Chapter X
Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company—Its founders and origin—Messrs. Willcox and Anderson—Mr. James Allan—How the Peninsular mails were originally conveyed—Proposal of Peninsular Company for their conveyance—Contract concluded August 29th, 1837—Conveyance of mails to India previously to 1839—Government applies to the Peninsular Company and accepts their proposals, though reluctantly—Proposed direct line from Falmouth to Calcutta—First vessels hence, on Indian postal service to Alexandria—Original postal service from Suez to Bombay—Contract for mails between Suez and Calcutta, September 1842—Further proposals made by the East India Company and Government, but finally rejected by the East India Company—Further contracts for mail service to China and Singapore—Peninsular and Oriental Company undertake the line between Bombay and Suez, 1854—House of Commons Committee on Australian mail service, 1849—Eastern Steam Navigation Company and Peninsular and Oriental Company tender for it, but the Peninsular and Oriental succeed—The Himalaya built—New contract with Peninsular and Oriental Company, January 1853—Failure of service during the Crimean War—Proposals for an independent Australian mail service—Tender of European and Australian Company accepted—Their entire failure—Speech of Lord Overstone, March 24th, 1859—Royal Mail Company undertakes the Australian service and fails—New tenders invited—That of Peninsular and Oriental Company accepted, 1859—Consolidation of services in the Peninsular and Oriental Company—Its present condition and fleet of ships—Terms of the contract now in force—Revenue and expenditure—Coals required—Descriptions of vessels—Screw steamer Khedive—Particulars of this ship—Uniform and regulations of the company.
[Sidenote: Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company.]
The career of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, the first commercial undertaking which conveyed the mails overland to the East is interesting and instructive. It is the more so, as the impression that this company owed its origin to Government grants, and that it has been entirely maintained by subsidies for the conveyance of the mails, is not supported by facts. Indeed, during the earlier portion of its career, the company, by agreeing to carry the Peninsular mails, shortly after it had been started, for a sum considerably less than the cost of maintaining the Admiralty packets then employed, with a speed, too, and regularity previously unknown, conferred an undoubted boon on the public.
Whether the company would have continued to maintain its career of prosperity without Government subsidies is a problem too speculative for me to solve; but it may well be questioned whether the grants of public money subsequently voted to it year by year, in so far as they prevented wholesome competition, and tended to damp the individual energy which brought it into existence, have been of much service towards its success. During one portion of the company’s career, when the advantages of the overland route had been fully established, it might, and I think it would, have been to its advantage to have been relieved from every incumbrance as to time and speed. Free from these, and the many other conditions required by Government, the company would probably have done better for its shareholders had it been, also, at liberty to build and sail its ships as it pleased, despatching them on such voyages and at such rates of speed as paid it best; and, in support of this opinion, I may remark that various other shipping companies with no assistance whatever from Government have yielded far larger dividends than the Peninsular and Oriental, and, further, that private shipowners, who never had a mail bag in their steamers, have realized large fortunes. With these remarks, I shall now endeavour to furnish a brief history of this important undertaking from its commencement, and to show that its rise was by slow degrees, and altogether unlike that of the Royal West India Mail Steam Packet Company, with which it has been frequently compared.
[Sidenote: Its founders and origin.]
[Sidenote: Messrs. Willcox and Anderson.]
In the year 1815, Mr. Brodie McGhee Willcox,[337] then a young man with no influence and but limited pecuniary means, opened an office in Lime Street, London, and commenced business on his own account as a shipbroker and commission agent. To assist him in his business he shortly afterwards engaged as clerk a youth from the Orkney Islands, Arthur Anderson,[338] subsequently his partner, whose only capital was a plain but sound education, good moral and Christian training, a clear head and great industry. In 1825, the firm adopted the title of Willcox and Anderson, and removed their offices to 5 St. Mary Axe, where they carried on their business till it was absorbed into that of the great company whose progress I am about to describe. Originally, it was simply a small shipping commission business, with the addition of the part-ownership of a few vessels chiefly trading with the Peninsula, with which they in time opened up, first a regular sailing, and then a steam line of communication, this service having been started solely by Mr. Willcox. At first, Messrs. Willcox and Anderson had a good deal of up-hill work, but they were plodding and industrious, and, consequently, overcame every difficulty, soon insuring that success which industry, honesty, and economy must ever command.
[Sidenote: Mr. James Allan.]
In 1834, the Dublin and London Steam Packet Company, one of the early undertakings of that description, of which Messrs. Bourne of Dublin, the well-known stage-coach contractors for the conveyance of the mails in Ireland, were the chief proprietors, chartered one of their vessels, the Royal Tar (see illustration, p. 380), to Don Pedro, and subsequently for the Queen Regent of Spain, through Messrs. Willcox and Anderson as brokers. Soon afterwards, M. Mendizabal, at that time Spanish Minister in London, induced Messrs. Bourne to put on a line of steamers between London and the Peninsula, for which Messrs. Willcox and Anderson were appointed agents. A small company having been thus formed to carry out this undertaking, Mr. James Allan,[339] a native of Aberdeen, then a clerk in the office of the Dublin and London Steam Packet Company, was sent to London to assist Messrs. Willcox and Anderson in the management of the ships. He afterwards became secretary, and when the company had materially extended its operations, Mr. Allan, on the death of Mr. Carleton in 1848, was appointed a managing director in conjunction with Messrs. Willcox and Anderson.
[Sidenote: How the Peninsular mails were originally conveyed.]
Previously to September 1837, the Peninsular mails were conveyed by sailing post-office packets which left Falmouth for Lisbon every week, “wind and weather permitting.” Their departures and arrivals, as must ever be the case with sailing-vessels, were very irregular, and it was no unfrequent occurrence for the mail from Lisbon to be three weeks old on its arrival at Falmouth. The mail communication with Cadiz and Gibraltar was, however, carried on by a Government steam-packet, and, though of course with greater regularity than the service performed by the sailing-packets, was, nevertheless, much slower than any of the steamers under the management of Messrs. Willcox and Anderson, who, feeling themselves in a position to effect considerable improvements in the transmission of the mails, submitted an offer to Government for a more regular transport of letters. But this proposal was coldly received, and their suggestions at first disregarded. Vested interests here, as in so many other cases, for a time prevented any improvement. The Peninsular Company, however, continued to prosecute their undertaking with vigour, the speed and regularity with which their steamers performed their passages soon attracting public attention. Loud complaints of the inefficiency of the transmission of the mails by sailing-packets at length arose, and, indeed, were so earnest and persistent on the part of the merchants engaged in the trade, that Government at last considered it expedient to inquire officially of the managers of the Peninsular steamers if they had any plan or proposals to submit for an improvement of the mail service, as, if they had, their views would now receive favourable consideration.
[Sidenote: Proposal of Peninsular Company for their conveyance.]
A fresh proposal was, consequently, made for a weekly mail between Falmouth, Vigo, Oporto, Lisbon, Cadiz, and Gibraltar, for which purpose efficient steam-vessels were to be supplied, to perform the service, monthly, between these ports, and at a lower rate than half the cost to the country of the steam and sailing-packets of the Admiralty.
Though Government now received the proposals of the company with favour and were prepared to act on the plan submitted for consideration, the company was informed that the service, nevertheless, must be put up to public competition. An advertisement was, accordingly, soon afterwards issued, inviting tenders from owners of steam-vessels for the conveyance of the mails between Falmouth and the Peninsula, in conformity with the plan submitted by the Peninsular Company; so that the managers of this struggling undertaking had to compete against others for the due performance of this service, though on plans drawn up by themselves at the request and with the entire approval of Government. But though another company, which had a short time previously started under the name of the British and Foreign Steam Navigation Company, tendered for the conveyance of the mails, it was soon found that they were not able to carry out the service either within the time or on the conditions required. Time was, however, allowed them to perfect their arrangements, and, a month afterwards, fresh advertisements were issued by the Admiralty for the conveyance of these mails.
[Sidenote: Contract concluded, Aug. 29th, 1837.]
The British and Foreign Steam Navigation Company, however, having again failed to show that they had adequate means for the efficient performance of this service, Government entered into private negotiations with the Peninsular Company with the view of reducing the amount required by them, and, on the 29th of August, 1837, a contract was concluded by which this company agreed to convey, monthly, the whole of the Peninsular mails for 29,600_l._, a sum subsequently reduced to 20,500_l._ per annum. The service was performed with much regularity, and it may be considered to have been the nucleus of the great company which now conveys the mails to all parts of the Eastern world. The Iberia, built by Messrs. Curling and Young, was the first steamer despatched with the Peninsular mails. She sailed in September 1837, the benefits thus conferred on those who were engaged in the trade becoming at once apparent. Another step in advance soon followed.
[Sidenote: Conveyance of mails to India previously to 1839.]
The mode in which the mails were conveyed to and from India up to September 1840, was by means of steamers plying monthly between Bombay and Suez, and thence by Government steamers from Alexandria to Gibraltar, where they met the mails brought out by the Peninsular Company from England. As the steamers of this company had to call at Vigo, Oporto, Lisbon, and Cadiz in their passages to and from Gibraltar, and as the Government packets employed between that port, Malta, and Alexandria were of inferior power and speed, the transmission of mails by this route was necessarily slow, and generally occupied from three weeks to a month between England and Alexandria.[340]
But, however imperfect this mode of transmission, it would probably have continued for many years longer had not circumstances occurred rendering an alteration imperative. In 1839, the British Government having entered into a convention with the French Government for the sending of letters to and from India through France by way of Marseilles, an Admiralty packet was stationed to ply between that port and Malta. Thence, these letters, together with the larger and heavier mails forwarded by the Peninsular and the Admiralty packets viâ Gibraltar, were conveyed from Malta to Alexandria by another of Her Majesty’s ships.
That portion of the mails forwarded through France was despatched from the post-office on the fourth of every month, while the heavier portion continued to be sent from Falmouth every fourth Saturday by the Peninsular packets. As might have been expected, this plan was soon found to work awkwardly, inasmuch as the mail sent viâ Gibraltar every four weeks was in advance of that viâ Marseilles each calendar month, and had, therefore, to await at Malta the arrival of the Marseilles packet.
Irregularities such as these, increased as they were by each successive mail, together with the fact that the British despatches then ran some risk of loss in their transit through France, led Government to consider the advisability of establishing some quicker means of conveyance, viâ Gibraltar, for the main portion of the mails.
[Sidenote: Government applies to the Peninsular Company,]
The managers of the Peninsular Company having been again applied to, submitted for the approval of Government a proposal to establish a line of superior steamers to run direct from England to Alexandria, and vice versâ, touching only at Gibraltar and Malta; the steamers to be of sufficient power to perform this voyage in not more than three days beyond the time then occupied in the conveyance of the mails viâ France, and at a cost not exceeding what was required for the maintenance of the small and inefficient Admiralty packets then similarly employed.
[Sidenote: and accept their proposals, though reluctantly.]
Their plan having met the approval of Government, public advertisements were again issued for tenders to carry it into effect, and no less than four competitors tendered for the contract at sums ranging from 34,200_l._ to 51,000_l._ per annum. As the tender of the Peninsular Company was not only the lowest, but contained, also, an offer to convey at a reduced rate all officers travelling on the public service, and bonâ fide Admiralty packages gratuitously, it was accepted by the Government.
[Sidenote: Proposed direct line from Falmouth to Calcutta.]
The tender, however, was accepted with reluctance, various people of influence having, strange to say, almost convinced Government of the desirability of subsidizing a line of steam-vessels between Falmouth and Calcutta viâ the Cape of Good Hope, which was intended not merely to supersede to a great extent the sailing-vessels then employed, but to convey the Indian mails: indeed, it will be found by reference to the public journals of the period, that a steamer of then unusual size had been constructed specially for the purpose.[341] It was, however, wisely decided that no dependence could be placed on the due performance of the service within the “thirty days” stipulated; nor am I aware that the passage by the Cape of Good Hope, has yet been performed by vessels of any description in a space of time so limited.
[Sidenote: First vessels hence on Indian postal service to Alexandria.]
The vessels offered by Messrs. Willcox and Anderson and approved by the Admiralty, were the Oriental of 1600 tons and 450 horse-power, as also the Great Liverpool of 1540 tons and 464 horse-power, which, originally intended for the Transatlantic service, was now despatched with the mails from England to Alexandria, thus combining the two mail services, and constituting the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company.
To complete the service, the directors were requested to provide a subsidiary vessel of not less than 250 horse-power, and another of 140 horse-power, for the Malta and Corfu branches, which they did at a cost of 10,712_l._ per annum less than the charge to the country for the Admiralty packets previously employed.[342]
[Sidenote: Original postal service from Suez to Bombay.]
Up to this period, as we have seen, the mails between Bombay and Suez were conveyed by steamers belonging to the East India Company. It soon, however, became apparent that these vessels were as unsuited to the Indian portion of the service, as those of the Admiralty had proved to be for that between Alexandria and England. But so reluctant were the Directors of the East India Company, to allow “interlopers” into their service, that some years still elapsed before their vessels were superseded by others of greater speed, and in all other respects more adapted to the increasing wants of the public.
[Sidenote: Contract for mails between Suez and Calcutta, September 1842.]
Although the Home Government was so strongly impressed with the necessity of establishing a line of steamers between Calcutta and Suez, as well as from Bombay, it was only after considerable pressure had been brought to bear on the Court that the East India Company reluctantly consented to a contract with the Peninsular Company for this special service; and, on the 24th September, 1842, its new ship Hindostan, of 1800 tons and 520 horse-power, was sent from Southampton to open a line between Calcutta, Madras, Ceylon, and Suez.
It may be desirable to state here that this originally small concern had, two years previously, been formed into a joint stock company with a charter of incorporation from the Crown, which enabled the directors to obtain the additional capital required for the Indian services; and, as they had now received the co-operation of most of those parties who, under the designation of the East India Steam Navigation Company, had been endeavouring to effect the same objects, they proceeded with all possible speed to fulfil the conditions and carry out the objects of their charter of incorporation.
[Sidenote: Further proposals made by the East India Company and Government,]
[Sidenote: but finally rejected by the East India Company.]
[Sidenote: Further contracts for mail service to China and Singapore.]
Though the Hindostan proved vastly superior to the vessels of only 250 horse-power employed by the East India Company in the mail service between Bombay and Suez, which cost no less than 105,200_l._ per annum to maintain, the Court of Directors declined to listen to the further suggestions of the Home Government to transfer this branch of the postal service into the hands of any private undertaking and, indeed, retained it until 1854. In the meantime Government entered into another contract with the Peninsular and Oriental Company for a monthly service from Ceylon to Penang, Singapore, and Hong Kong. For the service between Suez, Ceylon, Madras, and Calcutta, the company received 115,000_l._ per annum or at the rate of 20_s._ per mile, and, for the latter, 45,000_l._ per annum or about 12_s._ per mile.
When it became known that the Peninsular and Oriental Company had engaged to perform a service to India and the leading ports of China at the average rate of 17_s._ per mile in vessels of 500 horse-power, while the service between Suez and Bombay was costing upwards of 30_s._ per mile in vessels of not half that power, and, at the same time, of greatly inferior speed and accommodation, the public naturally demanded that the Bombay branch of the service should be placed in the hands of persons competent to carry it out more efficiently and economically than had been done by the East India Company.
[Sidenote: Peninsular and Oriental Company undertake the line between Bombay and Suez, 1854.]
But the Court of Directors successfully resisted all such demands until the Parliamentary Committee of 1851 reported that this service—in point of economy, the comfort of the passengers, and the requirements of trade—could be performed to greater advantage by private enterprise than by the vessels of the Indian navy. It is, however, questionable if the Directors would even then have given up the service had not the Bombay mails been, soon afterwards, lost in a native sailing-craft into which they had been transferred at Aden, the East India Company having no steamer ready to convey them thence to Suez. The Peninsular and Oriental Company having been applied to, then found that, by means of the arrangements they had entered into for the performance of the other services, they could undertake this particular branch for the sum of 24,700_l._ per annum, or at the rate of 6_s._ 2_d._ per mile, thereby effecting a saving of about 80,000_l._ as compared with the expense incurred in the far less efficient service of the Indian navy.
In the meantime Government had, on the 6th January, 1848, given notice to the company to terminate their contract between Southampton and Alexandria on the 18th January of the following year, and, soon afterwards, advertised for tenders for the execution of this service. But, the other tenders being less advantageous to the public than the terms on which the Peninsular and Oriental Company was willing to continue the service, a new contract was entered into, for three years, at 24,000_l._ per annum or at the rate of 6_s._ 9_d._ per mile.
[Sidenote: House of Commons Committee on Australian mail service, 1849.]
[Sidenote: Eastern Steam Navigation Company and Peninsular and Oriental Company tender for it, but the Peninsular and Oriental succeed.]
Meantime also, the increasing trade with Australia created demands for greater facilities of intercourse with the mother-country and more regularity in conveyance of the mails, so that the Committee of the House of Commons, appointed in 1849 to inquire and report on the then existing system of mail communication with the East, was instructed also to consider the best mode of conveying the mails between India and our Australian colonies. In this Report, dated July 1851, these different services were divided into five distinct heads,[343] one of which, recommended the establishment of a line between Singapore and Sydney. In reply to the advertisements issued on the recommendation of the Committee, two tenders were delivered on the 26th February, 1852, one by the Peninsular and Oriental Company for the whole of the services (their contracts of 1844 and 1849 being about to expire) with the addition of a branch line between Bombay and Point de Galle, not named in the conditions, for the annual sum of 199,600_l._, to be reduced by 20,000_l._ per annum six months after the completion of the railway across the Isthmus of Suez; and the other, by the Eastern Steam Navigation Company, for a line once a month between England, Calcutta, and Hong Kong for the annual sum of 110,000_l._, or for 100,000_l._ should Trieste be substituted for Marseilles as the port of embarkation, and a further contract for the service between Singapore and Sydney on an annual subsidy of 166,000_l._ (which, however, was not mentioned in their tender), being 276,000_l._ for both services.
Although the tender of the Peninsular and Oriental Company was evidently much more favourable to the public interest than that of the Eastern Steam Navigation Company, the latter, nevertheless, petitioned Parliament to appoint another Committee to inquire into the whole subject, to which, however, the then Chancellor of the Exchequer declined to accede, at the same time furnishing (as appears from the Parliamentary debates) valid reasons for the course he considered it his duty to adopt.[344]
[Sidenote: The Himalaya built.]
Though a good deal of complaint was about this time raised against Government with regard to favours said to be conceded to the Peninsular and Oriental Company, yet they seem to have hitherto fought their way, step by step, against much opposition, and to have redeemed their character for speed, [which was somewhat overshadowed by the superior performances of the Cunard and Collins line of steamers, then in the midst of their great Transatlantic race], by the construction of the Himalaya,[345] a steamer of larger dimensions than any other then afloat, and of extraordinary speed.
