Washington sentinel. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1853-1855, 1853-10-27
LIVERPOOL, October. 4, 1853.


have been so kind as to address to me, in be.
half of The Committee of the Liverpool Ship
owners Association" making known, in highly
fiattenng terms, the appreciation which the
committee are pleased to set upon my humble
labors.
j The swell done" of the Shipowners' Associa.
ton of Liverpool affords me peculiar gratfca-
ton, not because my poor labors are entitled to
the praise which the association has been
pleased to bestow upon them, but because ship
masters, of all other classes perhaps, have the
deepest interest III the result Of those labors
and because the shipowners of this renowned
place Of trade have judged them to be worthy
of commentator.
1t is true that have had it much at heart to
lessen the dangers Of the sea, and to facilitate
the mariner on his way to and fro across it;
and if some degree of success have followed the
undertaking to accomplish SO much, cannot
forget to what source that success is mainly at
tributable. 1t is not, sir, attributable to the
work Of my hands; but to the hearty good will,
to the ready, the willing cooperation which
have always found at the hands Of shipmasters
and owners whatever be their flag or whatever
their country, to whose attention the subject
has been brought.
! For the last fifty years, as many of the mem
bers of this association can no doubt recollect,
there has been constant and steady improve
ment in navigation, tending all the while to
| lessen the dangers of the sea, and to quicken
| the speed of the ship to and fro across it. You
will, therefore, perhaps, pardon me, and go
along with me also, while pass hastily in re-
view of some of the most striking of those i'm
provements, and the most obvious Of the agen-
cies which have brought them about
think that men are yet in their prime Of life
who will recollect the time when "monster
ship" las she was then thought to be) of be-
j tween 500 and 500 tons was built here in Liv-
erpool, and had to lie in the docks months, if
not years, serving as play-yard for boys, be-
cause she was too big to be furnished with a
cargo. Contrast, if you please, the size of that
ship with the size of some that are now sailing
out Of Liverpool, and though you will find them
three or four times as large, yet the demand is
| for larger ones still.
When Warren Hastings went to India he had
| a passage of ten months, and it was con-
| sidered that he was fortunate in not having a
longer time. Under canvass that passage has
in our times been accomplished in 80 or 100
days; and that ship and master who should
now have passage of ten months to India
would both lose CASTE
Therefore, in contrasting ships and the state
Of navigation now with ships and the state Of
navigation then, we should not, though we find
much to attribute to the ingenuity, Skill and
enterprise of man, forget that much is also due
to the inestimable blessings Of peace; which,
almost unperceived, like the dews of heaven,
have been falling upon us during the while
| The time is not beyond the memory of living
men when commerce and the condition of the
world were such that ships were required to sail
in convoy under the wing of armed cruisers
And in that day the best merchant ships were
only "company-keepers." Then neither builder
nor owner had any motive to expend in the con-
struction of a ship one dollar for the sake of
speed In the fleet the speed of the slowest
regulated the speed of all; and therefore the
dollar was expended for capacity for cargo ra-
ther than for speed
We see in the models of those days, and in
their clumsy proportions, the most eloquent ex
preston of this fact. Then came peace with
its benign and invigorating influences; other
occupations were found for men of war, and
the merchant-man was left free to pursue his
| voyage in his own way, at his own time, and
| according to his own convenience and abilities.
Then there was a demand for speed in the mer
| chant vessels, the ingenuity of builders was
taxed, and the strong arm of the mechanic was
brought into requisition to execute the behests
Of science to satisfy this new demand of com
merce.
Here permit me to pay tribute to the
mechanic, for without him science, with all its
lights, as practical thing, would be nullity;
science wills, the mechanic executes.
Astronomy, the highest and most perfect
department Of science, if you please, is as de.
pendant upon the mechanic for her achieve
ments as is the shipowner on his vessel for
freights. acknowledgements astronomywould
be as commerce without vessels. So the me-
chanic, with his sturdy arm, heard the new call
upon him, and FASTENED with his usual alacrity
to satisfy it. Better ships were launched,
quicker voyages made, and thus the remote
corners OF the earth were lifted up, brought
closer together, and set down nearer each
other; for to the business man those places are
brought nearer together when the time it occu-
pies to pass between them is shortened.
In the mean time an improvement in the in
struments and implements of navigation took
place, and the navigator was furnished by that
same combination of science, ingenuity, skill,
and continuance which had supplied him with
better ships, with better instruments for nav-
eating those good ships, so that the dangers of
the sea were lessoned, the rates of insurance
went down, and commerce, with freer sweep
of wing, sped her way across the seas
And thus, if time permitted, for am making
ready to embark for my home in the morning.
might point to agency after agency, and
cause after cause, which, as this shacke or that
fetter has been striker from the wings of com
merce, has caused commerce to increase and
multiply presenting in her proportions gran.
deur and perfection, precisely as she has made
advances towards perfect freedom Of trade; for
certainly those influences were the agents of
free trade which brought down the passage to
India from three hundred to one hundred days |
which lessened the rates Of insurance, and |
which have enabled one ship now to do as much |
in year as three ships could do them. 1t is
the making to grow three blades of grass on |
the ocean where but ore grew before.
A better knowledge of the laws Of dyna-
mics, and of resistance to solid bodies moving
through water, called also for better knowl-
edge of the winds and the currents by which
the passage Of those bodies to their ports of /
destination was to be controlled and hence
arose that system of research which has given
use to the "charts Of the winds and currents" /