The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1857-08-06
DAILY DISPATCH.
THURSDAY MORNING ...........AuGUsr 6. lss7
Interesttng History Of Ocean Steam
NAVIGATION.


Future of Atlantic Ocean Steam Navigation" read
before the Frederickton (N. Bruhswick) Athena,um,
on the 18th ult., by I. T. Vernon Smith, civil eng-
neer, has been published In pamphlet form. 1t
embraces many valuable facts in regard to the past
history of ocean steam navigation and its present
condition, aud prelents views which should Uo re-
cei|td With much attention at the present time,
when 40 doep an interest is felt in the subject of
| ocean steam navigation.
The first real Atlantic voyage, Mr. Smith Saws
was performed in 1888, by the steamer ROYAL vii
iidtn' of $50 horse power and 1000 tons burthen,
lohi Piot1d i'll Nova Scotia to Cowes in the Isle of
! Wight. She was thorough ocean steamer and
MAS built at Three Rivers in Canada by Canadian
mechanics. fitted with Canadian engines command
/ ed ~ Canadian captain, and propelled by Nova
Scotia coalS. She employed four years between
England and Ireland when she was again nut upon
the Atlantic station, and crossed and recrossed re-
poatudly.
In 1881 four steamships were buih in England
! 10y dlHeftnt companies, for the American trade
/ the Great Western the Victoria afterwards ths
! British Queen, the Liverpool and the Columbus
| There was great rivalry for tho honor of making
the hrst trip across the Atlantic. The Great West
| eTn was the irst ready. On the eth of April she
sailed Tor the United States The British and Ame
rican steam Navigation Company owners of the
htltish Queen not b0iBg able to get their own Ves
sci ready in tine, chartered the Sirius fine new
/ boat, to run against the Great Western, and she
Was dispatched from Cork the 4th of April three
days before the Great Western. Exactly twenty
years after the first deep sea steamer, the James
W att. had started from GreeuoCk, the first pair Of
Atlantic steamers left Great Britain for America
the first Atlantic race was being run and the era
! OF ocean stcaming had commenced. The deepest
Interest felt in the result. Both vessels per
formed we'll, the Sirius arriving only twelve hours
before the Great Western, which made the passage
! Ia fifteen days. great impetus given to
ocean steam navigation by the successful result Of
the voyages Of these two vessels, ard in less than
/ fY
menced operations in steam navigation between
| ports i'll England and New York Another cycle of
twenty years has passed since ocean steam nsvga-
ton was established, and the pecuniary result of
! the experiment is thus summed up;
"As commercial speculation, the Atlantic
steamers were dead failures. The British Queen
was lad up in the Thames, and afterwards cold TO
the Belgian Government, to be converted into
man of war-the President had gone to the bottom
the Liverpool had been sold to the Peninsular
CompRnY-ths Royal William to the Dublin Com
pany, aud when the Great Britain was laid up in
ordinary in DundTum Bay. the ily-bountied
! Aiail lines the Cun9rd and West India Mails,
w"re alone on the Atlantic waters. The experience
OF twenty years has been perpetual repetition of
! the same thing: the American steamers that have
! been introduced have shared precisely the
| 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 VIGOROUSLY unfortunate, and at the expiration
ut the second twenty years cycle of steam naviga
ton, the fact remains that the best paddle wheel
steamer afoa on the Atlantic, unsssisted by postal
| or government bounties, il unable to pay its eX
| penses, and il commercially not more successful
! than the Great Western. which only three months
ago finally passed into the ship brokers' hands
! During the whole of this period the bounty re
crivcd from Government has alone preserved
! mail steamers from ruin and though there are uu
! doubtcdly many evils in these enormous monopo
! lies, yet the future will have to thank the haii
Companies and the bounty system for keeping the
public mind alive to the necessity OF regular ocean
s,Fr,yt. .yt1,i. F,xfa
science Of steam navigation up to the present pc
riod. when for the first time it may BE- considered
able to go alone, and pay its own expenses"
| Mr.. Smith Is strenuous advocate OF the superb
orlty of screw propeltrs over paddle wheel sttan-
ers; which he shows has been demonstrated by ex-
perience. The Cuuard fleet now consists of forty
steamers, of which thirty screw boats; the mail
steamers from Liverpool to Boston and New York
Icing, according to the terms Of their agreement
| necessarily paddle wheel steamers. There now
! plying across the Atlantic, between Europe and