Nor did the Company receive any favour at the hands of Government when, about this period, they were seriously embarrassed for the want of a sufficient supply of coal[346] at their Eastern stations, and an appeal was made for a temporary relaxation of some portion of the service. Indeed, when the Company, on that account, found it impossible to carry on a portion of the second monthly service between India and China, the Government threatened to inflict the penalty of 35,000_l._ for its non-performance, and would have enforced the strict fulfilment of the conditions of the contract in all its details, had other arrangements not been made to meet the emergency.
[Sidenote: New contract with Peninsular and Oriental Company, January 1853.]
On the 1st January, 1853, the company entered into a fresh contract with Government, whereby they undertook to carry mails twice each way in every month between England and Alexandria, and twice each way in every month between Suez, Calcutta, and Hong Kong. Two vessels were also to be furnished to run between Marseilles and Malta, twice each way, in each month. The company further engaged to carry mails between Singapore and Sydney, once each way each alternate month. Tables of routes were attached and formed part of the contract. There were also certain stipulations as to proper machinery; a medical officer was to be placed on board each vessel, and provision was made for carrying pivot and broadside guns.
The vessels on the main line were required to attain a speed on trial of 12 knots an hour, the others 10½ without the aid of sails, or they were not eligible for employment. The average speed of each vessel throughout the voyage was required to be not less than 10 knots an hour, excepting in the case of those between Singapore and Sydney, which were to make the passage at a rate not less than 8½ knots. If the company failed to provide vessels ready to put to sea from any of the ports, viz., Southampton, Alexandria, Suez, Calcutta, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Sydney, at the time appointed, the forfeit in each case was stipulated to be 500_l._, and a further sum of 500_l._ for every successive day up to the fourteenth day inclusive which might elapse before the vessel actually put to sea. And, if any vessel, in breach of the contract, delayed starting or put back or deviated, except from stress of weather, without the sanction of Government, the company was to forfeit 200_l._ and a further 200_l._ for every day’s delay, unless from circumstances not under its control.
The Admiralty agent had power to survey the vessels, and the Admiralty itself, to compel such alterations as might be needed so as to keep pace with the advancement of science; while there were various provisions for the conveyance of naval, military, or civil officers, baggage, and victualing, as in other contracts.
In the event of accidents occurring to any of the vessels, the mails were to be conveyed by Her Majesty’s or by the East India Company’s ships: and an abatement made from the contract service money, at the rate of 6_s._ 2_d._ per nautical mile. For a consideration, the Admiralty reserved the privilege of changing the port in the channel, with the right also of purchasing the vessels at a valuation; or of chartering them at a rate to be mutually agreed on or settled by arbitration. Any submission to be made a rule of court. In the possible case of an entire stoppage of the route through Egypt, the Admiralty were to act as the case might require; the whole postage remaining at the disposal of the Postmaster-General.
[Sidenote: Failure of service during the Crimean War.]
But these mail services were soon seriously disturbed. The urgent requirements of Government for the means of conveying troops to the Black Sea and the Baltic on the outbreak of the Crimean War, obliged the company towards the close of 1854 to discontinue the branch line to Australia, and to reduce the Bombay and China service to a monthly instead of a fortnightly line.[347]
The withdrawal of the company’s steamers from the mail service between Singapore and Sydney, which had so recently been established, again created a large amount of discontent amongst the merchants in England connected with the trade and still more with the Colonists. The company was charged with selfish motives, and though obliged to relinquish the annual subsidy of 17,475_l._ for the performance of their service, it was alleged that the profits of the company, by the employment of its ships in the war, much more than compensated it for the reduction of the mail revenue. Thus considerable prejudice was raised against the company, and, in the discussion of the plans for the renewal of the service after the war, it became clear that the colonists were anxious to have, if possible, a mail service of their own and altogether independent of the Peninsular and Oriental Company; hence, when the company offered to enter into a contract for the monthly conveyance of the mails between Ceylon and Sydney by steamers of an average speed of 10 knots an hour, touching at King George’s Sound and Melbourne, at an annual subsidy of 84,000_l._, the offer was peremptorily declined, though a greatly enhanced subsidy was subsequently paid, for the worst performed mail service that was ever undertaken.
[Sidenote: Proposals for an independent Australian mail service.]
In the meantime liberal grants of money having been voted by the legislative assemblies of the different colonies towards the maintenance of a postal communication with the mother-country, advertisements were issued by the Admiralty, in May 1856, inviting tenders for a “monthly direct and independent service” between Suez and Australia.
The conditions of tender contained many clauses of a novel character.
The ships to be employed were to be full power screw steam-vessels of not less than 2200 tons each; the tenders were to specify the maximum number of days to be consumed on the passages; and a “penalty of 100_l._ to be incurred when the contractors failed in providing a vessel, in accordance with agreement, ready to put to sea at the appointed hour; and also the sum of 100_l._ for every successive day which should elapse until such steam-vessel should actually proceed to sea; and also (from whatever cause arising) 50_l._ for the first day, and a sum increasing by 50_l._ per day for every succeeding day, that is to say, 50_l._ for the first day, 100_l._ for the second day, 150_l._ for the third day, and so on.”
Four tenders were lodged in reply to this advertisement, but only two, that of the Peninsular and Oriental Company, and that of a new undertaking, the European and Australian Steam Navigation Company, were considered by the Government: the former offering to perform the service, provided the new and very onerous penalty clause was omitted, for 140,000_l._; and the latter accepting all the clauses, but requiring 185,000_l._ per annum for the work to be performed, and stating that, should their tender be accepted, it was intended to lay on an independent line of steamers between England and Alexandria, and to perform the service between Suez and Melbourne in thirty-nine days outwards and thirty-five days homewards.
[Sidenote: Tender of European and Australian Company accepted.]
As the Peninsular and Oriental Company “declined to be held responsible in penalties for failure as to the length of a voyage arising from causes beyond their control,” and submitted that such penalties were unnecessary as the vessels they offered “had already been surveyed, and tested for an average speed of ten knots an hour at sea,” the Government accepted the tender of the European and Australian Company.[348]
So very large a concession as 185,000_l._ per annum for the work to be performed created at the time considerable surprise, and led to a good deal of discussion in the public press as well as in Parliament. With such an enormous subsidy the directors of the new undertaking would have had no difficulty in raising the requisite amount of capital in the open market for a service apparently so tempting, but they considered the margin for profit so ample that, instead of offering their shares to the public, they raised among themselves and their friends all the money that was considered necessary, anticipating no doubt a very handsome return upon the outlay.
[Sidenote: Their entire failure.]
But the whole undertaking proved one of the most ruinous of its kind on record, the Galway steam navigation scheme not excepted. A volume might be written, and to advantage, on the mistakes committed by the directors, all of whom were business men of wealth and position, though few of them were conversant with maritime affairs, or with the difficulties they had to encounter at every stage, and with the causes which ultimately led to the loss of some of their ships. Suffice it to say that, when the company had to commence operations in March 1857, its ships were not ready, and the directors were obliged to enter into arrangements with the Royal Mail (West India) Steam Packet Company and other companies for the performance of the service; and indeed, when their own ships were ready, they either broke down or were found unfit to perform, within the specified time, the work they had undertaken.
In less than two years the whole capital of this new company was lost, but as the result has been fully described by Lord Overstone in a speech he delivered in the House of Lords on the 24th of March, 1859,[349] I prefer reproducing his statement, especially as it remains unquestioned, to offering any remarks of my own.
[Sidenote: Speech of Lord Overstone, March 24th, 1859.]
“This company,” his Lordship remarked, “originated very much through the success of some influential parties in Glasgow, who realized a large sum by chartering two screw steamers to Government during the Crimean War. These vessels were named the European and the Columbian, and the company was named the ‘European and Columbian Company.’ Soon after the close of the Russian War, Government advertised for tenders for the Australian mail service. One given in by the European and Columbian Company was preferred to a cheaper one by the Peninsular and Oriental Company, the annual subsidy for carrying the mails being 185,000_l._ with monthly services, the contract to endure for five years. The penalty for the non-fulfilment of the contract was heavy, increasing prodigiously with each day’s delay. In consequence of this great undertaking it was necessary to enlarge the company, and greatly to increase the number of its vessels; and, accordingly, a new company was formed on the limited principle, under the name of the ‘European and Australian Royal Mail Company (Limited)’ whom Government accepted for the contract. The nominal capital was 500,000_l._, but I believe not more than 420,000_l._ were subscribed, the balance being purposely reserved, as the promoters expected it to command a large premium. The list of proprietors is one of the best I have seen of any company, all the shareholders, eighty-four in number, being selected men, residing chiefly in Glasgow and neighbourhood, London, Liverpool, and Manchester. 400,000_l._ were ultimately paid up. The first meeting of the new company was held on the 3rd of September, 1856; but it was, of course, some months before their plans got developed, and time was lost in negotiation with other companies to sell their contract for a bonus, or to get some other advantage. As this was not arranged, the European and Columbian were taken over from the old company; other vessels were chartered for immediate requirements; a vessel called the Oneida, by which 60,000_l._ were ultimately lost, was purchased; and two other vessels contracted for at 100,000_l._ and 120,000_l._ It was soon apparent that the company had started with too small a capital, and that there was a total want of experience in the management.... After borrowing considerable sums upon the security of their vessels and otherwise, the directors found that it was necessary to make arrangements with another company to work the service, which they ultimately did with the ‘Royal Mail (West India) Company.’ An arrangement for an amalgamation of the two concerns was also very nearly completed, when the shareholders of the latter company refused to confirm the bargain made by the directors. This and the events of last autumn (1857) brought matters to a crisis, so that almost within a twelvemonth of the formation of the company, it was known that they were practically insolvent, and they have since placed themselves under the Act, and gone into voluntary liquidation. Besides the loss of 400,000_l._ of capital, the debts, including mortgages, appear to be about 270,000_l._, against which they have the steamers, subject to some disputed claims of the Royal Mail Company, in whose hands some of them are. There is some hope that the steamers may realise sufficiently to pay the debts, but, in the present state of shipping and aspect of the questions with the Royal Mail Company, this seems to be doubtful. The following appear to be the heavier items of expense and loss: Abandoning steamers, 25,000_l._; placing steamers on stations, 37,000_l._; loss on voyages, 70,000_l._; interest, management, and depreciation, 77,000_l._; loss on Oneida and expense of bringing home, 61,000_l._: total 270,000_l._; but there will be a further heavy loss in realising the four steamers still belonging to the company, and the plant they have at Sydney, King George’s Sound, Aden, and Point de Galle. These stand in the books at about 370,000_l._”
[Sidenote: Royal Mail Company undertakes the Australian service and fails.]
When, in February 1858, the shareholders of this unfortunate undertaking were obliged to seek the protection of the Limited Liability Act under which it had been formed, the Royal Mail (West India) Company entered into arrangements with Government to carry out the service on the terms of the contract, provided it was guaranteed against loss to an extent not exceeding 6000_l._ per month. Differences, however, soon arose between this company and the Admiralty which resulted in a lawsuit, whereby it appeared that the West India Company had sustained a loss far in excess of 6000_l._ per month, and that the service had altogether cost the country close upon 260,000_l._ per annum during its brief existence.[350]
[Sidenote: New tenders invited.]
[Sidenote: That of Peninsular and Oriental Company accepted, 1859.]
In September 1858, Government again advertised for tenders “for the monthly conveyance of the mails between Great Britain and the Australian Colonies, with a branch between Marseilles and Malta.” Two offers were made, one by the Royal Mail (West India) Company for 250,000_l._ per annum, and the other by the Peninsular and Oriental Company for 180,000_l._ The latter was accepted, and the new service commenced in February 1859.
[Sidenote: Consolidation of services in the Peninsular and Oriental Company.]
It may be desirable here to explain that this company had previously undertaken a monthly service between Mauritius and Aden for a subsidy of 24,000_l._ per annum, and, an arrangement having been made that the route for the Australian mails should be viâ Mauritius, the performance of the mail service to both places was included in the 180,000_l._ But that route was soon afterwards abandoned, and a fresh agreement entered into between Government and the Peninsular and Oriental Company for a monthly line between Galle and Sydney, which, in conjunction with the Calcutta, Suez, and China lines, brought the Australian Colonies into direct communication not only with England, but also with India and China, and in fact with all the chief ports of the Indian seas. The subsidy for this service was 134,672_l._ per annum, the contract remaining in force until February 1866.
When fresh tenders were invited, the Peninsular and Oriental Company, having in this instance no competitor (though tenders were publicly invited), became again the contractors, agreeing to perform a monthly service for 120,000_l._ or a semi-monthly service for 170,000_l._ per annum, with boats which should attain a speed of 12 knots per hour on a measured mile, as a guarantee for an average speed of 10 knots per hour from port to port.
As there was a good deal of controversy about this time as to the average rate of speed of the vessels belonging to the principal mail companies, the table in the footnote[351] of the passages of steamers, for some years just previously to that period, belonging to the largest subsidized lines may be interesting and instructive.
[Sidenote: Its present condition and fleet of ships.]
From the thirty-fourth annual report of the Peninsular and Oriental Company, ending 30th of September, 1874, we learn that the paid-up capital amounted to 2,700,000_l._ and 800,000_l._ of debenture stock, also that it was the intention of the directors to call up in the course of the following year 10_l._ per share of their new stock, thus increasing the paid-up capital to 2,900,000_l._ apart from the debenture stock, so that the whole capital of the company would be 4,300,000_l._, of which 600,000_l._ would remain unpaid. This large amount of capital is distributed over more than 2000 shareholders, resident in almost every part of the world, and of whom more than one-third are ladies. Of this capital 3,757,000_l._ consists of stock in ships; 221,000_l._ of freehold and leasehold property in England, and docks and premises at Calcutta, Bombay, Singapore, Hong Kong, and other stations; and 413,000_l._ in stock of coals and naval and victualing stores. Its fleet consists of fifty sea-going steamers, measuring 122,000 tons, and of 22,000 horse-power.[352] Of these steamers thirty-four are employed in the Mediterranean, Adriatic, India, and China services; four in the Australian service between Ceylon, Melbourne, and Sydney; five in the China and Japan local services; two are used solely as cargo vessels; and five are either under repair or alterations, being reserved to supply the place of others in case of accidents. The company also possess twelve steam-tugs of from 31 tons and 15 horse-power to 271 tons and 120 horse-power, stationed for its use in Egypt, Aden, Bombay, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Yokohama; and three cargo and coalhulks of 4417 tons, while it gives also permanent employment to 12,600 persons, exclusive of coal labourers and coolies on shore.
If my readers will cast their eyes on the map they will, by noting the ports at which these steamers call, form some idea of the extent and value of the services performed by this company. From England, crossing the Bay of Biscay along the shores of the Peninsula, to Gibraltar—the extreme limit of the original undertaking—its steamers now traverse the Mediterranean to Egypt, with a branch from Venice and Brindisi, and through the Canal to Suez, whence the most important line of steamers leave weekly for Bombay, with a further line from Bombay to Galle, and another direct from Suez to Galle, at which station the different lines diverge, one proceeding to Madras and Calcutta; another stretching far away across the Indian Ocean to King George’s Sound, Melbourne, and Sydney; and a third crossing the Bay of Bengal and through the Straits of Malacca, calling at Singapore, and traversing the China seas to Hong Kong, and, thence, to Swatow, Amoy, Foo-chow-foo, and Shanghai, stretching onwards to Yokohama, where the steamers of this line meet those of the Western world.
[Sidenote: Terms of the contract now in force.]
The principal conditions of the company’s present mail contract, as compared with that of 1870, are as follows:—The company is now required to despatch steamers weekly to convey the mails from and to Southampton and the various ports in the East by way of the Suez Canal; the Brindisi, or accelerated mail, to be conveyed as heretofore to and from Alexandria and by railway across Egypt; the company to have the option of substituting either Liverpool or Plymouth for Southampton as their mail port; the arrival of the outward mails at Eastern ports to be accelerated by twenty-four hours, and the penalties for late deliveries at terminal points to be quadrupled and made absolute, except in case of shipwreck or damage to machinery. The subsidy payable for the performance of these and other services is to be reduced from 450,000_l._, the sum agreed by the contract of 1870, to 430,000_l._ per annum, such sum to include the whole of the mail services rendered by the company.[353]
It is not my province to inquire whether these services could not be performed for a smaller grant of public money than that now paid. Opinions differ widely on such matters, and, as the steamers now traversing every sea increase in numbers, the feeling becomes more general, that a considerable saving might be effected in the conveyance of all the ocean mails. But the vast establishment this company is obliged to maintain, and the all-important and onerous duties it has to perform, at stations far apart and many thousand miles distant from headquarters, involves an outlay so great and embraces a risk so hazardous, that such a company may, on the other hand, well consider if the grant it receives, however large, is more than an equivalent for the services performed, especially, too, when we consider the stringent conditions of its contract.
[Sidenote: Revenue and expenditure.]
From whatever cause it may have arisen, the fact is apparent, that though the annual gross receipts of the company are enormous, its expenditure[354] is so great that less balance is left for the shareholders than is usually divided among those of undertakings of a similar character, which receive no assistance from Government, but are free to employ their ships in whatever branch of commerce they can be most profitably engaged.
[Sidenote: Coals required.]
Coal, as may be supposed, is one of the company’s heaviest items of expenditure, and one, also, that has greatly increased during the last few years; but when the price was comparatively moderate, the accounts of this company, from 1856 to 1865 inclusive, showed an expenditure for coal alone of no less than 5,250,000_l._ sterling, or, on the average, 525,000_l._ per annum: moreover, a large stock must be constantly kept[356] to meet the demands of the steamers employed on their various lines of communication; to maintain this stock, the company employ 170 sailing-ships annually, a trade which, in itself, would have been considered of no mean importance in the days of our forefathers.
[Sidenote: Description of vessels.]
It has not been the least interesting portion of my labours, to describe the different modes of commercial intercourse with India from the dawn of history, and, from the scanty fragments of very ancient records, to attempt to afford information, however imperfect, of the ships of the first traders by sea to the far East, their dimensions, the routes they followed, the length of their voyages, and something about their crews and internal economy. I have also traced their progress, as best I could, through the period of the Roman Empire to the Middle Ages, when the vessels of the proud Italian republics, in connection with the Muhammedans, retained for centuries in their hands that rich and ever envied commerce, thence onward to the period when the Portuguese and the Dutch were masters of the Indian seas, and, still further, to our own days, when a company of traders ruled alike the land and ocean of these vast and much prized territories; and I have, at the same time, given minute details of the ships and maritime services of this once all-powerful company.
[Sidenote: Screw steamer Khedive.]
I now supply the following illustration of one of the most modern vessels, belonging to the Peninsular and Oriental Company, engaged in that trade (she was built for the new line of commerce through the Suez Canal, by Messrs. Caird and Company, of Greenock, by whom her engines were also constructed); so that my readers may see the progress made in the mode of conducting maritime intercourse with India from the earliest period to our own time.
The Khedive is built of iron and propelled by the screw, combining all the qualities which modern science can suggest to secure with safety the greatest speed and capacity with the smallest current expenses.[357]
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 110,000_l._, or a little more than 33_l._ 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 8_l._ to 22_l._ per ton, and steamers from 15_l._ to as high as 40_l._ or even 45_l._ 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.
