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IMspa. platas. charts, ate, may Im filmad at diffarant raduetlon ratloa. Thoaa too larga to ba antiraly includad in ona axpoaura ara filmad baglnning in tha uppar iaft hand comar. laft to right and top to bottom, aa many framas aa raquirad. Tha following diagrama illuatrata tha mathod: Laa cartaa, planchaa, tablaaux, ate, pauvant Atra filmte A daa taux da rMuction diff*rants. Lorsqua la documant aat trop grand pour Atra raproduit an un saul ciichA. ii aat film* A partir da i'angia supAriaur gaucha. da gaucha A droita. at da haut an baa, an pranant la nombra d'Imagaa nAcaaaalra. Laa diagrammas sulvants lllustrant la mAthoda. 1 2 3 t 2 3 4 * 5 6 8 '0^.: m THE PAST, TRESENT AND FUTURE 01 ATLANTIC OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION, RF.A(» KKIORF, THE FREDERICTON ATIIENtEUM, JUNK i.l. ]8o7, Bv T. T. VERNON SMITH. C. E. I'liBLISHED AT THE REQT'EST OF THE SOCIETY. n FREDERICTON: PRlNIKn BY J. SIMPSON, AT THE ROTT.M. f.'AZKTTK OKKIC'K. 1857. 367. 367. 5-f THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE OF ATLANTIC OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION, READ BEFORE THE FREDERICTON ATHENJUM, JUNE 15, 1857, By T. T. VERNON SMITH, C. B. PUBLISHED AT THE RE QUEST OF THE SOCIETY. FREDERICTON: FRINIKD BY J. SIMPSON, AT THE ROYAL GAZETTE OFFICE. 1857. ^■ ^A^^ THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE OF ATLANTIC OCEAN STEAM NAVIGATION. Mr. President and Gentlemen, The subject to which 1 would wisii to direct your attention, is one which nearly concerns all of us, who, living on one side of the Atlantic, have friends and bnsiness on the other, or who, as Colonists, feel a warm synopathy in all that relates to the " home " of our childhood, and an interest in every improvement which tends to reduce the difficulties, fatigues and dangers of that " middle pas- sage" which separates us from the "old country." In asking your attention to the few remarks I have to make upon the past history of Ocean Steam Navigation, its present working, and the future results which may be expected to arise from its further im- provement and development, we must bear in mind that till lately these North American Colonies of Great Britain have not been generally in such direct steam communication with the mother country as to aflfect their internal arrangements and progress, and that the fortnightly call at Halifax has been but the merest apology for a connection which the rising importance of these Colonies now imperatively demands. From causes, which I trust to render apparent, Atlantic Steam Navigation has been hitherto on too expensive a system to enable its more general adoption to purposes of emigration, or for the freighting of Colonial produce ; and it has only been within the last three or four years that new elements of success have been developed, new methods of working introduced, and more economical arrangements and machinery adopted. These improvements are but the beginning of a series that will completely remodel our old notions on the subject. The Atlantic is now open to the competition of the world; in a very short time bounties and monopolies mnst cease ; science and com- merce, unassisted and unfettered, will have to fight their own way ; Ocean Steamers will be things of every day experience ; the steam engine and the telegraph, the great civilizers of the present day, will develope new combinations to humanize our race, and tie all the nations of the earth togetlier in peaceful bonds, and will add especially to the comforts, convenience and happiness of those chil- dren of Great Britain whose residence may be in one hemisphere, whilst the heart and home are not unfrequently in the other. Passing over preliminary experiments, we may date the first snccessfiil application of steam to propelling vessels to the Char- lotte Dundas, of the Scotch Fingineer, Symington, which in 1802 towed two vessels, each of 70 tons burthen, JOJ miles on the Forth and Clyde Canal in six hours, and which appears to have had all the essential properties of the tug-steamer of the present day, Fulton in 1807 had the undoubted merit of introducing steam navi- gation for practical purposes upon the Hudson, by his Clermont, but this honor might have been to one of our countrymen, for Henry Bell presented his invention in 1800 and 1803 to the Admiralty, who, blind then os now to improvements, neglected it ; and after having fraitlensly endeavoured to excite the interest of the British and French Governments to his experiments, he applied to the United States, who appointed Mr. Fulton, as appears by a letter from Bell to the late John Macneill, to correspond with him. Fulton was therefore not the inventor, but the successful introducer of Steamboats. After having had his attention attracted to the subject by Bell, and having frequently inspected the Charlotte Dundas, as she lay at No. Iti lock on the Forth and Clyde Canal, he adopted Symington's in,vention. The engine he purchased, it is said under an assumed name, from Messrs. Boulton and Watt, and for the forms and proportions of his vessel he was indebted to the calculations of Colonel Beaufoy. Bell was not able, for pecu- niary reasons, to start his Comet on the Clyde till 1813, when Fulton hiid six vessels running on the Hudson, and Molson, another imitator, had successfully introduced a Steamer on the St. Lawrence. The first practical American steamboat therefore, the Clermont, originated in Fulton's inspection of the Charlotte Dundas, and in like manner the first boat used for the service of the public in Great Britain was built by Bell, after the same model. Indeed Symington's vessel i» pronounced superior in its mechanical arrangements to either Fulton's or Bell's. All three men were neglected by their countrymen whilst living, who praise and admire them when dead, and dispute over their rival claims with all the keenness of national sympathy and prejudice. In Greenock, where James Watt, the great inventor af the steam engine, first drew breath, tht first fruits of deep-sea steam navigation appeared, and the first steambcmt proper was built by John Wood and Co. in 1818, for the Leith and London trade, the Jamea Watt. David Napier was the first man who, adopting Henry- Bell's idea, first crossed the Irish Channel from Glasgow to Belfast in the Rob Roy, and William Laird, a (yreenock man resident in Liverpool, was the first in 1822 to establish Steamers between that Port and Dublin. From this time till 1834, private deep-sea steam navigation was confined to coasters, and the most powerful engines employed were 240 horse power between London and a Dundee. Between 1830 and 1834 the East India Company had learned the valne of steam in the Burmese wer, and had proved the practicability of the Red Sea route by the voyages of the Hugh Lindsay between Suez and Bombay. It had thus taken over 20 years to establish steam navigation. In 1812 there was one solitary Steamer in the United Kingdom, the Comet. In 1834 there were at least 500 Steamers belonging to Great Britain. On this side of the water in 1813, there were only six Steamers on the Hudson and one on the St. Lawrence ; 20 years afterwards, nearly every River in the United States was served commercially and socially by Steamboats, and the St. Lawrence had sent the first and only transatlantic Steamer in safety to Liverpool. In 1819, an American ve.ssel, tl.e Savannah, left that port for a transatlantic voyage. She could scarcely be called a Steamer, her machinery being so adapted that the paddle wheels could be removed and form no impediment to her sailing powers. The fuel she burnt was the southern pine, and without a cargo she was only capable of carry- ing four or five days consumption. After steaming out to sea for two days her paddle wheels were unshipped and taken on deck, and she performed the remainder of the distance under sail. She attracted but little attention in England, not being strong enough as a Steamer to withstand the rough usage of our coasters, and not adapted in her boilers for the English fuel. She subsequently went to Russia. The voyage back was never attempted, and beyond the fact of her having steamed a portion of the distance, and been able to use her engines in calm weather and on leaving port, no useful end was accomplished in her construction either in a scien- tific or commercial point of vier/. In 1833, the Steamer Royal William, of 180 horse power and 1000 tons burthen, perfortned the first real Atlantic voyage, from Pictou in Nova Scotia to Cowes in the Isle of Wight. This boat was a thorough Ocean Steamer ; built at Three Rivers on the St. Lawrence by Canadian mechanics, fitted with Canadian engines, commande.' by a Canadian Captain, and propelled by Nova Scotia coals, we u.iy justly claim the first Atlantic Steamer as a Provincial vessel. From Cowes she went to Liverpool, and for four years she was employed between England and Ireland, when she was again put upon the Atlantic station, and crossed and recrossed repeatedly, being ultimately withdrawn for commercial reasons, when Atlantic steaming proved unprofitable. After the arrival of the Royal William at Liverpool, at the close of the Burmese war, and when the first batch of War Steamers, the Dee, Rhadamanthus, Salamander, and Phoenix, had just been introduced into the service, a Select Committee of the House of Commons was appointed to collect all the evidence bearing upon the question of the employment of steam for naval, postal and com- mercial purposes, and in 1834 the Blue Book was published, con- V taining the results of this enquiry. Thia ofliciul investigation, and the evidence communicated to the general public, produced a won- derfid effect, and kindled to a flame the spark of private enterprise. Besides a vast store of information that could have been collected only in tliis manner, it had a direct influence in carrying out the idea of Ocean Steamers, and tlieir employment for long voyages, and postal communication. It originated the bounty system, and directed the attention of capitalists to the steam communication with America. The British and American Steam Navigation Company, the Liverpool and New York Steam Company, and the Great VVestern, were tiie direct fruits of that enquiry, though four years elapsed before the conceptions of 1834 were realized in i838, the advent of regular international steam communication. In tiie year 1837, the practicability and feasibility of ocean Steamers, especially in connection with the American trade, had taken firm