The Sun.
London, England, 1867-03-23 00:00:00

The Inman Line.

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A paragraph we lately cut from an American
paper states that the steamship City of Boston, of
the Inman Mail Line, which arrived at New York
on the 2d of February, after a ten days' passage
from Liverpool, had then completed within the year
no less than ten round voyages between Liverpool
and New York, being a distance of more than
60,000 nautical or 70,000 statute miles, a perfor-
mance believed to have never before been equalled
by any other vessel. Since that date this steamship
had returned to Liverpool and back again to New
York, and it is probable that shortly after this is in
print the City of Boston will be again in the Mersey.
A very fast run may be due to an accident, but a
year's steaming backwards and forwards across the
Atlantic, in its roughest parallel of latitude,
gives the surest possible test of the vessel's power.
The yachts from New York to Cowes made
the passage in the shortest time by boats propelled
by sail, and the chances are that had they run the
race twenty times again they would not once have
equalled their first performance. One good run is
not a sure test of a ship's sailing capacity, nor does
one good ship establish the character of a fleet. Take
then the City of Paris, and it will -be seen that if
the City of Boston is unrivalled in the sum of her
performances, the City of Paris very nearly equals
that total, while she stands unrivalled in the speed of
a single passage. The Americans have gained a
world-wide renown as sailors. The recklessness of
their daring on the sea is scarcely redeemed as a
fault by their great nautical skill. Yet people who
suppose them to be a seafaring nation would be in
error. The masses in America have never seen the
sea. These know it only from COOPER'S novels,
from tales of travel, and from harrowing ac-
counts in the columns of newspapers of disas-
trous shipwrecks. The loss of the London
in the Bay of Biscay, and of the Evening Star, off
Cape Hatteras, make an impression on an inland
farmer's family which nothing ever removes, and
they dread the sea as an element of danger and dis-
aster. To them " there is no music in its roar,"
nor have they the slightest fancy for " laying their
hands upon its mane." Though it might excite
their curiosity and exert a terrified fascination, none
in these homes could exclaim with BYRON—
" And I have loved thee, Ocean ! and my joy
Of youthful sports was on thy breast to be
Borne, like thy bubbles, onward."
Speed and safety are to such people the first re-
quisites, more especially the latter. And they
require strong proofs when they entrust their pre-
cious persons to the safe keeping of an ocean
steamer that she is worthy of that confidence. The
Cunard line has established this feeling by years
upon years of security, arriving with more than the
punctuality of a railway train. This has been ac-
complished by an enormous expenditure, by an
amount of energy, forethought, and unremitting
care, by huge subsidies, and still more by the very
prestige which safety and punctuality have given.
The name has become a tower of strength. it
enables the owners to charge for their second cabins
what other fleets charge for their first class accommo-
dation. The Cunard deserve all the support they
have received, and they have a well-established
right to make people pay for a name which is a
guarantee of excellence. There are, however,
thousands who must cross the ocean to whom the
difference in the passage money is a material object,
and it. must be to them a matter of no small impor-
tance to see the Inman line by which they can afford
to travel attaining the same results, Competition has

shown its healthy effect in working up many com-
petitors to the standard of the leading fleet. At
the close of last year there were 13 companies run-
ing steamers.between Europe and the United States,
yielding a gross annual revenue of £4,000,000.
This number will shortly be increased, and the
opening season will probably be one of great profit
to them all. It is satisfactory that it should be so,
for the margin of profit to many of them in past
years cannot have been large in the face of the huge
outlay required by these monster floating hotels,
and the liberal expenditure forced on the owners
by the close competition. Whatever strengthens
these lines will tend to the public weal, and no
stinted meed of praise should be bestowed
on the management of fleets which have attained
to such a measure of excellence that they can carry
their passengers at but a little higher rate than
they would pay for the accommodation of a good
hotel, while they land them at their destination
with a safety and punctuality which is certainly
not vouchsafed to people who walk about the
streets of London.—Angle-American Times.