[Sidenote: 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]
[Sidenote: 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]
FOOTNOTES:
[337] Mr. Willcox was born at Ostend, but of English and Scotch parentage, his second Christian name, McGhee, being that of his maternal grandfather. He, however, spent his boyhood at Newcastle-on-Tyne, where he received the chief portion of his education. He represented the borough of Southampton for some years in Parliament, and died, 1862, at the age of 79.
[338] Mr. Anderson became member for his native borough, which he represented from 1846 to 1852. He took a great interest in developing the northern fisheries, and especially in forming a Shetland fishery Company, and in improving the condition of the people there. He died in 1868 at the age of 77.
[339] When I commenced business in London, Mr. Allan was one of my earliest friends, and our friendship remained unbroken until his death in September 1874. I can therefore, of my own knowledge, speak of the difficulties he had to encounter, and of the numerous obstacles to be overcome in establishing the vast business with which he was so long and so intimately associated. To establish agencies at the leading ports of India and China, open depôts for coals, erect docks and factories for the repairs of their ships, to bring the whole into systematic and harmonious working order, and, above all, to keep agencies remote from each other and far from home, under proper control, required a master mind of no common order, the more so that the system he organized was then entirely new. Mr. Allan was, however, in every way equal to this arduous duty; his industry was unwearied, his love for truth ever conspicuous, and, with these he combined the most unassuming and pleasing manners. His only failing consisted in believing all other men to be as upright as himself.
[340] The mean rate of the sailing-packets on the average for a considerable number of voyages to the Mediterranean had been 2·7 miles per hour, the average length of the voyage from Falmouth to Malta, Corfu, and back to Falmouth being three months. The first of the Admiralty steam-packets, the Meteor, left Falmouth on this service 5th February, 1830, and she performed the round in about half the time of the sailing-packets. The African, Carron, Columbia, Confiance, Echo, Firebrand, Hermes, and Messenger followed and were regularly employed in this Mediterranean mail service. The average length of the voyages of steamers during a period of two and a half years to Corfu and back to Falmouth, was about forty-seven days including all stoppages—twice at Cadiz, Gibraltar, and Malta—which consumed about thirteen out of the forty-seven days engaged on the voyage.
[341] “Scarcely has the wonder created in the world by the appearance of the Great Western and British Queen, begun to subside, when we are called upon to admire the rapid strides of enterprise by the notice of an iron steam-ship, the first of a line of steamers to ply between England and Calcutta, to be called The Queen of the East, 2618 tons, and 600 horse-power. This magnificent vessel is designed by Mr. W. D. Holmes, engineer to the Bengal Steam Committee, for a communication between England and India. Great praise is due to Captain Barber, late of the Honourable East India Company’s Service, the agent in London for the Steam Committee in Bengal, who has afforded every encouragement to Mr. Holmes in carrying forward his splendid undertaking. When these vessels are ready we understand the voyage between Falmouth and Calcutta will be made in thirty days.”—Times, 11th November, 1838.
[342] See Evidence, Committee of House of Commons, 1840, question 1411.
[343] 1st Line.—A line from England to Alexandria and back monthly, leaving England in the beginning of every month, and calling at Gibraltar and Malta, with a branch from Marseilles to Malta and back, conveying between those two ports the mails which are carried across France.
2nd Line.—A similar line from England to Alexandria and back monthly, leaving England in the middle of every month, with a similar branch between Marseilles and Malta.
3rd Line.—A line from Suez to Calcutta and Hong Kong and back monthly. This line will take the mails which have left England in the beginning of each month, and will touch at Aden and Point de Galle, whence one steamer will proceed by Madras to Calcutta, and another by Penang to Singapore and Hong Kong.
4th Line.—A similar line from Suez to Calcutta and Hong Kong and back monthly, conveying the mails which have left England in the middle of the month, and proceeding in like manner to Point de Galle, and thence by Madras to Calcutta, and by Penang to Singapore and Hong Kong.
5th Line.—A line from Singapore to Sydney and back. Every alternate month a steamer to leave Singapore on the arrival of the outward packet at that port with the mails which have left England in the middle of every alternate month, and to leave Sydney so as to meet at Singapore the homeward packet, which will arrive there from China after the lapse of two months. These steamers are to touch both ways at Batavia, Swan River (or King George’s Sound, as may hereafter be determined), Adelaide, and Port Phillip.
[344] See “Hansard’s Parliamentary Debates,” May 28th, 1852.
[345] The Himalaya was 340 feet in length, 44½ feet width of beam, and her engines were 2050 indicated horse-power. She was 3540 tons O.M., and cost 132,000_l._ complete for sea. The company at the same time built the Candia, of 1898 tons, at a cost of 69,200_l._ and the Nubia, Pera, and Colombo, each of 1840 tons O.M.; also the Simla and Bengal, of 2417 tons and 2232 tons respectively, as well as the Valetta and Victis. The whole cost of these vessels, added to their existing fleet, and destined to carry out the double service of a semi-monthly communication with the East, involved an outlay of 650,000_l._
[346] Shipping was so scarce that the average price of coal delivered at the different stations of the company rose from 36_s._ 8_d._ to 60_s._ 3_d._ per ton, and was with great difficulty obtained at even these exorbitant rates.
[347] During the Crimean War this company had eleven of their steamers, measuring 18,000 tons, engaged in the transport service, which conveyed during the continuation of hostilities, 1800 officers, 60,000 men, and 15,000 horses.
[348] About this time, the unfortunate mutiny in India naturally creating great anxiety that every possible means should be used to increase our communication with that country, combined with the rapidly increasing commercial intercourse, led to a modification and at the same time to the increase of the existing services. Hence, in November 1857, arrangements under the contract of 1854 were made to extend the line between Bombay and Aden to Suez and to establish, in connection with it, a fortnightly service between Marseilles and Alexandria; the arrivals and departures of the Bombay mails being made to alternate with those of the Calcutta line, instead of being coincident with them as had previously been the case, so as to afford a weekly communication with India which has ever since been kept up. It was at the same time considered desirable to increase the voyages of the Marseilles packets, which were now running with the Calcutta and China mails, from Malta to Alexandria as their port of destination, for transit to Suez by means of the railway, which had by this time been opened across the isthmus.
[349] See “Hansard” for March, 1859, and the Times of the 25th of that month.
[350] See report of proceedings, Court of Queen’s Bench.
[351] In the case of the Cunard line the average has been calculated upon a parliamentary return extending from January 1862 to April 1866, as is also the return of the average speed of the vessels of the Peninsular and Oriental Company during the same period.
CUNARD COMPANY.
Liverpool and Boston Line.
Knots. Fath. 109 voyages outwards, average speed 9 2 112 voyages homewards, average speed 10 2
Liverpool and New York Line.
109 voyages outwards, average speed 11 1 113 voyages homewards, average speed 11 7
PENINSULAR AND ORIENTAL STEAM NAVIGATION COMPANY.
Knots. Fath. On the Australian Line 9 7 On the Calcutta and Suez Line 9 7 On the Bombay and Suez Line 9 2 On the Southampton and Alexandria and Marseilles and Alexandria Lines 10 0
The following averages are taken respectively from the reports published in 1865 of the British Royal Mail (West India) Company, and of the French Messageries Maritimes Company:
Knots. Fath. Between Southampton and West Indies 10 5 Between Southampton and Brazils 9 5
The French Company give an average speed on their line to India of 9 knots 4 fathoms per hour for the years 1863 and 1864, but add “it is, for a general average, rather high.”
[352] See Appendix No. 23, p. 639.
[353] The details of the different rates per mile which have hitherto been paid to the Peninsular and Oriental Company were as follows:—
s. d.
The first India and China contract (1844 to 1853) was paid for at 17 1 per mile. The second (1853 to 1866) was first taken at 6 2 per mile. and was afterwards reduced to 5 5 per mile. The first portion of the Bombay service, namely, between Bombay and Aden, distance 79,872 miles per annum, was taken in 1854, at 6 2 per mile. The extension of this service to Suez increased the distance to 142,656 miles per annum, and reduced the rate to 4 2 per mile. And the subsequent arrangements in the Mediterranean brought the payment for the complete fortnightly line, now existing, down to the average of 2 7 per mile. The Australian service between Ceylon and Sydney was paid for, from 1861 to 1865, at 21 5 per mile. The same service was taken in 1865, at 19 0 per mile. And the directors offered to double it for a sum that would reduce the rate to 13 6 per mile. India, China and Japan contract 6 7 per mile. Australian, Ceylon to Melbourne 14 4 per mile.
[354] The following return gives the annual receipts and expenditure of the Company from 1856 to 1874 inclusive, by which it will be seen that, while the revenue was less in 1874 than in 1860, the expenditure had increased, and that there was a deficiency in 1867 of no less than 177,047_l._
-----+------------+--------------+----------- | Revenue. | Expenditure. | Balance. -----+------------+--------------+----------- | £ | £ | £ 1856 | 1,691,589 | 1,494,435 | 197,153 1857 | 1,877,420 | 1,645,748 | 231,772 1858 | 1,884,493 | 1,714,374 | 170,119 1859 | 2,176,590 | 2,006,363 | 170,227 1860 | 2,350,361 | 2,247,328 | 103,033 1861 | 2,288,289 | 2,131,432 | 156,857 1862 | 2,223,969 | 2,064,865 | 159,104 1863 | 2,296,305 | 2,060,849 | 235,454 1864 | 2,346,203 | 2,120,554 | 225,649 1865 | 2,136,076 | 1,976,999 | 159,077 1866 | 2,243,076 | 2,094,493 | 148,583 1867 | 2,084,393 | 2,261,440 | 177,047[355] 1868 | 2,485,965 | 2,313,817 | 172,148 1869 | 2,559,627 | 2,390,518 | 169,109 1870 | 2,317,016 | 2,174,672 | 142,344 1871 | 2,092,656 | 1,923,881 | 168,775 1872 | 2,122,756 | 1,953,551 | 169,205 1873 | 2,173,371 | 2,007,761 | 165,610 1874 | 2,186,663 | 2,047,899 | 138,764 +------------+--------------+ | 41,546,818 | 38,630,909 | -----+------------+--------------+-----------
[355] Deficiency.
[356] About 90,000 tons of coal are usually kept in stock at their different coaling stations, distributed somewhat in the following proportions:
Tons. Southampton 2,000 Malta 5,000 Alexandria and Suez 6,000 Aden 20,900 Bombay 8,000 Point de Galle 12,000 Madras 500 Calcutta 4,000 Singapore 8,000 Hong-Kong 10,000 Shanghai 6,000 Yokohama 2,200 King George’s Sound 4,000 Sydney 1,200
[357] The dimensions of the Khedive are as follows:—Length, 380 feet; breadth, 42 feet; depth, 36 feet. Her builders’ measurement is 3329 tons; her gross register, 3742 tons; and her net register, 2092 tons. So far as regards capacity, she is fitted so as to accommodate with the space and style now required for Eastern travel (how different to the space allotted to passengers in the ships of Nearchus!) 164 first-class and 53 second-class passengers. Besides this, she has store-rooms of various kinds to hold 380 tons, rooms for mails and baggage to contain 142 tons; bunkers to hold 846 tons of coals calculated at 45 cubic feet per ton, and holds which can receive 2003 tons of cargo of 50 feet to the ton.
Her average speed is 10 knots per hour on a consumption of 32 tons of coal per diem, but “she can be driven at a much higher speed with a proportionate increase of expenditure of fuel.” The contract specifies a speed to be guaranteed on trial of not less than 13 ½ knots an hour on the measured mile, with dead weight on board of coals or cargo to the extent of 1500 tons.
Her engines are compound, “vertical direct acting,” of 600 nominal horse-power, with 4 feet 6 inches length of stroke. The diameter of her cylinders is 69 and 96 inches respectively, and that of her screw, which consists of four blades, 17 feet 6 inches; its pitch being 22 feet 6 inches and 24 feet. She has 4 boilers and 16 furnaces. The fire-bar surface is 320 square feet, and the heating and condensing surface 11,720, and 6059 square feet respectively. The loaded pressure is 55 pounds on her boilers.
[358]
Europeans. Natives. { Commander 1 { Officers 5 Navigating { Surgeon 1 { Carpenter 1 { Boatswain 1 { Quartermasters 3 { Carpenter’s mate (Chinese) 1 { Gig’s crew (do.) 6 { Seamen (Lascars) 43 { Assistants of different sorts 6
Engines { Engineers 6 { Coal trimmers, &c. 49
{ Purser 1 { Clerk, Head Steward, Cook, Baker, } { Butcher, Pantryman, Storekeeper, } 8 Cabins { and Barman } { Stewards 22 { Stewardesses 2 { Purser’s department 21 -- -- Total Europeans 51 Natives 126
[359] For fleet of Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, Jan. 1875, see Appendix No. 23, pp. 639-40.
Chapter XI
Changes produced by the opening of the Suez Canal—Sailing fruit-clippers—Introduction of steamers into the Mediterranean trade, 1840—Establishment of various steam lines, 1850—That of Messrs. Frederick Leyland and Co., &c.—Their fleets—Messageries Maritimes Company—Its origin and management—First contract for the conveyance of the oversea French mails, 1851—Extension of contracts, 1854-56—Brazil line, 1857—Vast extent of its fleet—Largest vessels—Trade viâ the Suez Canal—Presumed advantage of auxiliary engines—Not borne out by the results—Conveyance of the Australian mails—Peculiar conditions of contracts—Failure of the service—Stringent penalties—Australian steam services—Mr. Alfred Holt’s line of steamers to China—Its success—Messrs. Gellatly, Hankey, and Company—Messrs. Green and Company—Messrs. Rathbone Brothers—Messrs. George Smith and Sons—Letter from Mr. George Smith—Messrs. Smiths’ ships and their voyages to and from India—Changes in the mode of conducting commerce with India and China—Number of vessels through Suez Canal since its opening, and their nationality.
[Sidenote: Changes produced by the opening of the Suez Canal.]
Not the least interesting of the many changes in maritime commerce brought about by the opening of the Suez Canal, has been the restoration, though as yet to a limited extent, of the earliest commercial intercourse recorded in history between the Mediterranean and the once far East, and of the trade the merchants of the Levant and the Adriatic carried on with India by the agency of the Muhammedans in Egypt during the Middle Ages.
Directed to a different route by the re-discovery of the passage to the Eastern world by way of the Cape of Good Hope, this ever envied trade has, since the close of the fifteenth century, been conducted as we have seen from the Atlantic and northern ports of Europe, and during more recent years, from those of Great Britain. Consequently, the vessels belonging to the Mediterranean ports have been obliged to seek other and much less remunerative employment, which, since the decline of the great Italian Republics, has dwindled into comparative insignificance. Nor has the Mediterranean trade itself occupied a position of any importance during the last three centuries, indeed it has only revived since steam-vessels have given new life to those inland seas, which, throughout all time, have been so familiar to the mariner. It has been, hence, confined chiefly to that carried on between the inhabitants of the different countries bordering on the shores of the Mediterranean and Black Seas, who, having little or no encouragement to export their surplus produce to other nations, never thought of employing vessels of a superior class to those which for ages had sufficed for their coasting trades.
[Sidenote: Sailing fruit-clippers.]
The first measure, which gave renewed existence to the maritime commerce of these peoples, was the repeal of the British corn laws, encouraging, as this did to an extent hitherto unknown, the importation of wheat from the ever luxuriant lands of Egypt, and from the numerous corn-growing countries bordering the shores of the Black Sea, the Marmora, and the steppes of Russia. Soon afterwards, the repeal of the duties on the fruits grown in such rich abundance in the islands of the Levant and along the coasts of the Mediterranean, gave new life to another branch of trade which had long lain dormant, and, while the former afforded greatly increased employment to the ships of all nations, the latter encouraged the production of vessels so superior to those previously in use, as, in speed, to outrival the once celebrated Baltimore clippers.
[Sidenote: Introduction of steamers into the Mediterranean trade, 1840.]
Curiously enough, however, the introduction of these fast fruit schooners, seldom exceeding in size 200 tons register, retarded the introduction of steamers to the trade of the Mediterranean till a much later period than would otherwise have been the case, considering their early and rapid extension in all other branches of commerce. Growers and merchants engaged in the fruit trade, as was the case with the shippers of tea from China at a still later period, were under the impression that steam would injure the flavour of their fruits; hence, for a time, declined to ship their produce in vessels propelled otherwise than by sails. They likewise preferred to export their raisins, figs, and currants in small quantities, convinced that they would thus obtain higher prices and a readier market, and consequently engaged vessels of 80 and 100 tons rather than those of greater dimensions. Many of my readers cannot fail to recollect the fleets of beautiful small Mediterranean clippers which were wont to crowd our docks at certain seasons of the year. Moreover, as these vessels made their voyages with extraordinary rapidity and regularity, the inducements to employ vessels propelled by steam were less urgent than in most other branches of trade.
[Sidenote: Establishment of various steam lines, 1850.]
Although steamers occasionally visited the Mediterranean, it was not till 1840 that any attempt was made to establish a line or succession of voyages in the trade with Great Britain, much less among the islands of the Levant, and along the shores of the Black Sea and the Adriatic. Among the earliest attempts may be mentioned that of the Rattler, of 350 tons and 50 horse-power, despatched by Messrs. Vivian, Jones, and Chapple, of Liverpool. About 1840 the Peninsular Company also extended the operations of their steamers to Malta and Alexandria, and soon afterwards to Corfu, the Levant, and Constantinople. In 1845 Mr. A. Mongredian, of Liverpool, attempted to establish a regular line between that port and the Levant with the steamers Osmanli and Levantine, but being unsuccessful, they were transferred in 1849 to Messrs. McKean, McLarty, and Lamont, who employed them between Liverpool, Marseilles, Genoa, Leghorn, Naples, Messina, Palermo, and the Adriatic, where they appear to have yielded more remunerative returns.
[Sidenote: That of Messrs. Frederick Leyland and Co., &c.]
From about this period, steam in those trades, as it has done everywhere else, made its way when fairly established; and, afterwards, increased with extraordinary rapidity, affording greatly improved facilities for the development of ancient branches of maritime commerce, which had long lain dormant, as well as for the creation of others hitherto unknown. Various associations and companies were now formed to carry on the trade of those inland seas by means of steam-vessels from both London and Liverpool. Among the most important belonging to Great Britain, were the lines of steamers sent forth by Messrs. Bibby, Sons, and Company, now Messrs. Frederick Leyland and Company, and by Messrs. Burns and McIver; while the Austrian Lloyd’s Steam Navigation Company trading from Trieste, and the French Messageries Maritimes from Marseilles, were the chief foreign undertakings established to carry on the coasting trade in which the protective character of the Austrian and French navigation laws conferred on them exclusive privileges.
[Sidenote: Their fleets.]