hold of the public mind, and several parties appeared in the field together, anxious to be the first in this new commerce with the West. One of the most courageous of these enterprising pioneers was Sir John Tobin, who launched his beautiful vessel, the Liverpool, October 14th, 1837, intended for the Passenger trade between Liverpool and New York. She hud been twelve months building, was 240 feet long, and 1042 tons burthen, and cost, when complete, £45,000, provided entirely by Sir John Tobin, without partners. About the same time the Great Western, destined to be the real pioneer of the new system, went into the East India Docks for her engines. Her length was 23G feet, and burthen 1340 tons. The Victoria, afterwards the British Queen, was at the same time building by Messrs. Curling and 'Voung at Millwall, though not in such a forward state as the other two ; her length was 275 feet, tonnage 1862 tons, and she was said to be at that time the largest ship in the world ; she was launched April 24th, 1838, the day after the Great Western arrived on her first voyage at New York, and the same day that the Columbus, quicksilver ship, also destined for the New York trade, made her trial trip down the Mersey. The excitement attending all these rival experiments was not without its influence on the public mind and purse, and no lack of funds or loss of time was permitted to delay for a moment the honor of competing for the first run across the Atlantic. The Great Western was the first that was ready, and on the last day of March 1838, the left her moorings at Blackwall, bound on her trial trip to Bristol, from which Port she was intended to sail. Two hours afterwards she caught fire under the boilers, and though this was goon extinguished, and the engines and vessel worked satisfactorily, yet the accident threw a dump over tht? trial trip, and considerably reduced th& passenger list that were intending to have crossed the Atlantic on her first journey. She reached Bristol in 58 J hours, more than six of which were employed in extinguishing the fire and in getting her off the Chapman Sanda, on which, in the excite- ment, siie had been permitted to ground. The Dritiah and Ameri- can Steam Xavigation Company, the owners of the British Queen, not being able to get tlieir own vessel ready in time, chartered the *^iriu8, a fine new Boat belonging to the St. George Company, to run against the Great Western, till their own Ship was ready for sea. The Sirius consequently started from Cork on the 4th April 1838, and on the 7th the Great Western weighed anchor from Bristol. Exactly twenty years after the first deep-sea Steamer, the James Watt, had started from Greenock, the first pair ot At- lantic Steamers left Great Britain for America, the first Atlantic race was being rnn, and the era of Ocean steaming had commenced. The interest felt in the two vessels extended through the length and breadth of the whole country ; and many a landsman, who scarcely knew the meaning of the most ordinary rea-term, became learned on the merits of the rival vessels, and spoke familiarly of Lieutenant Hosken and Captain Roberts. For some days nothing was heard from the Sirius, though the Great Western was repeat- edly spoken ; at last she too was reported three times on the same day, and the knowing ones began to calculate the probable results of the race, and to predict the arrival of the Great Western before her antagonist. Both vessels performed well ; the Sirius arriving only twelve hours before the Western, whose run in fifteen clear days was a reputable passage then, and would not be much out of the way now. On their return, the Great Western to Bristol and the Sirius to London, the excitement was by no means abated in Englind ; and at the complimentary meeting held by both Companies, the Direc- tors of each were authorized by their subscribers lo at once proceed with the construction of other vessels ; and before the end of the year the President was commenced, and the Great Britain was in contemplation. Meantime Liverpool, not to be left behind, had remodelled the old Royal William, Canadian Steamer, and before the Great Western and Sirius had returned from their second voy- age from New York, the Royal William had left Liverpool, the first Steamer for New York from that Port. Two months after- wards, Sir John Tobin's Steamer, the Liverpool, made her debut in the same trade, and between the same Ports, so that in less than six months four independent Companies had commenced operations in Atlantic Steam Navigation from different Ports in England to New York. Four days before the Liverpool sailed on her first voyage, and on the 18th September 1838, the first iron ship built in Liverpool, the Ironsides, was launched. The same day a vessel called the Archimedes was launched at Millwall, "to be 8 Mi' propelled on a new principle ;" and six weeks after, the Govern- ment advertised for contracts to carry the Mails, by Steam vessels, between England, Halifax, and New York. The year 1838 was therefore the starting point of nearly every improvement affecting Ocean steaming, as 1818 had been of sea- going boats ; another twenty years has now nearly elapsed, and at the conclusion of the second cycle, what have we done to improve the early models? what increased conveniences have we introduced ? in twenty years what reduction of expenses, or increase of speed have we eflfected ? In truth but little. On her second return voyage, July 8, 1838, the Great Western reached Bristol in twelve and a half days from New York, and in seventy four transatlantic journeys, before she passed into the hands of the West India Mail Company, her trips were as regularly performed, her duty as well fulfilled, as any vessel that has since appeared. The system, not the ship, was wrong ; and twenty years have been consumed in learning this lesson, in finding out where the evil was, and how it could be obviated. In 1838, before the experience of even her first trip was known. Doctor Lardner read a paper before the British Association, in which he pointed out the physical and commercial difficulties that attended the use of Steamers in long voyages. The peper is seldom mentioned, except to be sneered at, it was ill-tiraed, the Great Western was too great a favourite, and the Atlantic experiment too important a step in the progress of the world to be lectured down or given up without a trial ; and the Doctor was laughed at and forgotten. There v\ ere however some truths in that paper that have since been realized, and proved to shareholders at least not quite so ludicrous ; and when the Doctor asserted that the Great Western would be so loaded down with her machinery and the coals necessary for her consumption, that it would be impossi- ble for her to carry a paying cargo, the experience of twenty years has almost if not quite endorsed the assertion. In 1842, the Great VVestern was attempted to be sold by auction, was bought in for c£40,000, and her trips were again resumed to New York to prevent her being a total loss, and in tlie vain hope that something might turn up to save the remnant of the shareholders' capital. As a commercial speculation the Atlantic Steamers were dead failures. The British Queen was laid up in the Thames, and afterwards sold to the Belgian Government to be converted into a man-of-war — tlie President had gone to the bottom— the Liverpool had been sold to the Peninsular Company— the Royal William to the Dublin Company, and when the Great Britain was laid up in ordinary in Dundrum Bay, th; heavily bountied Mail lines, the Cunard and West India Mails, were alone on the Atlantic waters. The ex- perience of twenty years has been a perpetual repetition of the same thing ; the American Steamers that have been introduced have shared precisely the same«fate as our own, and though our friends on this side of the water seem unwilling to learn the hard lesson, yet the commercial result with them has been notoriously unfortu- nate, and at the expiration of the second twenty years cycle of steam navigation, the fact remains that the best paddle-wheel Steamer afloat on the Atlantic, unassisted by postal or Government bounties, is unable to pay its expenses, and is commercially not more successful than the Great Western, which only three months ago finally passed into the ship-breaker's hands. During the whole of this period the bounty received from Government has alone preserved our Mail Steamers from ruin, and though there are un- doubtedly many evils in these enormous monopolies, yet the future will have to thank the Mail Companies and the bounty sj item for keeping the public mind alive to the necessity of regular oceanic communication, and in fact, for fostering the science of steam navi- gation up to the present period, when for the first time it may be considered able to go alone, and pay its own e^nenses. The Cunaid Company has especially nmd( self of importance to our transatlantic position, and relieved the distance from Great Britain of one half of its inconvenience. Forn)ed shortly after the first successful trips of the Great Western and Sirius, and not too soon to be ignorant of the commercial risk attending the enterprise, the first Steamer, the Dritannia, sailed from Liverpool July 4, 1840; the fleet consisting of the Britannia, Caledonia, Columbia, Acadia, and the branch boat to Newfoundland, the Unicorn. From that time the progress of the Company has been steadily progressive ; their first Steamers of 1200 tons, and 440 horse power, have been gradually replaced by others of increased tonnage and larger power ; and each Steamer added to the fleet has been generally of an im- proved form, and more efficient performance than its predecessor ; though the style and general arrangement have been the same, with but little change in detail, and no attempt at experiment or novelty. Never originating any improvements, but the first to adopt any that have been satisfactorily tested by others, the progress of the Cunard Company is the history of ocean steaming. Seldom affecting any great display, they have done that regularly, whichothershaveonlyoccasionally excelled. If their first boatswere not superior to the Great Western, if the Cambria and Hibernia could not equal in some respects the West India Mail Steamers, if the Collins' line coaid beat the next batch some 10 or 12 hours per trip across the Atlantic, and the Asia and Africa be less speedy than the Orinoco, Parana, or La Plata of the Southern line, and even the Arabia, not quite equal to expectation, still the