S.S. “CITY OF CHESTER.”
City of Berlin, 1875.
But the Inman Company has recently launched from the yard of Messrs. Caird and Company a still larger and more magnificent vessel, the City of Berlin, being the longest and perhaps the largest merchant steam-vessel afloat, the Great Eastern alone excepted. Her dimensions are: length over all, 520 feet; breadth 44 feet; and depth to spar deck, 37 feet; her gross register is 5500 tons; she is supplied with two direct-acting high and low pressure engines (compound condensing) of 900 nominal, but indicating, as proved on trial, 4799 horse-power; her cylinders being 120 and 72 inches diameter respectively, with a piston stroke of 5 feet 6 inches; she has twelve boilers and thirty-six furnaces; and she has accommodation for 202 first-class passengers, and 1500 intermediate passengers and emigrants.[234]
A list of the Inman Company’s vessels on the 1st of January, 1875, will be found in the [Appendix].[235]
The success which had attended the British steamers engaged in the trade with the United States, led to further projects for extending this beneficial agency to the British North American Colonies, and induced the attempt to introduce a regular line of steam-ship communication between Liverpool and Canada by means of the natural estuary of the St. Lawrence. Magnificent, however, as this river unquestionably is, when looked on as an artery of commerce between the rich agricultural and mineral districts along its margins, and the vast tracts of fertile country around its lakes, its navigation is attended with many difficulties and presents numerous dangers. Not the least of these arises from the ice, which, on breaking up, is apt to choke the river, and at the same time to cause the elimination of quantities of watery vapour, which, partially condensed by the surrounding low temperature, is converted into dense fog, so thoroughly impervious to the sun’s rays, as to bewilder the most skilful mariner, and incalculably to increase the dangers to which voyaging in these waters is otherwise exposed.
Ocean steamers to Canada, 1853.
But the indomitable spirit of British shipowners refuses to recognise dangers or to acknowledge difficulties save with a resolution to combat and overcome them; and so it has fared with the suggestion made in June, 1852, for applying steam-ships to carry on the mail and other rapid traffic with British North America. Previously, the trade between this country and Canada, had been carried on by a superior class of sailing-ships, many of which during its early history were commanded by their owners or their sons. Among these early merchant traders to Canada, Mr. Alexander Allan, the father of the family that gives its name to the present Allan line of steamers, had a prominent place.[236] When the success of screw-steamers upon the Atlantic had been assured, the members of the Allan family turned their attention to the advantages to be derived from their employment of such vessels, and established a line of them to run between Liverpool, Quebec, and Montreal during the period of open navigation, and between Liverpool and Portland when the St. Lawrence is icebound.[237]
First Mail Contract, 1852.
Before, however, their vessels were finished, the Canadian Government advertised (June, 1852) for the conveyance of their mails between this country and Canada in summer, and Portland in winter. For this service a contract was concluded with Messrs. McKean, McLarty, and Lamont of Liverpool, who formed a company and opened the line in the spring of 1853, with a vessel of 500 tons register named the Genova: the line was continued for about eighteen months by means of the steamer Cleopatra, of 1467 tons, and two smaller vessels, the Ottawa and Charity, and the Canadian, the first steamer built for Messrs. Allan, who had chartered her to the company.