The Evansville daily journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ia. [i.e. Ind.]) 1848-1862, 1857-07-01

WEONEcDAl MOhNiNI. JULY I. 1851. |
Sails and steam In the Mercantile marine. |
After several years Of unexampled pros
parity the owners Of shipping are suffering
q season Of severe depression. All the East
ern ports are crowded with ships lying idle
at the wharves, unable to procure freights in
any trade that will cover sailing expenses
aud insurance, and entailing most uncom-
Portable losses upon their owners. There are
more ships now in port in New York than
were ever before known; all the wharves to
the extreme upper limits of the city are lined
with idle vessels. There have been many
elesrances Of late in ballast, oy ships that
have gone to seek business abroad. One
great cause Of this depression in the sailing
mercantile marine, is the multiplication of
ocean steamships, which though they have
been Improbable to their owners, are still
increasing in numbers. Of the various lines
Of magnificent steamers that cross the At
lantic, hone have paid any profits except the
Cunar5 Line; and that has been sustained
by the bounties of the English Government.
Yet the opinion prevails among practical
men that steam is rapidly to superscede sails.
The experiments already made in steamships
ere not thought to be test of the relative
advantages of sails and steam. They have
been constructed and run at too great cost
The side wheel is to give place TO the propel-
Ter which saves fuel and economises space,
and reduces the dead weight of engine and
wheels. The supremacy of the ocean it is
predicted will be hereafter held by steam
Only one-ffth of the steamers running from
Europe TO the North American Continent,
are American ships. II is found that two
ifths in value of all the foreign importations
into New York are brought by steamships,
and this proportion is rapidly increasing; so
that the freights on the most valuable goods
that formerly were brought into the country
almost exclusively by American lines, are
now paying tribute to foreign Steamship
lines. There are now upwards of eighty
steamships building in England and Scot
land, all with propellers, and many Of them
intended for the American trade; one steam
ship leaves each side of the Atlantic every
day. Englishmen evidently aim to recover
by their steamships the maritime supremacy
which was taken from them by our old line
packets and clipper ships. We have run the
race Of competition with them, till our mer
camille tonnage equals their own, and thcil
maritime power and their laurels are in dan.
ger. They seem to have started in new
career determined to try us in new line o
enterprise. If We can compete with them il
wooden structures, they believe they car
surpass Us in iron ship building They say
"The indications are too distinct to b,
uisconceived, that Lew era in ocean ravi.
CATION is rapidly approaching. The proof
have become convincing, TO Investigating
minds, that iron and steam are TO superced,
wood and canvas, il the movement OF th'
products and passengers between the tive
hemispheres. The greater size, strength anC
security in every respect-to say nothing o
durability of wear-which may be impartel
to iron steamships, combine to render such
result positively certain Before the end %
this century there sciH MT, probably. be a GOOD
m hull aarigating the Atlantic under canrds
But American enterprise, skill and energ.
have never yielded to any foreign rivalry
and our ship builders are planning new
models and new models of construction, an,
making ready for the revolution fror' WOO
to iron, as the material. The Live Oak, &c
dar and Pine of the South will find q substi
tute in the iron ore that fills our hills
Won't the mechanical skill, and the shi
yard finally come to the furnace, where til
craft when finished can receive her carg'
and descending our noble rivers depart ft
any part of the globe! And when steaI
shall be the sole prcpelling force, and ii
ocean ship shall move independent of win
and currents, she will not stop upon the Sc;
board and entrance Of rivers but will con
up to the great interior emporiums to bres
bulk and discharge and receive her cargo
without the Intervention of interior carrier
and factors at the maritime ports. The co
ton and the produce OF the plantation ar
the farm will be taken from the banks of q
river oil board the ship that will carry it
its fnal destination
The day may not be distant when st Lou
or Evansville may have more foreign con
merce than New Orleans Another gener
ton may see Cairo, or some great Weste
emporium competing with New York IN t
amount Of its direct foreign imports. a
and science never sleep-can never recede
aud the world is but in its infancy in {
development Of its capacity for physic
;p,provap,ant