Cunard service has been nobly performed ; and if nothing absolutely new or striking has been originated, they have confirmed and endorsed all that has been good and successful in others, and given to the 10 world that experience whicli is the'only safe guide in these costly experiments, and without which, the most splendid but isolated performance is merely the illusory meteor that leads to ruin, and is fraught only with mischief and delusion. Up to the present time the Cunard Company have only lost one Steamer from their main line, the Columbia. Upwards of 1400 passages of nearly 3000 miles each have been made; 100,000 passengers have been carried ; for fifteen years four Steamers have been constantly at sea, yet no passenger has been injured, nor, excepting the accident to the Columbia, and when the New York boats were taken ofif in 1855 for the service of the war, has there been a trip missed, or a boat failed to start at the appointed time. The Cunard fleet now consists of about forty Steamers, of which tliirty are screw boats, the Mail Steamers from Liverpool to Boston and New York being, according to the terms of their agreement, necessarily paddle-wheel Steamers. The receipts for postal service amount to £187,.140 per annum, of which £14,700 is for the branch lines to St. John's, (Newfoundland,) Bermiida, and St. Thomas's. The bounty system which compels this Company to use only paddle-wheels on their main lines, and which also stipulates that the vessels shall be built under the Admiralty superintendence, and therefore prevents them from adopting many of the improvements that have been suggested and applied by other Companies, has however been instrumental in preserving the regularity and main- tenance of the service at seasons when, as a commercial speculation, it could not have lived ; it has encouraged the formation of branch lines ; and if it has prevented any great originality and alteration in the Steamers of the main line, it has so fostered and encouraged the undertaking that it has enabled the Company to develope some important points in the economy of their subsidiary and branch Steamers, that they themselves form now almost the heaviest portion of the whole enterprise. After the screw system of propulsion had been fairly tested, and its advantages in point of economy of fuel and saving of room had become known, the Cunard Company put on some boats of this description as additional freight and passenger Steamers between Liverpool and New York, which, unassisted by postal bounties, and of course untrammelled by Admiralty interference, might assist the vessels of the main line when a push of business required it, whilst their withdrawal at other times would have the effect of giving the mail line constant freight and employment, and preserve them from the effects of competition and the irregularities and liuctuations of business. These screw boats answered extremely well, and soon developed on the Atlantic the advantages, speed, and economical efficiency that had been apparent elsewhere. Meantime other Companies were being organized on the Atlantic, 11 and whilst the Americans Uiv .'^sally emph)yed paddle wheels, English and Scotch Companies as uniformly adopted the screw. The result of the former has been, like the unsubsidized paddle- wheel Companies of 1838, that the coal and engines load the ship down, and occupy so much of the useful space of tlie vessel that no room is left for freight, whilst the great power that is required causes the expense connected with the engine depart- ment to be out of all proportion to the receipts. With the British Companies the result has been exactly the reverse, and tiiongh the first formed screw Company, the Liverpool and Philadelphia line, met with a series of accidents unparalleled in the history of steam navigation, compared to the number of Steamers they had afloat, yet they have maintained their ground and are now doing well, whilst the Scotch Company from Glasgow to New York is said last year to have divided 20 per cent. The last paddle-wheel Steamer of the Cunard line, the Persia, and all their screw boats, are built of iron ; the other Mail Steamers being, according to their contract, and with a view to employment, if necessary, as War Steamers, of wood, according to the instructions of the Admiralty ; but after the present Mail contract expires, it is very doubtful if any British Steamers built of wood and propelled by paddles will ever cross the Atlantic in the mail or passenger service again. Our American cousins it is true still preserve their affection for large paddle wheel boats, and have not an ocean screw boat of any size in their Atlantic service. Perhaps in a short time they may find out the reason of their want of success with their European Steamers, and deign to copy from the experience of the British, and in a few years no doubt we shall be gravely told how the American screw propeller had superseded the old English paddle-wheel, and almost driven British Steamers from the Atlantic Ocean. The first vessels built for the Atlantic service were undoubtedly too weak, and the public mind was soon aroused painfully to this subject by the mysterious loss of the President. On the 1 1 th of March 1841, the unfortunate vessel sailed from New York on her homeward trip with 30 passengers, and was never more heard from. The President had not the reputation of being a strong vessel, and being nearly SO feet longer than the Great Western, was supposed to have an element of weakness in her unusual length. Her Com- mander, the veteran Roberts, who had run the first eventful race in the Sirius, had more than once expressed his doubts on this subject. The British Queen, the sister ship, and seven feet longer than the President, had needed repairs, and was said to be even broken-backed ; and the Great Western, which when first launched had a red streak painted round her hull five feet above high water line, had had this streak painted over, but not before she had become, in nautical phrase, " hogged." For years the impression # 12 was that the waves of the Atlantic, reaching sometimes the length of 220 feet, in certain storms might raise a vessel so high above the trough of the sea between them, as to leave the weight of the engines and coal suspended, dependent ( ? ly on the strength of the hull acting as a beam or girder for supporting the weight. It was considered necessary therefore that a vessel should be sufficiently short to sink into the trough, and never encounter more than one of these long high waves at a time. The President and British Queen both failed to fulfil this condition, and a feeling of insecurity and danger had been expressed about both of them, before the final catastrophe of the President finally ruined the Company and stopped their operations. Practical experience has not confirmed this prejudice against the length or" Atlantic Steamers, and a score of vessels are now on the station, both paddles and screws, longer than either the President or British Queen by 50, 60, 70, and one, the Persia, by 115 feet, whilst the new Cunarder, the Scotia, will be 450 feet keel, or nearly double th** length of the Great Western. At all events, at the time, the loss oi the President was attributed most generally to her length and weakness, the only other sugges- tion being the supposition of fire, and it was contended that in a storm that occurred about seven days after leaving New York, she had probably broken her back and foundered immediately. Painful events have recei fly brought to remembrance the case of the President. Thirteen years almost to a day had elapsed, and on the 19th March l854,theCity of Glasgow, with 480 souls on board, sailed from Liverpool to be never heard from more. Vessels had this year, as iji 1841, reported a large field of ice directly in the channel of a Philadelphia or New York bound packet, and a vessel that had been for three days entangled amongst the floating masses, reported that on getting clear of the ice, and at the close of day- light, she saw a large screw Steamer bearing down upon the ice- field that she, the Three Bells, had so recently left. In all human probability the City of Glasgow with all on board sunk on the night of the 20th of March, her side plates cut open from stem to stern, and the catastrophe, filling, and sinking, the work of a moment. In the winters of 1853, 1854 and 1855, more ice had been floating in the Atlantic than had generally been encountered before, and that too at a very much earlier period of the season than is usual. In the winter of 1855-56 especially was this the case; the season had been one of extraordinary severity both on sea and land, and in the month of January 1856, a vast portion of the Atlantic Ocean, always open to navigation at that season of the year, was taken possession of by an icy continent with its mountains and its plains. On the 23rd January the Pacific sailed from Liverpool before the existence and extent of this terrible barrier had been reported. Three days after her, the Persia, new from her builders' hands, .