In the trade from Liverpool, including the Peninsular service, Messrs. Frederick Leyland and Company alone now employ no less than twenty-three large iron steamers, seventeen of them varying in size from 1500 to 3000 tons gross register, bound direct to the Mediterranean ports. These are all propelled by the screw, and are surprising specimens of purely cargo steamers. In this respect, considering their capacity in proportion to their admeasurement, tonnage, and small current expenses, these vessels are, perhaps, unsurpassed by any steam-ships afloat. For instance, the Bavarian, of which an illustration may be seen on the previous page, takes 4800 tons of cargo exclusive of her coal bunkers, though of only 3052 tons gross register, and is navigated by the comparatively small number of forty-eight persons all told.[360] The steamers of this firm and of Messrs. Burns and McIver, as well as those of various other companies, now run in regular lines from London, Liverpool, and elsewhere, to the numerous ports of the Mediterranean, Levant, Adriatic, and Black Sea.
Gibbon, in his brilliant description of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, speaks of the terror of its Senators lest the supply of corn should fail in meeting the requirements of the once all-powerful capital, and create, as usual, violent tumults among the people; but, with the fleet alone of Messrs. Leyland and Company at their command, all apprehension on this score would have vanished, as either of the three vessels I have mentioned could, with the present appliances for loading and discharge, have transported from Egypt to Rome in the course of twelve months, no less than 500,000 quarters, or 4,000,000 bushels, while the whole fleet could have taken 10,000,000 quarters, had Egypt been able to produce within the year that quantity of grain. Such are a few of the changes the application of the motive power of steam has produced within our own time.
[Sidenote: Messageries Maritimes Company.]
But much the largest maritime undertaking engaged in the trade of the Mediterranean and elsewhere, is that of the Messageries Maritimes, recently the Messageries Imperiales, monopolizing, as this does, nearly the whole of the steam tonnage of France. Indeed, apart from the vessels owned by this association, and one or two other highly subsidized shipping companies in that country, the French may be said to have no steamers.[361] Their protective policy, combined with the depressing influence which large grants of public money to special undertakings must ever exercise on individual energy, has effectually overpowered all private enterprise of this description. It may be true, as has been frequently alleged, that the French people have no natural aptitude for maritime pursuits, and that their children, who are not employed in their vineyards, or in the manufacture of those special articles for which they have long been celebrated, take naturally to the fife and the drum with somewhat of the same avidity that the boys of England seek enjoyment in navigation; but, certain it is that, owing to restrictive laws and enormous subsidies to favoured individuals, the French people, generally, have never yet been allowed the opportunity of showing what they could do in the peaceful paths of maritime commerce.
[Sidenote: Its origin and management.]
The Messageries Maritimes, their greatest shipping undertaking, though exceedingly well managed, is after all, a pure creation of the Government—one, too, nursed with the greatest care from its infancy, and maintained throughout by large grants from the public purse, which were materially increased on the accession of the third Napoleon to the Throne of France, who, throughout the whole of his reign, displayed a marked anxiety to promote and encourage maritime undertakings. Previously, indeed, to 1851, the company had been chiefly engaged as carriers by land, and was under contract for the conveyance of the mails throughout a considerable portion of France.
[Sidenote: First contract for the conveyance of the oversea French mails, 1851.]
In July of that year this company entered upon its first oversea contract with Government for the conveyance of the French Mails to Italy, the Levant, Greece, Egypt, and Syria, and in 1852 spontaneously added to their services the principal ports of Greece and Salonica.[362]
[Sidenote: Extension of contracts, 1854-56.]
In 1854, the managers of the Messageries Company concluded arrangements with the Minister of War for the transport of all troops and military stores between France and Algeria, besides the conveyance of the mails, and, having very materially increased their fleet owing to the requirements of the Crimean campaign, they were, in 1855, enabled to open between Marseilles, Civita Vecchia, and Naples, a direct weekly line of steamers, independently of the postal service, principally intended to meet the requirements necessary to be maintained between the War Department and the army of occupation at Rome.
[Sidenote: Brazil line, 1857.]
When the Crimean War happily came to a close, and the military lines of steamers to the Black Sea were no longer necessary, the directors, in 1856, employed their disposable vessels in increasing the frequency of services to Algeria, and in establishing a postal service between Marseilles and the ports of the Danube and along the east coast of the Black Sea, for which they obtained a contract from Government in 1857. In that year they, likewise, entered into arrangements for the conveyance of the French mails between Bordeaux, the Brazils, and La Plata.
[Sidenote: Vast extent of its fleet.]
The fleet of the Messageries Company had now reached fifty-four ships of 80,875 tons, and 15,240 horse-power, afloat or in course of construction, evidently more than they could profitably employ: they, therefore, applied for and obtained from their Government, in 1861, a contract for the conveyance of the French mails to India and China, requiring for this purpose only an additional steamer. But the increase of trade to the East, brought about in no small degree by the increased facilities and by an anxious desire on the part of the company to meet the wants of the travellers of all nations, very soon enabled the directors to double the services of their steamers to the East. In 1871 their fleet measuring 137,334 tons, of 20,885 horse-power, performed services on the India and China routes of 230,135 French leagues; on the Mediterranean and Black Sea, 153,478; and, on the Brazilian, 50,004: in all, 423,607 leagues annually, independently of various extra services. Since then their Brazilian and La Plata lines have been doubled, and now (1875) the company employs 175,000 tons of steam-ships, besides chartering numerous sailing-vessels.[363]
When first the Messageries Company became carriers by sea, they had nearly all their vessels built in England, but they now possess large establishments of their own, where they construct screw-steamers of iron, rivalling in most respects, and very much resembling those of, the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, of which I have furnished an illustration.
[Sidenote: Largest vessels.]
Their two largest ships employed in the trade with India and China are the Anadyr and the Irawaddy, of 3671 and 3471 tons gross register respectively, and each of 600 nominal horse-power. The other sixteen vessels in that service range from 3017 tons and 500 horse-power, down to 1035 tons and 280 horse-power. Their six steamers employed on the Brazilian and River Plate line are from 3417 tons and 600 horse-power, to 2115 tons and 400 horse-power, while the thirty-five engaged in the Mediterranean and Black Sea services range from 2524 tons and 500 horse-power to 430 tons and 160 horse-power. They have also three steamers of 1500 tons and 250 horse-power engines on the compound principle trading between London and Marseilles, and four magnificent screw-steamers in course of construction, each of 4000 tons and 600 horse-power.
The trade of this large Company now embraces all the chief ports of the Mediterranean and Black Sea, and those of India, China, Java, and Japan, as well as of Algeria and the Brazils; and the excellent manner in which the different lines are conducted and navigated by Frenchmen is the best answer that can be given to the old saying that the French never were and never will be a maritime people. That they do not equal the English on the ocean is likely enough, nevertheless that they would become much greater as shipowners than they now are there can be little doubt, were they governed by wise laws and left to depend upon their own energy and resources rather than on government grants. Throughout all time “protective” laws seem to have retarded the natural development of commerce, as they have been too frequently the ruin of nations as well as of individuals.
[Sidenote: Trade viâ the Suez Canal.]
The ships of the Messageries Maritimes Company, like those of their great competitors for the trade of the East, the Peninsular and Oriental Company, now pass through the Suez Canal. But, besides these two companies, the former of which receives nearly double the amount of subsidy of the other,[364] there are now numerous other steam lines following the same route, all bidding for the ever envied trade of the once mysterious Cathay; and these have increased enormously since the waters of the Red Sea, passing through the desert, mingled with those of the Mediterranean.
Hitherto steam to India by the way of the Cape of Good Hope has proved an unprofitable undertaking: nor, with all the improvements tending towards increased economy on the one hand, and greater capacity for cargo on the other, does it offer many more inducements now, than it did when the Enterprize first found her way to Calcutta.
Nor, indeed, has any better success attended steam navigation undertakings to the distant colonies of Australia. From the time that the trade with India was thrown open, sailing-ships thither, as well as to Australia, have been the chief means of transport, and these still carry by far the largest proportion of the goods traffic, though first-class passengers prefer the more expeditious overland routes: but steam-boats, even though largely subsidized, especially to India by the way of the Cape, have found it impossible to compete successfully with the sailing-ships of Messrs. Green of Blackwall, Messrs. T. and W. Smith, and other private shipowners long engaged in the trade.
The two steam companies, formed nearly simultaneously about the year 1852 to run viâ the Cape of Good Hope: one, the General Screw Steam Company to Calcutta and intermediate Indian ports; and the other, the Australian Royal Mail Steam Company, though each received large grants of public money, alike proved signal failures. Nor can the failure of these undertakings be altogether attributed to mismanagement. A good deal of it was, doubtless, due to the description of vessels employed, and to their unsuitability for the services undertaken, but still more to the fact that neither auxiliary steam-ships, nor full-powered steamers, have hitherto been profitable on distant voyages.
[Sidenote: Presumed advantage of auxiliary engines.]
About that period many shipowners were under the impression that full-rigged ships, such as the Massachusetts, with an auxiliary steam-engine, to be used only in calms and light winds, would in themselves combine all the best qualities of a sailing-ship and steamer: nor was this surprising. On the voyage, for instance, from England to India a sailing-vessel during the favourable trade winds and monsoons, which can always be depended upon for a considerable part of the voyage, would, under sail alone, make almost as much progress as a steamer; while, in the calms, which are invariably met with for from five to ten degrees on each side of the Equator, and, where sailing-vessels frequently are long detained, the small steam-engine could be applied to great advantage; as also on entering as well as on leaving harbours. Indeed, so strongly impressed was I with the value of auxiliary steam-vessels for distant voyages, that, in 1856, I undertook, even after these failures, to convey in seven such steamers, three-fourths of which belonged to myself, the monthly mails, within a given time, between London, the Cape of Good Hope, Mauritius, Ceylon, Madras, and Calcutta.
The vessels thus employed were built entirely of iron, and ship-rigged, as may be seen by the following illustration of one of them; more fully so, in proportion to their size, than those of the General Screw Company, and, as their engines were only from 80 to 120 horse-power nominal, on a tonnage of from 800 to 1500 tons gross, they were purely auxiliary vessels. Under sail their speed was from 10 to 11 knots, with a favourable wind, and, under steam alone, from 6 to 7 knots an hour in light breezes or calms, but, in adverse winds, they made little or no progress, a fact arising in great measure from their small steam-power and from the resistance their heavy spars presented to the winds: consequently, though they met with no accidents, and were more to be depended upon, as to time, than ordinary sailing-vessels, they could not maintain the regularity essential for the mail service; so, after twelve months’ experience, I relinquished the undertaking.
Since that time no mails have been carried in any description of steam-vessels from England to ports eastward of the Cape of Good Hope by the Atlantic sea route, except it may be to Natal, and occasionally to the Mauritius, or to Zanzibar on the east coast of Africa.
[Sidenote: Not borne out by the results.]
In full powered steamers the space required for coals and machinery on these distant oversea voyages, over and above their first cost and current expenses, prevent them carrying cargo sufficient to afford remunerative returns, and their owners are not recouped by the extra rates of freight obtainable for the time saved on the voyages. In the case of the auxiliary steamers the results are the same, arising in a great measure from similar causes, for, though such vessels had greater space for cargo, yet the advantage thus gained is counterbalanced by the maintenance of a staff of engineers and firemen who, during the greater portion of the voyage are unemployed, and by the fact already stated that, though the auxiliary engine is valuable in calms, it has not power enough to be of service against strong and adverse winds. As a rule, therefore, it is in most cases more profitable to employ either a steamer with only light spars and a few fore and aft sails, or a full-rigged vessel which depends entirely upon her sails. Anything between the two has not hitherto been found to answer so well, though there may be exceptions depending on the trade in which such vessels are employed.
[Sidenote: Conveyance of the Australian mails.]
From the time of the opening of the overland route, all the mails to the East Indies have passed through Egypt, except those despatched by the two lines of auxiliary steamers round the Cape of Good Hope, to which I have just referred; and even by these vessels few or no letters were sent except to the intermediate ports; but, for many years after the overland route had been opened, the British mails to Australia and New Zealand were conveyed almost entirely by sailing-vessels, except during the two or three years the Australian Royal Mail Steam Packet Company carried on its operations. When the steamers of that company were unable any longer to continue the service, the Peninsular and Oriental Company undertook, as we have seen, the conveyance of these, the more important mails by way of Ceylon; but, when the service was relinquished for a time, as some of their steamers were required as transports for the Crimean War, the conveyance of the whole of the Australian mails, greatly to the annoyance and discomfort of the colonists, reverted again to sailing-vessels.
To obviate as far as practicable the delay and uncertainty in the time of the delivery of the letters, Government, instead of contracting for their conveyance by any one line of sailing-vessels, considered it expedient to throw the contracts open to the competition of all suitable vessels engaged in the trade with Australia. But this, too, was merely an experiment, and one which proved alike unsatisfactory to the public and Government. It was tried, however, for a year or more and, as it so happened, the trial was made just between the time when the steamers of the General Screw Company and those of the Australian Royal Mail Company had ceased to run, and of my own experiment with the Cape and Indian mail services.
[Sidenote: Peculiar conditions of contracts.]
To insure speed and, if possible, regularity, the Post Office authorities stipulated that from the amount to be paid to each ship thus employed, there should be deducted a penalty of 20_l._ for every day’s delay in the delivery of the letters beyond the time specified in the tender. Instead of leaving the sum, as had hitherto been and now is the invariable practice, to be named by the person who tendered, Government fixed it at 1000_l._ for the passage, accepting the offer which contained the fewest number of days for the performance of the service. Thus, a shipowner who could reckon with tolerable certainty, that his vessel would make the voyage to Australia in 100 days, which most first-class ships could do, might safely tender to do it in, say, seventy-seven days, because after the deduction of the 20_l._ per day for the twenty-three days in excess, he would have a balance of 540_l._ to receive (besides other advantages which “mail-packets” derived), and as that sum would further cover an additional excess of twenty-seven days, or say altogether fifty days beyond the time contracted for, the speculation was an exceedingly safe one to a sailing-ship, even if the tender were made for the shortest time in which the fastest steamer had been known to accomplish the voyage. Hence this system of tender proved altogether illusory as regarded the securing a rapid communication. The very first ship, the Stratford, despatched under the new arrangement, occupied on her outward passage a period of thirty-seven days in excess of the time stipulated!
[Sidenote: Failure of the service.]
[Sidenote: Stringent penalties.]
If the colonists had been loud in their previous complaints they were still more so now; but the Treasury and Post Office authorities, considering that they had done their best to secure speed, were, for a time, immovable and indisposed to make any further experiments. Steamers and sailing-vessels on so distant a voyage having alike failed, Government thought there was now a good answer to all complaints, and, consequently, treated them with indifference. They argued, referring to the then recent failure of the Australian Royal Mail Packet Company, that, as the steam-vessels between England and Sydney had varied from seventy-six to 120 days, while the length of passage by fast sailing-ships between England and Port Phillip was from eighty-two to 110 days, the difference was not really of any serious disadvantage. Nevertheless, while Government refused increased grants for the conveyance of the mails, it adopted and enforced much more rigorous penalties[365] against owners of sailing-ships to ensure a more speedy performance of the mail services. This fresh experiment, however, from its extreme rigour also failed, and some time elapsed before the colonists obtained what they had long demanded, a direct and independent line of steam-vessels by way of Suez and Ceylon; and that, as we have seen, proved in the hands of the European and Australian Steam Navigation Company the most signal failure of all the experiments which had been made.
[Sidenote: Australian steam services. ]
Among the instances where anything like success has attended steam voyages direct to Australia, may be mentioned the services performed by Messrs. Gibbs, Bright, and Company, in their steamship Great Britain from Liverpool, and in the steamers belonging to Messrs. Money Wigram and Sons, of London, which now trade to these colonies. Occasionally other steamers are despatched to Australia and also to New Zealand, and recently a company was formed—the Australian Direct Steam Navigation Company—with the intention of maintaining a regular monthly line from London to Melbourne, calling at Falmouth, the projectors anticipating the performances of the passage in “under forty-five days.” But though this undertaking failed at the outset, and experience can alone test the realization of the sanguine expectations of its promoters, it may be said in favour of their views, that the difficulties previous pioneers of steam-vessels on long oversea voyages have had to encounter are being rapidly surmounted by the new compound engines, where the consumption of coals required to attain a given speed is not one-half of what it was twenty years ago.
[Sidenote: Mr. Alfred Holt’s line of steamers to China.]
So far as regards the trade with India and China by way of the Cape of Good Hope, the steam-line started by Mr. Alfred Holt of Liverpool in 1865 is the only one within my recollection, which has hitherto proved successful. Though the steamers of this line now proceed to China by the Suez Canal, their performances were remarkable when engaged in the former route. Starting from Liverpool they never stopped till they reached Mauritius, a distance of 8500 miles, being under steam the whole way, a feat hitherto considered impossible; thence they proceeded to Penang, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Shanghai, and, though unaided by any government grants, performed these distant voyages with extraordinary regularity.
In forwarding the particulars of his first three vessels, Mr. Holt[366] remarks: “Since the Suez Canal was opened I have found that the square sails of the Agamemnon, Ajax, and Achilles[367] were of little use, and, therefore, I have converted these three ships into what the Americans call ‘barquentine rig’ (i.e. no square yards on mainmast), and have constructed all my new ships with pole-masts only.”
[Sidenote: Its success.]
These three vessels are each 2270 tons gross or 1550 net register, with engines of 300 nominal horse-power.[368] Messrs. Holt have also eleven other steamers, similar in size and power, at present engaged in trade with the East, and three more in course of construction, besides a tug-steamer of 350 tons to attend on them in their passage through the Suez Canal. They carry goods right through to Penang, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Shanghai, calling at Galle and Amoy, or other ports in the Eastern seas when required; and one is struck with the low rates at which goods are now conveyed[369] to India and China compared with the freights charged by the sailing-vessels of the old East India Company, together with the wonderful regularity and expedition[370] with which they are delivered.
Although the fleet of this spirited undertaking is known as the Ocean Steam-ship Company, it is neither a public nor a limited company, the vessels being owned in shares under the old law by a few individuals (like many others of a similar description in this country), but chiefly by the managing owners, Mr. Alfred and his brother Mr. Philip H. Holt, whose thorough business habits have materially promoted the success of the company.
[Sidenote: Messrs. Gellatly, Hankey, and Company.]
It would be impossible to notice within the limits of this work the different lines of steam-ships now trading to the East by way of the Suez Canal. Among the most conspicuous, however, may be mentioned those of Messrs. Gellatly, Hankey, Sewell, and Company, London, which, from the order and regularity of their despatch, bid fair to rival the subsidized companies. Many of the vessels under their agency belong to Messrs. Thomas Wilson, Sons, and Company, of Hull, long known as large owners of vessels trading from that place to various ports in the Baltic, but who, since the opening of the Suez Canal, have established a line of very fine steam-ships from London to India.
Their Hindoo for instance, of 3257 tons gross register, has capacity for about 3500 tons weight, “including coals in bunkers, and from 80 to 120 passengers,” for whom accommodation is provided “amidships, a method which has apparently given great satisfaction to those who have been travellers by them.”
