The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1857-08-08

We present in aoOther part OF TO days paper
'u'i and elaborate report OF all the lioes Of
ocean mail steamers employed by Great Britain
1t table Of great interest aud value, prepared
entirely from offia'a reports 1t is complote key
10 the commercial supremacy of the British en-
pire and shows copclusiveiy how John Bdli car
r,es OH trade where no one else would think of
| Looking tor it The ocean mail tervice of the
kpecOm comprises Is dlfftreot lines q feet of
l2l steamships, with aggregate tonnage Of
l4l,293 tous propelled by ensines measured by
the strength Of AZ 534 horses, and managed by
officers apo crews numbering s,205 men. This
service is carried on ut cost 20 the nation of
SIS Ia 700. of which about three-dfths il re-
turned lii postage The four lines requifing toe
| heaviest subsidies those to the West Indies
| Mexico aod South America 10 the Mediter' anean
! snd the Est to Australia ard to the Ulited
| otatee. The annual compensation for these
! lines amounts to S4,502 $50, an average
Of more than n million dallars to eaca Toe Eve
doneetic linee--to Sbetlaod and Orkney, the
| Channel Islar d isle of Man, and Ireiaod-re-
qure but Sl6l,750 and the line from Dover to
Calais and Ostend SIT 500. TEo Of the lines
nave neither terminus in the Uoitsd Kingdom
one running from Halifax to Der buds and ST.
| Thomas and the other on the west coast of South
| AUefcs, from Panama to Caliao and Valparaiso
Thee require the ,nconsderable -um OF Sl9S,5OO.
The three remaining lines run TO Sp ain Portugal
| nnd G,brsltar to the West Coast Of Africa aud
'be isanos adjsceuA and TO the Cape OF Go,d
Hope, MsuIitus ~ Calcutta. These have an
anoual compensatory Sable Onittiag the
domt-,ic servt6s q and about the British Isles
ahO from Dover to Calais AND O,tend, the aggre-
gate length Of the u,ne loug lines is not far from
1000 miles, ano over these there is an sggre-
gate number of eighteen trtps a month
The rise sDd progress Of tae oceaa steam N all
service of Great Britain is second in ioterest
20 chapter in the maritime history Of the
world The first contract for carrying mails by sea
in steamers was made by the Postmaster Geue-
RAJ IN 1888 aud provided for semi-weekly Ser
vice irou Liverpool to the Is'e Of Man, IN
steamers OF rot less than 140 tons burden, at
ESQ = year. Tnat contract, with the same com
! pnny-the Mona Isle Steam Conpany-on ex-
| scty the same terms nss continued to this day,
| u period OF tweuty-fous years, u circumstance
unexsmpied in the history Of steau navigation
| The next ocean steam mail contract wa. made
With the General Steam Navigation Company, in
| 1884 for conveying the ms- from London to
| Rotterdam and Hamburg twice a week for
| eli 600 PEI annum. Toe contract was renewed
| IN ls49, ard annuled ID 1868. the mails bling
sent to Os'epd, and thence by rail through Bel
| eium The third contract for steam mall ser
vice. ard the first for long voyage over sea-
uss made in 1887. ~itb Richsd Bourne, for the
Conveyance OF the mails weekly from Falmouth
to viPo, Oporto, Lisbon, Cadz and Gibral-
tar. tor 929.600 o year. That contract
was ,yanitrr,d in ls43 to the Peuinsular and
Oriental Steam Navigation Couvaoy, Souh-
aupton substituted for Falmouth, toe trips
altered TO three a mou'h, anu the compensation
reduced TO f2O,500, ard ca thete terms it re-
mains 70 this day. The Aberdeen and Sh.,laud
contract va made in 1888 'or weekly service
at GG00 year II wss given up In tea months,
and the present contract made Ia 1910 at 1900
sea
Nov conm-pces the great struggle for the
supr. macy Of the Alsn'ic, snd THU forms the
second "a in the history 81 OCEAN steam naviga-
ton. The first successful attempt to cross the
Atlantic ny steam wss performed by The Ameri-
can steamship Savannah, VIII ch LETT the city OF
Savannah OF toe 25.h of May, 1919 aid arrived
-.feS H. Liverpool in twenty-five oass, having
reep unoer tteam IN vii fourteen Gays. This
vessel, butt in New York by American me
cbanics without apy former success or precedent
10 guide them, il must be admitted achiev ID
succ. s. quite equal, all things considered,
"a he boosted pcriormsn 'es Of the At
iantic. The Persia, or the Vanderbilt Ia size,
- compared to modern Clyde or New York
built steamship, II Sas Ike sparrow by tbeside of
nj eagle, being Of $50 tons burden. ADD propelled
bJ engines u 30 horse poser IL would no scarce.
srve ss a tenner to n modern mail steamer
Captain Moses Rogers of the steamship Sa-
vaDnsb-fbc Columbus ct trans-At auto eteam
igstion-having poD'ed out the way the
Cork steamship Company were the first to
follow the example, by de-patcbing the Sirius.
which arrived in New York % the 23d
of April 1884 full account Of the voyage
apo a ing in the New YORK Herald on the fol
lowing day. The Great Western Steamship Com
psny, repr. snted by Thomas Kingtou, Chair.
mvn, Robert Bright, Deputy Chairman and
Christopher Clax'op, Managing Director offered
TO transport the mails from Liverpool or Bristol
to Halifax aud Boston, twice mouth. for cas-
900 per snnum They required from eighteen to
twenty four mouths to build vessels AID get them
ready, but government would only wait Que
year. A contract was made with Samuel ca
naJd, of Nova Scotia by singular coiuc
dence, on the 4th day Of July, 1889
for semi monthly mali service to Halifax and
Boot m for eco 900 per aunum. That sgree.
ment, entered into on the anniversary Of Ameri.
can independence, was q step that prob,bl, con.
tributtd more towards brinslos about an exten
| eve nterchs nee OF correspondence com MERGE