>iM»Wi^- 1$ rushed after her in a race second to none that had yet made the Atlantic their pacing ground. America had for some tin)e beaten lis in the contest for speed ; our vessels built for strength and for the possible emergency of war, had been sacrificed in their con- struction to a fancied security against attack, to a possible chance of other service than the requirements of commerce, and their details had been dictated and superintended by the naval authorities of the day. In 1854 the Arabia, the last of the Cunard vessels built of wood, had separately beaten each of the Collins' Steamers in succession, and establislied her superiority to any thing then afloat on the North American station, but the average speed for the year was in favor of the Collins' line. In 1855 the requirements of the Crimean war had withdrawn the .Arabia from the station, disarranged the mail service, and lefi the Collins' line without any competitors on the i\ew York route. The commencement of the next year set all the old boats at liberty, the line to New York was resumed, and in addition to the Arabia, and the best of the former boats, the Persia wa? making ready for the start. For the first time a Steamer combining unusual power and size with a symmetry of proportion and beauty of model unequalled by any thing afloat, had hem permitted to take her place in the mail service untrammelled by naval inspection, and built of a material against which the Admiralty had passed a final and decisive verdict. Under these circumstances Captain Eldridge succeeded Nye in the command of the Pacific; and with the' avowed intention of challenging her rival before mooring at New York, the Persia sped after her, on her first Atlantic journey. Five days out front Liverpool, the Persia running 1 1 knots an hour, struck heavily on a field of ice. For the first time that such an accident, though often threatened, had actually occurred to a Cunard Steamer, the Persia was the only one of the number that could have survive(* the shock. The collision broke a large hole through the plates of her iron bow, tore the rivets asunder for 16 feet on her starboard side, and bent and twisted the rims of her paddle wheels as if they had been made of lead. No wooden vessel could have lived &n hour after receiving that terrible blow. The first compartment instantly filled, but the watertight bulkhead saved her, and though laden down with the weight of water in her bows, and sailing heavily by the head, she was enabled slowly to keep on her course, and reached New York in safety, though much behind the anticipated time. And where was the Pacific ? Seven days after the accident to the Persia, and near the same place, the Edinburgh Steamer, on her passage from Glasgow to New York, picked up some cabin furni- ture, a lady's work box, and a k\r trivial articles, in the position that ten days before had been probably occupied by the missing vessel. Subsequent reports left no doubt as to the fate of the 14 unfortunate liner. Independently of the accident to the Persia, and the report of the Edinburgh, the Atlantic on the 19th of February, the Arago on the 22nd, and the Africa on the 2nd of March, all were in imminent danger from the same cause, and near the same place ; and on their homeward voyage the Baltic and Arabia bot'^ encountered the opposite shore of the same float- ing island, whose western edge had proved so fatal to the Pacific, and so dangerous to the others. The preceding year, another vessel, the finest of the Collins' fleet, and the pride of the American service, the Arctic, had encountered a melancholy fate, accompanied with such a fearful sacrifice of life as filled the Republic with grief and consternation. The loss of the Pacific so soon afterwards seemed too strange, too unreal to believe, and for weeks after the time of her due arrival at New York, the expectation of her return to America was confidently predicted. At last, as time passed over, and one by one these hopes were unrealized, the public papers ceased to hold out any further probability of clearing up the mystery. " Our belief" said the New York Courier, " in the safety of the missing steam ship Pacific has become extinct. Fifty nine days have now elapsed since she left the Mersey and no tidings have been received. Two Steamers despatched specially to make search have returned, reporting their errand a fruitless one. With reluctance and pain Wc are at last compelled to admit to our mind the conviction that the Pacific is now drifting in the cavernous depths of the ocean, a shattered shapeless wreck." In reviewing all the accidents that have happened to Atlantic Steamers, it is a question whether any of the missing vessels have suflfered by the actual violence of the waves in such a way as to account for their loss. In most instances some survivors have heen left to give an account of their fate, in others we may conjecture from the position and reports of other vessels almost with certainty ; and of eighteen passenger and mail Steamers lost between Great Britain and America, only the President admits of the least doubt. Of these, eight perished by running ashore or on isolated rocks; four struck coral reefs; one was J)urnt ; two can\e into collision with other vessels, and sunk within an hour or two ; and the other three, from which no living soul escaped, probably perished by ice. From vessels that have put back disabled, we have however to infer that storms have swept the Atlantic with suflicient force and violence to endanger any steamship that falls in their track, and to require the very best seamanship and the most abundant resources to prevent any little damage, breakage, or leak from becoming serious ; and it is only by thoroughly investigating all the causes of every dis- aster, and applying a remedy to all future vessels against each contingency, that we may hope to make Atlantic steaming per- fectly safe. Fortunately, in nearly every case, the remedy would ! cavernous 15 not have been difficult to apply, had its necessity been previonslr admitted. ' Every lost Steamer has left a warning voice behind her. For three consecutive months early in 1853, the Pacific waters uttered their cry of alarm and instruction by the total loss of three fine Steamships and 125 valuable lives. " It were possible," says a writer in Hunt's Merchants' Magazine, " that the voice of spring might be unheeded, and the last month of the retiring year utters again the Pacific's voice in the total loss oftheWinfield Scott; whilst on the Atlantic side the Humboldt and the San Francisco, with 200 lives, point warningly to the improvident state of our Steamships. In 1854 the month of March gave her lesson in the loss of the City of Glasgow and 480 lives. In July the Franklin was stranded and lost, as it were at her own dooV ; in September the City of Philadelphia was stranded ; the Arctic, in hot haste, with hundreds of lives, sinks to rise no mors ; and a few days after, on the Pacific shore, the Yankee Blade becomes a total wreck. Eleven large Steamers and 1200 lives in 21 months." In most of these cases it must be confessed the casualty was avoidable, and in others an improved construction would have probably saved the lives of the passengers. Eight of the eleven were stranded, and not one of them was injured whilst in its proper place ; no overpowering winds, thundering storm, or lightnings' darts harmed them or drove them from their routes of safety, but under the most perfect obedience to the command, to the helm and the engine, they were imprudently stranded. Six of the eight struck with their bows on, and five of them at least would have been saved with properly constructed bulk- heads, as was the case with the Persia when she struck the ice,or the Vesta after her collision with the Arctic. The City of Philadel- phia and the Lyonnaise both had bulkheads, but with the former they were not sufficiently high, as after filling the first compart- ment, the extra immersion brought the top of the bulkhead under the water line, and the second compartment filled also ; whilst the Lyonnaise was struck on the line of her bulkhead, and both com- partments filled together, being two-fifths of the whole vessel, ^our of the eleven vessels referred to above would have been saved by adequate pumps and reliable steam power ; none of the four steamers, Independence, Arctic, City of Philadelphia, or Golden Age, made after their collision over 1000 tons of water per hour, which would have been removed by a 21 inch cylinder working with a continuous flow, at the ordinary velocity of these ships' pistons. And it is doubtful whether the San Francisco, the most terrible casualty of the lot, actually made more water than the Arabia in her celebrated run from Halifax to Liverpool last winter, after striking the rocks of the Nova Scotia coast. Comparing the safety of wood and iron, we may observe. 16 H; I that of stranded wooden vessels, no instance has occurred of the vessel having been saved. Of stranded iron ships the Great Britain, and just lately the Tyne, are well known instances ; and a Company is now being organized to recover the City of Philadelphia, the hull of which is still visible at low water near Cape Race. This important advantage of strength of the hull which can sustain a vessel like the Philadelphia against the breakers and storms of nearly three years, is a very important feature in the safety of iron ships, and it shews also a very great advantage in the employment of tliis material for steam vessels, where, from the nature of the motive power employed, unusual strains must be at work tending to destroy the water-tight joints and fastenings, at all events in the neighbourhood of the machinery. Hence we find wooden steam vessels not nearly so durable p^ wooden sailing vessels, whilst iron ships appear, where well rivetted in the first instance, to be as little liable to leaks or open joints when propelled by steam as when sails only are employed. Besides this the fine lines and beautiful model that can be obtained with iron, especially at the stern-post and cutwater, makes this material far more efficient .or propellers than wood can possibly be, and this is no doubt the reason why American propellers are so notoriously slow and unsatisfactory. The heavy timber stern-post through which an engine shaft fifteen or sixteen inches diameter lias to revolve, abstracts from the surface of the propeller the same breadth across its whole diameter, and carries behind it a wave of water which, moving at nearly the same speed as the vessel, leaves only a very small portion of the sectional area of the circle described by the propeller blades really efficient for the propulsion of the vessel, and hence it was that as long as the screw was buried in the dead wood of the vessel the speed obtained was low, and the performance not equal to paddle wheels. In iron vessels the stern-post and rudder-post, not more than two inches wide, the necessary strength being obtained longitudinally of the vessel, are forged together in the shape of a frame, within which the propeller blades revolve ; and where the shaft passes through the stern-post, a circular boss or projection is forged on to the iron, which being in front of the central boss of the propeller, abstracts nothing from the propelling area of the screw, and leaves the whole diameter of the blades revolving in comparatively still water. The shape of the stern is now a matter of much more importance with the screw than it was with paddles ; with the latter the formation of a wave behind the vessel was merely a loss of power, with the propellers that wave destroys the resistance that the engines oppose to the water, and makes the screw comparatively useless, and hence it was that in some of the earlier propellers, when under canvas, the vessel would absolutely drag her screw through the water, the wave behind them n moving as fast or faster than the pitch of the screw. In Great Britain the screw propeller and iron ship building have gone together; in