Another line of steamers under the management of the same firm run in connection with the British India Steam Navigation Company, taking passengers and mails to Columbia, Madras, and Calcutta, with branch steamers from Aden to Zanzibar on the one hand, and to Karáchí and the Persian Gulf on the other.
Foreign nations have likewise taken advantage of the opening of the Suez Canal to run lines of steam-ships to the East; and, besides the French Messageries Maritimes, there are the Austrian Lloyd’s Company of Trieste, and the Rubbotino Company of Genoa, respectively supported by the Austrian and Italian Governments, each running a fortnightly line to Bombay during the four best passenger months of the year, namely, from January to April, and despatching their ships every month during the remaining portion of the year.
[Sidenote: Messrs. Green and Company.]
There is also the “Ducal” line from London, running in connection with the old and celebrated sailing-vessels belonging to Messrs. Green, of Blackwall, which is still maintained; and the “Queen” and “City” lines of steamers direct to Calcutta,[371] as well as various other similar private undertakings. Nor is Liverpool behind the capital in its race by way of the Suez Canal, for that far-famed trade which the Phœnicians, Romans, Venetians, Portuguese, Dutch, and English alike, in turn, have envied and expended untold millions to maintain.
[Sidenote: Messrs. Rathbone Brothers.]
As a specimen of the ordinary first-class merchant steamers now trading between Liverpool and Calcutta, I may instance one of the vessels belonging to Messrs. Rathbone Brothers, of that place. She is of 2610 tons gross and 1682 tons net register, and has capacity for 2200 tons of cargo, besides 450 tons of coal.[372] She is rigged merely with poles (a mode of rig now becoming very general in all steam-vessels), on which, with the exception of one fore-square sail, a few fore and aft sails alone can be set. The owners remark the “best passages of our ships as yet are as follows:—Liverpool to Calcutta (viâ Gibraltar) to Saugar (near Calcutta), thirty-one days, including all stoppages; Calcutta to London (viâ Galle and of course Suez Canal) to Nore light-ship, thirty-four days thirteen hours, steaming time on the whole voyage (exclusive of Suez Canal and stoppages) sixty-one days twelve hours. The best homeward passage hitherto made by any of our ships, landing cargo at Colombo and Port Said, occupied thirty-three days seventeen hours, inclusive of all stoppages.”
From these and previous figures, my readers will more fully understand the progress that has been made in our ordinary trading communications with India and China, since the days of the East India Company, and ascertain what has been gained, since then in the speed, capacity, and current expenses of our merchant-ships.
[Sidenote: Messrs. George Smith and Sons.]
In further illustration of the progress made in our own time I cannot do better than furnish my readers with a letter I received (January 1875) from Mr. George Smith, of Glasgow.
Indeed, this letter contains in itself a history of the rise of the merchant-vessels of Great Britain during the period to which Mr. Smith refers, and marks the different stages of progress and the means whereby we have been enabled not merely to maintain, but to surpass, in maritime supremacy, all nations. It, likewise, illustrates how individuals (for the case of Messrs. George Smith and Sons is no exception to the general rule, though their operations may be on a more extensive scale than those of most other shipowners) have, since they have been relieved from the trammels of protection and been left to exercise as they deem best their own genius and industry, more than kept pace with other branches of commerce by the improvement and increase of their ships.
“Our first purchase,” Mr. Smith states in his letter, “was a small colonial barque in 1840, which was followed shortly thereafter by the purchase of a barque of 346 tons, in course of construction, and a ship of 500 tons then nearly in frame, both being of the ten years class.
“The first ship which we contracted for and had built to our own specification was the Majestic, launched in 1846. Our second, the City of Glasgow, was built at Kelvinhaugh, and launched in 1848. While she was on the stocks, the bounds of the municipality of Glasgow as a city had been extended to the junction of the Kelvin and Clyde westwards, and thus embraced the shipyard in which she was built. Our late Mr. R. Smith was then a magistrate of the city of Glasgow, and this being the first ship built in the extended royalty, we reckoned no name could be more appropriate, and, as other ships came into existence, we still kept the City,[373] and merely added a name in future designations.
“When we commenced the trade, we employed the regular brokers for loading outwards, and had every reason to be satisfied with the attention paid to our interests by the gentleman who did our business, but the practice, which then obtained here, of laying a ship on the berth and allowing her to lie till nearly loaded before naming the sailing date, and that date, when named, frequently not adhered to, we felt very annoying, not only as keeping back shipments but as sending goods to Liverpool which should have gone from this direct. Our rule was to have our dates of sailing definitely fixed. Only one firm, however, in the trade held the same view with ourselves, and feeling the annoyance, they and we resolved on starting a monthly line to Calcutta. Together we had not so many vessels as were required to keep up the monthly conveyance, but we resolved to add to our tonnage and make up for the then deficiency by chartering so far as necessary. We had made a special stipulation that our broker should still act for our ships, and also for those that it might fall to our lot to charter. When this proposal was submitted to him we were surprised to find that he declined very decidedly to have anything to do with the arrangement—that his lengthened experience in the trade satisfied him that it would prove a failure—and he was therefore not prepared to allow his name to be associated with it; but he lived long enough to find he had been mistaken.
[Sidenote: Messrs. Smiths’ ships, and their voyages to and from India.]
“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.”
[Sidenote: 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]
[Sidenote: 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.
FOOTNOTES:
[360] Besides the Bavarian, Messrs. Leyland employ in this trade the Bohemian and Bulgarian, similar in all respects, each of which is 400 feet in length, 37 feet wide, and 28 feet in depth, with engines of 350 nominal horse-power. They have also in the same trade other three sister ships, the Iberian, Illyrian, and Istrian, each 2890 tons gross register and carrying 4400 tons of cargo, dimensions 390 ⨉ 37 ⨉ 29.
[361] The whole steam tonnage of France amounted in 1873 to 185,165 tons net register.
[362] The Greeks, strange to say, considering their shrewdness and keen business habits, stopped the coasting trade of foreigners, thereby doing incalculable injury to their own commerce, not having capital themselves to supply the deficiency or perform adequately the service.
[363] My readers will perceive that this company apparently owns within 10,000 tons of the whole of the steam-shipping of France, but this arises from the gross tonnage being given in the former returns, and only the net registered tons in the latter. Nevertheless, the Messageries Maritimes is now the largest steam-ship company in the world. A list of the steamers of this company, and how employed, will be found in the Appendix No. 24, p. 641.
[364] The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company for a service of 1,171,092 miles, receives 430,000_l._, while the Messageries Maritimes is paid at present (June 1875) 399,838_l._ for a service of 631,514 miles.
[365] An amusing incident occurred at this time to myself not altogether unworthy of notice. When the discussions were going on about the irregularity of the sailing-ship mails, the late Mr. James Wilson, then Secretary to the Treasury, one day asked me how these irregularities could best be remedied. “Oh,” I said, half in joke and half in earnest, “adopt the horse-shoe nail mode of levying your penalties: inflict, as you do now, 20_l._ for the first day’s delay, but increase it to 40_l._ for the second, 80_l._ for the third, 160_l._ for the fourth, 320_l._ for the fifth, 640_l._ for the sixth, and no pay at all for the conveyance of the mails if the ships are seven days beyond the time stipulated in their contract, and you will be no longer troubled with tenders professing to deliver your letters in less time than the passage, under ordinary circumstances, can be accomplished.”
A scheme of penalties, somewhat after this fashion, was immediately afterwards adopted; but I had unwittingly prepared a stick to break my own back. The second contract for the Cape and India mails, to which I have referred in the text, was one of the earliest to which this new principle was applied, and I could not of course object to the stringency of this new fashioned penalty clause, as it was of my own creation. Nor did the Government hesitate to put it in force when my ships were behind time, as also in the case of the unfortunate European and Australian Steam Navigation Company. But though the new principle promptly and effectually put a stop to all tenders of the class of which Mr. Wilson complained, it was much too rigorous to be continued and was abolished.
[366] Mr. Alfred Holt is the third son of my old friend, the late Mr. George Holt of Liverpool. He is an engineer by profession, having served his apprenticeship to Mr. Edward Woods, the engineer of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Afterwards, he became the inspecting engineer of my steamers and of those of others; and when he himself, in time, became the owner of steam-ships, in partnership with his brother, Mr. Philip H. Holt, he showed what knowledge, practically gained, could achieve, and, thoroughly beating his old employers by the production of the vessels to which I refer, he now ranks high, and deservedly high, among the great shipowners of his native town. Though he has no claim to be considered the inventor of the compound engine, for that is almost as old, in one form or another, as the present century; he was the first to apply the principle on long oversea voyages. The ships of the Pacific Company had, it is true, that description of engine in use before him, but only in those of their ships engaged in the coasting trade of the Pacific. Mr. Holt’s steamers were consequently the first to show the advantages to be derived from the compound principle on such voyages as those from England to Mauritius, a distance of 8500 miles without stopping, then a marvellous performance; and it was, only, from the time he thus practically demonstrated the great value of such engines, that they have been generally adopted.
[367] The Achilles left Foochow, July 16th, 1869, and arrived at London round the Cape of Good Hope, September 16th, having been fifty-eight days nine hours under steam—13,552 miles.
[368] Their dimensions are as follows: 309 feet in length, 38½ feet beam, and 28½ depth of hold to upper or spar deck.
[369] Freight for ordinary packages of measurement goods:
To Suez, Penang, and Singapore, 50_s._ per ton, with 5 per cent. primage.
To Hong Kong and Shanghai, 50_s._ per ton, with 5 per cent. primage.
Through bills of lading are signed for—
Yokohama, Foo-choo-Foo, and Amoy, @ 90_s._
Manilla, 90_s._, Batavia, 80_s._, Samarang, 84_s._, Sourabaya, 85_s._, Padang and Macassar, 92_s._, Chinkiang, 77_s._ 6_d._, Kiukiang, 80_s._, Hankow, 85_s._, Nagasaki, 75_s._, and Hiogo, 80_s._ per ton.
All without primage. No bill of lading signed for less than 2_l._ 2_s._
Freight payable on delivery of bills of lading.
[370] The Agamemnon left Hankow, 604 miles above Shanghai, on May 25th, 1873, and arrived (by way of the Suez Canal and Gibraltar) at London, July 12th. The mails, which left Shanghai June 1st, arrived in London viâ Brindisi, July 21st, and the passage of the Agamemnon is not an exceptional one.
[371] The Queen Margaret, 3138 tons register, belonging to the Queen Steam Shipping Company (Limited), has just (Sept. 1875) made the passage from London to Calcutta under 30 days, including 40 hours’ detention in the Suez Canal (or, 28 days and 8 hours), which, as yet, is, I believe, the fastest passage on record.
[372] The dimensions of this vessel are 350 feet in length, 37 feet in breadth, and 27 feet 5 inches extreme depth of hold. She has three decks, her engines are 300 nominal horse-power, and her crew consists of fifty persons all told.
[373] All the ships of Messrs. George Smith and Sons are named after different cities.
[374]
CALCUTTA.
We despatched to Calcutta viâ the Cape of Good Hope, in 1871, twenty-four sailing ships:
Shortest passage out 79 days. Shortest passage home 93 days. Shortest round voyage, Pilot to Pilot 6 months and 9 days. Average passage out 95 days. Average passage home 108 days.
Five of the voyages were completed under seven months. A few of these vessels loaded out from London. The others were all from the Clyde.
BOMBAY.
We despatched to Bombay, in 1871, sixteen sailing-ships completing the same number of voyages:
Shortest passage out 83 days. Shortest passage home 95 days. Average passage out 106 days. Average passage home 117 days. Shortest voyage 7 months and 18 days.
[375] See vol. ii. p. 493.
[376] The dimensions of this ship are 325 feet in length, 37 feet beam, and 27½ feet extreme depth. The cylinders of her engines (compound) are 39 and 68 inches respectively in diameter and the length of stroke 42 inches.
[377] I may here state that the bulkiest articles of Indian produce, consisting as they do of cotton, jute, rice, sugar, saltpetre, cutch, and such like, as also woods of various kinds, cannot, as a rule, afford to pay the rates necessary to remunerate a steam-ship for their conveyance; hence, such articles will most likely continue to be sent to Europe by the Cape route, except when in special demand. That such will most probably continue to be the case is apparent from the fact that, though, during the last two years, the competition between the steamers passing through the Suez Canal has been so great as to reduce their rates of freight almost to a level with those paid to sailing-vessels, the latter still continue to secure full cargoes. This may, in some measure, be accounted for by many, indeed, the bulk of those cargoes being sold “to arrive:” hence, merchants frequently prefer sailing-vessels, especially for the shipment of jute, rice, and other articles of comparatively low value, as thus they have a longer time at their disposal, and thus frequently avoid the expense of warehousing, to which, in the case of goods by steamers, they are often obliged to resort, from the short time allowed in all contracts, for the discharge of such vessels.
[378] Appendix No. 25, p. 643.
[379] In calling attention to the results of the construction of the Suez Canal, the Friend of India says:—“No more striking illustration could be adduced of the revolution effected by the Suez Canal than that suggested by a comparison of the shipping advertisements of to-day with those of twenty years ago. Then we hardly ever heard of steamers in these regions, except in connection with the stately proceedings and crushing fares of the Peninsular and Oriental Company. Then, it was a splendid run to get home in one of Green or Smith’s clippers in ninety days. Now, an ordinary cargo steamer, carrying a few passengers, lands us comfortably at Liverpool on the thirtieth day. First we have the time-honoured Peninsular and Oriental Company, next the Messageries Maritimes de France, then the Italian Steam Navigation Company. Not inferior to the last-mentioned is the Austro-Hungarian Lloyd’s Steam Navigation Company, then comes the Anchor line, followed by the Wilson line, the Star line, &c. Besides the regular steamers of these and similar ‘lines,’ we have our choice of a large and constantly increasing number of private vessels—less regular, perhaps, in their departures and arrivals, but many of them not a whit inferior in size, accommodation, speed, and careful management. Another note-worthy feature in these noble steam fleets is the nature of the vessels generally composing them. It will be found that nearly the whole of the steamers are new, many of them having been built expressly for the Indian passenger trade; and all are superbly fitted out with every convenience and luxury. Twenty years ago, a vessel of 1500 tons ranked as the largest of our Indian sailing-vessels. Now, 3000 tons is a very common figure to see appended to the name of a passenger steamer, and 4000 tons not uncommon, while some are considerably above that tonnage. In point of speed, several steam vessels owned by new companies are equal, if not superior, to the Peninsular and Oriental. Recently we read of a steamer leaving Suez two days after the Peninsular and Oriental, and arriving at Bombay one day earlier. The lowering of fares is another item worthy of consideration. A first-class passage can now be obtained, exclusive of beer and wine, for 450 rupees. The result of all this is a greatly increased and rapidly increasing flight to England from India; and an annual accession of visitors and tourists from England, the Continent, and America, to India. Even our hill stations are losing their summer visitors—drained off by the absorbing Suez Canal. And many parents, who formerly sent their children to hill schools, are now taking advantage of cheap passages to give them the benefit of home education. As fares are reduced still more this homeward tendency will further increase. Why should not 30_l._ pay as well for thirty days without beer and wines as 60_l._ used to pay for ninety days with beer and wines? We believe that first-class passages will eventually be procurable for 30_l._, and that now is the time for shipping companies to look the future in the face.”
Chapter XII
First application of steam-vessels on the rivers and coasts of India, 1825—S.S. Diana—S.S. Burhampooter and Hooghly, 1828—Arrival in India of Lord William Bentinck as Governor-General—His efforts to promote Steam Navigation—Voyages of the S.S. Hooghly up the Ganges 1828, 1829, and 1830—Other vessels recommended to be built—Two of them of Iron—Steam Companies formed, 1845—Steam Committee, 1857, and rapid progress of steam-vessels from this date—Improved troop steamer for the Lower Indus—Sea-going steamers of India—S.S. John Bright—British India Steam Navigation Company established, 1857—Its fleet, and extent of its operations—Origin of this company—Its early difficulties, and rapid extension—Number of ships lost—Effect of the opening of the Suez Canal on the trade of this Company—The Holy Ship, note—Netherlands Steam Navigation Company, 1866—Its fleet, and how employed—Irrawaddy Flotilla and Burmese Steam Navigation Company, 1865—Services of this Company—Extent of inland trade—Fleet of the Company—Interior trade of China—The Yang-tse-Kiang—Its source and extent—Opened to trade, 1860—First steam-ship direct from Hankow to England, 1863—Passage of the Robert Lowe and her cargo—Number of steamers employed on the Yang-tse 1864 and in 1875—S.S. Hankow—Her power and capacity, note—Chinese Steam Navigation Company—Proposed Imperial fleet of steamers—Increase of trade with China—The resources of the interior—Mode of conducting business—“Hongs” or Guilds—Chinese Bankers—River and coasting trade of China—Japanese line of steamers—How employed.
[Sidenote: First application of steam-vessels on the rivers and coasts of India, 1825.]
[Sidenote: S.S. Diana.]
Encouraged by the success of the Enterprize, the Bengal Government soon afterwards purchased another steamer, the Diana,[380] which had been originally sent from England to China on speculation, and despatched her to Amarapura, 500 miles up the River Irrawaddy, with their then Resident in Burmah, Mr. Crawfurd, and his suite. As, however, she sailed on her voyage in the month of September, when that river is at its fullest, her progress not exceeding 30 miles each day, caused considerable disappointment to the Indian Government. On her return in the following month of December, she was again equally unfortunate, for, by that time, the river had fallen so low, that, partly owing to her draught of water, which was seldom less than 6 feet, and, partly, to the intricacy of a navigation, then imperfectly known, her passage down the Irrawaddy was nearly as tedious.
[Sidenote: The S.S. Burhampooter and Hooghly, 1828.]
As, however, this voyage was accomplished without accident, the value of steamers for inland navigation was sufficiently shown to induce the Indian Government to consider the desirability of constructing such vessels for this special service; hence, an urgent application was soon afterwards made to the Court of Directors for permission to build two vessels, one for general service, and the other for the navigation of the Burhampooter, on which, from the strength of the stream and the prevalence of easterly winds, it was found that sailing-vessels could not be depended on, for the supply of the large number of troops it was necessary to maintain in the valley of Assam for some years after the conquest of that country. So much delay, however, occurred before the Court gave its consent, that these vessels were not ready for actual service till the spring of 1828.[381]
[Sidenote: Arrival in India of Lord William Bentinck as Governor-General.]
Lord William Bentinck, who arrived on July 3rd of that year at Calcutta, as Governor-General of India, at once saw the immense advantage to be derived from the employment of steam-vessels, and their great value and economy in the rapid transport of troops and treasure, as well into the interior as along the coasts of India.[382]
[Sidenote: His efforts to promote Steam Navigation.]
