Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1857-07-03

There are in the void, certain classes OF men who
would like to be thought far,reaehing when, in
fact, they are simply speculative To these classes
belongs A. Dudley Mama man who is making a
big fuss in favor of the establishment of what he
calls the Chesapeake Bay and Milford Haven Steam
Ferry Project His idea is to get the whole people
of the Southern States 10 join in company 10 make
up sufficient funds for the construction of certain
steamships on lhe scale of the Great Eastern, the
Mammoth vessel now building at B'ackwall on the
Thames. These SHIPS ale to run between Norfolk
and Milford Haven, in Wales.
First, then, The idea of getting the business men
and the capital of the South committed 10 totally
untried experiment like that of twenty thousand ton
steamers is purely chimerical. For our ewn part
do not think that such steamers will ever be pay
ing stock Time will show. Secondly, the idea Of
running such vessels between any por: on the Chesa-
peake and Milford Haven is even more chimeral.-
The mammoths may succeed-experiment may re-
suit in their favour of that cannot yet judge, but
of Norfolk and Milford Haven We can judge.
Milford Haven is a noble bay, perhaps the finest
in England. l. has always been noble bay and was
known as such centuries ago. The town is small
place of some 2577 people. place of no trade, no
manufactures, no anything. Its fine bay was known
TO Shakespeare its nothingEess as town may be
known TO any one who looks at gazetteer.
The South exports mainly cotton, rice, tobacco and
naval stores Does any dream that the cotton of
South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida. Louis.
lana, or any other State will be carried away hun.
dreds of miles 10 Norfolk, simply to have the honor
and glory of going over in one of Mr.. Mann's big
steamships The Chesapeake lies far north for the
direct cotton trade Rice, grown chiefly in South
Carolina, will neither be rairoaded nor shipped to
Norfolk, to be taken thence to Milford Haven, which
is nowhere. Naval Stores will not bear steamship
rates of freight.
Tobacco and some -four these vessels would get, If
they ran TO any point worth calling point. But
Milford Haven is, Of all places, the last. 1t is the
place of all Others tho most remote from the great
centres of commerce, manufactures or consumption.
Would any one dream of landing raw materials on the
extreme south west of the island. when the factories
were all away at the North The freight from Mil.
ford Haven to Lancashire would far exceed the whole
ocean charge. Again, who would dream of sending
goods from Manchester, any other of the great
depos Of the North of England, away down to the
end of Wales at a vast COST merely 10 take Mr.
Mann's line Of Steamers.
Here is pro ject TO be sure. Founded first upon
urried experiment of big ships: Second, upon
running from port on this side which has little or
no trade railroad connection, which cannot secure
the great staples of the South and certainly cannot
secure those of the North Third, upon running to
a town Of about the size and not half the trade of
Washington, Beaufort County, North Carolina,
a town which is not and cannot be The out
let for any trade, which is removed just as
far as it be from all the people in England with
whom we expect TO do tusiness-from whom we
mean TO buy, to whom might reasonably hope to
sell. 1t of the fancies surely; and yet find
conventions held, and the columns of the Virginia
papers filed with CANNON, which the editors half
pretend to believe. But the.whole set are not so
foolish as you might think. We hear OF nobody put.
ting their money up-not A. Dudley Mann, and
as for his precious gas, that don't amount TO much
But the comet has been derelic and something must
be put into the papers.