IV. OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION

Development between 1818 and 18401

The most important event in ocean navigation during the nineteenth century was the application of steam as a motive power. As a consequence the carrying capacity for freight and the comforts of travel were increased.

No peaceful event of modern times has excited a greater interest in this country and Europe, than the establishment of regular steam communication between the opposite shores of the Atlantic. The experiment, at first denounced as visionary, and which one of the greatest mechanical philosophers of England, even within the last four years, demonstrated to be impossible, has been fairly and fully tried, and its success is no longer a question of doubt anywhere. That trackless waste of waters, which, by the populous eastern world, during the first fifteen hundred years of the Christian era, was regarded as illimitable, or as leading only to "that bourne from whence no traveller returns," has become the grand highway of nations. The distance which Columbus, in his first voyage, was seventy days in accomplishing, from Palos to San Salvador, and which the Plymouth pilgrims, one hundred and twenty years after him, were sixty-five days in traversing from Plymouth to Cape Cod, is now accomplished in less than thirteen days! The energy and skill of our countrymen had carried the science of ship-building to the highest perfection; and it may be doubted whether greater safety, speed, beauty, and accommodation can be devised by human ingenuity, than are combined in the splendid lines of packet-ships, which ply between New York and Liverpool, and London and New York. But, upon a calculation of ten years, the average passage of sailing-vessels from Liverpool to New York, is found to be thirty-six days, and from New York to Liverpool, twenty-four. The average passage of the packets during 1839, was less, the outward being only twenty-two and a half days, and the homeward passage thirty-three days and seventeen hours. The shortest outward was made in eighteen days and the shortest return passage in twenty-two. The establishment of the two great lines of steamships which now ply between London, Liverpool, Bristol, and New York, and between Liverpool and Boston, via Halifax, reduces the passage across the Atlantic, to an average of about thirteen days!

1 Hunt's Merchants' Magazine (New York, 1840), III, 296–9, 304.

A new era has indeed commenced. Enterprise and skill, called into active being by the wealth of Great Britain, have brought distant nations into neighborhood, opened new sources of prosperity, and added new ties to those bonds of national friendship and commercial interest, which have hitherto existed between this and the fatherland. Events of such importance are entitled to something more than a mere passing commentary.

While it is conceded that the British have been the first to demonstrate the superior safety of their steamers on the sea, the Americans were the first to accomplish the passage of the Atlantic by steam power. Fulton, at his death, left unfinished a steam-vessel, intended for St. Petersburgh, where the Russian government had offered him and his associates high privileges, in case of its arrival before a certain period. The vessel was finished and fitted for sea, but from some unforeseen cause, the enterprise was suddenly abandoned. Other parties, however, took it up, and on the twenty-second of August, 1818, the steamship Savannah was launched at New York. She was built by Francis Fickett, under the superintendence of Captain Moses Rogers, could carry no more than seventy-five tons of coal, and a small quantity of wood, and was therefore fitted not only with an engine, but with masts and sails, with the design only to make use of the engine on her European passage, when the wind prevented her laying her course. Having completed his vessel, Captain Rogers proceeded to Savannah, in May, 1819, and on the 25th of that month sailed for Liverpool, where he came to anchor on the 20th of June, in 26 days from Savannah. From Liverpool, on the 23d of July, the Savannah proceeded around Scotland to the Baltic, then up that sea for St. Petersburgh, and on the 9th of September, moored off Cronstadt. She left Cronstadt on the 6th of October, and on the 30th of November, anchored off Savannah, having, on her return voyage, stopped four days at Arendall, in Norway. During the whole of this period, she met with no accident, except the loss of a small boat and anchors. She made two voyages to Europe. At Stockholm, she was visited by Bernadotte, king of Sweden, who presented Captain Rogers with a "stone and muller," as a token of his gratification at the success of the enterprise. At St. Petersburgh, Captain Rogers received from the Emperor Alexander a present of a silver tea-kettle, as a token of his gratification at the first attempt to cross the Atlantic by steam. At Constantinople, Captain Rogers also received complimentary presents from the Sultan.

During the year 1819, a vessel, rigged as a ship, and provided with an engine, was built at New York, for the purpose of plying as a packet between New York and Charleston, Cuba and New Orleans. The experiment, so far as speed and safety were concerned, was entirely successful, but failing to pay expenses, was of necessity abandoned.

The idea of establishing a regular steam communication between New York and Liverpool had now come to be seriously entertained by some of the sagacious and enterprising, on both sides of the Atlantic. The voyages of the British steamer Enterprise, in 1825, to the East Indies, by means similar to those used by the Savannah, seems to have settled the question in the minds of the English public, as to the superiority of ocean steam navigation, provided ships could be so constructed as to carry a sufficient quantity of fuel. . . .

