CHAPTER IV.

STEAM NAVIGATION.

First Attempts at Steam Navigation-Steam-Vessels built, 1814 to 1849-Steam-Vessels employed in British Empire, 1849-Annual Progress, 1814 to 1849-Changes effected by this Invention-Its Application to Commerce-Passage-Vessels to America-To the West Indies-To India-Steam Trading Vessels employed in Coasting and Foreign Trades Steam-Vessels belonging to various Foreign Countries.

THE application of steam power to the purpose of propelling vessels through the water, although proposed one hundred years ago by Jonathan Hulls, and attempted in France, in the United States of America, and on the Forth and Clyde Canal between the years 1781 and 1790, was not succesfully accomplished until after the beginning of the present century. The first practical application of this important improvement was made by Fulton, who, putting in execution the instruction he had gained from Mr. Miller of Dalswinton, by witnessing his experiments on the Forth and Clyde Canal, established a steam-boat in 1806 or 1807 which plied successfully on the river Hudson, between New York and Albany-a distance of 160 miles. The first steam-boat that was worked for hire in this kingdom was the Comet, a small vessel of 40 feet keel and 10 feet beam, with an engine of three-horse power, which plied with passengers on the Clyde in 1811; two years later the Elizabeth, of eight-horse power, and the Clyde, of fourteen-horse power, were placed on the same river. Since that time the progress of this invention has been rapid to a degree that could never have been anticipated.

From a return made by the Registrar-General of Shipping, it appears that in the year 1849 there were employed at different ports in the United Kingdom, and her colonies, 1296 steam-vessels, the aggregate burden of which was 177,310 tons, viz. :

These were exclusive of vessels belonging to Government.

The number and tonnage of steam-vessels built and registered in the United Kingdom and the British Colonies, in each year from 1814 to 1849 have been as follows:

Steam Vessels Built and Registered in the United Kingdom and the British Colonies.

Vess. Tons. Vess. Tons. Vess. Tons. Vess. Tons. Vess. Tons. Vess. Tons.

The celerity and the certainty with which voyages are performed by the aid of steam-power, joined to their superiority in regard to safety, have long occasioned steam-vessels to be preferred as passage-vessels wherever they can be employed; and within the last few years they have, in a great degree, superseded the use of sailing-vessels for trading purposes also, where the distance to be accomplished is not very great, and where the bulk of the goods to be conveyed is not considerable in proportion to their value. A very large portion of the trade between Hamburg and the ports of the United Kingdom is now carried on by means of steam-vessels.

The progress in each year, from their first introduction, has been as follows:

:

Steam Vessels belonging to the British Empire, in each Year, from 1814 to 1849.

here:owe to steam navigation, that no apology is required for its insertion strong and just a point of view some of the advantages which we following paragraph, extracted from a popular journal, places in so longer value at their just rate the benefits which it has brought. The it has been the means of removing cease to be remembered, and we no sion of any great improvement, the difficulties and disadvantages which When the public has been for some time accustomed to the posses

of passengers to and from London to Gravesend were, in shape and "It is scarcely half a century ago since tilt-boats for the conveyance

speed, just what the Trinity-house ballast-lighters are at present, and taking four tides and more for the completion of the voyage. They were succeeded by the Dundee boats, which were, as fast sailers, both the wonder and admiration of all who witnessed the improvement. They, however, were of the most inconvenient nature, as the passengers were frequently not only called upon to embark in the middle of the night, in order to have the first of the flood, and after tacking and beating about, together with sometimes too much wind, sometimes too little wind, or none at all, besides being huddled in a low inconvenient cabin, were frequently, after being six or eight hours on the water, compelled to land at Woolwich, Blackwall, or Greenwich, and then have to find their way in the best manner they could to the metropolis. At length the progress of science introduced steam for the ferry, which, however, at first, generally took from five to seven hours to arrive in London, a length of time it was considered a desideratum to lessen. On Sunday last the Diamond started from the Gravesend pier at 4 P.M., landed her passengers in London and returned, and at 9 minutes before 8 o'clock was again at her moorings off the town pier: thus performing the two voyages, a distance of 64 miles in 3 hours and 40 minutes, including stoppages." It should have been stated that the vessel had the advantage of a favourable tide, both in ascending and descending the river.

The facility in moving from place to place, joined to the great economy, both of time and of money, that has accompanied the adoption of this mode of propelling vessels, has excited the locomotive propensities of the English people in a most remarkable degree. The countless thousands who now annually pass in steam-packets up and down the river Thames, seem almost wholly to have been led to travel by the cheap and commodious means that have been thus presented to them, since the amount of journeying by land is by no means lessened. The number of passengers conveyed between London and Gravesend by steam-packets in 1835 was ascertained by the collector of the pier-dues at the latter town to have been 670,452, not one in a hundred of whom would have been induced to make use of the Dundee boats just described. It was stated in evidence before a Committee of the House of Commons in 1836, that at least 1,057,000 passengers, including those to and from Gravesend, pass Blackwall in steam-vessels every year. confirmation of the fact that the establishment of additional facility in travelling is embraced by persons who would not otherwise be induced to quit their homes, we may refer to the continually increasing number of licenses for stage-coaches issued every year from the Stamp Office, and to the great and constantly-increasing number of omnibuses which are continually traversing the great thoroughfares of London without displacing the hackney-carriages which were previously in use. The

In

number of passengers conveyed by the Hull and Selby steam-packets in the 12 months which preceded the opening of the Leeds and Selby Railway was 33,882, whereas in the 12 months that followed that event the number conveyed was 62,105.

The published lists of steam-vessels belonging to different ports in the United Kingdom show the extent to which this new mode of voyaging is adopted by the public. Scarcely any two ports of consequence can be pointed out between which steam communication is not maintained as well for the conveyance of passengers as for the transmission of goods. Besides this, the communication is regularly maintained with all the principal neighbouring ports on the continent of Europe. From London vessels proceed to the French coast almost every day: to Holland three times a-week; to Belgium as frequently; to Hamburg twice a-week, and to Lisbon and Cadiz every week. From the coast of Kent, Sussex, and Hampshire, daily departures take place to France. From Hull three vessels depart every week for Hamburg, and one is despatched to Rotterdam; the greater part of the important traffic which formerly was carried on in sailing-vessels between those ports is now conveyed through the more quick and certain agency of steam.

The table next to be given is interesting, because it exhibits a complete statistical history of steam navigation, as applied to commercial purposes in this country, from its first adoption to the end of 1849. One of the most remarkable circumstances connected with this history is the extraordinary rapidity of its development. When first adopted, few persons were so sanguine as to suppose that the utility of steamvessels would ever be experienced except in inland river navigation, or for short distances along the coast; a very few years have sufficed for their general introduction in all the seas and rivers of Europe, and at this moment their employment serves as a means of drawing closer the connexion between the old and the new world. Large and powerful steam-ships are now constantly passing between this kingdom and the United States of America, introducing thus a degree of certainty into the correspondence between the two countries which cannot fail to be of immense advantage to the most important branch of foreign trade in which our merchants are engaged. Twice in each month mails, passengers, and specie are conveyed between England and her West Indian colonies, and by the same means communications are kept open with Mexico and a great part of South America. The voyage made in 1826 by the Enterprize' to Calcutta was considered a failure, and doubtless had for a time considerable influence in deterring our merchants from undertaking distant steam voyages. Other experiments of the same kind have since been made, however, and with perfect success. The years that have elapsed since the voyage of the Enterprize' was accomplished, have, as might reasonably be expected, brought forward

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