North American ports, fitty-four steamers, Of diff
ferent nationalites OF which thirty-six screw
boats and eighteen paddle wheel boats, or exactly
| two to in favor of the screw steamers. All of
the American steamers are paddle wheel boats
| The screw boats employed the Atlantic have
answered extremely WELL and the Scotch line from
Glasgow 10 New York is said last year to have d-
vlded twenty per cent. In unpleasant contrast
with this result is the fact that within few days
the Ocean Steam Navigation Company of New York
| the owners Of the New York and Bremen line OF
| up their business, owing to the withdrawal Of the
Government subsidy in the shape of mail con-
| tract The boats being paddle wheel steamers
not now bo made to pay. The great advantages of
screw pTopeliers over paddle wheel steamers
thus set forth and explained
| at Is no doubt principally from the assistance
derived from their sails that the ocean screw stea
mers are enabled so successfully to compete with
the paddle boats. IN heavy weather the latter
hayeno alternative but their engines the least sail
| 30 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, rs if
| they depended alone upon that whilst their pro-
| peiler is always at work, through calm rough
weather equally efficient, quietly and noiselessly
forcing them Oh their way. For this reason their
! average passages not only performed with
greater regularity than the paddle boats, but their
absolute speed, with less than half the power to
their tonnage, il about the same. In confirmation
OF this, the experience of the Collins, Cunard and
Canadian lines for the last year its remarkabe the
average western passage of the Cunard boats to
Boston and New York being II days 1412 hours,
the Collins line II days 1917 hours. and the small
powered screw steamers to Quebec being II
days 20l hours. The Canadian line has been sur
passed only by the Cunard line to New York, tax
| ing both voyages out and home has kept pace with
the Collins line within SO hours on the western
trip, and beaten them more than a day the east
ern run, whilst the Cunard line to Boston has been
beaten both out and home.'
Iron, too, is supersedins the Of wood in the
construction Of steamers and after the present
mail contract Of the CuHard line expires it il 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. On this
subject Mr.. Smith has the following remarks, which
| are well worthy of attention:
| comparing the safety of wood and iron, We NAV
observe, that of stranded wooden vessels, no in
stance has occurred of the vessel having been saved
Of stranded iron ships, the Great Britain and Just
lately the Tyne, well known instances; and a
company is now being organized to recover the
City of Philadelphia the hull of which is still vsi-
| ble at low water near Cape .iace. The important
advantage of strength of the hull, which can sus-
/ tain Il vessel like the Philadelphia against the
breakers and storms Of nearly three years is very
important feature i'll the safety of iron ships and
il shows also very great advantage in the employ
ment of this material for steam vessels, where, from
| the nature of the motive power employed, unusual
| strains must be at work, tending to destroy the
| water-tght joints and fastenngs at all events in
| the neighborhood of the machinery. Hence we
fnd wooden steam vessels not nearly so durable as
wooden sailing vessels whilst iron ships appear,
where well riveted in the first instance to be lit
tie liable to leaks open joints when propelled by
| steam as when sails only are employed.
| "The comparative safety of wood and iron is fur
ther illustrated by reference TO the steamers Pacific
and Persia-the former wooden, the latter iron
yesseI-bOth of which sailed from Liverpool in ia
| nuary. 1856, within three days of each other and
ri time when vast portion of the Atlantic ocean
| was taken possession of by an icy continent. The
| two boats were on race. The Pacific was never
heard of after. She, in all probability, struck on
| this field Of ice. was stove, and went down. The
Persia, when hye days out struck also. The colli-
] sion broke large hole through the plates of her
/ iron bow tore the riyets asunder for sixteen feet
| ON her starboard side, and bent and twisted the
rims of her paddle wheels if they had been made
of lead No wooden vessel could have lived an hour
after having received that terrible blow The nrst
compartment instantly filled, but the water-tight
/ buikhead saved her, and she was enabled TO reach
| New York in safety"
| GOLD IN CASADA.-The Quebec (Cansda) Mercury
saws that an old Californian explorer has been ex-