The Sun.
London, England, 1849-11-07 00:00:00

HOMEWARD.

Miles. Steamer stops
Chagres to Carthagena 2BO 1 day.
Carthagena to Kingston (Jamaica) 470 2 days.
Jamaica to Jacmel (Hayti) 255 day.
Jacmel to San Juan (Porto Rico) 388 day.
Porto Rico to St. Thomas
St. Thomas's to Fayal 2,249 1 day.
Fayal to Southampton 1,373
Total distance, Isthmus to Southampton 5,080 —oc-
cupying 32 to 35 days, including the stoppages above
referred to.

One glance at this statement of the indirect route,
and frequent stoppages of the Royal mail steamers,
will fully account for the reason why American
steamers taking a direct route, as follows, are enabled
to anticipate them :

Days.
Chagrea to Jamaica 3
Jamaica to New York
New York to Liverpool

22
Add for detention at Jamaica 1
Average detention at New York, by reason of
intermediate arrivals "• 3

Total, Chagres to Liverpool via New York 26
or a saving in time of from 7 to 10 days.
It cannot therefore be astonishing that the New
York route is preferred. What passenger would not
wish to shorten his sea voyage a week or ten days ?
Will the great bulk of the mercantile interest direct
correspondence to be sent by the lengthened route,
when their communications through other channels
will reach their destination upwards of a week in ad-
vance of the British steamers ? and will not the valu-
able freights of gold and silver, cochineal, &c., soon
follow in the track of the mails and passengers to
New York, as being the safest and quickest mode
of transmission to England.
The West India steamers leave Chargres with an
average freight of 1,000,000 of dollars (frequently
more) for England. This amount may be expected
shortly to be very much augmented by the supplies of
gold from the Californian mines, and no doubt each
monthly steamer will soon be enabled to embark from
1,000,000 to 4,000,000 of dollars in specie and bullion
for delivery at the Bank of England. Can it be ex-
pected, therefore, that the merchants owning such
valuable remittances will permit their treasure to be
shipped by the West India steamers, which, with these
large sums on board, stay idling by the way a day at
Carthagena ; two, three, and sometimes four days at
Jain aica ; a quarter of a
,day at Hayti alai Porto Rico:
two days at St. Thomas s, and so on, w hen the insur-
ance risk is greatly increased ? And is it not natural
to expect that the New York route, so much shorter
and more rapid, will completely supersede the present
West India plan of intercourse with the isthmus, un-
less an alteration be speedily and effectually applied ?
A remedy may be devised whereby the whole of
these evils might be removed, and the traffic now
almost entirely lost to or leaving the West India
steamers completely restored. Such a desirable con-
summation can only be brought about by,--first, a
change of route with fewer stoppages ; second, the

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By employing steamers of the Cunard class, say
with a proportion of 700 to 800 horse power to a
burden of 2,000 tons, capable of maintaining a mini-
mum average speed f 10 knots, the through voyage
from Chagres to Southampton could be performed in
21 to 23 days, including the necessary stoppages for
coaling at Fayal and St. Thomas's, and thus a fort-
night or ten days would be the real saving in time,
while the New York route would be surpassed in re-
gard to the economy of time effected.
The only alteration in the present arrangements
necessary to guard against a derangement in the
intercolonial service would be the necessity of having
a branch steamer to bring up mails from San Juan,
Nicaragua, Carthagena, Jamaica, &c., to St.
Thomas's, there to meet the direct steamer from
Chagres, which would also be joined at St. Thomas's
by the vessel front Dem- Tara with the ;aomeward,
windward, and leeward mails, as at present. Jamaica
would not be prejudiced by this arrangement, as that
island would have the same accommodation as at
present, while the employment of more rapid steamers
would bring that place to within 17 to 19 days' voy-
dagayeso, as at
fEngplarnesdenvita St. Thomas, instead of 22 to 26
The route outward to the isthmus pursued by these
steamers is still more objectionable and lengthy, and,
if pricked'out on the map, will probably excite a smile ;
it is as follows :

Miles.

Southampton to Madeira 1,287 steamer stops half a day.
Madeira to Barbadoes ... 2,610 one day.
Barbadoes to St. Thomas 420 quarter of a day.
St. Thomas to Porto Rico 65
Porto Rico to Jacmel 388 one day.
Jacmel to Jamaica 255 one day.
Jamaica to Santa Martha 440 quarter of a day.
Santa Martha to Carthagena 105 half a day.
Carthagena to Chagres 280

Total distance ... 5,850 miles:from Southampton
to the isthmus, occupying 35 to 36 days, when, if the
principle of a through or trunk line, via St. Thomas's,
were adopted, to which other lines should be tri-
butary, the distance would be 4,742 miles, occupying
22 or 23 days, thus effecting a, saving in distance of
1,108 miles, and 10 or 12 days in time, which would
be principally accomplished by the fewer stoppages
and superior speed of steamers under the new regula-
tions thus assumed.