We do not feel called upon here to discuss the question, whether the "Great Western Steamship Company," or the "British and American Steam Navigation Company," are entitled to the credit and an honorable distinction it certainly is of leading the way in this great enterprise. . . . The Bristol company were indeed first upon the line with their noble ship, the Great Western; but the London and New York company were actually first to accomplish the passage through by steam with the Sirius, chartered for the express purpose. To the unwearied perseverance of Mr. JUNIUS SMITH, an opulent and distinguished American merchant in London, more than to any other individual, is the final and successful accomplishment of this great enterprise doubtless to be attributed. From January, 1833, to the present moment, he has been enthusiastically devoted to the object. As early as June, 1835, he published his first prospectus of a line of steam packets between England and America. The public were at first disposed to ridicule the project. Nothing daunted, he persevered, and in November following, issued a second prospectus, which began to attract the attention of capitalists. Shares were subscribed, doubt yielded to demonstration, the requisite capital was soon provided, and the "British and American Steam Navigation Company" was organized on a solid foundation. In October, 1836, they made their contract for building their first steamship; the keel was laid on the 1st of April, 1837, but owing to the failure of one of the contractors, and other difficulties, she was not launched until the 24th of May, 1838, when she received the name of the British Queen. She left Portsmouth on the 12th of July, 1839, on her first trip to New York, and arrived at New York on the 27th, after a passage of fourteen days and eighteen hours.

No sooner did the fact of the establishment of the British and American company transpire, than the people of Bristol became aroused to the importance of securing to their ancient city the advantages of a steam communication with New York. Mr. Brunel, the celebrated engineer, and other gentlemen connected with the great western railway, came forward with liberal subscriptions. A committee was appointed, assisted by one of the most competent practical ship-builders of the kingdom, to make the necessary surveys and examination. Their report was made to the subscribers on the 1st of January, 1836, and on the 2d of June, 1836, the "Great Western Steamship Company" was established by deed of settlement. On the 28th of July following, the stern-post of the Great Western was raised, and on the 19th of July, 1837, she was launched. After testing the working of her machinery, she departed from Bristol on the 8th of April, 1838, for New York, arriving at this port 23d of April, after a passage of fourteen days, twelve hours. She had made fifteen trips across the Atlantic before the British Queen was placed upon the line.

The "Trans-Atlantic Steamship Company," formed at Liverpool, in the summer of 1838, put two steamers on the route between that port and New York. The Royal William sailed on the 5th of July, and arrived the 24th, making a passage of eighteen days, twelve hours. The Liverpool sailed on the 6th of November, and arrived the 23d, making the passage in sixteen days, twelve hours. The Royal William was withdrawn from the route in the winter of 1838, and the Liverpool in 1839.

Public attention in London and in New England was soon directed to the establishment of a line of steamers to ply between Boston and Liverpool; and in 1839, Mr. SAMUEL CUNARD, a citizen of London, succeeded in effecting a contract with the British government, for the transmission of her majesty's North American mails, twice a month from Liverpool, via Halifax to Quebec. The liberal sum of £60,000 per annum for seven years, is to be paid by the government for this service. Four steamships are to be placed on this line-two of which, the Britannia and Acadia, have already made their appearance. The citizens of Boston have aided the enterprise with a spirit and liberality honorable to their character, and with a keen perception of its importance to their flourishing city. The Unicorn, the first steamship from Old England to New England, arrived at Boston on the 3d of June. She did not belong to the line, and her voyage was experimental. She made the passage in seventeen days from Liverpool to Boston. The Britannia, the first of the regular line,

arrived at Boston on the 18th of July, in fourteen days from Liverpool; and the Acadia, which left Liverpool the 4th of August, arrived at Boston on the 17th, making the passage in twelve days, twelve hours being the shortest ever made from England to the United States.

On the same day when the Acadia arrived at Boston, the President came up the harbor of New York. The day was fine, and the spectacle one rarely ever excelled. This magnificent steamship - the largest in the world - belongs to the British and American Steam Navigation Company, and is to ply alternately with the British Queen, in the same line. The President was launched on the Thames, on the 9th of December last, and in the perfection of her model, style of architecture, and beauty of finish, is unequalled perhaps by any other ship that floats upon the deep. . .

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The effects on the commerce and prosperity of the United States, which must follow the establishment of these lines of steam-packets, cannot fail to be important. The certainty and despatch with which their voyages are performed, will turn an immense amount of business into new channels, and multitudes, who have hitherto transacted their business abroad, through agencies and correspondents, will now cross and re-cross the Atlantic, as many times a year, perchance, with as little deliberation, as formerly åttended their journeys from Maine to New York, or from New York to New Orleans. As an illustration of the advantages offered, not only to the city, but the interior and remote sections of country, connected by railways and river-steamers with the commercial marts, the fact may be stated, that a person at Chicago, in Illinois, 1200 miles from New York, may, by means of existing steam accommodations, actually reach Liverpool or London, in nineteen days from Chicago! The Journal of Commerce recently furnished another illustration of the advantages to be derived from the increased facility of communication, and despatch of merchandise. An order was sent from New York to England on the first of July. The goods were bought in London, sent to Bristol by land, reached here, were sold, and the proceeds remitted back by the Great Western, and would probably be in London about September 1st. So these three crossings of the Atlantic, with the transaction of the business, and eleven days lost by delays in waiting for the steamers to start, will all consume but two months. It is probable that letters sent from Liverpool by the Acadia will receive answers by the Great Western in just about twenty-five days. Money employed in the traffic between Europe and America can now perform about four times as many operations as it could