America the former would have been more appreciated if the material of which their vessels are constructed did not require so large a sectional area to obtain the requisite strength. The first wooden hulls and screw propellers in Europe having precisely the game faults that mark the present American screw steamers. One of the very first applications of the screw after its general introduction about 1842, was as an auxiliary to the use of sails. The enormous consumption of coal in paddle-wheel Steamers, and the inefficiency of the paddles except when working on an even keel, and consequently when the wind was abaft, and the engines of the least service, made it evident that the use of sails with paddle-wheels was either unnecessary or inexpedient. The Cunard and West India Mail Steamers have till lately carried their full complement of seamen and a complete suit of sails, but the Collins' Company omitted the bowsprit, and latterly the mizen mast has been removed from all the Cunard Steamers, and the amount of sail carried on the fore and main masts seldom assists them more than one or two knots per hour in a favourable wind, whilst whole voyages are not unfrequently performed without a sail being set. This necessity of an even keel for the efficient working of paddle engines made the employment of steam as an assistance to a vessel of questionable utility, and as soon as the proper proportion of horse power to the tonnage was determined, about one horse to every three tons burthen, all steam vessels intended for paddles were compelled to have the full steam-power. With the screw it was not so ; the power is applied altogether irrespective of the careening of the vessel, and the most rolling sea or beam wind does not affect the pressure exerted by the engines for the propulsion of the vessel. The first large vessel employing the screw in conjunction with sails was the Great Northern of 1 200 tons burthen, built at Londonderry in 1842, and which made her first run to London, arriving March 1st, 1843. There were at that time thirteen large vessels being fitted with the 8cre\^ as a means of propulsion, amongst which were the Great Britain and the Rattler, the former destined for the American trade, and the latter the first screw man-of-war. The Great Britain was fitted with nearly the same proportion of power to her tonnage as an ordinary paddb-wheel steamer, and her first engines would work up to fully 1000 horses, so that had this been necessary, very little advantage would have been derived commercially from the screw over the paddles, excepting in the employment of sails without deranging the working power of the engines. After the Great Britain had been recovered from her dangerous position in Dundrum Bay, she was purchased by her present owners, Gibbs, Bright & Co. The first change effected 2 18 was tlie substitution of engines of 500 horse power for the 1000 horse engines used before ; this reduced the working expenses per day one half, and permitted her to carry sufBcient coal to take her out to Australia, her consumption being now from 33 to 38 tons per day, which is less than half of any Atlantic paddle* wheel Steamor now employed. She is a fine vessel, on excellent sailer, and with a fair smart breeze, when on the Australian ronte, the screw was of very little service to her, her sailing power being beyond the pitch of her screw, and frequently, as before noticed, dragging it through the water. She has lately been remodelled, has received another change in her rig and screw, and i& now on her first trip to Australia since tiie alteration. It is no doubt principally from the assistance derived from their sails that the ocean screw Steamers are enabled so successfully to Ci mpete with the paddle boats. In heavy weather the latter have no alternative but their engines, the least sail so materially interfering with the working of their paddles, probably throwing one wheel far under water, whilst the other is out, as to risk breaking the shafts. When they dare not use their sails, the screw boats take advantage of every wind, as if they depended alone upon tliat, whilst tlieir propeller is always at work, through calm or rough weather, equally efTicient, quietly and noiselessly forcing them on their way. For this reason their average passages are not only performed with greater regularity than the paddle boats, but their absolute speed, with less than half the power to their tonnage, is about the same. In confirmation of this, the experience of the Collins, Cunard, and Canadian lines for last year is remark- able ; the average western passage of the Cunard boats to Boston and New York being 12 days 14 J hours, the Collins' line 12 days' 16i hours, and the small powered screw Steamers to Quebec being 12 days 201 hours. The Canadian line has been surpassed only by the Cunard line to New York, taking both voyages out and home ; has kept pace with the Collins' line within 3i hours on the western trip, and beaten them more than a day on the eastern run, whilst the Cunard line to Boston has been handsomely distanced both out and home. Deducting the time occupied in five deten- tions at tlie Straits of Belleisle, which the paddle-wheel boats had not to contend with, and which, amounting to 79 hours, are included in the above average, reduces the actual passage to less than the Collins' line, and equal to the Cunard, whilst the longest passage, late in November, was only 38 hours over this average, and the shortest, in August, 38 hours under it. Not only is this greater regularity in favor of the screw system of propulsion, — not only is an equal speed maintained, with less danger from ice and other floating bodies, but the whole of this is obtained with an economy of at least one half in the working e»» 19 penses. This fact ha9 been demonstrated by the Oriental Com- pany in a very unmistakable manner. The Sultan, an iron vessel of 1200 tons burthen, was launched in 1851, with engines of 420 horse power, and paddle-wheels. IJer average speed was 10.7 knots per hour. After running some time to thoroughly test her capa- bilities, she was in 1855 refitted with a screw propeller, and engines of 210 horse power, or half the former size. With the new engines her speed under steam alone was 10.47 miles per hour, and with a slight breeze, and fore and aft canvas, 1 1 knots. This change in her power, accompanied by a very trifling loss of speed under steam alone, and a positive gain under canvas, enables the Steamer to carry with the same cargo sixteen days fuel instead of eight, or two hundred tons more profitable load with the same fuel. Her daily consumption is of course only half, and the number of men required to be in attendance is of course proportionally reduced. Under these circumstances it is evident that the contest between the two systems of propulsion is even now unequal, and unless sus- tained by Government bounties, but few paddle-wheel Steamers will henceforward take their place upon the Atlantic station. The determination of the relative merits of these two modes of propel- ling is one of the results of the last twenty years experience. The Archimedes of 1838 expanded into the Himalaya of 1855, and the fleet of screw Steamers that in 1857 daily bridge the Atlantic. There is another branch of employment for screw Steamers which has been developed within the last four or five years, and which must have a wonderful influence on the future ; the use of steam for freighting heavy produce, and mineral trafiic. It is scarcely too much to expect that this season will determine some important points with respect to the freighting of produce by steam across the Atlantic. Formerly when any vessel became unsea- worthy, worn out, or unhappy, she was sold for a Collier, and plied probably from Newcastle to London. They were never insured, and if they went to the bottom, there were only a few tons of coal gone, and the old ship was probably no great loss ; even if, by that time, she had not paid for herself. Freights were often very low, everything was done at starvation prices ; the delays in London', waiting for the markets, seemed to preclude any'better vessels being introduced into the business, and the idea of employing new iron Steamers to carry coals, in competition with these old hulks, seemed at the time just as wild a proposal as could very well have been made. However, the scheme was broached, I believe, by Messrs. Palmers, of Newcastle, about 1846, and what is the state of matters in connection with these screw Colliers now, on the Tyne and on the Wear ? It is found out that one screw Collier can not only complete the voyage between the northern Ports on the Tyne and Wear and the Port of London in one week, but they fid can f<»ff y Mf:^ vo"'«gP twice as imich coal as a regular sailing Collier t,«^n do ; ami ,-hat; III one year a « ■'w Collier will convey at ni*«y coals as ten of the ordinary vi a- If* '^an do in the same tim<*. Tlie experiment has been quite sue oossful. The Hetton ('o»l Conj^ji.ny, the Earl of Durham, and other large coal owners hav«» j|i*en theif sanction to tin change ; and there can be no doubt that hi-pttf }ni 't nearly the whole of this '"normous carrying trade will be conduv t*"' nn the new system. Lat, year there were 18,000 tons of iron screw Colliers built on the Tyne alone ; and at the present time, amongst nun)ber8 of others, two vessels are on the stocks, one of 1000 the other of 1500 tons burthen, destined for the London coal trade. These are the first of a large fleet, in which, for the first titne, it will be attempted to combine high speed and low cost of navigation. On the same River at the present time may be seen the elements of a number of small Steamers destined for the Nile, to drag trains of country boats, laden with corn from the upper country, to Alexandria. It has ever been thus with improvements. We make a rapid advance, and one year appears to revolutionize all our old notions and experience ; then for a time a pause ensues, and the casual observer might suppose the period of invention at an end, but that pause is only a part, and a necessary part of succeeding advances. It confirms theory by practice, adds experience to invention, establishes the many little facts that go to make the whole science, and not unfrequently refutes the very theory which appeared the most promising, and without which further advances would pro- bably have taken a wrong direction, and lead to mischief and mistake. The James Watt and Rob Roy of 1818 were the models of deep-sea coasting navigation, and for 20 years larger vessels, perhaps not better ones, were built after them. In 1838 the Great Western, Ironsides, and Archimedes, introduced a new order of things, and for the second cycle of 20 years, whilst the models of each have been refined, enlarged, and improved upon ; whilst the Persia hao combined the iron hull of the one and paddle-wheel engines of the other, and the Hinialaya carried the screw system of propulsion to a degree of excellence and perfection never anticipated by its most sanguine inventors and improvers ; we now Iook for ward to the future, when all the elements of the three xrn '."