To conform to this arrangement the Pacific Steam
Navigation Company's ships might leave Valparaiso
about eight or ten days later than at present, to be in
time at Panama for the steamers leaving this side of
the isthmus for England, and it may be estimated
that the general mail service from all parts of the
West Indies and South America would be accelerated
from seven to- ten days, and the course of post
shortened 14 to 20 days, thus bringing the corre-
spondence with all the ports embraced in the scheme
into a much shorter general communication with
Europe.
That some arrangement, of which this is an outline,
will be indispensable, if the Royal Mail Company
intends to secure the traffic between England and the
greater part of the New World, must be perfectly
evident. The matter speaks for itself. A week's
priority in mercantile correspondence is an age,
during which a fortune may be made or lost, and if
the present slow conveyances are continued, with
their circuitous route and perpetual stoppages, the
whole of the mails, passengers, and specie from the
WestiCoast of America and some parts of the West
Indies will be lost to the Royal Mail Company, whose
ships will be almost entirely superseded by the
American steamers.

In a national point of view Great Britain cannot
afford that the advantages of a communication
primarily opened and established by herself, and so
essential to her own mercantile prosperity, should be
diverted into another and a rival channel, precisely at
a juncture when the intercourse has become, and is
likely to become, increasingly remunerative and im-
portant. The prosperity of the Royal Mail Steam-
packet Company, nay, its very existence, is bound up
in this question, and it must rise or fall exactly in
proportion to its efforts to retain the traffic legiti-
mately and properly its due.
Unless some alterations are made the English
steamers, compared with the American ships will,
in railway parlance, be merely slow Parliamentary
trains running against express mails, the former de-
feating their own object by continual and vexatious
stoppages, the latter distancing their competitors by
their extreme rapidity and celerity.
That this climax is likely to result may be gathered
from the immense efforts now making by the Ameri
cans to increase and extend their mercantile steam
marine. The building yards of New York are filled
with stupendous steamers in course of construction,
and already many have commenced running. The
line of steamers between Panama and San Francisco
has been eminently successful. The same may be
said of the vessels running in conjunction with them
on this side of the isthmus from Chagres to New
York, the steamers Falcon, Crescent City, and Em-
pire City. While writing this your correspondent
has before him a description of the American steam-
ship Ohio, the pioneer of a mail line of five gigantic
ships intended to maintain a weekly communication
between New York and the Isthmus of Panama, via
Hmannah, in direct communication with the West
India steamers. The Ohio is 2,600 tons burden,
and 1,000 horse power. She sailed from New York
on her first voyage on the 20th of September, and
returned on the 15th of October full of passengers
and with a considerable amount of specie. The
Georgia, a sister ship, is nearly ready for sea, and the
other three are preparing. All these ships are to
attain a speed of 11 knots, and will have accommoda-
tion for 250 passengers.
The present West India steamers are beautiful
models of naval architecture, and in regard to their
management and sea-going qualities may be said to
be unsurpassed. When they were constructed in
1841 and 1842 it was not considered desirable to
proportion so great ',an amount of horse power to
tonnage as subsequent successful experiments have
demonsrated to be both safe and prudent for Trans-
atlantic voyaging. The consequence is that, com-
pared with certain Atlantic steamers, they are some-
what deficient in speed, and 5 everal of them will not
average more than from seven to eight knots. Recent
improvements in the boilers and machinery of others,
such as the Medway, the Thames, Clyde, Avon, and
Severn, have augmented their speed, and these
vessels are capable, under favourable circumstances
of making eight to ten knots per hour. Such a
speed is, however, manifestly insufficient to meet
the present requirements of ocean steaming when
exposed to powerful competition. To effect an
independent communication with Mexico and the
West Indies, via Bermuda and Havannah, on the
one hand, and with the West Indies and :Pacific on
the other, with such rapidity as is indispensable to
compete successfully with the American steamers,
new ships of the class now running between Liver-
pool and New York should be employed, while the
present vessels could be advantageously provided
with employment on the intercolonial or branch ser-
vices,in conjunction with the main lines.