No arguments were required to convince him that the new steamer despatched for service on the Burhampooter river, whence she had been named, was of almost incalculable value, the troops in Assam being not merely supplied more rapidly with the necessary stores, but their number materially reduced, the use of steamers enabling the different armies of India to be practically interchangeable with almost every portion of the East. Consequently, Lord William Bentinck appointed a committee to inquire into the description of steamers best suited for the navigation of the rivers of India, and ordered the Hooghly, the second vessel built, to explore the River Ganges as far as Allahabad, a distance of 798 miles above Calcutta.
[Sidenote: Voyages of the S.S. Hooghly up the Ganges, 1828, 1829, and 1830.]
The voyages of this vessel, under the command of Captain Johnston, previously of the Enterprize, were perfectly successful, and clearly showed that the Ganges could, for the whole of this distance, be advantageously navigated by steamers. Although the Hooghly, from not having the indispensable qualities of lightness of draught, capacity, and speed, was not well adapted for so long and intricate a river voyage, she made the passage to Allahabad at the average speed of 3½ miles an hour, against a current of from 3 to 4 miles, returning thence at the rate of from 7 to even 12 miles an hour according to the strength of the stream. Further experimental trips in the spring of 1829, and in January 1830, were equally successful.
[Sidenote: Other vessels recommended to be built.]
[Sidenote: Two of them of iron.]
In accordance with the recommendations of the Committee, two steamers of about 270 tons burden, with engines of 70 to 80 horse-power, were constructed as tug-boats for use on the river Hooghly; and orders were sent to England for two others, better fitted than the Burhampooter and Hooghly, for the navigation of the Ganges or other rivers. These vessels had, indeed, but partially met the wants of the service, and, as it had been now discovered that vessels of less draught could be made of iron, the Court of Directors were recommended to order their construction of that material. They were to draw not more than 2 feet of water; one to be a steam-tug, the other an accommodation boat. Both were to be of the same dimensions, 120 feet long, by 22 feet in width, and very flat-bottomed, which, indeed, was absolutely necessary to secure the stipulated lightness of draught. They were to have two engines of 30 horse-power each, with vibrating cylinders, on account of their greater lightness. However, till the result of the experiment made with these boats was known, the Directors suspended their decision as to the building of more steam-vessels for the navigation of the Upper Ganges and Burhampooter, as also for that of the Indus and other rivers of the Punjâb.
In these early efforts, we have an approximation to what has since been achieved on the rivers of India, presenting, as they did, a field for inland navigation, realizable by steam-vessels with far more advantageous results than could be obtained by the ordinary craft of the country. The success of the first effort, in securing a high power of engines as compared with the draught of water, led to the construction, for similar purposes, of various other iron boats by Mr. Laird, Messrs. Miller and Ravenshill, and Messrs. Forrester.
[Sidenote: Steam companies formed, 1845.]
[Sidenote: Steam committee of 1857, and rapid progress of steam vessels from this date.]
Private enterprise, however, in this instance lagged behind Government, as it was not till 1845 that any companies were formed to conduct the trade of that country by means of steam-vessels. The Tug Company of the Hooghly was among the first of these commercial undertakings. The Bombay Steam Navigation Company followed, with four paddle-wheel steamers, three of wood and one of iron, to trade between Bombay and Ceylon on the one hand, and Karáchi on the other. But, however great the advantages derivable from the use of steamers on the rivers and coasts of India, their development, even then, was slow compared with that of Great Britain or the United States. Although starting early, and with energy, in the use of this new power, the people and Government alike seem to have slumbered for nearly thirty years, and to have been dreaming over its advantages: indeed, it was not till 1857, when another committee had been appointed, and strongly recommended the more extended use of steamers, that any very marked progress was made. From that period, however, it has been very great, I may say remarkable, more especially since the opening of the Suez Canal. Since then, those ancient routes of maritime commerce which, in the dawn of history, were first tracked by the Chaldeans and Phœnicians, and, afterwards brought into a system by the greatest and wisest of monarchs, have been, after the lapse of more than two thousand years, re-opened by steam-ships, and this, too, almost along the same course, which Solomon, in connection with Hiram, King of Tyre, first established.
[Sidenote: Improved troop steamer for the Lower Indus.]
Among the finest vessels ordered by the Government of India after the report of the committee had been considered, may be mentioned one designed by Mr. T. B. Winter, C.E., for the navigation of the Lower Indus. As she is very much the type of all the steamers now employed for the conveyance of troops and passengers on the rivers of the East, I may state that her design somewhat resembles (though with special fittings adapted for the climate of India) the steamer, now employed on the River Hudson, already described,[383] having accommodation for 800 soldiers and their officers in two tiers of cabins, one above the other, built on the main-deck, and surrounded by verandahs and covered with awnings as a protection from the scorching rays of the sun. The sides of these deck-houses, consist almost entirely of Venetian blinds; their frames and those of the berths being made of galvanized iron, having between the frames sheets of perforated zinc so as to admit a free circulation of air, while the whole range of these houses is divided into five separate compartments so as to permit the separation of the troops in case of sickness. By an ingenious contrivance an abundant supply of fresh air is drawn from the paddle-boxes in order that it may contain moisture, and is supplied to all the cabins by means of fans, worked by the steam-engines of the ship in such a manner that a sufficient quantity is provided to completely change, every half-hour, the air in each troop-room. The draught of water of this commodious and beautifully arranged vessel, aided by another ingenious contrivance in connection with her rudder, does not exceed, when laden, 2 feet, while her speed on her trial trip averaged close upon 12 statute miles the hour.[384]
[Sidenote: Sea-going steamers of India.]
[Sidenote: S.S. John Bright.]
Among the earliest commercial Ocean Steamers employed on the Eastern seas, were, as noticed previously, those of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. For some years, at first, these vessels held almost a monopoly of the passenger and of the most valuable portion of the goods traffic. Competitors, however, soon arose, especially in the opium trade, which had, hitherto, been conducted by sailing clippers celebrated for their speed, many of which vessels, owned by English merchants resident in Hong Kong, had proved a large source of profit to their too enterprising owners. But, now, the whole of this trade, as well as a considerable portion of the traffic between Calcutta, Bombay and the Chinese ports, is carried on by very fast steamers, owned partly by English and partly by native merchants. A few years ago, one of the finest of these vessels was the property, entirely, of Parsees resident at Bombay, and, as she bore the honoured name of the John Bright,[385] it is to be hoped that opium constituted but a small portion of her cargo. I mention her, however, as a fair specimen of the steamers thus employed, both as regards speed and dimensions, and, for the information of my readers, I may state that she was built of iron by Messrs. C. J. Mare and Co., of Millwall, in 1862, and that she made the voyage from Gravesend (calling at the Cape of Good Hope) to Bombay in fifty-eight days, and thence to Hong Kong, with a full cargo, and against the monsoons, in twenty-two days.[386]
[Sidenote: British India Steam Navigation Company established, 1857.]
[Sidenote: Its fleet and extent of its operations.]
Much the most important commercial maritime company, however, now engaged in the coasting trade of the East, is the British India Steam Navigation Company (Limited), which commenced business in 1857 under the title of the Calcutta and Burmah Steam Navigation Company, with a line of steamers between Calcutta, Akyab, Rangoon, and Moulmein. In 1862, the name of the company was changed to its present designation, its operations having been extended along the coasts of India and Persia, so as to embrace, at the present time, a continuous coasting service between Singapore on the one hand, and the island of Zanzibar on the other, with an extension from the latter port to the French settlements of Mayotte, Nossi Bé, and Majunga. The fleet of this company now consists of forty-two iron screw-steamers, varying in size from 350 to 2600 tons gross register, their aggregate gross tonnage being about 57,000, employed on thirteen different lines,[387] showing the vast extent of commercial intercourse now maintained by the vessels of this one undertaking alone.
One is amazed at the rapidity of the growth of steam-ship companies throughout the world, within the last quarter of this century. It seems only the other day when Mr. Mackinnon of Glasgow, a merchant engaged in the trade with India and the founder and managing director, as well as one of the chief owners of this large fleet of steamers, mentioned to the author his intention of running a couple of small steam-vessels between Calcutta and Burmah. Nor was he then very sanguine of success. With the shrewdness, however, characteristic of his countrymen, he saw, beyond the difficulties he would have to encounter (which men of his determination and perseverance alone know how to overcome), an important and valuable opening for the employment of steamers, and having overcome every obstacle, his hopes have been more than realized; indeed, much sooner and to a far larger extent, than he or any one else could at the first have anticipated.
[Sidenote: Origin of this company.]
This now important undertaking had its origin in an advertisement by the East India Company in 1855, for steam-vessels to convey the mails between Calcutta and Burmah, a service hitherto conducted by their own vessels, the Enterprize being the first to do so. Mr. Mackinnon and his partners, having agreed to accept the contract, despatched for its fulfilment the Baltic and Cape of Good Hope, but these vessels, being unsuitable for the purpose, and having made long and expensive passages to India, their enterprising owners would have suffered a heavy loss by them, had they not, soon after their arrival, been engaged for the transport of troops at the outbreak of the mutiny.
[Sidenote: Its early difficulties, and rapid extension.]
Nor was the new company more fortunate with the first vessels they built on the Clyde for this trade. One of these, the Calcutta, of 900 tons, was totally wrecked off the coast of Wicklow soon after she left Greenock, while another, the Cape of Good Hope, was sunk in the Hooghly, having come into collision with one of the steamers of the Peninsular and Oriental Company. The losses thus sustained were, however, vigorously overcome; other new vessels were supplied and, in 1862, a fresh contract was entered into with the Government of India, including conditions for the transport of troops and stores at a mileage rate, and for the conveyance of the mails, not merely every fortnight, between Calcutta, Akyab, Rangoon, and Moulmein, but also once a month, viâ the two latter ports, to Singapore; a similar service to Chittagong and Akyab; another to the Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal; a fortnightly one between Bombay and Karáchí; another, once a month, between Madras and Rangoon; and a further service, every six weeks, to various ports in the Persian Gulf, along nearly the same route Nearchus had followed three centuries before the Christian era.
Improving prospects now accompanied this spirited undertaking at every stage of its rapid progress. Steam here, as it has done everywhere else, opened up fresh branches of commerce, developed others, or gave new life to occupations for ages dormant, conferring, by its civilizing influence, immense benefits on the dense and often poverty-stricken and oppressed inhabitants of lands at once envied and far-famed.
[Sidenote: Number of ships lost.]
As might have been anticipated, the British India Steam Navigation Company met with various losses, in the development of so extensive a range of services; but, though the wreck of their Burmah on the Madras coast, the loss of the Bussorah on her voyage to India, the stranding of the Coringa in the harbour of Muskát, and the foundering of the Persia on her voyage from Rangoon to Calcutta, during one of these fearful cyclones which, periodically, sweep the Indian Ocean, crippled for a time the resources and retarded the operations of the company, they did not quell the spirit or even damp the energies of Mr. Mackinnon and his co-directors, who thus, at last, achieved that success which industry and perseverance, in the right direction, must ever command.
[Sidenote: Effect of the opening of the Suez Canal on the trade of this company.]
The opening of the Suez Canal, in 1869, gave renewed vigour to the company. While producing an entire revolution in the shipping trade of India, it afforded facilities for its economical conduct, hitherto unknown. Of these the directors at once took advantage, and their steamer India, requiring new boilers, was the first vessel to arrive in London with a cargo of Indian produce, through the new maritime highway, which the genius and energy of Lesseps had constructed across the barren isthmus of the land of the Pharaohs.
In 1873, the company entered into still more extended arrangements with the Government of India, by doubling some of its existing lines, and, in 1872, the directors arranged with the Home Government to organize a mail service every four weeks, between Aden and Zanzibar, on the east coast of Africa, so that the distance annually traversed under its contracts, now exceeds 1,100,000 miles.
In tracing the different lines used by the vessels of this company, it is interesting, as I have just mentioned, to note that their courses, especially those along the Arabian shore of the Red Sea, the eastern coast of Africa, the coasts of Hadramaut and Persia as far as Bussorah, and by way of Beluchistan and the western shores of India as far as Ceylon, are, as nearly as possible, the same as those which, from the scanty records of the past, I have endeavoured to trace on a map, so as to show the ancient routes of commerce pursued by native vessels long before the Christian era.[388]
[Sidenote: Netherlands Steam Navigation Company, 1866.]
[Sidenote: Its fleet, and how employed.]
In 1863, the Dutch East India Government offered a liberal subsidy for the conveyance of their mails in the East, but, as one of the conditions of the contract required the steamers so engaged to be under the Dutch flag, the requisite capital would not have been raised had not the shareholders of the British India Steam Navigation Company, individually, supplied the greater portion of it for this new undertaking. In 1866, the Netherlands India Steam Navigation Company commenced operations, having for its directors many of the members of the board of the English Company, but, in all other respects, distinct. These two companies, however, work together in perfect harmony, and now carry on between them a large portion of the maritime commerce of the East. The Netherlands Company owns twenty-three steamers of an aggregate of 20,000 tons, interchanging their traffic at Singapore, with the vessels of the British India Company, and extending their operations from that place and Batavia to the principal ports in the Dutch East Indies, and, again, thence, through Torres Straits to Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne, thus affording another line of steam communication to our Australian colonies, along the whole of the shores of which regular steam communication is now maintained.
But perhaps the most extraordinary, and certainly not the least interesting, inland route for steamers (the Ganges and the Indus not excepted), is the navigation of the River Irrawaddy through Burmah to the confines of China, a route greatly developed of recent years. It was, as I have stated, on this river, that the second steamer, the Diana, belonging to the East India Company, made her first voyage, and, from that time until 1865, the Government of India maintained, with more or less regularity, communication by their own steamers between Calcutta, Rangoon, and Upper Burmah, as far as Mandalay, a city said to contain at one time half a million of inhabitants, and situated on the banks of the Irrawaddy, about 500 miles from the sea.
[Sidenote: Irrawaddy Flotilla and Burmese Steam Navigation Company, 1865.]
Finding, as Governments often do in such undertakings, that the receipts from this line of communication fell very far short of the disbursements, they, in 1865, made a contract with the Irrawaddy Flotilla and Burmese Steam Navigation Company, constituted under the Limited Liability Act “for the conveyance of H.M.’s troops, stores, and mails to the different stations of British Burmah on the River Irrawaddy, and for carrying on general traffic between the towns and villages on that river from Rangoon to Mandalay, the capital of Upper Burmah,”[389] at the same time making over to the company four Government steamers and three flats previously engaged in the river service. But these vessels, having been found altogether unsuited for the successful carrying on of the company’s operations, were soon replaced by other and new vessels, better fitted for the efficient and economical performance of this service.
[Sidenote: Services of this Company.]
When the original contract with the Indian Government expired in 1868, the company entered into a fresh agreement, whereby its services were extended from Mandalay to Bhamo, 1000 miles by river from Rangoon, and within 50 miles of the Chinese frontier. Bhamo, for centuries celebrated among the inland commercial cities of the East, was, at one time, the depôt of an enormous import and export trade to and from western China, conveyed by trains of caravans between that city and Yunnan, the south-western province of the Celestial Empire. But, though long-continued rebellions and civil wars have almost extirpated this important traffic, it has of recent years received a fresh impulse by the introduction of improved steam communication on the Irrawaddy, and by the efforts of English merchants, supported by Government, to explore the country and to re-open vast fields of wealth long comparatively unproductive.[390]
[Sidenote: Extent of inland trade.]
Previously to the establishment of steam communication, the trade of the Irrawaddy, studded along its whole length with towns and villages, with a dense, active, and industrious population, was conducted by native craft of various kinds, whose number has been estimated at 25,000. But steam-vessels, by their speed, regularity, and safety, are gradually superseding these native craft, which, in time, will become, as they have done everywhere else, simply auxiliaries to that great power which, in so large a measure, now regulates the commerce of the world.
[Sidenote: Fleet of the company.]
The fleet of the Irrawaddy Company now consists (1st of January, 1875) of fifteen steamers and twenty-five “flats,” the whole built expressly for this trade. The steamers, resembling in many respects (though they are inferior in size) those employed on the Ganges and the Indus, are about 250 feet in length, with 32 feet beam, and only 8½ feet depth of hold. They are built of iron, and their draught of water, with 100 tons of fuel on board, is 3 feet 9 inches. They do not take any cargo, but only passengers, having accommodation for thirty first-class, and from 250 to 300 steerage or native passengers; but each steamer tows a couple of flats or barges fastened on either side. The steamers have engines of 250 nominal horse-power, and can attain a speed of fourteen knots an hour, in still water, and without anything in tow. Though their hold is only 8½ feet in depth, the houses and awning-deck rise to about 18 feet above their hull. The largest of the barges is 195 feet in length, with a beam of 25 feet, and can each carry 300 tons measurement of cargo, weighing about 160 tons, with a draught of not more than 3 feet of water.
There is now a weekly steam service between Rangoon and Mandalay, while every month a steamer ascends to Bhamo, which, though now a wretched place of not more than 75,000 inhabitants, may yet be restored by means of steamers to something approaching its former importance. As the delta of the Irrawaddy embraces an area of 94,000 square miles, with an alluvial and fertile soil throughout, producing in great abundance rice, cotton, cutch, teak, minerals, and mineral oils, and, as not more than 3000 miles of this rich district of country is as yet under cultivation, it presents an enormous field for the development of maritime and other branches of commerce.
[Sidenote: Interior trade of China.]
But, as we proceed further to the East, we find still larger and richer fields gradually being opened out by means of steamers. In China there are vast regions with teeming millions of industrious people who could never have been reached by the traders of Europe and America without the intervention of steam; countries hitherto unknown, yet exhibiting a high state of civilization. With all the necessaries and many of the luxuries of life, their inhabitants have little or no knowledge of any other country beyond their own: favoured by a superior soil and excellent climate, they have, however, become rich by their own genius and unwearied industry: not one out of every hundred thousand of those in the interior having ever seen the ocean, and knowing as little about England as the people of ancient India knew about Greece, Babylonia, and Macedonia when Alexander made his celebrated march across the Panjâb. Nor, indeed, are the descriptions of its civilization, wealth, and refinement, as given to us by occasional travellers who have penetrated the interior, wholly unlike those Arrian has handed down to posterity, with reference to the great cities of ancient India.
[Sidenote: The Yang-tse-Kiang.]
If my readers will take the trouble to glance over a map of China and trace the windings of the great Yang-tse-Kiang to its outlet near Shanghai, they will see the extent of territory watered by this mighty stream, together with its various navigable branches. Rising in the southern slope of north-eastern Tibet, and, thence, flowing to the south-east, the Yang-tse at first passes through a country of lofty snow-covered mountains, the drainage of which in warm weather largely increases the volume of its waters, and produces at the same time, in great measure, the vast floods which, in the months of July and August, inundate the widely extending valleys near Hankow and the lower portions of the river.[391]
[Sidenote: Its source and extent.]