■ 'f 1838 are introduced for the first time in the Great Eastern ; and when the problem of combining the steam engine and the clipper ship has also V-^en satisfactorily determined in the Royal Charter, the Australia nad Canadian mails, and other lines of screw Steamers lat. ^ ■ ' ' ' (CP"^* »^i the Atlantic. The scientific question is now fast p (.^tI-.^ avray with these latter, the economical and commercial is bc-T, dr assed, f\i ■• the number of new enterprises now on foot would seem to iniply that that question is being 21 gatisfactorily determined in fuvor of the gcretr Steoracr against the ordinary sailing craft. Announced in the public pnats for this season there are, across the Atlantic to North American Porta, eightlines of British Steamers, averaging four vesse' each nay per week; four American lines, averaging tluee passages each way per fortnight ; and one Belgian and two French, also averaging three trips per fortnight, liesides occasional vessel i and freight lines, which are entirely under the British flag, there are therefore of passenger Steamers an average per week of seven each way between Europe und North America. Of these the Cunard Mail line and the four American Companies, averaging together two and a half trips pei ' oek,are paddle-wheel Steamers. The other lines, making four and a half double journeys per week, are screw Steamers. TUc British Companies have eight paddle and twenty foil- ( 'ow Steamers on the route. The Americans ten paddle- wheel, and the French and Belgian twelve screw boats. Altogether thirty six screw boats and eighteen paddle-wheel boats, or exactly two to one in favor of the screw Steamers. There are other lines in contemplation, and many occasional Steamers, all of which I believe, are propelled by the screw. The subject of Atlantic steaming, and especially in connection with these Colonies, received a new impulse, and one which bids fair to afifect our position in the future, by the establishment last year of the Canadian Mail Line. The issue of this experiment, to say the least, was doubtful, and the result of the first year's working has been as unexpected as it was unforeseen. The line has already assumeJ an importance und position that could not have been anticipated, and that not so much from the development of any new description of commerce, as from the previously overlooked geographical situation of these Colonies as an entrepot between Europe and America. New Brunswick ought to benefit from this discovery as well as Canada, and when Railways intersect this Pro- vince, as they must ultimately do — and as they will do, for if we are blind to our position, other people are having their eyes open to the facts of the case — New Brunswick must be the winter route to a great part of the American Continent from Europe, as Quebec will be ih( summer road. I must apologize for leaving the water for a few moments, but Steamboats and Railways are inseparable, and the geographical question combines the two. The Straits of Belle Isle lying in about the same latitude as the southern pointof Ireland, are proved to be in the summer months as available for steam navigation as any other inlet oi bay on this Continent. From Cape Clear, the south point of Ireland, to this northern extremity of Newfoundland, a vessel has tlie advantage over another steer- ing to Cape Race, the southern point of Newfoundland, not only of a saving of four degrees of soutiiing, but she runs on a parallel, 22 ml where each degree is less by 21 miles than on the middle latitude between Cape Race and Cape Clear. The actual distance from Liverpool to Quebec is 119 miles less than from Liverpool to Portland or Boston, and 480 miles less than from Liverpool to New York ; and when the Railways are open, as they will be, to the River du Loup, this port will be 250 miles nearer to England than Portland, and 600 miles nearer tlian New York. It is cal- culated that a vessel that could reach New York from Liverpool in ten days, at the rate of 300 miles per day, would be at the River du Loup in less than eiglit days; and as the trains will run from there to New York in 24 hours, there would be by the Canadian route a saving of 18 hours to Boston, of 24 hours to New York, and to the west and south west, of still more. But this is not all, — the opening of the Canadian Railways has developed some important geographical features of the land route ; to a full half of the inhabi- tants of the Union, Quebec is a nearer port than New York, and even to the south the Grand Trunk Railway is the most direct road to Europe. For instance, to New Orleans, New York via Charleston is distant by rail 2280 miles, whilst Quebec via Toledo and Cairo, is 2220 miles, or 60 miles nearer ; in one case over some of the worst roads in the Union, and in the other over lines laid out on British principles, and with British capital. So that as soon as the broken railway links near New Orleans are complete, that port will be three days nearer Europe by Quebec than by New York, and five days nearer than by the West India Mail route, the sea passage being conducted at an equal speed on the three lines of steam boats. The success of these Canadian speculations, her main trunk line of railway, and her beautiful clipper Steamers, ought not to be without their influence here. We are all parts of one great country, England's richest and brightest jewel, and the wonderful resources of this country only wait to be opened up, to make them properly appreciated. It is for us to shew to the world our position and our prospects. It is our place to point out the advantages we have, the conveniences we possess, the improvements of which we are capable ; it is for us to commence the development of our vast internal resources ; it is for us to make our ports as available on the land side, as nature has made them towards the ocean. They must be easy of access from, as well as to;— to be available as entrepots between the great producing West and the great con- suming East, to take the place that nature has so eminently gifted them for, it is for us to open up the land connections, the sea-route will take care of itself. Quebec and Montreal, without a railway or a canal, would be as little able to support a line of Steamers to England, as Fredericton or Miramichi ; but with railways New Brunswick at once takes her position, not only on a par with the 23 Canadian ports, and befoi.^ tlie American harbours, in summer, but from the winter's break in the communication, actually before her older sister. From Saint John to the River du Loup is 30 miles nearer than from Portland to Montreal, and grain or produce from the Upper Lakes could be delivered at the New Brunswick Port for half a dollar per ton cheaper than to Portland, whilst the freight to Liverpool with us is a further advantage of another dollar, quite sufficient to determine a change in the direction of the trade ; and Shediac and Miramichi have both advantages which are wanting to many of the present Ports adopted by ocean Steamers. 1 have, I fear, occupied too much time with the history of the past, and with dry statistics of the present ; let us turn briefly to a consideration of the fuiure. The traveller by one of the Thames steamboats below London Bridge, passing througli the smoky region of Millwall, has on either side of him the two giants of 1857, destined to alter our position en this side of the Atlantic, to open up a new era in the history of British North America, and to tie us still more closely to the land of our fathers, and the home of our infancy. On one side coil after coil, till the eye wearies of its endless convolutions, lies the Atlantic cable, soon to be deposited in its marine bed. On the opposite is Scott Russell's monster ship, destined to introduce a new era in ocean steam navigation. "It is not easy," says the Times, " to convey an adequate idea of a vessel that is 18,000 tons larger than the largest ship in the world." Her length between perpendiculars is 680 feet, on the upper deck G92 feet, nearly double the length of the height of St. Paul's, and more than double of the United States new screw frigates, about which so much has been lately said. Nearly 8,000 tons of plate iron have already been used in her construction, and 4,000 tons of machinery, boilers, shafting, and iron work have still to be intro- duced before she will be ready for launching. These are already on the ground, and are fast dropping into their appointed places, and in August the launching, or more properly the lowering into the water, is expected to take place. Her engineer, who designed the Great Britain, has given to every part of this huge fabric the stamp of deep thought and thorough scientific investigation. Built on the principle of an iron beam, a complete double ship, one hull inside the other, and the space between a complete cellular tissue of iron plates rivetted together, after the design of the Britannia Tubular Bridge, she is the strongest ship in the world, would beach without injury, and might be lifted by a chain round the centre, if such could be procured strong enough, without straining or inju- riously deflecting the line of her keel. Her great length therefore is no cletriment to her strength, whilst in the most violent Atlantic storm she would rest always upon three, and generally on four of the longest waves, 200 feet long. She will consequently not pitch, ^4 and will roll less than any vessel that ever swam. The arrange- ments of the partitions between the two hulls are so peculiar, that whilst she would oppose the transverse plates on their edge to any collision or floating mass of ice that she might encounter, each section of about 6 feet square is under the control of the engineers, who can fill or empty any of the portion between the two hulls with water at pleasure. By this arrangement the vessel can suit her water displacement to any exigency that may occur, and as her coals are