The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-06-06 00:00:00

THE CLYDE AND THE MERSEY.

IT is not many years since the skill and enter-
prise which had been evinced by the shipbuilders
on the Clyde threatened to distance all competitors,
and a Clyde-built ship, particularly a steamboat,
was deemed to be the ne plus ultra of nautical
skill. There are some who can recollect the sorry
joke which was perpetrated when Lieut. FAYEER
was removed from the command of the British
Queen, which was built on the Thames, and after-
wards sold to the Belgian Government. In all
the full-blown pride of Clyde presumption, it was
asked whether it wasfairer to expect Lieut. _Fay per
to sail the British Queen against Clyde-built ships
than it was for Pharaoh, King of Egypt, to expect
the children of Israel to make bricks without straw.
There might have been then some ground for the

taunt, for the Clyde shipbuilders had obtained a
great superiority, and few were prepared to dispute
their supremacy. The honour of competition has,
however, been successfully undertaken by a single
individual, and the consummate skill and indomi-
table energy of Mr. JOHN LAIRD have achieved a
triumph which, not long since, was deemed all but
hopeless. In not one instance, but in many, the
vessels built by Mr. LAIRD have shown a superi-
ority in every quality which renders steam-vessels
of value, and each successive vessel launched from
his yards—at Birkenhead and on this side the
Mersey—has added new laurels to his world-wide
fame. Last week we had an opportunity of wit-
nessing the performances of the Bahiana, a steam-
ship just added to the magnificent fleet of the
Brazilian Steam Navigation Company. With en-
gines of no greater horse-power than vessels 600

tons less burthen, she accomplished a speed of 11
knots an hour ; and, so easy was the motion, that
a passenger would be puzzled to tell, without ex-
amination, whether she was under steam or not.
It was an intelligible triumph of skill in shipbuild-
ing ; and Liverpool has reason to be proud of Mr.
LAIRD, for a reason which Liverpool men can
appreciate—that he has given a character and
reputation to the Mersey which leaves that of the
once pre-eminent Clyde in the shade. In the
instance of the Bahiana, a great advantage has been
gained •by the smaller engine accomplishing so
great a speed, in enabling the vessel to carry more
cargo, and consequently to prove more profitable
to her owners. It is almost impossible to over-
estimate the gain from such an improvement ; and
we allude to the circumstance because it is but fair
to all parties concerned to publish the fact as wide
as possible—that steam-ships built on the Mersey
may now fairly challenge rivalry with all the world.
The magic which once rested in the term "Clyde-
built" is now no more : Liverpool has fairly borne
off the bell, and defies the world to competition ;
and when we hear, as we have heard, of Boston-
built clippers (the excellence of which we will not
attempt to dispute), we may complacently turn to
the iron screw-steamers—the launch of which we
are so often called upon to record,—and ask in
vain for something better or so good. Steam-ships
are the pioneers to extended commerce—the only
effectual means of opening up new markets for our
foreign trade ; and those which Liverpool is now
sending forth, to take the advantage which cannot
fail to be derived from the free navigation of the
River Plata, will do more to increase the trade of
the port than any single circumstance which has
occurred for many years past. The same facilities for
rapid intercourse are being extended:to our North
American colonies by the Canadian Steam Navi-
gation Company, for which Mr. LAIRD has some
magnificent vessels in preparation ; so that the time
will not be far distant when the trade of the Mer-
sey, in vessels built within the port, will far exceed
that of any other port in the world.