From these mountain ranges, the Yang-tse winds its way through others of less magnitude and through fertile plains for 800 miles to Chong-kin-foo, forming the northern boundary of the provinces of Yunnan and Kweichow, and greatly increased in its volume by various tributary streams, two of which are of considerable magnitude. Through the province of Szchuen its course extends, for many hundred miles, in a north and north-easterly direction. Thence, passing onwards through numerous gorges and passes, at present altogether unnavigable, it debouches on the plain of Hupeh, where it is about half a mile in breadth; thence again, it proceeds for about 250 miles to Yo-choo-foo, at the Lake Tongting, where the upper Yang-tse ends, and where the lower or greater river of the same name, commencing its course, passes the important city of Hankow, receiving near this city the waters of the Han river, its greatest tributary, and the Chin-kiang: at this place, it is a mile and a half wide, but, at its mouth, near Shanghai, the Yang-tse extends to a width of 12 miles, its whole course being upwards of 3000 miles in length.
This great river is subject periodically to floods, some of these, as that of 1870, converting the country for miles on either bank into a vast sea submerging many villages, whose position can only be traced by the roofs of the houses, as the highways are by the tops of the willow trees lining them.
[Sidenote: Opened to trade, 1860.]
[Sidenote: First steam-ship direct from Hankow to England, 1863.]
In February 1860, the Yang-tse was for the first time opened (by treaty) to the ships of other nations; and one of my own, the Scotland, an iron auxiliary screw steam-ship of about 1100 tons gross register, commanded by Captain A. D. Dundas, R.N., was the first foreign merchant-vessel[392] which loaded a cargo from Shanghai to Hankow,[393] bringing back teas for transhipment to Europe and America; but it was not until 1863 that any English vessel loaded a cargo direct from Hankow for Great Britain. On the 8th May of that year, another of my auxiliary steam-ships, the Robert Lowe, of 1250 tons, commanded by William Congalton, left Shanghai for Hankow for the purpose of loading a cargo of teas direct for London: two other English vessels had, however, preceded her.
[Sidenote: Passage of the Robert Lowe and her cargo.]
The navigation of this river was then very little known, and there were many difficulties to encounter which have since been removed; under these circumstances, and as the engines of the Robert Lowe were only 80 nominal horse-power, her passage between Shanghai and Hankow, a distance of 608 miles, occupied ten days: one day, however, was lost in changing her propeller, while she had to anchor every night. The current against her averaged three knots an hour, but in some parts ran fully five knots. The least depth of water (the river being then at its ordinary height) found by soundings was 4¾ fathoms on the bar of the Longshan crossing: the average depth being from 8 to 9 fathoms, but, in many places, Captain Congalton did not obtain soundings at a depth of 14 fathoms, and, in long reaches, where the waters were contracted, the depths were from 20 to 30 fathoms.
At Hankow, where the Robert Lowe anchored to receive her cargo (about 300 yards from the bank), the depth of water was 14 fathoms, with a current running at the rate of 3½ knots an hour. The new teas generally arrive in boats (chops) about the 10th of June, and, on the 23rd of that month, she sailed with a full cargo[394] for Shanghai and London. She was fifty-seven hours under weigh on her passage from Hankow to Shanghai; the current, the river being then fuller, running at from four to, in some places, seven knots an hour.
[Sidenote: Number of steamers employed on the Yang-tse, 1864, and in 1875.]
In 1863-4 there were nine steamers employed trading between Hankow and Shanghai, five British and four American, some of these having a capacity for 2000 tons of tea, and all of them vessels of great speed. Sailing all night as well as during the day, they, in fine weather, made the passage to Hankow in four days, returning under favourable circumstances in less than half that time. Freights then ranged either way, from 3_l._ to 4_l._ per ton, treble what they are now, but the current expenses were very heavy, arising from the high price of coal, an increased scale of wages, and exorbitant port charges. Since 1864, the trade has greatly increased both in goods and passengers, large numbers of emigrants are now conveyed in the steamers from the interior to the coast, whence they embark for voyages, many of them so distant as California, the Mauritius, and the West Indies.[395]
[Sidenote: S.S. Hankow.]
There are few finer steamers to be found in any part of the world than the Hankow[396] (belonging to Messrs. Swire and Company), now employed in the trade of the Yang-tse. (See illustration, page 471.) Steamers of her type now leave Hankow and Shanghai daily—one despatched by Russell and Company, the other by Butterfield and Swire, by whom the bulk of the carrying trade between these places is now conducted in steamers.
[Sidenote: Chinese Steam Navigation Company.]
But the most interesting fact connected with the maritime progress of the Chinese has been the establishment of a line of steam-ships by a company of Chinese merchants, and under their own flag. Although shares are held by the Chinese in many of the other steamers, it is worthy of note that the vessels of this company are owned almost, if not exclusively, by them. But it is still more remarkable, that a scheme for a Chinese naval reserve is now being arranged in connection with the “China Merchants Steam Navigation Company.”[397] It is proposed that each of the larger provinces shall furnish two steamers, and the smaller provinces one, to be added to the fleet of that company, and employed by it while the country is at peace, but to be at the service of the Imperial Government in the event of war.[398] This undertaking, which would appear to have received the approval of the Emperor, will, when complete, consist of twenty-eight steamers, one of which, it is said, has been already ordered in England. It will be, indeed, an era in the history of China when an ancient nation, so exclusive and conservative, substitutes for its junks[399] the steam-ships of modern nations alike for war and commerce.
[Sidenote: Proposed imperial fleet of steamers.]
As there is perhaps no more interesting incident in the history of merchant shipping, than the change now being made in the vessels of the Chinese Empire the following drawing of one of their finest tea-boats (“soma”)[400] may not be uninteresting to my readers; the more so, as I have reason to believe that vessels almost as perfect and ornamental as this one might have been found navigating the coasts and rivers of China even before the dawn of history, and, that they have remained almost unchanged till now, when they are about to be displaced by the steam-ships of Europe, is an event of unusual significance in the progress of ancient nations.
[Sidenote: Increase of trade with China.]
[Sidenote: The resources of the interior.]
Though our export trade with China has of late years materially increased, a still greater increase may be anticipated if steamers are placed on the upper waters of the Yang-tse, and still more so if Europeans are allowed to trade direct with the dense population of the interior. That such results may be hoped for is clear from the fact that, wherever the merchants of Europe and America have settled, Chinese merchants have been greatly enriched by this intercourse; they have, in fact, found, as the Germans did when the Hanseatic League commenced their exclusive commercial operations in Europe centuries ago, that new traders brought with them new sources of wealth, and developed channels of trade hitherto unknown or at least unrecognised; a result naturally to be expected in a country, such as China, producing within itself, and in extraordinary abundance, some of the most valuable articles known to commerce, at a comparatively small expenditure of either labour or capital. Thus, silk, in most of the provinces of China, is produced by the labour of the women and children alone, the trees occupying the place of no other crops. Insect wax, another article of a high marketable value, is also produced at a trifling expense; while the opium crops of the interior probably cost less in labour than any other that has to be annually sown and reaped.[401]
But beyond these, China produces in vast abundance numerous other articles, necessaries as well as luxuries of life, in great demand in every part of the world. Apart, for instance, from the staple article, tea, which no civilized nation can now dispense with, and silk, which increases in demand with the wealth of nations, and is even more sought after now than it was when the Roman Empire had reached the plenitude of its grandeur, the western provinces of this much more ancient empire, especially that of Szchuen, produce rice and other grain crops in astonishing natural luxuriance, and these would be cultivated to a far greater extent than they now are, if increased facilities were afforded for their export. Already tobacco, sugar, hemp, and tung oil, are sent to the coast in large quantities from Szchuen, and form, even without the means of interchange with foreign nations, a source of ready-made wealth as the mere bounty of nature. Hence, the inhabitants are generally rich, except in districts where the population is too dense, or where they are exposed to undue extortion, owing to the avarice of the authorities. In Szchuen, as also in Yunnan and in many other provinces, the agricultural population is well off; the farms are large; the heads of families being as well dressed as merchants in great cities; the women too, as a rule, are “richly attired, and the appearances of many of the rustic villages and large farms convey the impression of a perpetual holiday.”[402]
“Coal is worked on the hills in the neighbourhood of Chungking, and affords employment to the people of the villages, who make a kind of patent fuel of it, for which they find a market at Ichang, as well as in the smaller towns in the neighbourhood.”[403] Cotton is also produced in abundance; and “among the agricultural population of Szchuen, the women and children, as well as old men, employ themselves in spinning and weaving it, not only for their own wants but also for sale in the towns.”[404] “The people of Chungking,” the delegates state,[405] “expressed great readiness to trade with us, and seemed surprised that we did not bring goods for sale. Foreign merchants will undoubtedly be well received whenever they may choose, or be permitted, to go there.”
[Sidenote: Mode of conducting business.]
The native merchants of the interior of China appear to be keen traders; but, probably, it would be necessary for foreigners, in their first intercourse with them, to do their business through the established hongs, who are united in powerful guilds, resembling those so general in Europe, a few centuries ago, with a similar reputation of tyranny over all smaller dealers, and a tenacity in everything affecting their own privileges. Nearly all the important branches of trade in the interior are now under the control of these guilds, or associated hongs, who are responsible to the authorities for the duties leviable, with a power of regulating particular trades recognised by the Government.
[Sidenote: “Hongs” or guilds.]
[Sidenote: Chinese bankers.]
It is curious to find in distant parts of the world, so remote, indeed, that the inhabitants know nothing of any portion of the globe beyond the confines of China, nor, with rare exceptions, have ever heard of any country but their own, the same rules for the regulation of commerce as were general throughout Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries;[406] even their banking system having much resemblance to that of Europe. In China, the custom prevails of making large deductions from the weight or nominal price of goods, for cash payments; the ordinary credit, according to ancient habit, being from six to twelve months, or even more. Negotiation of drafts is managed by bankers, mostly by Shansi men, who profess relationship with every important place in China, as the Lombards once did in Europe.
Prior to the Tae Ping rebellion, Hankow claimed to have a complete, and, by all accounts, a wealthy banking system, the smallest of the banks, called Yin-hongs, having subscribed capitals of many thousands, while the Shansi exchange-houses (Piaw Hoo) counted their wealth by hundreds of thousands. At that time, a great deal of the spare capital of the north found its way to this city, where it was lent at rates not greatly in excess of those now current in England; but, during the rebellion, the Shansi exchange houses withdrew their capital, while the mandarins made such heavy levies on the smaller banks, that most of these establishments were closed, and “cash shops” were, for some time, the only medium of banking operations. These, however, have now assumed more important functions than that of mere exchange, and two of them have become, though still retaining the name of cash shops, banking establishments of considerable importance. These banks frequently make the necessary advances to the growers of the teas produced in such abundance in this district, though the bulk of the capital employed in this now vast trade is provided by the English and American merchants, many of whom have houses at Hankow.
[Sidenote: River and coasting trade of China.]
Though the most valuable portions of the trade between Hankow and the sea-coast is now conducted by steamers, native sailing-craft of various sorts are still the only means of water transport, on the upper Yang-tse, which is navigable for vessels drawing not more than eight feet of water as far as Ichang, 363 miles above Hankow. As many as 800 of these vessels, averaging about 50 tons each,[407] have been counted at one time in the harbour of Shansi alone. Their crews, like the boatmen of the Nile, are a special class of men, trained to the service, whose forefathers, through many generations, have followed a similar calling. They are a hardy race, and manage their rude craft with considerable adroitness. Besides these, lorchas, under various foreign flags, running in competition with the steamers, find profitable employment in the conveyance of bulky and low-priced produce and merchandise between Shanghai and Hankow, while the river below the latter place is still frequented by large fleets of native vessels, independently of the crafts engaged in the salt trade, which make the short voyage to places above Ching-Kiang; sea-going junks also find their way up to Taiping and Woohoo.[408]
Soon after the opening of the trade to foreigners, the sea-going junks employed in the trade of the coast were opposed by small sailing-vessels from other nations, more especially from Germany and the northern ports of Europe. Many brigs, schooners, and barques, of from 150 to 400 tons, were also sent from England to engage in the trade, but these, as well as the sea-going junks, are now in turn being displaced by steamers which traverse almost every part of the Chinese seas, as far as Japan, where some of them run in connection with the great English and American lines, and ere long they will, no doubt, cover the more remote inland waters of the Empire.
[Sidenote: Japanese line of steamers.]
But the Japanese, as well as the Chinese, have now various merchant steamers under their own flag; they have, also, their iron-clads, the first of which was built by Hall, of Aberdeen; and they own the Stonewall (originally built in England for the Confederate States), which they used to advantage in their civil war of 1868-69. Their first steamer of any kind was the Emperor yacht, presented to them by Lord Elgin on the occasion of making the commercial treaty in 1858-59. Unlike their great neighbours, the Chinese, who were slow to adopt European customs, and who for ages preferred their clumsy junks to the finest sailing-vessels of the East India Company, the Japanese have, since 1859, become owners of steamers with astonishing rapidity; a fact the more noteworthy, that, though their country presents many inducements to maritime pursuits, their native population do not seem at any period of their history to have been a maritime people. Indeed, they were not encouraged by their laws to become so. On the contrary, they were restricted to both form and size in the construction of their junks, with the object, it is presumed, of preventing their leaving Japan for foreign countries; hence these vessels are, as a rule, the rudest of sea-going craft. Invariably rigged with a single mast, and one great square sail which reefs down, curtailed, when required, by the lowering of the yard; they are, however, sometimes to be found encountering, in these unwieldy craft, heavy gales, and at unexpected distances from home.[409]
[Sidenote: How employed.]
But the eyes of the Japanese have been recently opened to the advantages of foreign trade,[410] and they are moving onwards in a manner which could hardly have been anticipated from what is known of their previous history; indeed, they have recently (February 1875) announced the establishment of a regular line of steamers under the Japanese flag. The shares of this undertaking, which they have named the “Mitsu-Bishi Steam Navigation Company,” are held almost, if not exclusively, by Japanese. This company already possesses four steamers, the Tokio-Murin (late New York), the Kunayana-Murin (late Madras), the Takar-Murin (late Acanthia), and the Zazon, while others are in course of construction in Great Britain, which are to form a “weekly line” between China and their own ports of Nagasaki, Hiogo, Imioseki, and Yokohama.
What an advance on the rude craft of which the following is an illustration![411]
When we consider the enterprising character of the Japanese, we cannot but feel surprised that such vessels as this clumsy hulk, should, in spite of their restrictive laws, have been found sufficient for all their wants, and that through countless ages. But now the spirit of progress in maritime affairs guides their councils, and though, at present, their steamers are commanded by Europeans or Americans, and have foreign engineers, in other respects they are manned by Japanese. Ere long the junks, alike of China and Japan, will be things of the past, strange toys to the children of these countries, as they have long been to the children of Europe.
FOOTNOTES:
[380] The Diana was sent out first in 1821 for Mr. Robarts, with the view to employment in the Canton river. She had a pair of 16 horse-power engines by Maudslay. At Calcutta she was nearly reconstructed by Messrs. Kyd and Co., and launched again on July 12, 1823.
The first actual steam-boat of which we have any record, in connection with India, was built at Batavia, shortly after the conclusion of the Java war in 1810-11. She was called the Van der Capellen, and was built at the expense of English merchants. She was engaged by Government for two years at the cost of 10,000 dollars a month, which well repaid the original outlay on her. She proved very effective for the transport of troops, &c. After some years she came into the hands of Major Schalch and was used by him, under the name of the Pluto, as a dredging-boat in 1822. Thence she went to Arrakan as a floating battery. She was afterwards lost in a gale in 1830.
In 1819, Mr. W. Trickett built a small steam-boat of 8 horse-power at the Butterley Works, for the Nawâb of Oude, to ply on the Jumna. “Early Steam Navigation to India,” by G. A. Prinsep, Calcutta, 4to, 1830.)
[381] These vessels were named the Burhampooter and Hooghly; they were each 105 feet in length and 18 feet in breadth. Each had two engines, which were sent from England, of the combined nominal power of 50 horses, but working up to 80 horse-power on a consumption of 709 pounds of coal per hour.
[382] Previous to 1828, owing to the bad state of the Ganges, arising from the sand-banks and heavy floods, against which native genius and native boats were unable successfully to contend, communication with the interior was alike slow and expensive. Thus, it took two and a-half months to go from Calcutta to Benares; three and a-half to Caunpore; six to Agra; and seven and a-half to Delhi. The premium of insurance on a voyage from Calcutta to Caunpore was 3½ per cent.—as much as to England. Treasure, too, and other valuable property was constantly lost by the upsetting of the boats.
[383] See ante, vol. iv. p. 145.
[384] This vessel was built by Messrs. M. Pearce and Company, of Stockton-on-Tees, and her principal dimensions are as follows: length over all, 377 feet; beam, 46; breadth over paddle-boxes, 74; depth of hold, 5 feet; working draught of water, 2 feet; displacement at 2-feet draught, 739 tons. The engines (built by Messrs. James Watt and Co., of London and Birmingham) are 220 nominal horse-power, having horizontal cylinders of 55 inches diameter, and 6-feet stroke, and the diameter of the paddle-wheels is 26 feet. The hull of the vessel is constructed of puddled steel, and is strengthened longitudinally by four arched girders, two of which carry the paddle-wheels, while the other two run fore and aft, extending nearly the whole length of the ship. Similar means are employed for strengthening the vessel athwartships. She is steered at each end by means of “blades,” which, instead of being worked from side to side in the ordinary manner of rudders, are made to rise out of, or lower into, the water at the proper angle. Both sets of these “steering-blades” are worked simultaneously, but provision is made to work one set only, should an accident occur to the other.
[385] The John Bright is clipper form, barque rig, and fitted with the screw. Her dimensions are 250 feet in length between the perpendiculars: breadth 31 feet, and depth 22 feet 6 inches. She is propelled by engines of 250 horse-power nominal; and is 1192 tons builders’ measurement.
[386] The earliest, as well as at that time, the fastest steamers employed in the opium trade between Calcutta and China were the Fiery Cross, and the Lancefield, built on the Clyde, and owned by Messrs. Jardine, Matheson, and Company. These vessels invariably called at Singapore on their way to Hong Kong, where they waited for despatches from England by the steamers of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. Thus the owners of these vessels, which were much faster than the Mail boats, not merely realized large profits in their regular trade, but, with earlier information from home, than their competitors, had a great advantage in all other branches of commerce, as well as in that of opium.
[387] Lines of communication maintained by the steamers of the British India Steam Navigation Company (Limited): Line 1. Between Calcutta, Chittagong, Akyab, and Kyouk Phyoo, fortnightly. 2. Between Calcutta, Akyab, and Rangoon, fortnightly. 3. Between Calcutta, Rangoon, and Moulmein, weekly. 4. Between Calcutta, Chittagong, Akyab, Kyouk Phyoo, Sandoway, Bassein, Rangoon, Moulmein, Tavoy, Mergui Pakchan, Kopah, Junkseylon, Penang, Malacca, and Singapore, every four weeks. 5. Between Moulmein, Penang, Malacca, and Singapore, fortnightly. 6. Between Calcutta, Port Blair, Camorta, and Rangoon, fourweekly. 7. Between Madras and northern ports to Rangoon, fortnightly. 8. Between Calcutta and Bombay, calling at ports in the Coromandel and Malabar coast ports, weekly. 9. Between Bombay and Karáchí, twice a week. 10. Between Bombay, Karáchí, Muskat, Bunder Abbas, Linga, Bushire, and Bussorah, weekly. 11. Between London, Lisbon, Algiers, Red Sea ports, Karáchí, and Persian Gulf, every four weeks. 12. Between Aden and Zanzibar every four weeks. 13. Between Zanzibar, Mayotte, Nossi Bé, Majunga, Mozambique, and other East African ports, every four weeks.