consumed can ballast herself with water to suit the reduction of her weight ; or if she sprung a leak, could withdraw the water from between the two hulls, and lighten the vessel by the turn of a valve or changing the position of a handle. Her safety from collision, either with any future monster of the deep like herself, with rocks or ice, is indeed, as far as human foresight can divine, almost perfect ; with 50 feet torn from her sides, she would be comparatively unscathed ; cut in two, neither end would necessarily sink ; and with two or three of her compartments filled with water, she would be scarcely inconvenienced. She will carry 12,000 tons of coal, and 8000 tons of merchandise. One great object in carrying so large a quantity of coal is to avoid the enormous expense of foreign coaling stations, and the freight of fuel in other vessels to supply Steamers for the homeward voyage. Some years back the average price of coal for the VVest India Mail Steamers was £3 sterling per ton, though their home supply was obtained for 15s., and at the same period (1851) the Oriental Company had in their employ 400 sailing vessels trans- porting English coals to their foreign depots between Southampton and Hong Kong, many of them having to double the Cape of Good Hope, and making the average price of their coal 42s. per ton, against 14s., the home price. The Great Eastern avoids all this, and will save £9,000 per voyage between FOngland and Aus- tralia on her coals alone, by carrying sufficient for the return trip. Another great element of safety and economy is the employment of different systems of propulsion in different parts of the vessel, the engines being in separate compartments and perfectly distinct ; an accident occurring to one set of engines cannot therefore affect the other. She combines all the advantages of a paddle-wheel Steamer with a screw propeller, and a beautifully modelled clipper ; and whilst her steadiness in the water will assist the efficiency of her paddle-wheels, her six ma :ts, spreading whole acres of canvas, and her four powerful screw engines, will be her main dependence. In dimension she is double the length and breadth of Noah's Ark, as given in the Book of Genesis, and four times the tonnage, and would find room for a greater variety of character or speci- mens of natural history. Should any unfortunate craft ever come in contact with her whilst in motion, the blow would be decisive, 25 he arrange- iculiar, that edge to any imter, each 3 engineers, 3 two hulls sel can suit cur, and as to suit the d withdraw e vessel by indle. Her of the deep an foresight r sides, she ' end would ments filled erchandise. 1 is to avoid the freight homeward >r the West their home (1851) the issels trans- )utharapton le Cape of )al 42s. per 1 avoids all d and Aus- return trip, mployment the vessel, ly distinct ; 'efore affect iddle-wheel led clipper ; flficiency of 3 of canvas, lependence. Foah's Ark, e tonnage, r or speci- ; ever come be decisive, and she might prove, if taken from the pursuits of peace and the requirements of commerce, a poweriul engine of war. Her im- mense capacity, 22,000 tons, her own weight 12,000 tons, and her probably high rate of speed of nearly 20 miles per hour, with solid iron bows, nearly as sharp as a knife, would cut through the most formidable man-of-war without damage to herself. She could not be caught, could run down any ship, and biding her time, could demolish a fleet. Some of the separate dimensions of this huge mass of floating iron, and of the machinery by which she is propelled, strike the mind with a more majestic idea of her proportions than the size of her hull, or the tonnage of her register. Take for instance the paddle-wheels, and engines by which they are made to revolve. The wheels themselves are 56 feet diameter, and 1 14 feet over all. Four engines, with cylinders 6 feet 2 inches diameter, 1 4 feet stroke, and 50 feet high, assist in turning these cyclopean wheels.. Each revolution causes the vessel to advance nearly fifty yards, and with only 10 revolutions per minute and the usual allowance of 11 por cent, for slip, the Great Eastern will cross the Atlantic to New York in six and a half days. Magnificent as these proportions of paddle-wheels and their engines are, thyy are however far inferior in power and efficiency to the screw propeller. Four engines, the cylinders of which are 7 feet diameter, and weighing each 30 tons, the whole of a nominal horse power of 1600 horses, but capable of working to three times this, or nearly 5000 horses, are connected to the horizontal shaft, to the outer end of which the propeller blades are attached. This shaft, merely for the transmission of the power, is 160 feet long, and weighs 60 tons, the diameter of the screw itself being 24 feet, and capable of propelling the vessel alone at the rate of 15 knots per hour, or across the Atlantic in eight days. Some most interesting statistics have been published of other portions of this triton amongst the minnows, but I fear I am tiring your patience with these particulars. I would therefore merely add, that not only have all her dimensions and details been arranged on the most scientific principles, combined as far as possible with the practical experience of twenty years of ocean steaming, but the little points of comfort and ease have not been forgotten, and every thing has been arranged to made ocean travelling as pleasurable and popular as our Lake and River steaming has lately become. Not only will her large size and freedom from the pitching and rolling motion so distressing to most passengers, almost if not quite do away with sea sickness, but the poked up little dens that have been dignified by the name of state-rooms will be exchanged for apartments second in size, convenience and refinement to nothing that we are accustomed to on land. The bedrooms are 7 feet 6 inches high, and the principal saloons, of waich there are 10, are 26 I t ■ ,1 . 70 feet long, and from 12 to 14 feet high. For exercise and amuse- ment the level floor of the upper deck affords the ample space of an acre and a half for every variety of amusement. Morning calls can scarcely be exchanged without a considerable draw upon the time and locomotive powers of the ladies, whilst the gentlemen will have the various distractions of watering place amusements, and ample scope for every variety of athletic or social occupation. In the evening the necessary space for the most extensive country dance amongst the .3000 forward passengers, will not interfere with the quadrille or promenade of the aristocratic remainder, and after supper, four turns round the vessel will give rather over the neces- sary distance of a mile to settle the digestion of that very pleasant but much abused repast. There are however two important changes which the Great Eastern, not as an isolated ship, but as the type of a class, seems calculated to introduce, and both affecting Atlantic Steamers, whether she remain any length of time upon the station or not. Per ton she is the cheapest Steamer that has yet been built ; whilst her working expenses will not be more than three times that of the Persia, her accommodation is nearly ten times ; and if no unfore- seen calamity reduces her popularity, or she prove at all what is anticipated, the Great Eastern can carry both passengers and goods at one half of any existing Steamer, and make money at that. The second probable result will be, that the Atlantic will be thrown open by her to the pleasure tourists of the summer months, and tliat one tenth of the present excursionists down the Saint Lawrence or on the Sound, may make the Atlantic trip their jaunt, and not only find ample employment for this large vessel, but improve their acquaintance with Europe, and learn that art is not yet dead there, civilization at a stand still, nor talent and invention entirely resident on the Hudson, or the Mississippi. The well known economy of large vessels over smaller ones, is of course evident, but the Great Eastern has gone beyond all the usual rate of progression, and struck out an entirely new destiny for herself. Her draft of water prevents her enteriiig many har- bours, and limits her available ports either on this side of the Atlantic or the other to a very restricted number, whilst her enor- mous size is adapted only for a still fewer number of markets, or commercial emporia. Combining the two, the want of sufficient water in the harbours, and the want of sufficient business on the land, and the further necessity of loading and unloading quickly a vessel, the simple interest on whose construction alone amounts to £1000 sterling per week, I cannot think that she is adapted for any existing market, or commercial purpose for which Steam ves- sels are at present employed. She must be and do something new. Can British America not find her employment ? and there not being 27 water enough in New York or Boston, can Halifax or Quebec not only accommodate her, but find her sufficient work ? and when Saint John is connected by Railways to the rest of the world, can she not assert the advantages that nature has endowed her with ? Let us take Quebec, and see if Canada could not load such a ves- sel once a fortnight as easily as she now fills up her own splendid Tho vessel hails on the British side from Milford Haven, now connected by the broad gauge with London, Birmingham, and all the south and west of England, and in immediate communication with the copper smelting establishments of Swansea, the tin plate works of South Wales, and the great rail-making establishments that are now supplying 9-lOths of the iron used on American rail- ways. From Milford to Quebec is 2,400 miles, or seven days run, assuming the speed of the Great Eastern equal to the Himalaya, and at the same rate of fare as is now charged per day by the Cnnard Boston boats, the fare would be £10 Sterling or $50. Three lines of passenger Steamers now bring into Quebec every night an average of 500 visitors on pleasure ; the Grand Trunk Railway might bring as many more. No unusual or excessive crowding would bring the whole complement of the Great Eastern to Quebec at any appointed time, and plenty of passenger boats are now running daily and hourly on the Canadian lakes, any three of which could fill every berth on the Eastern. From Cleveland or Chicago the Quebec journey would be either by rail or steam- boat, avoiding fatigue or night travelling by rail, and being nearer and more expeditious than either Boston or New York. From the west or southwest