This subject acquires additional importance, and
the necessity of an independent trunk line to the
Isthmus of Panama (to which the other lines should
be feeders), and which should be carried out by steam-
ships of greater power, is the more apparent, when
taken in connexion with the disposition of the Go-
vernment to extend steam communication to South
Australia and New Zealand by way of Panama, in
preference to the originally contemplated route via
Southampton, Alexandria, and Singapore, from the
latter of which places the Peninsular and Oriental
Steam Navigation Company proposed to extend
their line to the Australian and New Zealand
ports. It is understood that the Government
will shortly be prepared to receive tenders for
conveying these mails by either of the two routes
referred to. The respective distances are estimated
as nearly as possible as follows
ISTFIMITS 01, SUEZ LOUTO

Southampton to Gibraltar
Gibraltar to Malta ...
Malta to Alexandria ••!
Alexandria to Aden ...
Aden to Ceylon ..•
Ceylon to Penang ..•
Penang to Singapore •••
Singapore to Batavia ..•
Batavia to Torres Straits
Torres Straits to Sydney

Miles.
••• ... 1,150
••• ... 1,032
••• 856
•••
... 1,600
▪ ... 2,150
• •• 1,200
••• ••• 500
••• ••• 600
••• • . 2,400
• ... 1,800

Total—Southampton to Sydney 13,288
To Which add—

Sidn©y to Port Nicholson (New Zealand) 1,200

SoTuthhern adpitsotnantcoe Ps orutsNedichaoslsoanboavned Sfyrdonmeyr.a..n.aml2a.7oo2
Australia are not calculated for the great circle, but
the shortest distance, or the trisck which a steamer
would probably pursue. This, however, would neces-
sarily be modified by the prevailing winds. From
Panama to Tahiti the winds would generally be
favourable—from Tahiti to Port Nicholson less so.
Reversing the rule for oppesite directions, different
courses might be taken at various seasons. Pre-
suming the voyage from Southampton to the Isthmus
of Panama to occupy twenty-three days, and that the
distance from Panama be accomplished at an average
speed of eight knots (as allowed to the steamers
from Singapore), and allowing for the necessary stop-
pages, the voyage throughout would be performed in
sixty-eight to seventy-two days, or on thevoyage from
7.ngland to New Zealand and Australia showing a
saving of 2,186 miles in distance, and of ten to thirteen
days in time. It is, of course, impossible to state
with auy degree of correctness which of the two routes
on the whole, possesses the greatest advantages, or
which will ultimately be preferred, but of the Pa-
nama plan it may be said that not only does it offer
the advantage of being the shortest, straightest, and
most direct track to the Australasian colonies, but
also that the difficulties and dangers of the navigation
are far less, when contrasted with the dangers and
intricacies of the navigation from Singapore to Syd-
ney, northward of Australia, including the coasts of
New Guinea, Borneo, Timor, and Torres Straits,
which would have to be traversed by the steamers
connected with the Suez scheme.

Reverting to our remarks on the subject of the
West India steamers, it must be borne in mind that
modifications and changes in their present routes,
which every day's experience is showing to be more
and more necessary and desirable, can only be effected
with the direct sanction of the Admiralty. It is
therefore to be hoped that, ere long, the circumstances
enumerated, operating so disadvantageously to the
interests of the British steam-vessels, may bring about
some alteration whereby the competition of rival lines
of American steamers shall be counteracted, and the
traffic conducted through its proper channel. If the
Americans began too late in ocean steam navigation,
they have certainly made, and are making, great
strides. Their efforts are not, however, to be feared,
if they be met with corresponding energy and enter-
prise on the part of interests in this country. The
royal mail steam line must, as a necessary conse-
quence, fall into gradual insignificance and disrepute,
unless those efforts are made which the formidable
opposition their ships are called upon to encounter so
urgently demands. Nor can it be imagined that it
will answer the purpose of the Government and the
people of this country to subsidize a line of steamers
to the extent of nearly 240,0001. per annum, the
utility of which has nearly ceased and is partially
superseded. It is a struggle of British capital and
enterprise against the energy of the Americans, and
if the former be fully and fairly employed and skil-
fully developed in its working details, who can doubt
the result in its own legitimate sphere ?
Some determination will doubtless soon be taken
upon this important subject by the Admiralty, and
then, armed with the needful facilities, the Royal
Mail Steam-packet Company (to borrow the mode of
expression from a Transatlantic contemporary) will
only have. " to put on the steam" to insure a successful
result.— Times.