[388]
[Sidenote: The Holy Ship.]
See Frontispiece, first volume of this work. Without entering into the vexed question of the antiquity of Indian naval architecture, it is certain that native-built vessels, dedicated to commercial purposes, have always been constructed with considerable skill and possess remarkable durability. One of these vessels, built in Surat, called the Holy Ship, as she was employed by the Muhammedans in going to and returning from Mecca on their pilgrimage from India, though, so far back as 1702, she was described as the Old Ship, continued to make an annual voyage for three-quarters of a century, subsequently, from Surat to Mocha, where her owners had the special privilege of taking on board a certain number of chests and cases of coffee and other produce, a privilege the more valuable, as the export duties were excessive. The Holy Ship was lost at last in a violent afflux of the river at Surat in the year 1777, but there is reason to believe that she had navigated the Indian seas for much more than a century, thus proving the superiority of her construction, and the durability of her timbers and planking. In constructing such vessels, the planks are not put together in the European manner, with flat edges towards each other, but they are rabbeted, and the parts are made to fit into each other with the greatest exactness, much time and attention being bestowed upon this operation. For this purpose the builders smear the edges of the planks, as they are set up, with red lead, and those which are intended to be placed next, are put upon them and pressed down, in order to be able to discern the inequalities which are marked by the red lead. These are afterwards removed, and the test is repeated, until the whole exactly fits; they then rub both edges with a sort of glue, which becomes by age as hard as iron, and they cover this with a thin layer of capoc, after which they unite the planks so firmly, and closely with pegs, that the seam is scarcely visible, and the entire frame seems to form one single piece of timber. The beams and ribs are fitted in the same way to the planks, so that a piece of wood is sometimes put in and taken out more than ten times before it is finally fixed. The knees, or crooked timbers, are generally by natural growth of the bent form required, without being forced or warped by fire, especially where special care is taken in the construction and no expense spared. Instead of bolts, pieces of iron are used, forged like spikes, the point of which is driven through, clenched on the inside, and again driven into the wood. The iron employed for this purpose is previously made very rough and flexible. A peculiar method is also employed for the preservation of ships’ bottoms, by occasionally rubbing them with an oil, called wood-oil, whereby the planks, imbibing this preparation, are greatly nourished and protected from decay.
[389] Mr. James Galbraith, the managing director of this company, is in every respect competent to carry out with success this interesting and important undertaking. He is the chief partner of the firm of Messrs. P. Henderson and Co., of Glasgow, and the senior partner of the firm of Messrs. Galbraith, Stringer, Pembroke and Co., of 8 Austin Friars, London—successors to the firm of W. S. Lindsay and Co., which I established, and from which I retired in 1862.
[390] It was in these researches that Mr. Margary, of the China consular service, a young gentleman of great enterprise and promise, recently (February 1875) lost his life, and where, also, various employés of the English Mission, which left Calcutta, in December 1874, to explore the country lying between Bhamo and Hankow on the Yang-tse river, were killed by the treachery of the natives, the mission itself having been forced to return before it reached the Chinese frontier.
[391] See an interesting paper on the inundation of the Yang-tse-Kiang, by E. L. Oxenham.—Report of the Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, 1875.
[392] When, in September 1858, the question arose as to how far it was possible to declare the River Yang-tse navigable for Europeans, the late Admiral Sherard Osborn undertook to test it by taking Her Majesty’s ship Furious, which he then commanded, accompanied by the Cruiser and two gun-boats, up the river as far as she would go. He was the first to navigate a foreign ship of any kind to Hankow, and the service he thus rendered was a very important one, for it enabled Lord Elgin to insist on this great river being opened to foreign commerce.—See address at the anniversary meeting of the Royal Geographical Society by its President, Sir Henry C. Rawlinson, 24th of May, 1875.
[393] The Scotland sailed from Shanghai with a full cargo for Hankow in June 1860. She drew 17 feet of water. Two light-draught trading steamers preceded her: one an American river-boat, and the other a Russian vessel from the Amoor.
[394] The cargo of the Robert Lowe from Hankow for London consisted of 9568 chests, 234 half chests, and 2064 boxes of black (Honor) teas; 535 bales of cotton, 192 packages of sundries. Her freight amounted to 10,315_l._, and 480_l._ passage money.
[395] It may, however, be stated that the chief emigration is from the southern parts of China, and, rarely, north of Amoy. This, on the whole, is a well-regulated trade, and generally carried on in British, American, and German ships, specially chartered for the purpose; all of which, while thus engaged, are under the Hong-Kong Passenger Act, which has been adopted by the consuls at the different Treaty ports. The coolie trade from the Portuguese settlement of Macao, with which it is sometimes confounded, is of an entirely different character, and resembles much more the old and iniquitous slave-trade than free emigration. At Macao and in its vicinity, the coolies are collected, often in large numbers, by coolie-brokers, who are, invariably, men of very questionable, if not of the most depraved, character. These scoundrels, for the most part Chinese and Portuguese, stow these poor creatures away in well-guarded barracoons, ready for shipment; many, perhaps, most of them, not knowing for what purpose they have been collected. Some of them have been actually sold by their relatives to the brokers, or decoyed away from home by false representations; indeed, cases might be produced, where fathers have even staked their children and themselves at gambling-tables, and, on losing their stake, have been, summarily, transferred or exchanged for their price in coin to these still more depraved dealers in human beings. The most usual destination of these unfortunate creatures is Peru, where they are employed on the Guano Islands, and from which, alas, they seldom return.
[396]
[Sidenote: Her power and capacity.]
The Hankow and three other steamers of a similar class were built for Messrs. Swire by Messrs. A. and J. Inglis of Glasgow, expressly for the trade of the Yang-tse; their dimensions are as follows:—
-------------------------------------+-----------+--------------+----------- |Pekin and| | |Shanghai.| Ichang. | Hankow. +-----------+--------------+----------- Gross tonnage |3076 |1781 |3168 Length on load-water line | 292 feet | 242 feet | 308 feet Breadth, moulded | 42 feet | 36 feet | 42 feet Depth, moulded | 15 feet | 12 ft. 6 in.| 16 feet Load draught | 10 feet | 9 feet | 11 feet Dead weight capacity | 664 tons | 460 tons | 840 tons Measurement capacity in tons of 40 | | | feet |3668 |1972 |3800 Passenger accommodation, Europeans | 14 | 10 | 14 Passenger accommodation, Chinese, 1st| 16 | 6 | 18 Passenger accommodation, Chinese, 2nd| 164 | 106 | 170 Speed on trial | 13 knots | 12 knots | 12¾ knots Diameter of cylinder | 68 inches| 62 inches | 72 inches Stroke | 12 feet | 10 feet | 14 feet Indicated horse-power |1450 |1200 |1840 Pressure of steam | 27 lbs. | 33 lbs. | 35 lbs. Consumption of fuel at full power | | | (per hour) | 33 cwt. | 27 cwt. | 40 cwt. -------------------------------------+-----------+--------------+-----------
The Pekin was finished in May 1873; the Shanghai in July 1873; the Ichang, October 1873; and the Hankow in April 1874.
The hulls of these vessels are of iron to the main-deck, and of the most substantial construction, every precaution being taken to give them sufficient strength to make the voyage to China in safety, as well as to withstand the severe strains they are occasionally subjected to in the river, by being left aground with a full cargo. The Hankow cost, delivered at Shanghai, close upon 70,000_l._
In forwarding the particulars of these vessels, Messrs. A. and J. Inglis remark: “Though the hulls are constructed entirely of iron, the entire structure above the main-deck is of wood, as light as possible consistent with the requisite strength, so as to lessen the top weight, as we were informed that the steamers of the Yang-tse were peculiarly liable to get aground, owing to the frequent shifting of the channel in some parts of the river. The cargo spaces,” they add, “are in the lower holds, and also between the main and saloon decks. The accommodation for passengers and officers, the galleys, pantries, bath rooms, store rooms, and other conveniences are all above the saloon deck.
“The main saloon is placed forward between the captain’s rooms and the machinery space; above the captain’s rooms are the pilot-house and quarter-masters’ cabins.
“The engines are after the American style, with walking beam, but are rather more solidly constructed than is usual in America. The gallows frame, which supports the main centre of beam, instead of being made of wood as in the States, is of malleable iron; box framing is secured to massive box keelsons on the floors of the ship. This style of framing, never before adopted in beam engines, has given great satisfaction in the six steamers to which we have fitted it.
“The Ichang and Hankow had common radial wheels, but in the Pekin and Shanghai feathering wheels were adopted, with marked advantage in point of speed. We have no doubt that the Hankow would have attained 15 knots speed, had she been fitted with feathering wheels.
“Besides these four vessels we built a similar vessel, the Hupeh, for Messrs. Russell and Company, Shanghai, in 1868, and the Shing-King, a sea-going steamer with beam engine, in 1873. Messrs. Russell and Company had previously built all their steamers in America or China, but, becoming alive to the advantages of iron over wooden hulls, had the above vessels and three screws built by us for their trade on the Yang-tse and Gulf of Pechili.”
[397] North China Herald, 21st of January, 1875.
[398] The Chinese Government have during recent years established various very extensive arsenals, especially at Nankin, Foochow, and at Shanghai, where they manufacture large quantities of small arms, and various kinds of machinery. At the two latter places, they are now building gun-boats and war cruisers, and they contemplate, also, constructing iron-clads at these places.
[399] Chinese junks vary in size from 120 to even 1000 tons, but, as they stand high out of the water, their capacity seems greater; they are usually fitted with two or three masts, and their sails are furled or unfurled like Venetian blinds. Those built and equipped for war are somewhat superior in strength and in speed to those employed in commerce; but, in general, the decoration and design are similar. The merchant vessels are provided with ports, so as to carry guns. The most remarkable features in their hull are the abrupt and flat termination of the bow, together with the absence of a bowsprit. A strangely fashioned contrivance answers the purpose of a windlass. It is affixed to the outside of the bow, by means of which the anchor is weighed. As among the ancients, an eye is sometimes painted upon the bows of their war junks. The lower part of the stern is either entirely hollowed out, in an angular form, or, being flat in its primary construction, has in its centre a recess of that description. Within this, is a second hollow or chamber, rising the whole height, nearly from the keel to the bottom of the quarter gallery, within which the rudder moves, and is protected from the violence of the sea. This rudder is 5 or 6 feet in length, and managed by ropes only, one of which is fastened to the poop, so as, occasionally, to lift it out of the water, with a view to its preservation.
But the Chinese have another, and much more ornamental description of sea-going vessels called the “Soma,” with (see illustration, p. 475) usually only one mast: and, with these vessels, the Chinese sail along the coasts of Batavia, Manilla, Annam, Cochin China, Cambogia, Chinchiu. They are capacious for their tonnage and will hold about a thousand chests of tea. They are high and round on each side, the rudder is slender and can be taken out with very little difficulty. They have no upper sails, but only one great fore-sail, besides the sprit-sails, and the mizen, all of which are made of mats tied together across bamboo sticks. They lower the sails with difficulty, and to effect this are generally obliged to send a sailor up the mast to tread the yard down.
All Chinese sea-going junks are armed with cannon—some of them heavily for defence, and when it suits their purpose for attack, as too many of them, though professing to be honest traders, become pirates whenever a fitting opportunity offers. Numerous instances might be given of these marauding attacks upon the defenceless trading vessels of all nations, especially when a rich booty is anticipated. In such cases, their practice is to sail to windward of their prey, sheer alongside and, if the weather permits, throw from the mastheads “stink-pots” on board of their victims. The atrocious smell from these pots is certain to clear the decks and drive the crew below so that the Chinese can thus, generally, obtain a footing on board without opposition. Except when resistance is offered, the lives of the crew of the merchant-vessels are generally spared; but there have been many instances when all on board have been massacred, when the most revolting scenes have occurred, and when the ships have been scuttled and sunk with all on board. As a rule, however, these pirates, if they obtain what they require, leave the plundered ship and crew to their fate.
[400] The whole of the native craft of China, above a certain size, are usually described as junks, and the name of this particular description is, comparatively, modern. Charnock and other writers have puzzled themselves to know why they are called soma or sommes. Soma in Portuguese signifies cargo or burthen, and the French have the same meaning, bêtes de somme, beasts of burthen; so that soma or sommes as now applied to these vessels, simply means vessels of large cargo capacity, and is not, as Charnock supposes, a corruption of any Chinese word.
[401] See Report of the Delegates of the Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce on the trade of the Upper Yang-tse, 1869, a most interesting and instructive document published at Shanghai.
[402] Report, p. 3.
[403] Report, p. 14.
[404] Ibid., p. 17.
[405] Ibid., p. 19.
[406] As the merchants resident in the interior of China had no intercourse with, nor, in fact, any knowledge of, Europe till a comparatively recent period, it may be inferred that such guilds are of the most remote antiquity, if not of pre-historic times; and although no mention is made of them in the early records of the Chaldeans, Assyrians, Phœnicians, or Egyptians, it is quite probable that similar customs prevailed among the earliest of those nations, and were interchanged by them in their commercial intercourse with the Chinese on the one hand, and with the Europeans on the other.
My learned friend Sir P. Colquhoun is of opinion that we got our guilds (not corporate bodies, as they became afterwards, but associations of men similarly employed like the present trades’ unions), which existed in England as early as the ninth century, from the East, through the Teutonic tribes who came from the north of Europe. He adds, that the word “Zunft,” German for “corporation,” is also possibly derived from the Arabic plural word “Esnáf,” a view which Mr. Redhouse supports: other Oriental scholars, however, whom I have consulted, see no reason for its derivation from the Arabic.
[407] These boats are usually known by the name of sampans, and are generally used for the transport of commodities from the interior to Hankow, and sometimes to the coast. But they do not serve for commercial purposes only; they are used as dwellings for whole families or populations, who are born, marry, and die in them. In those employed for the conveyance of salt on the Yang-tse, the chief type of the Chinese art of shipbuilding may be seen in all its singularity. Their sides are mostly painted black. The upper portions of these craft are strengthened by broad but thin beams, which are painted in various colours, but most frequently in red, and, between these, the port-holes are represented in the middle of a square of a similar colour. Towards the bows the sides are raised, and form continuous cheeks, painted green, with an eye, or some other fantastic emblem, in the centre. The bow is quite flat; its width at the water-line, is usually from 9 to 12 feet; and, there being no stem or cutwater, the bow can only repulse the pressure of the water, without dividing it. The poop is raised, and open at the fore part, with a white scutcheon covered with paintings, representing flowers, dragons, or other allegorical figures.
[408] The tea boats on the Canton river and the Yang-tse are very numerous. They are clumsily built, and of various forms. Some have a high stern, ornamented with paintings of the brightest colour. The stern has usually a considerable rake, and the sides terminate with planks distinct from the hull, resting on a cross-beam. They are covered with varnish, and, as the heads of the nails by which they are fastened are pointed with mastic, the line of the ribs is not apparent. Most of them are covered in with a round water-tight roof, over which an awning is sometimes spread. On both sides of the roofs are uprights with rails resting on a deck, sufficiently wide and long to pass to the stern. They have seldom more than one mast and one large sail.
[409]
[Sidenote: Their mode of rowing.]
In the best class of these vessels, the cabin projects from the ship about 2 feet on each side, and there are folding windows round it, which may be opened or shut as pleasure or occasion may require. In the furthermost part are the rooms for passengers, separated from each other by folding-screens or doors, with the floors covered with fine mats. The outer cabin is always considered the best, and is accordingly assigned to the most distinguished passengers. The roof, or upper deck, is flattish, and constructed of neat boards, curiously joined together. In rainy weather, the mast is let down upon the upper deck, and the sail extended over it for the sailors and the people employed in the ship’s service to take shelter under it, and to sleep at night. Sometimes, the better to defend the upper deck, it is covered with straw mats, which, for this purpose, are kept at hand. There is but one sail, made of canvas, and very large; and one mast, standing up about midships, but somewhat towards the stern. This mast, which is of the same length as the ship, is wound up by pulleys, and again lowered upon deck when the ship comes to anchor. The anchors are of iron. Ships of this burden have commonly thirty to forty hands to row them, if the wind fails. The rowers’ benches are towards the stern. They row in unison with the air of a song, or tune with words, which serves at the same time to direct and regulate their work, and to encourage each other to exertion. They do not row after the European mode, extending their oars straight forwards, with the blades just below the surface, but they let them fall down into the water almost perpendicularly, and then lift them up again. This way of rowing not only answers the same purpose as our own, but is performed with less labour, and seems to be more adapted to circumstances, considering the narrowness of the passage through which ships sometimes pass, or when vessels pass each other, or when the benches of the rowers are raised considerably above the surface of the water. The oars are made in a peculiar manner, suitable for this mode of rowing, being not all straight, like the Europeans’ oars, but somewhat bent.
[410] In January 1861, I sold to the Prince of Satsuma one of my auxiliary steam-ships, the England, which had been employed in trade between India and China, and had made one or two voyages to Japan, soon after the ports of that country were opened to the vessels of foreign nations. Captain A. D. Dundas, R.N., who commanded her, and was a part owner with me of this ship and of a sister-ship, the Scotland, which afterwards became the property of the same prince, informs me he is under the impression, that the England was “the first foreign vessel purchased in Japan, except by the Government proper.” If so, her sale may be considered the introduction of the thin edge of the wedge which has rapidly led to a very general introduction of foreign bottoms. As an instance of the remarkable skill and ingenuity of the Japanese, they made new boilers of copper for this ship, within twelve months of the time when she came into their possession (I believe they had never before seen a boiler), but I am uncertain whether these boilers were ever fitted into the ship. If they were, I fear the small pieces of copper of which they were made (Japanese mechanical knowledge not having as yet learnt the art of constructing plates of the necessary size) would render them useless. The England was seized and scuttled by the British fleet in August 1863, at the time of the bombardment of Kagosima, and, having been sunk in very deep water, was never raised. The Scotland was still in the service of the Japanese in 1870.
[411] Though the above drawing represents one of the largest of the Japanese junks, she, like all the others, had only one mast, its place being opposite the vacant space shown at the gangway. The apparent bulwark of trellis-work before this gangway is meant to break the sea and allow the water to wash through. Besides, as nearly all the junks carry deck cargoes (covered with water-tight mats where perishable) the gratings serve the purpose of protection to the goods thus stowed, and afford facilities for lashing and securing them in their places on deck.