as already seen, from all Canada, and from two thirds of the Union, Quebec would be the natural, economical and easy point of departure, whilst twenty four hours from New York and eighteen from Boston would make even these places nearer to Liverpool in time than they now are. Can any one who has ever seen the crowds of summer travellers on these Lakes and Rivers doubt that the Great Eastern would easily fill. " Halve the fare and you quadruple the traffic." There are seven transatlantic Steamers every week from America, and probably thirty packed, ships. Reduce the fare one half, and two Great Easterns per week will be needed to carry the increase. If any one doubts the truth of the railway adage, " Open a line, and you create half the traffic," let me aok them to see what has been already done on the St. Lawrence and the Great Lakes. A few years ago the Ogdens- burg railway opened a new route in connection with express Steamers between Niagara and Montreal. There were then two mail line of Steamers, as now, from the head of Lake Ontario to Montreal. Did the railway hurt them ? Last year the Grand Trunk Railway opened another communication, in connection with 28 '■\ powerful Steamers capable of carrying 1,200 passengers each, over the same ground. Did either of the old lines suffer ? No. And this year, with additional accommodation to the public and addi- tional competition to contend with, they are doing at least as well, if not better than ever. 4000 passengers conveyed across the Atlantic by this Steamer every week in summer, if it were possible, would not more than make up the additional number of travellers that the new impulse given by reduced fares would create. Look at Lake Erie. One, two, three, and now a fourth railway has been opened to avoid the storms of Lake Erie, but those floatinj]; palaces, with room for 1000 passengers, and often crowded at that, still keep their position the same as ever. You cannot open too many means of communication in a growing country. It is not a falling off in the numbers, but competition in prices, that reduces the profits on Railways and Steamers, and the most melancholy sign of stagnation or retrogression in a new country is when public conveyances, both in number and convenience, are not continually increasing and improving. With respect to the freight to load this monster of the deep. The exports from South Wales require a cheap carriage, but if she can carry low enough, the Welsh Iron Works now send more iron to this country than the Eastern could carry without coals, and Milford would suit these works nearly as well as either New- port or Cardiff; and if it pays to send coals from Newcastle to London by steam, it will pay to carry iron from England to America the same way. At this end of the line Quebec can load the Eastern back again with Canadian and Western grain. She would carry 500,000 bushels of wheat or 1 50,000 barrels of flour. The average cost of a barrel of flour from New York to Liverpool for the nine years ending 1854, was a trifle over 2s. sterling. From Montreal it was 3s. lO^d., nearly double. At 2s. her cargo would be £15,000 sterling, and this is low enough from Quebec, to bring every barrel of flour and bushel of wheat that way. '^Ihe quantity of wheat and IncMan corn arriving at Buffalo only, for shipment down the American Canals in 1855, was about twenty five million bushels. This is exclusive of what passed down the Canadian Canals and the American Railways, and the quantity imported via Oswego. Tills enormous quantity of cereals is doubling every six years, and even that ratio will probably be increased rather than diminished. Twenty five million bushels is five times the amount that the Great Eastern could carry if she ran all the year round and did nothing beside, and in this age of floating elevators and steam winches, how very easily could her cargo of half a million bushels be put on board that ship, if necessary, from day light to dark. In fact, it is our facilities for loading, and the saving of expenses in putting the grain on board, to which I leak for the main reduction 29 in the cost of conveying the Western corn to Europe in these large Steamers To those who do not understand the system, it is often a matter of wonder how such immense quantities of grain as are annually collected and disposed of in some of the Western Cities are received, taken care of, and promptly forwarded to their desti- nation. To people whose ideas on the subject are confounded with bags and drays, horses and wagons, the mere labour of hand- ling such immense masses of produce seems insurmountable. But with the aid of steam seeming impossibilities become every day realities. " As an instance" says the Chicago Democratic Press, '« of what can be done in the way of shipping grain, we take occasion to refer to tlie case of the schooner Altair just loaded at the spacious elevators of Messrs. Gibbs, Griflin, & Co. The cargo of the Altair, 18,000 bushels of corn, was drawn from the bins, elevated, weighed, and discharged into the hold of the vessel in two and a quarter hours. The whole time consumed, from the time of commencing to load until the hatches were finally down, and the vessel ready for sea, was only two and three quarter hours." This is not an isolated case, as the same thing has been done in nearly or quite as short a time, and can be again. Now as the Great Eastern could take nearly thirty such loads as the schooner Altair, and only ten could very well discharge along- side at once, at that rate of loading it would occupy nearly seven hours to load her, without the new floating elevators now buildmg at Montreal should prove more powerful than those at Chicago, which they probably will be. The fact is, that one thing tells so upon another, that an improvement in one branch of mechanics affects questions apparently the most remote ; and so it is, that the floating elevator bids fair to alter the economical sizes and proportions of grain carrying vessels, and probably to generally introduce large Steamers alone for this purpose. The elevators as now constructed work so economically, so quickly, and are so perfectly available, that the slightest delay in navigation, or the least advantage in the employment of larger or smaller vessels, is of more consequence than a loading and unloading of the cargo. Formerly breaking bulk was the difficulty and expense, now time is a greater object. The Welland Canal was constructed to save the former, that vessels might pass from the Upper to the Lower Lakes without touching the cargo. Now the Saint Catherme s railway ip building, with powerful elevators at each end, to save the delav of the Canal, and to permit the employment of larger vessels, probably not much inferior to the Great Eastern herself, on the Uryper Lakes from Chicago or Milwaukee. Applying the same principle down here, if it pays to load ami unload for the sake of employing larger vessels from Chicago to the Saiat Catherine's railway, probably 1200 miles, is it not reasonable 30 that large veasels like tlie Eastern should be employed on the Atlantic where the navigation is rougher, and the distance longer. The smaller vessels meeting her at Quebec, discharging their cargoes directly on board, and returning for another load during her absence. By this means no large stores are necessary at Quebec, the large vessel is kept constantly at work and sure of a cargo, and the freight and expenses are reduced to a minimum. There does not appear to me any other Port that can offer such inducements, or so likely a chance of obtaining passengers and freight, combined with depth of water and secure anchorage, as our British American Capital. A few words more about the probable time that we may expect to have to spend on the Atlantic in the " good days coming," when we shall be -ible to eat our Christmas dinner at home, and meet our friends here on New Year's day, or very soon after. For twenty years there has been no great increase in speed. The Great Western generally occupied fourteen days from Bristol to New York; in 1854-55, the Collins' line averaged eleven and a half days, (11 days 16 hours in 1854, and 11 days 9 hours in 1855.) The Persia will average under eleven. The Great Eastern must do it to New York in nine, or sadly disappoint her friends. Some two or three years ago the New York papers were in ecstacies about a Steamer that was to do it in six days, and the Liverpool papers are now rather wild about some Australian affair of the same nature. Now, considering the improvements that have taken place in Lake Steamers, ought we not to expect a similar speed, or something approaching it, on the Atlantic ; especially from Quebec, where 1000 miles of the distance is in comparatively smooth water, and the other 1 500 seldom crossed by such terrific storms as may be met with farther south. Let me ask you to look again at the Canadian Lakes. On Lake Erie, the Western Metropolis, an old boat, and not perfection by a great deal, has repeatedly run from Buffalo to Point au Pelee in ten hours, a distance of 200 miles. On Lake Ontaria, the Canada and America ran regularly last season from Hamilton to Brock ville, 240 miles, in thirteen hours, and have done it in twelve ; and let it be borne in mind, that neither the Metropolis nor the Ontario Steamers are pasteboard River boats, but ships of 1500 or 2000 tons, built expressly for rough weather, and getting their share of it at some seasons of the year. This speed would carry us from New York to Liverpool in a trifle over six days. These boats are built with a total disregard of all the old theories, yet they move with remarkable freedom, ease down their bows into a sea without any jerking or straining, roll very little in the trough, or on the wind ; in a head sea, their sharp bows split the waves without rising or pitching, and with a gale aft, the easy lift of the stern 81 shews the propriety of the build. There is another feature thnt helps them ; with engines fully as powerful as our ocean boats, they have scarcely one quarter of the weight, and their high pressure boilers, when well constructed, are very light upon fuel. Let our Steamboat builders and engineers look into these things ; let them use better models, lighter engines, and high-pressed steam ; let them see that it does not require a whole coal mine to carry a Steamer across the Atlantic, or an iron mine to make thp machinery, and they will still give us an opportunity of dining one Sunday here, and going to Church the next Sunday with onr friends in England.