet long, with a beam of 58 feet moulded, and to measure about 8000 tons. She was to have “ample accommodation for 3000 passengers and 3000 tons of cargo,” and to be “a regular 20-mile ship.” She was to “have ample fuel room, sufficient to run 8000 miles without stopping for coal,” and to have a “main saloon of 350 feet of uninterrupted length,” and “175 family state rooms, with double beds in each of extra size, and a dining-room and drawing-room, each 150 feet long.” For the comfort and convenience of excursionists, who, it was said, “will be induced, in consequence of the increased safety offered by these vessels to visit Europe in preference to Saratoga, Newport, Niagara, &c., there will be found on board a social hall, reading-rooms, and library 50 feet long, and a smoking-room 45 feet in extent, and numerous baths, comparing favourably with first-class hotels.”