[194] In 1840 and 1841 the British Government entered into contracts, to which I shall hereafter refer, for the conveyance of the mails with the West Indies and also with the Pacific Steam Navigation Companies; and, early in 1850, they concluded a contract with the Cunard Company for the conveyance of the mails between Halifax, New York, and Bermuda in small vessels of 350 tons and 80 horse-power, fitted with a proper space for mounting an 18-pounder pivot gun. One of these vessels left Halifax for Bermuda and another left for St. John’s within twenty-four hours after the arrival of the packet from Liverpool; a third conveyed the mails monthly between Bermuda and New York, the subsidy being 10,600l. per annum, or at the rate of 3s. per mile; on the main line it was 11s. 4d. per mile.
In 1851, the British Government made another contract with the Cunard Company for a monthly conveyance of the mails between Bermuda and St. Thomas each way upon such days as might be fixed by the Admiralty, the provisions as regards the size, power, and armament of the vessels being the same in all respects as those in the other subsidiary service, only that the price was to be equal to 4s. per mile, or 4,100l. per annum. This service connected the West Indies with the United States and the North American provinces. The departure of the one vessel engaged in it took place immediately after the arrival of the homeward mail West India packet, so that she carried the correspondence of the West Indian Colonies and of Her Majesty’s officers on the station from that island to Bermuda.
[195] Vide Official Reports from the Senate, 1850 and 1852, passim.
[196] The general dimensions of these celebrated steamers were: length of keel, 277 feet; length on main deck, 282 feet; depth from the maindeck, 24 feet; depth under the spar deck, 32 feet; breadth of beam, 45 feet. They had rounded sterns, three masts with suitable spars; a lower deck, main deck, and spar deck, as well as an orlop deck extending from the engine-room forward and aft. The area of transverse section of the Arctic, for instance, was 772 square feet. Launching draught aft, 10 feet; average displacement per inch, from launching to load line, 20½ tons; area of load line, 9369·10 square feet; whole displacement to its circumscribing parallelopipedon, 601 per cent.; weight of hull, 1525 tons; weight of spars and rigging, 34 tons; ordinary load line aft, 20 feet; ordinary load line forward, 19½ feet.
[197] I have not room for these very valuable historical documents, so much wanted in our own merchant navy, but the reader interested will find them in extenso in note, Appendix O, in Mr. C. B. Stuart’s work, “On Naval and Mail Steamers;” U.S., published in New York, 1853.
[198] A description in detail of these boilers is given in the note, Appendix O, already mentioned.
[199] The respective diameters of wheels in these steamers from outside to outside of floats, were as follows, viz., Arctic, 35 feet 6 inches; Baltic, 36 feet; Atlantic, 35 feet; and Pacific, 35 feet. Those of the Arctic and Atlantic had thirty-six floats; the Baltic, thirty-two; and the Pacific, twenty-eight.
The average performances of the engines of the Arctic were as follows: pressure, 16·9 pounds; revolutions, 15·8 per minute with an average consumption of 83 tons of anthracite coals per day of twenty-four hours, giving an average speed of 316·4 knots per day. Her maximum pressure was 17·5 pounds; revolutions, 16·7 per minute; consumption, 87 tons, and speed 320 knots per day. The consumption of coal per day in the Asia (Cunard line) was, on an average, 76 tons, and her speed with this consumption 303 knots per day.
[200] The plates of this splendid engine will be found in the second volume of Tredgold’s “Steam-Engine,” and well deserve the attention of professional readers. Mr. Victor Beaumont’s account of the ship and engine will be found in the same volume.
[201] See Reports of Proceedings in Congress.